Ark Valley Humane Society

Last night (Saturday), I played a party at my friends Jan & Dan's house nearby. The party was for some cat's birthday, and by some cat, I mean an actual feline. The party was also a fund raising effort for new facilities being built for the Ark-Valley Humane Society.
As far as parties go, this was a great time, muy excellent food, drinks, and dessert, lots of nice, interesting people. Lots of very nice compliments on my playing and the music in general, as well as the numerous inquiries about the Chapman Stick.
I really do need to get some new cards together explaining the instrument and my contact info. I'm getting much better at talking briefly while playing, but it still throws me when someone wants to engage in conversation in the middle of a tune. I figure I can always nod towards a info sheet while playing and then talk after I'm done playing.
I'm really liking this new rig, especially for gigs like this. I played my Bamboo Grand through a Berhinger Xenyx 1202FX mixer into my Roland KC-300 Amp. The mixer has built in effects, so I used  just a touch of reverb, and I have instant access to EQ and volume. Last night I could easily adjust my volume as the size of the crowd grew and then dwindled. I really like having the mixer at a height I can easily reach and adjust, plus it's a great clean sound. I got a lot of compliments last night on the sound as well.
I don't have any pets myself, but I do appreciate the good work the Ark-Valley Humane Society does. I donated my time and proceeds from CD sales to their cause.

Adams Mountain Cafe

  Photo by Ted Castro

Finished up two days of gigs at Adams Mountain Cafe in Manitou Springs Colorado. It was my first time playing at this venue.

Manitou Springs is a funky, cool little town just outside of Colorado Springs, lots of great shops and places to eat. Adams Mountain Cafe is on the main strip in a old historic building. The room I played had high ceilings and was long and narrow.

I decided to try out a new setup for my Stick, which was to just run it through a small mixer with built in effects into my Roland KC-300 keyboard amp. Usually, I have been using a Line 6 X3 floor processor to play through, but I like the simplicity and ease of this new setup, If I need to adjust EQ or levels the mixer is easy to reach and tweak. Nice clean sound with just a touch of reverb, the room took care of the rest.

It was quite interesting, I played at what I thought was a very low volume, but people said they could hear fine at the end of the room, even out into the building's marbled floored lobby, so I trusted their judgment.
Originally I brought a mic and stand, I thought I'd practice introducing tunes and interacting with the audience, but it became apparent quickly that I was there to provide ambiance, background music, which is somewhat my specialty. In other words, I kept my mouth shut!
I played Thursday evening to a pretty good crowd. I had been struggling with some kind of stomach bug all afternoon and my energy was definitely a bit scattered as well as my playing, but people seemed to enjoy it.
Friday mornings performance was much better, I felt much better. The wonderful servers made sure I had an unending cup of coffee as I played. I tried and tried to empty it with no luck, they're that good!  The food at this place is great, specializing in slow food, with a large selection of vegetarian and vegan meals. I had the Orange Almond French Toast for breakfast on Friday, ohhh yeah!
Overall a great couple of days, Sherrie and I stayed with friends in CO Springs and had a chance to visit and do some shopping. The manager at the cafe told me she had lots of positive feedback on my music and asked me back, I have four new dates lined up, so I feel pretty good about that!

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 : )

Giggin' in the new year...

Hey all! So far in this new year, my Wednesday evenings are spent playing my Stick at Mothers Bistro in lovely Buena Vista, CO. I'm accompanying the talented Eric Belsey as we perform together as "Your Surrogate Cousins". The idea is to make this a weekly jam with us as the core and inviting other local musicians to join in the fun.

We're playing a mix of Folk, Rock, Blues, etc. I play the Chapman Stick and Eric plays guitar, harmonica and sings. At this point we are working on the song list, and getting the groove on. Super stardom is sure to follow.