Hi all again!
Thanks SO VERY MUCH for all your very kind comments! We do appreciate them very much. And so good to see so many familiar names here again! Martin (Payne), that indeed is quite a coincidence! Even you wife was asking about us??? Wow. Some ESP going on there for sure...
We've been playing through all these years, but not as much as before. We're on our bass player #3 in the past 10 years (they're to us what drummers were to Spinal Tap!), so we lost some momentum due to that. In fact, between '05 and '09, I don't think we played any gigs, and have gotten off to a slow start since then. It's really just for fun and for the love of the music. If you're interested in having us come back to Toronto, we'd definitely be interested, just let us know. The Shadowmania NA events in '01 and '03 are both among my favorite memories ever! What a wonderful time we had there.... Thanks for making all of that happen, I am very grateful.
Good to see Martin Page and Nels here again, too! Again, thanks so very much for your nice words.
Walt, we're not based in Ohio, but near by - all but me live in Indiana, and I live in Michigan, but only about 15 miles north of where Michigan, Indiana and Ohio come together. But there's always more than some driving involved when we do something.
Finally, Dave, the blonde beast in the back belongs to me. It's actually not a Fender but a modern boutique reproduction of an early '60s brownface dual Showman (with 2x15" JBLs), made by a California amp maker (Dario) Gomez. An incredible sounding amp, huge transformers, handwired, etc. The reason it's on stage is that playing immediately following the Troubadours was my surf band the Madeira (we also share the same drummer, Dane Carter), the band that's taken up most of my musical energies since '04. You can see us in action in the below videos.
Thanks so much again, all. Glad to be back here, and so nice to see all the great videos from Shadowmania! (I almost had to travel to Europe this past week, and if it happened, I was thinking a few months about flying through London on the way back so I could make Shadowmania. Such a shame it didn't work out...)
BTW, just to see that Bruce is LOVED even among surf musicians, check out this recent discussion of his new interview:
http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/16372/ (make sure you go to the second page, too, some really nice words about him there)
Thanks!
Ivan
Here's a new track for us, a cover of an old tune written by Ernesto Lecuona, the author of The Breeze and I and Siboney, among many, MANY other great songs. This is our own arrangement, and the track will be appearing on our next album, out early next year (already in the can). Definitely took a bit from the Shads for this one (and of course, check out the matching fiesta red Fenders!):
Here's a bit more rocking one:
And here's a really rocking one, in the Dick Dale style: