A quick shout out to say thanks to everyone who attended the JJQ shows this past weekend, they were great audiences! Saturday's show at Crimi Auditorium was excellent, it was their homecoming weekend and they had just won their game, so spirits were high. In Madison on Sunday we shared a bill at the lovely Brink Lounge with Harmonious Wail, who were great fun to hear and hang out with. The audience there was very savy and listened intently. Kirk and Elizabeth Brink were wonderful hosts too, and took great care of us. On Monday we played for a room full of music students at West High School, set up by my old friend and bandmate Steve Morgan who teaches there. The kids were fantastic, and asked very interesting questions, and were obviously quite serious about music in general. All in all a great weekend, and I am looking forward to coming to VA and WV in a couple weeks-hope to see some of you at those shows.

                                                               Cheers, John

Hello Everyone,

     This is my first blog ever, so please bear with me! It has been a great year travelling around and playing in so many different places. The Quintet is going to take some time off after mid-November until January, so we won't be out there seeing people for awhile. We will start up again in early January, and as soon as all the dates are firm I will post them here.

      This weekend we're playing in Aurora IL and in my birthtown Madison, WI and I am really looking forward to that. In November we will return to Ashland, VA and the venerable show Mountain Stage, and for the first time we'll play in Floyd, VA home of the famous Floydfest! If any of you are in the area, please come by one of the shows and say hello. The details are on the profile page.

       Thanksgiving weekend in Nashville is going to be pretty cool for me personally as I get to perform a piece I co-wrote with Carl Marsh for guitar, cimbalom, violin and orchestra. It will be in the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and Alexander Fedoriouk will be playing the cimbalom. He is an amazing player, and I have been listening to his CD for a couple years now so I am psyched about it. Details are at www.nco.org if you want to check it out.

                                       Hope to see you soon,

                                                         John