ThrowBackThursday Post- Looking back on a blog post of recent yesteryear (and bringing it over from the old website for further reference). 
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A fast-paced slide show of my visit to NYC in the Summer of 2009. I've already been again (2010) so guess I'm a little behind! This may be boring to you. unless you're a family member, but I'll post it anyway for posterity! If you like Wicked, Sinatra, Disney, you'll like the music!

As is my habit all photos were taken with my simple phone camera. I shot numerous angles of some of the same shots and ended up putting them all in, to make it even more boring for you!  Some are blurry, dark, and even backwards, but there ya have it.

I really, really "heart" NYC!

"That's alright, mama,...that's alright with me...."

So goes the song running through my head and softly warming up my vocal cords during load-in and soundcheck on Wednesday.  Why, you might be asking? 

I had this little show I was doing with Hotel California on the huge LAS VEGAS HILTON STAGE FOR GOODNESS SAKE!  (Catch my enthusiasm?)
Yes, it was the very place where Elvis (you know, "Presley"?) appeared in the days of old.













 
This is where Barry Manilow had his "house gig" as well, before moving to the Paris.

A quick search on YouTube will reveal the vast number of show biz greats that have graced this stage.

Back to the present, below are some moments I captured on my less-than-stellar camera phone in which you can actually distinguish some resemblance of a photograph.  More may be on the way when I have in my possession the pictures taken by Kevin our sound man with his iPhone.
 

This is the last remaining piece of original stage Elvis performed on (Was next to the water cooler)

 

No need to take stairs to the stage!  Did Elvis ride is way to work here?   Mmmm, I suppose so.

Thanks to Barry for getting things set up for us!

 

"Looks like we made iiiiit""

Thankyuveramuch!

ThrowBackThursday Post- Looking back on a blog post of recent yesteryear (and bringing it over from the old website for further reference).

Well, isn't this a nice view! Thanks to Three Rivers Casino in Florence, Oregon, we were put up in a vacation house right on the lake - Woahink Lake!
 In my continuous quest to stay productive while on the road, found a nice spot with a view in the kitchen to work on some tracks.
 

ThrowBackThursday Post- Looking back on a blog post of recent yesteryear (and bringing it over from the old website for further reference).

Just wanted to break the gloom of the last post.
My Mac is back, I'm on the road for two weeks, and if you're like me, you welcome an occasion to smile. So here it is:

Lola's first walk on the leash in Huntington Beach, CA

All tracks (except guitars) played on my now since replaced Korg Triton Keyboard. All vocals/instruments recorded and mixed on a Korg D1600MKII 16-Track digital recorder. (Replaced that as well!)

Inspiration: Started with the title stemming from my desire for exercise when on the road as in: "Forget the elevator, take the stairs and give the heart a little jolt". Then I built the song's setting around a trip to San Francisco. I've actually been there a couple times. And there's bonus! It's a ThrowBackThursday post.

"Let's Take The Stairs" is included on my album "Window Seat" available at:

"Let's Take The Stairs" on CD Baby: http://tinyurl.com/cwtz7rq

"Let's Take The Stairs" on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/c3uayeh

"Let's Take The Stairs" on GooglePlay: http://tinyurl.com/ckpf3pj

"Let's Take The Stairs" on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/dy9y2vu

"Let's Take The Stairs" on Bandcamp: http://tinyurl.com/c8s59ru

This was back when I colored my hair.....Oh, wait!....This WAS the natural color at one time.

It was somewhere around this era that this album was born...in cassette form!

ThrowBackThursday Post- Looking back on a blog post of recent yesteryear (and bringing it over from the old website for further reference).
Well, that was a fast read! (For me, anyway) Ontario to Phoenix to Denver to Minneapolis by 737 on Friday.  Then reverse that scenario on Sunday! (Even reversing 737 is still, well.....737)

And while I was traversing the country thousands of miles above, I had with me The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a story of a father and son's survival through a post-apocalyptic, read-between-the lines nuclear ravaged America.

The large type and spaces between the most interesting, non-indented paragraphs (see photo) probably had a little to do with my surprised completion before I even touched down in Phoenix on the trip home.  It was a good fast-paced read nonetheless.
 
A movie starring Viggo Mortensen was made based on this book as well.  Have you read this book or seen the movie?
 Further notable about this trip was the special Southwest aircraft I rode in during the Phoenix leg of the jaunt back home to California with the Official State Animal, the grizzly bear, painted on it. 


I just figured I'd borrow a photo off the internet rather then taking one myself on a bad camera phone.  Grrrrrr-oovy!

ThrowBackThursday Post- Looking back on a blog post of recent yesteryear (and bringing it over from the old website for further reference).

Felt it was time to read a biography (I like to mix it up a little).  Better still, an autobiography.  Can't say I'm a bona fide "fan" of Eric Clapton (someone I can't miss in concert), but an interesting read nonetheless.  Autobiographies are cool -  like the-author-is-sitting-right-there-with-you-in-the-airport, coffee shop, comfy-couch at home, or wherever-cool.

In the process, a couple of records have piqued my interest. The first is Road To Escondido whereby Mr.Clapton moved in with J.J. Cale for a week at his house in the hills of Escondido, CA and hashed out the direction for their upcoming recording - "getting ready to play" as Clapton called it.  I thought it was somewhat noteworthy as I get down that way in North County, San Diego quite often to visit my parents, having even done a gig there.

The other sample of musical coolness is Eric's Me and Mr. Johnson.  This tribute album of Robert Johnson tunes was never meant to be released, but was originally just a way to "release the tension and just have some fun" in the studio while coming up with enough material for a "normal" commercial release.

Anything you'd like to say in closing, E.C.?

"The music scene as I look at it today is a little different from where I was growing up.  The percentages are roughly the same - 95 percent rubbish, 5 percent pure...Music survives everything, and like God, it is always present.  It needs no help, and suffers no hindrance.  It has always found me, and with God's blessing and permission, it always will" ~ Eric Clapton