Latest Music Updates, News and Thoughts

Climbing, and an upcoming performance 

Ok, it's been a few weeks since I posted. I've been very busy practicing and hitting the climbing gym hard. Yes, the climbing gym. I know, it doesn't seem like a good fit for a finger style guitarist, but I love them both, and I'm not willing to give up either. I'm excited to announce an upcoming performance at the October IAMA Hosted Coffeehouse. The date is Oct. 24th (Friday), and I will be sharing the stage with a bunch of other very talented musicians: Peter Ramirez, Mark Neihart, Sarah DeGraw, Paul Boruff, and the Nathan Spenser Revue. I'm excited to be included in this stellar group! Check out my events page for details.

Going to have some music fun this weekend! 

Since I was unable to make the trip to Winfield, KS and the Walnut Valley music festival to back up my good friend Chris Storbeck, I will be providing music at Vertical Diner on Friday, 9/19. This will be the first time I play at this outstanding vegetarian restaurant, and I'm looking forward to it!

I will also be opening a house concert for my good friends Pat and Roy on Saturday. I'm honored that they asked me to open for them. This is going to be fun too!!

I've climbed pretty hard the past few days and I'm climbing again tomorrow, so I guess I'd better get the old fingers loosened up, eh?

Cafe Galleria, Murray - food and fun 

It's getting late in the year for outdoor restaurant gigs, but I'll be playing Friday and Saturday (9/5 and 9/6) at Cafe Galleria in Murray. It's the same great food, good tunes, and good times. This is one of my favorite gigs, I always have a good time with the customers and staff. Music goes from 6:00 til 9:00. Come on over and join me!

Benefit for disabled veterans 

I will be providing sound for a private benefit for disabled veterans this Friday, 8/29. The event will be held in Carolyn's Magic Garden, also known as the back yard of my good friend Carolyn Turkanis. The featured performers will be Emily Potter and Bill Klinger, and yours truly may add a few tunes during the intermission. This event was organized by Bill and Emily, along with Jim Huber.

I'm looking forward to this opportunity to give something back to the veterans community.

climbin' and pickin' 

Well, I felt compelled to go get some exercise at the climbing gym again yesterday...before my gig at Cafe Galleria in Murray, UT. As you can see, the hands had a rough day. But it's all good, and I love climbing too much to give it up, so I just deal with it. Despite the manglement, I played a good 3 hour gig. The music was good, patrons seemed to like it, and I even sold a few CD's!

I'm thinking I may give my fingers a rest from climbing today though. Or not, if Daelon decides he wants to hit the rock gym later on. Hey, your children come first, you know? Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices...

:)

Local News: Alchemy Coffee open mic 

Alchemy has changed their hours to closing at 9:00pm, including Tuesday nights. The staff works hard, so let's all work together to keep this the best open mic in the valley. I'm going to change the start time from 7:00 to 6:30, with signups at 6:15. We'll finish music by 9:00, which gives us slots for 10 performers. It might be a little confusing at first, but we'll all adjust, like the creative and talented people we are. As always, a BIG shout out to Alchemy for providing the venue, and to Andrea for putting up with us and working so hard behind the counter to take care of everyone.

Cheers, BOB

things are moving right along! 

It's been a good year musically so far. I completed an anti-discrimination song I am proud of, Love Will Always Find A Way. Over the summer I was selected as a finalist in the Susanne Millsaps national songwriting contest. I played this song and my signature Rum Runner during the finals competition held at the Utah Arts Festival. I also competed in the Utah State Finger Style guitar championships, held at the Ogden Music Festival. I was very happy with my performance in both contests!



This summer I had a concert at Carolyn's Magic Garden concert series, in mid-July. This is my favorite house/garden concert venue ever, and Carolyn is a wonderful person whom I am proud to call a very close friend. She also happens to have taught both of my boys in 6th grade. I never would have started playing out in public if she hadn't pushed me onto the stage at the Alchemy Open Mic four years ago. I found that I like playing for an audience so much that I am now coming up on three years of hosting that same weekly open mic, and a year ago I completed my first CD, Storm On The Mountain. A second CD is in the works.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to open at Ricochet House Concert's for Caroline Aiken, who has toured nationally for many years. What a treat! Ricochet is hosted by another good friend of the music community (and a songwriter herself), Ruthie Naccarato.

This summer I got to spend time learning more about the song writing craft from a couple of acoustic music luminaries, John McCutcheon and Salt Lake's own Kate MacLeod.

Last weekend I played in the last ever Acoustic All Stars. What a great time, and so much wonderful talent on hand! A big shout out to Fat's Grill for once again hosting the event.



Finally, I've started playing regular gigs at Cafe Galleria, in both the Midway and Murray locations. This has been a great opportunity for me, and along the way I met a couple of new friends who were  on vacation all the way from PA, Michael and Deborah Shaw. Michael even made a video of me playing John Denver's "Country Roads" to his wife. This was the first song I ever learned, way back in Greenville, NC during my college years. It's been posted to YouTube, and I have added it to this website. So very cool!



It's been a great year in other ways as well. I've gotten reconnected with my youngest son, and we've been gym climbing on a regular basis. He has gotten so good! I always knew he would climb beyond my abilities at some point, he's always been a natural, but now I can't even get on the climbs he's doing. But, I've been working hard at it, getting stronger, losing some weight, building up my finger and forearm endurance, and it's starting to show. If you were to look at my hands after a climbing session you might say it is painfully obvious. Emphasis on the "painfully". But it's never as bad as it looks, and I love it too much too stop, so I've just had to find ways to make the rock climbing and finger picking worlds live together.

Alaska. I finally gave in to the travel bug I've always had and spent two weeks in that wild and beautiful place. I want to go back! But...numero uno on my hit list has always been New Zealand. Now I have to find a way to make it happen. Let me know if you have some good ideas!!

Thanks, all for now. I'll have a new post soon.

BOB