Year 2 – on the road again, again

Ok… something happened to my blog updates at the end of last year’s round USA tour  – it’s hard to believe … but a dog ate them. Yup. Sorry.. its a loss – but never mind. This year’s another adventure… but quickly – the story so far (and apologies to people, places, gigs I missed out in the summary – it’s purely down to old age and whisky)…

My previous updates took us to Florida – great times there, St Patricks day (week) in Meehans in St Augustin. Then to Savannah Georgia – played in MacPherson’s 3 Scottish pubs, met Jock the Box from Stirling, a hop over to Scotland where I played the Clep bar in Dundee, back over to Pennsylvania – playing in Ottos Brew Pub in State College  then up to Virginia, New York, Boston, Maine then played 4 gigs in Finbars in Halifax Nova Scotia. After the delights of Canada it was back to USA – the Dublin pub in Dayton Ohio, The Ivanhoe, Racine, WI, Murphys in Seattle, WA, the Galway Bay Irish pub in Ocean Shores, WA then back to Vancouver WA / Portland OR area for a summer filled with gigs (Dorothy will confirm than…. she prefers a lighter schedule… understatement!)

The Galway Bay Irish festival was my last Pacific NW appearance before heading south to San Francisco. A wee pause here to applaud the Galway Bay event, over 30 bands on 10 stages over a 5 day period – and it sold out!! incredible event, really well organised. Liam Gibbons and team – well done. Especially good as I’ve been asked back again next year! After all that it was a wee 5 week break in Europe where I became 60 in Scotland and recovered in the Netherlands. A few gigs there too.

OK… so now we’re caught up – at the moment I’m 60 miles North of San Diego. Michelle (my tour manager) is lining up dates mostly for San Diego and Florida. There’s also talk of gigs in Honolulu Hawaii – that’ll be nice!. I’m 6 weeks in San Diego and a month in Florida. I’ve been asked back to the Highlander in San Antonio Texas and the Irish House in New Orleans. I will play them in February as we wind our way across the South of the USA to spend a month in Florida. This year I’ll be playing a few dates (including St Patricks day(s) in Nolan’s Irish pub in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

I’m also writing my own songs over the winter with a view to bringing out an album sometime in the summer. This is a bit new for me – I usually get so far into writing a song and then scrap it in a fit of embarrassment. This time it’s different – I actually know what I will be writing and have a stream of new ideas that have just appeared from nowhere. I think I drank so much over my birthday that the few remaining braincells have realised they don’t have much time left and want to record their contents for posterity. We’ll see.