Paul Richards - California Guitar Trio

March tour

2010-03-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Port Hadlock, Olympic Peninsula, Washington

We arrived here in Port Hadlock yesterday afternoon. We took the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry over and had the evening off.

I sat and watched the sunset from this spot.

We had a day off in Seattle, and stayed at a hotel by the Puget Sound. I spent the day getting caught up on tour accounting, and I went to two of Tom Douglas' restaurants, Lola for breakfast and Dahlia Lounge for dinner with Bert and Hideyo. Both places were excellent!

Bert taking a photo of the waves near Heceta Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast. We had really great concerts in Red Bluff CA, Florence, Gleneden Beach, and Clatskanie.

Heceta Oregon

Heceta Lighthouse

View from my hotel room in Florence Oregon. We've been lucky on this tour with good weather and traveling through some really beautiful areas.

This is the view from my hotel room at the Snow King Resort in Jackson, Wyoming. When I was 19 years old, I joined a rock band and my first road trip was to play at the bar in this hotel!!! It was great to come back again years later and play at the beautiful new Performing Arts Center this time.

Driving through Teton Pass from Idaho Falls to Jackson Wyoming.

We began the tour in Salt Lake City with some rehearsing at my house, and then a concert at Bountiful high school, my old school where I played my first concerts at age 15. And then we had a sold out show at the State Room in Salt Lake City. The front row was lined with several of my former guitar teachers and band mates. I had any friends in the audience that night. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to say hello to everyone!

After Salt Lake, we played a concert at the historical Colonial Theater in Idaho Falls.

This photo was taken on February 8th on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. This was the day after our 19th anniversary concert held at McCabes in Santa Monica. The very first CGT show was just a few miles away at the Natural Fudge Cafe on Fountain Ave on February 7th, 1991.

CGT/MG3 in Quebec

2009-10-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

CGT/MG3 Rehearsals in Montreal. Photo by Hugues

CGT/MG3 Photo by Hugues

11:15am. I am sitting in the back of the CGT Chevy van. Bert is driving, Hideyo is sleeping. The Saint Lawrence River is on our left as we begin the long drive from Montreal to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and there are still some bright fall colors, although most of the leaves have already fallen. Life is good.

We arrived in Montreal last Monday evening and had sushi dinner at a restaurant near the hotel on St. Denis Street.

On Tuesday morning, I had my haircut (shorter than I wanted!), and then went to the famous Schwartz Deli for lunch. I practiced guitar and worked on music for the shows with the Montreal Guitar Trio.

On Wednesday morning, we met the Montreal Guitar Trio (MG3) at a rehearsal space near the hotel. We had only met them once before, just briefly, at a music conference in Eugene Oregon where we heard them play, and they heard us play. After introductions, we sat in a circle, tuned our guitars, and began playing together. Wow! The music immediately came to life. It was as if we had been playing with them for years. They learned some of our music, and we had learned some of theirs. Everyone was well prepared and all the pieces came together very fast. We rehearsed completely acoustically, without any amplification. The sound of the steel string guitars blended with the 3 nylon string guitars is amazing. The Montreal Guitar Trio are excellent players.

On Thursday we played the first CGT/MG3 show in Saint Hyacinthe, a smaller city just east of Montreal. The show was in a really nice arts center, in a theater with cabaret style seating, tables and chairs and a bar in the back. The sound check was a bit stressful, trying to get all the levels set, balancing their microphones with our direct lines. The concert began at 8pm, with the MG3 performing music from Ennio Morricone’s score of “Once upon the time in the West”, and then a very modern sounding piece from Psycho. Followed by an Flamenco sounding piece, and wrapped up thier first segment with a very powerful piece of music inspired by traditional Indian music raga. The last piece slowly worked the audience into a frenzy and they were on their feet cheering wildly at the end. That is a touch act to follow!!! I remember getting ready to go onstage and wondering what we could possibly play that could follow that! CGT played a good set and were also very well received with another standing ovation at the end of our set. After the intermission, both CGT and MG3 played another piece and then we all played together. The pieces that we played all together sounded great and the audience responded really positively. It was a great first show together.

On Friday morning we drove from Montreal to Quebec City. It had snowed the night before and there was snow on the ground. The ice rink next to the venue was open with quite a few Ice skaters already enjoy the winter-like weather. I did a radio interview on CBC radio and then over to sound check. The Palais Montcalm is an amazing venue; perhaps one of the best of it’s kind in the world. Sound check was difficult. The sound is a bit more complicated with 6 guitars, especially when 3 of the guitarists use microphones only. Sometimes it happens that when the sound check is really bad, the concert can be really good. And fortunately this was the case for this show. The audience was on their feet cheering at the end of MG3’s first segment. It was difficult to follow such a strong set! Bert, Hideyo and I decided to begin with the Bach Prelude Circulation because there was really nothing else we could follow the MG3’s very rocking Indian piece. The CGT set gradually built up and we received a very enthusiastic standing ovation at the end of our set. During the last half of the show, we added one more piece of music for the CGT/MG3 to play together, so we played a total of 5 pieces together. I could feel a big wave of positive energy coming from the audience. CGT and MG3 played very well together. I was actually really surprised at how well everything went with the spectacular response from the audience and the powerful combination of music between CGT and MG3.

