Originally posted on http://digitaldiatribes.wordpress.com on February 10, 2008.
Well, I’m actually trying to make a little progress in promoting my CD, after a few months of other responsibilities taking priority. Tonight, I think I finally completed my biography. There may be some tweaks after further review, but if this isn’t the final version, it’s pretty darn close. So, I decided to post it here in case anyone is interested in finding out just a little more about me as you (hopefully) mull over the possibility of listening to and (even more hopfully!) purchasing a copy of the CD! Here it is:
Growing up in a small town in Central Wisconsin, with cows grazing in a pasture about twenty steps from my bedroom window, I was quite the household name by the time high school graduation rolled around, mainly because the local paper decided that the headline “Joe Tritz to Attend University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point” was front-page news. While amusing to look back on, of more importance to me now, of course, is knowing that I was raised with a real sense of purpose by parents who took their Catholic faith, and their childrens’ developing faith, seriously.
Not only was faith taken seriously – so was music. From little on, my mom forced me to practice piano at the expense of my dream of becoming a professional football player. All was not lost, though. Along with the childhood memory of singing “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” at my sister’s piano recital (I was four years old at the time), I also managed to develop a love for music and songwriting as the years went by. Having enjoyed nearly all genres of music in different respects, my true love comes back to the energetic music of my youth – 70s and 80s rock. This music, with driving rhythms and the raw power associated with it always appealed to me. I also grew to love the more progressive rock that has flourished over the decades since.
Staying true to these rock roots, I set out to duplicate that energy on the piano! Who else can claim to have had Yamaha replace the family piano because of an assumed defect, because of the continually broken strings on the instrument? Only after it was replaced, and I continued breaking the strings on the new piano did they realize that the problem was not the piano! I would later learn to play the guitar, so that broken strings would be far less expensive and an amp could be turned up to a volume that did not risk breaking my hand to achieve the decibel level I desired. Let’s see, so far we have cows, Catholicism, and rock music… please read on, assured that there is no mooing in any of my music (though the concept strangely intrigues me).
As an adult, by the grace of God, the seeds of faith that had been planted in my youth grew and blossomed. Musically, my attention turned from secular music to Contemporary Christian Music, with its positive message. I soon found that when I directed my songwriting towards God, my music flourished. What has since transpired is my first CD release, Avant-God.
Best described as a hard-rocker-wannabe-trapped-in-a-keyboardist’s body, the music on Avant-God is noticeably influenced by my love of 70s and 80s rock, with a twist of modern day CCM, and lyrically constructed from a Catholic Christina worldview. Avant-God stands among only a few on the Catholic music scene yielding a positive message with a hard edge. Helping to fill the Catholic Christian Rock niche while appealing to youth, the middle-aged 80s folk like myself, and anyone who likes a good beat, it is at the same time uplifting and family-friendly.
The art design on the CD is meant to imply this notion. My three oldest children wrote the words in their handwriting and contributed the pictures located on the insert. The title, “Avant-God” speaks to our God as Creator and inventor of all things while at the same time realizing He is so much more than we can comprehend! No number of adjectives can fully describe Him, yet there are so many ways to describe Him. The entire CD is a celebration of this, as written, recorded, produced, and imagined by that guy mentioned in the first paragraph: Joe Tritz.
To date, my music can be located on CD Baby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/tritzjoe) for both purchase of the CD or music download. It can also be located at Dig Station (http://www.digstation.com/JoeTritz) for download. It has also been distributed for streaming and download at a number of other affiliated sites that house independent music, including I-Tunes and Napster. If you use any other services, search for my name, or “Avant-God” and it may be on there. Finally, if cost is an issue, or to buy direct from me, please feel free to send an e-mail at geezep@yahoo.com. We’ll work something out, I promise! I have a My Space page, but really it’s just a placeholder until I can develop a web site, so it’s not even worth checking out. This blog has much more info.
Pingback: My CD Description of Avant-God « Catholic Diatribes