Recently returned from Houston, TX where my wife was in charge of hosting her company's annual conference, and of course I was "volunteered" to help her out! Initially, one of her co-workers suggested doing Campfire/Sing-a-Long's one of the nights and I was put together with him to work out details and so we could supply the jams together. Well, last minute he was sent out on a job out of the country so I was on my own...

Since the forecast said it was going to be COLD it was decided to move the music indoors... but how to make it still be a Sing-a-Long? I plotted out a short set of songs I would do with just acoustic guitars and ukulele and then a book full of lyrics that anyone was welcome to come up and sing with me, then after the fun died down (since it was a "Winter Tropical Escape" theme) some Hawaiian music to play in the background as people mingled. Needless to say, all that went out the window as lot's of people got into the idea and it turned into full on "Acoustic Karaoke" for about 3 hours straight! I finally took a little break, had a few drinks, and by popular demand retook the mic and did another very short set before we called it a night, but what a night it was... to everyone who took part; MAHALO! And yes, it appears I'll be going back next year to do it AGAIN!

In RELIX News, Chris Gaspard's wife Debby had her surgery to remove her tumors and a lot of other affected organs. The entire surgery lasted 17 hours, but she seems to be doing well. Chris is back in town briefly to take care of a few things before heading back to be at her side as she recouperates. We've got for sure 1 lead guitarist on tap to cover for Chris when we hit Marksville, LA on the 23rd and either the same fellow or another close friend of the band will sit in on New Years Eve in Campti, LA. It was great having the entire band together again for our Halloween shows, and we hope that by mid-January we'll be ready to to take the full RELIX line-up back out to see all of our friends and fans!

I've just renewed my digital distribution deal for the "TRANSITIONS" CD for 2012 and my plans are pretty straightforward; Sales have been enough to break even on the distribution deal (not the production costs), so I'm hoping to see some sales in the new year to show there's interest. As well, I'll be hitting the studio either during early February or there-abouts and hope to have it released in time to take advantage of my current distribution package. IF by the time it expires again I haven't seen any movement on either CD I'll probably hold out 1 more cycle (to allow the new CD at least a 2 year run) and then will only sell hard copies in stores and at shows or via mail orders.

So here's hoping 2012 is not only more productive but rewarding in many ways!