Dennis Kinsey - Hondo Mesa Records

I've known Dennis Kinsey for a few years now.
We met at an acoustic music jam at the house of a mutual friend of ours.
For some reason, I must have impressed Dennis a bit, because a few weeks later, Dennis mentioned that he wanted to start his own record label, Hondo Mesa Records, and how would I feel about being the first artist signed to his label. !!!!

Now that's the kind of thing any struggling musician wants to hear!
I had written songs for years. I had played out for years. I had recorded songs for years.
But I had never had the financial resources and the focus to release my own CD -- which was pretty much a required item for admission to the club of "serious" acoustic singer/songwriters.
If you didn't have a CD, well, you just weren't serious!

I will always be indebted to Dennis for his generosity in helping me get that part of my music career off the ground.
If you'd like to hear some tracks from my debut CD, "Folksinger/Songwriter," you can sample them at
www.cdbaby.com/larryhoyt
(You can also buy discs via CDBaby -- hint, hint...)

Dennis is a fine musician and songwriter himself.
He and his lovely wife Christiane have been working on her debut CD long enough (hint, hint).

(I find it kind of ironic that so many folks who are producers and presenters will spend their time and money to present the work of other people before they concentrate on their own. If you're on the receiving end of that generosity, that's a great thing. But I do sometimes have to tell myself - hey, stop spendin' so much time helpin' other folks get to where you wanna go. Concentrate on getting your own work out there... now if I could only follow my own advice...).

I feel like I'm in good company on Hondo Mesa Records. Dennis has since signed some other high quality acts, including 3rd & Main; Corn-Bred; and John Engerman.

You can check out more about these acts and a bit more about Dennis (and his blog and his twitter commentaries) at
http://www.hondomesarecords.com/

Dennis is also partly responsible for me starting this blog (blame him).
At Dennis' invitation, I attended a recent presentation by two graduate students at Syracuse University that focused on how to use the Internet to help promote one's music to a wider audience.
Blogging was part of what they suggested in one's efforts to network with as many people as possible -- to get the word out about what one is doing.

After their presentation, Dennis gave me a tour (assisted by his avatar, HondoMesa Kidd) of the virtual reality known as Second Life, and that kinda opened up a whole other avenue for getting in touch with interested music fans around the world. (Ain't modern technology somethin'!)

Anyway - a big thanks to Dennis Kinsey for all he has done, not just for me, but for the music scene here in Central New York.

The art and music scenes here in Central New York State are growing more and more lively every day, thanks to imaginative, creative and generous folks like Dennis who are willing to spend their time and money to make things happen.

It's that kind of postive energy that motivates me to work on this blog -- to let folks know about the robust energies and opportunites available in the still growing art and music scenes here in Central New York. If you are reading this, please help spread the word. Thanks!
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photo of Dennis Kinsey (above) by Larry Hoyt - copyright 2008 - shot at Jazz Central, Syracuse 6/19/08