Percussive Maintenance aka Gary Smith

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Gary is a multi-faceted musician with a love for many styles of music and the ability to seamlessly switch as needed.  Raised around music, his first job was giving lessons at "The Melody Workshop" his parent's music store in Hollis, NH.  After developing a love for jazz at Nashua High School, he became a regular at the Nashua Country Club and was both the top rated guitarist and bassist in the state.  He has shared the stage with many talents from Count Basie Trumpeter Clark Terry to 90's rap group Onyx.  

After a too long musical hiatus due to familiar requirements, he joined Fox and the Flamingos, a female led funk-pop quintet, and Jam Tomorrow, a drum-less folk trio back in 2021.  For 2024 he's currently a part of 5 groups (the aforementioned plus Cosmic Blossom Collective, RGB Trio, and Cinnamon Jazz Trio) also doing solo guitar shows, as well as producing and writing songs with other artists.  Two of those bands were invited to take place in the very popular Wormtown and Strange Creek music festival.  

He draws inspiration from everyone from Jaco to Polyphia, from Stevie Wonder to Aesop Rock, and you can tell that his genre defying music comes from a unique place.  You'll either see him on an 8 string guitar or 6 string bass if you see him live, however there are bits of piano, mandolin, double bass and more sprinkled on the mostly self-produced album.  

Melody Workshop is an album like no other, with a large focus on collaboration and improvisation.  There are 16 different musicians featured, including one that played with Gary when he was a Freshman in High School.  The album weaves through genres while still making sense and making you wonder what's next. 

While making this, Gary has said "I'll be surprised if everyone likes every song as much as I do, but if they do, we'll probably be best friends".  With organic hip hop production, bluegrass, fusion, funk, lo-fi, a bossa nova, and more, there's definitely something for everybody.