Carl's Current Projects

Todd Carter Koeppen has officially released his Christmas project, The New Beginning in digital format.  Here's Todd's brief explanation.

The album is called “The New Beginning” and it’s a musical journey through the Christmas story. There are seven songs on it – three remakes of popular Christmas carols and four original tunes. What you might find interesting is that, unlike my other CDs, the artist name is “audio gospel” instead of “Todd Carter Koeppen”. I’m testing out a new name that both fits the music I’ve been working on recently (The Gospel of John, The Christmas Story, and more that is still in the writing phase), and is a little easier to remember (I’m often called, “that Todd guy” or “Todd Carter…something”).

The cd is available in digital format at  http://www.nimbitmusic.com/audiogospel or you can contact me and i can help you purchase an actual disc. 

For the last several weeks I have been working on a new recording project with singer/songwriter, Todd Carter Koeppen.  I have been working with Todd now for about 10 years and have recorded with him often and at different studios.  This current project will be a completely independent, self produced effort.  It is a collection of original and  tradional (although revamped) Christmas songs.   Todd has called this current line up of players and songs, Audio Gospel. 

The bassist on this project is Seattle musician, Tony Rivera.  I have also worked with Tony for years in different bands.  He brings a fresh voice to Todd's songs and it's been a pleasure recording with him.  Tony also just launched his own original project - Shai Azul - that you should definately check out on line. 

So, this week's session was cancelled but we will resume tracking next week.  Stay tuned for track listings and for upcoming live Christmas shows that we will be performing in December. 

Last winter I was part of a 9 week tour with kid's musical theater group,  The Mr. J Band.  We  played 9 weekends in Southern/Central California with one sunny weekend in Arizona.  This year I have been asked to join them once again.  We will be doing a completely different show this time out called, Monsters Under My Bed.   It was written to help kids confront their fears.  It features a great cast, an awesome stage set up and of course, a kicking live band.  The shows are formatted into 4, 90 minute sessions, that involve music, theater, games and teaching time. 

Venues this year are pretty much the same as last year: Arizona, Southern and Central California.  This year we have added two weeks in another Arizona location.  So, i will actually be spending 3 weekends in the Phoenix area this winter.  The tour kicks of in January 2010 and runs thruough the end of March.

For actual event dates and full itinerary see my calendar page that will be updated shortly!!

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the official carlmartindrummer.com blog site.  Here you will find news about current projects that i'm involved with.  I will try to regularly post updates on live shows, recordings and/or other projects I find myself involvd in.

The site will be evolving as I get more time to work on things.