Recent Gigs...

I've been neglecting this blog for sometime now, I guess between facebook, myspace, youtube and my website I've been asking myself, do I really need a blog? So I think I'll try this.. The blog is going to be primarily a sort of gig diary. 

So to bring things up to speed, so far 2010 has been pretty slow gigwise, I'm hoping to make that change soon. At this point I've got a handful of gigs booked through August,  I really want to play out as often as possible this year. So far this year I've played a few gigs, I did Valentine's Day at Sugah's Cafe in Gunnison, CO. I've played a a couple of house parties and open mics, and a last minute gig with singer-songwriter Chris Nasca at the Salida Cafe when that evening's act had to cancel.

 March 14th I played at the Heart of the Rockies Bridal Show at the Steamplant here in Salida. It was a snowy Sunday afternoon, so my expectations were low. Met lots of nice folks and got some gigs!

I played a bunch of ballads and love songs on solo Chapman Stick. Lou from Celestial Event let me play through his Bose PA-1 system. I love the Bose set-up, great sound, one day I'll have my own : )

 This past Saturday, March 20th it was Steel String Revue at the Salida Cafe. Chris Nasca on guitar and vocals, Brian Pence on drums, and yours truly on Chapman Stick. It was our first real time out as a trio and overall it went really well. It was another cold snowy evening but the house was packed We played a blend of originals, traditional roots, blues, rock, etc. Got some nice feedback, hopefully we'll be doing more gigs soon! These are great guys to play with, always lots of fun.

That's all for now....

(hire me for a gig so I'll more to write about : )

Nomad

Last night Sherrie and I attended the CD release party for local Master Polyrhythmist Bones' latest release Nomad. What a party! Bones is known for putting on extravagant performances, but last night he outdid himself. The Steamplant ballroom was packed as Bones and a revolving cast of local musicians took the stage and got people hitting the dance floor.
I added some Chapman Stick to a couple of tracks on the CD, which snagged me the honor of getting a VIP pass. This meant, a free CD, free food and drink and the option of watching a video feed of the performance from backstage. Not bad, eh?

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.

Catching up...

Wow! This summer is flying by. Here are a few of the things I've been up to...
This past weekend I had the pleasure of playing at The Salida Riverside Art Festival. Above I'm accompanying singer/songwriter Chris Nasca on Sunday afternoon. Earlier in the morning I played a solo set on my Chapman Stick. On Saturday afternoon I played bass with "Your Surrogate Cousin" (pic below). It was a great weekend, the festival was a great time.

The week before Sherrie and I headed up to Denver where I got to visit with my darling niece Lily visiting from Cleveland.

This coming weekend I'll be providing some dinner music for a benefit for Salida Backyard CSA. A great organization run by my surrogate cousin, Eric Belsey.

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!

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!

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!

Tis' The Season...

Tis' the season, Sherrie and I have been preparing for the upcoming holidays. This pic was taken at the Paquette Gallery at the Steamplant yesterday. It was after I played a reception for local artist-quilter Lori Isenberger, that's her work in the background. T'was a busy day, I went straight from there to another gig at Apogee Studio here in Salida.

Can you spot the Chapman Stick player in the crowd?

Here I am practising for the gigs earlier in the week. Nice and cozy at home. We cut our own tree and spent numerous hours stringing popcorn. This of course is a great way to spend the evening when it looks like this outside...

Things have been going well. The odd jobs and window washing biz has been pretty slow but I'm still finding work to do. I'm looking forward to some time to do some hardcore practising and recording. I hope to have the CD together soon. Last weekend I played for the Tree of Life ceremony for the Angel of Shavano Hospice here at the hospital. It was quite moving to hear the names of all the people who passed on this last year and a reminder of how brief this time we are given is. It's a gift to be here. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.

An Old Fashioned Halloween!

Since moving to Salida, CO from Cleveland , OH my life has changed in many ways. One of those ways manifested tonight, on Halloween. I was not sure if we'd get any trick or treaters but we bought a few bags of treats just to have on hand. Sure enough, there was a steady stream of vampires, pirates, ghosts and ghouls, even the three musketeers! We had just enough candy with a little left over for our private enjoyment : )
It had been years since I did the trick or treat thing, and it just reminded me again of what a wonderful community I'm living in. I love this place!
Sherrie and I spent the evening staying in, having pizza and watching some old scary movies. T'was a great way to spend Halloween.
This week I'm working hard on getting some tracks done for the new CD, more on this soon. I'll also be on the local radio this Friday. I'll be playing some guitars for local luthier Jeff Bamburg as he discusses his craft. Its been a while since I actually played guitar, since getting my Stick my guitars mainly collect dust. Its been nice getting reaquainted with my six stringed friends, I just may keep it up.

Then on Saturday afternoon I'll be playing Chapman Stick at a reception for my darling Sherrie at the Salida Cafe. She does gorgeous linocuts, check them out here.

Catch-up

Hi All!
Well, I've been neglecting my blogging duties, here's a bunch of pics to give you an idea of what I've been up to. Autumn is here and I'm loving it. I don't think I've ever said "What a beautiful day!" more times than since I moved to Colorado.

Hangin out at the Black Canyon of Colorado.

Standing in downtown Aspen. We drove over Independence pass from Salida, the colors were spectacular!

Labor Day Weekend

Had a great Labor Day Weekend. On Labor Day we got up early and went to the top of "S" Mountain overlooking Salida. It was cool to see the town from this perspective, we could even see the house! From there we drove a short distance to the trail head at Castle Gardens.

Lots of interesting rock formations, was a perfect day to roam around. As a bonus we saw plenty of lizards.

Whew! This summer is passing quickly! Here's some of the things I've been keeping busy with.... Picking up where my last post left off, these are some wildflowers I saw in Crested Butte during the wildflower festival. What a beautiful town, spent a few spectacular days there.

This is me standing on the Royal Gorge bridge, the highest suspension bridge in the world. I was treated with a trip to the park by my sweetie for my birthday. We had a great day!

This is the view of the bridge from a distance.




Here I am playing my Chapman Stick during open mic night at the Salida Cafe. Lots of great local talent, looking forward to playing some more. Last night we went to a house concert sponsored by the fine folks at Weathervane Farm. It was awesome, rootsy acoustic music, with a twist, the theremin! Great performances by Cahalen Morrison and Sven Hoosen.


Today is the Salida Omnium. The house is on the race course, so cycles go whizzing by every few minutes. Thats all for now....

Time to catch up. I've been super busy lately. I've been working a lot trying to make $$. In between I try and get out and explore my new surroundings. The UFO Watchtower in Hooper, CO. is a must see destination. Nice folks, lots of Alien memorabilia available there.

A couple of photos of me playing my Chapman Stick out during Art Walk in Salida.

I've been getting out and hiking in the mountains, awesome views, loving it here in Colorado.

Finally, on 4th of July, me standing in a snow patch in the mountains. Never got to do that in Ohio!
For the next few days I'm in Crested Butte, CO, for the wildflower festival. Awesome place, I'll write more soon.

It's a parade!

The 60th FIBArk Whitewater Festival took place here in Salida this past weekend. There was food, rides, great music, and lots and lots o'people! Ohh yeah, and a parade!!

"S" mountain overlooks the city. They have an annual race, up and back down. Those spots are people running. I think its much more enjoyable to observe from down below.

My favorite event was the "Hooligan Race", this is where anyone can build a craft that is not worthy of being on the water and float downstream to their certain demise : )