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.