1st Intternational Costa Rica Blues Festival

That's right... Blues in Costa Rica. We just got back and had the honor of headlining their first Blues Festival. The citizens "Ticos" of this counrty are really friendly and i met a slew of Americans that live there. We were taken care of VERY well by the promoters, Moe (above on TV with Joe & Bnois) and Darin (above, always in black with his "daughter" Twiggy). Our security staff was headed up by Roy (tough guy with beer above) and his able bodied motorcycle club. Our TV host was a hoot!!! (above with headband). The opening bands way exceeded my expectations, many musicians being in there teens. One standout Blues Teen was Jose Ramirez, whos band rocked and we had the honor of having him sit in with us (above with Bnois looking on). His family was there and there were all very nice. Moe's band was one of the hifghlights and Moe sat in with us also. I met a dude from Austin that was on the bill with us. His name is Robbie Clark and he lives down there. He called me up to sit in with him on 2 songs and we had a blast (above with me and his bass player). Our set was a blast. The crowd was ready and we gave it to them. The energy was incredible and the language was no barrier. Blues is blues and they tottaly got it. The security had to keep them off the stage. It was a great age mix of spectaters also. The venue was very cool with a great view down to the city lights below. It is a Cuban Club with a great party area and a pool. The bands were on 2 stages, one insude and the main stage outside. They fed us some very interesting Cuban food for lunch. The hotel we stayed at was right in the heart of the city of San Jose. This is a huge city with nearly 2 million people living in this "Central Valley". That is almost 2/3 of the people in the nation living there. It is certainly bustling. Prostitution and gambling is legal theer and there was very nice brothel right next to our hotel. I did get some pricing info but did not go sample the product. There are some interesting non specific gender ones on the street corners also. The people are very willing to help and are very friendly. I took a great tour and met some very cool people including Monica from Bogata and Lisa and Laura from the US. We saw a coffee plantation, an active volcano, a private park with animals and waterfalls and we took a boat ride through the rain forest. We saw a bunch of animals along the way. I can not wait to go back.

The Legendary Rhytm and Blues Cruise

WOW... Where do i start? Roger Naber is a genius? I have been on the cruise as a fan 4 times and this was my first time as an artist. Both are great. Those that have been keeping up know i met Smokin Joe as a result of the October 08, Pacific Coast LRBC, shortly after becoming his drummer. To return to the cruise as an artist is a dream come true (a common theme around here). My wife, Ruby and I have made friends all over the country from the cruises and this time convinced 2 couples from San Diego to come along, Bill and Dyana and Kieth and Bonnie and they had a blast. First i need to tell you that there is a large group of recovering addicts/alcoholics that stick together and have meetings daily. As a recovering addict i can't tell you how helpful this is when you are amongst 1800 party animals (one person was trying to pour it down my neck..haha see photo above). I have been clean and sober for over 21 years and intend on staying that way. Thanks too all my homies that helped on this trip (and for coming to our shows night after night). The ship sailed from Ft Lauderdale and went to Puerto Rico, St Croix, and St Kitts. In case the 70 shows on the ship were not enough there was a blues festival on St Croix. Smokin Joe went and sat in with Coco Montoya. Coco then called Tommy Castro, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Shameka Coleland up. What a thrill for all in attendance. Shout out to Tim and Jennifer from KC and our favorite third wheel Alan D from Colorado. We performed 4 times and i jammed at the all night pro jam almost every night. I think playing on the pool deck for the first time was my favorite. The show in the Vista lounge was different as Joe invited Jimmy Thackery, Tommy Castro and Deanna Bogart to play with us. It was very special. I had a great time having Ruby at all our shows. She is so supportive and i love her so. I also marched in the Mardi Gras parade dressed as Elvis playing my snare. I placed in the top 5 in the Mardi Gras competition. The food was insane and never ending.

I can not wait to be invited back. Thanks to everyone!

New Years Eve.......Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise

I am in Dallas right now and we leave for Florida tomorrow morning. We did a show here

on New Years Eve and then i went home to san diego for week. The new Years Eve show was at a club called Pearl. I had a great time the bar was packed and the crowd was really into it. New Years Eve is really the best party night of the year isn't it. I met some new fans Joel and Gigi from Arlington and plenty of the faithful Dallas fans. I felt like the band was on fire and it was a gas to be on stage again. I caught a flight back to Cali early the next morning. I had a great day with my wife Ruby. We have one show in Boca Raton this week and the we get on the blues cruise. I have been looking forward to this for a while. Getting paid to play music in the Caribbean in the winter.... ah huh. Someone has to do it. Check out http://www.bluescruise.com/ for details. It was because of the cruises Ruby and i went on that o got this great job with Smokin Joe. Talk to you soon.....

My Hearts In Texas

Back in Texas. After a week or so at home I am back in Texas. It was great to be home with my sweetie. It was sort of hard to back at work though. Makin music is much more fun. We had a gig in Ft Worth last night at J&J's Blues Bar. I had played there on New Years Eve so i knew what the club was like. We all met at Joe's place at 6:30 to go to the storage facility and head out. Ft Worth is about 30 minutes away...normally. Well a huge storm was bearing down on us. The weather guessers had been prediction thunder, lighting and tornado's. They were right. As we were all climbing in the van after hooking up the trailer the sirens started howling. I have never heard this and it was a bit scary. I later found out the siren means a tornado has touched down nearby. The sky was getting dark. We had decided to head over to the storage a block away and see how it went. At that point Phyllis, (The Voice Of Reason) came out and insisted we get our dumb asses in the house. We did and she was right. Minutes later the sky got darker and darker. We were watching the TV show a satellite image of this huge storm heading right towards us. the lightning and thunder started. Soon the hail came down like golf balls. The power went out n the house and we lit some candles. It dawned on me loading the trailer in this might suck. The images in the house were weird. Strange noises all around including a portable weather radio. I got my lap top out and we looked at a current satellite image. It appeared the worst had passed. Fun's over, back to work. We headed out in the light rain and got the trailer loaded. I drove the van over to Ft Worth. It was quite emotionally taxing as it was still raining and plenty of lightning. A tornado had touched down about 3 miles from the club. I guess a few semi trucks blew over and a store got it's roof ripped off. We arrived safe and loaded in with light rain helping us. The patron started coming in as we set up. We where about 2 hours later than we wanted to get there. Once we launched i totally settled in. We decided to go with the new material on the first set. I felt good about my performance. The place wound up about half full. We were surprised that many people braved the weather. The second set went well also and we had a guest up to sing the last few. The guest vocalist is a very old guy that comes every time Joe is there. It was a cool change of place. After the gig we loaded up and headed back to Dallas. None of us had had dinner so we stoped at Whataburger around 3:00AM and pigged out. The manager guessed we were musicians.. Good guess. We drove back to Dallas and loaded into the storage then to Joe's to unhitch the trailer. Joe then drove me to my suite at Motel 6. I arrived at the room at 4:30 and went to bed at 5:00. A day in the life of a working drummer.

I can tell you i slept really good.

Tonight i went to a few local clubs to check out some music and meet some of the Dallas Blues heads.

and now... Good Night.