Heya, I thought spring break for college kids was all about darting to the warmth of Mexico. Or to take over Palm Springs’ conservative downtown. Or even better, make the pilgrimage to that lake in Arizona where the rules ceased to exist long ago. But check this out, last week my daughter Kylie and I took in an entirely different scene at the base of Mount Rainier, Washington. For her spring break Kylie decided to go to Boston to visit a friend. She had a few days off over the weekend before she bolted so I decided to fly up and touch base with her first at her college in Tacoma, next we made our way to the full blast winter saga taking place at the base of Mount Rainer, and finally to Jimi Hendrix’s museum in Seattle. It was a great trip, nice to unplug from SpragueLand and the button pushing and best off, to reconnect with our twenty year old jet setter Ky. She’s a great kid and we’re already looking forward to her visit back home over the summer.
 Kylie and Peter getting ready to hit the mountain trails. That’s the Alexander’s Country Inn in the background.  Your guide, Mountain Pete leading you off to the great unknown…  Snowy spring break in Mt. Rainier!  The EMP Museum in Seattle designed by Frank Gehry. We call it the Jimi Hendrix Museum.  That’s Jimi’s paisley shirt that he wore in London. It still looks good to me and I’m currently at Macy’s trying to find one. Striking out!  Wall ‘O Guitars at EMP! Great looking sculpture that through special mechanics can actually play the instruments too. Last month when I was on tour in Poland with Dianne Reaves, the concert folks video taped the show at Bielsko-Biala. Peter Martin, the pianist, just sent me this link of our opening band number that night. It cooks and the video production is fantastic! That’s Peter Martin on piano, James Genus on bass, Terryon Gulley on drums and me on guitar. Click on the photo and it’ll take you to the video.
On tap for this week I’m looking forward to a Thursday night solo guitar hit at The Roxy in Encinitas. I was playing this gig every week but now it’s morphed into a once a month event as I’ve gotten ultra full on traveling gigs and the studio world. All good however it plays out and the main thing is to strum a few chords for friends and fans. See you there!
Last up for the week on Friday the Magster and I hop in the Element and make the drive to the magic of Sedona for a weekend workshop/concert hang with the Road Work Ahead group. That’s Bob and I along with Jim Plank on drums and Bill Mays on piano. It’ll be a hoot and if you’ve got connections in Sedona, let ‘em know we’re in town sharing the good words of jazz. Details are below.  Rehearsing at SpragueLand with Road Work Ahead. Left to right, Jim Plank, Peter, Bob, and Bill Mays. Play on folks and thanks for reading…adios, Peter |
“Wall Street”
One of the songs I’ve been working on in preparation for the RWA hit in Sedona this week is my tricky little prankster of a song called “Wall Street”. We recorded it on the Intersection CD and it’s been in our wheelhouse lately. As I was in the process of composing it became clear to me that I ought to call the song “Wall Street.” It starts with some high-tension educated notes leading to a riff that embodies the smirky swagger of someone who just got away with something. All politics aside, the magic is happening secretly on the down low. Check it out!