At The Strand

This trip was to play with the Jim McCarty Band again. John Hawken from the Strawbs was joining us again and since he lives in nearby Metuchen the drummer Larry Crowe and I stayed at his place during this trip. Our first gig was in Lakewood New Jersey at the historic Strand Theater. I actually had played in this theater before as a headliner with Ray Hickey in the late 90's. The Strand is still as nice as ever. This concert was the first with the American guitarist Jesse Gress joining the group. Jesse has played with Tony Levin and also in Todd Rundgren's band and is well known in the guitar world for making transcriptions and various other music books. His soloing was so amazing at the show I found it hard to concentrate on my own parts.