Play It Like It's Music

The gig was amazing. Thank you. More coming up! See below.

- Trevor

Good morning. I don't mind staying in the personal realm here. The story of music is too big, anybody's own story is always too big and you can only ever try to convey a small slice of it. I can just try to convey the relevant angle, stay on topic. Point is, there is music to be made.

I haven't done much surfing, and I don't consider myself a surfer. But from what I do know about surfing, the experience I have with it (again, not much. Barely any really) I don't see or imagine too many surfers spending time discussing each others' surfing. Pointing out little things to each other and stuff, what someone did "well" and what could go "better" and how to make it look better, etc. I mean, maybe they do? But it's not the point because there's the ocean to consider, a much vaster consideration. Much more compelling. The ocean is what matters. In my mind I see surfers considering the ocean to each other and struggling to find words.

(Keanu Reeves voice:) The Ocean. It's big. We are too small to matter to it, but we go face it. We go into it. It kicks our ass and we keep coming back. We can't help ourselves. It forces us to overcome our weakness. To grow. To surrender. To meet it.

We, I... simply do not matter in the face of it.

The musicians who I relate to best speak of music like that. It's the ocean, it's the universe. We don't talk about "our" music. We don't talk about style, technique or form much at all. We'll check in with each other, like "how is it going?" How is your process going. How are you surviving? As the ocean of music imposes itself in on you, day after day, minute by minute... how are you holding up and have you learned anything useful or interesting to pass on to me, about how I might hold up better as the universe imposes itself on me, day after day?

We are all in it, and that is the point. It is the Ocean, we are unimaginably small as we navigate it.

So did you get out there?

Did you connect?

Did you fail catastrophically and have to start again from scratch, getting pushed back and under and back out again as you found a way back in?

Or did you just eat s**t.

"So-and-so is kicking a lot of ass right now".

???

(Define ass, define kick.)

These are my experiences. I love that these are my experiences, because I don't define myself by my successes or failures. I define myself by my love of doing it and by my dedication to that love. My immersion in it. It helps me understand the world and it helps me connect in the most meaningful way to other humans. I am not myself without it.

Music is what we are here for, it's what we come from and what we'll return to. For now, we play.

We’re gonna check in with Ed Marshall now. Call-in style. Click play above to hear it.

For those of you who don’t know Ed, here’s the episode we did together a couple of years ago:

“How did the gig go, Trev?”

More like How did it feel.

I played my first proper show of "my own material" the other day, the first one in almost a decade. My family was there, my hometown came out. Friends I had not seen in 30 years, godparents...

"How did it go?" Let's see. People were there and listened, people could watch it on facebook. How do You think it went? Does it matter? I have no idea how it went, I only know how I felt beforehand, getting ready for it. How I felt while it was happening and how I felt afterward. How I feel now.

That's all I know, and I barely know that. I don't have words to describe the feeling. Words would diminish my joy and gratitude, even if they were accurate and precise, insightful ones. And I'm enveloped in joy and gratitude in a way that I cannot describe. So that's all I can say.

Only one of my musician friends asked me "How did the show feel?" Bret Mosley. He just put out his new record, it took him almost a decade to make it. He's been through the fire, too. So he named his record that. ←Go give it a listen.

Thank god for my musician friends, the ones who live it. The ones who learned to surrender and who know that it's not about them, not about us, not about the material or the ideas. People will hear what we do and they will have their experience, meanwhile we got to be together in the presence of the ocean. That's all that matters.

I got to get back in the Ocean, and woah. It's not just that I missed the feeling and that my spirit finally got to inhabit my body again. It's that I got to percieve just how much I'd changed since the last phase, how much I've been able to let go, so that now I can really be in it more. More than before. Hearing and feeling it more than before. I still don't have words.

But nothing will make you appreciate a thing more than the absence of that thing. I was walking through the desert and I arrived at the table, set with a pitcher of water and a glass.

I sat, I poured one and I drank.

Something like that.

Welcome to the family.

Here are the next band shows coming up, come out:

John Kimock and I are playing together for three dates in early October:

Bloomsburg PA on October 6

Bethlehem PA on October 7

New York City on October 8

More dates on the website, including some solo performances. It’s all very special right now.

As always, big love to your ears. Thanks for tuning in here, we’ll talk more next week.

Trevor

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES booking currently: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Music podcast archive.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Back from a short (unscheduled) silent spell, just in time for the shows to start this week:

Thursday I’m playing my first show of the new stuff with a band. 5:30 pm at South Hill Cider in Ithaca, NY. Opening for Bronwen Exter, my excellent sister who is also lending me her rhythm section.

It’s for all ages, there’s no cover and apparently the cider is tasty, so bring the kids!

- Trevor

I told you I'd be posting every week, and that's still my intention. Of course the last time you heard from me was three weeks ago. Then I went into a real confusing funk, and it dawned on me.

