Wow, I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last entry. It feels good to be back on the blog. I have been overtaken with the extra tasks of moving, which will be happening in less than a month! My wife Jody and I will be moving to a house in Ann Arbor that is about 5 blocks away from Oz's Music Evironment, which is where I do the bulk of my teaching. Walking to work is a luxury I have never had in life, and I am very excited to end my commuting lifestyle.
Since my last entry, I have played just one gig with Gratitude, two with Deep Blue, and one small one with Meeta Baneerjee. The gig with Gratitude was nice. It was at the West Bloomfield Public library. The band is based in West Bloomfield, so they had a lot of friends and neighbors in the packed crowd. It was a nice easy gig, just about an hour long, and we got to play all of the good steel drum band songs. I don't have anything booked with them in March, but I am sure that will change soon.
The two shows with Deep Blue were both at Cafe Felix, and they could not have been more different from each other. The first one was packed with people. Steve Osburn was playing a show just down the road at the Crazy Wisdom book store, and when it ended, everyone came to Felix. Steve brought drums and shakers, which made the last set a lot of fun. There was a lot of teachers from Oz's there. It felt good to see everyone outside of the store. It made me even more excited to move to Ann Arbor and become more integrated in the A2 music scene. The second Deep Blue gig, which was just this last Friday, was dead. I think there was never more than 3 tables of people. We, did, however, have a great response from the staff at Felix, who are usually too busy to stop and listen. I actually enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere very much.
The only other show was a little Indian Classical music presentation at Go Like the Wind Elementary, which is where I teach music to 4th-7th graders. I was excited to play for the students, and also to play once again with Meeta Banerjee. She is the sitar player that I have played with a lot in the past. She has been going to MSU to persue her doctorate degree, so we have not had time to play together. The show was just 15 minutes long and we had just one microphone between the two of us. It felt a little rushed and a little quiet, but it was fun to play for the students who were sitting right in front of the stage. I look forward to playing with Meeta more, but I am not sure when it will happen. Actually, there is a lot about the immediate future that I am unsure of, but I am extremely excited. I feel like this summer will be one of the best yet. It feels good to be back on the blog tip, and I will be sure to come back more often. Thanks for reading, and I will talk to you soon.
John
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