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 Happy New Year! I hope that everyone’s holiday season was enjoyable and the year is off to a good start. I also welcome all of the new Gravity newsletter subscribers. 2006 was a wonderful whirlwind-of-a-year; full of planes, trains, automobiles and MUSIC! In addition to some great camping & golf, some of my year’s musical highlights include: the release of my cd Gravity on Germany’s Skip Records, catching my musical bother Andrew Farriss and INXS in concert; in California, The Aretha Franklin Gospel Revival in Detroit, my musical comrade/fellow MSU Alum, Randy Sly’s @ his Musical Jam bachelor party, serving as tour support on Gabriel Gordon’s “Overwhelmed” tour and the incredible experience of performing with Hiram Bullock @ Germany’s Aalen Jazzfest! In addition to these experiences, I also spent quality time with my family & re-connected with friends over the holidays. My new year begins on an “up” note, recording new music, again collaborating with St. Echo (Gravity co-writer/fellow MSU alum) and Richard Gibbs. I also welcome my new booking agency & artist management, Germany’s O-tone Music and Spain’s Welcome Producciones to the family. It’s great to have them both on the team and I’m sure that we’ll all make great music together! Ludwig Jurgeit remains a very good friend and valued partner in music and I wish him all the best in his future endevours. Going through my archives over the holidays, I came across some long-forgotten footage from an old episode of Saturday Night Live; In addition to playing guitar in the Aretha Franklin band that night, I also had the honor of performing in a skit with the late Phil Hartman, Michael Meyers, David Spade, Adam Sandler, the late Chris Farley and host Nancy Kerrigan. Although I’m only an extra in the skit, I got quite a bit of camera time! It’s worth checking out; Click here and smile: 
For you Rush/Neil Peart/drum enthusiasts: Waay back in the day, during my formative basement band days, I formed a band Exodus with my friend Rob Nusbaum (who remains one of my oldest & dearest friends) We also penned funky tunes like “Oak Park Jam” and covered countless Kiss, Cheap Trick & Rush songs and even performed at the Oak Park Ice Arena! (After all, we were BIG TIME!!!) Through the years, Rob has remained true to his drumming passion & inspiration and recently acquired the priceless 1st in the sereies (of only 30 manufactured) Neil Peart designed/tour drum sets, commemorating Rush’s 30th anniversary. To view pics of a drummer’s moment-of-a-lifetime, click here: 
THIS MONTH'S PHOTO 
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| Aalen Jazzfestival promoter Ingo Hug, Hiram Bullock, myself and members of Germany's SWR1 Radio take a photo-op during my SWR1 radio interview/performance with Hiram. *to view the complete photo gallery, click the camera icon above* Happy New Year and thanks for listening, Auf Wiedersehen! 
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