Mate (pronounced "mah-TAY") is a popular South American beverage. My good friend and StringDancer co-founder Barry Ginsbarg enjoyed sipping it on his many travels down that way, and one day decided to compose an instrumental guitar piece in honor of his favorite south-of-the-border libation. Pass The Mate was later released on Barry's 1996 CD, Intuition, the second CD project I produced for him.
Barry Ginsbarg and Jeff Foster, Santa Barbara CA,
mid-90s
During the recording sessions,
we were in my studio in Bakersfield California, we had the
accompaniment tracks in the can, and it came time to lay
down the lead guitar. Barry was working through the piece
and I offered to show him a few licks he could add to the
track to snaz it up a bit. BG agreed.
Well, the duende began to flow, and I was having a
good time improvising on Barry's infectious chord changes,
making up more and more complicated variations on his
theme, when his eyes glazed over and he said, "Foster,
that'll take me too long to learn. Why don't you just play
the lead on this one?". So I did. Of all three album
projects Barry and I did together in the 90s, this is the
only track on which I got to play lead guitar.
Barry was not necessarily a masterful guitarist (nor would
he ever claim to be, humble man that he was), but he had an
incredible ear for composing simple, melodic and elegant
fingerstyle guitar pieces that were very inviting to the
ear and soothing to the soul. He also played a little
mandolin and blew a pretty mean harp when he was in the
mood. His musical talent and his affable personality
explains the success he enjoyed with his growing legion of
fans and friends.
My buddy Barry died in 2001 as a result of head trauma and
a three-month coma following a skiing accident. He had just
turned 40. His most recent CD (ironically titled No
Regrets) was doing well for him, his career was
soaring, and he was taking some down time at the ski slope
before tackling another round of gigs in the southern
California area. His passing came as a real shock to
everyone who knew and loved this unique individual.
I miss my friend like crazy to this day. I wish I could
just call Barry up on the phone and talk guitars as we did
in the old days. But I have reams of memories of our many
exploits during those hot and dusty days in California. I
look back fondly... and I look forward to jamming with BG
in the next world.
Pass The Mate -- by Barry Ginsbarg
featuring Jeff Foster, lead guitar
The Music of Barry Ginsbarg
Barry's music will always live on here at StringDancer. Now long out of print, his three CDs will not fall into the dustbin of independent music history so long as SD's online. We present them here for your enjoyment... and for me, as a musical memorial to a fallen comrade. The name of the guitar site he and I dreamed up and created together, StringDancer, was Barry's idea (see track 1 of Intuition). He passionately loved the guitar and making music for people, and I'm honored to have shared so many good times with him, and to know we were the very best of friends.
You can stream the CDs of Barry Ginsbarg below. These streams are full-length CD presentations in 128k, MP3 format. Playlists are provided.
Intuition (1996)
No Regrets (1999)
Barry Ginsbarg chilling in Santa Barbara, CA (late 90s)