Paul Race Music: Home Page
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Paul Race loves and plays most kinds of music, but he is especially fond of acoustic-based and traditional styles. If that makes you think of artists like Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Jim Croce, and Rich Mullins, you're on the right track. Since the 1960s, Paul has been performing original songs in just about any kind of performance situation you can imagine - coffeehouses, festivals, churches, schools, nightclubs, camps, street fairs - you name it.
If you check out Paul's online resources, you'll notice that Paul spends a lot of time these days helping other musicians make good choices and find the resources they need, especially musicians who are interested in acoustic or traditional music. For example the CreekDontRise.com acoustic instrument pages provide a lot of background on various kinds and uses of acoustic instruments. Paul's RiverboatMusic.com buyers' guides attempt to sort out the hype from the facts about acoustic instrument purchases. But Paul also keeps his hand in by continuing to write new songs, learning (and writing about) new instruments, and performing when opportunities arise.
BTW, we've gotten some questions about the little album cover thumbnail to the right of Paul's photo above. There's more information about the recordings it represents in our blog "About the song collection 'At the Heart of My Heart Was the Music'"
Thanks, and God bless,
Paul Race
CreekDontRise.com - Heartland history and music
SchoolOfTheRock.com - Jesus Music and saxophones
ClassicTrainSongs.com - Traditional songs about trains
RiverboatMusic.com - Buyers' guides for acoustic instruments.
PaulRaceMusic.com - This page, actually
Thinking of Learning Sax? Cheap Out With an Older Alto
A note about saxophones in case you ever thought about picking one up to learn on. Alto, Soprano, or Tenor? A quick run-down on which horns are easier to start off on or to transition to. Soprano (what Kenny G’s recordings usually feature) is high-pitched and hard to start out…
Guitar as a Defensive Weapon, or How to Ruin a Good Thing
Last month a new “member” showed up at a singalong I’ve participated in for several years. She sang and played very loudly, but always a half a beat behind. When the people who were closer to her than to the songleader would slow down to match her, she would drop…
Getting My Guitar Callouses Back
A longtime friend and former pastor recently invited me to provide worship music and campfire music at a retreat for people of “a certain age.” The folks were delightful. Here’s an irony. I mostly play banjo when I play “out,” and you form different callouses when you play banjo. The…
Had a Great Gig in Dayton
On August 21, 2021, the Dayton, Ohio neighborhood of St. Anne’s Hill celebrated its annual “Porchfest,” an event in which dozens of regional musical acts perform on front porches throughout a charming neighborhood of restored home. I performed with multi-instrumentalist Geoff Walker. We did originals and a few Folk covers,…
Getting Back on that Horse
I was highly active in local and regional music for years, as a songwriter, Folk singer, Rock sax player, Worship Leader, CCM songwriter/singer, and more. Included in that was maintaining a reel-to-reel-based home studio I could use to record my own music and the music of my friends. Then parenting…
A Message for my Fellow Indie Musicians
I’m stubborn. That may be the main reason I keep going when all seems to be against me. Maybe it’s also because I have a 40-year record of being underestimated in the workplace because I didn’t play golf, drive expensive cars, hang out at the country club, or treat “uncool”…
Sax Players, Don’t Waste Money on a “Vintage” True Tone!
Here’s a reminder for my sax-loving friends, brought on by a search for a specific style of vintage Buescher alto to compare to a Lyon & Healy stencil a reader owned. You don’t have to buy an expensive relic to learn what it was like to blow a Buescher True…
What is Folk Music?
Fifty years ago, debating the question “What is Folk Music” could lead to a “knock-down-drag-out” fight. Today not so much. That said, I waited for years before writing an article on the subject. Please let me know what you think. https://creekdontrise.com/fol…/what_is_folk/what_is_folk.htm
The “Gallows Pole”: How Folk Songs are the Gift that Keeps on Giving.
In the late 1800s, an ethnomusicologist (Folk song collector) published the lyrics to several versions of a traditional song in which a maid is begging the hangman to delay until her friends or family can come up with enough cash to buy her freedom. It’s called “Child #95: The Maid…
Shout-out to Music Software Companies that Don’t Hate Musicians
Though I play most of the instruments featured on my recordings, I like to use a MIDI sequencer or DAW to “scratchpad” arrangements before I commit to recording audio tracks (which always winds up being more complicated than it “should be”). Plus, when the cello comes in on the second…