Creeping along at a blistering pace.

 A brilliant Sunday morning, the sun popping up over the Peloncillo mountains bringing light to the valley and our mountainside on the Chiricahua's.  By 6a.m. birds already busy outside the window, their early morning start up gets me rolling towards the coffee pot. I am known for responding to people when they ask me how I'm doing.
"above ground , walking around, doing what I do best, aggravating people". Birds seem to have the same attitude. They just get on with their business and let the day get going.
 I have to tell you it's pretty hard to have a bad start to your day when this is what you see when you first wake up,

Sunrise over the Peloncillo's at Antelope pass. Admittedly the beginning of a hot, dry day but sure is nice to see.
 Today's agenda , besides getting an hour  or two of practice in, need to work on the coming weekend's menu for the cafe', and get the small smoker going and do some chicken leg quarters for some weekly specials. I had planned on doing some reach out and touch someone calling but got that out of the way yesterday.
 My last post I mentioned my great friend Ed Vadas, he is a legendary musician from MA. For ten years his band played at Key Colony Inn at Key Colony Beach on St. Patrick;s day , (also happens to be my birthday) some very serious partying was done and Ed renamed the event "the St. Patty's day massacree" , an entire day full of music by some of the best musicians in all of the Florida Keys , topped of with Ed Vadas's Fabulous Heavyweights band.
 Ed is still making great music along with a new band and my other great friend Sue Burkhart (that I mentioned in my last post) , wanted to include his website too , if you're in need of a truly original and deep down need of performance of great music go here, http://edvadasblues.com/  or go to their page for their other collaboration Ameri-MF-Cana at http://www.myspace.com/amerimfcana they are also on Facebook if you go that way. It's hard to say enough good things about these two, besides phenomenal musicians , they are great friends and all around nice people. I used several of their tunes in my video compositions and couldn't find any music to compare for the depth of feeling their music conveys. Here's one featuring Ed,

There ain't enough o's in smooth for Ed Vadas!
 Besides goofing with this blog and distributing nonsense to the viewing public, still getting out and about taking some pics of the area, here's a couple from the other day,

  Headed over to finish smoking the chickens for dinner , then plug the guitar in for an hour or two,
stay tuned !

Listening / Cooking for Friends / Night Thoughts

Late at night in New Mexico , a long way from what I used to call home . Annie Lennox on the Jango station ,shifting to Joanie Mitchell . Whats next ? Sitting on the front porch of the office with the family
[ Farthings and Ahles ] talking smart , shooting off fire works with their grandson , talking business , talking about kids , talking about the way we have lived . Oh Hell ! Here comes Robert Cray , Ice Cold Stratocaster , deep bass with Shemikiah Copeland talking about how they pity the fool , a little Keb Moe , with his killer acoustic bringing memories of stages and benefits , sitting with musicians long gone , burning the air with hot licks and round table discussions of everything under the sun. Sun coming up outside the Driftwood , Baby by my side , her husband all pisssed off because we played music all night
little brother and I laughing our asses off because , all we did was make music ! Brown whiskey , Nassau Hammers , Miller Lite , Budweiser and lots of crazy people combining to make for stories no one even believes ! Playing for $35 a night and a bar tab , playing so hard I fell off the stage into the bushes , damn Turk was always getting me into the shit ! OKey Dokey bringing the whole stage down !
Ronnie so pissed he couldn't see , then his girl friend beating him up with a flash light !! His other girl friend showing up and struttting her stuff and getting naked on stage ! Mikey stomping the bass pedals , showing mr the changes . How many times can you play La Bamba or Gloria in one night ? Could you ever say NO to Billy Lee ? Sweet Jesus how I love these people !
Fast forward to New Mexico , a distant reality with old music , Martin Denny playing "Harlem Nocturne" did I get Mike to play Desifinada the last time I was there ? I don't remember , probably  .I ask him every time , the same as Freddie , I love to here  him doing Elvin Bishop "Stealin Watermelons " I do miss my friends  .
My acoustic across my lap , same old strings , bend them a little harder , reach out , you've been worse than this , send them a message , Billy had it right , it's all about the music .

