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 ... Adam's Party - Adam & I (with whisky) far right
 ... Me with Derek Warfield
 ... St Patrick's Day - inside stage - the place was mobbed
 ... Sweaty Billy with Lovely Gillian
 ... Short 38 seconds video of St Pats weekend at Nolans
 ... Working hard on the new album
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The beginning of March was hard, after finishing in New Orleans with nice gigs at the New Orleans Celtic Festival in the Irish House, Dorothy and I took a flight to Portland to visit our good friend Adam Mathewson (& Christine.). Adam was holding a "wheelchair party". He was in the final weeks of life after a 9 month battle against cancer, which he sadly lost on March 24th, 2.5 weeks after his party. The party was great, Adam was in good form, and we were very happy we had 4 good days with him... and now we (amongst many others) miss him terribly.
Arriving back in New Orleans, we high-tailed it across the south of the USA just managing to stay ahead of storms and horrible flooding, arriving in Cocoa Beach Florida at the beginning of St Patricks week. We managed to catch a show of Derek Warfield and the Young Wolftones playing in Nolans. I have heard so much about him and the band that it was a real pleasure to meet the man and chat for a while. He's played in many of the same places I have and we know many people in common even though we've never met. It was a great night.
Then came St Patrick's Day. It was a Thursday - Nolans had an outside and inside stage, the whole place was mobbed with people. There was Irish music, dance, pipes, food and drink the whole day... it was a very well organised event enjoyed by all. I was last on and finished up the day at midnight - it was fantastic..
The beauty of playing in Nolans last year is that I got to know some of the folks there - Gillian from Bannockburn, Scotland and her family are good friends - it was really great to meet up again.
St Patricks day was good, then came day two and day three, to be sure, to be sure, to be sure! The Florida thunder and lightning struck on the Saturday afternoon dampening thngs down a bit - but not too much - everyone was up and going again in no time.
It's hard to summarise the 3 days - hopefully the video clip opposite will give you a taste of it.
I played Nolans again Thursday and Friday March 31st and April 1st and will be there again April 8th and 9th as my last Florida gigs for this time round - It's been great playing there - the Nolan family are great, customers love their music, it has a fine atmosphere and lovely weather! What more could I ask for?
I've also been working on my next album. I'm at the point where I'm trying to record the songs I've written so I can practice all the parts before I get in to the studio with Kevin Nettlingham in June . The RV park has let me use their "screen room" - its a big room with screens for walls so I (and my microphone) can hear grass cutting, dogs barking, people talking, trucks starting up... and they can hear me. So between noise, heat (its roasting hot here most of the time) and curious neighbors, progress is not wonderful - but yeee- haaa! it'll all come together.
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The front of Nolans on St Patrick's day 
A visitor at our window ! Woody Woodpecker ! 
Dorothy wiggling her toes in the Gulf of Mexico