Photos by Hugues

Click Here for: More photos by Hugues of the concert in St. Jerome.

On Saturday morning, we drove through the rain back to the Montreal area for the show in Saint Jerome, which is just north of Montreal. It was a smaller show, but again, we the response from the audience was extremely positive.

Sunday we played a private house concert for some friends of Marc of the MG3. It was really small, with about 25 people there. They made an amazing dinner for us, and treated us like kings.

Click here for: More photos by Hugues of the house concert.

I look forward to playing more shows with MG3 next year!!!

October tour

2009-10-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Charlotte, NC

This morning is the first morning since the tour began that we didn’t have to drive. It’s rainy and cold outside, so it’s a good chance to stay in my hotel room and get caught up on the diary. We are staying in a nice hotel, and I can actually open my window for fresh air. Although my view is not so great, and hopefully there is nothing toxic coming out of those vents.

Bert, Hideyo and I arrived in Charlotte yesterday late afternoon and were treated to amazing home cooked Italian food last night by our friends that live here in the Charlotte area. Thanks Gary and Jo!

To recap on the past week:

On Monday and Tuesday of last week, CGT was in Kevin Ratterman’s studio in Louisville KY recording more tracks for our new album. We recorded 2 original compositions and an arrangement of Hideyo’s of a traditional Japanese Koto piece written in the 1600’s. One of the original pieces is something that I wrote the original ideas for a few years back when I was in Argentina, playing music with some Argentinean friends. The piece is called Chacarera and is based on an Argentinean rhythm of the same name. CGT had recorded a version of this piece for one of our earlier Cds, and Robert Fripp suggested that it wasn’t quite ready yet for release, so we are giving it another try now. And have been including it in our set lists on the current tour. The other original piece was written by Hideyo and is called Hazardous Z. Hideyo wrote this piece in Japan while playing music with two of his Japanese pals, and we’ve made a new version for the CGT. While I was creating my own part for Hazardous Z, I was inspired by some music by Tony Levin, Terry Bozzio and Steve Stevens, which had a very flamenco sound to it. I recorded my part on my part over Hideyo’s initial recording of the piece on my laptop at home, and emailed it to Bert, who got out his nylon string classical guitar and created a beautiful Spanish sounding part. The scale used in this piece is one that is often used in middle-eastern music and also classical music. Hazardous Z is a Japanese, Belgian, Utahan, Spanish, Middle-Eastern, Classical fusion!

Kevin Ratterman and Bert in the studio

Hideyo changing strings

Bert recording Hazardous Z.

CGT soundman Tyler Trotter is opening his own store in Louisville and will not be joining us on tour for now. We got to visit Tyler and see his new space being transformed into a very cool beer store. The grand opening is on October 30^th. Good luck with the store Tyler. We will miss you on tour!

The first show of the tour was last Thursday in small church by the water in Oxford MD. It was our first show without Tyler doing sound for us in many years. It was a challenge to figure out how to do the live recording as Tyler had taken care of that for us. Basically, we have transferred all the gear that Tyler had at the house soundboard up onto the stage and are controlling most everything from the stage. The recording did not happen the first night, but by the second night of the tour, we had all the gear running properly and were able to sell the live recording after the show.

Before we made the drive from Oxford MD to Frederick. A very friendly Oxford local took Bert and I for a ride on his boat in the waters around Oxford. What a beautiful place. Many people told us that once we visit the Oxford area, we are going to want to move there, and I can see why they say that.

Oxford MD

The show on Friday night at the All-Saints Church in Frederick was really great. This was our 7^th or 8^th time playing at this Church. Our friends/promoters Harry and Jeanne take very good care of us, and I always enjoy playing for the people who come to the shows there. I also feel some roots in Frederick as it’s very near where I took my first Guitar Craft course back in 1986. I used to go to Frederick on my days off on the Guitar Craft courses. I bought my first Ovation guitar from Boe’s Strings and I had my first lunch with Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn at the Firehouse restaurant, just down the street from the All-Saints Church.

The concert at Wolftrap in Vienna MD on Saturday evening was completely sold out. Wolftrap is on our list of best acoustic music venues in the country. It’s an old Vermont Barn that was moved to Vienna and turned into a world-class music venue. Everything about the place is really top notch. The sound system is superb. The staff that works at the venue is great. And the audience there is exceptional. Not only was the show great, it felt like we were beginning to get a good handle on the live recording and controlling the gear on-stage. Hideyo has been running the CDR recorder and doing a great job at creating track ID’s between each piece during the show.

On Sunday night, the concert was in the historical town of Williamsburg Virginia, which was the original colonial capital of the U.S. It’s funny how often we visit places of interest like Williamsburg, but don’t have any time to see anything of the place we are visiting. The concert was in a nice auditorium at the city library. The audience for the show was fairly small in size, but I could tell that they really enjoyed the show.

