More pictures from Stomness

Dave Amos took these from the back of the Stromness Hotel. An actual set of pictures of the whole band at once!

Tony and Sue's Orkney Photos!

Tony and Sue sent me a link to some photos in Myspace. Tony Winfield, as you may know, is a great photographer! Check them out on Myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/bluesxx

or on the web here:

www.bluespics.co.uk

So, to business- These photos are linked in from Myspace, so my apologies if the display is slow. Sometimes those myspace photo albums are slow to load. Check out the suit on Dino! Man, sharpest dressed bass player around.....

More Sacred Steel Videos...

Had some some time to kill today, so I spent some of it looking around youtube. Here's my favorite find of the day, a video of the Campbell Brothers laying in Church, Sacred Steel style. Nothing much to say, other than sit back, and try and stay seated through the whole thing....

Lap Steel lessons

A bunch of you have been asking about this....

I've started recording some lap steel guitar lessons that I'll post on YouTube (finally, eh, Paul?) Stay tuned, I'll link them here. Mostly the basics of how to tune and

The Orkney Blues festival (Special Thanks and Mentions)

What a great weekend....

Had a great time hanging out and listening to Blue Rooster, the Bad Liars, Bad Taste, BWB, Last Train, Stevie Hay and the Rayvons and Keith Christmas. Even with all the gigging there was plenty of time to hang out, a minimum of gear to move and all hassle-free.

My thanks to Graham, John and the guys from Blue Rooster, the guys from BWB and the Bad Liars, all of whom loaned us gear, and managed to move most of it as well.

And Steve, Walter, Caroline and the other organizers, you all did a superb job, everything ran like clockwork.

So, as always, I love going to Orkney. It's like going home for me, something in the landscape and the relaxed attitude of the Orkadians. The weather was outstanding and the music great too. I'm ready to go back any time.

Thanks again, all! See you soon....

Back from Orkney

Off to grab a little sleep, it was a late night followed by an early ferry and a long drive. All worth it!

Pictures and videos to follow. In the mean time, a million thanks to Walter, Steve, John and Graham(s), Robert, Mike, Caroline, Maureen, Adrian and all the other folks that made it such a great weekend, loaned us gear and made that festival the great time it was.

Crash first, post later. Lots to write about, including Blue Rooster, Bad Liars, BWB, Stevie Hay....

Globalization, a little too far.....

Strange to see these two names on the same sign.....

Globalization, a little too far.....

Strange to see these two names on the same sign.....

And another...

And another video download, this time it is a quick take on Walking Blues, with some improvised lyrics.

Sackcloth and Ashes

Well, I tried out my new Flip Video recorder this weekend at the Bond. It's pretty cool, small and easy to run, audio isn't too bad either. So, here's a clip I've extracted of 'Sackcloth and Ashes', one of the songs from the new CD. I put it out on youtube for grins, take a listen and see what you think!

Some travel photos

Hey, it's the travel season. Here's some travel photos.....

Orkney Blues Festival!!!

Well, it's just a couple of weeks till Orkney. It's always like going home for me, there so much about Orkney that reminds me of rural Alaska.

The band has been working up a whole bunch of new songs that I've written over the last six months. For those of you that haven't seen my band since the big re-shuffle earlier in the year, it's a kicking trio that plays all the hard-edged country blues really, really well. And that's saying something, because it's an odd hybrid of old-school country and hill country blues with a rock-n-roll attitude. Remember that Glenn Highway Blues cd of mine? We're screaming into that pocket and tapping into a major river of attitude. Bring comfortable shoes, you'll likely need them if there's space to dance.

Well, ok, there's still a big obvious influence of Chicago and Texas blues, etc. We've got 3 shows to play and I'd bet my draft card that they'll all be dramatically different.

Here's the website:

http://orkneyblues.co.uk/

See y'all real soon. If you're not making the trip, well, shame on you.