The best time of the year...

A couple of days ago, Sherrie and I took a drive up Marshall Pass to check out the colors. I just love that we can be surrounded by such beauty only minutes from home.

Green's Creek Revisited

Sherrie and I spent some time this morning hiking up along Green's Creek. It's always nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors. We hiked this trail last year shortly after I arrived from Cleveland, it was a nice feeling to revisit it and to realize how much this place now feels like home.

Weekend update....

Once again another great weekend here in Salida, Colorado. Friday evening Sherrie and I hosted a informal get together at our place. We have such great friends! It was a fun evening, then early Saturday (me, still very blurry from too much wine the night before) we setup at the Salida farmers market. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny morning. Sherrie sold some of her gorgeous art and I played my Chapman Stick and sold some CDs.

Speaking of the CD, "Residue" is now the featured CD at Stick Enterprises. World renowned Stickist Greg Howard posted a great review. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited!

Sunday morning Sherrie and I went to the County Fair. Mutton Busting (small children riding sheep) was quite entertaining! We also saw an impressive display of antique steam powered tractors, since both of us are closet steampunks we found it fascinating.
Back at home, our street was closed down for the day for the Salida Omnium bike race. All day long cyclists went whizzing by the house, watching them fly by was making me dizzy!

Another Great Weekend!

Sherrie whisked me away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to Boulder, CO and wandered around the Art Fair. Internationally acclaimed Stick player Bob Culbertson had a booth there, we ran into him moments after arriving on Saturday afternoon. I've attended several seminars with Bob over the years, and I'm always floored to hear him perform live, a wonderful musician. I gave him a copy of my new Stick CD "Residue", I'm eager to know what he thinks :)

Great Weekend!

Some images from the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival. I made the trek from Salida to Crested Butte on Friday to join Sherrie as she finished teaching workshops. We had a wonderful meal at the "Ginger Cafe". As some of you may know, we're serious ginger junkies, so this was nirvana for us!

We had lots of fun, it was a great little getaway. Now it's time to play catch-up. Gotta run...

Wild Turkeys

You may not be able to see them very well in the photo, but there were over 25 wild turkeys hanging out as we returned from a hike this morning. Sherrie and I took a trail along Bear Creek just outside of town. It has been a great 4th of July weekend. Last night we walked down to the park, Chase N the Dream had everyone dancing, including Sherrie and myself. Then we watched fireworks as they were launched from the top of "S" Mountain.

This is going to be a busy week, Sherrie heads to Crested Butte to teach during the Wildflower Festival. I'll be playing bass guitar Wednesday evening with the new and expanded version of "Your Surrogate Cousin" at Mother's Bistro in Buena Vista. We'll have Chris Nasca on guitar and vocals, Eric Belsey on guitar, vocals and harmonica, and Brian Pence on drums, should be fun for all.
I've been getting a lot of nice comments on my new CD: Residue. I've made myself a Myspace page to help get out the word. Next, Facebook seems inevitable, friends have been asking if I'm on, I'm feeling the peer pressure. I just can't bring myself to thinking about Twitter!

Take a Hike!

This morning Sherrie and I got up early and hiked up the Rainbow Trail here in Salida. T'was a great day.
I'm still waiting for the completed CD's to arrive, late this week at the earliest. In the meanwhile our summer schedules are quickly filling up. Lots of activities coming up, FibArk, Salida ArtWalk, I'll do my best to keep the blog updated.

Feeling Froggy!

I've been asked to play at the Salida Riverside Fine Arts Festival in August. I'm looking forward to this, lots of good music and art at Riverside park here in Salida. One of my favorite places to hang out.
Yesterday, I finished the final tweaks on the new CD, I'm hoping to have the graphics and packaging all set to go by Monday. Then it's off to the duplicators, I'll be making an announcement to all my friends and family when it's available.

Friday evening I had the privilege to play at an Art Reception for local artist Jon MacManus. Despite being a rainy evening the turnout was great. Besides being a talented artist Jon keeps me busy during the week washing windows and doing odd jobs. Had a great time playing, but realized I need to print out a card explaining the Chapman Stick. Everytime I'd start a song someone would walk up an ask me to explain the instrument to them! Got lots of nice comments about the music too!

