Those Vultures again..and Stags and...

Greetings – It’s been a while. Today started on a high.

Despite recently having had all the remaining summer plants eaten in my back yard, I finally caught sight of the culprit this morning, at 7.30 a.m; a large stag weighing approx 250 lbs! There he was, a full grown, male white - tailed deer, standing nonchalantly, right outside my window, as I was about to pen this blog entry. Awesome! He was majestic with a really good sized 4 point rack - proud, cool, all virility. This is a good sign. An omen. ‘Power…’. I’m on a high. Don’t worry folks, I’m not losing it. It’s just that around these parts, you kind of live for these close encounters with nature. At least I do.

There has recently been a group of new visitors to the neighborhood; black headed vultures. Yep, I’ve been living in this little corner of New England for 25 years and I’ve never seen one. This week, I saw two. They are really black with dark – skinned grey heads, much more sleek and beautiful than the more common turkey vultures, but a little smaller.

Recently, I’ve been seriously preoccupied with completing all the little nit – picky details that go into a CD package (Power of Eternity release). Had to fight tooth and nail to get the record label to agree to a digipak. For the unitiated; that’s one of these cool cardboard style, fold out sleeves. They are lighter in weight which helps with shipping and more environmentally friendly. They are also more tactile, good for autographing and the one we’ve chosen, will have a slot in the side of it where the CD booklet will be found, much like an old vinyl LP sleeve.

Once that was decided and the whole design finished, I dived straight into the planning for the upcoming U.K. tour. At the same time my attention has been on details for some of the USA dates which require a really labor intensive approach. The US promoters want every thing you can imagine – loads of info about the band requirements, (none of which they end up supplying) plus loads of promo, (most of which they give out to friends and relatives). The Brits on the other hand, flippantly expect the band to just turn up on the predestined date with no advance work. It’s all o.k though. Naturally, the Germans have had their Wishbone Ash Eternity Tour wrapped up weeks ago, with all the details taken care of and it doesn’t start until January 2008! God bless ‘em.

Got word that Sanctuary Records will release in the USA before they finally implode as a label. You can soon find info on their website http://store.sanctuaryrecords.com/. Wishbone’s twin publicists, Kate and Billy, will be covering for them in all local and web-based media outlets. Amazon will be offering the CD and I Tunes will also feature it for downloading BUT if you get a chance pop pickers, please save your pennies and buy it direct from us at one of the tour shows. We’d like that AND we’ll personalize your copy with a signature or two.

Let me see – other news items. Joe Crabtree is in New York visiting family and has let me know he’ll be catching the Genesis show there. Muddy saw them in Helsinki recently. He said the show was good but he got a bit bored during the 80’s material. I had dinner this evening with Al Payson, ex bass player from Blue Law which some of you may remember, was a band from New York, which I joined back in the 90’s. We had a good time reliving memories and as some of you may not know, he sat in with Wishbone on a date in the Isle of Man once. It was during T.T. week and as I remember it, Al was particularly struck by the strippers we had as the opening act (standard practice at biker shows). I then proceeded to tell him about our Dutch festival date with Tull and Purple, where the band was interviewed for Naked TV (you had to be there).

What else? Well, I have assiduously been avoiding all so called ‘serious’ news outlets for roughly 2 years but lately I rediscovered TV, since purchasing a large flat screen TV. Astounding how bad it all still is. Anyway, OJ is back. The Formula One scandal is amazing – How McLaren - Mercedes stole new engine development documents from Ferrari and were fined $100,000,000 for their trouble. Then there was the Thai air crash – (I remember landing at that airstrip in Phuket). It’s been a week. Oh yes, and Hilary announced her health care plan and BIG news; I finally filed my 2006 tax return. But REALLY BIG news; The new Wishbone Ash CD is imminent. Who will post notice of the first listen? Who gets the prize for the first review? We’ve got our opinions – we can’t wait to hear yours.

Over and out – El Capitaine.