Hello everyone.  I hope you are all having a great summer.  It’s hot as hell down here in New Orleans, but that’s the norm this time of year.  My house in the Musician’s Village should be ready to move into in about 2 months.  That’ll be a great day for me.  I’m looking forward to rebuilding my recording studio, putting together a new band, and being able to practice again

The “New Orleans Gumbo Music Show” has been running now every Sunday at 7PM, CST, and is picking up steam.  On August 10th, we’re adding video to the show so you’ll be able to see the guest of the week during the interview.  Me & my guests are very excited about this new development.  Go to www.solarguitars.com  and you can log in to the live internet radio/video broadcast, but use Firefox as Inernet Explorer doesn’t work on the site yet.  We’re still figuring out the bugs as to why this is happening.  You can view who my guests will be on the “Gumbo Music Show” link on my Web Site.  To see the “Gumbo” schedule, go to www.rickysebastian.com/gumbo.html .  It’s a lot of fun!!!!!

The”The Crescent City Drum School” is in full swing and Hector Gallardo is now accepting students for private lessons and group classes to teach hand drums & latin percussion. Check the “Crescent City Drum School / CCDS” link on my Web Site for more details.  It’s great to be teaching again, and Carlos & I are both very excited about the new school. 

My agent, Emory White, and I are making headway in booking clinics nationwide, so check the “Schedule” page of my site to see where I’ll be performing, giving clinics, and when.  If you know anyone interested, please point them to my web site, www.rickysebastian.com .

I’ve accepted the part-time band director position, which I’ll be starting on August 21st at Isidore Newman School.

Keep those emails coming in with your stories of adversity and I invite you to post comments on this blog for us.  I will surely get back to you.

I’m honored that I’ve been invited to bring my band to perform at Carnival in Bahia, Brazil, next year.  The dates are February 16th - 20th.  I’ll be staying an extra week giving clinics and teaching.  I’m also working on going to Rio de Jeneiro the following week for more gigs with some Brazilian friends/musicians, and a clinic there, so keep checking the “Schedule” page on my Web Site.

I completed my next article for Modern Drummer Magazine called “Fun With Flams“, submitted it for publication, and will keep you all posted on when it’ll be coming out.

That’s it for now.  Again, I encourage all of you to post your stories on this Blog so that you can share them with the drumming community throughout the world.

Peace,

Ricky Sebastian