..

Big thanks goes out to Charlie Ray for callin' in! Check out his site and his music ... really cool guitar player, singer, and local DJ. http://www.myspace.com/charlieray2

I'm grieving the loss of my Tascam board that a friend "reclaimed" after 5 years.  I don't have any way of doing my podcast currently.  I will probably get a new one soon but it's still a wierd feeling.  I had a lot of hope for that podcast and my mic just doesn't work going straight into the laptop.  It may be dead, but not forgotten.  Some things are just not meant to go on. If you'd like to check out any of the podcast I made when it was going you can hear them below:


Podcast.Damienriley.com I'll be over it soon ... sigh

Many thanks to my childhood friend and illustrator of my 3rd grade short story "Swimmy the Turtle." He sent me this "blast from the past" news clipping and it absolutely floored me. What a fun memory of writing a short story as a kid and then winning a contest. We got to go to the Orange County fair for free and we even got our parents in with us! It reminded me I've been writing a long time, certainly long before blogs were ever imagined.

The text of the clipping reads:

"First place winners in the Orange County Fair's writer-illustrator competition for two or more persons aged eight and nine are Damien Riley, right, and Michael Pierce, both of Mission Viejo. Damien Penned the story while Michael supplied the illustrations for "Swimmy the Turtle." Bothe youths share other interests, Damien in the third grade string class of the 1978 honors orchestra playing his violin and Michael playing baseball hitting for the highest average on his team, the Mesa Verde Giants."

Makes me want to pick up the fiddle again, and maybe enter a blog contest! Oh, and the moral of "Swimmy the Turtle" was: follow your dreams.

"Summer breeze, makes me feel fine." I am counting the days until summer.  This should be a great one for music.  I hope to do some recording with my friend Eric.  I feel like a flake during the normal part of the year because I get too caught up in work and family to play and record music very much.  We have some good stuff in the fire though and I believe when its time, we'll take it out of the oven (not before!) My breaks are where I get to stretch out on the fretboard and rock n roll.

I'm also looking forward to possibly sitting in with my country rock buddy Charlie Ray.  Check out his Myspace page here:

I'm hopeful I get a chance over the summer to work out a few tunes with them.

So between recording with Eric, and doing a couple songs with Charlie Ray the Summer should be an rockin' time for my music.  I'm hopeful for a couple local gigs as well.  Stay tuned for bulletins!

I'll try and be more steady here with the blog entries.  I know I've slacked off lately.  You guys rock the cobwebs ;)

See you this summer!
Damien

Once again, the Ponderosa restaurant in Apple Valley turned into a fun night of music, friends, and connections. 

My wife and I really enjoyed meeting Charlie Ray.  He's a very talented guitarist and songwriter and I look forward to hearing more live stuff from him.  If you came down, a million thank yous!  Without an audience, rock n roll doesn't exist.

I'm looking forward to playing guitar and singing tunes tonight at the Ponderosa in Apple Valley.  I've been playing rooms like this for 22 years.  That's almost staggering to watch myself type.  I have to tell ya I love performing with my guitar.  It's a way of getting people together, reaching out, making connections and relating with PEOPLE.  Some of you may know my original song "People."  I think I touched the blarney stone when I wrote the lines back in 1992:

"Been searchin' high and low.  Everywhere I mean to go.  Hope I find someone real, wanna know how the people feel."  That's what it's about for me.

You can hear that whole song on my MySpace profile along with 4 other tunes I wrote and recorded.

If you live in the area and have a little time to stop by, I'm playin' from 9:30-10 or so and after me is Charlie Ray, famous local disc jockey (Y102 ... Kfrog).  He's become a MySpace friend of mine the past few years and we're finally sharing a bill together.  Who knows what could happen at the Ponderosa tonight :)

If you have any questions or need directions or if you're just bored ;) send me a message.  Show details are below:

the Ponderosa Restaurant
Fri April 17, 2009
9:30 pm
ALL AGES ADMITTED.
Kids welcome.

9544 Kiowa Rd
Apple Valley, CA 92307
(760) 247-7727

Damien Riley Plays
the Ponderosa Restaurant
Fri April 17, 2009
9:30 pm
ALL AGES ADMITTED.
Kids welcome.

9544 Kiowa Rd
Apple Valley, CA 92307
(760) 247-7727
$6 admission

I’m performing an acoustic show. It will feature songs that I’ve written and some of my favorite covers.  The Ponderosa is a restaurant with a bar, pool tables, and live music.  If you have questions, you can call me on my cell: (760) 954-4973 or call the restaurant: (760) 247-7727.

Playing the Ponderosa Bar/Restaurant tonight. I finally sorted my set list:

Black Balloon
Talk to Me

Day Tripper
American Day

Rockin' in the Free World
Julianna

These Days
People

Our Lady of the Well
The One I Love

---

Encore: Sycamore Tree

This week's podcast has a recording of me playing: "American Day."
http://podcast.damienriley.com/two-lives-of-the-artist/