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 Dave Arcari at Clarks in Dundee, Scotland
 A dancing crowd in the Clep Bar, Dundee, Scotland
  Happy folks in Wellburn (top) and the Orchar (just above)
 The singing ladies (and me) at Freddy's Bar - fantastic party!
 Crowd shot at the Back in Town, Ugchelen (Dorothy what... ?)
 Back in Nolans, Cocoa Beach, Florida
 The Corner Gang in Four Green Fields - great bunch of lads
 On stage at the Four Green Fields, Tampa, Florida
 The crowd at Burns night in Nolans, it was a full house
 Great to be back and playing songs of Robert Burns
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My last update was November 30th 2016 - so there's a lot happened in the last two months... for one - it's a New Year and I wish you all a happy and healthy one.
December took us to Scotland, from hot sunny Florida to the dreich, dark Dundee winter. I caught a cold immediately - it was very fashionable, everyone had one!
First day back we went to see Dave Arcari, great Mississippi blues slide guitar and banjo fiend and friend from Glasgow - he had a show that day. It was great to see Dave in full swing and his wife Margaret (Dorothy's room mate in Dundee from 40 years ago !!) again.
My gig in the Clep Bar, Dundee on our 1st weekend back, playing there with my pal Pat Ferrie was a great welcome. The Clep folks were their usual lively selves and we did our best to burn away any cold germs with copious amounts of Scottish antidote! I was also there for Big Tam's 60th birthday - a great night and greater hangover! PS... there were an abundance of kazoos for "Big Tam"
In Dundee I always like to play for the residents at Wellburn (where my mum ended her days) and Orchar (in Broughty Ferry where Dorothy & I first lived when we were wed). The folks just light up when they hear those old Scottish songs and become young again. It does your heart good.
Christmas at Dorothy's mum & dads was a lovely family celebration - made even better as shortly after that, Dorothy's sister Fiona became 50 and Dorothy's parents celebrated 60 years of marriage. It was a good time to be there (despite the cold & flu germs)
We left Scotland on Dec 30th and headed to our old stamping ground in the Netherlands, Ugchelen. When we were living there, we started a tradition of having a big musical Hogmanay (old year's night) party. Our friends Fred and Cecile have taken that to a whole new level and have a great event at Freddy's bar. The neighbourhood talent has grown (older (sorry) and better (you're welcome)) and this year we had some great singing from Dutch country star Antoinette Hommerson, Mandy, Maggie, Sandra and even Valerie!
January 6th, I was booked in the Cafe Back in Town run by good friends Toon and Gon. We also made it an album release evening where I played popular songs and new songs from my album "Mullen it Over" It was a very good night. People were in a great mood and sang along with the songs old and new. I even got to sing my two Dutch songs - which went down a bomb.
Then it was on the plane and back to Florida. I love Scotland, I love the Netherlands... but ohhhh I love the sun warming my skin in the middle of winter. It was great to be back in Florida - back for a heavy January of playing... the heat evaporated the drippy cold I had and I was raring to go again.
First weekend was in Nolans at Cocoa Beach. I played there last year at St Patrick's week - and it felt like I had never left. The crowd was as welcoming as I remembered and boy - they listen and enjoy their music.
I played another show in Nolans on the Thursday, then we were off to Tampa, Florida to the Four Green Fields, a very popular old Irish pub with a gorgeous thatched roof.
This was another place that loves its music and I'm pleased to say I got on well with "the Corner gang" they know (and sing) their Irish songs and were "giving it laldy"... I had a great weekend there and left with quite a few new friends. A great place, I hope to be back later in the year (when I return to Florida).
Two years ago (maybe you remember), I played a Burns night in Nolans. We put the show together in just a few days and had a pretty good evening - we had a Florida haggis (cunningly disguised as a chocolate cake), poetry, song and a lot of fun.
I was asked on St Patricks day last year by Al Denacoeur of the Celtic Norse Heritage Society if I would do a Burns night this year for them. I agreed as long as my travel plan brought me back on time.
Well time marches on, my travel plan worked out and we upped the stakes this year big time. We had a real haggis, piped in by pipe major Ceallagh Donnachaidh, "the Immortal Memory" by Joe McColligan and a host of enthousiastic others reciting Burns, WB Yeates, Kipling and some funny authors. The three hours shot by with everyone in the place riveted by the spectacle unfolding before them and joining in enthusiastically when asked. It was a unique atmosphere for a very special evening. I have to admit, I was exhausted at the end - and happy it had gone so well.
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