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gigs

One of my Favorite Open Mic Nights!

As a new musician in the South Bay area I’ve been haunting the open mics looking for gigs and friends. This is one of my favorite open mic nights. It’s located at Murphy’s Law in downtown Sunnyvale and a ton of local musicians know about it. Besides the smooth, cool bass and vocals of the nights host, Mike Phillips, the night features the host guitarist Johnny Cat Soubrand! Johnny delivers some of the coolest vintage guitar work I’ve ever heard. And I’ve heard a lot of guitarists. He’s musical, tasteful, and totally engaging to watch and listen to. I caught a few excerpts of his solos last Monday night on video. To think you can watch this concert talent in a “no cover” venue is unbelievable. Thanks to Mike, Johnny and June for sharing their awesome music with us and then sharing the stage!

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gigs

Trip to Colorado

I went back to Colorado to play a concert. I hated to leave California because I’m getting connected here. That being said I had a great time and got to catch up with some old friends. I video-d a bit of the concert. Here is an excerpt.

I’m playing bass in Joanne Leblanc’s blues band. Good fun for sure. Some of the legendary local musicians gig with her. I’m still looking for places to play solo but the bass guitar work is awesome fun. I’m going to create a page on this site for my bass promo 🙂

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Back to California

I’m in a hotel in Wendover Utah. Driving west back to the South Bay after several successful gigs in Colorado. I might post a video of a gig there on the video page. I’m tired. 10 hours to drive tomorrow and trying to blog on the iPad keyboard is hard! The Mini is runnin great so far. Fingers are crossed and eyes are closing…

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Sitting in Around the South Bay

Wil-on-the-Cilarne-boat-

So I’m getting out and meeting other musicians. The open mic nights have been fun and even led to a couple of gigs. There is no substitute for networking. Meeting some killer musicians and incredibly nice people. Many thanks for my friend Tom Buckman for helping me get connected. I’ve got to go back to Denver for a couple of weeks to perform a concert and drive one of our cars back to California. It will be fun to see my friends back there and perform in Cordillera. I will miss my wife and my new friends here though.

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Back in the U.S.A.!

And we got here for the 4th of July. How appropriate 🙂

The weather is stunning. That being said I will miss my friends in Ireland. We are up to Lake Tahoe for the holiday and then back to start our new life in South San Francisco Bay. I’ll be hitting some open mic nights to hopefully meet some other musicians and get a lay of the land. It’s great to be back in California. I lived in San Diego in the 90’s and have fond memories of the weather and people.

All the best to everyone in Ireland and thanks for a wonderful 3 years of music and friendship. Please come visit!!

Crossing the Sierra Nevada

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Travel

Singapore for Easter?

Wil in SingaporeSo my wife and I went to Singapore for Easter.
Whats up with that? Paris for St. Paddy’s and now Easter in Asia. No particular reason. We are not trying to get out of Dublin on Catholic holidays. On top of that we are sitting in a tapas bar listening to Cuban music in Singapore. Cultural overload!! I love the Cuban grooves. I wonder if I could do them justice as a solo. Might try someday 🙂

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Travel

Paris for St Patrick’s Day?

So we decided to get out of town for the St Patrick’s day week end. I know I should be working in a pub in Dublin somewhere but I’ve worked them before. I’ve never seen a St Patrick’s day in Paris 🙂
A crepe and expresso by the Madeleine is what I’m enjoying today! I hope my friends working the crowds in Ireland have a great week end though. I’ll be chillin with my wife in Paris.

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gigs

Celbridge Rocks

Plenty of action Saturday night with the Groove Brothers at The Village Inn Celbridge. Martin and I were having fun and in good form. Martin didn’t even try his Wayne Newton impersonation. Funny, but I kind of missed it.

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gigs

The Blarney Inn and Kildare Street Hotel Dublin

So I’m really liking this job in City Centre at The Blarney Inn. It’s the pub connected to a hotel on Kildare street called The Kildare Street Hotel. I get a very diverse crowd and everyone is visiting Dublin. http://www.kildarestreethoteldublin.com/.

It holds true to my theory that people on vacation are easy to play for. Currently they are remodeling the pub and the night club. We’ll see how things pan out there but its a nice place to play. My lovely wife came in with my mother in law last night too. We celebrated my wife’s birthday. I won’t mention which birthday. :–)

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gigs

Good Fun in Temple Bar Last Night!

What a great time I had playing ag The Purty Kitchen last night. We had a great group of young people from France and Spain.  I had a request for “La Bamba”, (no surprise) and the 1970s classic “Dust in the Wind”. “Dust in the Wind”? Are you kidding me? I would have never guessed this young audience would have even known of that song. Their parents, must have played it for em. 🙂

I’ll look forward to going back to that gig soon.