Greetings from the road! We’re into Week #4 of our six-week Summer Tour. All has gone well so far, and we’ve seen lots of old friends and family along the road. Among these folks was JIM KENT from New York, whom we haven’t seen in over twenty years- Great to see you again, Jim!
Liz celebrated her 50th birthday on May 29th at our DAVE’S AQUALOUNGE gig in St. Pete with a large audience. It was a grand affair with numerous musicians sitting in. Our thanks to all who came.
Also in attendance at Liz’s birthday show were our friends ANDRE & LIL HOBUS from Brussels, Belgium. Andre is a blues writer & photographer whom we met at the BRUSSELS BOOGIE WOOGIE PIANO SUMMIT in 2004 where he was the emcee. Andre & Lil spent a week in St. Pete before heading to the Chicago Blues Festival in early June. They came to our three gigs that week, and we also took them to hear LAZYBOY & THE ROCKERS and JAMES PETERSON. We had a great time.
We are thrilled to announce the DVD release of the 2004 BRUSSELS BOOGIE WOOGIE PIANO SUMMIT, now for sale at all our shows and will soon be available on our website. This video is beautifully filmed, and it also features boogie-woogie piano greats RENAUD PATIGNY (Belgium), CHRISTOPH ROIS (Austria), and CAROLINE DAHL (San Francisco) on two grand pianos, plus GENEVIEVE DARTEVELLE on harp and others.
Further, we now have embroidered black and purple BERETS for sale again by popular demand.
April, 2007 marked Doc’s 40th Anniversary of his first gig with RISING TIDES at the YMCA in Dover, Ohio. A lot of water under the bridge since then…. It was cool to play RASCAL’S in Dover 40 years later just a few blocks away.
Also, Doc is now featured on the DEAN GUITARS Artist Webpage with his new Dean Palomino guitar. He’s playing it during the present tour and loves it. You can check out Dean Guitars on our LINKS page.
On July 1st, we were shocked and saddened to hear that our friend, SARAH “SAX” MURPHY, lost her battle with cancer. We had played gigs and jams with Sarah over the years, and our sympathy goes to her husband, ROLF. We will sorely miss her.
We just returned from Indiana, we’re now in Ohio, heading to West Virginia tomorrow and Virginia next week. Our first show home in St. Pete will be at BEAK’S OLD FLORIDA on September 15th (see DATES page for details). The SUNCOAST BLUES SOCIETY will be featuring us at Beak’s on September 29th for their Spotlight Series.
More tour highlights later. We’re excited to see you all on the road and at home!
