I am going. Got my ticket, my hotel room, my route, and everything.

http://www.dc-rock-and-roll.org/

I'll be representing the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (www.rockabillyhall.com) in a semi-official capacity, taking some photos and maybe interviewing some of the participants for later inclusion on the RHOF website. I'm delighted that I will get a chance to see at least one friend, and make some new ones. It is quite a line-up, including many names I recognize as top performers in their own right..It being only about 135 miles away, I mean, we're not talking Memphis or Austin here, it is a really good opportunity to see and hear and meet some top acts of the rockabilly genre. I am really excited

To show you that Randy is not the only musician around, I present for your consideration a motley group of musicians who got together at Chick's Tavern in Hummelstown to play for the benefit of the Hummelstown Food Bank.

From left are Hank, Paul, Big Mitch, and moi! We did some great stuff! Thanks, guys! It was great!

 

I am honored and humbled to realize that links to my webpage are at www.thereturnofthetrumpet.com, the website of one of my favorite books by one of my favorite people, Randy Baran. Thanks, Randy, for the recognition. And to think that our friendship started several years ago in a chance on-line contact at the webpage of our mutual friend, bassist and guitarist Carol Kaye. I don't know; somehow Randy and I just seemed to resonate with each other. Even though we see each other only perhaps once a year, and sometimes not even then, we are REALLY GOOD friends who keep in touch a lot. What a joy it is to see friends recognized for the talent you know they have, and gain success for something they have created which is so much a part of them.

 

Isn't that a beautiful cover!!

And here's a photo of the Real Santa with the incredible Point of Grace.

 

 

Santa and Evan ( Santa is on the left)

I had the opportunity to perform with Point of Grace last Wednesday night. What a cool experience. As soon as I organize the pile of cables around my feet (which tend to take on a life of their own) so I can find my photo reader, I will post the shots that were taken.

Sooooo, what did you do last week? As I look back I can hardly believe the stuff I did. First of all, last week was a fund-raising week at our local public broadcasting station, WITF. Since I never pass up a chance to answer the phone ( Yeah, right. I retired from a job where I answered the phone every day for over 11 years!) I volunteered to go down to the studio and take pledges. L:et's see: Tuesday, 9 to 1 p.m.; Wednesday, 6 am to 9 a.m.; Thursday, 9 to 12; and Friday (Yawp!), noon to 9:15 p.m. It's habit-forming! We were all exhausted and slightly punchy when we went to shut the phones down at 9:15, when my phone rang one last time. I was so tired, I blew the intro. I apologized, and asked the lady if I could take her pledge. She said she wanted to renew her membership, and I asked her how much she was pledging. She said:

                                                   $1000.

I was stunned and asked her to repeat it. She did: $1000. I repeated it, and the volunteers and staff in the room with me went up in smoke. It was a wonderful end to a campaign  that at times seemed like we would never come near what seemed to be an insurmountable goal. We didn't make the goal; we were about $2,300 short, but what we did accomplish, over $31,000 in one day, was truly remarkable and had never been done in the 34-year history of the station. Wow!

 I didn't have much energy for anything for most of Saturday, but we had tickets for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in the evening, and the program was movie music, so I was anxious to go. The soloist was Rich Ridenour; part virtuoso pianist, part Victor Borge, part Willy Wonka. One of these guys with a perpetual twinkle in his eye. The first half consisted of " Hurray for Hollwood," " Brazil," from " The Eddy Duchin Story," and the "Warsaw Concerto," from " Suicide Squadron," which hardly sounds like a movie which would have a memorable music score, but it was a wonderful performance.

 

Second half: It began with the theme from "Peter Gunn," which was actually a TV show, but who's quibbling. It turns out that Rich Ridenour wanted a theme song, and that was the one they selected. I should mention that during intermission, Rich was asking various members of the audience what piano-themed movie music they would like to hear in the second half. The only two I could think of were " The Entertainer," from "The Sting," and the theme from " Chariots of Fire." I made the error of telling Rich that that theme brought tears to my eyes when I heard it.

