Zak Alister: Guitars, Harmonica, Vocals
Rob Arthur: Piano, Organ, Keyboards, b.u. Vocals
Charley Drayton: Drums, Bass, Vocals
Tony Garnier: Bass
Bashiri Johnson: Percussion
Will Lee: Bass, Drums, Vocals
Influences
Alice Cooper, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Dire Straits, Aerosmith, ACDC, Kix, Led Zeppelin, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Jeff Beck, Johnny Johnson, Jorma Kaukonen, Bob Dylan, JJ Cale, James Brown, Baden Powel, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Sabicas, Chuck Berry, Jacob Miller, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayall, Ella Fitzgerald, Serge Gainsbourg, Chet Baker, Rev. Gary Davis, Bessie Smith, Mick Taylor, Keith Richards, Heitor Villa Lobos, Andres Segovia, Sharon Isbin, Julian Bream, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Bethania, Maria Rita, Djavan, Lenine, Sarah Vaughan, Nina De La Puebla, Carmen Amaya, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Ali Farka Toure, Glenn Gould, Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, Lakshmi Shankar, Zakir Hussein, Howlin' Wolf, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Ry Cooder, Jerry Garcia
Ever since I got a little plastic guitar @ age 9, all I've ever wanted to do is play.
I've been in several bands in the Washington DC area before forming New Amsterdam and then Zak Alister, the band, and moving to New York, notably War Honey and AI.
I have toured the US and Europe. My interest in the Blues has led me to produce two CDs for The Five Points Band, a Southern Blues, Country Blues Rock band.
Their groundbreaking 1st album: "The Five points Band" and their follow up record the more adventurous: "Roots and The Spirit".
I just finished working on my latest CD: "Under The Influence" with my producer Rob Arthur, it is now available @ cdbaby.com
I was very fortunate to work with the best musicians in New York (maybe the world), Rob Arthur, Bashiri Johnson, Charley Drayton, Tony Garnier and Will Lee.
I'd also like to mention the engineers who made it sound so good, Tim Hatfield and Niko Bolas.
It is an hommage to all the guitarists and musicians who have influenced and inspired me in my life.
Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Mississippi John Hurt, Carlos Santana, Reverend Gary Davis, Jorma Kaukonen, Fela Kuti, John Lee Hooker and so many others...
You will find some Blues, some Rock'n'Roll, some World music.
We had tons of fun playing and recording these tunes, I hope you enjoy them
Just listening to some earlier stuff I produced, I came upon some of my brother Francois's music. He really writes some great songs, so I thought I'd add a couple of his tunes as well.
The SNOCAP store below features some of my earlier music but does not include songs from the present CD. They were recorded with my band "New Amsterdam", Alexandre Zare was on Bass and Keyboards, and Joe Connell on Drums and Percussion.
“Under The Influence” by Zak Alister is an impressive rock album, bearing a myriad of unique sounds and musical influences. The CD includes elements of blues, rock n’ roll, and world music. The CD includes top-notch production and musicianship, especially guitarwork. The highlight of the CD is the excellent songwriting, producing hook-filled bluesy rock songs. “Coconut Blues” makes a very lively opening for “Under the Influence.” This blues-rock tune delivers some excellent electric guitar work, and immediately acquaints listeners to Zaks appealing voice. The heavily reggae-influenced “Sister of Mercy” again flaunts great song structure and lyrically explores themes of faith and hope, like many of the songs on this CD. “Riff for Frank” and “Slimy Fishes” are among this collection’s biggest rockers. Fans of Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones ought to add this CD to their collection, ASAP! Xavier P. and RadioIndy. comhttp://www. radioindy. com/bands/3685/
Hey ! Excellent ce dernier album !!! Très bon son, j'adore ! Je l'écoute en boucle depuis tout à l'heure et j'ai déjà hâte d'entendre la suite ! A bientôt !!! Beijos Cathy
no prob on the add dude!!! I really like your songs!!! . ha,ha,ha..right now it..s a little hard for us to go to new york you know??...rs... of course we would love to... but when we go to Rio hope we can drink some beers together!!!... . keep cool... see ya...
Wisdom is the sharing of wise experiences and knowledge, but a lot of it is common sense. The difference is how we apply this common sense - we all have the ability to keep going even when we face challenges in our lives - basically it comes down to your attitude. We can have a positive attitude towards life, or a negative attitude. We can focus on the good or we can focus on the bad. Keeping a positive mental attitude is one of the keys to success. The choice is always up to us!
So remember that life doesn't have to be hard.Yes,there are times we need to endure,struggle through,and rely on our survival skills.But we don't have to make life,growh,recovery,change,or our day to day affairs that hard all the time.Life is our teacher so the sooner we start to see our struggles as lifes lessons to constantly make us wiser, the sooner we will learn to live our lives with great humor and love for ourselves and everyone around us.