I remember turning 30, thinking "Great, it's time to flush all those childish games from my 20's down the toilet and become a real adult". Then when I turned 40 I thought "great, it's time to integrate all the hard lessons I learned in my 30's and become a real adult".

Here I am today, a month into my 50's and I really can't say anything. I'm just here and I just have to own it: I am a mess. And the messy story is slowly starting to make a little hard-earned sense, but not enough. And milestones don't mean anything when you're neither here nor there.

But I do have a 5-year old nephew. And when I tell him that I'm ten times as old as he is and his eyes go wide, I get all the perspective I need for a season.

His mom, my sister Bronwen, is messily providing her kids with an environment somewhat free of the disturbances she and I had as kids, but full of all kinds of new disturbances which will be their work to untangle. Such is life, the best we can do is stay in touch. Help each other find a way to appreciate where we are and pick out a path forward.

I always need reminding that there's always a way forward, even when I don't see it.

There's a big old gap in my brain, telling me I have nothing to say. But sometimes The Stuff I really want to say is maybe too cutting, too close for mere music promotion? For a moment I actually let myself think "promo" is all this publication is for. It takes a lot to keep my head in the game sometimes.

But what do you do when your head and heart are exploding with vulnerability and you're full of fear, making up smallest-self reasons to hide & not be in touch?

The reality is that I'm a bit paralyzed by the reality of what I'm doing here.

Here I am, preparing to deliver a great experience to you this fall starting Thursday.

How great?

So great that you will feel compelled to share it with your friends and multiply the size of the audience to some critical, theoretical number that will somehow scale into my being able to deliver music for you in a properly prosperous way. So we can all be proud of our weird taste and know collectively that we weren't crazy, that the music is actually good for the world and worth our commitment to it.

But I'm also processing a lot of misgivings about my choices over the years, how I might have given into my fears more than a few times, with the unintended result of having deprived you and myself of the opportunity to jam together. It wears my heart out, thinking of all the singing we could have done, that we did not get to do during the years in which I just couldn't get it together to go out on the road and play.

To be fair, it's really, really hard for me to go out on the road and play.

It's also really hard to find a voice for the feelings I have about it. But when I make this move to go play after a long time away from it, the grief of all the lost time and scattered energy comes up to shout at me. The battle inside me is fierce, just like any musician's battle to go out and do that which used to be so normal. But today I'd like to testify to a particular facet of my internal battle, something to which I know many of you can relate.

It's about Music + Structure.

For me music equals structure. That's because early in my life my family went through some displacements and some big structure changes which left me feeling mostly on my heels. Some of it was generational but the thing that filled the gap was music.

I was lucky to be physically protected for the most part, but many of the important things that a child unconsciously depends on for their orientation, integration and growth, like home, neighborhood, location, school, society, friends, language, community... many of mine got scrambled up. Either taken totally away or just moved out of reach.

At some point my parents observed that I was flailing a bit and they decided to get music lessons for me. In order to help me put some structure into my young brain.

They didn't just get me music lessons: we got Suzuki music lessons. Suzuki is a kind of classical music cult for kids which, depending on who you ask, is either an abomination or the greatest thing ever. I can relate to both opinions but I don't really care because for me, at a cellular level, just to have any musical activity at all in my life was what saved me from going totally off the deep end at a young age.

Suzuki helped save me by giving me a simple structure in which to play, learn music and connect with other kids. It was fun, I learned how to play by ear and hear melodies. I had a really fantastic teacher.

But my need for structure beyond music was so great and so unaddressed that I ended up clinging to music in a less-than-healthy way and for less-than-healthy reasons through out my adolescence and young adulthood. This produced results I'm still having to process and recover from at age 50.

People talk about the music business, the economy, the country, the climate, the rise and imminent fall of globalization... no matter where you look it's all changing too much and too fast and you still have to pick a side.

But my flag is permanently planted in music. I believe in my bones that music is what we need to do more of. I believe our existence depends on immersing ourselves in the sounds that connect us.

Maybe that’s my trauma talking, but it’s true too.

It is my prayer that some of the healing I’ve experienced through my musical efforts will continue to touch folks out there who need to receive it.

It’s not entertainment, it’s life itself

On making true sounds:

Anyway, here’s my genre description for the new stuff I’m supporting on this tour: I’m calling it Indie-Yacht.

To spell it out, in case anyone asks: we’re talking Yacht rock without the yacht. Not for a******s. Melodic with a bit more grit & rocking with a little extra poise. You’ll be able to sing along to it unironically.

So come out! Let me know if it fits.

As always, big love to your ears. Thanks for tuning in here, we’ll talk more next week.

Trevor

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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.

.

Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES booking currently: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Music podcast archive.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

"What Freud mistook for her lack of civilization is woman's lack of loyalty to civilization"

- Lillian Smith

Moving forward: On self-silencing and un-silencing.

A savvy cultural commentator might say that David Bowie died an extremely artistic, expressive death when he timed his final album release to coincide with it.

