Author: ekkarn

Another Great 2019 Run! Music by The D Project

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Yesterday’s morning temperature  was 41 degrees at 9:00. That’s just about 10-15 degrees higher than normal morning temperatures in January. So with a temperature like that there was no way I wasn’t running.

I decided to run a four-mile course and followed through on that decision! The only bad part of the run was it was slightly windy when I was running in a southwesterly direction which was for about half of the run. Oh and when I had to stop and tie my shoes!!

The Results

Miles- 4.02     Total Time: 40:36    Pace: 10:05 min/mile

The Splits: Mile 1 10:11  Mile 2 9:59 Mile 3 10:09 Mile 4 10:01  .02 -9:17

Avg HR 141     Max HR 156    Calories Burned: 513

The Soundtrack  Find Your Sun – The D Project.

The soundtrack for the run was Find Your Sun from The D Project. The D Project  is a  Neo Prog band from Canada founded by singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Stéphane Desbiens and author Francis Foy. From their website:

The first album « Shimmering Lights evoked a mix of different music styles; progressive rock, classical, metal including jazz.In 2008, was the release of the album Sagarmatha Dilemma , for which the music was inspired by Mount Everest images and its conquest by the climber Maxime Jean.

In 2011, D Project offered a more rock and direct sound with the album « Big Face. Then came the album  Making Sense which arrived just in time for the band to offer a memorable performance at the 2014 Quebec Summer Festival with Marillion.

Moreover, part of the sound of the last three albums was produced by Andy Jackson, Pink Floyd sound engineer. D Project always surrounded themselves with prestigious musician and artists.D Project is a mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis and King Crimson, but with a personal touch and characteristic sound. ‘’Pink Floyd meets Classic rock’’

About Find Your Sun

Find Your Sun is The D Project’s fifth studio album. Throughout the life of the band  special guests have played an important part in the band’s sound. Artists like: Tomas Bodin from Flower Kings, Martin Orford from IQ and Fred Schendel from Glass Hammer have all contributed to the band’s work.

The core band on Find Your Sun is Stéphane Desbiens / guitars, keyboards, vocals, composer, Isabelle Cormier / violin, backing vocals, Philippe Desbiens / bass and Jean Gosselin / drums

Special guests include:

  • Peter Falconer / vocals
  • Fred Schendel / keyboards
  •  Romain Thorel / keyboards
  • Marie Noelle Harvey / violin
  • Laura Laberge / cello
  • Sylvain Laberge / flutes
  • Nathalie Gobeil / bassoon
  • Daniel Simon / sax
  • Chorale de Saguenay / chorus vocals

Overall, I really enjoyed the album and look forward to.becoming more.familiar with it over the next few weeks. during the first listen both the guitar of Stéphane Desbiens and the violin of Isabelle Cormier caught my attention.

So Check It Out! Again,as for me, I will be checking out their back catalog!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of The D Project

Artist’s Website

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Here is the  video for “Find Your Sun” from The D Project…..

Van Jones’ Beyond the Messy Truth Kick Starts My 2019 Reading!

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Van Jones’ Beyond the Messy Truth – How We Came Apart-How We Come Together Kicks Starts 2019

So last year I reached what I thought was an unreachable Reading Challenge goal of reading 65 books. At some point in the next week or two I will recap what I read and how those books fit into my various sub-Reading Challenges! Additionally, I will be creating and writing about my 2019 Reading Challenges.

However, let’s get started by writing about what I have already read in 2019. As well as,  the books that I plan to read in January.

Beyond the Messy Truth – How we Came Apart – How We Come Together

First the first book I finished, actually on the first day of January, was Van Jones’ Beyond the Messy Truth – How we Came Apart – How We Come Together

I think Van Jones gets it and presents some really good ideas in this book. His overriding thought is that our divided country needs to take a step back and start to find common ground.

In Beyond the Messy Truth Jones presents open letters to both Liberals and Conservatives outlining many things that they get right and those they get wrong. I will say many of his points made me stop and think about my actions toward some conservatives.

He presents examples of policy areas where liberals and conservatives can come together for the common good. In these chapters he discusses the policy initiatives led by the unlikely duo of conservative Orrin Hatch and Liberal Ted Kennedy!

The Duality of The Founding of America

A highlight for me  were his statements about the duality found in the founding of our country

FROM THE VERY BEGINNING OF this country, America has been two things, not one. We have our founding reality and our founding dream. And the two are not the same.

