Email info@billyv.com

You can post comments on the Billy Vootah blog.

If you buy a Shack Monks song from iTunes that will help us out a bit.

There's also a MySpace page I rarely update.

I play guitar. Sometimes by myself, sometimes with the Shack Monks, and sometimes with the machines. I have several machines that make noise that sounds a bit like drums and bass.

I've recorded a few tunes jamming along with those machines. Some of them are just instrumental jams, others were conceived as demos of songs to be fully produced sometime later (or, more likely, never). I'm putting some of those songs, tunes, jams, whatever on the web here. You can listen to them for free. They're worth every penny and then some.

If you hear something you like, pass it on to your friends. Yeah, pass it on...

Guitarists and bands who influenced my playing and whose LPs I wore out jamming along with:

• David Gilmour
• Pink Floyd
• Michael Schenker
• UFO
• Alex Lifeson
• Rush
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse
• Robin Trower
• Joe Satriani
• Steve Vai
• Led Zeppelin
• Judas Priest

I use...

software:

• Audacity
• n-Track Studio

hardware:

• Marshall
• Gibson
• Charvel
• Yamaha
• POD

underwear:

• Hanes

Q: What's up with the "Billy V" anyway? That's not your real name, is it?

A: Hey, it wasn't my idea. Ask my friends. They started calling me "Billy V" and it stuck, sort of, for a while anyway. Sounded good at the time, but then so did these tunes. By the way, artists use pseudonyms all the time (and sometimes they end up in rehab).

Q: Isn't it the height of hubris to make a website dedicated to oneself?

A: Perhaps, but consider that it takes at least a little bit of humility to admit that no one else is going to do it for me because they think I'm just so awesome.

I hope you enjoy the music and tolerate this site (or vice versa). If not, no one is forcing you to be here. That may sound unfriendly but it's not meant to be. It's just a fact that everyone's tastes are different and, on the web, there seems to be no shortage of content to suit any taste.

Thank you for reading and listening.

-Billy V