So Liam, my son the artist, musician, comedian and all around good guy came home for a visit and his girlfriend took sick and was taken to the hospital, so he has moved in, to be close by.  She is doing well but it all takes time, which you have so much of when you are young yet youth still is impatient.

In any event he ended up here with only a ukulele, just one of  several instruments he is constantly playing on. He convinced me that I should switch from guitar so we visited pawn shops to see what we might find.  Didn’t find a ukulele but found this funky Gretsch limited edition commemorative guitar they made for their 130 year birthday. I gave two guitars away this past year so my other guitars were getting lonely and thus a good reason to add this vintage looking ax to the collection. It is small 2/3 size, easy to play, carry and sounds remarkably well so I bought it instead of the ukulele.  It is just as well as I might get tired of playing tiny bubbles.  (name the singer below and enter to win a prize.) Now if only Barbara Samuel can teach me to sing?

In the summer of 67, I hitch-hiked to Edmonton and bought my still favourite guitar from Harmony Kids. It is a 12 string Framus which I I took and then hitch hiked to Kelowna and sat in the park and played by day and slept under the bridge at night with a couple dozen other kids.  Believe me we were pretty naïve and innocent kids compared to what I see hanging around today. You can tell from the photo of me looking very hippy below…

Can you believe that I fought with my father over the length of my hair?  As a parent, pick your battles wisely and choose which hill you are prepared to die on, and most are small hills in hindsight. However the 12 string has sat in the corner and collected cobwebs and dust, as the strings aged, and became hard and brittle much as my mind and fingers have, but the memories playing with greats like Jim Setterlund, the older I get the greater we were.

I don’t know if this is the start of my comeback as a Kelowna Park’s hippy busker but I am amusing myself and playing more than I have in years.  I am hoping Liam might ask me to join his band… lol. I am thinking of putting together a four-hour video of my playing and singing to play at my funeral just to get back at anyone who out lives me.  In the mean time I will be sitting in down town Kelowna strumming out golden oldies on my back porch.