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Dale Henry Geist
The Music
Folk poetry with a rock'n'roll heart. Songs about satisfactions hard-won, too easily lost, and best savored while they last.
Dale Henry Geist has been writing and playing songs like this for a long time. Solo, in a trio with bass and lead guitar, or with a full band, Geist delivers the goods, straight to the heart and soul.
The Past
Geist grew up in upstate New York in the days when AM radio thought nothing of playing Stevie Wonder and Tammy Wynette back to back. He played trumpet in the school band and wrote his own Top 40 songs for the mirror. When, as a teen, he first heard the great 70s rockers like the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie, he picked up a bass and started playing in cover bands.
Geist started playing guitar as a freshman attending Northwestern on a Navy ROTC scholarship: Dylan and Neil Young were his models. He dropped out, and moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he played on the street. He dropped back into Hampshire College in the early 80s, studied film and video, and collaborated with Talking Heads-inspired art-rockers.
The pieces finally started coming together when Geist moved to the Bay Area in the mid-80s and began digging deeper into the roots of American music. His work took on a new meaning when he realized that his own music was linked to the great American music of the past. He's been walking that path ever since, with Dylan as a lodestar.
The Present and Future
Geist has kept up a persistent, low-key musical career for upwards of 25 years. Cassette releases, bands, a CD, open mics, Cur-ville, and always the songs. By now, an impressive collection of top-shelf material.
The birth of his son in 2007 set off a period of prolific writing. Following a shoulder injury, he started playing and writing on piano. A recording project is in the works.
DHG CD
American Stray
CD, 1999
Produced by Johnny Harper and recorded at Sharkbite Studios, this disc is chock-full of Dale Henry Geist originals, eleven of them, including such favorites as "Another American Stray," "Two for the Price of One," and "Woman Like That."
You can buy the songs individually here, or, for a shrink-wrapped CD, send $10 to:
American Stray
attn: Dale Henry Geist
361 Lawndale Rd.
Kenwood, CA, 95452
MySpace Page
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