next after our day off was Vero beach in Florida and we played a classical programme in a lovely church out in the middle of nowhere. Peter Tuite played the Beethoven concerto and we played Brahms 2nd symphony to a standing ovation!!

Here's Peter in rehearsal doing his thing! He really is a phenomenal musician, his playing is effortless, and he is great craic on the bus too.





One of the Horn players warming up...

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The hotel we were supposed to be staying at was a real dump so the Columbia rep got another place sorted real quick and it was fantastic, my room was bigger than our first apartment!!!!! Right overlooking the beach, so after our 2nd celtic night we all piled back to my room for a small party. Great craic.


Following that we moved to West Palm beach to the Kravis centre for the arts. WOW what a theatre!!!! Here it is.


At this concert I had to fill in for Colman for a pre-concert lecture. That was a real nerve wrecker....I had very little time to do any prep. so I winged it and it went well, really well. I had my ipod plugged in so I was able to play a few excerpts for the crowd. THere was about 300 at it!!!









I then got to rip into my brand new 22 inch crash cymbals for the last movement of Tchaik 4!!!! WOW What a huge sound they make.
After that, which was the first time I've ever done this on tour, we drove 100 miles south to Stuart, Florida to do the same programme again!!!!! The theatre was tiny and owned by.....Irving Berlin''s grandson!
The loading area was so small the basses had to take their instruments out of the cases outside on the street!!!!








Rest day followed this in Sarasota and it just so happened that Munster were playing Sale in the Heineken cup. So, I got the address of a bar that was showing the match and I tore off on my own, complete with Munster jersey to a bar called MacGanns. There I met a fella from Dublin named Niall........

I didn't put my hand in my pocket all day and I had a ball. Twas actually great to head off on my own away from the tour and the stresses of the past 2 weeks.





Next we headed for Atlanta, a mere 10 hours on the bus!!!! Thankfully the craic and people on the bus are fantastic so, it's no bother. We got a lot of housekeeping work done, emailing venues, calling sound techs etc and organising tickets. Once all the work was done frankie, myself and a few of the gang got a few beers/sandwiches and started on the jokes!!! What a panic we had. On arrival in Atlanta we found a place across the street that did fabulous food.
Here's a few shots for ya.................

Atlanta was great as it was the first hotel we stayed in that was actually in the city centre. They had a huge parade in honour of Barack Obama's inauguration.
Here's a few shots from the Lucas theatre in Savannah with all the percussion set up and the sound equipment for the Irish spectacular......


Here's a few shots I forgot to add earlier of all the Irish soloists heading for a crab restaurant in Naples, Florida. What a gorgeous place.....










Ad for free beer...who says the Americans have no sense of humour!!!!!







Dave 'Piano man' Browne with crab claw!!!









I especially love this shot of Peter Tuite and Frankie Gavin discussing music and gigs etc...fantastic!









And of course all the soloists from the number 1 bus!!!!








Sorry, I've been swamped so the best thing is to skip on to the last few days. We moved on Saturday to Augusta Georgia the home of the famous U.S. open. I actually had a night off!!!! I went off for a stroll to the golf course but couldn't get within 1 mile of it for all the fences, I did find a beautiful walk though right at sunset. Over the river is South Carolina, different time zone and everything!!! The houses were amazing and right on the riverfront was this amphitheatre......





















The next gig was in Anniston High School, honestly the hall there was absolutely fantastic...for a high school in the middle of nowhere.









After the concert there was a fantastic reception put on for us by the Irish commuinity. The food was top notch, no burgers or chicken wings in sight here. Only the very best Italian food with to-die-for desserts!!!! Here are some of the soloists all dolled up eatin de grub!!!!

Our last gig 2 days ago was by far the best of all so far. Peter absolutely nailed the Shostakovich and the Tchaikovsky was amazing. One of the best concerts I've ever played in!!!




Talk to ye soon!!!!