Monday night was a big surprise for us. The show was at the state theater in Abingdon Virginia, which is all the way on the other side of the state, a 7-hour drive from Williamsburg between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains. We were pleasantly surprised to have an audience of about 400 people in this small town of only 7000 people. Very few of the 400 people in the audience had ever heard of or seen CGT before. It was a lot of fun hearing their responses to each of the pieces we played as the performance unfolded. At the end of the set, the entire audience was standing cheering wildly. We left the stage as we normally do, anticipating a call back for an encore, especially since the audience was so enthusiastic. But as soon as we walked off the stage, I could hear the cheering immediately decrease, and people began leaving. We wondered if the folks in Abingdon are not accustomed to the traditional encore procedure. About 2/3s of the audience were still cheering, so we came back and played another song for them.

On Tuesday, we drove north through the Appalachians on the “Country Music Highway” route 119 up to Williamson West Virginia, which is a small mining town on the border of Kentucky. Several people on the Tug Valley (Williamson) Arts council had seen the CGT play at a booking conference, and they brought us in as part of their yearly concert series, which consists of just a few shows a year. The concert was held in the local high school auditorium. I could tell that there were several guitar players right down front watching our fingers. It seemed as though that they’d never heard or seen an acoustic guitar played quite like we do. This area is the birthplace of many amazing country and bluegrass musicians, so I’m sure they are accustomed to hearing musicians really tear it up on acoustic guitars, but not like CGT does.

CGT on stage in Williamson WV. Photo by Dave Dickens

On Tuesday night we stayed in a motel in Williamson, which was located right next to the train tracks. Every few minutes, trains carrying tons of coal went by screeching and honking their horns. I eventually fell asleep. Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to leave the motel, one of the women working at the motel gave us each a lump of coal as a souvenir from the town. Her name was Shorty Hatfield. She is a direct descendant from the famous Hatfields of the Hatfield-McCoy family feuds. Leaving Williamson we drove down route 52 along the Tug Fork River, the area where the original Hatfield-McCoy’s lived and feuded. There were many little mining towns along the way. Some looked more like ghost towns with rows of empty houses and buildings. We were told that some of the mining towns were booming with as many as 50,000 residents and now were as few as 5000.

Williamson WV

On route 52 from Williamson to Charlotte NC

Rooftop Concert in Louisville 6/25/09 Photos by Rex Thomson

2009-06-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Pawling and Rochester

2009-06-15T06:08:00.001-07:00

CGT with Tony Levin in Pawling NY. Photo by Alan Abriss

Sold out show in Pawling and both shows in Rochester were sold out and completely packed. There was a long line around the building an hour before the shows started, and many were turned away because there wasn't enough room to pack everyone in. Next time we'll have to play a bigger venue!

We are headed to Toronto today where we are playing tonight.

CGT in Pawling. Photo by Alan Abriss

My friend Alan from New York gave me this Cigar Box Guitar! Cool! Thanks Alan!

Belgium

2009-05-17T03:28:00.001-07:00

Brugge Belgium

Last monday Tyler and I travelled to Bert's home town of Affligem Belgium. Bert was planning to join us but needed to make a detour trip to Berlin to visit his daughter. Tyler and I stayed at the house of one of Bert's best friends Benny. Bert and Benny played in a band together for many years called "Tube Screamer". Benny played some vinyl recordings from the band in the late 70's and early 80's and they were actually really good! Benny told us that the band changed format and changed the name (I don't remember the new name...) and then one day Bert announced "I am going to play jazz now" and the band broke up. I enjoyed hearing Benny tell stories about young Bertie, including one where Bert was using his mother's pants as a scarf while riding his small motor bike and the scarf (his mothers pants) getting caught in the chain of the bike, and luckily avoided any serious accident.

Tyler and I did a 3 day tour of Belgium which included Affligem, Antwerp, Brugge, Westvleteren and Brussels. I had been to Belgium twice before on tour, but never really got to have a look around. Belgium is really, really wonderful. I enjoyed driving through the beautiful country side, which reminded me a little bit of England with the small country roads, fields and quaint little villages. And I enjoyed walking though the cities. Tyler and I made stops in several Trappist Monasteries and Belgian Breweries to learn more about the Belgian fine art of brewing beers...Wow! What an amazing tradition. The Saint Sixtus Monastery in Westvleteren was absolutely amazing. And we visited the Cantillon Brewery in Brussels that has been owned by the same family for hundreds of years brewing very unique and special beers called Gueze and Lambic.

In Antwerp we visited a cafe called Kulminator, it began raining, so we staying at the cafe for much of the afternoon!

Tyler at de Bier Temple in Brugge

Brugge

Saint Sixtus Abbey in Westvleteren

Westvleteren Cafe

Westvleteren 8, brewed in very small batches by the Monks at the Abbey, and available only here in Westvleteren, and a few cafe's in Brugge.

Lunch at Westvleteren

Westvleteren Cafe

Affligem Abbey

Vienna

2009-05-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

Vienna Austria

Schloss Belvedere in Vienna

On Friday, we took the train from Innsbruck to Vienna. Friday morning, we didn't quite allow enough time to get to the station on time, and were literally running to catch the train. Thanks to Markus and Bert, we barely made it on time and we piled our luggage, gear and guitars onto the train with just seconds to spare before the train departed the station. This was really the only mishap on the entire tour! After talking with Tony and Pat, it sounds like the CGT tour was almost more of a vacation schedule wise in comparison to the Stickmen tour, which is still going. We met a very nice guy on the train named George, who told us to go to cafe called Alt Wien, which means "old Vienna". After we settled in the apartment, we found Alt Wien on the map and walked through the beautiful streets of central Vienna to find the cafe, which turned out to be a very old, very local cafe. I think we were the only foreigners in the place. The walls were covered with posters of upcoming theater and music events, and it seemed to be the place where the musicians and actors gathered, so we knew we were in the right place. And as recommended by George, we all ordered the Goulash, and it was delicious!

