Joe G

"Clams"? You mean he was making lots of mistakes? edit for tone!

I've been buying a lot of music lately, by my standards. I have these piles of cds all around the house. I really need to sit down, get them organized on the shelves, and get around to some listening! Not that I haven't been listening to them at all, but there are quite a few still in the wrapper, 3 or 4 months later... Carry on.

Yes! That's why they tell you not to remove the knobs!

Yeah, and that's GregN on guitar.

You can thank Jim and Greg for this one... so bad it must be intentional.

Mike Myers???

All right, if you say so.

My man! I hope we can hang out again in the not-too-distant future.

I think Jim has a problem with one of the discs that needs to be rectified before exercise/therapy/new bed will do any good.

Hog wild! My Goal's Beyond, John McLaughlin 4 Seasons, Monday Michiru Optimista, Monday Michiru Calcutta Slide Guitar (CD/DVD), Debashish Bhattacharya In Stock Guitar (Raga Ahir Bhairav), Debashish Bhattacharya

That was fun! I'm still very much on the learning curve as far as figuring out how to play in this configuration. About halfway through Pennies from Heaven (which I was not prepared to play tonight) I thought, "I bet Dave would like me to play some of the roots of these chords.."

I know, Chuck, you told me that the first time we met.

... tonight, beginning around 9 pm eastern. You can hear it streamed at www.impact89fm.org. Just for the fun of it, the host of Jazz Spectrum, Jeff Shoup, invited me to come on and talk, listen to cds, and possibly play some guitar. I, in turn, invited my friend and now duet partner upright bassist Dave Rosin to join us, so there will be lots of live music for your listening pleasure. Hope some of you can tune in.

Though, you sound good on there, Mike.

I just thought it was rather bizarre to suggest that Craig Ebner's musical abilities and personality traits were the "result of promos".

Try as I might, I still can't make sense of this post.

Nice to see Craig Ebner's name show up on a recording, though. Haven't seen anything on him since hearing him with Joey about 5 or 6 years ago.

That reminded me that Jim and I did a gig at a function for Magic Johnson, back in our MSU days. He was cool enough. Wow Mike! Sounds like a hip gig you've got going there!

Nice to meet you, also. Thanks for the kind words. We enjoyed the heck outta that trip!

Back home safe. Man, that was a great couple of weeks. Huge thanks to Ron, Leslie, and Amanda for sharing their home with us. Literally, we could not have done this without their help.

I was really enjoying that Nut Brown Ale.

Thanks Kirby - for the comments and the pics! That gig might have been the most fun we've had yet!

Randy, Jim, Ron, and I went to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia to check out a student recital. The third performer on the bill was a 14 year-old boy from Shanghai named Hao Chen Zhang, playing the Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, by Robert Shumann. I liked this guy the moment he walked out on stage; just the way he presented himself, and the way he prepared himself at the piano. But holy shit - I was completely unprepared for those opening chords. He just electrified the whole room with his touch. Such incredible depth, power, and emotion. It was absolutely thrilling. He seemed totally at one with the music, and I didn't hear one single moment of hesitation, or notice any break in his state of concentration. Dynamics, tone, clarity, pacing; this kid had it all. The two movements that ended softly felt to me like the deepest of blessings: Amen. Unbelievable. Afterwards, we went to Ortleib's to see Bootsy Barnes, with Byron Landrum on drums. Swinging hard in the tradition. Not a bad night of music, especially since it was all for free!

Good for you!