Alongside all of the grief, you could indulge yourself in thinking - maybe just a little - that Blackstar wasn't just an ambitious album but also an extremely powerful and innovative PR move by a well-resourced and celebrated man known for making powerful and innovative PR moves. All these years later I still think to myself, “wow, no one will ever top that one”.

A fitting end to the Hero’s journey of a great musical hero.

It’s a thin theory, and only possible to contemplate if you sidestep all of the struggle that such a “move” might have required. And only if you disregard the real grief of a real human’s death mourned by many millions of real people.

You’d have to have a sick sense of humor like me.

But even someone with my sick sense of humor has to simply shut up when contemplating Sinead O’Connor’s recent passing. There are no theories for it. I can’t say anything, I can only listen. So that’s what I’ve been doing.

If a musician’s death could ever make me feel the opposite way that Bowie’s did, we just had one. But don’t listen to me, listen to her:

Album: Sinead O’Connor, “Throw Down Your Arms” LP (2005). Sinead + Sly & Robbie do the reggae hymn book.

Audiobook: “Rememberings” (2021) by Sinead O’ Connor. Listened on the drive through Arizona and New Mexico. Haunting and heartbreaking.

On making true sounds:

I finally made it to the east coast and I'm finally starting to get a pretty clear idea of the mission here moving forward. Let me share it with you:

In the first 80 episodes of the podcast I was asking each guest the following two questions:

1. Why do you play music?

and 2. What separates the professional from the amateur?

I had my reasons. Those two questions were relevant to me at the time, mainly because I was deeply questioining my own original reasons for starting down the professional path of a musician. I was going through some grief around having hit some dead ends in my own twisted creative path as well as certain collaborations that hadn't worked out. I had totally lost confidence in my own musical voice and ability, so I was turning to the folks I knew who seemed to have it together. Asking them how they did it.

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

We got some great answers to those questions. I am super proud of those interviews, and I stand by my reasons for conducting them in the way that I did. Many of you out there found them helpful, and they are still back there in the feed for you to listen to any time that you want.

But they also catalyzed some healing in myself and an eventual evolution which made that particular line of questioning less relevant. I decided to pause the podcast, partly because we outgrew the format.

What do I mean?

Well for starters: the question of professionalism has totally expanded into our wider environment and into a larger set of questions about general survival, purpose and prosperity in an age when the actual bottom has dropped out of the music industry we used to know.

Consequently the very ideal of professionalism is taking some hits.

Music is totally still a profession, but the core approach of professionals who make our living in music has exploded into a million methods. The means of making a living as a musician keeps shifting. Gatekeepers have multiplied, while their standards for admission are less and less musical in nature.

Musicians are adapting, and for many of us that means getting a day job or starting other businesses. It was true before. We've always been hustlers, but now it is simply no longer enough to ask about what separates professionals and amateurs. Pros and amateurs alike, we are all on this mission together. Your voice counts and you have to make it count. You are allowed to make it count in whatever way is true for you.

We all have to fight for the dignity of the shared musical experience, and it's all hands on deck.

The other question, "Why do you make music?" has also outlived its relevance.

I wonder now whether the question was ever relevant, but at least it had some use as an icebreaker. Still, it's worded like a challenge. One that I believe went in the wrong direction. Because given the nature of music and what it can do for humanity, one should never feel required to explain their personal justification for making music. Not to ourselves, or anybody.

We will do much better to ask "What stops you from making music" and apply ourselves to removing those obstacles.

So I'll state for the record here on Wednesday August 9th, 2023 that music is not content, it's connection.

And I’ll elaborate: not only do I believe in eliminating our barriers to the making of music, I'll take aim at the concept of professionalism when it becomes a form of gatekeeping.

We are all amateurs, and we are all also eligible for professional roles in music should we choose to pursue them.

But to point a finger and say so-and-so is or isn't “a professional musician” or such-and-such means of musicmaking is or isn't a professional way of doing it is potentially destructive to the musical culture as a whole, and I'm going to ignore the distinction in my dialogue moving forward.

Make the truest sound you can.

And as far as "Why do you make music" is concerned, ask yourself what is stopping you.

Music has the capacity to organize and motivate populations well beyond the divisions of politics, which is why you don't hear me presenting any political opinions on this podcast.

But I’ll say this: what's stopping you from making music is also something wrong with America. Like, what if you sang every day? What if you were to take your God-given right to make music and use it? And what if you paid it forward, finding ways to integrate it into the larger sounds of your community? Some political healing would probably take place.

So my political stance is Play it like it's f*****g music. Make the truest sound you can, and then try to listen to it through other people's ears as much as you can.

We'll get into that more, but mostly on a personal level because that's where the real work takes place. There's more power in music making than you realize, and these questions are much bigger than the music industry.

More recs for this week:

Watching: Chuck Berry, “Live in London 1972” on the BBC. Sinead says: “Best gig ever.”

