[caption id="attachment_466" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Spiros Soukis at the Grisly Pear."][/caption] Monday Jams at The Grisly Pear have become a must go for every musician in the city. Hosted by "Big" Ed Sullivan and Christine Santelli and located in the heart of Greenwich Village is an attraction for musicians and audiences alike. Advertised only by word of mouth, the word is getting out there slowly but steadily with a steady flow of musicians coming to jam, and others to listen to the great music that comes out of the small stage at the back room. So don`t hesitate, if you are a musician grab your axe and play and let the audience hear what you have to say,see you there on Monday night. Last night my friend Nikki Armstong with her band was playing at Lucille`s and i went to see her. She sounded great and so did her band of great players with Jason Green on guitar,Rob Chaseman on sax grooving and soloing like there`s no tomorrow. I had my trusted Blade with me, and i took over Jason`s seat, doing a song made famous by Susan Tedeschi called "Little by Little" and then i did one of mine, called "Inside out" that got a very warm response. I am watching the Thanksgiving day parade from my window while writing this. Happy Thanksgiving everybody wherever you are.

[caption id="attachment_439" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Kathleen outside Ethel Barrymore Theatre."][/caption]On Wednesday i went to see my first matinee show titled Elling which started at 2:00 pm. For the next two hours i travelled to Oslo, Norway where the play takes place, and to another society, where humanity plays a big roll in the everyday life, where universal health care is provided by the state, and where the motto is that all human beings are born good and equal and that society`s roll is to help them live a good and descent life. The cast is superb with Mr. Brendan Fraser in the leading roll as Kjell Bjarne and Mr. Dennis O`Hare as Elling, and Mrs.Jennifer Coolidge in four different roles. Every one is fantastic in his roll, and i enjoyed the fact that you can really get a glimpse into the Scandinavian reality with the Christmas carols sung in Norwegian and even the announcement, after the 15 minutes intermission, was made in Norwegian, which luckily for me, i do understand, since i have lived in Stockholm and i do speak Swedish which is very similar to Norwegian. Needless to say i enjoyed the show tremendously and i strongly recommend it to everyone who loves a good comedy. It plays at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre which i visited for the first time an i loved it. A Broadway show at it` best.

[caption id="attachment_250" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Together at BBKING`s."][/caption] It has been almost three months since i posted my last blog. The reason for that is that i have been crazy busy. Traveling,teaching,playing,writing. All for good though. But i also saw many concerts, some more worth mentioning than others. On Thursday April 15th after returning from my trip to Michigan and the suburbs of Detroit i saw Joe Bonamassa playing at The Town Hall. A great venue and a great rockin`blues concert. Joe was in top form and so was the rest of the quartet. Later this month i saw Robert Cray at BBKING`s, who was as good as always. Great sound and style. On May 20th i saw one of my all time favorite guitar players, singer,songwriter Sonny Landreth at BBKING`s again. I discovered Sonny and his album "Outward bound" way back in 1995 and he has been a great influence ever since. I love his sound,playing,writing and singing so it was a thrill to see him performing live and to meet him backstage. We immediately hit it off, and he too was thrilled to meet a Greek musician who knew so much about him, owns all his cds and loves his music so much. Hey maybe it is our South Connection after all that brought us so close together in the first place.

One of the great benefits of living in N.Y.C is that at any given night you can see and hear the most amazing musicians on the planet. There is so much live music played each and every night that you have to become very collective as to where to go and what to see other wise is all too overwhelming. Last Tuesday night i put my Blade on my back and i went to Kenny`s Castaways at Bleecker Street to check out and to attend the jam, hosted by the guitar player-singer-songwriter Jason Rosen. There i met with my friend and drummer Tom Papadatos who had brought his sticks with him and we sat in the front raw, to enjoy an hour of good music before the jam started. And what a great jam that was. Monday night it was a big birthday party going on at BBKING's where Jon Paris was leading his band and it was crazy to see all these amazing musicians jamming together. Foghat`s original drummer. Roger Earl and the original George Thorogood`s and the Destroyers drummer both rocked the house hard. Arthur Neilson played some mean blues guitar and Big Ed Sullivan did his magic on his Tele. Another great night out in the city that never sleeps.