My parents came to town for the weekend...

so of course we had a BBQ... and many musicians showed up... and after dinner there was a lot of great music. My dad really ought to play out more often. There was so much talent: Jeff Owens on bass, Jim Bolek on guitar, mandolin & dobro, Tom on drums & guitar, Scott & Spencer also on drums (I played for a while, too -- but got kicked off), Steve Metz on guitar, Nate Bolek on guitar, and my dad (Bill Brown) on guitar.

A good time was had by all

Can you believe this was before the lemoncello???

Spencer Stole the Show

Who knew that Spencer is so good? If he sticks with it, Tom & Scott may be out of a few jobs...

Bajada Trail, South Mt.

We hiked this trail several times last year when we'd had rain... this year sure is different. There are no flowers whatsoever, and everything is so dry & dusty & brown... But it was a very nice day & a very pleasant hike.

The Victims

Here is a shot of Tom's most recent band -- The Victims. They are a cover band: mostly classic rock, but some newer tunes, too. The bass player is a guy named Jeff Owens -- he & Tom have played together many times over the last few years. Jeff is both a fanstastic bass player & vocalist, and Tom really enjoys playing with him. The lead singer's name is Zoe -- who knows an extraordinary amount of material. All of his parents are musicians, and you can tell that working in bands is in Zoe's blood. The lead guitarist is a guy named Brad -- who works at Fender (with Jeff) & is making his debut with this band (you'd never know it, though!). This show was memorable for me because I was hit on by a man who was so drunk (how drunk was he?), that soon after I turned him down, he passed out sitting up. Now that's something to write home about!

In AZ???

This weekend our 6+ months of drought finally came to an end -- with great gusto. It rained about an inch here in the valley, and snowed at all of the surrounding peaks. This photo shows Four Peaks Mt., which is only about 30 miles outside of town. Although I have seen this mountain snow-peaked before, I have never seen the snow level so low. I must admit, it was pretty surreal to be surrounded by cactus, looking at all that snow!