Jack's Roadhouse 12/29/12

Big Saturday night show was a blast with Ian Lee and Chris Wallis! I drove in from Indianapolis on Friday, so I had a chance to catch up on some sleep Saturday afternoon, and by the evening, I was ready to play some music! The crowd was involved, and we kept them dancing all night. Chris and Ian sounded fantastic, and I feel great to be performing with them!

AJ's Ale House MF 12/22/12

Chris Wallis joined me at AJ's in Marble Falls, TX for the last show before my drive to Indiana for the holidays! We had a good crowd, with lots of Christmas requests and 80's pop tunes for some reason. Chris played great, and I enjoyed the show. When the show ended at 1:30am, my wife picked me up, and we began our 18 hour trip to Indy!

AJ's Ale House NB 12/21/12

Unbelievable. The world didn't end. I thought for sure, this would be my last gig, but the world just kept spinning. How do I handle 1,000+ years of hype? I haven't been this disappointed since Geraldo opened Capone's vault. Oh, well, I still played like it was my last night on Earth. Joe Resnick drummed out every tune I dished up, and the only song not requested tonight was "It's The End Of The World As We Know It". Silly Mayans.

Triple Crown 12/20/12

San Marcos, TX was the site of a pre-apocalypse party with the Hill Country Gentlemen at Triple Crown. Jeremiah, Pete, Kevin, Troy and I played a couple of hours of Americana funk, including a special version of "It's The End Of The Word As We Know It", look for it on YouTube. You need to make it out to see a show soon. Fun music for the last night on earth. Are we still here?

Jack's Roadhouse 12/17/12

San Marcos people were out to have a Christmassy good time with DHG tonight at Jack's, so we did our best to entertain them! We pulled out every Christmas tune we knew, and a handful we didn't know, and rocked them all. Ian was digging into his licks and impressing both Chris and me. Chris, of course, was just as funky as ever, and I had a great time playing tunes tonight! See you back at Jack's on Saturday, 12/29/12.

AJ's Ale House MF 12/15/12

My wife and I got a cool little new camera for Christmas, so I brought it to Marble Falls, TX tonight to shoot some pictures of the show I played tonight with Joe Resnick. We had a pretty fun crowd, and they wanted to hear lots of dance tunes and slow ballads. Just about every other song for the majority of the evening was a "Brick House" or a "New York State Of Mind". Thanks goes out to the crowd who joined us after they watched the Marcia Ball show at the theater across the street!

AJ's Ale House NB 12/14/12

I drove to New Braunfels, TX from Houston tonight for my second gig of the evening. This show, I was blessed with the presence of Chris Wallis (after he made it through one of the worst traffic jams he'd ever been in) and the crowd cheered loudly as Chris took the stage. I had fun, although driving from San Marcos to Houston to Deer Park to New Braunfels and back to San Marcos was a bit much!

Techstar Holiday Party 12/14/12

I stopped by Houston Howl At The Moon to meet up with Chris Saucedo for a Piano-Show-To-Go private party in Deer Park, TX for the lively employees of Techstar! We performed our dueling piano show for a couple hours, including some dress-up time fun with costumes the president of the company brought with him. The people were in a great mood , and before the end of the afternoon, they were trying to get us to perform for an extra hour. Normally, I would have, but both Chris and I had evening shows, and my evening show was three hours (actually, over four due to rush hour) away! Thanks, Techstar for being a great audience!

AJ's Ale House NB 12/13/12

A fun crowd gathered tonight in New Braunfels, TX to listen to Joe Resnick and I play all the hits. We had some pretty interesting stuff hitting the piano. I'd say the crowd was in a blues mood, judging by requests like "Crossroads", "The Sky Is Crying" and "Mess Around". Many Beatles tunes we requested as well. I had a good time with Joe, but now I need to rush off to bed. I've got to be on the road by 7:45am to make it to Houston for my first gig tomorrow on time, but I'll be back in New Braunfels at AJ's tomorrow night!

