COWG MEMBER LEE BARKER FEATURED ON OREGON ART BEAT JAN. 8, 2009

COWG MEMBER LEE BARKER FEATURED ON OREGON ART BEAT

Musician and COWG member Lee Barker of Redmond will be featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s program “Oregon Art Beat” on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. The program will repeat at 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Sunday, January 11. OPB is Channel 7 on the local Bend Broadband Cable Company.

As a bass guitar player, Lee performed in two groups, which meant five hours of performing each week for several years. In 2002 he noticed his wrists began to hurt after only an hour or so of playing his horizontal bass guitar. Lee began to imagine an upright fretted bass, could not find such an instrument, and so he built it himself. It eliminated the issue of wrist pain, and as other musicians learned of Lee’s vertical guitar, he began receiving not only interest in but orders for the instrument. He now owns his own company in Redmond, custom-building his vertical bass which he calls “The Secretary.” In addition to producing and playing the stand-up bass guitar, Lee is a photographer and writer. To learn more about Lee, visit his website at www.barkerbass.com, or his blog at www.barkerbass.blog.blogspot.com.

And don’t miss the chance to see Lee show off his innovative vertical bass and share his musical skill this Thursday, January 8, 2009, 8:00 p.m. on “Oregon Art Beat,” OPB Channel 7. Lee intends to be at COWG’s January 22, 2009 meeting, 6:30 p.m., Redmond Library, where we can personally congratulate him for his accomplishments and his “Art Beat” appearance.