Stay tuned ....

Party Beside The Suwannee / Memory Demons

The Big "A" and I got invited to a party ! My old friend Linda decided to have a first day of summer/ longest day of the year party Saturday . A few years ago I would have been first on the barge casting off lines to break open the adult beverages and get as crazed as humanly possible in the shortest period of time .Now I approach various get together's a little more sedately . But even so I was among the first to arrive and got the perfect parking spot for Azad , so I thought.{note to self , check how level everything is before it gets dark } As folks
started arriving and getting acquainted it was obvious a good time was about to begin , good food , plenty of various beverages to imbibe , really interesting people to talk to and enjoy . Linda is a Goldsmith / Collector and has a store in nearby Mayo Fl. The store is Gold N' Treasures ph#386-294-3906 if you are in the market for a unique piece of jewelry or collectible give her a call. She also does her own designs or custom made jewelry and has a selection of "Atocha" coins . It 's always good to call first as she does a lot of traveling and is not always available .
At any rate , having parked "A" I proceeded to enjoy myself meeting new friends and catching up with several of the folks I knew. My old friend Doo Dah brought me a surprise gift from Tallahassee , a new CD by one of my favorite musicians over there Mimi Hearn . Her new CD Unleashed is too cool ! I have a hard time dealing with music that has been tricked up , in other words you can't reproduce it outside of a studio , Mimi & The Hearn Dogs have the same respect for their music . This album was recorded over in Sopchoppy in a hundred year old building and the acoustics are phenomenal ! Most of the songs are written by Mimi and the back up musicians are tight ! Comes from a lot of years playing together and knowing where everyone is at . All in all a great party !
The note to self was a minor thing ,but it shows the mindset of a lot of people . If I had backed up just a few feet , the whole thing would have been level and life would have been a lot nicer . The other memory lapse I've had recently was , if things are installed in pairs or multiple units when you fix or repair one take a damn good look at the others , chances are they work the same amount of time and are just as worn or stressed and need attention too . Case in point , I took the front of "A" apart to install a nylon bushing for the windshield wipers . The bushings came packed as pairs , I installed the one that was bad and ignored the other side , buttoned everything up and less than two weeks later ! You guessed it ! There goes the other side , I don't mean to imply this is some kind of a major operation , just a few screws and some time , but aggravating and when you need the wipers it's a poor time to be making plans to drain the swamp!
The more I drive "A"the better I like him , 50 or 55 mph is a comfortable speed and every ting seems to operate well at that speed , since I have no plans for interstates or the autobahn guess I'm good to go !
By the by picture posted is the banks of the Suwanee just above Branford Fl.

Fire ants , Chipotle Tabasco and another Texas Voice,

Working on the ground sucks ! Sorry , just the way I feel today ,working underneath the Big fellah looking for loose things and inspecting brake lines to see if I can afford to replace them before taking off . The metal lines appear to be in good shape but the old rubber ones to the wheel cylinders will have to be replaced . Again the ones that are on there may be fine but I see signs of dry rubber and small cracks , I would rather spend a few bucks now than to be going into a place where the lack of brakes would make life way too exciting ! Hopefully within the next week or two will have access to my friends garage and his invaluable help to rebuild the carb , fix the small exhaust leak [ muffler clamps] new front shocks and do the brake lines all at once . If we have the time I have a couple of other projects that would be nice to have an extra pair of hands that are well trained and equipped in a nice garage instead of laying on the ground with fire ants for company .
As for the Chipotle Tabasco while cruising the aisles I found some Chipotle Tabasco by Mcilhenny's , just for fun got some and It's GOOD , I like spicy flavorful food anyway and have found that using different spices on the lean meats and sometimes bland veggies the Diabetes Demon demands makes mealtime more interesting .
While taking an engineering break , I started to listen to the new CD from Amy Hughes , another Texas voice I have come to really like among the young talent out in Texas her website is www.amy-hughes.com She has some very good sounds and a great band , check her out also a couple of free songs there to download , plus links to some other Texas musicians