Hawaii, Part 1

On December 29th, my buddy, keyboardist Matt Hubbard and I flew to Paia, Maui, Hawaii to join up with our friends, Hutch Hutchinson, who has played bass for Bonnie Raitt for nearly 3 decades, and Bill Kreutzmann, legendary drummer and founding member of the Grateful Dead. We were picked up from the airport in a very cool, funky, retro limo (thanks, Julie) which I was calling the "reel-to-reel-to-reel Dubmobile", due to the excellent reggae music that was booming from the sound system, and after a long, long, day of airports and overcrowded flights, Matt and I were more than ready for some of the local 'hospitality'. Wowie, indeed! But it was a brief chill, as we had to get to the venue...showtime was less than 90 minutes away.

The four of us performed for nearly 3 and a half hours at Charley's in Paia, to a packed house of revelers who were ready to get started with the New Year's festivities. A psychedelic light show was provided by our good friends and hosts, Joey, Jeremy, and Benjamin, and the crowd seemed to appreciate the extra effort to enhance their experience...one very stoned brother came up to me and said "how do you make your shirt DO that?", referring to the swirling projections pulsating on my black rayon button-down. That pretty much summed up the mindset of us all, but the week had just begun...(to be continued)

NEXT on Mysterious Force: Willie and family, and the big New Year's Eve extravaganza...stay tuned!