The founding reality is that there were around when our country was founded. Those realities included slavery and the fact that it was founded by rich white males. But there was also a founding dream. The Declaration of Independence best says that dream, when it states that “all men are created equal’

At our best, our mission is simple. For more than two centuries, we have been working to close the gap between the ugliness of our founding reality and the beauty of our founding dream. Each generation tries to narrow that gap a little bit more than the last one did.

We need to be guided by both our conservative values coupled with our progressive principles to close that gap.

 The Bottom Line

I believe that his book should be passed out to everyone working in Congress and the White House. It should also be read by anyone who is concerned about shrinking the divide between conservatives and liberals   . Uh, which should be basically everybody!!

Two Opposites Have Praise for Beyond the Messy Truth!

Here’s what two people with divergent opinions on just about everything have to say about Beyond the Messy Truth….

 

“Van Jones is a light in the darkness when we need it most. Beyond the Messy Truth breaks with the tribalism of today’s politics and offers us a way forward. In the tradition of the great bridge builders of our past, Van’s love for this country and all its people shines through.” —CORY BOOKER, U.S. senator, New Jersey

“If I say I’m actually friends with Van Jones, will that cause conservatives to read the book or just cause progressives not to? I hope they all read it—I disagree with Van on just about everything, but I respect him for being authentic in his convictions and for having the ability to articulate them forcefully but fairly.” —MIKE HUCKABEE, former governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate.

Find It Read It, Think about It and Act!

Links for Further Exploration of Van Jones

Van Jones

The Dream Corp

Rebuild the American Dream 

So how good would a post be about coming together without “Get Together by The Youngbloods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spDh6EY761U

What Paths Should My ADD Brain Travel?

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What Paths Should My ADD Brain Travel ?

Ok so I have written before that there are times when I strongly believe that I have undiagnosed ADHD. The belief is based on. The fact that my mind races from one thought to the next very quickly. And the thoughts may all be about something completely different. That also may be the reason that I enjoy so many different things. I am virtually a “jack of all trades” and unfortunately a master of none!

For the last eight years I have written about a variety of topics and have created several blogs for those topics.

Paths I’ve Traveled?

I would say that the majority of those posts have been about the books I read and the music I listen to. Unfortunately, I believe that I am not in the mainstream concerning either of those topics.

I have also written about my running and my efforts to roll back my biological clock. As well as writing many posts about my family life and my explorations if my family tree.

Additionally, I created one site Socialstudious to explore my love for politics, history and social studies in general.

The bottom line is all of my efforts have only been read by either a handful of people or by bots and crawlers!

Should I Travel a Few Paths or Many?

So my question is there something that this 67 year-old with a love for books, music, running, yoga, history and politics, his health and family should be writing about?? Should I be concentrating on one of those topics? And if so which ones?

Any thoughts ?? Here’s the way my ADD brain discusses this…….

I should concentrate only in music….

But I love books and writing about them…

What about my running and anti-aging….

Help!!!!! What should I do!!

One of you 3,500 subscribers must have a thought, don’t you???

My Fastest Training 5K-Music by Bryce Janey

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Tuesday night before bed I checked what kind of temperatures to expect yesterday morning. The temperatures were predicted to be in the mid-30s, which is perfectly acceptable, to this weather runner! My temperature law is that anything below 30 is just a little too cold! Anyway, I was thinking about adding some distance to my 5K run and running four miles.

I actually did a little work around the house before my run, so I decided to stay with my 5K run.

When I was contemplating my run I want to map the route before hitting the road. I previously would use WalkJogRun to create routes. However last time I tried to use the site I discovered it had stopped working. I had downloaded Map My Fitness, but I have never used it on a run. Anyway, I discovered you can map routes with it. So I checked the route I thought about running and the route would be 4 miles. But as you know I decided it’s to run the 3.1 miles instead.

I did decide however to run with both my Fitbit and Map My Fitness logging my run. Surprisingly, the distances measured were different. The miles logged by Map My Fitness were shorter than the Fitbit miles! They weren’t off by much but enough so that my average pace per mile was about 4 seconds faster on Map My Fitness.