Had a wonderful surprise this past week. The wonderful French artist Jean-Louis Verdier sent Sherrie and I a copy of his latest project, a Nature Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians. Jean-Louis is an amazing illustrator, imagine my surprise when I opened the cover and found he had drawn a frog jamming on the Chapman Stick! Many,many thanks Jean-Louis!

What a weekend!

Just got back from Trinadad, Colorado.
I was there with Sherrie for the Colorado Art Ranch artposium entitled ... Sex & Sensibility. From the Art Ranch website...
"The Artposium is an event exploring the intersection of writing, art and sexuality. This Artposium is about how sexuality is portrayed in the arts, and how it affects our behaviors, relationships, societies and evolution."
We had a blast. The speakers were all great and I felt like I got some new perspectives on this challenging topic. I particularly enjoyed listening to author Joe Quirk's take on the biological aspects of sex.

Part of the reason we were there was that I was invited to play my Chapman Stick. I played on Saturday evening with Art Ranch treasurer Gavin Mauer, t'was a fun time.
I love these events and everyone I've met through the Colorado Art Ranch, looking forward to seeing what's next with these guys.
Sherrie and I took the long route home and I had a chance to see some more spectacular views of Colorado. I'm really digging this place.
On other fronts, I've been keeping busy working a lot lately. I still have a few finishing touches to put on the CD before it's finally released. So close.... I'm eager to get it out.

I'll be playing solo Chapman Stick this upcoming Friday (May 22nd, 6-8pm). I'll be at the Paquette Gallery at the Steamplant for a reception for artist Jon MacManus.
He has some really great stuff. Stop by if you can : )

And finally.... my fortune cookie from tonight's dinner...
"You have a deep interest in all that is artisitic"
well... duh!

Finally, a new post!

Here I am playing my Chapman Stick ...immortalized in wax covered string!

Once again it has been way too long between posts. I've been keeping myself very busy, although I am being forced to slow down these past few days by some nasty little virus that has decided to take up residence in me. In the past several years I've hardly been sick at all, so I guess I'm due. I do find now that when I am not feeling well, if I slow way, way down and I usually recover pretty quickly. Whatever I have now seems pretty persistent, enough so that I've been camping out on the couch reading novels and watching Planet of the Apes movies. I feel like such a slug, even more so since today is Sherrie's Birthday! We celebrated with a little getaway over the weekend, but I wish I had more energy today, I'll have to take her out for dinner when I'm feeling better.

The Big News!
I've been working very hard on getting the new CD done. It is a collection of all original solo instrumental compositions performed on the Chapman Stick. I hoping to have it completed in the next couple of weeks, in time to celebrate my one year anniversary of arriving in Colorado.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Monday morning, predicting this winter will last for six more weeks. I'm not worried though. I'm finding the weather here in Salida way better than my old digs in Cleveland. It's been pretty mild compared to my expectations, and there is way more sunshine than I'm used to. I try and get outside some everyday.
This past weekend Sherrie and I drove over to Crestone, Colorado. It's a groovy little town. From Wikipedia:
The Crestone area, which includes the Baca Grande and Moffat, Colorado, is a spiritual and new age center with several world religions represented; including a Hindu temple, a Zen center, a coed Carmelite monastery, several Tibetan centers, and miscellaneous new age happenings.
We had a great lunch and wandered around town for the afternoon, it was nice to get away for the day.
I've been keeping busy with music. I've been laying down a few tracks with local musician Bones. I've also been getting some good work done on my CD of solo Chapman Stick originals. The weekly gig with "Your Surrogate Cousin"at Mothers Bistro in Buena Vista has been going well.

Dustin Heron Urban wrote this great article about us.

We play Wednesday evenings from 7-9pm and have a guest Musician join us each week.
Coming up we have:

Feb 4th: Bruce Hayes

Feb. 11: Matthew Coen (guitar, vocals) and Richard Longberg (bass)
upbeat acoustic singer/songwriter

Feb 18: Scott Adams (acoustic fingerstyle guitar)

Mar. 11: Andrea Earley-Coen and friends (old-time fiddle music from the best fiddler in the Ark Valley)

Mar 18: Chris Nasca (rock and blues guitar)


Join us if you can!