Lakeview Manor 12/10/12

Bill Ritter and I performed our second show today for my 102 (20 days until she turns 103) year old grandmother, and the other people who live at Lakeview Manor. They sang along with us as we performed some Christmas tunes and some 50's rock tunes. I had fun with Bill this week! We did 5 shows together in 4 days, just like we used to!

SUMC Childcare 12/10/12

Today's "Circle Of Life" tour started off in Speedway, IN at the United Methodist Church, where we performed fun Christmas tunes for the kids to sing. "Blue Christmas" and "Jingle Bells" were big hits, and Bill Ritter treated the kids to a great solo in "Christmastime Is Here". Of course, we had to perform "Spongebob Squarepants" so the kids could sing as loud as possible! Now Bill and I are off to perform at the nursing home...

7th & 8th UCC 12/9/12

Bill Ritter joined me to perform a few Christmas tunes in Indianapolis at Seventh and Eighth United Christian Church this morning for their service. We played a couple of songs for the prelude, then in mid-service, they had me sing "The Peace Carol", and we wrapped up the morning with the postlude. Thanks, Bill, for joining me this morning!

Indiana Roof Ballroom 12/8/12

The Barnes & Thornburg Holiday Party was great fun tonight. It was a reunion of a few of my closest Indiana musician friends as we assembled like the Avengers to bring a night of music to the wonderful Roof Ballroom. Special thanks to Sandy Klapper for organizing an amazing Oscars-themed event. We started the evening as a three-piece, with two of my musical brothers, Bill Ritter (upright bass) and Steve Brunner (drums) playing light dinner music. During dessert, the three of us backed a father/daughter duo, Eric and Lynsay Moy, for three jazzy tunes.

After dinner was finished, the great Cory Pitre grabbed his guitar, and we began our band set. Shortly, into our show, I had the lovely vocals of Kate Hurst helping out, while two more folks from Barnes & Thornburg came up to sit in with the full band. Ray Biederman played violin while my old friend Brian Weir-Harden tore up the guitar!

For the remainder of the night, Bill and Jack traded off on the bass duties, while Cory, Kate, Steve and I played a bunch of tunes from the movies! Great fun was had by all, and I felt lucky to be surrounded by such talented musicians and friends all night!

Finer Things 12/7/12

The legendary Bill Ritter joined me this evening in Brownsburg, IN at an independent art store (opened by my sister, Melissa Blacksheer) known as "Finer Things". It was a cold and rainy night, also dark, so it was a dark and stormy night, although with no storms, so to recap; dark, rainy & cold. Bill sounded as great as ever, and we had a chance to catch up a bit. Some fans made it out, and it was a fun show! Thanks, Missy, for having Bill and I perform for your customers!

Jack's Roadhouse 12/3/12

San Marcos, TX tonight gave Chris Wallis, Ian Lee and me a great gig at Jack's! We had a crowd who wanted to be our buddies (except one guy, but I didn't want to be his buddy anyway). Ian's tone was fantastic tonight, and the crowd agreed with me by applauding his solos. Chris tore up his drums with fat beats. The patrons at Jack's were generous with our tip jar, too. My favorite tip was a $2.00 winning lotto ticket, which we had a problem tearing into three equal pieces at the end of the night...

Camp Mabry 12/2/12

Today, I performed a benefit show with the Hill Country Gentlemen in Austin TX at Camp Mabry for Operation Green Santa. Operation Green Santa is their toy drive and fund raising event to provide assistance and gifts for military families. The show went great, and afterwards we had people approach us about bookings well into next year. Another great outdoor event on another beautiful December afternoon definitely helped get me into the Christmas spirit! Thanks again to Christine Barton-Holmes for taking some photos of the band!

Please see www.militarymomsoftexas.org for more information.

AJ's Ale House MF 12/1/12

Between the two birthday parties and Elliott Electric's (ellahlahlahlectric) Christmas party, Joe Resnick (drums) and I had our hands full tonight in Marble Falls, TX. Early in the evening, the requests started pouring in, and we were forced to start a "Freebird" fund. Before our first set ended, we found ourselves playing every last note of it for the appreciative crowd. Thanks goes out to Joe for making it an enjoyable night!

