Greetings from the PMFC

Hello PMFC friends!

It has been quite some time since we've been in touch with you in a
newsletter format. We'd like to welcome Steve Orkin as newsletter publisher and appreciate his experience and creativity in bringing the Morning Star to us online.

We're very excited to be a part of the launching of the online newsletter and look forward to your input and comments.

Happy reading!

- Terry, Sue and Gary, The PMFC Staff

Welcome
by Peter Mayer

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

After more than a year’s hiatus, The Morning Star is back in action once again! We’re offering The Morning Star in a new format; online, with new features, following the same important mission; to keep in touch with you, the very people who are on this journey together with us, keeping us coming back to your hometown and doing what we love to do.

In this new format, you can get online any time and check out the new Morning Star issue. It will include info such as: news of Peter Mayer Group members and what they are up to, tour dates, highlights and photos of recent tours, guitar tips, fan features, and a continuation of the “Art Of Listening,” a long running bio-mag musing about life today and the history behind albums and times gone by.

I didn’t mean to write one of those Christmas letters people send out to their families and friends, but a lot has happened since the last time a Morningstar was issued at Christmas of 2004, so pardon me if I ramble a bit.

After the Christmas gigs, we went into the studio in January of ’05 to record three of the Beatles tracks that we hope to release next year. We toured with Jimmy Buffett in February, April, June, August, and October of ‘05. In March, we performed our second “Beatles Beyond Boundaries” show at the Orpheum theatre; went out with the PMG in March up Minnesota way and through Ohio and Kentucky, and in July up through the Northeast.

That September, we were up in the Northeast again, ending the tour up with Livingston Taylor at the “Songs For The Cure” concert. In October, we started recording our latest Christmas release, Echoes Of The Season, a collection of instrumental and vocal songs; and we finished up the year with a 14-show, 13-cities Christmas tour.

January ‘06 started off with a writing trip down to St. Bartholemy for Jimmy Buffett’s new CD: with Jimmy, Roger Guth, and Will Kimbrough. We recorded the CD in January and February in two week-long sessions. The lineup of musicians was stellar; featuring Roger Guth on drums, Mac McAnally as producer and guitarist, Mike Utley as producer and keyboard player, Billy Payne on piano, Jim Mayer and Glen Worf on bass, Sonny Landreth, Will Kimbrough, and me on electric and acoustic guitar.

Add on Ralph McDonald, Robert Greenidge, Doyle Grisham, Nadirah Shakoor and Tina Gullickson on vocals, plus Jake Shimabukuro, and a bunch of other people I already forgot. The CD, Take The Weather With You, came out on October 10, 2006.

In March, we embarked on our PMG tour and did our third annual Beatles show at the Orpheum theatre. We hope to have a CD out of these songs this coming year.Yeah! March is the month, too, that we retired our old RV, Lucky IV, and were blessed by the presence of the brand spankin’ new Lucky V, which works flawlessly and has made travel to and from the people we love much safer and less odiferous.

April saw a return to the road with Jimmy Buffett, and at the end of April we got a chance to play Jazz fest in New Orleans. It was a very moving experience seeing the devastation of the 9th ward, there is still much to do, and also the indomitable spirit of the people and the Crescent City.

In July, I worked on a project that was totally different than anything I have done before. I agreed to do the National Youth Convention for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. My job was to put together a band to play day by day, for the 40,000+ youth who came down to the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, from all over the country. It was a chance to meet some great new musicians, and work with my kids, Brendan and India, who also performed with the band.

The end of July and August saw us touring with Jimmy Buffett, and we still have two legs to go with Jimmy this year, in October and November.

I know this year has had a few schedule changes from the norm and the consequence has been that with the time put into San Antonio and other events, we have not been touring out with the PMG as much as we would like to. Have no fear, we shall return. Just let us know where to go (in a nice way)!

In September, I had a rare three weeks at home spent retooling and writing for a new record; it’s about time to start laying new tracks for song lines that have been waiting.

We had a great time seeing all our friends, old and new down at
MOTM recently, and look forward to St. Louis on November 10 for a solo show (that brother Jim has heavily hinted he will be attending) to raise money for IPM. There will be a few new songs broken out at that event, and good friend Ron Glusenkamp and I will be offering a speaking/musical repartee.

Stars and Promises will be back again in December, with some exciting new changes and locations - so look for news on that.

As always, thanks to all of you from the bottom of my heart, for the great support you give us along this road. It makes it all worthwhile. Keep in touch with your letters and e-mails and we look forward to seeing you all soon.

All my best,
PM

-- Go to page 2 --