Simone in Chicago with Craig on Guitar

Sun, May 11, 2008

Hello and Happy Mother's Day,

Last weekend I played with Simone in Chicago. What a blast that was! We stayed right downtown in the Loop at the Hotel Sax which is in the same complex as the House of Blues. Great place and excellent location.  Craig K. and I roomed together as we are old friends and bandmates and get along really well. Not only is Craig one of my favorite musicians but he's just an all around great guy.

Saturday night we had a show at the Old Town School of Folk Music which is a very famous venue that I have been reading about for many years. A lot of great musicians have gotten their start by taking lessons there including Steve Goodman,  Roger McGuinn and one of my favorite mentors, Michael Bloomfield, studied with one of the head instructors. They have an awesome performance theatre with great sound and an intimate audience setting which we all appreciated. Our show was done by around 10:30 p.m. so we headed back downtown and some of us went to the House of Blues--and some of us remained there and closed the place down. Oh well ...

On Sunday morning we had to be in the lobby by 9:00 a.m. (yes, I know, that' s way too early for musicians) to travel 200 miles to Galesburg, IL. to perform at the Orpheum Theatre, another majestic theatre that has been spared the wrecking ball, thank God. Crowd was a little sparse but the folks who were there loved the show and I'm sure we'll be back sometime. Personally, I can't wait to get back to Chicago as there is much happening there. Last I was there was 1975 when I was in the navy and was stationed just north of the city for boot camp. Of course we went into town for liberty and generally went crazy as sailors on liberty tend to do. But this time was different because I'm a bit older--well, not that much different.

So this week we travel to Tampa/St. Pete where we perform with Simone at a beautiful theatre overlooking Tampa Bay. We'll be playing a show with Sergio Mendes--those of you who are old enough may remember his famous Brazil '66 period.
I guess this is his Brazil '08 band. All I know is that he's still doing it and I hear he has a wonderful guitar player in the band who I'm looking forward to meeting.

Then next weekend Wayde, Don and I will be performing with Eric Steckel at Havana in New Hope, PA for afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday. They are both sold out so it should be a good crowd.

So have a great week and I hope everyone remembered their mothers today.

Cheers,

— Craig

 



 
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