name, city, instrument, years of playing, current band, gear
 #153833  by bluesforbuddha
 
Sending Good Wishes from Ringwood, NJ,

I have really appreciated this forum and the wealth of information you all have generated with a real sense of community and kindness. I've been lurking for some time and thought to post a brief introduction. Thanks for all you have already given me.

I'm a psychologist who lives in Ringwood, NJ in a very chill lake district. I have a practice in NYC and write and teach on mindfulness and compassion focused psychotherapies. The website is mindfulcompassion.com. My wife, Laura and I run the practice together and write together. She is an amazing lady, who has been way deeper into The Dead than I have been, for many years. In truth, she has sort of been leading me deeper in this direction, like just about everything else. We live with our dog, Barney, who is awesome.

I'm 48 and have been playing guitar since age 10. Over the years I've always been a fan of The Dead's music, but never really dove into the material as a player until this year.
My writing, recording and performing work has spanned from 60's influenced rock to dark, ambient improv music. Spent a lot of time with King Crimson material and Zappa, and spent many years involved with Guitar Craft and Fripp's approach. Studied with Jim Campilongo for a few years, too, digging into his phenomenal approach to the telecaster and American music.

I'm a boutique and vintage guitar and amp collector, so the rig varies quite a bit.

Since I have become completely obsessed with the the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia, I've been playing through a Phiga Bolt, a Hahn Telecaster, or a Ronin Songbird. The pedalboard has the Jerry staples, with a Q-tron subbing for a Mutron, a Klon KTR, Tube Driver, Ross Compressor and Echorec clone into the mix, running into a Boomerang II. Amps are either a Sarno into a Carvin DCM200L into a cabinet with JBL e120's, or a 67 Princeton Reverb or 68 Vibrolux. There are a lot of variations on these themes. Waiting on a Troy Post wolffish axe to be complete.

The spirituality and wonder in this music is transformational. Hoping to find like minded locals to jam with soon.

For the last 9 years, I've been playing with Mark Christensen in a psychdelic/improv band named The Stone Document. An example of some of our tracks can be found here

https://soundcloud.com/dennis-tirch

The theme song of this podcast is me playing the most Dead inspired (rip off?) track I've yet recorded:

https://soundcloud.com/dennis-tirch-phd ... -episode-1

Sending wishes for peace and love to the community.

DT