Miss Hollis and I took a wonderful winter thaw-out trip to Florida with fabulous friends John and Erica and returned last Tuesday warmer, tanned, and relaxed. On Wednesday morning at 9:30 a cold hit me, a real devil bug deluxe. I fought it off, it came back stronger, rinse and repeat, repeat, and repeat. After a near-psychedelic experience brought on by cough syrup this morning I went to the doctor. Sure enough it's now a sinus infection. I'm on the good stuff and will be healed soon. Good thing, too, as I have a business trip this week and next, then it's off to WV for the gig with The B.O.A.R.D.

I touched base with Lee Fletcher over the weekend. Lee has been incredibly busy on several high profile projects as of late and doing a bit of traveling, too. Regular readers know that I contributed to two tracks on an EP project that Lee is producing. He reports the project is necessarily on hold for the moment, due to that pesky 24-hours-in-a-day limit, but will see the light of day when the time is right. I am excited to hear the final product when it's ready. Lee is also working on a remix for me and expects to wrap that work up in the near future. I'll talk more about that at a later date.

I also heard from another English colleague and Warr guitarist, Will Cruttenden, over the weekend. Will asked me to participate in a fascinating project that I can best describe as a voice collage set to Will's special music. Will may describe it completely differently! I have some work to do for Will on this fascinating and creative project. More on this as it develops, too.

I gathered up enough energy this evening to upgrade a couple of plug-ins and the POD X3 Pro software to the just released v2.0. After a few minutes of thankfully unexciting upgrade activity, I turned my attention to personal rehearsal and the setlist for The B.O.A.R.D. I hit about one third of the songs and will visit the rest tomorrow. I have business travel Wednesday and Thursday, a social engagement Friday, time for practice sessions on Saturday and Sunday, business travel next Monday and Tuesday, office time on Wednesday, packing on Wednesday evening, and on the road to WV on Thursday. Time, she's a running out! I'm in pretty good shape, I just need to review and polish things a bit. And sometime between now and next Wednesday I need to change strings on a couple of guitars, pack up effects and cables, etc.

Speaking of The B.O.A.R.D., we're playing at 8:30 pm on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Winfield High School in Winfield, WV. The opening band is The Lifeguards (at the Jean Pool). Tickets are $10 and are available at the door.

I had a fun interview with Kara Moore of Charleston Newspapers Friday evening. Kara is doing a story on The B.O.A.R.D. and was curious as to why I would trek from north of the Cheddar Curtain to play a gig in Winfield, WV. I assured her it was all about the money, certainly not a love of the music, the joy of playing with such wonderful musicians, or sharing time with friends I've known for over 30 years. Simply a financial transaction, pure and simple. I don't think she bought it! Kara did a great job and I look forward to seeing the story.

If you are coming to the show and would like to buy a copy of my CD of instrumental guitar music One Feather Shy, and really, who wouldn't, now's the time! Drop me an email and I'll bring a copy for you. The CD sells for $15, cash works really well, and I'll have them after the show. Or, if you're so inclined you can prepay with PayPal, that works really well, too!

And when I get home from all of that, the recording work begins in earnest.