The Run

Anyway here are the results from the Fitbit App……

Total Distance: 3.11 miles Total Time: 31.57 Average Pace 10:16 min/mile

Mile Splits. Mile 1 – 10:26 Mile 2 10:20 Mile 3 10:10. Mile 0.11. 9:08

Avg Hr. 140 bpm. Max HR 150 bpm

Cals Burned: 402

The great thing about the run was that I wasn’t really pushing it over the last two miles but my times say otherwise!! That last mile is the fastest I’ve run in a long while!! Can I go under 10 minutes??

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the run was Brand New Day the 2018 release from blues rocker Bryce Janey. I have seen Janey’s name for a while but I have never listened to his music – mistake!

I really enjoyed this album, at least the times I drifted back to it! I am probably going to try to listen to the album of more times and then write a separate post about the album. Until then here’s Bryce with “Falling Down” from Brand New Day

Another Strong Run with Blues from Sean Chambers

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The Run

Yesterday it was pretty cold in the morning, so I put off running until the afternoon. It was actually pretty nice in the early afternoon but when the sun started to go down it got chilly pretty fast. I ran the same 3.1 mile loop that I’ve been running since I resumed running back in October. It was a pretty easy, nondescript run. The GPS seemed just on target. Here are the results……

The Nerdy Details

Total Distance: 3.11 Total Time: 32:39

Average Pace: 10:29

Mile Splits Mile 1. 10:32. Mile 2. 10:39 Mile 3 10:24 Mile:0.10 9:22

Avg HR. 140 Max HR. 150 Cals. Burned. 399

The Soundtrack – Welcome to My Blues

The soundtrack for the run was Welcome to My Blues by blues artist Sean Chambers. This is actually the second time this album has been used as a soundtrack for a run.

About Welcome to My Blues

Welcome to my Blues is Chambers’ 7th album on American Showplace Music. His last album Trouble & Whiskey was one of my favorite of 2017! The album was produced by Ben Elliott The list of artists Elliot has recorded includes classic artists like: Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, and Steve Miller among others.

The musician line-up on the album includes:Chambers on lead vocals and lead guitar, John Ginty on Hammond B3 & keyboards, (I am a fan of Ginty’s Hammond B3 and his work on this album on strengthens it). The rhythm section is rounded out by Todd Cook on bass and Moe Watson on drums. Special guest Jimmy Bennett plays slide guitar and backing vocals on track #6.

Welcome To My Blues contains 11 tracks and Chambers’ guitar work is great on each track. Eight of the tracks are new original Sean Chambers compositions. The other three are covers. The covers include: Luther Allison’s “Cherry Red Wine” “All Night Long” by T-Bone Walker and “Boxcar Willie” by John Ginty.

Welcome to My Blues will be in my rotation for a while now and will be in my music library along with Trouble & Whiskey and The Rock House Sessions.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Blues of Sean Chambers

Artist’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Amazon

Here is the title track from Welcome to My Blues

 

Where My November Reads Took Me -Part 2

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After Dial D for Deadman, I reluctantly left the world of Dan Deadman and returned to Earth. I landed in Siglufjörðurhe a quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland. Here I met Ari Thor Arason In Ragnar Jonasson’s Nightblind.

Nightblind – Rgnar Jonasson

Siglufjörðurhe is an isolated village only accessible via a small mountain tunnel. The small close-knit town is one where no one locks their doors. In Nightblind their world is rocked when a policeman is killed at a quiet house with a disturbing past.

The murdered officer was Ari Thór’s partner. Thor would have been on-duty the night of the murder but he had called out sick. Thor and the town’s former police chief are tasked with the job of unraveling the mystery. It’s complex mystery involving the compromised new mayor. Along the way the reader is also given glimpses of a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik where a patient writes about his confinement and the reason for it!

All in all, it was a good visit. I enjoyed both the plot and the characters. Nightblind is the second book in Jonasson’s  Dark Iceland series.and you can bet I’ll be visiting Iceland again. First, to find out what happened prior to Nightblind in Snowblind and then after in Blackout! I can’t wait.

Noumenon – Marina J. Losteller

Following Nightblind,  I traveled back to space with Marina J Lostetter’s Noumenon.  More precisely I traveled wit a convoy to the anomalous star LQ Pyxidis and back. A book Kirkus reviews calls “A striking adventure story that could hold a galaxy in its scope’

Noumenon chronicles humanity’s first adventures beyond the solar system,  The story is chronicles the aforementioned mission to visit LQ Pyxidis. The mission was the brainchild of Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer. Starifer thousands of others join a convoy of nine ships on a mission to reveal the origins of this anomalous star.

