The Activities Director has heard and loves my music and has asked me to do an hour of my originals and covers for the old phartz in my nursing home.

It will be very low fi because she has them loaded onto her cell phone and will play them through the bingo PA setup.

Should be a real blast!

You wonderful people knew me before fame and celebrity corrupted me.

No mention of pay but it might develop into a monthly gig. At any rate, I have enough music for several shows and new incentive to write more with BIAB.

well wishes from here. I'm sure everyone will have a great time.

Knock 'em dead, Don!

My dear friends Danny Campo from NOLA and Summer Russell from California are coming to visit me and entertain in the Fall.

Summer is a Folk singer-guitarist and has visited me twice. Danny and wife Linda have visited me five times and drive 900 miles one-way. Summer drives over 500 miles. They are simply wonderful people.

Hopefully, we can stream the show so my PG Music friends can join in.

Joanne Wilson-Cooper still holds the record, she came over 10,000 miles from Johannesburg, SA to visit her badly bent old Irish friend. I doubt if that will ever be beaten.

I must be doing something right to have such wonderful friends.

Great News Don! Hope you include Steel Rail Blues in the set, the hairs stand on the back of my neck every time I hear you sing it, its better than the original.

What a wonderful thing to say, Musiclover. You just made my day week month year decade!

Actually, on Danny and Summer's last visit, Danny ran Steel Rail Blues through his Bose speakers while Summer sang her beautiful duet harmony. We got a standing ovation (except for the wheelchair-bound). LOL

Congratulations, Don. I'm sure everyone will have a blast!

That's awesome! Congrats and good luck!

Me wee bit o' a father claimed t'be Oyrish bu' y'know how they can loy! (running for cover, exiting, stage left).

What great news!!! Congratulations Don. All the best with it all.

Noel

Yeah Don!!

Go for it man!

Congrats and best of luck!! Super good news.

This is great news Don!! Best of luck with this and congratulations!

That's a neat photo Don, I don't think you have shared it before. Congratulations on getting an hour of your music. That's quite the achievement.

Thanks to everyone, it is very encouraging.

If the Activities Director can sort it out, we will stream it.

That's Summer Russell who plays on Streetjelly, Don? She always struck me as a lovely person. Danny, of course I know.

Yes, that's the same wonderful, free-spirited Summer. She has visited me twice. She is a talented lady and very dear friend.

Good luck don. Wish I was there.

I'd say "Break a leg" but somehow that doesn't seem appropriate....

You'll do fine. You know what you're doing and with all this wonderful technology we have available it will all run smoothly. You embody the beauty of the technology with your speech device. Truly amazing stuff. If anybody has ever provided an example and impetus for me to just shut up and stop whining about something as relatively minor as diabetes, badly arthritic knees and PTSD, it's you. What's going on with me drastically pales by comparison to what you have overcome.

I hope they stream that show so all of us here can join you from all over the world!

Me too, dear friend!

Danny and Summer are planning to visit and entertain again in the Fall. I can hardly wait!

They have removed that partition between the Dining Room and the Lobby where you played. Now, the dining folks can watch without obstruction. Danny will have to modify his setup. He seemed to like that partition behind him but it cut his audience in half.

You wouldn't recognize the place after a multimillion-dollar remodel and we have a new, more savvy Activities Director, Barbara, who is getting in some first-class entertainment for us.

Danny Miller, who used to come every month but quit because of management conflicts, has renewed his contract so well start playing for us again. He's very good.

Eddie,

Now you have me sobbing and that makes my nose run and my feet smell. Maybe I'm built upside down.

My only hesitation about streaming the show is; these ol' phartz are normally heavily sedated (ala One Flew Over The Cocos Nest) so I don't expect a lot of action. It remains to be seen.

Your encouragement is much appreciated.

Thank you.

Just from my perspective, I HEAR music. I don't WATCH music. So if the ol' phartz are sedated or not, this approaching old phart will not be and I'll be able to listen just fine, likely while playing chess in another window.....

Congrats Don!! You're going to do fantastic, I have no doubt

Donny, you handsome devil you. The girls must have been queued up for miles.

This concert is going to be a blast.

Overture, Curtain, Lights. This is it, the night of nights...

Have a blast,

Trev

While stationed in Germany for 5 years our 14-year-old babysitter humbled me at chess. After a terribly humiliating few wipeouts, she told me that her dad was Grand Master of Nuremberg, Bavaria and they played chess constantly since they didn't have a TV.

Her name is Margot (sound the 't') and she married a GI and currently lives in Milan, Michigan. We are still in touch after all these 50 years. Margot taught me proper German which I have since lost through disuse. Fortunately, beer is the same in both languages. LOL

Thanks for awakening these wonderful glimpses into my past.

Javohl. Bier ist bier in jeder sprache!

Einen Moment bitte, während ich meinen Alpenhut mit seiner grünen Feder hole und ich werde mit dir gehen!

I assume I am driving?

I loved shashlik (kabobs) which is actually an Armenian finger food generally only available at major beer fests.

At that time, the exchange rate was 4DM=1$ and shashlik was 1 DM each. They were chicken livers, gizzards, hearts, green pepper, and onion smothered in curry powder and on a stick. I'm making myself hungry and they are coming down the hall with pureed whatsoever.

My wife got sufficiently proficient in German that she would do her clothes shopping on the 'economy' as they called local stores to the comic joy of clerk girls.

Actually, in German, they say Fahrt for 'drive' so we'll just get in our BMWs and Fahrt along the autobahn at 200km/hr (no speed limits on the autobahn) before we ausfahrt to blow the foam off of a few Dunkle brau.

They would deliver beer right to our door. The cases where only 20 flip top bottles (4x5 rows) but probably 12% so we'd be elbow walking quite early in the aubenen.

A great guitarist from Duluth literally lived at our place and we would often jam two cases worth. I had my Strat and he had a Gibson (forgot the model). Great memories, my friend. Thank you.

I used to get beer delivered to the door when I was stationed in Germany. And there was a restaurant we used to go to that served wonderful shashlik.

Ain't it scrumptious, Johann?

My wife and I loved those little hard rolls (brochin) with sliced liverwurst in them or just to gnaw on.

Yep, we lived in a little farming community (on the economy, as opposed to on base) just outside Würzburg, Germany. On Saturday mornings, we used to get up, walk about a block down to the local bäckerei/metzgerei (on the village's main street) to get freshly made brötchen along with freshly butchered meats for breakfast. Absolutely delicious.

I understand that now, however, that little community (like so many other places) is no longer a little farming village, but instead a fully built-up suburb of Würzburg.

I do hope your concert presentation goes well. I know folks will have a blast and that it will touch their hearts.

And as old as you phartz are, you probably lived there DURING WWII! LOL!!!

Yes, my wife still phones Margot who tells us that we'd never recognize the area, it's now a sprawling shopping center. Until her mother died about two years ago, Margot would go back often.

I really enjoy reminiscing about that very happy era. Thank you, John.

Eddie, I'm 77 so I vaguely remember WWII or, at least, the worry on my parents' faces with my oldest brother fighting in the thick of it; first in Europe, then in the Pacific.

Don,

Congrats they should have been streaming your music there for years now, and that sir is my opinion. LOL!

Take Care Buddy!

Best to you...great news!

J&B