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.

Miscellany

This is my fortune cookie prediction from lunch today. With a decent Chinese restaurant just a block away, we end up there on a fairly regular basis. We've started to save our cookie fortunes and now have a bowl dedicated just to them.

I haven't been keeping up with the blog much lately, but here are a couple of new discoveries..

Sweet, delicious Ginger Syrup! It's a heck of a lot cheaper than real Maple syrup, and oh so good!
Ginger pancakes with ginger syrup, need I say more? Tomorrow morning, french toast with ginger syrup. The obsession continues...

Sherrie and I spent a couple of evenings putting together this impossible jigsaw puzzle by
Alex Beard. Guess what? IT WAS REALLY HARD!

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!

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.

Happy Holidays!

Hi all! Had a wonderful Christmas day, Sherrie and I kept it low-key and stayed in all day yesterday. We cooked a wonderful meal, listened to music, just hung out, twas' nice. This morning we got up early and headed to the hills. As volunteers for the Division of Wildlife we got to feed Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. The weather was a bit funky, we almost got stuck in the snow, but all worked out.

Yum, apple mash and hay! These guys were pretty skiddish at first, but the free food won them over quickly.

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.