We spent 3 days in Vienna, staying at an apartment in central Vienna. On Saturday morning we worked with the Vienna Guitar Circle. We performed for them, and then they played for us. Then we divided into 3 groups, with Bert, Hideyo and I each showing one of the groups our parts in Blockhead, and then after about an hour (they learned really fast!) we all got back together and played Blockhead all together. I really enjoyed working with the guitar circle and hope to have another opportunity to work with them again.

The Vienna Guitar Circle opened the concert for us on Saturday Night, giving an excellent performance and created a good energy in the venue before the CGT began. The concert was held in a nice small community theater. It was our first time playing in Vienna and I enjoyed the concert very much. I could feel the audience really listening and getting into the music. A great day in Vienna!

On Sunday we did some sight seeing in Vienna. What a beautiful city filled with amazing palaces, churches, theaters, museums and incredible architecture everywhere. We went to both Beethoven's house and Mozart's house... wow! We walked most places, but also wanted to go see the Schloss Belvedere and the Gustav Klimt exhibition there, which was a few kilometers away from the center, so we got in a Taxi to take us there. I heard Bert say "Schloss Belvedere" and also spoke a few other words in German to the taxi driver, and after about 15 minutes drive, the taxi driver pulled up in front of a large palace and the driver announced "Schloss Shune Brune, here you are". Somehow the taxi driver did not listen to Bert saying Belvedere, and we ended up at another palace (which was also amazing) 5 kilometers out of town. We began arguing with the driver, and Bert wanted to run away from him without paying, and after much arguing and I was threatening to call the police, and the taxi driver chasing bert, we finally reached an agreement and he took us to Belvedere. And we saw the palace and the Klimt Exhibition including "The Kiss", and I tried quickly to forgot all about the mishap with the taxi driver. This was the only other small mishap of the tour.

Belvedere

Tyler looking out the window of the apartment.

Gutenberg! He invented the printing press.

Taking a break from walking...

Another break from walking...

More Belvedere

And more Belvedere

Bert doing yoga at Schloss Belvedere

View of Vienna from Belvedere

Mozart's Death Mask

Mozart's Piano

Original Score by Beethoven

View from Beethoven's house

Beethoven's Piano

Hideyo walking on the steps of Beethoven's house.

View out of our apartment.

Church where Mozart was married and had his funeral.

Bert conducting an imaginary orchestra

Mozart's house

Streets of Vienna

Beethoven's house is on the 3rd floor.

Walking the Streets of Vienna

CGT in Vienna

2009-05-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

CGT in Vienna

Milan and Innsbruck

2009-05-07T02:42:00.000-07:00

Innsbruck Austria

11:20am. It’s a really beautiful sunny and warm morning here in Innsbruck. I spend the morning walking around the old part of the city. We have been to Innsbruck before but I never had time to walk around the city. It’s an amazing place with beautiful views of the Alp Mountains surrounding the city.

Yesterday we rode the train from Milan to Innsbruck via Verona. Traveling by train is so much more relaxing that by van or plane. The train ride from Verona to Innsbruck goes straight through the Alps, passing lots of small mountain towns with vineyards and castles. We arrived in Innsbruck last evening around 6:30pm and checked into the hotel. We met up with our good friend Markus Reuter who took us to a local restaurant for the best Schnitzel I have ever had. Markus is a touch guitarist and record producer that has done a lot of work with Pat Mastelotto and has lived here in Innsbruck for 3 years.

On Tuesday evening, we played a show at the Blue Note Club in Milan. What a great venue. The production manager at Blue Note is Fabio Mittino, who we know through the Robert Fripp Guitar Craft courses. Fabio did an excellent job of taking care of us at the venue. And I enjoyed hearing about his recent guitar lessons with jazz guitar legend Pat Martino. The show at Blue Note was very good with the Moonlight Sonata being one of the highlights in the set.

Tyler at the Milan Train Station

Milan Train Station

Castles and Vineyards on the way from Verona to Innsbruck

Arrival in Innsbruck

Hideyo looking for the route to walk from the Train Station to the hotel.

View from my hotel room looking south

View from my hotel room looking southwest

Here are some photos from my walk this morning:

Mozart stayed at this hotel in 1773

Milan

2009-05-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the hotel late last night in Milan. Bert, Hideyo and I just had a very nice lunch at a local Italian restaurant. Of course it was an Italian restaurant, we are in Italy!

Here are some links to the show in Portugal:

Eve with Tony Levin in Portugal

Blockhead with Tony and Pat in Portugal

More Goveia

2009-05-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

Nuno Leonardo Melo Alves at the restaurant in Seia. I think Bert is doing some after dinner yoga.

Gouveia Portugal
10:56am. Today we are traveling from Gouveia back to Porto and then flying to Milano Italy.

