JT, Gadd, UCA Steel, etc...

Ok, I'm back. I promised a full report on the James Taylor concert, but I don't really know what to say except HOLY COW! It was great. I won't bore you with too many details, but here are a few. First of all, Gadd was incredible. I don't know how much James Taylor is paying him, but it's not enough. We had great seats. I don't think that there was a better view of Gadd in the whole place. We were about 80 feet from the stage and positioned so that the only thing between us and Gadd was his hi-hat (and occasionally the bass player when he stepped forward). Our view was assisted by a dedicated "GaddCam" and a number of large video screens. As a bonus, Luis Conte is on tour with James Taylor playing percussion.


And of course, let's not forget James Taylor. After all these years he still sounds great. He put on an incredible show with an incredible band. We got our money's worth, too. He started playing about 8:10 and finished up around 10:50. If he's coming to your town, you better get some tickets.

Here's a pic taken from my seat.



By the way, because we were running a little behind schedule we had to eat at the Starwood Amphitheatre where the concert was held. How bad could it be? Pretty bad! Have you ever gone to your local grocery store and bought the 89 cent store brand cheese pizza? OK, now imagine that you cooked it in your microwave and then let it sit uncovered on your countertop for about 17 hours. Then you reheated it and then another 2 hours later reheated it again. Sound good? It sure does to me after eating what they serve at Starwood. And, it's 4 dollars and 11 cents more expensive. But, it gave us enough fuel to rock out with Gadd and JT all night, so it was worth it (sort of).

Before the Nashville trip I did a performance with the UCA Steel Drum Combo at the ABA convention in Little Rock on Thursday and then a clinic there on Friday. The clinic went pretty well and I had a good crowd. I got a lot of positive responses afterwards and I hope that most people found it helpful.

Here's a shot of the combo sporting our now and very colorful t-shirts.



Then, Friday night my friend Andy Harnsberger was in town playing with the Jack Daniels Original Silver Cornet Band. After the show we had a chance to go out to the Flying Saucer and Willy D's piano bar. It was 80's night at Willy D's, so we got to hear a lot of our childhood favorites (Journey, Loverboy, Whitesnake, Hall and Oates, etc...) performed on dueling pianos.

Yesterday I did a lot of work on the new piece I'm writing. I am really pushing to get it finished by this weekend. Things are really starting to move on it, so I am hopeful.

More later,
Blake