On Sept 11th, I wrote my first blog. On top of the fact that it was Sept 11, we all woke up to the news that Joe Zawinul passed. I surprised myself, didn't blink an eye and blogged. You see, I have always been reluctant to blog. There's way too much information out there and we are all so frickin scattered. But I broke my blogging cherry . Will I become a serial blogger like everyone else? It's a good question.
Here goes…
Well I can cut myself some slack because it stands to reason that it would be very appropriate to blog this year. It's been a big year. I finally released my second CD and that tends to be a big deals in one's life. And it has certainly been a journey.
So I feel like reflecting and documenting. My memory can suck, so now's the time to get it all down.
Where to start….Well….I am very happy with Grove House. I think it came out nicely. And I feel honored to be on Ravi Coltrane's label, RKM Music. There was the hugest journey getting the CD recorded and completed. Oh endless tales, but here we are and now it's a little disc with some paper and plastic surrounding it. It's done and it's being let go of emotionally on my end. Finally.
OK, on to some documentation…On June 12th, we had a fun CD Release Party at Southpaw.. With Elie Massias (who produced many tracks on Grove House) on guitar, the ever so versatile Jim Whitney on bass , John Mettam on drums and great background vocals (yes John Mettam can sing his butt off). And special guests, both the lovely and fabulous Julia Schell and Frankie Keane on background vocals. Bass player extraordinaire Richard Hammond sat in on the song 'Baby'. I played my Wurlitzer and my acoustic guitar..
It was a fun, happy night. Lots of nice people came. The lovely Kaiser Cartel opened up and then we played an extra long set.
The next night Jim, John and I drove out to Amagansett, LI to play at Stephen Talkhouse. We had a ball—what a great, historical place. We loved the sound man, Klyph Black of the Zen Tricksters. But the club owner wasn't as happy. It was a cold, rainy night in LI and we didn't get a great crowd. It was surreal going from Southpaw where the fab owner Mikey was buying everyone shots at the end of the night, thrilled with the turnout on a Tuesday night, to Stephen Talkhouse where the owner was hating me for the lack of draw (I've got the email to prove it). An emotional rollercoaster.
OK, this will be in installments…my hands hurt. Seriously, how can people type for so long?
Next I need to write about Blues Alley in DC which was very special.
But that's for the next time.
I can't believe I actually got this rolling….
Thanks for reading.