The 3 Questions for Brady Novotny Due to the current stay-at-home orders in Pennsylvania, we’ve all adapted our daily lives. I personally have resorted to adding video to my podcasts and teaching from my kitchen, How has the situation altered your career as a musician? If they were going to make a cartoon episode about Brady Novotny, the musician, which cartoon series would do it, and what character would play you? What was the first song you ever heard your wife sing, and if you want to tell the story with time and place, etc – asked by Utah from Noble Hops in Episode 31 The Song: Heart’s Fire Inspired by the view of the red rocks. It has some interesting instrumentation combinations. So it starts off with bongos but the guitar is in drop tuning creating a heavy sound but against the bongo rhythm. About Brady Novotny Brady Novotny started playing the guitar at the age of 10. Determined to be a world class guitarist, he left his first guitar lesson with his instructor telling him basically to give it up now. Thus he was introduced to criticism and disappointment early in his endeavor. Nevertheless, Brady heard a guitar player that would motivate him to push all that aside and re-engerize his passion to continue; that guitar player was Randy Rhoads. Brady soon fell in love with classical and melodic guitar playing. Brady practiced restlessly learning everything from classical pieces, melodic and virtuosic solos from 80’s guitar heroes, to jazz fusion. Brady loved the guitar, and truly, that has been his passion. He attended Berklee College of Music for a little time. At the age of 19, he was asked to teach summer guitar workshop at Duquesne University. As life often happens, however, Brady got burned out and went back to school and received his masters in Psychology. Yep, that’s right — Psychology. But the passion is back and stronger than ever, plus it never hurts to have some money! Brady set out to do an instrumental project that would have his listeners singing the haunting melodies while holding their attention by uniquely placed guitar virtuosity and dynamic rhythms creating a fusion of rock, flamenco, and jazz. His love for a variety of musical styles led him to study under many teachers in his life. Brady started out playing Classical guitar at the age of 10. Ever since then, Brady has had a strong affection for nylon string guitar sound. Ultimately, this led him to study Flamenco guitar. He immediately fell in love with the passion, virtuosity and rhythm of this style. The shred of the 80’s was one of his main influences and guilty pleasures, while Jazz was a big influence on Brady’s chordal choices and song color. Brady has a wide range of experience in the music business. His experience ranges from the Pittsburgh rock scene to national tours. He has worked as a Pittsburgh session guitarist, Worship leader, and guitarist at several mega churches. He has also taught guitar at clinics and universities. Band Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA Band Genre: Instrumental Melodic rock with a flamenco and world twist Find Brady Novotony Online: https://www.facebook.com/bradynovotny https://www.twitter.com/bradynovotny https://www.instagram.com/bradynovotnyofficial https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQMG6bjBHNLH2uxumRx1IyQ Purchase Brady’s Music https://www.bradynovotny.com/shop/ https://www.amazon.com/Passions-Collide-Brady-Novotny/dp/B07MC9NJ82/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/passions-collide/1449585458

The 3 Questions for Utah Burgess You have been a part of the music scene as far back as I can remember both as an artist and a business owner. What do you believe the scene needs the most to allow more bands to succeed? If you were going to create a super group from your scene to manage, who would be in it and why? What makes your hops so noble? asked by Frank Vieira on episode 30 About the song, The Amish Ninja The Amish Ninja. It’s about a local legend known as Eli the Amish Ninja, and is based on true events from a Memorial Day Weekend camping trip. About Noble Hops Band Location: AK Valley, PA USA Band Genre: Acoustic, Beer Founding member Utah Burgess, along with original member Ed Hughes, wasted no time hitting the local circuit playing an eclectic mix of cover songs to a steady growing fan base. After playing at an MC benefit one day that paid us in free Miller High Life however, this era of the band came to a sudden end. Our thirst for the Hops got the best of us that day. Soon after that Rob Keller joined the band. He had just started a band of his own called ‘The Shiners’ (who Utah was originally invited to be a part of and currently likes to refer to himself as the Pete Best of The Shiners) and the band was back in action. Rob’s influence immediately took the Hops in a different direction and also coincided with a period of song writing that Utah was going through. Coupled with Rob’s own original music (Grassy Award winning song “Every Once In A While” as well as a nomination for “Way Back Home”) and the new music Utah was writing the band was able to open up more opportunities for showcasing local original music. As the band’s popularity and fan base continued to grow it found itself in scheduling conflicts with Rob’s main priority, ‘The Shiners’. Weary of having to turn gig offers down and playing on the couch, Utah decided to approach Jenifer Lyn Baker (for a second time) about joining the band. The addition of JLyn (as she is known in the Hops Nation) provided even more diversity for the bands sound and style, as well as a healthy offering of JLyn’s own original music. Her soul mate John “Johnny Katt” Henricks (who along with JLyn played in “The Gravel Road Band” and “Junkman’s Widow”) also joined the band and further expanded the vocal reaches of the group. For a brief stint the band also included Zach Rovito who added an incredible style of playing as well as yet another voice to the mix of the Hops sound. Zach left the band to tour nationally with the band The Hawkeyes. The band has also worked occasionally with the lovely and talented singer/songwriter Jessi Boldy. Usually around the holidays she makes her appearance on the Shady Lady float in the Holiday Parade, jamming with Rob and Utah. The three also entered Meatlocker Recording studio in 2017 and recorded a couple of holiday classics, “Santa Baby”, and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”, both of which are available for download. In early 2018 the band entered The Leaning Studio of Greene and continues to record there now. Two singles have been released and are available for download. Our anthem, “Hop Head Stomp”, and a story about a Western PA legend, “The Amish Ninja”. Sadly the Hop Nation and the World at large lost Johnny Katt on June 6, 2019 to the horrible disease known as Scleroderma. Part of our goal moving forward will be to raise awareness and money towards this disease. He bravely took a chance on a stem cell transplant but other complications did not allow what looked like a very promising transplant to take place. We will always remember him and honor him. Just like it takes several special ingredients to make a good beer, the Noble Hops offers many special ingredients as well through the diverse talents of its members. So pretty much on any given night you may see any combination of musicians, all who play, sing, write, and entertain, and you’ll get something different and fun that leaves you feeling “HOPpy”. Our fans are rabid, loyal, and supportive of all we do, and for that we are ever so thankful. The venues we play have been nothing short of wonderful to us, and we invite you to come out and check us out sometime if you haven’t before. Be a part of the Hop Head Nation, and join us in doing the Hop Head Stomp. It’s tasty…. Find Noble Hops Online: http://www.NobleHopsMusic.com https://www.Facebook.com/NobleHopsMusic