Jack's Roadhouse 12/1/12

What a beautiful day to perform an outdoor fundraiser! Jack's in San Marcos did a chili cook off and silent auction today to benefit different children's charities in time for the holidays. Chris Wallis and Ian Lee joined me on the stage, and once again, sounded great. It was actually hot in the sun, but the breeze and the clouds made for a very pleasant feel to the day. My wonderful wife, Christine Barton-Holmes, took some fantastic shots for us. Check out some of them on Facebook!

AJ's Ale House NB 11/30/12

Chris Wallis and I performed in New Braunfels tonight at the popular night spot known as AJ's. Brown Eyed Girls Don't Stop Believing. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Sugar Sugar. Mustang Sally? Living On A Prayer. Shout Under The Bridge, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". Piano Man, Pour Some Sugar On Me. Chris Wallis, you're my hero.

Triple Crown 11/28/12

Molly Malinowski opened the show tonight at the Triple Crown in San Marcos, TX before I joined forces with the Hill Country Gentlemen for a evening of fun-rocking country tunes. The crowd was deep into every tune we played, and I had fun just holding down some piano without worrying about having to remember lyrics! Molly sounded great, too! It was my first chance to hear her set, and she is a talented songstress. Thanks goes out to Triple Crown for keeping live music going in San Marcos!

Jack's Roadhouse 11/26/12

Dah dah dah dah dah dah... You say it's your birthday.... Dah dah dah dah dah dah... It's my birthday too, yeah!
I performed tonight with my good friends, Ian Lee and Chris Wallis in San Marcos, TX. It was easily one of the tightest shows we've performed together thus far, and it was a great end to a birthday which started off in New Orleans. I spent the weekend with some old friends and my beautiful wife, and we drove back in today so I could perform with Chris and Ian. Those two made the drive worthwhile! Ian's guitar and Chris' drums sounded full and funky! Thanks to everyone who came out to the show!

AJ's Ale House NB 11/21/12

I was called in at the last minute to cover a show in New Braunfels, TX with Joe Resnick (drums) for the big Wednesday-night-before-Thanksgiving show! We had a full house by the evening's end, and tables were full right up to our last note. After playing all the requests with amazing Joe, I was ready for bed. Happy thanksgiving to everyone! I'm thankful for my wife, and the weekend trip coming up to NOLA to see our friends from the great restaurant in Moorseville, IN known as Zydeco's!

Jack's Roadhouse 11/19/12

Tonight in San Marcos, Ian Lee, Chris Wallis and I performed at Jack's Roadhouse. Chris was frisky with his sticks, and he sounded like he was laying the groove down for some awesome old LP. Ian dug deep and surfaced with more blues licks than I thought he knew, which was fantastic to listen to. I had several people tell me how much they appreciated the style of music we were playing, and all said they'd return next week! I like how open folks are to music in these parts. It makes my career seem more meaningful.

AJ's Ale House MF 11/17/12

Night fell on Marble Falls, TX, then our big show began! Chris Wallis made my job easy once again, and the crowd appreciated him as much as I did. I had so many requests for '80s tunes, I felt like Martha Quinn. We had Toto, Talking Heads, Tears For Fears and Van Halen just to name a few of the many bands we covered. The night ended with "Ghostbusters" and "Don't Stop Believing". Who you gonna call?

AJ's Ale House NB 11/16/12

I returned to New Braunfels (after my first show at Tres Hermanaz) to perform with Chris Wallis at AJ's. We had a pretty packed house with a ton of birthdays. I felt bad at one point because two of the birthday people were dancing together, and they somehow tripped each other and slammed into my piano! They were fine, so we continued our show...
My favorite request of the night was written on a single scrap of paper which read, "Piano Man or Primus My Name Is Mud". I'm fairly certain that's the first time those two have appeared on the same piece of paper.

Tres Hermanas 11/16/12

Ian Lee joined me in San Marcos, TX to perform a bunch of tunes at Tres Hermanas for my first gig of the evening. I performed on their baby grand piano, while Ian sounded fantastic on his acoustic guitar. We did everything from some originals to Ray Charles to Radiohead, and the people watching made it a point to come up and say how much they were enjoying themselves. I always have a great time with Ian!

