As indicated, I took my first guitar lesson on Tuesday, 4 days ago. Our 8-year-old daughter took HER first lesson on Friday. Out teacher, Matt Lister, is absolutely fantastic. In the period of a half-hour lesson he was able to get each of us (separately) playing songs and actually using the instrument. To me, that’s […]

On Tuesday I will continue on my path of knowledge expansion. After work I’ll head over to Earcraft Music in Dover, NH where I will take my first guitar lesson. The guitar is something I’ve always wanted to learn, and my wife is happy because it might just stave off flying lessons for a few […]

Playing this evening with pick-up cover band KnockOff at Overtime Sports Bar and Grill in Beverly, MA. I think we start around 9:30 or so, but I’ll be there earlier than that to setup and maybe grab a bite. If you’re in the area, come by and say “hi”. KnockOff is a female-fronted, four-piece classic […]

Tomorrow night (that’s Saturday, May 3rd) I’ll be playing with Ghetto Fabulous at the Lo Kai in Dracut, Massachusetts. Here in upper New England we have a slew of Chinese restaurants with attached bar/club rooms complete with big stages and sprawling dance floors. It’s quite odd to me, but hey, it works, and that Lo […]

On Friday night I played at The Peddlar’s Daughter in Nashua, NH with Knock-off, a band with which I used to play full-time, and now pick up gigs with occasionally. It’s a female-fronted, 4-piece classic rock outfit, and the gigs are always a lot of fun. But, for me, Friday night’s gig was more than […]

As most readers know, last week I attended the South by Southwest conference for the first time. I caught the last bits of the film festival, and then was there for both Interactive and Music. I reported on this over at The Mac Observer and iPodObserver.com throughout the week, as follows: Twitterized Attendees Shape The […]

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m also a drummer in addition to my various business interests. Having played the instrument for nearly 25 years, I’m always on the lookout for sources of new inspiration. I was just reading an interview in Modern Drummer with Jeff Ballard. He’s the “new” guy (he’s over 50) […]

I hate to complain here, but I wanted to get something correct online in hopes that it sticks. Recently the RIAA has sent threatening letters to between 30 and 50 University of New Hampshire students here in Durham, accusing them of illegally sharing songs over the Internet using Limewire or Gnutella. Unfortunately, every article that […]

Joe Zawinul passed away this morning at the age of 75. No other details have been released yet. Terrible news. Though, of course, he outlived most of his peers by a longshot. First concert I ever saw was Weather Report at the Beacon Theater. I think I was 9. Still remember it like it was […]

When I had my Eames drumset built back in 1997, the original intention was to use a rack to hold the toms. When I mentioned this to my bandmates at the time, they couldn’t have been more adamantly against that. Apparently, they had a bad experience with a drummer whose rack was too big. So […]