C'mon- let's have a great guitar day!

Sonny, Sonny, Sonny...SHARROCK!

The natural guitar

Dan Oestreicher passed this on.  It's really beautiful...relax and enjoy!

New Recording by Carl LeBlanc

My old guitar teacher, friend, and brilliant New Orleans musician, Carl Leblanc has just released his brand new recording- Those Who Have Ears.  It's available at CD Baby amongst other services and... help out an artist and pick up a copy.

I wrote a string quartet arrangement for one of the pieces on the record and am honored to find out that he wanted to use it on its own for the finale of the record.  It's called Hesed if you pick up a copy.

Carl is a great guitarist and all around musician who always comes out with a landscape of musical statements on record that really shows all he can breathe life into for a listener.  He has played on some key New Orleans recordings and has played in many of the greatest groups associated with the city including the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Allen Toussaint- (actually the list is so extensive- I'll let you music fans seek out the rest of the bio information).  He was also guitarist for the Sun Ra Arkestra for about 9 years and luckily my generous guitar teacher for a long time. 

This one is worth checking out and many great musicians were involved...

Interview with Jeff Treffinger- guitarist, songwriter, architect, co-founder of The Mermaid Lounge, Tribe Nunzio.

A complete interview with Jeff Treffinger is now up on the interviews page.  You may have seen him with the singular Geraniums, or any number of other projects. You may also know him as one of the key hands in the, legendary to some, Mermaid Lounge. 

   Here he talks about his foregound and background activities that at different times have shaped the New Orleans music scene.  Treffinger describes how he came to be putting a bands together in New Orleans at all and, what his purposes were in doing so...or at least his thinking at the time.  He tells stories about the accidental discoveries that led him to architecture and how that led him into certain other nooks in New Orleans music.  He is frank about what he learned and how, and the interesting folks that he collaborates with or has dealt with over the years that have enabled his dealings to be loaded with a delightful, risky creativity. 

Also available as a podcast from the itunes store.

Appearing in San Francisco Aug 13. w/ Robert Walter

Performing at The Boom Boom Room in San Francisco on Aug 13. I will be appearing with Robert Walter on a double bill with Gypsophonik Disko (Ben Ellman+) 

Ticketing info

Robert Walter was in New Orleans for a long time playing across the scene with a driving organ style. He was already well established at that point from his work with the Greyboy All-Stars and the Headhunters. On this particular show, Robert will be leading band a composed of notable instrumental stylists, as well as having Jonathan Freilich in the guitar seat.

Ben Ellman's Gypsophonik is an interesting DJ melange. He calls the style, Sissy Gypsy and it really keeps folks on the dance floor achieving some other state of mind with his mixture of New Orleans Sissy Bounce and Eastern European music.  If you equate his name with Galactic or the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars this will shatter the frame you've got him in.

By the way...

Those of you in the area can also catch a rare West Coast appearance of my other band, The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at the Outside Lands Festival on the day before, Aug. 12.

Time for a little... Blues Power!