Singing a duet with Anne on the backporch...playing in the "Peeler's Band"
with Anne, Steve, Leslie, Chuck, and Bob...Learning how to turn shrimps into
butterflies (and we've got to get our shrimp, back to the
ki--i---i--i--tchen, do do do do do-do..sorry :>}) ...playing scrabble with
Leslie in Ashara's kitchen...talking with Claudia and working out some
harmony...eating breakfast with Paz, Kakki, and Nikki in our little beach
cottage...jamming on some songs with Ashara's son Aaron, waking up Ashara
two or three times which was unfortunate but it was just so COOL that he was
there playing his drum and that we were able to connect...laughing harder
than I have ever laughed before while spending around two hours singing with
the "Drunken Music Contingency" and the "Jamaican Ambassadors Band", taking
every Joni song imaginable, doing them in complete reaggae style ie., Free
Man in Jamiaca, The Ganga Line, All I Want (is some Ganga), and on and on,
what was so great though was that I had been on the other side of the house,
listening to these amazing versions of Joni songs being done by Jeff C. and
Ross, great songs by Kate and Jeff, and it was really quiet and serious in
there, but I finally got up and walked over to the other side of the house
and was there for less than a minute before I was laughing uncontrollably
along with Ambassador Polifka and Ambassador Mueller, and yet, before the
night was over, I made my way back to the other side of the house again for
more serious music, though I was so tired and spent, I had to have Kate look
up my words for me and hold them up, and it took tries to make it through
the song, and then it was a real pleasure to accompany Kate and Jeff on some
beautiful pieces, and then we broke into the Grateful Dead jam with
Aaron...And I can't forget doing several different versions of "War Pigs"
including folk, operatic, and reaggae with Kay Ashley...starting "Message in
a Bottle" and never finishing it because Michael went to find a guitar and
then it got lost in that void where all the Police songs end up when they
sputter off half way through the first verse...It was a real, real, pleasure
to have Chris Marshall playing bass with me on "Every Breath You Take" and
"The Master of the Ring" and I also must mention the fabulous stylings of
Steve Polifka on keys, Christina on drum, and as always Steve Mixon blowing
my mind with his
mandolin mastery, and thanks to both Steve and Jeff for playing in the "Neil
Young" band at Atty Mays...listening to Yael sing, she has a fantastic voice
and really nice style of playing and I really, really enjoyed listening to
her...one second, Michael do you have Kakki's car keys???...I tried really
hard to turn a brownie into a key late, late Saturday night as I couldn't
find them and I almost succeeded...a FABULOUS, FABULOUS MEAL on Friday
cooked by master chef John Van Tiel, delicious, spicy Indonesian beans and
onions--yyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmy!...Stephanie playing a gorgeous
piece by Brahms on the piano at Ashara's...playing "Shades of Scarlet" with
Leslie and Steve...breaking out "La Bamba"...serenading Allison with a
french love song by Cabrel...walking her down the aisle Monday in Ashara's
backyard...
Well, this is enough for now.
love,
Victor
NP: HOSL
Victor Johnson
http://www.cdbaby.com/victorjohnson
"Velveteen rabbits and moonbeams,
Come when you lay down your head.
While you are sleeping, they kiss you and tell you,
That you are the reason the sun lights the sky."
Scarlet-V. Johnson