AJ's Ale House NB 11/15/12

Joe Resnick and I performed in New Braunfels, TX tonight for a small but very energetic crowd. I was impressed by the sheer volume of requests which hit my piano! I think I chose the very first song, and then played request after request after request right up until closing time. The cool thing about it was, most of the tunes requested were slightly unusual. Most of them I had played before, but it had been a while. I had a bunch of fun performing with Joe, and tomorrow night, I'll be back at AJ's in New Braunfels with the great Chris Wallis!

Jack's Roadhouse 11/12/12

Monday night was a bit cold in San Marcos, TX, but that didn't slow us down a bit! Chris Wallis, Ian Lee and I did our thing for the crew at Jack's. Ian had a chance to shine during several tunes, and boy, did he shine! We pulled out half a dozen new tunes, and I had a great time performing to Chris' drum grooves. I look forward to our next Jack's show!

Wedding Reception 11/10/12

I woke up in San Marcos, after about five hours of sleep, drove to the Houston Howl At The Moon to pick up gear and my wonderful dueling partner for the evening, Joi Keeler, then drove to where the wedding reception was being held in Port Acres, TX. Joi was a great partner to have at this Howl-piano-show-to-go, because the requests were pouring in, evenly split, between current girl pop songs and classic rock guy songs, so we were a perfect compliment to each other! After our three hour show (and another half-hour of very gracious compliments from the wedding party) we hopped back in the van and headed an hour-and-fifteen-minutes back to Howl in Houston to unload. So, basically, my day has consisted of three hours of loading/unloading gear, a three-hour gig, and six hours of driving. Goodnight!!!

AJ's Ale House MF 11/9/12

I drove to Marble Falls, TX and met up with drummer Vince Mejia at AJ's Ale House to play some requests for the Friday night crowd! The people danced to everything they'd requested, which is impressive because they wanted upbeat soul and rock like "In The Midnight Hour" and "Brown Sugar". The highlight of the night for me was when Duran Duran was requested, and I sang the girl and guy parts simultaneously. Too funny! Speaking of Duran Duran, does anyone know if they took their name from that old B-movie, "Barbarella"?

Jack's Roadhouse 11/5/12

DHG is rocking Jack's super-good tonight! Chris Wallis was in the pocket during "Zachariah", making it sound even better than usual. Ian Lee showed off his best blues licks during many different of our rocking blues tunes. We are on break right now, so if you're reading this on Monday night, come on down to catch our last two sets!!!

Location:W Hopkins St,San Marcos,United States

AJ's Ale House NB 11/3/12

Hoooooooweeeeeeee! Tonight was PACKED at AJ's in New Braunfels, TX for the show Chris Wallis and I performed! The requests were landing on the piano faster than I could play them. The city was holding their annual "Wurstfest", so lots of lederhosen could been seen all over the place. We had them singing and dancing all night as we played one gigantic three-hour-and-fifteen-minute set. 10th show for me in 10 days. Time for bed now!

AJ's Ale House MF 11/2/12

This marked my 9th gig in 9 days, tomorrow night's show will be 10 for 10, then I can get some rest. But I'm glad to be performing with my buddy, Chris Wallis on the drums. The two of us played a bunch of widely varied requests from the crowd. My favorite request was from a birthday girl who promised us "lots of money" if we'd play "Natural Woman". Before I said yes, the man who was trying to impress the birthday girl ran up and dropped a bunch of cash in our jar, so I sang Natural Woman. Craziness.

AJ's Ale House NB 11/1/12

Joe Resnick played drums tonight with amazing precision in New Braunfels, TX, while I played piano and threw tons of curve-ball songs his way. The crowd grew steadily all night long, and they had lots of ideas for tunes. Many requests for songs I'd never tried before, but we did them all! R.E.O. and Carley Rae, Paul Simon and Supertramp, and many, many more! See you in Marble Falls tomorrow night!