Yesterday was the final day of the festival here in Gouveia. Before the shows began, Bert, Hideyo, Tyler and I had a very nice lunch in Seia Portugal with our new friend Nuno Leonardo Melo Alves and his wife Maria. Nuno is a Chinese Medicine specialist and a big fan of CGT. I met him two years ago when we played at the Gouviea festival the first time. We had an amazing meal of Portuguese specialties, which included a desert buffet of over 20 different kinds of cakes, pies, creams and my favorite was a kind a cream caramel they call “Camel Spit”, which is also a favorite of Maria's.

One of the highlights of the festival for me, besides the CGT/Stickmen performance, was David Allen and the University of Errors. David is one of the founding members of a band called Gong, and his own band is very innovative and original. After their concert, we met the guys in the band and enjoyed talking with them sitting on the patio area of the hotel enjoying the beautiful Portuguese spring weather. Josh the guitar player, and Warren the drummer live in San Francisco and also play in a band that I am a huge fan of called Citay.

Here is a photo from Tony Levin, taken at a cafe near the hotel in Gouveia:

Gouveia Portugal

2009-05-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

View from my hotel Room

Theater of the Gouveia Festival

Dinner with the Promoter

My Dinner!

Gouveia Portugal

10:15am. After 3 flights and 24 hours of travel, I arrived in Gouveia Portugal last night. Bert Hideyo, Tyler and I had dinner with the festival promoter last night. At the table next to us were the guys from the band “Focus”. I have a very vivid memory from when I was a teenager in Utah, driving my car along Bountiful Boulevard late one night and hearing Hocus Pocus by Focus for the first time, and being blown away by the amazing guitar playing and unique sound of the band. I look forward to hearing them at this festival

Gouveia is a small city located on top of a small mountain in Portugal. It is a beautiful clear morning. I had a café and Portuguese pastry and then I took a walk and enjoyed the views. We’ll begin rehearsing in just a little while.

Here are some photos from my walk this morning:

Our hotel in Gouveia on the left.

Gouveia

Cemetery in Gouveia

Church with Portuguese Blue Tiles

Gouveia

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VG-99 and packing for tour

2009-04-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

My new Roland VG-99 and FC-300 pedal board that was delivered yesterday. CGT are now officially Roland endorsers! Yay! We've been using Roland gear for many years, in fact the very first guitar effects pedal that I bought as a teenager was a Roland Chorus pedal. We are very happy to have this endorsement! I played around with this pedal for several hours yesterday, but it's going to take some time to program it so it is ready to take on tour. So, I'll be bringing the vg-88 for the European tour and then use this vg-99 for our June tour.

I'm busy packing up for our mini tour in Europe. I leave tomorrow for Portugal. I am trying to fit everything into one suitcase. Normally I travel with two suitcases, one for clothes and one for gear. But on this tour we will have more restrictions on baggage with the flights and train travel between shows.

This Saturday, we are playing at a festival in Portugal with the Stickmen! I'm looking forward to that! And to our other shows in Italy and Austria, and to the beer tour in Belgium with Tyler and Bert.

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Menomonie to Chicago

2009-03-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

CGT at Swallow Hill in Denver. Photo by Brian Berger

10:35am. Bert, Hideyo, Tyler and I are traveling down I-94 in Wisconsin from Menomonie to Chicago. Today is the final day of this month long tour, and what a great tour it has been. We did not have one “bad” gig, and played in some really, really great venues. I was a bit concerned that we’d have problems with getting people to come to shows with the bad economy, and there were a couple places that we had slightly less people, but there were many shows where we had more people! I’m actually sad to see the tour end, but will be happy to have a break before we do our mini European tour beginning the end of April.

In the photo is CGT with Brian Berger and his wife at Swallow Hill in Denver. Brian was my band mate in my very first band when I was 15 years old attending Bountiful High School in Utah. The band was called Black Diamond with Brian Berger on guitar, Jerry Rose on guitar, Scott Sharp on keyboards and vocals, Jeff Bradford on keyboards and vocals, Brett Bradford on drums, and I played bass guitar. I wanted to play guitar in the band, but they only needed a bass player, so I borrowed my brother’s bass guitar and joined the band. Our first performance was at a Mormon “Road Show” and we played a song called “Driver’s Seat”. One of the main things that I remember about that concert is that the bass amplifier I was using was not grounded electrically, and just before we were going to play, I touched a metal railing by the stage, and received a huge shock! Fortunately I was okay and able to do the performance. Black Diamond practiced in Scott Sharp’s basement and developed an repertoire of the current top 40 hits. During the summer, we played every Saturday at the local amusement park called Lagoon, and during the school year we got many gigs playing for high school and church dances. I was amazed to be 15 years old and earning money playing in a rock band! The band was only together for about 1 year, as the guys who graduated from high school moved away for college. After Black Diamond broke up, the drummer Brett and I were still in high school and we formed a new band called Matrix and we enlisted various friends of ours to play shows at the high school assemblies, playing Led Zeppelin, Rush, AC/DC, Journey, April Wine, Foreigner and other rock band hits from the 80’s.

