Blog for Rocky Fretz

Rocky's Recordings

2010-03-16T19:21:06-04:00

DISCOGRAPHY

In this section you will find information about my recordings. To begin with here is a simple list.

I will eventually follow this with a short description and then a more comprehensive discussion of each individual record and hopefully some video of me playing something from each recording :)

So far I have recorded these albums:

1. Christmas Off The Streets
2. A Better Way
3. Music That Heals
4. Imagination – Vision Beyond Appearances
5. Faith – Walking On Water
6. Zeal – Soar Spirit…Soar!
7. From Rocky For Christmas
8. Christmas Morning
9. The Path Ahead…and steps then taken.”

Christmas Off The Streets

My first recording. Actually it was available only in cassette tape form…never was a CD. I recorded it in my home with the help of Marc Collins (http://marccollins.net) an awesome sax player and recording guru in Charleston, SC.

Marc had a portable recording studio even back then! Was pretty big though….heavy too! But it did the job and the recording is not so bad for 1992 or earlier.

The work was recorded and used to raise money for the homeless shelter/rescue mission I founded called StreetReach. After I turned that ministry over to a group of better qualified ministers the cassette was discontinued. I may have to look for an old master…
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Autobiography Part 3 'My First Piano Guru"

2010-03-16T19:14:14-04:00

My first piano guru!

….when I would find myself in the small Arkansas town in which my Mom’s family lived because my Father would go overseas for 6 months to a year or more at a time, we lived close to my Mom’s cousin and her children.

Beverly was one of her daughters, my second cousin and she took piano lessons and practiced most every day.

Beverly was really a good pianist and I would sit and watch her practice her scales and songs for her lesson the following week….mesmerized.

I guess I was about 7 years old and I mean…I had never seen anything like it…to be able to push down the keys and a sound come out of a big wooden box…was amazing!

So…after Beverly would finish practicing I would climb up on the bench and see if I could do that too!

I happened to be able to hear songs from one source and replicate it from another at an early age….like hearing something on the radio and be able to pick it out on some musical instrument or

…in this case, I would actually be able to play some close resemblance to the song Beverly had been practicing from hearing it several times while watching her practice.

One thing led to another and one aunt or cousin talked with another relative resulting in an amazing Christmas my eight year on this spinning orb rocketing through space….the big red piano!

That's how it all started!

More about that next time!

Thanks for listening :)

Rocky

Autobiography Part 2

2010-03-16T19:11:05-04:00

continuing on.....

I am also proud of my now deceased Mother Nancy Carolyn. She held a family together through very difficult times and loved us very much. I miss her.

After packing up and moving so many times, the result of the US Air Force’s apparent need to keep everybody on their toes, …she could put an entire house and garage full of stuff in a Volvo!

Nancy C. Fretz made her transition after a battle with cancer more than a decade ago. Man I loved my Mom… a saint. never complained. She, with great dignity, endured her suffering almost anonymously, keeping the severity of her illness practically a secret until the very last few days she graced this rock in space with her presence. Those that Carolyn touched were always better for it.

It is funny how things turn out…as I mentioned, I happened to be born in Kennett because, just prior, my Dad was stationed in Texas while my Mom was pregnant with me and ….on the way to Michigan under new orders, I insisted on joining them so they stopped in Kennett (close to family) and I was born, slapped, cried and got in the car to get on to Michigan :)

In addition, had my Father not been exposed to and fallen in love with the beautiful hills of the Ozarks and the lakes and rivers and under populated forests I would have never ended up back there not ten miles from my birth place at fifteen years of age.

I use to complain about moving back to the country in Missouri and Arkansas as a kid. I preferred the cities we had previously lived in to the slower country life style built around farming.

But to my point…. if not for my Mom’s folks, the Ozark Mountain’s beauty, the USAF and a Volvo full of stuff…. I would have never lived across the street from my cousin Beverly….Beverly played the piano….I watched her play and fell in love with the instrument and have remained in that relationship since that day….

more about those first piano years in my next installment

for now…know that I love ya’ll. Be well and have fun!

Talk to you soon :)
R

Autobiography Part 1

2010-03-16T19:10:04-04:00

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

This section has a little more information about me and comes as a …’diary like’ remembrance of my life. Think of this section as an auto-biography.

I will try to post additional pages for each day’s entry until the book is complete and ready for a binding :)

I’ll start today, Tuesday morning, Sept. 29, 2009 (09/29/09) at 1:58 AM and think of and write those things I remember…as I reflect upon the last half century…. and attempt to continue updating daily. Thank you for listening.
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I was born in the very small town in Missouri on June 24, 1958 to Harry and Carolyn Fretz.

I was the first born of two sons…. Anthony Lane came along about 2 years after my own earthly arrival. It was a little after ten in the morning…Kennett, Missouri. USA.

My dad was a military man so I spent that day and three more in a small hospital maternity ward so my Mom could rest up enough to get back in the car to finish the drive to Saulte Saint Marie, Michigan…Harry Sr.’s next duty station....and where my younger brother was born.

The first 15 years of my life were spent either on military installations, if my Father was stationed in the USA, or in an even smaller town just about 20 miles across the state line in N.E. Arkansas from Kennett, MO. called Piggott, close to my Mom’s family.

When ‘Fretz’ as my Mom (RIP) called my Dad, would go to war or be stationed in some far off, restricted, God forsaken place, making sure the critically needed aircraft would be ready if required and protecting our country the best way he knew how. ….we would move back to Piggott Ark. to be close to my Mom's family.. That’s where my Mom’s folks are from. It’s good to be around family when someone in it is in a war.

Even though we disagreed, as I was growing up through the 60s and 70s, on the value of armed conflict in the big picture and long term…I’m proud of my Dad. He did what was asked of him and he did it extremely well.

My Dad served in the Navy for four years and in the Air Force for 22. Harry spent three tours in two different conflicts while serving as a highly decorated aircraft mechanic.

My Dad could take any engine completely apart and fix, enhance or just look at it and put it back together again as if it were a child’s model….at 73 he probably still can. That’s my Pop…
see Part 2 to continue if you like :)
Talk with you soon!
RkstR