Jamie has been performing as a guitarist and trumpeter with professional musicians since he was a teenager. He has over 30 years of professional experience as a lead guitarist performing in over 10 groups in hundreds of concerts and recordings throughout the east coast.  

 

Jamie is most known as a lead guitarist who uses his intuition as an improviser for providing fresh solos in each song. As a multi-instrumentalist, Jamie is proficient as a guitarist, trumpeter, mandolinist, and percussionist in the contemporary musical genres of rock n roll, jazz, fusion, funk, jam, americana, and bluegrass. 

 

Jamie provides solo performances as a singer-songwriter on acoustic and electric guitars, using a loop system for improvising his guitar solos. 

 

Looking back, Jamie remembers becoming very excited about learning music when he first heard Louis Armstrong’s improvisational Dixieland band perform “When the Saints Come Marching In” as young boy.  After becoming adept at reading music as a jazz trumpeter and performing professionally throughout the region in schools and churches, he began studying the guitar as a teenager after he fell in love with rock and roll. Jamie attended Susquehanna University in 1990, where he studied jazz guitar with recording artist David Cullen (Solid Air Records, Windham Hill) and published jazz instructor Jay Umble (Mel Bay). 

 

He began his professional musical career as a guitarist his freshman year and was a founding member of the regional rock groups Electric Sunrise, Pivizikinil, and Kind-a-Mind. At Clemson University, he formed the regional rock groups Southern Strange and Grass Cactus, where he expanded his improvisational abilities at numerous gigs in the region.  Jamie’s musical leadership skills matured during the rise of the collaborative Grass Cactus, which performed its exiting and eclectic mix of jazz/rock/bluegrass in many concerts in the southeastern states on its album entitled “Cactus Juice”.  

 

After completing a Master’s Degree, Jamie performed rock and soul music as a trumpeter in a three-piece horn section that joined the musical groups Backspin and Big Train, located out of Maplewood, New Jersey in the late 1990s. After becoming married and moving to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Jamie performed for several years as an acoustic guitarist at many Lehigh Valley concerts with Sarah’s Acoustic Brew including the Musikfest Café, Godfrey Daniels, Puck Live and live radio performances with Sarah Ayers on 95.1 WZZO.  He performed solo acoustic concerts in Jim Thorpe and the Lehigh Valley for 10 years or also with Jamie Snook and Friends for 5 years. 

 

After moving to central Vermont and completing a second Master’s Degree in 2020, Jamie joined the regional rock group Rustie Bus as its lead guitarist in 2021 through Summer 2023.  While pursuing a PhD in Sustainability Education, Jamie created the musical group Altatood in Spring 2023 to address and combine his passions for music, the environment, and social justice. 

 

As Altatood’s lead guitarist and a lead vocalist, Jamie also acts as Altatood’s ethical steward to nurture it forward toward reaching its musical and commercial potential.  Working in coordination with an international teaching artistry non-profit organization (TEACH), Jamie wrote an original song for Altatood to perform that exposes the concerns of those struggling in Africa from climate change, by addressing the current water crisis in Uganda through an emotional song. A rap artist from Bulamazzi, Ugdanda is expected to contribute to the song, which is intended to be released on International Water Day in March 2024.

 

Altatood pursues diversity and intends to be inclusive to those who wish to contribute to its goals, while ensuring that the music consistently reaches a professional standard for the audience.  While Altatood has a group of founding members and contributors, its performers may therefore vary with each performance to meet the goals of the stakeholders and requests from the audience.  While having their own pursuits and opinions, Altatood’s musical members and contributors are known to authentically pursue their own musical ideas and goals to achieve unlimited expression, while still contributing to Altatood.  Please consider contributing toward Altatood's goals by visiting the website, interacting on social media, and contacting us for a conversation.

 

Thank you for visiting Altatood.com