Dear Friends, it’s a burner here in Cali! Finally the REAL heat comes and I’m loving it! I’m just back from a week-long hang at our annual family reunion held in a big beach house in Oceanside. Triple surf sessions, an endless food parade, a revolving kid friends visitation schedule that was dizzying, and topping it off was the Olympic woman’s beach volleyball match. Did you see that? Thrilling!

Right before the beach house hang we had a great concert at the Tango with East Coast singer Emily Elbert. We ended up multi-track recording and video taping the gig and I’ve added 2 YouTube excursions documenting what went down. Check them out here. My favorite is the version of “Summertime” that emerged out of thin air —guitar special effects leading into Emily’s beautiful voice.

Coming up next Sunday, I’ve got a busy performance schedule that day. First off I’ll play a one hour outdoor solo concert at the Mission Trails Visitors Center in San Diego. I’m told it’s a magical spot with a killer view.

Then I’ll hightail it to the Christ Presbyterian Church in Carlsbad to present a special evening performance with my quartet. I’m thrilled about this gig as we’re playing an adaptation of my commissioned piece “Dr. Einstein’s Spin.” I first wrote this suite for my string group and now I’ve morphed it over to the jazz quartet and I love the way it fits together in this format as well. I’ve got Tripp playing sax, flute and EWI (Electric Wind Instrument) and Gunnar is both bowing away and pitzing it up like a madman. Duncan shreds! We rehearsed yesterday in the wonderful air-conditioned confines of SpragueLand and it was a sonic treat. Come and hang with us next Sunday!

Yesterday was Pat Metheny’s birthday and in celebration, coming up, we’re playing 2 shows of all Pat Metheny music. He’s one of my main inspirations in both composing and guitar playing. Join in on some of the most beautiful music ever invented. Look below for the deets.

That’s pretty much it for now. Right after this email gets cyberwisked to your inbox I’m heading for a yoga/surf sesh, followed by a day in the studio, topped off with an evening ocean hit (second one in a day!). Tomorrow we fly off to Puget Sound to get our daughter all geared up in her new dorm for the start of a new chapter. It’s called Chapter 11 and if you can survive the empty nest and the hemorrhaging bank account, your allowed to proclaim at the top of your voice, “life is indeed good!”

Keeping the sky in my head, Peter