Stephen Houpt - Strictly Tablue (2019)

Prior to the summer of 2014, I had written only two songs in forty years. When we stayed near Taos, New Mexico, that July I wrote two new songs. Since then I have written another 60 songs. Much of this burst of creativity was inspired by my acquisition of a Weissenborn acoustic lap steel guitar. Hermann Weissenborn made his guitars in the 1920’s and ‘30’s in Los Angeles. My guitar was made in 1927. It is made of Hawaiian koa wood and has a hollow neck with raised strings. I play it lap style with fingerpicks and a steel bar. The creation of all of these songs led me to the idea of making my first CD. Amy Harms and I recorded it at Audio Dallas Recording Studio in late May and early June of 2015. All the songs on that CD were originally poems. Four of the poems were adapted from works by the eighth century Tang Dynasty Chinese poets Tu Fu, Wang Wei, and Li Po. I have always loved their work. I wrote the other nine poems at various stages of my life. I wrote all the music on this CD. Amy Elhoff Harms is the vocalist on nine of the songs and Amy and I sing the other four songs together. Amy was actually my neighbor at the tiime. When she moved in across the street, my musical life changed. I could not have written the songs on that CD without her inspiration and support. I play the 1927 Weissenborn on eleven of the songs, a 1935 dobro on “A Relationship Sandwich”, and a 2013 Lazy River Weissenborn on “A Man Entranced”. Since the CD was released, Amy had a baby and retired from our little group. My second CD, this time as a solo act, was released in 2016. It's called Sweet Green Mystery, and it is available on this website and also on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Apple Music, and Spotify. My third album, "Just This Moment", was released in 2017. My fourth album, "White Rock Lake", was released in 2018. My fifth album, an electric blues album featuring me on harmonica and vocals, Marion Glorioso on vocals, and Kevin Taylor on lead guitar, will be released on February 22nd of 2019. It's called "Strictly Tablue". See the video page of this website for a video interview about my musical origins.

Stephen Houpt