Winter, Practice, 2 Gratitude, Deep Blue

Hello,

It has been a couple of cold winter weeks since my last entry, but the music has been heating up. Lots of rehearsals and practice, I guess it's not much worth writing about, but it sure feels good to be working 'behind the scenes' on my music. I have played a couple of gigs with The Gratitude Steel Band and one with Deep Blue at Cafe Felix. Felix was hoppin last Friday thanks to a small bachlorette party that turned the cafe into a mini dance club. It was fun to watch the band react to a slightly tipsy girl asking us to play the 'sexiest song we know'. Things got a bit out of the general comfort zone of the cafe atmosphere, but it was all in good fun. By the way, after a couple of minutes of deliberation, we decided on Blue Monk
The first Gratitude gig was a nice easy one hour gig last Saturday at a library in Mount Clemens, MI. I showed up a half hour before showtime in my rental car, (my van was in the shop from the accident). The car was too small to fit my big drumset so I had my small student set with me. It worked well in the small basement room, and we had a good response from the crowd. The show was supposed to be an all reggae show, so Charles called on Kelly, a very tall guy from the Caribbean. He is always all smiles and is a a great musician to play with. He has a great accent and knows so many cool songs that I have never heard of. It is fun to play new songs, (new to me anyway), with someone who is so enthusiastic.
Wednesday morning we were in Holly, MI for a show at Holly Academy. It was a special gig for me because it is the school where I did my student teaching over a year ago. It was great to see all the students, and one of my old schoolmates, Matt Dufresne, was the new music director. It was fun to catch up and hear about some of the perils of being a first year teacher. The show went well. I play with Gratitude again on Sunday at another library in West Bloomfield. In the meantime I will be practicing and getting ready to move to Ann Arbor, but more on that later....

Thanks for reading,

John