Upper Darby, Philadelphia, PA
To begin, I received an e-mail saying I HAD been in Connecticut before with MK, then got another from my old buddy Tom Hensley. Tom and I did loads of record dates in L.A. together, he's a genius piano player/musician and we spent many years touring together with Neil Diamond. He too reminded me we had played Hartford with Neil three times together before I left the band. I stand corrected but still don't remember it.
Piled into an SUV this morning with Glenn W., David Conrad, MK and Pete McKay for a little field trip to SoHo and Rudy Pensa's new shop on Broome St. Rudy was expecting us, standing outside waiting to slap our backs and welcome us inside. His new store is absolutely beautiful, magnificent and a place of worship for the finest guitars ever made. A staggering collection of old D'Angelico's, D'Aquisto's and Monteleone arch top guitars. I've never seen this many in one place. We all sat around on stools while Rudy and Gordon, who works at the store, brought one amazing guitar after another for us to try. Sighs of extacy and exclamations of wonder were heard with each one...grown men wept. One guitar received unanimous high marks, a 1937 D'Angelico "Excel", a sunburst 16" masterpiece that had it all and hands down the finest arch top I've ever played. You don't have to be a guitar player to appreciate these works of art and if you are in N.Y. you should make time to go to Rudy's in SoHo.
I got a nice note this morning from the master himself, John Monteleone, saying how much he enjoyed last night's show and how moved he was to hear the song about him played live. John has taken arch top guitar building and design to an new level and his work is nothing short of breathtaking...art for the ear and eye. He's truly the Stradivarius of our time.
Back from Rudy's in time to catch the short flight to Upper Darby and off to the Tower Theatre to play a great gig for nearly 3,000 good folks. The roar at the end of the show was deafening. A runner after back to Gotham. Everyone really knackered and off to bed straight away.
So long,
Richard