Since the mission would take centuries, it was decided that the travelers would not be frozen. Rather the mission would be composed of clones of Earth’s best scientists.

The story is told through a series of vignettes each featuring a different set of lead characters at various points along the journey. The only consistent character, and maybe the most interesting, is the ship’s A1 or ICC, short for Inter Convoy Computing.

I didn’t like these vignettes t first. It seemed, I would just be getting to know and like a character and boom they were gone! However, as the book progressed and I became aware of the length of the journey I saw the need for different characters.

The bottom line is that I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading the next book Noumenon Infinity. Here is a great review of Noumenon from  BarnesandNoble.com.

Finally, I have caught you up on the six books that I read in  November. In addition, I’ve told you about all the great places I have visited without leaving the comfort of my home!

Next up my first two December reads!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where My November Reads Took Me -Part 2 -Reading Journeys

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After Dial D for Deadman, I reluctantly left the world of Dan Deadman and returned to Earth. I landed in Siglufjörðurhe a quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland. Here I met Ari Thor Arason In Ragnar Jonasson’s Nightblind.

Nightblind – Rgnar Jonasson

Siglufjörðurhe is an isolated village only accessible via a small mountain tunnel. The small close-knit town is one where no one locks their doors. In Nightblind their world is rocked when a policeman is killed at a quiet house with a disturbing past.

The murdered officer was Ari Thór’s partner. Thor would have been on-duty the night of the murder but he had called out sick. Thor and the town’s former police chief are tasked with the job of unraveling the mystery. It’s complex mystery involving the compromised new mayor.

Along the way the reader is also given glimpses of a psychiatric ward in Reykjavik where a patient writes about his confinement and the reason for it!

All in all, it was a good visit. I enjoyed both the plot and the characters. Nightblind is the second book in Jonasson’s  Dark Iceland series.and you can bet I’ll be visiting Iceland again

 

. First, to find out what happened prior to Nightblind in Snowblind and then after in Blackout! I can’t wait.

Noumenon – Marina J. Losteller

Following Nightblind,  I traveled back to space with Marina J Lostetter’s Noumenon.  More precisely I traveled wit a convoy to the anomalous star LQ Pyxidis and back. A book Kirkus reviews calls “A striking adventure story that could hold a galaxy in its scope’

Noumenon chronicles humanity’s first adventures beyond the solar system,  The story is chronicles the aforementioned mission to visit LQ Pyxidis. The mission was the brainchild of Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer. Starifer thousands of others join a convoy of nine ships on a mission to reveal the origins of this anomalous star.

Since the mission would take centuries, it was decided that the travelers would not be frozen. Rather the mission would be composed of clones of Earth’s best scientists.

The story is told through a series of vignettes each featuring a different set of lead characters at various points along the journey. The only consistent character, and maybe the most interesting, is the ship’s A1 or ICC, short for Inter Convoy Computing.

I didn’t like these vignettes t first. It seemed, I would just be getting to know and like a character and boom they were gone! However, as the book progressed and I became aware of the length of the journey I saw the need for different characters.

The bottom line is that I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to reading the next book Noumenon Infinity. Here is a great review of Noumenon from  BarnesandNoble.com.

Finally, I have caught you up on the six books that I read in  November. In addition, I’ve told you about all the great places I have visited without leaving the comfort of my home!

Next up my first two December reads!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Strong Four-Mile Run with Music by The Windmill

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Since I have restarted running back in mid-October, my weekend runs have mostly been on Sunday. However, with the Eagles-Cowboys looming at 4:25 tomorrow and the prospect of a cold Sunday morning, I decided to run today. In addition to changing the day of the weekend, I also decided it’s time to increase my mileage on the weekends. My plan was to run four miles. The course would be my old Creek out and back course.

The result was a strong steady easy run, I didn’t push it and I easily stayed strong throughout the run. The only problem was I think the GPS was having a bad day today. The splits were not at their usual spots. The distance seemed to be about .09 miles short. Consequently, my pace time was a little faster than it actually was for the run. It may take a few times over the course to see what’s what.

Here are the results as recorded by the Fitbit using my phone’s GPS.