Lincoln, Des Moines, and Minneapolis

2009-03-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

View from my hotel room in downtown Minneapolis

Minneapolis Minesota

11:26am. This morning I got out of bed and did some yoga in my hotel room. After a little stretching, I noticed a magazine on the desk in my room listing Minneapolis’ best restaurants and opened the page to the listings and saw best breakfast “Hell’s Kitchen”. I looked out the window and saw Hell’s Kitchen just down the street. I walked over and there was a long line of people waiting to get in. Since I was by myself, I bypassed the long line and was seated in the pub area and within a few minutes I had “Huevos Rancheros of the gods” in front of me. Excellent!

The show last night at the Cedar Culture Center here in Minneapolis was excellent. We had more people in the audience than we’ve ever had before at this venue. The staff at this venue is mostly volunteers, very much like Swallow Hill in Denver and The Ark in Ann Arbor, and everyone seemed happy to be there, and they did a great job of taking care of us, and helped make it a great show.

On Thursday night we played a very interesting show in Des Moines Iowa. Our promoter/friend Michael went all out on the set up of this event with a huge sound and lighting system. Michael’s wife Julie is a dance instructor at the Catalyst Arts Academy and she had choreographed a dance for the students for two CGT songs, which was great and really added a fun dynamic to the show.

Wednesday night was at the beautifully restored Rococo Theater in Lincoln. This venue is the perfect sort of venue for the CGT. And although the turn out was on the lighter side, I really enjoyed playing in this theater. Our friend Steve did a very good job of helping promote the show and most of the people in the audience were there because of his promotional efforts. Thanks Steve! It was Bert’s birthday, and Steve’s wife made a birthday cake for Bert and his daughter Kealey delivered the cake, with candles lit, to the stage at the end of the show.

Colorado to Nebraska

2009-03-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Today is Bert's Birthday!

See Bert climb the wall like the little statue guys in the hotel lobby in Denver.

See Bert looking at the fake fruit. Happy Birthday Bert!

Thousands of birds on our drive from Denver to Lincoln

Lots of corn fields

more corn fields

And more corn fields!!!

Finally we arrived in Lincoln. And had dinner at a cool place called Yia Yia's.

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Colorado

2009-03-10T07:36:00.001-07:00

View from my hotel room in Denver. A light dusting of snow this morning.

Tyler and the CGT van on I-70 in the Rocky mountains

Rocky Mountains from the van.

8:21am. Bert and I are having breakfast with Bill Janssen this morning, long time CGT friend and one of the best musicians I have ever had the opportunity to play music with. Bill is heavily featured on CGT’s Pathways and Rock’s the West Cds. After breakfast we will drive from Denver to Lincoln NB.

The concert at Swallow Hill in Denver on Saturday Night was superb! And excellent acoustic music venue with a great sound system and the audience was spectacular. The venue is a converted church and the acoustics and feel of the room are in comparison with our other favorite venues such as The Ark in Ann Arbor Michigan. We sold more live Cds than any other show on this tour.

Sunday night was at Steve’s Guitars, which is a funky little guitar shop in the mountain town of Carbondale Colorado. It is a very tiny performance space, which was pleasantly filled up with locals, a couple guys from NYC, and some friends of mine from Utah. We did a workshop before the concert and did some circulating and thraking with the workshop attendees, which including Steve the owner of the shop. Steve is one of the nicest guys we’ve met and I enjoyed playing in his little shop.

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Albuquerque and Santa Fe

2009-03-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Near the center of Santa Fe. The oldest Church in the United States. The mission was built by Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico in the early 1600's, under the direction of Fray Alonso de Beavides.

2:08pm. It is snowing hard right now as we drive from Santa Fe New Mexico to Denver. The drive through Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado is really beautiful. The drive today is 400 miles and we play a concert tonight in Denver, and we have about 40 miles left to go.

Last night the concert was at the beautiful James Little Theater in Santa Fe. Our friend Tomas did a good job of promoting the show, but Santa Fe remains a mystery to me on how to consistently get good sized audiences there. CGT has played several great shows in Santa Fe in the past, one of them on my list of all time favorite gigs at the Santuario de Guadalupe, which is an old historic church in the downtown area. We had a small yet enthusiastic audience at the show last night. Perhaps Santa Fe is one of the places that has been hit hard by the recession? As opposed to Dallas, where we saw no signs of recession at all, at least not from our viewpoint. In fact we had more people at our show than we did the last time we played there. So it is interesting to note the differences in the places we visit.

On Thursday night we had a packed house at Cooperage in Albuquerque. When we drove up to the venue, we were surprised to find out that Cooperage is actually steak and prime rib restaurant, which also has a large back room where they hold concerts. It was a very unusual setting for a concert, but it turned out great with a very attentive appreciative crowd at the steakhouse.

Artesia New Mexico and Carlsbad Caverns

2009-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

Last night we played a concert in Artesia New Mexico. Artesia is an Oil Town in Southeast New Mexico. The concert was in a beautiful brand new performing arts center. The thing that made this concert special were the people that were at the show, many of who had never heard about the California Guitar Trio.

During the day on Tuesday, we drove to the nearby Carlsbad Caverns, the largest known caves in the Western Hemisphere. Amazing. We didn't have a lot of time, so instead of hiking miles through the caves, we just rode the elevator down 750 feet below the surface, arriving at the Great Room, which was a strange experience. Here are a few photos I took:

On Monday, we drove through Roswell New Mexico, home to many intergalactic aliens:

Brian and Tyler at Tap Werks in Oklahoma City on Sunday. The photo behind them is "The Lads of the Village, 1934, Bradford Abbas Dorset" which is very near Cranborne Dorset where we lived at the Red Lion House with Robert Fripp.