Reading: “Chuck Berry: An American Life" (2022) by R.J Smith. The Shakespeare of rock n roll. Alan Toussaint said: “The man is a mountain.”

On Substack: Venkatesh Rao with part 2 in a series about narrative technologies. Bonus reference to Ursula Le Guin’s carrier bag theory of fiction.

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As always, big love to your ears. Thanks for tuning in here, we’ll talk more next week.

Trevor

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Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES booking currently: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Music podcast archive.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Note: Play It Like It’s Music is growing back into itself, and I thank you for listening. The “show” part of the show will be diversifying as we go along, but next week there’s no episode since I’ll be on vacation celebrating my 50th birthday.

We’ll catch back up the following Wednesday.

Greetings. Today I’m mostly just going to play for you, so click “Play” to hear some music.

It’s a casual hang, I’m just sitting in the open air living room with the squeals of the neighbors kid and birds included, just as if you’re visiting me at home.

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

It’s a sweet sendoff, since we depart Venice Beach for our long trip to the east coast on Friday.

Fear not:

It may seem to you that I’m just taking up space in your inbox without providing much in the way of content. In the coming weeks I’ll be bringing back some conversations with musicians and other characters about stuff we all love, so thanks for bearing with me! It’s been an eventful season in Play It Like It’s Music land.

Today’s musical selections from my living room:

J.S. Bach Prelude to Suite for Unaccompanied Cello in G Major. Played on telecaster with perhaps a bit too much tremolo. Guitarists usually transpose this to another key, but I like it in the original key, obviously.

Trevor Exter: “Mexico”. This is a tune I’ve done previously with John Kimock (listen to the original here. I’m bringing it into the current set, along with a dozen or so brand new tunes which I can’t wait to share with you in person.

John and I will be playing together on October 6th, 7th and 8th. Big reunion, it’s gonna be great! More specific info soon.

Some recs for this week:

Listening: Joe Cocker, “Stingray” LP (1976). Run don’t walk!

Watching: “Broadcast News” (1987) dir. James L. Brooks. The place near the thing we went to that time.

Reading: “"The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll" (2019) by Ian S. Port. A pretty good book about electric guitars.

On Substack: A most eloquent short rant about recording music is no longer a viable business model by the legend himself, Nelson George.

I appreciate you very much, thanks. See you again after my big birthday burger in the desert.

As always, big love to your ears.

Trevor

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Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES booking currently: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Musicpodcast archive.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

It’s hard to believe a whole week has passed since last week. I’ll admit to being a little overwhelmed by all of the communication but it feels pretty organized, so I’ll keep rolling with it.

Since I opened up the can of worms by announcing the fall tour, I’ve been able to re-connect with quite a few people who are interested in helping out and hosting events. I’m also talking with some great musicians who will be in the mix. It’s all very exciting and I’m all very excited. Super grateful.

As much as I like to give you something meaningful each week, for this week I have to be honest and say that the time rolled up on me too quickly, so I’m just going to play some guitar and call it. I know you have plenty to do as well.

As far as dates are concerned, I’m still zeroing on a NYC venue for a ticketed band show on October 8. I’m connecting with house concert hosts in the Hudson Valley, Central PA, Long Island and Rhode Island… Please reach out to me if you’d like to do one yourself! We’re gonna have a great time.

I appreciate you very much, thanks.

And as always, big love to your ears.

Trevor

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Listening: Elvis’s great gospel album, “How Great Thou Art”. How great it ith.

Watching: “El Infierno” (2010) dir. Luis Estrada. Makes “Traffic” look like “Barbie”, horrifyingly. But more than one Oaxacan has told me this film is basically a documentary.

Reading: “A Dark and Bloody Ground: A True Story of Lust, Greed and Murder in the Bluegrass State” (1993) by Darcy O’Brien. Who doesn’t wish they could write like a southerner?

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Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES in process: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Music podcast archive.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hey, thanks for all the lovely responses to last week’s post about the fall tour. I ‘ve been getting many kind thumbs ups, invitations to new places, offers of hospitality, help in booking more gigs and especially house concerts. Please keep em coming! If you’re curious about hosting a house concert, it’s a great way to experience live music more intimately, conveniently and satisfyingly. I love performing in people’s homes as well as in clubs. Dates are accumulating (pending announcement) but I still have room in the calendar. Hit me up if you’d like to know more.

I am also toying with the idea of adding workshops to the fall offering, separately from the performances. I have a good track record of helping musicians at all levels find their musical footing and develop confidence. These workshops would be for anyone who makes music on any instrument: like if you know how to play but don’t think you have style, if you struggle with rhythm, with feel or if you just plain feel like you don’t deserve to play. I have a rich set of tools and rituals that help people with these things, so please send me an email if you feel intrigued.

