Well, here goes. I'm embarking on the perilous blog path, another one of millions that probably is of little interest to anybody. My typing skills are so pathetic (pathetic at least for someone that is described as a 'keyboard player') that I might decide that eventually my time is better spent writing a new song.
I'm going to keep it brief, and, in lieu of an absence of profundities or pearls of wisdom to offer up, I hope whatever readers might be curious enough to click on the blog button won't be too disappointed if this turns out to be little more than an occasional jotting down of trivia.
Here goes:

I'm killing time in a hotel room somewhere in Canada waiting to head to the venue for tonights gig. Maia Sharpe is opening at 7.30 and I go on with Bonnie Raitt an hour later. After the show we drive overnight to the next destination arriving at around 11.00 am. Our regular bus didn't make it so we're riding in an older funkier, less luxurious but hipper old bus. As I type this I'm watching an mpeg documentary from a site I stumbled across called
'www.Informationclearinghouse' on Corporations. On this site you can also access the Adam Curtis documentary series 'Century of the self' and 'The power of nightmares'. I recommend them.
I get to go home next week at the end of the tour and rejoin all the New Orleanians that are trying to carry on a normal life. I've been away from home touring with my band and Bonnies band on and off since June 2005, and in that time have spent a total probably of around six weeks at home (if you add up all the days). For those of you who haven't been there since the storm, it's a mess, and most of the mess is behind the scenes and below the surface- which is saying a lot when you've seen how much mess is above the surface. You should read todays Chris Rose column in the Times-Picayune. My take on New Orleans since Katrina has been limited to snapshot like impressions of the city on my short trips home between gigs and I've admittedly had the perspective of a visitor. My visit last week for four days was the first where I've come away with the impression that things might be turning a corner for the better. I told my friends and they laughed. If you live there 24/7 I imagine that it's almost impossible to detect increments of improvement, and of course after a disaster that big, signs of improvement are limited to certain parts of town. I doubt that anyone from the lower nine is jumping for joy.

I had a couple of days off last week and as there wasn't enough time to go home I went instead to New York City to see Johnny Pacheco with the Fania Allstars at Madison Square Garden. All kinds of people were on the bandstand to pay tribute including Oscar D'Leon (one of my longtime personal favourites), Hector Casanova in a wheelchair, Yomo Toro, Adalberto Santiago and Ismael Rivera. The most thrilling though for me was Papo Lucca on piano. I've been digging him for years and this was the first opportunity to see him. I missed his band 'Sonora Poncena' when I was in Puerto Rico gigging once in San Juan with the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, he was the opening act and I had assumed he was the headliner, needless to say we got there too late.
Another hip little gig is the band that plays at 'Azucar' restaurant between 55 and 56 on 8th Avenue. Slamming percusssionists from Cuba and a Greek bass player that's nailing it. If you dig NG La Banda style Cuban Funk go check them out.
Is this the sort of stuff you're supposed to write about in a blog? I certainly don't know, I don't read them. If I'm getting it wrong let me know.
That's all for now, I have a gig to go and do.
Cheers, Jon.