On July 17, 2001, I was involved in a freak accident at my parents house in Dilley, Tx, in which I sustained 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body and spent 2 1/2 months in a medically induced coma and I lost all 4 fingers on my left hand. After all the therapy and all, it's been 3 years and I'm back and playing again, gigging again, and I have made some resolutions. There are some things I've got to do, so these are the new year's resolutions.

Once a week I'm going to start publishing on the website a pattern for improvisation that is written on the steel guitar but can be used for any other instrument. Since my accident I can't play guitar any more, so it's made me more aware of the steel guitar, and therefore it's made me more aware that music is music and all instruments are the same. I'm writing a book and using the website to help me with the discipline of putting a new pattern together every week. After 25 weeks, I'll have a book ready for publication that uses these patterns, written on pedal steel guitar, but useful for all instruments.

If you download these patterns as they come out, once a week, you'll have the whole book and you won't have to buy it.

I'm almost done with the new CD. Keep checking back. It won't be much longer now.

I'm getting back into the San Antonio scene, and back in touch with old friends, great musicians. Next gig is with my old friend Jimmy Spacek at the end of the month. More about that in a minute.

Jimmy's music is loved in Jerryspringerville, Texas just as much as it is in Paris. Paris, France. Maybe Paris, Texas, too, but that's beside the point.

So I'm playing that gig, and I'm still working on my CD. And it's almost done. Won't be long now.

I'm so fortunate to be able to add some really important spices in the Texas blues soup. Jimmy's going to be on it, and Neal Black, too. I've been getting in touch with all my old friends, and we're still playing together just like we used to.

And all this is possible with the fine management of Jeff Hamm. Thanks, Jeff, for putting up with me.

Now, back to the gig. Saturday night, October 30, starting around 7pm at Kicastor's Korner, southeast of San Antonio off of 1604. Come in costume. Who knows, there might be pictures up here the next day.

Kicastors Korner
830.947.3551

Me and Tim Tindall are recording -- well, we're looking for a time to work on a new CD. It'll be me, Tim on bass and James Wormworth on drums. James is in Spain right now, doing a gig in Barcelona, and will be back in about two weeks and we already have some studio time booked. Looking forward to whatever comes out of that union, because these guys are my favorite bass player and drummer in the whole wide world.

Tim just got a brand new bass made by a Japanese guy named Yoshi who makes Xotic guitars. Yoshi made the bass to Tim's specifications and it's just beautiful, man.

So here's what's been going on. Last Friday, I worked with George Kilby, Jr. at a club in Piermont, NY, the Turning Point, a very, very cool place that's been around for years, right outside the city. I had worked there previously with Papa John Creach and the Holmes Brothers, and Friday I had the opportunity to work there with George. George does music like country-meets-the-blues. Instrumentation at this gig: baritone sax, bass, Neil Thomas on accordian, me on the pedal steel guitar, George on guitar and vocals, and Scotty Byrn on drums. Scotty's a damn good drummer for any kind of music, whatever it is.

Went and saw Scotty play at a club called the Knitting Factory, which is THE place for anything new. There are like 4 different rooms in this place, with a different type of music in every room, so on any given night, you can listen to blues or punk or the wildest improvisational jazz, or whatever is new and exciting.

Scotty's an old friend I met through Neal Black a long time ago. The last time I played with him, he had just bought a 1947 marching band bass drum that was about 10 feet tall, and during sound check, he brought out a hammer and nails and actually nailed it to the bandstand.

Tuesday, I played with an old friend, Homeboy Steve. He sings and plays guitar. He's a fixture in the NYC rockabilly and blues music scenes. Everybody knows Homeboy Steve. At the same gig, Neil Thomas, pianist/accordianist. Neil plays with everybody in town. He used to have a band called the Surreal McCoys. He plays with a hint of Cajun in his music.

Back way up...
The session in San Antonio was a reunion of people I hadn't seen in a long time. It went great and I wish Randy the best of luck on the CD. Neal, as always, did a wonderful job of being the producer of the session, and he didn't play guitar too bad, either. Too many notes, but he'll get over that when he gets older.

It was more fun hanging out than it was playing the music, and it's always fun to play the music.

And back to the present...
I'm looking for a place to stay in New York where I can actually be by myself, and I'm working that out slowly but surely. But I'm looking forward to getting back to Texas with all my friends and relatives and good, cheap Mexican food!

After being in NY for a couple of months, trying to get some shit together, my friend, fellow compatriot, fellow Blues brother, Neal Black, calls me out of the clear blue sky. I haven't seen him for a while and had been trying to get hold of him for 2 months. We'd been missing each other... well, not missing each other, but you know what I mean. I had some family matters to take care of in Texas, and before I left I had been recording with Donny Meals at his studio, Edit Point Studios, in San Antonio, doing some original stuff and trying to regain my place as Gitardo.

So it just so happens that, after not having talked to Neal for months, and not having talked to Donny for months, I told Donny I'd be down in a week. He tells me Neal will be there the same week, so here we are, in San Antonio, at the same time, and we're going to play some music together, and it's going to be a great week of playing music with old friends and working on some original music, when all I thought this trip would be was to take care of some boring family shit.