As we go to the “presses” this weekend something is unfolding that I never thought would happen. I’m turning sixty years old. I don’t spend a lot of time around here boring the ever living heck out of you talking about my personal life, so I’ll thank you in advance for this indulgence and your patience with me.

Longevity has never been a feature of the men in our family. So for many years I have indulged in a kind of joi de vivre that might seem puzzling to some and, to most, just simply self destructive. In the past calendar year I took some steps to hang around a little longer and made some life style changes that just might insure that you will have to put up with my crap for a few more years.

The mere fact that this coincided with the birth of my first grandchild is more than just a coincidence. Yesterday, Tracy pried me away from this lap top to go on a “birthday surprise date.” That date had us going to the airport to pick up my daughter and granddaughter, who I’m getting ready to take to the park this afternoon. This is literally a dream come true.

In addition to this, two of my three surviving siblings have traveled from the Bay Area in Northern California and Denver, Colorado, to be here as well. This weekend will culminate with a backyard BBQ at the home of my sister, brother-in-law and mother; the latter will be turning 87 in December and can still kick my butt in jeopardy six days a week and twice on Sundays.

She and my father, who left this mortal coil back in 1987 at the age of 58, instilled in me the sense of values that have molded my world view on life, love and music. Both my parents are mid-westerners who met in a semantics class at San Francisco State University in the mid 1950s. Their mutual love of progressive liberal politics, baseball and my father's affection for jazz and various African-American musical dialects, along with my mother’s gift of language and music, can be felt in every word y’all have read here through the years.

I still get that occasional phone call in which she corrects my grammar or syntax and we engage in discussions of the Oxford comma and split infinitives.  As many of you know she has dedicated her life to her family as well as her music. She had been a working musician since she was a teenager. Mom retired just two and a half years ago. 

As far as my daughter is concerned I’m so proud of her I can’t stand it. She is not only a
great mother but a University of Massachusetts graduate and an all around success at life. By taking this cross country trip with the world’s most beautiful and charming grandchild, she has made Papa Mac (yeah, that’s what the cherub calls me) happy beyond measure.

Now on with the show...We are also celebrating the 20^th Anniversary of the Doheny Blues Festival this month. On the 20^th and 21^st of May we again gather in the beach resort community of Dana Point for this festival brought to us by Omega Events.

After a few years of trying to interview the man behind the curtain if you will, Rich Sherman, of Omega Events, he finally agreed to sit down for an interview. He admits that he has always enjoyed being in the background and not the focus of this colossally successful enterprise, but two things have compelled him to come forward. He is justifiably proud of this event, which is still going  after 20 years, and he is starting a foundation which is designed to help the working blues musician with unforeseen medical expenses. We discuss both of these topics in an interview which makes its press debut later this week.

One of the featured performers at Doheny is a musician from Paris, France. His name is Nico Duportal. He stands proudly in our Monthly Artist Spotlight for the month of May. Jeff Scott Fleenor, who wrote the piece on Nico, of Delta Groove Music has been the International Talent Coordinator for the Doheny Blues Festival since 2001. Each and every year since, he has booked at least one act from overseas to appear at this festival.

One of the most heralded musicians around and his great band also will be performing over that third weekend in May. I’m referring to Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. After chasing Rick around the countryside for the past few years, he finally caved in and agreed to an interview. As it turned out he was, as they say, “all in.” Read one of the (if you don’t mind me saying so) great interviews ever to appear in the pages of this publication. Rick Estrin: The BLUES JUNCTION Interview just might blow your mind.

Also appearing at the festival will be the blues-rock band Canned Heat. One of the two surviving original members of that band Larry Taylor sat down with me last fall and discussed his long and fascinating journey through America’s musical landscape.  Larry is also a veteran of the Doheny Blues Festival and he discusses Canned Heat’s appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival which took place 50 years ago this spring as well as that intimate gathering at a farm near the town of Bethel, New York, in August of 1969, among other topics.

We have another installment of our monthly Recommended Listening feature as well as a Re-Issue Rodeo from the indomitable Charlie Lange of Bluebeat Music.

Our monthly Album Spotlight feature includes a discussion with Patrick Recob who has released a brand new album which is a lot of fun. It is called Perpetual Luau. This recording is already a favorite out here at the JUNCTION. With that in mind, we would like you to meet Patrick Recob and welcome you to his (our) perpetual luau.

Thanks always for all the correspondence. It is always great to hear from the fine folks who take a moment to spend time with us engaging in the lost art of reading for the simple joy that this activity can bring. I look forward to seeing you out this year’s Doheny Blues Festival. Until then be well and be in touch.

- Papa Mac

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