Rocky's Blog

I am so very sad. Our dog Priscilla died today. She was a handful to be sure. Those of you who know us know she was much like me. Inclined to massive mood swings in terribly short periods of time. She was staying with Robin while we are out of the country. Robin is one of a small group of people Priscilla trusted enough and loved enough to let close enough to bite. She died peacefully in her sleep beside Robin's bed. I'm glad that she and Robin became friends. Priscilla bit all her friends at least once. I wish she could bite me now. Au revoir lil' bit. I'll miss you lots . r

Brother Dan Cathey has left this earth. He will be sorely missed. The effect of his works is incalculable and will be evident in many lives for many years. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dan payable only by our continued effort to do like he did while we were blessed with his physical presence….Love. Dan knew how to love. No qualifying required. He loved like Jesus loves. He saw only God in everyone he met and the Christ in him connected with those he touched. I want to be more like brother Dan. I will miss him and am thankful to the God that embraces him now for knowing him. R

Neither Kimberly nor I speak French very well at all. We can both stumble, semi-communicative, through tasks like ordering a meal, saying hello and goodbye, grocery shopping, asking directions and never understanding the reply, and telling people we don't speak French.... things like that. As a result one of our most asked questions is "comment dit-on?' or how do you say...(insert English word)...in French?" We are always asking our American, Irish and French friends all of which speak at least two different languages ..."How do you say...? The weather here in the Loire Valley in the Summer of 2009 has been quite odd. Today is July 9 and the temperature is barely in the 70's with night-time temperatures in the 50s! And the wind!! The wind has been blowing around 30 mph constantly for several days making much of the landscaping work on the property even more interesting. So, Kimberly is talking about the windy weather with our friend Edward, the fifteen year o...

I am a music guy. So much of my life experience is about sound. (you'd think I'd listen better when Kimberly is talking to me) Anyway...one of my favorite sounds of all time is most often heard in France. It is the crackkkkling yet crissspy sound of the end of a freshly baked baguette breaking off into my mouth as I bite it.....warm. All by itself. Sans jam, butter, cheese or anything else for that matter...simply bread....at least for the first few bites anyway. The sound tells me that amazing taste of fresh baked awesomeness is to follow. It is then that I often remember my 'mon ami and keyboardist extraordinaire of the Carolina Opry..Ralph Geddes. You see...Ralph takes his own sweet time to eat a meal...no...not eat it...savor it. It matters not the entree nor appetizer....shrimp in garlic sauce followed by a succulent, perfectly cooked prime rib... or a salad in a plastic container and paper wrapped burger from Wendys...Ralph takes his time. I asked him once why this wa...

The paragliding flight off th top of an Alp with Jean-Pierre, my pilot, was ....AWESOME...man...it was scary but very cool. One thing that was very scary....we got all hooked up and Jean-Pierre explained to me that we were, on his command, to run toward the end of the jump platform as fast as I could until my feet left the ground. We took off and I was running but not fast enough. We started drifting left really hard and Jean-Pierre stopped us..."you're not running as fast as you can Rocky." he said... we stopped about 6 feet from the end... So we back up and punt....this time there was no way I wasn't running as hard as I could. He took a deep breath....exhaled...and said..."we go." I ran like a tiger was after me! I felt the paraglider fill up with air as we ran. We strted to drift again...I ran harder and could feel us straightening out...I knew the edge was coming anytime....more than a mile down on the first step...whoooooosh! We were airborn. Check out...

Happy Birthday to me! I am 50 years young today, June 24, 2008, having been born in 1958 along with...the peace sign :) I am in Allevard France in the Rhone Alps with my wife Kimberly to celebrate by PARAGLIDING off a mountain! I am scheduled to fly at 1 pm with my instructor/pilot Jean-Pierre. Please note...should by some chance I not make it back to continue this blog....that all I own is to go to Kimberly Fretz. But....no worries...the sky is full of flyers here every day :) So....it is off to Saint Hilaire to jump off a mountain. pictures and video coming soon! Love ya Peace Rocky www.parapente-38.com

A LIST OF ALL WEB SITES MENTIONED FOLLOWS “My flight arrives at 1:30 in Boston Rockster Dude….I’m coming to see you at the recording studio man!” The excitement in Bogie’s voice was contagious. Kym Shurbutt, the kind gentle soul, and Bogie, the equally compelling character he plays in the Carolina Opry Show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, although one and the same… are two of my very best friends. I hereby declare the intention to claim many stories about us and our musical and other adventures as true regardless of my remembering them correctly. I furthermore reserve the right to use the names Kym Shurbutt, Kym and Bogie interchangeably throughout this blog. Thank you very much. Toward the end of our stay in the mountains to finish recording the new CD, Kym and Cindy flew up to spend a few days with us in Vermont. Kimberly and I were honored as they have only four or five days in the Summer when they are able to travel and they wanted to spend it with us! :) It was great to see ...

On To Boston…with Bogie and Cindy So….we have finished all the music making for a while and decided to drive into New Hampshire to stay at a Bed and Breakfast/Lakeside cabin retreat for the day and night before going on to Boston. Kimberly had made the reservations and we were all very excited to see what we were getting ourselves into. Unfortunately they just were not ready for us. The place is called the Woodbound Inn and really will be lovely when the ongoing work on the main house and are is finished. The owners were out of town for Memorial Day weekend and the girls behind the desk said they were not allowed to give refunds. We left our contact information with them, expecting to hear from the owners that evening, and went on into Boston. I didn’t hear anything for some time and was a little upset about it so I wrote a firm letter of complaint to the owners via e-mail assuring them that some of you reading this might take it to heart. It turned out to be a miscommunication issue a...

This blogging thing has turned out to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. Please accept my apologies for the lack of communication. An Internet connection strong enough to upload files and create a decent blog, while traveling, has been elusive but we’ll do the best we can :) Anyway….back to the recording of the Secret Symphony CD at Imaginary Road Recording studio in Vermont.... The entire process was probably in the top two of all the musical recording experiences of which I have ever been a part. The other being my first recording session as the keyboardist (at 15 years old) for a recording by a singer/songwriter named Danny Birmingham in Memphis Tennesee in 1974. Those music sessions were at the legendary Memphis Sound Studios under the guiding hand of equally legendary engineer and producer Roland Janes. That experience, especially at that age, was awesome! Now, some three decades plus later….I find my music in the hands of Grammy Award winning guitarist and producer (and ...

Rocky’s Recording Session with Will Ackerman Current What's up!? Lot's of new stuff to talk about. We, Kimberly and I, spent most of the month of May in Vermont finishing the tracking of my new CD. So let's catch up a little there. The vibe is very laid back and groovy. There are two Grammy Awards on the shelf. (and a paper version of one I made and cut out...) The gear is awesome and Corin is a genius behind the board. Oh...and did I mention my producer is Will Ackerman? :) Will is an awesome producer. He knows his stuff. Will was able to strip away a great deal of unnecessary fluff from my music and leave that which was needed and no more. We're not just talking about simplifying...it was more than that. I once heard someone say that a sculptor simply removes everything that doesn't belong....leaving only what is needed. If the subject is a horse the sculptor simply removes everything that is not a horse. It was like that. You'll hear soon...you see if you don...