Tiverton Guitarist Strums New Album, Balances Artistic Talents

Tiverton resident Gary Farias has played guitar since he was 11 years old. However, he seems to have reached a new pinnacle in his musical career this year, cultivating a devoted word-of-mouth work following since the 2008 release of his album “Is There Still Room For Me?”

Buoyed by that album’s success and his reputation as a stalwart live performer, Farias currently manages a very busy schedule, playing up to 20 gigs a month. He does this while also giving guitar lessons three days a week and maintaining a side career as an artist.

While his earlier career was predominately spent playing in bands, Gary generally performs as a solo act now. Playing to private parties, nursing homes, coffee houses and the occasional restaurant or club, he strums acoustic sets covering the folk and country music he loves, ranging from rowdy crowd pleasers like Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” to the somber beauty of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah." He will mix some of the originals from “Is There Still Room For Me?” into his quieter, coffee house sets, but generally sticks to music his audience will recognize.

Gary names the Everly Brother’s and Bob Dylan as his two greatest influences, adding that James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” and the aforementioned “Hallelujah” are two songs he never gets tired of playing. He is mostly interested into older country and folk, but enjoys some contemporary folk-inspired acts such as Fleet Foxes and the Decemberists.

“Is There Still Room For Me?” is an eclectic mix, containing upbeat folk such as opener “I’m Happy Just Being Me” next to touching instrumentals, such as “Snowfall” and somber-minded country like “Will I Ever Find a Love Like That Again?"

“I was trying to get out all of my interests on one CD," he said.

The album started as a reaction to people’s requests for him to release some of his own music and was a collaborative effort with his wife Sue Kent, who wrote the majority of the lyrics. He is a few songs into a planned follow-up album, but adds that it is still “very much a work in progress” and too far off to have any completion date planned.

Gary’s interest in music is rooted deep in his childhood.

“My father was a steel guitar player," he said. "Growing up, I was always surrounded by music."

He credited the multitude of guitar players his father worked with teaching him “a chord here, a scale there” that helped him become the player he is today.

“I remember my brother Kevin and I at age 6 arguing over which of the Everly Brother’s we’d be," Gary added. "We could switch up and sing either harmony part, even at that early age.”

That deep interest in music has translated into Farias’ work as a guitar instructor. He has been giving lessons for about 25 years and currently has 22 pupils whom he squeezes into his busy schedule on Monday and Tuesday nights as well as Saturday mornings. He describes his instructional style as a combination of teaching individual songs and technique, saying “you can use songs to teach theory."

"I can teach someone a Beatles song and they can use the techniques and structure from it and apply it to someone contemporary, like say, Jack Johnson," he said.

Gary has spent much of life trying to balance his interests in music and painting. He went to school for art and spent a deal of time in the 1990’s focused on it.

“I can’t seem to give either art or music the proper amount of time," he said. "I always tend to emphasize one at the expense of the other."

While his primary focus is currently his music, he expects to do more artwork in the winter when his playing schedule eases up. Both his music and his artwork are available at local stores such as Tiverton’s . The album is also available at online retailers such as Amazon and CD Baby, as well as at his performances.

Regardless of what he’s focused on at the time, Farias’ infectious passion for his work shines through.

“I joke that I get paid to set up and break down,” he said. “The playing is for free. To me, music is like a drug. When I’m on stage, no matter what kind of day I’ve had, everything else just goes away. Everything is alright when I’m playing.”

To learn more about Gary, including his upcoming performance schedule, check out his website at www.garyjamesfarias.com