AmyG and I will be back at Marty's Hops and Vines tomorrow night...6110 Hamilton Av. Very nice place- Marty's doing a great job there, and people keep comg back!
So, the inimitable Brian O'Donnell has teamed up with guitarist/producer Joe Madrigal, at least 3 local public radio stations (WGUC, WVXU, AND WNKU), and asked a number of local guitarists to participate in a project- a CD of Christmas/holiday music, which will be a promotional item for contributors to the stations. Your humble host was honored to be amongst the requestees, and have submitted my track (Lo, How a Rose e'er Blooming, with 3 variations, and a coda of Still,Still,Still) a mere 11 days past the hopeful, but flexible, deadline.....the ensemble includes 2 guitars, 2 mandolins, 2 recorders, 1 charango, 1 guitalele, (all moi), and the fab Amy G on 'cello.
Friday the 18 at a beautiful Episcopal Church in Clifton with the great Kaylie Erikson, Saturday at my neice's wedding on a museum rooftop in Louisville with a 'cellist and fluglehornist/singer (both of whom I met for the first time that day, and both of whom were excellent!), and Sunday at Drees Pavilion in Covington's Devou park with my usual duo partner, the fab AmyG. The Church was air-conditioned. The others were really warm. But we had shade. It's all good......
Legally Blonde is going well...............not full houses, but decent houses....nice crowd tonight. It's such a hard score to learn, it's good that there's more than 1 week of performances. 2's enough, tho'. Don't know where they're going next. The associate music director is leaving the tour after Sunday. I think he's going to law school. + )
Well, Legally Blonde opens tomorrow- rehearse at 9, for 5 or 6 hours- soundcheck at 6, open at 8. It is what it is, but the music and lyrics are pretty good, so it's a better show than you think... + ).
Then to a funeral Wednesday morning for a dear friend's grandchild, taken tragically and suddenly- at such a young age. Prayers and condolences to all of the Osborne family. I can't even imagine.... :_ (
There are no words. Music can come close to saying what words cannot.
I had a request tonight to play at a wedding in July 2011, and I had to 'demur', as I'm previously engaged. On the other hand.... numerous open dates THIS year....
going into week 2 of "the Light in the Piazza" at Wright State .... this week, shows are Wednesday, 2/24/10 at 7pm, then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8, and matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2. It's quite well done, and worth a look.... the student crew and cast have done a fine job!
Dear Brian,
Congratulations! We are excited to announce that Newburg Trio has been chosen to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2010. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism.
The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews, which means your past clients have spoken on our behalf and selected you to receive this honor.
This past Saturday, I played solo guitar at a new place in College Hill- Marty's Hops and Vines combines retail beer and wine sales with a bar/lounge + hors d’Oeuvers, and some non-alcoholic beveages. This is a very nice place, run by nice people, and the joint was pretty busy. This was kind of a last-minute booking, but I'm sure I'll be back there....In fact, I've never had a CD release party for "Vignettes and WarPonies", and I believe it will happen right there... maybe in March....
The concert was the Miracles opening for Martha and the Vandellas. I only found out a few days before the show that Martha had her own guitar player, so I was only playing on the Miracles set. I'd have like to play Martha's set as well, as I really like some of those songs, and have played some of them in different bands, most notably Four on the Floor (soon to be resurrected as "the Fourth Floor")..
People might think the Miracles weren't happenin much after Smokey left, and I really didn't know what to expect, but they were terrific! Very nice people, great singers, great entertainers- Mark Scott, Tee Turner, Dave Finley, and Bobby Rogers brought back the real sound, and going through an hour of hits with no covers, I was reminded just how bug they are! 16 top 20 singles, 6 top 40 albums, songs covered by LOTS of other famous artists, 4 songs in the Grammy Hall of Fame, 3 songs on the Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time....Plus a bunch of hit songs which band members wrote, but were hits for other bands, and never even recorded by the Miracles.
I didn't play for Martha Reeves, but I did get to meet her, (and wave at the Vandellas). She's very very nice, and they sounded great at soundcheck.
Is this the fourth .... or fifth time that "Chicago" played in Cincinnati? I honestly don't remember... at least the fourth. But it's been quite a while since it was here last. Carol Woods is still beltin' 'em out as Mama- Tom Wopat is a fine Billy Flynn, and a very nice guy. Great cast all around, and a fab orchestra, of course! here through Sunday, 12/6.
I haven't written on here in a while..... Haven't found the time! 2 weeks ago, I took the weekend off to get out of town with Susan for our 10th anniversary (!)........ Last week was a concert (2, actually) in Dayton, OH- the world premiere of Jeff Olmstead's "Songs of Rumi".... This week, it's "Fame" at the Aronoff Center- an SCPA production, and it's really pretty good. Then I'll go back to just having two jobs for awhile..... THEN- first week of December, I'll be playing "Chicago" at the Aronoff Center. It's been several years since I've played that show, but I've played it so many times, I expect it will all come back pretty quickly....blah blah blah......
Update- the wedding was indeed outside, and, fortunately, the club has a conference room right alongside the deck- we played from in there and ran a line out a window to a second amplifier outside. We were as close to the wedding as usual, but behind a wall of windows! The Granparents hung out with us- they have the perquisites of seniority!
In other news, some Holiday-y music (trio by duo+looper):
Busy crazy weekend! Friday night I played tenor banjo for Sycamore HS 50th reunion at the Museum Center...Another group was setting up as I walked in, and the facility had a bit of confusion about when the guests were to make it down to the landing (they won't be down here until 7.30, she said as guests were pouring in at 6.15)...but everyone was good people, and a fine time, and a few collaborative efforts, was had by all. Diagram THAT sentence!
Saturday, Amy and I had 2 weddings, one near Dayton, and one in Mt. Lookout- the latter along with an organist and trumpeter, who were both fine players, and fortunately, Tibby had all the music in her head! Traffic and bad directions from googlemaps nearly conspired to make us late for the first one, but that's why we leave extra time- it went great, and the second one did, too. Once they figured out how to turn on the organ. And once the bridesmaids figured out that the ceremony wasn't over yet (some of them started recessing when they's just been excused to return to the pew- it was hilarious if you'd been there).
Sunday Church service went quite well... my third as sort of the interim bandleader for the contemporary service. Now I have to go write cello parts for next week...... and practice some Bolling (that music's hard!)...
