"REGGAEBLUESFUNKYTUNES&ORIGINALMUSICFORMIND&BODY!"

2024 - further along

"Gratitude!"

Winter/Spring 2023:  

   While it's been quiet for me on the performance front lately, it has been somewhat of a welcome relief after last season's hyperactive jam-packed calendar of jammin'!  I've truly needed this ‘fallow time’ in St. Augustine to recuperate from a painful surgery and a wicked bout of pneumonia.  I wanted to learn some new songs and rework some older original material.  I am using the time to practice daily, which continues to bump up my pickin' skills a few notches.  This pleases me, and I hope will please you as well. 

   For the second year I was invited to play at an awesome Christmas fundraising show in December for the Lincolnville Museum, a vibrant and historical institution that celebrates civil rights stories, tragedies & triumphs and myriad contributions of Black Americans in St. Augustine and St. John's County, FL.  Check it out: https://www.lincolnvillemuseum.org.    I was accepted into the Listening Room Network (https://listeningroomfestival.com), an organization that exclusively books house concerts throughout North America and Europe…and already have received a concert booking for May of 2024!  

 Hooray!  2023 saw a NEW recording of OLD t'ings - "Postcard from the Islands".  I discovered a trove of recordings that were (mostly) made in the USVI, either recorded in my tiny, green Shackteau with what instruments could make or I had on hand; others were live performance board mixes recorded at Cinnamon Bay, Pastory Gardens, Aqua Bistro or Miss Lucy's - some solo, some with my drummer pal Sam Earnshaw and others with singer/flutist/steel drummer extraordinaire Mary Knysh. I'd spent many weeks winnowing through this collection, remixing and recording new, additional parts - and now it's finished!  https://davidreed.hearnow.com/postcard-from-the-islands

Spring/Summer/Fall 2023

What a year! This was perhaps the busiest I've ever been, beginning in March when I entered the Eustis (FL) Busker Festival  – I even took the third place prize, right behind a talented 16 year old cellist kid with a looper and a 5-piece yowling hippie hillbilly string-band from NC who spilled out of a rusted old bread truck and took over with their washboard, banjo, harmonica and a tattooed gal in Daisy Duke shorts who stood on top of her double bass while she played it! 'Twas a fun, and weird, day, indeed!

I played well-received, well-attended concerts in Venice and Titusville, FL and at a cool pool party and a beach-side oyster roast in St. Augustine, FL - both joyfully reminding me of my St. John USVI daze. 

After becoming a member of the North Florida Folk Network, I was invited to be the headliner for the May “Arts in the Park Festival” in Atlantic Beach just before we packed up and wended our way north to New England for the full Summer schedule that lay ahead. 

Summer in the Berkshires, Connecticut and New York State kicked off with a House Concert and a few winery shows at Home Range Winery and Balderdash Winery, culminating with a “Local Creatives” filming on CTSB-Public Television studio in Lee, MA. I was honored to be featured at the renown Falls Village, CT coffeehouse, 12 MOONS, in July, and did the first of several summer 'Busk Stops' for Berkshire Busk in downtown Gt. Barrington, MA, in addition to a duo show with TuTu Much for the town's long-running, annual Summer Bandstand Concert Series.  

 

 

A summer-full of Farmers' Markets kicked off in July in West Stockbridge, Sheffield, Lenox and Great Barrington, MA. July also began the newest, most amazing gig of all – 22 dates booked – Oasis at the Lakehouse Inn in Lee, MA.  Situated high on a rocky bluff overlooking Laurel Lake, the Oasis absolutely has one of the best sunset views in the Berkshires with a wonderful, welcoming staff, delicious fresh food and truly inventive cocktails. I even had my own stage, with awesome celestial lights! A terrific experience!

In addition to a jammed calendar of busking, winery and farmers' market shows, Oasis kept me pretty darn busy for the entire month of August. September offered a solo presention of cigar box guitars at the Sheffield Fair as well as a third house concert that I've played with my duo, TuTu Much, at the Great Barrington Airport. This time, we weren't in the hangar, but were outside on the lawn adjacent to the runway where attendees flew in and out in their Pipers and Cherokees...truly a unique experience! I was pleased to be invited to debut at a new north county listening room, portaVia, in Dalton, MA.  The month closed out with one of my favorite kind of gigs – a smoky, tasty pig roast down on the Home Range farm! Ain't nothin' like pit-roasted pig and all the fixin's...unless it's fresh, fire roasted garlic-parmesan oyters!

With October's colorful changing leaves and lowering temperatures, things also began to cool off with my performance calendar. I now had more time to spend in my wood shop building cigar box guitars. I built a few more, including “Comacho” which remains in my collection, and “Maine Plate” - which I gifted to Home Range Winery for their loyal support belief in me and my music.   There are now almost 250 of these creations out in the world now and Dr. Easy's Sonic Box Museum is running out of wall space!  

After helping to close out the Home Range Winery's season with a couple of shows, my thoughts had begun to turn to my own migration towards warmer climes.

 “Box Lunch” continues to do well on all streaming channels and will be available, together with “Postcards from the Islands”, “Gypsy Davy” and “Asleep at the Keel” - at all upcoming shows!

What's currently in the works?  Let's just say it's something really BIG and exciting that involves an interesting collaborator.  Stay tuned!

As always, THANK YOU  for your interest and support.

I hope to see you at a show real soon!

A Little History Lesson . . .

IN 2024, David Reed & Tamboura Productions celebrates 35 Years of creating always distinctive, diverse and high-quality artistic entertainment, recordings and handmade musical instruments for music lovers of all ages.  

DATELINE: April 1989 -   I first combined my artistic vision and multi-instrumental, vocal & songwriting talents with those of percussionist Armando Zanecchia's to create exotic (and often quixotic!) interpretations of contemporary folkrock, blues and world-beat music.  The fledgling DuoTamboura (taking its "Tamboura" moniker from the Caribbean island of Dominica's “drum of the merengue”) organically expanded - sometimes up to 7 members! - earning an endearing reputation for being the only Caribe-vibe dance band in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts...and way beyond.   

MY ADVENTURES have taken me and my various musical permutations through time and space to festivals and venues throughout East Coast USA, the Caribbean, Italy, Switzerland, England...even Bulgaria!  Little did I know at the time what a journey I had embarked upon, gathering fantastic musicians and experiences along the way!   

I INVITE YOU to explore the pages of this website. Get acquainted by reading bios, sampling Audio & Video Clips, and viewing glimpses of my travels and adventures in the FotoGalleria.  Visit the Dry Duck Trading Company for my recordings - including the latest release, "Box Lunch" - hand-made shakers, cigar box instruments from Dr. Ea$y's Sonic Boxes and cigar box lighting from Dr. Ea$y's Man Cave Lighting Co.  Or, read some of my (mostly) light-hearted stories and essays in Story Hour.   

BETTER YET, come on out to a live show...I'd love to meet you! And I think you'll enjoy what you find under this here virtual Ducky Ol' Umbrella. I believe once you do, you'll come back for more! 

And to my family, fans and friends, THANK YOU for supporting David Reed, Tamboura Productions and Dry Duck Records over the past 34 years!   

Cheers!    

- DR

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