Folks are asking about my switch to electric guitar for these new shows. What’s it gonna sound like? Why make such a cliché choice? Longtime listeners and cello loyalists are raising some eyebrows, so I’ll be fully transparent about this development today.

Cello has always been the thing that sets me apart, but it’s totally something to hide behind too.

I’ve played the cello since I was seven years old, and for better or worse a lot of my musical identity got wrapped up in that. I dragged the beast around town to different lessons, orchestra rehearsals and gigs throughout my youth and on up into my 30s and 40s.

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

I embraced the role of “cello guy” well beyond my transition into songwriting, bass playing and bandleading.

But as good as the thing can sound, it’s extremely expensive and cumbersome in a world that caters less and less to the basic needs of a traveling musician. You might know some of the stories. I’m super proud of my cello life and work, which is why I’ve held onto the “cello guy” tag despite all of the logistical and social friction it generates.

I love the cello and I will always be a cellist in my soul. But this guitar episode for me is a long time coming and I’d like to take a moment to unpack a little bit of the why and the how here for you.

I wasn’t always cello guy.

From ages 13 to 17. I mostly considered myself a piano player and lived almost entirely on the piano. For those years (and into my early 20s) I would just play piano for hours every day. I wasn’t practicing, though. I was just banging out a sound cocoon to hide myself in. It helped me avoid getting into drugs as a teenager because my self-soothing took this sonic form, and if I ever got stoned my connection to music would diminish. So I mostly avoided it and I’m grateful for that.

More importantly, the piano was the door through which I fell in love with music at age 13. Cello was only happening half-heartedly in the background and it took center stage when I realized that I’d have a much easier time trying to get into music school on cello then I would as a pianist. They need more of us in those schools to fill out the cello section in the symphony, which means they can’t always enforce the olympically high standards you would have to meet if you’re trying to get accepted as a piano player. Since I didn’t really like to practice, I hadn’t built up any real repertoire on the piano. So it was a non-starter.

But why did I love piano so much? It was mostly because you could just touch it and it would make sound all by itself. The mechanics of tone and intonation were contained within the trunk of the instrument, so you could make music without having to learn how to make a sound. Just choose your note and hit the key… ping! So music was fun right away, because the piano does most of the work for you. I could improvise for hours and feel like a musician.

This is not the case with cello. Cellos are a lot more complicated. It takes a lot of different coordinated micro-movements just to play one note on the cello, and these techniques are hard to learn. You won’t sound good for years, I promise you. And at the end of all that effort, you’ll still have way fewer notes at your disposal… as well as fewer performance opportunities. Even if you’re great.

To put the difference into an analogy: the cello is a quill pen and the piano is the printing press. People who play piano at a professional level get comfortable with manipulating a huge quantity of musical information, they can play anybody else’s part along with them - which means they generally end up being in charge of arranging the band. Meanwhile, drummers dominate the rhythm, guitarists tie the whole show together, singers lead the crowd and horns make it pop.

Between drummers and pianists, horns, singers and guitarists there’s not a whole lot of room in the types of bands I like for the voice or the opinion of a cellist, even an amplified one as I sadly found out too many times.

No matter how cool you think the cello is, it will always live on the margins of the music scene.

And love it as I might, our limited gear options, the need to subject our delicate and cumbersome instrument to harsh and often dangerous spaces where the best part of the sound gets swallowed too often by crowded mixes and crazy dynamic ranges all take their toll eventually. So I had to take some space from performing. I just haven’t had it in me, my appetite for that kind of risk has dwindled.

But my appetite for making and presenting music has not. This is why I released those three electronic music albums a couple of years ago. It’s also why I made 80 episodes of the podcast. I’ve been branching out, and part of that journey has been embracing, and then surrendering to my lifelong attraction to the guitar.

So it’s Guitar Season in trevorland. Here are a few sounds. [click above to listen].

You may notice that I’m still bringing my same tuning over from the cello. That means I have the same vocabulary and harmonic language that I use on cello. I can play the Bach cello suites in their original key…

… and the top strings are tuned in open G, just like Keith Richards. So that’s like the whole history of music at one’s fingertips without having to switch instruments or even re-tune.

I have my work cut out for me.

This fall you’ll get to hear material that sounds like me, because it is me. But it’ll be far more unfettered because I won’t be nearly as frazzled after making the trip with a cello where I have to worry about bumps and scrapes, humidity, feedback or finding a specialty string repair shop in some outlying area because my soundpost got out of whack on the way to a gig. It’s a real relief to be able to play a dependably consistent stock instrument right out of the box, and it frees up a lot of artistic bandwidth to imagine more and express more.

So I’ll be bringing the cello spirit to you in the sound of this guitar in the fall. Please come out and let’s celebrate the little liberations. Looking forward to visiting you then.

I appreciate you very much, thanks.

And as always, big love to your ears.

Trevor

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Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)

* Hear 80 episodes of the Play It Like It’s Music podcast in the archive. Penetrating interviews with great musicians.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hi, it’s Trevor. How are you?

