Music Style Progressive Acoustic and Acoustic Rock

Musical Influences Rush, Kansas, Genesis, Journey, Dan Fogelberg, Steve Morse, Toto, Queensryche, Judas Priest, Alan Parsons, Van Halen, Peter Cetera

Similar Artists We sound like us.

Artist History These "old" songs were written beginning as early as 1983, recorded in numerous living rooms, basements, bedrooms, and closets around the globe with a $30 Radio Shack microphone and Fostex 4-track cassette deck in most cases, and slowly "tweaked" on weekends & spare minutes over the last couple of years with the aid of digital recording technology. My adventure with these songs has been an extended one, but like Captain Kirk said while dying beneath the twisted metal of that collapsed skywalk on Veridian III, "It's been fun..." As I attempt to put some closure on these tunes with the release of "Greatest Hits?" CDs (Vol. 1, "Natural Acoustics" & Vol. 2, "Mostly Rock"), my thoughts turn constantly to those of you who gave so much of yourselves to help make these early Natural Echo projects work. Your time, talent, advice, criticism, encouragement, equipment, instruments, sense of humor, and extreme patience, gave these songs a reality in the physical realm. I am whole-heartedly grateful and forever indebted to you. Thank you for sharing these adventures with me! Natural Echo's "Greatest Hits?" are dedicated to you! And as for current history... stick around for more Natural Echo! A dozen new tunes are presently seeking reality in the physical realm, so stay tuned! - Tim Berndt 5/2001

Group Members PERFORMERS - TIM BERNDT: acoustic & electric guitars, lead & backing vocals, engineering & mixing, and ocassional synths, special effects, keyboard bass, & percussion; PAUL HAAKENSON: keyboards, synth drums, synth bass, & backing vocals on the "Toned Down" album tunes; ELLEN DOERRFELD: main keyboard & keyboard arrangement on "A Fairytale"; ALLISON WALLACE: violin on "To Soar"; JEANNIE KAPPLE: female vocal on "Will Ye Go Lassie, Go?"; ERIK ST. LOUIS: “borrower of percussion” and percussion & percussion arrangement on "The Dance!" & "Baqsheesh Blues"; BENIAM BAISSA: left & right stereo intro "Ghanian Guitars" on "Airmail"; DEBRA MALAND: female vocal on "Silver Song"; KRIS STAUFFER: bass guitar & solo on "Baqsheesh Blues"; JULIE GEISSLER: whispered voice on "The Pool"; PAUL BERNDT: rec tech & NEP business mngmnt (USA); TIM HOLTZ: rec tech & stage support; ANNE ROHACH: mega rec tech, & $100 loan shark; DAN CONSIDINE: lender of “storm” ; ANDERS DAVIDSON: lender of “crickets” ; THOR Lobster Buffet ANDERSON: lender of mics & album prod advice; JOE KAUL: music store direction-giver & 4-track instruction manual decipherer; PAUL BORMAN: mic whisper specialist; TODD STUCKE: visa savior, tape deck exchange consultant, & 3-year noise endurest; DREW STAIGER: “Let’s try it out on Drew” song reactionary; GLENN “GLESS” MEHNERT: tour personal advisor; KIRSTEN LYSNE: Radio Nepal handholder; BRIAN ASMUS & MARK BROWN: India percussors; SUBODH KUMAR UPRETY: Katmandu connections; CHUN HSING LIU (COCO) & KUO-EN CHEN: Taipei connections; CRAIG & BARB WETTER: “But you have to finish the song! It’s already in the program!” contractors; KAREN HOKENSTROM: first guitar lender, thus opportunity; DAVE AAKRE & BOB JOHNSON: original guitar chordologists; ANN AAKRE: music consultant & reactionary; SCOTT TESKA: rec space & creative consultant; CHAD WOLF: cassette deck lender; JACQUE WOLF: dream consultant; TINA BERNDT: gophering, housing, storage, and inspiration, too; PETE KUHLMAN & JANELLE BARON: Wedding night song reactionaries (Didn’t they have anything better to do?); CARL ELIASON: music alter-ego, newscaster, & mix consultant; PAM ELIASON: Fairytale teller; JUNE MEYER: rec tech & poet soulmate; MAREN ASPAAS: rec tech & flood relief; SALIM MOHAMMED: rec tech & consultant; JENNIFER DENNISON: creative consultant and rec space; SCOTT RENSTROM: sandwich maker; GRANDMA VINNES: phone call taker & cookie bearer; ROBERT & JOANNE BERNDT: everything and everything else; AH-MEI HAAKENSON: feedback, translating, calling; SHU-HUI BERNDT: consultation, inspiration, encouragement, love, buddy extraordinaire; ERIC SUNG: surviving rehearsals; ROBERT CHI: avoiding rehearsals; CHRIS DAKIN: recording rehearsals & playing them back at 4 a.m.; MR. WANG: Taiwan transport; DAN HERZOG: world problem solving; MAJOR & MINOR: Evergreen inspirations; MARK COLLINS: Greatest Hits? compilation consultation & pointing the way to Turtle Beach; FRIENDS: reactionaries, divers, and jokers extraordinaire.

Instruments Acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, violin, synth & real percussion, vocals

Albums Tablature Rasa (1987), Natural Boundaries (1988), Toned Down (1992), Greatest Hits? (2001)

Additional Info Thanks for checking out our music & language files!

Location Seaside, CA - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).