5th August 2010
I got to see, and jam with my old friend Chick Willis a couple of weeks ago. Chick is the cousin of Chuck Willis who wrote the Ray Charles classic 'Feel So Bad', and he was in town for the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. Chris Lomas from Parker's Alibi was playing bass for him, and he gave me a call to let me know what was going down, so I went along with a telecaster for a jam. It was so nice to see Chick again. His stories are hilarious, and the music was completely free and spontaneous which is always interesting!
My good mate Morg Morgan is retiring from full time playing to become a music teacher. I'm sure he'll do really well in his new career given his varied life experience and musical ability. I'll definitely miss having 'The Mole' around, but I still intend to play duo shows with him from time to time, so there's a chance you'll get to hear him again at some point.
I've been busy this last couple of weeks in rehearsals with the band for our tour later in the year. The band is sounding great and it's really nice to play in that format again after all these months. My long time rhythm section of Steve Amadeo and Wayne Proctor are of course still around, and Chris Eaton, who many of you (in the UK at least) will have heard in my acoustic trio, has now joined on a permanent basis. I'm really enjoying playing with another guitarist, and he's a mind blowing player. The world famous Mick the Dog filmed the first rehearsals last week, and I'll get together with him over the next few days to put the footage together to give you a taster of how things are coming together.
I'll also be taking the duo with Wayne to Germany in November which will be cool. We had a great time on our Benelux tour in June, and the audience response was overwhelming considering the show only involves the two of us, so it will be nice to tour it again. I've missed being in Germany, it's been a while. Please check out the tour page for details.
Alternatively, the independently run German fansite (www.ianparkermusic.de.tl) will have lots of information on the tour over the coming weeks.
I've been in the studio for the last few days recording two new songs. I'm very happy with the way it's working out, and there'll be more on that soon no doubt. I've got more than enough material for a new album, and I can't wait to get it all down...
