The first snow storm this winter finally arrived…

The drive this morning into Boulder was breathtakingly beautiful, as the foothills are completely covered by a thick carpet of fresh, much anticipated December snow.

Today was a fine day. The sun finally came out and I played at the Hell Yeah Church of Love and Miracles with the boys of Interstate Stash Express.

I met Rev. Jane Ann Stansfield in Boulder some 3 weeks ago when Afro Samba played at the St Julien Hotel. She was sitting by the fire and having a conversation with my friend/mentor Cameron Powers, so I decided to go up and say hi. She was a very warm and spiritual lady and the three of us had a wonderful time connecting. She told us about the Hell Yeah Church that she founded and invited us both to come create positive vibrations with our music together with a rock band. So I did.

For the past two to three months, I have been reaching out to the Universe for Guidance, for Wisdom, for Ways to do a better, more focused job as a musician serving Mankind. I want to use my music to help support good universal causes, to help push mankind along on the path of evolution.

In other news, my good friend/vocal coach Ben Senterfit is relocating to Rhinebeck NY in the beautiful Hudson River Valley. His wife Ana Sanjuan got a job at the Omega Institute of Holistic Studies. Ben threw a big music party at the Oriental Theater last night and invited all his friends to play with him on stage. I was honored to be invited along with electric bass genuis Matt Skellenger, harmonica wizard Clay Kirkland, JT Nolan just to name a few.

In my reaching out, I also connected with a talented and beautiful young artist from Salida, Kyndra Brewer. She is a glass artist who does some pretty crazy miniature Chihuly-esque pieces. I discovered after hanging out with her for two days that she’s never even heard of Chihuly until we saw an installation of his in a gallery in Cherry Creek!

I also had lots of fun yesterday laying down some fiddle tracks on Driftwood Fire’s new and upcoming EP. Great songwriting, great vocals!

News from Singapore!!!

As of Nov 30th, I have been promoted to Unclehood! My sister Mei gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Yi Qing. Ellen and I are excited about going back to see her and the rest of the family in January.

More local music news. This afternoon, I had the pleasure of working with some of my favorite musicians at the Tea Dance at the Avalon Ballroom in Boulder. We had Eric Moon (piano), Mike Fitzmaurice (bass), Jim Moore(drums), Susan Rogers (vocals). I think we have decided that we are going to name our band The Exuberents or The Exuberent Quintet or something to that effect. For a band that plays together three times a year and never rehearses, we pulled off some amazing on-the-fly arrangements that “took our own breaths as well as others’ away”. Next Tea Dance: March 9. Next Swing Dance appearance: April 12th.

Last but not least, the musical journey into the Land of the Anything-Goes continues at Michelangelo’s next Sunday Dec 16th. This time, James Han and I will be joined by bass man Doug Anderson. Hope you can join us for our crazy improvisation, on-the-spot musification:)

Stay warm and true to yourselves!