Saying goodbye to Lucy

Last night we said goodbye to dear friend and family member. She left us in the early hours of the morning, peacefully in her sleep surrounded by a small group of family members who love her. What a day, explaining this to a seven year and an eight year old.

No flowers. Just call someone you care about today and tell them that.

yeah, class of '83.

Yup, you found me.

At least they're playing Fenders....

Remember these guys?

Cupar blues and beyond...

Played a solo set in front of Wolftrain last night at the Cupar Blues and Beyond club last night. Great to get back across the Tay bridge and see some old friends, and try out some new songs.

Wolftrain was great, as always.

I had my ES-125 plus a lap steel and an acoustic guitar that I never touched. Seemed the music felt right on an electric guitar, rather than that acoustic. And the lap steel always sounds great in that big room.

New songs, from the new CD- "Toss and Turn", "Sackcloth and Ashes", "Ball and Chain", "Nothing out of place", and "Long way to fall". Some Old faves, like "Goodnight Irene". The rest is a blur.

A million thanks to those of you that warned me about the traffic, and to Wolftrain for letting me plug into their gear. And of course to Charlie and the gang at the blues and beyond club. It's a great gig, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

What is the deal with my schedule?

Yeah, I've been distracted. I'll update my website and my blog schedule this weekend.

what was that guitar?

I've been asked enough about this lately that I thought I'd just clear it up for y'all. The guitar I've been playing lately is this one in the Tony Whitfield picture below (ok, it's from Orkney last year but it's the only picture I have of the guitar). It's an old Gibson ES-125T. 'T' for the thin body, one very hot P-90 pickup and off you go.

The best part? Outside of the fact that it sounds amazing? It weighs less than 5 pounds.

Fire on a United flight from Rio

So, I found this on youtube- it's a before and after video of a recent United Airlines flight out of Rio. The plane was stuck on the ground because of air traffic control and in the early part of the video the passengers are a little unruly. Understandable, they spent 3 hours on the ground in the plane and stuck in their seats. The front part of this video is a passenger rebellion that almost ended the flight. The Brazillian police were called and several passengers arrested.

So, the plane takes off, it's a Boeing 777 fully loaded with gas on the way to New York. And at about 3 minutes into the flight the cockpit fills with smoke. The pilots switch over to oxygen masks and turn the plane around, setting it back down on the ground. Because they're so heavy with gas (and have no time to dump it) they land heavy and fast, scrub the fires and burn out the brakes (that's why the fire trucks are hosing down the tires, to keep them from catching fire and the plane exploding.

Everyone walks away, a little scared, but safe and alive to fly another day. How do I know all this? That voice you hear at 3:02 in the video is my baby brother, who landed that plane.


Oh, here's the video.....

CLICK HERE


Way to go Pete! You're a hero in my book...