Music … playing and teaching

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Peace and good tunes

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Time to settle back into the teaching routine. The kids are back in school and the gig level has dropped back to just weekends. My private studio is running at about 85%.

I’m excited for the Fall season. The foliage in this part of the country is amazing and it’s time to start organizing for my New Hampshire Independent School of Music fall ensembles. I’m blessed to conduct 3 adult ensembles. The folk group is around 7 members strong. The jazz group is 5 members and the string group is a little thin at this time with just 2 musicians (one violin and one cello). I’ll have to step up to the plate and dust off my viola chops so we can have a string trio. If anyone in the lakes region of New Hampshire is interested in any of these groups check out the NHISOM web page at www.NHISOM.org

Peace and good tunes to you, D. Patrick

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It’s a very exciting day for Lisa Young & Co. Today we are off to Brunswick Maine for a performance in the V.I.P tent for the coordinators, sponsors and performers at this years “Brunswick Maine Naval Air Show“. It’s expected that there will be up to one thousand people in attendance for the dinner and gala to kick off the air show. The air show starts tomorrow Sept 6th and runs through Sunday Sept 7th.

We are also very excited for the release of Lisa’s new CD “Reach For The Sky”. The actual release is set for Sept 28th but the company that has been putting together the finale CD disk and cover (Disk Makers) said it will be at our door 10:30am today in time for the air show. Our fingers are crossed as we have to be on the road by 11:00. Wish us luck.

Peace and good tunes, D. Patrick

It has been one of the busiest summers for music performances since I moved to the East coast a little over 8 years ago. I logged in 55 gigs from June 1st to August 31st. That isn’t a record but is certainly comes close.

Labor Day 2008 is now in the history books. School is back in session for the lakes region of New Hampshire. The morning s are feeling a little more crisp with a dry coolness in the air. Some of the leaves are starting to show signs of change. Time to settle back into a more steady teaching routine. There are some big shows coming up, not to mention Lisa’s CD release party but the gigs will taper off to mostly weekends. I am however, getting excited to the group of returning and new music students.

Peace and good tunes, D. Patrick

It’s a busy weekend to close out the tourist season for Lisa Young & Co.

Tonight it’s the Bridgewater Inn Bridgewater NH then Sunday a private party on Lake Winnipesaukee followed by the last show of the season for the Town Docks in Meredith NH. We hope you all have a great Labor day Weekend and please try to get out and support live music.

Peace and good tunes to you D. Patrick

I love music. Once again due to music I made a new friend. Lisa Young and Co. was playing at Fun Town Splash Town in Saco Maine Saturday and as luck would have it my digital camera failed on me. I saw a man in the audience with a digital camera and and asked if he would take some pics and e-mail them to me. He said sure and as it turns out he is an electric guitar builder. I check out his page and they are really cool guitars. Be sure to check them out at www.mbkustomguitars.com/

Peace and good tunes to you, D. Patrick

What a fun but crazy week. After the jazz concert Lisa’s band had me playing at the Bristol Concert series in Bristol NH on Thursday, then Friday it was the Town Docks Meredith (great crowd for that one), and yesterday it was Fun Town Splash Town Saco Maine for a great concert with a large crowd of receptive folks having fun.

Today (Sunday) I’m off for a full day with the Moose Mountain Jazz band in Harpswell Maine for the Harpswell Maine Festival.

Peace and good traveling tunes to you, D. Patrick

I know I have been negligent in staying up with this blog site. My intention was to post every day but life gets in the way. It’s being a busy yet fun life. In the past 14 days I have had 8 gigs, finished construction on the new studio, moved into the new studio, and managed to sneak off to Wells Maine for two night s with my wife Lisa and her two girls, and today we celebrate her oldest girls sweet 16 with friends and family.

The last night we were in Maine we met 4 kids (I say kids cause they were all 22 and I have two sons in their 30’s) from Canada. The power of music became yet again a very strong and irresistible force. I heard string music coming from the room next to ours. I nonchalantly walked past the room to see one guy playing the guitar and one other fellow playing the ukulele. I listened for a minute and they were very good. Lisa came to see what I was doing and … to make a long story short … we hooked up with these French speaking musicians and shared music, sang, and laughed into the wee hours of the night. Our girls hung around with the adults that evening instead of heading off to the arcade and they sang and had a blast as well. So not only did we have a great family get away but we made some new musical friends to boot. Music, once again, has proven to be a great way to meet new friends and enjoy life in spite of any spoken language barrier.

Peace and good tunes to you. D. Patrick

Busy, Busy, Busy. Busy is good. Doing the 2nd of 5 gigs in 4 days today. Remember to play some music today.

Peace and good tunes to you, D. Patrick

Eric Erskine is a singer songwriter, fellow musician and a dear friend. I have had the honor of performing with Eric many times over the last four or five years. Eric is a prolific songwriter and has five high quality CD’s to his credit. Eric has just been nominated by the LA Music Awards for male vocal performance of the year. The LA Music Awards are the biggest honors bestowed to independent musical artists. He was nominated for his vocal performance of his song “Real Love” on his new CD “Thinking Out Loud.” You’ll want to check out his MySpace page to learn more and hear the music of this talented artist. Click on the links. Not only will you be supporting an independent artist but you’ll also be doing yourself a huge favor by discovering for yourself the talented singer/songwriter, Eric Erskine.

Good luck Eric. Keep up the good work. Love your music and you big guy.

Peace and good tunes, D. Patrick