July 28th Update.
I
made it through the marathon weekend with a lot of help from Andie. I missed
her a lot on Friday when I worked the winery by myself. I played 24.5 hours
of music in three days. I feel it now. Jimmy Culler was a big help at Provinces
on Friday and Saturday and Jamie Phalen made everyone's evening on Saturday
night. It was Banana Brothers revisited. What a talented and funny man Jamie
Phalen is. I am still a bit dreamy today but this is the first chance I have
had to write at all since last week. The Garlic Festival is racing towards
us. The band is listed as Manolito for anyone who can get out on a Friday
at 4pm, it will be a great show. The
Garlic Festival.
July 23 update. This is the big
weekend. The Vintage Affair at the Columbia Winery and Provinces. I may get
the band to come in this weekend. Lots of people bring in whole groups so
why not have Papa Murat in a 6 foot square area. I am hoping we will get
a visit from Diane, the young lady who sang with me last year. She doesn't
even know her picture is on our website. It will be very mellow music for
the winery with a blend of guitar instrumentals and vocals. At Provinces
I will be kicking it up a bit with Jimmy Culler and Lonnie Mueller planning
on stopping in, and as I mentioned, maybe even Mike Daily, our drummer. Music
is fun and we will be having quite a time of it at the Garlic Festival. We
will be performing the song I wrote for the event. This is just a quick update.
We are looking into the possibility of playing at the Jazz Festival in Cabo
San Lucas next year. Busy, busy.
In the course of events
in the month of June a lot of changes were set into motion. We will be doing
more events with the Columbia Winery, starting with the Vintage Affair on
the last weekend of July, the 25th-27th. For a small fee the public is allowed
to sample some very fine wines and buy them at prices up to 50% off. Trader
Joe's supplies delicious cheese and crackers for snackage to go with the
wine. I play pretty much through out the day and Andie will be with me talking
about wines and our CD's. It is an event not to miss. You can meet people
from all backgrounds and make new friends easily. Wine club members get to
come into the event two hours early so if you are not a member, you might
think about joining. Members get discounts on wine and are invited to many
special events. Check the Columbia winery website for more details. We are
discussing partnering up on events and having the store at the winery stock
and sell my CD's. Columbia Winery
More stuff is happening all the
time. I was at the Bahia concert on Sunday but as part of the audience on
the 13th of July on a Sunday at Forest Park in Everett. I believe it is at
noon. I did have time before the show to bring out my guitar and go over
the Garlic Festival song with Dale and Roger. Their concert was great, as
usual. They started 1/2 half hour early and they were still playing 15 minutes
after it was supposed to end so we had to leave and prepare for our trip
to Cabo, but I am glad we got to see the show. It was nice visiting with
their official photographer, Gary.
I met a friend through work named Richard McCormick who plays in a band called
Slater Road. It is
a different style of music than I have played but good musicians from what
I have heard. They need a singer and a lyricist, hmmmm. I met the rest of
the band last night Dan, Ron, Mark and Bob. They are great guys and good
players. Their arrangements were very tight and very dynamic. I sang a song
with them that I didn't really know and I was very nervous. I think there
are some great possibilities there and I look forward to another get together
soon. I will at the very least transcribe the lyrics to their songs to help
with the audition process in the future and so I can learn them if it works
out. They seem to be a very good team and they have lots of songs awaiting
lyrics. We will see what happens. I will be playing with the Mr. Right Now
band at the airport in Arlington on the 12th for Paraphenalia where Jimmy
Culler calls home. And David Jones and I are to begin collaborating on some
new music this week as well. Needless to say, I am not bored.
We spent the fourth of July on
Lopez Island, it was an expensive and overcrowded ferry boat ride but a nice
stay at the cabin. I wrote three new songs. One is for the Garlic Festival,
very festive and still evolving. It will be a great way to open our show.
I am really excited about our show this year. I am still uncertain what they
are going to call the band. Rejoice felt like my name on the flyer 3 times
in 3 spots was a bit much so we came up with Manolito. It is funny to use
a band name only one time. Still it will be a very good band. Another week
in July has begun. We are going to Cabo San Lucas with Jim and Penni and
man are we do for some R&R. Sarah is looking forward to building a private
Yoga instruction business out around where we live. This is a very good thing
I believe.
I would like to take this opportunity
to thank all the people who support live music and continue to come out to
my shows. God bless you.
As this website develops
I can see the need to make changes. My son, Freedom, called it Epic in its
size. The website may not need to be so big but I am so excited to share.
Now, the newsletter versus the journal is the question. I think in the future
I will use the newsletter to share events and plans as they develop and that
way I can use my journal to share a little more reflective side of things.
I look at the entries and they look like they should be "news"
and then I stop writing because I don't want to go on forever. So as I ramble
after a great day yesterday I will make this page more active in the future.
I will start tomorrow, the day Sarah comes home from Japan. Be well.
Halfway through June and time continues to fly by. We are
beginning rehearsals with the band. We are using Dale Fuentes's name,Manolito,
although Papa Murat is the name we will use in the future. It will be a lot
of fun. Dale is a phenomenal musician and Roger Bennett is an excellent percussionist.
The rhythm section will be driven by Jim Culler on bass and Mike Daily on
drums. We will have Scott Drexler playing congas, bongos and harmonica and
Lonnie Mueller on lead guitar. We will be performing toward the beginning
of the festival at 4 PM on Friday August the 8th. It may be a challenge to
lots of our working friends to make the show. We have finally made the main
stage! I will be playing morning music solo on Saturday and Sunday morning
from 10 am to 11 am. I will also be at Provinces on Friday night August 8th
and there is more. Aaron asked about the possibility of playing at the Taste
of Edmonds. We will see what happens there and I will let you know.
That is it for today. Thank you to Crystal and Beverly for
making it down to Provinces and for your kind words. It was wonderful to
see how Crystal grew up so beautifully. Christina and Dave, wow it was good
to see you and what beautiful kids. Jim and Penni are looking tanned and
ready for Cabo San Lucas. We are looking forward to a new adventure with
Jim and Penni and a chance to see a new place in the world.
Gotta run so that is it for now.
The covers to Gone To Yesterday and Room
with a View are little creations I made till Andie gets me some images of
the actual covers.