I should have known: when the orchestra played  "Chariots of Fire," Rich called me to the stage so the audience could watch me cry! Now, if Rich thought that I would be shy in front of the audience, he was WRONG-O! Rich suggested we do a slow race to the tune of " Chariots of Fire." I remembered the slooowwww movements of the "Six-Million Dollar Man," and I emulated them as we raced off the stage and into the audience. The audience burst into laughter ( the desired effect, right?) and a great time was had by all. Hey! I got a chance to play the fool in front of the audience of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra! Thanks, Rich, for a wonderful opportunity!!

Okay, shameless promotion time:

First on a serious note:

 Brian Wilson ( yes, THAT Brian Wilson) is supporting a Katrina Relief Fund charity by placing a personal call to contributors who give $100 or more. Get more details at www.brianwilson.com. ( You also get a real cool thank you from Jerry Boyd, who is spearheading the relief fund effort!)  Hi, guys! *Waves* 

Second, Randy Baran ( yes, THAT Randy Baran; oh, you never heard of him, huh? That will change.) has written a book which I am just bonkers over, and am doing everything I can to promote the book so people will buy it and read it! It is called "The Return of the Trumpet," and is now available on Amazon.com. Buy it! Get it! Read it! There is a review by John Hall ( yes, THAT John Hall!! ) of the book. Now, Ginny and I know Randy and Sandy Baran, so, yeah, that perhaps biases me a little bit, but just a little. If the book were just so-so, I would say," Oh, yeah, Randy, that's great, uh-huh."  However, I am doing everything except buttonholing people on the street and sticking their noses between the pages. The book is really that good!

Now, I have to share this with you, and it's absolutely true. The day before our show, Friday, the 16th, we were having a last-minute rehearsal in R.J's garage in Dallas, PA. Apparently I had developed a new fan who would not be denied: a wild baby squirrel took a liking to me. He kept coming into the garage and trying to crawl up my leg. I love animals and ordinarily would have been thrilled, but...uh....this was a WILD squirrel with who knows what agenda. Rabies of course was a concern, but, no, he just wanted to be friendly. R.J. lent me a pair of gloves to use to get him off me, in case he tried to bite, which he didn't. Here are some shots of me holding the little guy. Notice the tail.

and another shot...

Finally I held him in one hand and took the camera in the other. This is what I got:

Absolutely fearless, like we had been doing this for years. I finally took him waayyy out away from the garage, put him down, dashed back, peeled off the gloves and jumped in my car. He was in hot pursuit, and I was afraid we were going to run over him, but one of the guys blew his horn, which frightened him enough to get him into the woods.Thanks, young fella. It was a unique adventure, and I wish I could have gotten to know you better, but we'll always have Dallas.

THE STARFIRES! Okay, boys and girls, here are the Starfires in concert, Saturday, September 17, in Dallas, PA for Dallas Days.

Although there are six Starfires, Steve Aqualino of the Poets joined us on keyboards for the night so Eddie Day could get out in front of the band and interact more with the 300+ enthusiastic fans who joined us that night. The show was a sell-out, for which we are very grateful. You will notice that we have very few, if any, young'uns( 21-30), in the crowd. These are folks who were with us back in the 60s when we too were young and foolish. What was so cool: we can still rock and so can they! You can't see them, because they are behind the camera, but my whole family was there: my wife, my daughter, my son ( who took most of the shots) and my son-in-law. It is so rewarding when two parts of your life come together like this. I was playing my 1964 Fender Jaguar, the guitar I originally played with the Starfires, which is one of the very few original pieces of equipment from that time.

Here's another shot of the crowd from a slightly different angle.

 

Here I am singing " Good Lovin," the hit by the Rascals. We have five singers and Steve sang too. Dig the shoes!

Me, Roger Griffith, and Chuck McCuen holding forth

 

Dr. Bob Gardner gettin' into it!

I know the photos are dark, but the conditions under which they were shot was not the best, so it's the best we can do!

 

And where was grandson Evan while all this was going on, you may ask? Several miles away keeping company with a cool young lady named Amanda. With Daddy in the background, here's Evan with Amanda. She looks so happy because she had not had a time to spend with Evan yet! I understand toward the end of the evening she looked....um...spent! Thanks, Amanda, for a great job!

Go to this site to donate funds for New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund.  I did. All contributions are tax-deductible.

http://www.nomhrf.org/