The Results

Total Distance 4.19 miles  Total Time 44:16 Pace 10:32

Mile Splits: Mile 1 – 10:27. Mile 2- 10:36  Mile 3 10:41 Mile 4 10:34. Last 0.19 9:44

Average HR 141 bpm max HR 152 bpm Cals Burned 566

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the run was a progressive Rock album, Tribus from The Windmill. The Windmill is a  Norwegian heavy prog progressive  rock band.

About The Windmill

The band was formed in the fall of 2001, with Jean R. Viita (keyboards, vocals) as the leader. Other founding members included: Morten Clason (sax, flutes, guitars, vocals, keyboards) and Arnfinn Isaksen (bass). Band members added shortly thereafter were: Bent Jensen (guitars), Vidar Kleivane (drums) and Erik Borgen (guitars, vocals).

The Windmill spent the next several years rehearsing, writing material and performing live when possible. They started recording their first album in 2005. It took five long years and several changes of members of the band to produce their first album. In May of  2010 To Be Continued… was finally released.

The Windmill has released two additional albums since 2010’s To be Continued….. They released The Continuation in 2015 and Tribus this year.

The Windmil

The Musician Line-up for Tribus

Erik Borgen / lead vocals, guitars Stig André Clason / guitars
Jean Robert Viita / keyboards, backing vocals
Morten Clason / sax, flute, backing vocals
Arnfinn Isaksen / bass
Sam Arne Nøland (RIP) / drums*

* Sam passed away in September of 2018  prior to the release of Tribus

Thoughts About Tribus

I really enjoyed this album throughout my run. You know you’re listening to a prog rock album, when the first track lasts more than 20 minutes of a 44 minute run. But with all of the tempo changes it’s hard when you’re running to realize it’s the same song!

I liked both the instrumentals and the vocals on Tribus. I particularly liked Morton Clason’s flute playing. In my opinion, the flute fits into prog rock beautifully, says the fan of Ian Anderson!

Anyway, Tribus is a great album so Check It out. As for me I’ll be listening to not only Tribus but also The Windmill’s two other releases.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of The Windmill

Artist’s Website

Facebook

Spotify

ProgArchives

ProGGnosis

Here’s “The Tree” from The Windmill’s Tribus. 

Where My November Reads Took Me – Part 1

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So as I finished Still Waters book number 61 for 2018, I  thought of a way to recap my November reads. The setting for Still Waters is the Swedish island of Sandhamn. Which made me thinks of all the other places I visited in November via the books I read. So here are the first three books I read…….

No Defense - Kate WilhelmKate Wilhelm  – No Defense

Kate Whilhelm’s No Defense (54) was the first book I read in November.The book is the fifth book in  Wilhelelm’s Barbara Holloway a lawyer working out of Eugene, Oregon. Most of the action in No Defense takes place in the high desert region of southeastern Oregon. In the book Barbara must defend a woman accused of killing her husband and making it look like an accident. Of course the woman has “no defense”. The characters were good and the story interesting with a twisting ending!

 Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke – Girl’s Night Out

After visiting Oregon, I traveled 3,700 miles in a southeasterly direction and visited Tulum in the Yucatán Penisula if Mexico. Book 55 was Girls Night Out  by the writing duo of    And Liz Fenton. In Girls Night Out  three long-time friends Ashley, Lauren, and Natalie who have been estranged for the last year are going on vacation to hopefully set aside hurt differences and become friends again. But when  Natalie wakes up alone on the beach after a night out and Ashley is missing their lives are turned upside down.

Flashbacks tell the story from the perspective of each of the main characters.I didn’t like this over the first few chapters, However, as the story progressed I thought it was a great way to present the tale. The chapters deal not it only  with Ashley’s disappearance but also the  issues that have driven them apart. This is not a book that I would typically read but I found it interesting and enjoyed it.

Karin Slaughter – Pieces of Her

After Tulum, Mexico I headed  to Belle Isle, Georgia where in the seashore town I met Laura and her daughter Andrea in Karin Slaughter ‘s Pieces of Her. (Book 56). In this book Slaughter explores the possibility your mother may not be who you think she is!  When put in a life and death situation Andrea’s mother responds in ways Andrea could never imagine her professorial mother responding. Soon Andrea’s mother tells her that her life is in danger and she needs to run away to Idaho! As she runs, Andrea discovers more pieces of her mother’s life. Slaughter also enlightens the reader about pieces of  Laura’s life via alternating chapter. They revealing both the past and the present. Once again a five star read from Karin Slaughter!!

