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It is confirmed!  Set your calendars for July 23, 24, and 25.   Great Buncha Guys will be playing at the Union Cabaret and Grill in Kalamazoo, MI.   I play acoustic guitar and harmonica in this band with some of the area’s finest musicians.  We have a very eclectic mix of songs in our set list.  We play jazz, rock, ballads, pop, and even a little country.  You’ll hear songs from such diverse artists as the Eagles, Miles Davis, Bonnie Raitt, the Pretenders, Eva Cassidy, James Taylor, Steely Dan, and Edgar Winter.  There is bound to be something that you will like.

The Union is a great place to eat.  Honestly, I think it really is some of the best food available around Kalamazoo.

So grab a friend and come on down have a great time with a Great Buncha Guys.  We start playing at 8:00 on Thursday, 8:30 on Friday and Saturday.  You might want to make a reservation or get there early:  We tend to pack the place!  You can let us know if you are coming or not by visiting us on facebook.

If you want to tell others about the gig, download and print this one-page poster (PDF) and be sure to post it where you work and play!

Hey! my friend Shelagh Brown recently posted some songs that she wrote.  I really like them.  She has an awesome voice.  Go listen and let her know what you think!

I’ve got some folks who want to stream audio files (mp3’s mainly) on their WordPress-based websites.  So I am testing a few ways to do that.  The audio file that I am testing with is original music (to avoid copyright entanglements).  This is the band at Southridge Church (several years ago) with me on harmonica.  We are attempting to cover Terry McMillan’s version of Amazing Grace.  If you have not heard it before, it is a pretty cool version — the guitar solo is the late, great Kevin Brown.  I especially like the harp licks at the end of the song.  Sometimes, it’s hard to believe you can get away with playing music that is this much fun– in church! continue reading…

I’m in a band!  About 3 weeks ago, I was asked to join a band called “Great Buncha Guys”.  This, for me, is an incredible honor.  The “guys” (2 of them are women) in this band are all incredible musicians.  Of course, I said “yes” and was told that the first gig was in three weeks (Oct. 2-4,2008) at The Union, a great restaurant in downtown Kalamazoo.  So I spent the next 3 weeks trying to learn 52 songs.  I’m playing harmonica, of course.  But they also needed acoustic guitar.  We play a real eclectic mix of tunes.  We do a little Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, Pretenders, Eagles, Santana, Eva Cassidy, Steely Dan, Booker T & the MGs, James Taylor; we even do a few country songs (Sara Evans, Keith Urban), and one original tune by Shelagh Brown.

The history of the band is interesting.  The band started when continue reading…

Ok, I know I’m a Johnny-come-lately to this game, but I just got an iPod.  My birthday was last week and my wife surprised me with an 80 GB iPod Classic.  I have to admit that I’m a little surprised by the effect it has had on me.  First, I’ve got a ton of CDs that I have ripped & burned so that I can play them in the car… or at least I thought it was a ton.   But the iPod has got me going through my whole music library. Turns out that I had maybe one quarter of my music on my computer.  Now (and I’m not done yet, I still have about 15 more CDs to go), I have over 2,400 songs on my computer (and on my new iPod).   And that has not even made a dent into the available space on that 80GB iPod.    I sorta obsessed on iTunes all weekend ripping my CDs for hours at a time.  But what really caught me off-guard with the new iPod was continue reading…