It’s been a while: this is the first email post I’m sending out since early 2021. I’m coming to you today to announce some fall tour dates, my first in many years.

I will be sending weekly updates again now, so feel free to adjust your subscription or unsubscribe if that’s too often for you.

Thank you for being on this list.

If music is a country, I consider you all great patriots.

Despite my having published just about zip to this feed for more than two years, people have been signing up here at a steady pace. Thank you sincerely for your interest, and welcome to the next phase: I’m starting to come out of a quiet period where I have been refining new material for a record, learning how to do my show on guitar and doing some personal healing.

It’s all been very fruitful and abundant in a private way, and I’m excited to begin sharing with you again. First of all I want people to know that I have booked a few dates on the East Coast this fall.

I’m nervous because I haven’t really played a show of my own in almost 10 years.

Truly? Well actually I’ve played out quite a bit, that’s no secret. But I haven’t been playing out under my own name.

It’s a whole other thing when you get hired to play with or for somebody. I’ve been doing that plenty. It’s much more work to do your own music out in the world, with more exposure to risk and potential heartbreak when things pan out differently than hoped. It’s also more of a financial lift. Whereas if I’m just a hired gun people can just hire me and I can just be like “sure” and then come home with a check and some stories, but where does the time go?

A lot of time has passed since I last put on a Trevor Exter show, let alone a tour. But like I said, I’m working on new material for an upcoming record and we are going to play some of the songs live, to explore them sonically before starting production.

That’s part of why I’m coming out of the cocoon here, to give you a status update on the tour booking process and see what kind of interest is out there for putting more dates on the calendar.

I’m assembling a few different bands for shows in different areas, jumping out of my skin I’m so excited. Some great musicians are getting lined up to participate. I’ll also be doing some solo dates.

But! I’m also nervous and I want you to know this:

If you’re out there and you’ve dug my music at all in the past, then this year you are going to hear a new extension of what I may have believed myself musically capable of before. A furtherance of previous efforts, an evolution. Because I’ve done a lot of growing.

The result is that the music I’m making now is truer to me and my what some might want to call “voice”, however you define that. And regardless of how you define an artist’s voice, it takes a lot of work for them to zero in on it. I’ve been doing more of that work, because I definitely lost touch with my voice for a while.

There’s a robustness now that I never had before, which I had to build pretty much from scratch. Of course I’m still the same guy (for better or worse?) but now there are sounds coming out that this guy finds a lot more satisfying and that more accurately reflect the voices inside. I’ve only dreamed of these sounds before, and now I want to let you hear them.

Thanks for reading "Play It Like It's Music" by Trevor Exter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

See the list below of the dates I have booked so far. No ticket links yet, I’ll put those out in a future post. But please stick any nearby ones on your calendar, I’d love to play for you in the fall.

* If you see “TBD” that means I am still firming up a venue for that date. Please reach out if you have a suggestion, or better yet if you would like to help me put a show together in your area. I would be most grateful for that.

TREVOR EXTER East Coast Tour Fall 2023:

AUG 30 SOUTH HILL CIDER ITHACA, NY

SEP 18 THE DOWNSTAIRS ITHACA, NY

SEP 27 THE DOWNSTAIRS ITHACA, NY

OCT 6 TURKEY HILL BLOOMSBURG, PA

OCT 7 TBD HOUSE CONCERT BETHLEHEM, PA

OCT 8 TBD NEW YORK, NY

OCT 9 THE DOWNSTAIRS ITHACA, NY

Mid-OCT through early NOV TBD New England & Mid Atlantic region. Booking now, please reach out with proposals if interested.

NOV 19 THE VELVET NOTE ALPHARETTA, GA

NOV 21 TBD NASHVILLE, TN

NOV 22 TBD HUNTSVILLE, AL

Let’s do this! Can’t wait to play for you again.

I appreciate you very much, thanks.

And as always, big love to your ears.

Trevor

.

.

.

Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:

* FALL 2023 TOUR DATES: @trevorexter.com

* Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Apple/Spotify)

* Hear 80 episodes of the Play It Like It’s Music podcast in the archive. Penetrating interviews with great musicians.

* Sign the mailing list!

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

080: Chris White

Good morning! This is the final (for now) episode of Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening.

We’ve got a great guest today to wrap up this phase of the show.

On Wednesday, March 24th of 2021 as always, music is not content. It’s connection.

I’m thrilled that we made it this far, and this is definitely not goodbye. Just a transition as I lean hard into some of the music projects I’ve got going on over here.

Moving forward I’ll still be sending out updates on the email list (in a yet-to-be-determined frequency and format) so make sure you sign up at playitlikeitsmusic.com if you’re not already receiving those.

The podcast feed will go to sleep for a bit but if you know me, you know I can’t stop releasing audio. You’ll find new stuff going up on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and my socials, so hit that follow button over on Twitter and Instagram. I still spend as little time as possible over on Facebook, but it can’t hurt to throw a follow over there as well.

