March

There's still a day and a half left of February, but boy it really flew by. Did you know that February is Black History month? The government generously dedicated the shortest, coldest, darkest month of the year to African-Americans. I guess it's something though. Jewish people don't even have a month, probably because of the lunar calendar or something like that.

I'm excited for next month. I have 19 gigs booked in March, so it will be a pretty busy one. Besides the plays and my regular Sundays and Thursdays, I have a few important gigs with the Irish band Claddagh. We are going to play at Swallow Hill in Denver on the 23rd. I've wanted to play at Swallow Hill for a long time. It's an awesome venue and great organization. It should be fun.

I'm going to try to get a lot of recording done in March. Hopefully I'll have new songs to put up on my website. It's my goal to finish a cd of my original music by the end of the month. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading this and keeping up with me.

Whew...

Man...
Tonight was the opening of the Hank Williams play, since the official opening last Friday was cancelled due to crazy weather. It was good. I think we did a good job. I don't know if it was magic exactly, but it was good. We did good. I'm happy to have the first show under my belt. The next show is Saturday, in two days, so we'll have another chance to rock it.

I feel good about the show. It's only going to get better. It's really a challenge. We had a few glitches, but that's to be expected. I feel fortunate to have very talented people around me. We still have eight more tries to really kill it. I'm excited.

I'm going to sleep now, and I'm going to practice a bunch before the next show. It's really fun, and we're going to keep it going. Goodnight now.

Frank Zappa Rules

I have a new favorite song. I listened to it about six times today. It's Frank Zappa's "Broken Hearts are for Assholes." Here are a few quotes from the lyrics to the song.

Some of you might not agree
But you probably likes a lot of misery
But think a while and you will see
Broken hearts are for assholes
Broken hearts are for assholes
Are you an asshole?
Broken hearts are for assholes
Are you an asshole too?
Whatcha gonna do, cause you're an asshole...

...You say you can't live with what you been through
Well, ladies you can be an asshole too.
You might pretend you ain't got one on the bottom of you,
But don't fool yerself girl
It's lookin' at you...

Disappointment

I heard a quote once that the people who win most often are also the ones that lose most often. I guess the point is that your numbers of wins and losses both go up when you keep trying things. Yoda said, "Do or do not, there is no try." On the other hand, Yoda tried to kill both Count Duku and the Emperor with a light saber, and he failed so he went into exile. Maybe Yoda is full of crap.

Today was supposed to be the opening night of the Hank Williams play that I'm in, but the show was cancelled due to the weather. There are extremely high winds here, and the roads from either direction to Winter Park have been closed. It was a big build up for no product. The show should continue next week as scheduled. If no one can make it to the theater, then the show can't start, whether (weather) or not the show must go on. I'm bummed, but I suppose that it's out of anyone's control. I also found out that the piece I made for the Hellmann's Mayonnaise advertisement wasn't chosen by the company to be aired. I tried. I'll keep trying.

February

Apparently it's been nearly two months since I last wrote a blog. I should write more. I should also do push-ups more often... but hey you know how it goes.

February is an eventful month for me. This Friday is the opening night of "Hank Williams: The Lost Highway" at the Grand Theatre Company in Winter Park. I have the lead role, and I'm really excited about the play. The rest of the cast is really talented, and it's going to be a great show. I've worked harder to prepare for this gig than I've ever worked for any other performance. It's really a challenge, and I hope I'm up to it. The play is going to be a blast.

On Saturday, I'm playing a jazz gig for the Grand Arts Council. It's high profile gig in Grand Lake and I'm going to be joined by John Pleasant, Patrick Brower and Andy Irvine who are all killer musicians. I'm also going to play gigs with Hunker Down on both Friday and Saturday nights after the other shows. Then on Sunday, Bobby Krech and I are playing at the Untamed in Winter Park. Including my regular gig on Thursday, that makes six performances in four days. I'm grateful for the work and that I'm keeping busy. I definitely need to rest up these next few days.

Stephanie Buss at the Winter Park Manifest wrote an article about me a couple weeks ago. I posted it on the press page of my website if you want to check it out. Yeah, I'm pretty much famous now. I hope the rich part comes along some time soon.

I also just sent off a third piece that may be used in a Hellmann's Mayonnaise commercial. I've been working with Paul Riggio who runs a music production company in Manhattan. His website is www.soloudmusic.com and you can check out some of his portfolio of commercial music work online. Apparently my piece passed the first round of cuts, so it has a shot of being used in a national television ad.

Last week, I went to Mojamagic Studio in Boulder to record tracks for a cd with the Irish band Claddagh. We have a lot more work to do, but hopefully the disc will come out in a few months. I'm also working on my own solo cd here at my home studio. My schedule is pretty full lately, but I hope to have it finished by the end March.

My music is really coming together lately, and I have a lot to be grateful for. I'm working with a lot of talented people and feel like I'm doing what I want to do. I hope I can keep it up.