The Taps at Tap Werks in Oklahoma City.

More photos from Dallas: Concert photos by Bill Ellison

2009-03-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

Dallas

2009-03-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

Excellent show last night in Dallas. The Granada is a superb venue, the audience and staff are really great there.

After the show, the CD duplicator gave us some trouble last night and refused to work...a very patient group of people waited and waited for their live cds while Tyler rebooted the duplicator over and over trying to get it to work. Finally, after about 30 minutes of waiting, I made an announcement offering a refund or the option to let us send the live CDs, and most people accepted the option to allow us to send them the CDs and they left the theater with the empty CD sleeves. Right after they all walked out the door, the CD duplicator decided to start working again! So, the good news is we have copies of the show, and we will arrange to have them sent out to everyone who purchased them as soon as possible. Thank you!

CGT at the Granada Theater in Dallas Texas

2009-02-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

CGT at the Granada Theater in Dallas TX. Photos by Bill Ellison

Houston and Austin

2009-02-27T19:23:00.000-08:00

9:27pm. I'm backstage at the One World Theater in Austin TX. And we are just getting ready to go on for our second show. First show was great! We had 3 vibraphonist from UT join us for the Marsh and Melrose...amazing!

Agave Gardens at One World

In Texas they have BBQ at the gas stations. It says "worst BBQ in Texas" but it was great!

Sometimes we get to stay in nice hotels. This hotel in Houston is one of them.

Sold out show last night in Houston! The Mucky Duck is a funky little music venue on the south side on Houston. Back in 1998, we were doing a Borders Book store promotion tour, we played at the Borders Books in Houston and one of the audience members recommended that we go and play the open mic at the Mucky Duck, and he had already reserved a time slot for us that night! We played 3 songs for the open mic, and we were invited back and have been playing at the Mucky Duck once a year since. We always have great shows there with great audiences, and the people from the venue take very good care of us. A bonus this time was that they actually had a dressing room for us in the back; a recently remodeled room that doubles as a wine tasting private party/ musician dressing room.

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Day off in Austin

2009-02-25T14:26:00.001-08:00

CGT, Tyler and Bruce Stofft at FlipHappy Crepes.

After the 14 hour drive from Birmingham to Austin, we are enjoying a day off here in one of my favorite cities on the planet. Beautiful weather, great restaurants and very cool people! Maria's Taco Express and Alamo's Draft House were yesterday; Jo's coffee, Fliphappy Crepes, and Opal Divine today. Fliphappy Crepes is amazing. I've had some excellent crepes before in Paris and Quebec, but I have to say that the Cuban Crepe at FlipHappy Crepes is the best savory crepe I've ever had. And the whipped peanut butter crepe with dark chocolate sauce, bananas and almonds....Wow!!!!!

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Birmingham to Texas

2009-02-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

The concert at Workplay in Birmingham was on the small side with just under 100 people in attendance, but still very good. Shaun Hopper played a great opening set of arrangements and originals on solo guitar. I really love the workplay venue, especially after having played several times at the roach infested venue that we used to play in Birmingham. Some of the "hardcore" CGT fans drove all the way from Chattanooga for the show...thanks guys!

Yesterday we drove 830 miles from Birmingham to TX...whew, what a drive. We stopped at Waffle House in Meridian Mississippi, hoping that it would be a quick meal, as Waffle House usually is, but this one was the slowest waffle house ever, and I think we always mess the cooks up with all our orders of different styles of hash-browns.

Texas Sunset from inside the van.

Crossing the Mississippi River

Somewhere in Mississippi on Interstate 20

View from my hotel room in Birmingham. Motley Crue was playing next door to this hotel and there were some very noisy fans on our floor after the concert.

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Atlanta

2009-02-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Southern Hospitality, CGT accommodation in Atlanta

Mark and Hideyo at Chateau Greenbaum

Headed west on Interstate 20, near Talladega Alabama

We just past the famous Talladega raceway, a good indication that we are in the heart of Nascar Country. Tonight we play in Birmingham Alabama. Hopefully we won’t loose too many audience members to the Oscars.

On Friday night the concert at the 5 spot in little 5 points Atlanta was completely sold out!!! Umphrey McGee was playing next door at the Variety playhouse and their concert was also sold out. Recession?, what recession?! The manager from the Variety playhouse came over to the 5 spot to tell us that the Umphrey McGee guys invited us over to see there show, but our show went fairly late and we didn’t end up making it over, but very nice of them to offer. Our show at the 5 Spot was really great. The audience was very enthusiastic and they helped make it a high-energy show. We played Bohemian Rhapsody for the encore, and the audience joined in singing along really loud. There must have been a lot of good singers in the audience as it was some of the best singing on Bohemian we have ever had. Impressive!

