The Morning Star – July 2011 Edition

Morning Star Monthly

Welcome friends, fans, family, both newcomers and the well experienced, to the first in a series of Morning Star monthly newsletters that will come your way! In this monthly e-mag, we’ll talk about our latest musical travels, news and events, and future happenings, and much of that includes you, our friends, along the way. Talk back to us! Send in your favorite accounts, questions, musings and stories of this musical ride we’ve been on together. I’ve said it before, and I’ll never get tired of saying it; you’ve been great friends and have made this journey something extraordinary. It would never have been the same without you.

Live CD Recording

The Headline news on our horizon is our LIVE CD RECORDING. The Peter Mayer Group (PMG), R. Scott Bryan, Marc Torlina, Chris Walters and Maggie Estes, will be recording three shows this summer: July 28th in Park Forest (Chicago area) IL; July 29th in St. Louis, MO; and August 10th in Annapolis, MD. We’d like to invite you to be a part of the festivities. Come for one, or join the bandwagon and join us for all of these shows. For the first show in Park Forest we’re offering a rehearsal sneak preview ticket to come and sit in on our prep for the recording. You’ll be able to watch us run-through, make mistakes, work our parts out, ask us some questions if you like, and see the behind the scenes controlled chaos of the tour. I’m reaching back all the way for the set list to the start with songs from most all of the CDs we’ve recorded along the way. SEND US YOUR REQUESTS, songs that are MUST HAVES for you for a live PMG CD. We’ll see you there!

Summer

Say hello to summertime. I am a June baby as is my Mom (Happy Birthday Sammy) and what is usually the mildest of summer months has seen many spots in the nation and around the world hit with crazy and treacherous weather. We’ve had floods in the Dakotas, Colorado, and much of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers watershed, forest fires in Arizona, severe storms and tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, and North Carolina in the south, Joplin, MO in the Midwest and Massachusetts in the Northeast. Consider a donation (we give to the Red Cross among others) if you haven’t already contributed to a charity of your choice; and for those of you who’ve helped out already with the time and resources with rebuilding efforts, you’re heroes in my book. Thanks for that. A few online resources for disaster relief are: The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and Samaritan’s Purse.

Red, White & Tunes!

Peter Mayer Group will be performing at the Red, White & Tunes Festival, in Cape Coral, FL, on July 3, from 7:30 – 10:00 pm. Visit the festival website for more information on this fantastic lineup of music during the Independence Day weekend!

Adam Sandler Movie shoot

We had a great visit to Boston this past tour! With Jimmy Buffett’s impeccable timing we were there smack dab in the middle of the celebration of the Bruin’s Stanley cup victory parade. I also spent some quality time with my son Brendan, who’s finished his third year at BU. We both got to meet a friend of my friend Scott Kirby, Kevin Grady (pictured above), who is working on production on the new Adam Sandler movie. Both of us went over to meet Adam and spend some time watching the shoot. James Caan and Andy Sandberg were also there, shooting the scene for the film. It was fascinating to watch them patiently construct a scene again and again from different angles and takes. It reminded me of our time over the years appearing on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, and other TV shows. There’s a lot of waiting, stopping and starting, and then suddenly in the rush of a few minutes all the action takes place and it’s a wrap. We took a picture with the car “set car” that Adam Sandler drives in the movie, replete with an applied Rush logo.

Margaritaville

We ended up the last leg of our May Buffett tour with two shows in hometown Nashville, one at the Bridgestone arena, and the night before with brother Jim and the PMG, (R. Scott Bryan, Maggie Estes, Chris Walters) and friends from the Coral Reefer Band. Joining us were Mike Utley, Nadirah Shakoor, Robert Greenidge, Tina Gullickson and Doyle Grisham, along with a packed house celebrating the new opening of the Margaritaville in Nashville. Jimmy Buffett paid a visit for the evening, but chose to be part of the crowd resting up the voice for a big Saturday Night in Music City.

Good To Have A Friend

You can join the fight against hunger by checking out my friend Pastor Ron Glusenkamp’s work with Metro CareRing in Denver, CO. They do great work in feeding the hungry. Below is a little info if your interested in joining me in the 9-10-11 challenge. Greetings,On behalf of the Avenues of Hope Hunger Relief Team, we would like to extend an exciting challenge to each of you to join the efforts of 9.10.11, a day to collect funds and food for the hungry of Denver. We have teamed up once again with Metro CareRing, a local food bank, to help provide hunger relief in our community. You are receiving this e-mail in gratitude for your generous support of last’s years efforts (10.10.10), and we wanted to invite you to put aside a dollar day or a pound a day for the next 100 days. Some people have even decided to do both activities!Our 100-day journey kicked off today, June 1st, so you haven’t missed any of the action! Pastor Ron’s message can be found on our main website for Avenues of Hope.Send us a quick e-mail at hope91011@gmail.com if you want to be part of the many travelers who have already signed up for the journey! Together, we can move toward ending hunger!

Sincerely,
Pastor Ron and the Avenues of Hope Team

SHINE ON!

Comments

My husband and I would love to see you live, but we get to spend a week with our new grandson instead! Hope you have a great tour and God Bless you all!
rev Cathy Allen on July 18th, 2011
Great to see the picture of you & your mom Sammy. I was lucky to meet her at the PMFC Convention in Nashville, back in 2002 and enjoyed our conversation. Lovely lady…
Thanks for the JB shows in Raleigh & Charlotte. You were so generous to spend time w/ Hunter, He still talks about the concert! We look forward to hosting another show @ Smokey Shadows, just say the word. Take care and be safe in your travels!
Gail Weams on July 2nd, 2011
I love the picture of you and your Mom. She’s still a beautiful woman and you look awfully happy to be with her. Cherish her!
We also can’t wait for the new album. Good luck to you and the band.
Louise Basnett on July 1st, 2011