April Update--Haven't forgot about you all!

Mon, April 21, 2008

Hey All,

 Please forgive the long time between posts. I really intended to keep this blog up to date and I'll try to do better ... I'm just pleased to know that people are actually interested in what we're doing and that you are reading these, so thanks very much.

As I am writing I'm listening to the Allman's live from the Beacon, where I've had the pleasure to have seen them perform 5 or 6 times. What a great venue and one of my all time favorite bands. I've been seeing and listeing to them since the early 70s; throught the great, the good, the rough and the fantastic current time periods. Once an ABB fan, always an ABB fan. I degress, sorry ...

Several weeks ago we traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to perform with our good buddy Eric Steckel at "Springing the Blues" on Jacksonville Beach. What a great time. Friday night we went on just before headliner Tinsley Ellis. The crowd was fantastic, the band was hot and we accomplished what we went there to do ... Saturday we played 4 numbers before an electrical storm shut us down. No matter, we had made our statement on Friday night. And my son and his girlfriend who live in Atlanta came to see us as did my cousin, Meredith,  from Gainesville. So it was really nice to see  and spend time with some family.

Last night we got in from playing with Eric in Atlanta at Darwin's, a club just north of the city in Marietta. Again, the band really kicked a** and made a great impression. BTW, I'm really digging this combination of Eric and our band. Everyone is featured and Eric and I really get a lot of chances to "get into it." We aren't  a backup band, it is one cohesive unit, performing our songs and his songs and having great fun doing it. Wayde, Don and I stayed at my son Travis' place so that was cool and big thanks to him for putting us up. We had a nice brunch with Trav and his cool lady, Erin, yesterday before heading to the airport. I gotta mention something about Trav here; he is highly educated, receiving both undergrad and graduate degrees from Georgia Tech, but what do you think he's doing? He's playing music. He and his buddy Ben from England, have one of the hottest acts in Atlanta. They call themselves Judi Chicago and it's part techno, big-part house, dance and performance art ... it's very cool and 180 degrees different from what I do, but that's cool, he's 26. I saw one of their shows on Saturday afternoon and it was awesome. The crowd adores them. They just recorded for Columbia Records with a great producer and the material sounds fantastic (I know, I'm his dad, but really--it sounds really good) and they'll be doing a second session for Columbia next week. I really hope it goes all the way for them and that the label decides to put out the entire cd. Trav and Ben will be heading to London in September where they'll be performing for a week in several large clubs. I think it is going to be a great experience for them and that they'll be quite successful there. The Brits are very big on this particular style of music.
Sorry, but I am the proud dad ...

Anyway Atlanta was cool; a bit of a flight delay (two hours) and some other airport hassels but overall it was a great weekend. The music was happening and that's the main thing. Next gig we have with Eric is at Club Havana in New Hope, PA,  in May but both shows are sold out. Then in July and August we'll be traveling all over Europe with Eric playing some really cool dates in Belgium, Amsterdam, Italy and Germany. We are all looking forward to those gigs.

In the meantime, two weeks from now I'll be in Chicago with Simone for two nights in the windy city that I'm also  really looking forward to. We will also be back at the World Cafe Live in Philly on May 24th (great place to see Simone) and in Tampa on May 15th. Then in June I'll be performing with Simone at the the Telluride Jazz & Blues Festival in Colorado. That should be  really cool. There will be some great artists on that show.

And finally, in June, before heading to the West Coast with Eric, Christine and I are heading to England, Scotland and France for a much needed vacation break. I'm sure I'll have much to post from that trip as we'll be visiting the BEATLES museum in Liverpool and also Abbey Road Studios in London. I gotta do the BEATLES tour thing; been waiting many years for that. This trip is a 25th wedding anniversay gift (that we are actually getting around to taking for our 28th anniversary) from my brother-in-law Tim, who lives in the north of England, so I want to give a big shout of thanks out to Tim for making this possible. What an awesome gift!

Well, I guess I made up for lost time here ... sorry for the lengthly verbage but that should catch you on our latest capers. We still have some great local, Lehigh Valley gigs plus we'll be back at both the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, PA on June 14th and in July at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, NJ performing our Eric Clapton Retropsective. Please visit our schedule page for info on those shows.

As always, thanks for your continued support.

— Craig

 



 
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