The Blues Grill, June 13 – hitting the curve ball…

I was honored to work with my old friend Ricardo Monzon which is always a setting for magical things. The club is having a dispute with the major licensing organizations (BMI, ASCAP and SESAC) which is a story for another day, but until its resolved performers are not able to perform any of the music they license. Since that’s nearly every popular song over written, I performed four hours of my original music along with many improvisations.

Like many of the land bound towns close to the shore, after a beautiful day followed by a warm summer’s night the audience often wanders to the shore. Not the case this night. Attendance was very good and people were very generous with their applause and praise. This kind of warm response really fueled the music. I had a fantastic time and think they did as well. Thank you again to everyone who made it out that night. I’m looking forward to the next show.

I am in the middle of writing a blog about the recent behavior of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. If you’re interested, keep your eyes open for it. Be well.

June 11 at the Revolution in Boston

The Revolution turned out to be an interesting night. There was a booking mix-up as happens occasionally so there were three bands performing that night. We had to quickly scramble to make sure everyone got on stage somewhere near their originally scheduled time. The good news was that there was a very good turnout for the night.

The Revolution is adorned with rock memorabilia and very comfortably fitted with a number of sofa pits as well as traditional bar stools and stands. The club’s staple are DJ’s and they have a couple of nights a week with live music spotlights. I think their typical performance is more pop/rock oriented so we take them a little by surprise when we hit the stage.

We hit at 9:00 and had a very good show. One of the highlights has to be Keita Ogawa, our percussionist who during his solo on Rigamaroll had the chef come dancing out of the kitchen to enjoy the music. Keita has been getting some big name gigs with Yo Yo Ma and Tiger Okoshi and I think the experience is upping his game. He was incredible which elevated all of us. I swear I’ve never seen Keith (Kirkpatrick, our ever solid bassist) smile so much.