Meanwhile, today we’re going to meet the man who pretty much started me down this road. The guy who taught me where a 7th chord could be found on a cello and how to walk a bass line on it as well.

Based in Ithaca New York, Chris White has been exploring new directions for the cello since the late 1970’s. Whether playing in an intimate duo with piano or guitar, a jazz string quartet or with his groups the Cayuga Jazz Ensemble or the Cloud Chamber Orchestra, Chris’ playing has the vibrancy and the urgency of someone who is excited about what he is communicating.

White’s development as a jazz and improvisational cellist has been strongly affected by his guitar studies of folk, rock and jazz during his formative years. These studies were largely self taught, and focused on learning by ear, improvising, experimenting, and studying chords – things which cellists are usually not encouraged to do in traditional study. As he began applying these skills to the cello, he found it to be a wonderfully versatile instrument for playing all kinds of improvised music because he could play melodies, chords, and bass lines.

He’s a major figure in our world, as the founder and director of the New Directions Cello Festival for 25 years. He recently passed the baton to the very energetic and talented Jeremy Harman and some other great musicians who are going to keep the thing going, starting this June 26th and 27th.

I couldn’t be more honored to put Chris on today’s episode as I wrap up this phase of doing my music podcast. It’s been an incredible run, and one could argue that Chris was the man holding the pistol at the starting line. It’s a great honor to call him a friend and a colleague after all these years doing this crazy thing we do.

So let’s say hi.

Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Chris White.

Or subscribe in your podcast app: Apple Podcasts - Spotify- Stitcher - TuneIn - Overcast - Pocketcast

Thanks so much for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Chris White for spending some very generous time with us. You can find him on the gram @chrisjazzcello. Go say hi.

I can’t believe we did 80 shows! I’m gonna wrap it up here for a bit as I drill down on finishing my next couple of albums and then we’ll see. Who knows what’s going to happen now with the scene, the world, the universe. All I know is that I’m super happy to have shared this time with you for the last couple of years, blessed that you cared to listen and given us your ears.

All of these episodes will remain available indefinitely, so if you believe the show deserves a wider audience or you want it to come back in the future, help people find out about it by telling a friend:

Follow me on twitter @trevorexter and talk to me on there if you have thoughts.

We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.

But you gotta keep playing.

We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.

As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.

You can check out my NEW instrumental records on bandcamp, and I hope you will. Volume 3 is coming out April 1st.

Sign the mailing list on substack to get my music sent right to you the very moment it comes out.

Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.

Big love to your ears.

Trevor

(Did you press play yet?)

.

.

.

Do you like this stuff? Please help it grow by sharing it!

* DID YOU KNOW you can take lessons with me online!

* Hear all of our guests in rotation on “Playlist It Like It’s Music” (Apple/Spotify)

* Hear my songs: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Apple/Spotify)

* Vibe out, here are 200 songs I like: (updated regularly on Spotify)

* Sign the mailing list!

* Hire me to produce your podcast.

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

* More @trevorexter.com

psst… sign up for emails:

079: Dwight Ritcher

Good morning! This is Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening.

On Wednesday, March 17th of 2021 Music is not content, it’s connection.

Glad to be here with you today. As I’ve been mentioning, I’ll be winding the show down for now after next week’s episode (#80). It’s been great and I’m super gratified with the response, but I need to focus on a couple of big projects I’ve got brewing. Make sure you sign up on the mailing list over at playitlikeitsmusic.com so we can stay in touch. I’m not going far, and I’m always reachable.

Today we have the honor of hanging out with musician, guitarist, drummer, bandleader, singer and songwriter Dwight Ritcher of Dwight and Nicole. You may remember we got to spend time with his fairer half, Nicole Nelson back in Episode 50. Today we complete the picture.

This band is so inspiring on a lot of levels. First, they kill. They can rock in a loud way and also in a super quiet way. They write great, perform consistently and are altogether inspiring in a musical sense. I found this out firsthand when I opened for them at Banjo Jim’s back in the day.

Second, they’re a couple! I’m always amazed when you get to see a relationship play out musically in real time, whether it’s these two, Donny and Marie, Captain and Tenille, Sonny and Cher, Ashford and Simpson, Break Out The Crazy or one of the many others working today. It’s rare and beautiful to experience this as a fan.

Both Dwight and Nicole possess strong natural voices that stop you dead in your tracks. Whether belting or whispering, their singing commands attention. They are captivating performers, multi-instrumentalists and strong songwriters, standing far out from the slagheap of gutless conformity.

Dwight plays a Gibson Flying V guitar – picking up his first one as a teenager in Long Branch NJ – he has never played anything else. It was a great honor to get him on a mic and dig a little bit into his background and into his process.

So let’s get into it:

Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Dwight Ritcher.