Last night we played a private concert at our friend Don’s house for his 50th Birthday party. Don has a beautiful modern house in the suburbs of Atlanta, and did an amazing job setting his house up for the concert and birthday party, renting a very high end PA system and completely rearranging the great room for concert venue style seating. There were over 100 people in attendance. The concert was filmed with 5 HD cameras and may be released in the near future. We arranged a special “Heart of the Sunrise/Happy Birthday” song for Don which as a big hit. Our friend Mark joined us on Zundoko Bushi playing the Zen Drum. Mark played great and the audience was enthusiastically clapping along. Thanks to Mark and Christine for the amazing hospitality during our stay in Atlanta.

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Ocilla GA

2009-02-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

Peanut Farm in Southern Georgia.

Tyler, Hideyo, Bert and I, back in the van, on our way from Atlanta to Ocilla GA.

Tifton, GA – Holiday Inn

9:04 am. Last night we played the first show of the tour in a small town in southern Georgia called Ocilla. The concert was in a very nice small church, and was part of their “community concert series”. CGT played this church two years ago, and they told us that we were the most requested group to return for the concert series. The show was really great, and the audience was wonderful. People of all ages filled the church and it felt like everyone was really into the concert. I even the teenage girls that were busy texting with their friends, stopped texting and listened!

The past few days we have been rehearsing in Atlanta at our friends Mark and Christine’s house. We were very productive in our rehearsals, reworking some of the new original pieces and also playing some music we haven’t played for a long time. I felt like these strong rehearsals helped make the first show of the tour a good one, as all three of us were playing very well. And the new original pieces that we reworked are sounding really good now, and got a great response from the audience.

It’s time to get back in the van and drive back to Atlanta for our show there tonight.

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Snow...and getting ready for the tour

2009-02-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

It has been snowing here in Utah for the past 2 days. I leave on Monday for Atlanta to meet up with Bert and Hideyo and Tyler. We will rehearse for a couple days at our friends Mark and Christine's house and the first show is on the 19th in the southern part of Georgia in a town called Ocilla.

I've been very busy getting ready for the tour. I've still got about a million things to do before I leave on Monday, but I'm making good progress. Most all the hotels for the tour are now booked. And I have been in touch with several of the concert promoters advancing the upcoming shows. In addition to all the CGT business stuff, I have been getting some good guitar practice in too. Working on both old and new music. The old music is a piece of Beethoven that the CGT used to play, but has not played in almost 10 years. And the new music is the new CGT original pieces that we continue to work on for a new CGT CD that we hope to begin recording sometime this summer.

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NAMM Day 2

2009-01-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

I’m just getting ready to head back into the convention center for Day 3 of NAMM. During day 2 at NAMM, we had lots of loud music playing at the booths nearby, which provided for some interesting polyrhythmic distraction, and made it especially challenging to play at the Beyer booth. In fact, we created some “interesting new arrangements” of a few CGT pieces on the spot, which means we messed up but kept going and found our way out of it. I signaled the end of Blockhead a beat early; good thing the other guys followed me! Even with all the distractions and new arrangements, we drew a big crowd of enthusiastic listeners.

Last night we went to the Acoustic Guitar Magazine concert called “Acoustic Café”. CGT has played at this event twice before, including this performance from 2005 with a surprise guest:

Speaking of Acoustic Guitar magazine, the latest issue features a review of our latest CD Echoes: Echoes review

The big party last night seemed to be in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel where I am staying. The lobby is huge, with two big stages and rock bands performing at full rock concert volume. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people all hanging out in the lobby, trying to see rock stars, trying to look like rock stars, and some actual rock stars too!

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NAMM Day 1

2009-01-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of NAMM. CGT and Tony Levin doing a short performance at the Beyer Dynamic booth. It is so crazy trying to play music in the convention center. There are hundreds and hundreds of booths, an in every booth there is some kind of musical instrument demonstration or performance happening. The sound is complete chaos, so it makes for a challenging performance. But we managed to play fairly well and have some fun too.

CGT and Tony Levin

Bert and Tyler trying out the new Moog guitar. If you could only hear what Bert was hearing in his headphones, it’s really wild. Clean chords with infinite harmonic overtone sustain.

Custom guitar pedals by Zvex

Ed Gerhard playing at the Beedlove Guitar booth. His playing was really beautiful. Listening to him, transported me out of the crazy convention center for a few moments.

Gene Simmons getting mobbed by the NAMM crowd.

It’s 6:30pm now and I just got back to the hotel room with a few minutes to post these photos. And now getting ready for dinner with some of our Musical instrument manufacturer representative friends.

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2009-01-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

My view of Los Angeles while approaching LAX. I don’t remember ever seeing it so clear!

View from my hotel room at La Costa, Carlsbad.

Bert, Hideyo, Tyler and I are in Carlsbad California. Amazing weather here now. Sunny and warm! Last night we played a concert for the Harman International conference. The concert was outdoors in the plaza area of this beautiful resort hotel. It got a little bit chilly during the concert, which made it a little bit difficult to play guitar, but I still enjoyed the performance very much. The folks from Harman Pro have become good friends of ours and CGT has unofficially become the Harman Pro “house band” as this is our 3rd engagement with them.

Today we will rehearse at the hotel and then go listen to the legendary Quincy Jones speak this afternoon.

Tyler, Ricky and I at the hotel in Carlsbad with our display of Port Brewing hand crafted beers.

Here is a link to an radio interview that I did recently with Tom Schulte for: Outsight Radio Hours