The Tap 10/31/12

Happy Halloween! Chris Wallis and I drove a couple hours from our houses to College Station, TX to perform a scary show for a big crowd. Lots of mummies, vampires, priests and goblins were out getting their drink on. I always have fun performing with Chris, and the crowd was entertained by his multi-part rendition of "Shots". The only down side to this show was the two-plus-hour drive back home after the show!

Jack's Roadhouse 10/29/12

San Marcos, TX has a cool music scene, and I'm glad we have a chance to be a part of it on Monday nights at Jack's. Ian lee and I performed with, as I found out tonight, male-model Chris Wallis. During a break between our funky sets of fun New Orleans tunes and my originals, Chris informed us that his first paying gig was as a child, modeling for a sleeping bag ad in an outdoor catalogue. So, in my mind, he is now the male model of the band.

Billy's Ice 10/28/12

Tonight, I performed in New Braunfels, TX with The Hill Country Gentlemen. They perform a good blend of Americana, rock and country with a bit of blues thrown in for good measure. Being so close to Halloween, we all wore costumes! Jeremiah Sawyer (bass) was an ape, Peter Lyman (drums) went as Fred Flintstone, Kevin Humphrey (guitar) was the banana for the ape, and Troy Stone (acoustic & harmonica) showed off his best beach bum. I wore my favorite Mardi Gras mask, and had a great time performing with the Gentlemen!

AJ's Ale House MF 10/27/12

Another massive night in Marble Falls, TX tonight with the talented Joe Resnick (drums) and yours truly performing all the requests we could hope for! A couple of big parties started the night off right (one party with newlyweds from earlier in the afternoon, and one party celebrating triple birthdays) and we helped them get their groove on by playing all the tunes they wanted! It's always a pleasure to do a show with Joe, and tonight was no different. Thanks, Marble Falls!

Farmer's Market 10/27/12

At 11:30am, Chris Wallis (drums), Ian Lee (guitar) and I hit our first note to entertain the farmer's market goers in San Marcos, TX today. I had lots of fun performing more stripped-down versions of most of our tunes. Ian brought his acoustic, while Chris used brushes on his kick/snare setup. The farmer's market is always a nice time, but today was even better than usual because the temperature was in the low 50's, instead of the 90's like earlier in the week. Ian and I traded off vocals, and the band sounded tight. I had lots of people ask where they could see our full show next, so of course I had to plug our weekly gig at Jack's. See you Monday night at 9:30pm at Jack's Roadhouse in San Marcos!

AJ's Ale House NB 10/26/12

I had the crowd singing "Friends In Low Places" by themselves so I could sneak over to take a picture with the great Chris Wallis tonight in New Braunfels! They were dancing and singing simultaneously! We had a great crowd, and they were full of requests. It didn't occur to me until way too late that the party was rocking so much, we didn't even take a break. Party on!

AJ's Ale House MF 10/25/12

Tonight, unbeknownst to us, a huge Halloween party was already happening as Joe Resnick and I walked in to the cool Marble Falls, TX club. We were the featured entertainment! Great costumes all around (including a woman dressed as Elvis) and decorations were everywhere, like the huge spider on the piano. Of course, we played lots of creepy classics like Adams Family and Thriller, but there was no shortage of Tom Petty or Queen! Lots of fun all around for everyone who made it out to AJ's in Marble Falls tonight!

Jack's Roadhouse 10/22/12

Tonight at Jack's in San Marcos, TX, Chris Wallis, Ian Lee and I laid down the funk for another fun Monday show! Each time we perform at Jack's, we end up with more and more folks hanging out to listen to our tunes and play one of the many games scattered throughout the bar. We had some fellow musicians in the audience, a few regulars, and a couple of big tables of first timers at Jack's. Next week should be an even bigger show, so tell all your friends to meet us at Jack's!

AJ's Ale House MF 10/20/12

Vince Mejia and I chilled out in the green room in between our sets tonight in Marble Falls, TX! He played beats while I tried to play every crazy request which hit the piano. Songs like "Money For Nothing", "Copperhead Road", "Love Shack" and "Suspicious Minds" all were played! The crowd sang along to almost every tune, and the evening was full of fun people!