Or subscribe in your podcast app: Apple Podcasts - Spotify- Stitcher - TuneIn - Overcast - Pocketcast

Thanks so much for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Dwight Ritcher for spending some very generous time with us. You can find him at Dwight and Nicole dot com and follow them online @dwightandnicole.

I can’t believe we’ve gotten to 79 shows! I’m gonna wrap it up next week at 80 with a very special guest. Still, if you believe this show deserves a wider audience or you want it to come back in the future, please help people find out about it by telling a friend:

Follow me on twitter @trevorexter and talk to me on there if you have thoughts.

We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.

But you gotta keep playing.

We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.

As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.

You can check out my NEW instrumental records on bandcamp, and I hope you will. Volume 3 is coming out April 1st.

Sign the mailing list on substack to get my music sent right to you the very moment it comes out.

Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.

Big love to your ears.

Trevor

(Did you press play yet?)

.

.

.

Do you like this stuff? Please help it grow by sharing it!

* DID YOU KNOW you can take lessons with me online!

* Hear all of our guests in rotation on “Playlist It Like It’s Music” (Apple/Spotify)

* Hear my songs: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Apple/Spotify)

* Vibe out, here are 200 songs I like: (updated regularly on Spotify)

* Sign the mailing list!

* Hire me to produce your podcast.

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

* More @trevorexter.com

psst… sign up for emails:

078 Gideon Freudmann

Good morning! This is Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening.

On Wednesday, March 10th of 2021 music is not content, it’s connection.

It’s March Madness!

As in, I’m going mad over here. There is so much life-stuff interfering in my musical life right now. It’s a weird feeling when you’re a trained professional in something with solid marketable skills that you’ve always used to live by. And then gradually the market and technology conspire over time to make you out as a hobbyist.

What was that degree for again?

At least I don’t have loans, but it’s maddening. Not like I need to be a musical factory worker, but more and more these days it’s just a giant neverending free obstacle course you run all the time: sending out emails to strangers, courting likes on the ever growing number of platforms, watching kids run circles around everybody and also get sad because you can’t just go to a club these days.

Music feels like a figment of our imagination without the live component, video games are more immersive, netflix is more engaging, sports are more connective and the news will give you a run for your sanity any old time you turn it on. So who - including us - has any time to do music or listen to it anymore?

Not trying to be a downer here, we all grow up and no one gets a pass on basic life skills like earning and knowing where to draw lines.

I’m grateful for the space I’m in, the health I enjoy all day long, sunshine, sound and creativity which just won’t leave me alone these days. We have a great musician to speak with today.

Gideon Freudmann, cellist and composer, has been on the forefront of our instrument's modern creative expansion for more than 30 years.

A formal education at the University of Connecticut laid a solid classical foundation for what has become a diverse soundscape encompassing a wide range of musical genres.

He’s been at this for way longer than it was trendy. In fact it’s his mission to make the cello hip, modern and fun. He’s toured all over the place, worked in lots of small ensembles, he’s a founding member of the Portland Cello Project and the band Caravan Gogh… he’s one of those guys who, if you’re into the cello you definitely know who he is.

And if you’re not, then you’ve probably just heard him a bunch of times without knowing it. His work is all over NPR: All Things Considered, CarTalk, This American Life. Movies too, Good Morning America… everywhere.

Gideon lives to Portland, Oregon in the mid-2000s where he is a founding member of the Portland Cello Project. He has also branched into live soundtrack accompaniment to silent films. He’s a great musician, a great cellist, a great guy and I’m very glad to have him on the show.

Let’s get to it!

Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Gideon Freudmann.

Or subscribe in your podcast app: Apple Podcasts - Spotify- Stitcher - TuneIn - Overcast - Pocketcast

Thanks so much for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Gideon Freudmann for spending some very generous time with us. You can find him at CelloBop dot com and follow him on Facebook @cellobop.

I can’t believe we’ve gotten to 78 shows! We’re going to put this show on indefinite hiatus after two more interviews. Nevertheless if you believe this show deserves a wider audience or you want it to continue in the future, please help create even more demand by telling a friend:

Follow me on twitter @trevorexter and talk to me on there if you have thoughts.

We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.

But you gotta keep playing.

We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.

As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.

You can check out my NEW instrumental records on bandcamp, and I hope you will. Volume 3 is coming out April 1st.

Sign the mailing list on substack to get my music sent right to you the very moment it comes out.

Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.

Big love to your ears.

Trevor

(Did you press play yet?)

.

.

.

Do you like this stuff? Please help it grow by sharing it!

* DID YOU KNOW you can take lessons with me online!

* Hear all of our guests in rotation on “Playlist It Like It’s Music” (Apple/Spotify)

* Hear my songs: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Apple/Spotify)

* Vibe out, here are 200 songs I like: (updated regularly on Spotify)

* Sign the mailing list!

* Hire me to produce your podcast.

* Follow me on IG \ TW \ FB

* More @trevorexter.com

psst… sign up for emails: