Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Nick Strange, Meditation at Crazy Wisdom, and Deep Blue in the Sun

Hello again,

Well, it was another interesting weekend of music. On Thursday I was at Goodnite Gracie again with the Nick Strange Group. A few more people this time, and we had a fill in singer. I can't remember her name right now, but Dan knows her from a show she does called the Cowgirl Cabaret. Sounds interesting. She did a great job, considering most of the material is Dan Orcut original. (Did I mention that there is no 'Nick' in Nick Strange).
The next night I was at Crazy Wisdom Tearoom in Ann Arbor for another night of meditation music with Dr. Chernin and friends. It was very relaxed and nice. I was happy to see Scott Brady, (sax player from Deep Blue), out for an evening of chanting. He said he enjoyed himself very much. We were talking a bit right after the music was over and a former student of mine came up to me and said hello. After a few minutes, the student asked me for a ride home. I said it would be a while because I needed to pack up, but then Scott jumped in and offered to give him a ride. What a nice guy! So they took off and about 20 minutes later I got a call from Scott. He ran out of gas! So I hurried home and got my lawn mower gas and drove to meet him. He still had my student in the car, so I guess he ended up waiting after all.
The next day I drove up to Flint, MI. to play outside at the Genesee Valley Mall with Deep Blue. Not sure how they landed this gig, but it was nice to be playing. When I showed up I saw Scott and thanked him again for offering to give my student a ride home, even though it turned out to be an adventure. He said that it didn't end with the gas. After they took off, there was a bit of confusion as to where my student lived. Scott ended up turning the wrong way down a one way street and got a ticket! What was interesting to Scott however, was that when it was all said and done, he didn't feel the least bit upset. He drove home calm as a cow. He attributed it to the two plus hours of meditation. It was nice to hear that things worked out. Anyway, the gig was just two hours long and we had Scott on sax, Paul Allen on Guitar, and Chris ??? on the upright bass. The music was sounding great. The only drawback to the gig was that we had to be in the direct sunlight, and it was a 90 degree day. It was taxing, but we made it through and only had to stop 5 times to retune, (just kidding).
Exactly one week later I was in Flint again. This time it was indoors at the Greater Flint Arts Council, which is a nice little art gallery in downtown Flint. We were there to play music for a wedding reception. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the band was sounding. It was the same group of musicians, only this time we were about 20 degrees cooler. The wedding party was great, and the response was very good. I think I will be playing with Deep Blue much more in the future.

That is all for now. Sorry there are no pictures this time. I guess I have been getting lazy with the camera. I'll get back on it soon. Thanks for reading, and I will talk to you again soon.

John

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