 

Barry J Hutchinson – Dial D for Deadman 

The next book took me to Outer Space and the world of Dan Deadman inn Barry J. Hutchinson’s Dial D for Deadman. Dan Deadman who has actual been dead for a while, first meets a strange girl . Dan and his leprechaun friend Artur are then tasked with finding a missing girl. Funny, fun book and Deadman and his friends are great characters! I am ready for the next book in this series.!

I came back to Earth for my next read and landed in Iceland……….. find out where in part two!!

 

 

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A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!

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What’s Been Happening….
Ok so no long recap of why I haven’t posted here for a long time. I’ll just say I had some health issues that appear to have been resolved favorably! The biggest being a high PSA level which is a test used for detection of prostate problems. But after a retest and a normal exam by a urologist, it appears I am good to go.
One of the positives that has happened between the initial PSA test and the retest is switching my aerobic exercise from my heavy dance-Kundalini- cardio workout to running. Another is that I have added a 25-30 minute before bed yoga routine.
Many of the asanas in the nightly routine are ones that are good for my prostate. Additionally, I have made some dietary changes, adding foods like avocado to my diet! On the downside, but good side, I also tried to eliminate sugary cakey snacks and potato chips!! Anyway, I think all of the above helped to reduce my PSA level. I still think that the main reason that my PSA level was high in the first place was excessive exercise over the weekend leading up to the test. But that’s neither here nor there, the bottom line is hopefully things are good. And the changes that I made to my exercise routines and diet are positive!
A Return to Running
So let’s get to some new stuff and then I’ll try to catch up on some older stuff as we move on! My plan when I started to run again was to return to my old running routine. That routine was running four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then a 5-8 mile run on a weekend day. So far I have only been running a 3.1 mile course and I think I have made three days a week once.
However, my minute per mile pace has been much faster than anticipated. Typically, in recent years when I start back running after a layoff my pace hovers around 11:30 minutes per mile for a long while. This time my pace was only around 11:30 for the first two runs. By the third run it was around 11 minutes/mile and it has gone down from there!
I think the major reason for that was that was the pretty hard dance-cardio exercising I did from July up until the fateful PSA test. I believe that through that exercising I was in great aerobic shape and that made the transition to running easier than in the past. My average pace for today’s 3.1 mile run was 10:27 min/mile. Here are the stats for the run…..
Mile Splits— Mile 1 – 10:24 Mile 2 -10:39 Mile 3 – 10:30
Mile 0.15 – 9:13
Average HR – 141 bpm  Max 172? Calories Burned -419
So hopefully, I can keep running through the winter and not have to start over again next spring! But at least now I know if I do my dance cardio in those super cold or snowy days I will remain in pretty good shape!!
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack for today’s run was Hold On the latest release from blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher. Kirk Fletcher is one of the world’s best blues guitarist. He is a four-time Blues Music Award and a 2015 British Blues Award nominee and has played with a variety of popular artists, including Joe Bonamassa and a three-year role as lead guitarist of The Fabulous Thunderbird. Additionally,not that anybody cares, he has played on many of the albums that have been in my music rotation over the last several years.
About Hold On
Hold On is a great album. It had me from the first track “Two Steps Forward” and it wasn’t Fletcher’s guitar that caught my attention. It was the organ! Subsequently, I have discovered the keyboardist was Jonny Henderson. Henderson is a well-respected British keyboard artist who has been a member of the Matt Schofield Trio since 2004.Additionally, he has been voted Keyboard Player of the Year at both the 2010 and 2011 British Blues Awards. The other member of Fletcher’s band is drummer Mack Brown. Brown has played with Henderson many times. The trio first played together a year or two ago at the Bristol Jazz Festival and as they say the rest is history. It’s my hope that they will be playing together a lot more!!
Hold On will certainly be in my music rotation over the next several weeks and beyond! The songs on the album are varied and Fletcher’s guitar work is perfect on each track. Here;’s what Matt Koehler said about the album….
Hold On as an album is so solid, so listenable and so moving that the word
“monumental” comes to mind. It sets the bar for modern Rhythm & Blues albums to come, from Kirk or otherwise, and it reminds the world that the genre is still as strong and meaningful as ever. ~ by Mat Koehler
Currently, Hold On is number 24 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart. So Check it Out!
Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Kirk Fletcher
 Here’s the official video for “Two Steps Forward” from Kirk Fletcher