John Zevos: News

Last night the Timberlane Guitar Orchestra and Guitar Ensemble performed their annual spring concert at the Timberlane Performing Arts Center. The students did a wonderful job with a wide variety of music. A couple of highlights were the music from the Super Mario video game and "Layla" which was performed with the combined Orchestra and Ensemble. Congratulations to everyone that participated. You all did a great job and I am very proud of you. I am already looking forward to and planning for next year. Have a great summer. Rumour has it that Matt Hevesh will be sitting in with my band Lichen at Penuche's Grill in Manchester on June 26th.

Things are very busy, but going well. The problem with being busy is trying to find enough time to do things like update this webpage. Last week I brought the Timberlane Guitar Orchestra to perform at the NHMEA All State Conference in Concord, NH and Festival 21 in Boston, MA. The Orchestra played very well at both events and I am extremely proud of them. We have made great strides in our first year and I am really looking forward to next year already!

I will be attending Mandolin Camp North this weekend in Old Orchard Beach, ME. I can't wait to get up there and learn some new stuff. The first camp that I attended was the Cape Cod Mandolin Camp this past August and I enjoyed it so much that I am going to try to get to as many of these as I can. I will report back next week as to how everything went. Thanks for reading.

My summer schedule is filling up nicely. Hope to see you at some of these shows. A couple of highlights are Earthfest in Boston, the Strange Creek Festival in May, and our first trip to Colorado! I am also very pleased that we are heading back to Philadelphia in November to play again at World Cafe Live. We had a great time there.

I've begun work on my next guitar. Actually I am building three instruments at the same time, another guitar, a bass for my son Chris, and an 8 string electric mandolin. I picked up some beautiful curly maple at Goose Bay Lumber and I can't wait to see how these instruments turn out.

Things have been very hectic but going well. For the past year or so in my spare time I have been building my first guitar. I finished it the last week of February and used it at a Lichen gig 2 days later. It sounded and played great and I have already begun my next one. Di is my inlay artist and she put a nice abalone Z on the headstock. There is a picture of this guitar at the top of my home page. If anyone is interested in a custom made electric guitar, please contact me.

Ben Rudnick and Friends just got back from our first gig in Philadelphia. We had a great time at World Cafe Live. The crowd was great and Turk the soundman was exceptional. Before we left town we stopped at Pat's the place where the cheesesteak sub was invented. We are also really excited that we are going to play in Colorado in June.

The end of the year is always a busy time. Between concerts at school performances, teaching, and trying to finish the guitar I'm building, it doesn't leave much time to try and get some Christmas shopping done. That's ok, it will get done and I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. I'll be going down to Boston tonight to pick up Christos for his winter break and it will be great to have him back at the house. Di is keeping very busy with her new side business, DiZigns. If anyone needs Christmas decorations (wreaths, kissing balls, garland, etc.) you should check her out ton the weekends in the Manchester Commons Plaza on South willow St. in Manchester in the former Kitchen Allure building. She is there on Saturdays for 10:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m. and Sundays from 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. I'm looking forward to the last two Lichen shows of the year and the upcoming trip to New York with Ben Rudnick and Friends. Life is good!

Hey everybody, I hope you all had a good Halloween and are enjoying the beginning of November. I just want to mention that I will be sitting in the my friend Andy's band, Blue Light Rain, this Sat. night at Penuche's in Manchester. From what I understand, it will be a night of Good Old Grateful Dead, which is always fine with me. Hope to see you there.

Last weekend was gig-free and the down time was welcomed as I got to spend some extra time with Di and work on the electric guitar I am currently building. It's my first attempt and I must say so far so good. I'll post some pictures soon. This weekend I will be back at it with 3 BR&F gigs and a Lichen gig on Saturday night. I feel truly lucky to be able to make a living doing what I love to do - music. Check out the calendar page to see where I'll be and please stop by to check out the tunes and say hello.

Hey Everyone, sorry for not posting here for a while. Things have been a bit crazy. This summer was full of fun gigs that included some travelling and I had a great time. This fall has also been memorable with gigs in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. at the XM Radio studios. We played a show their for a live audience that will be braodcast later this month. I will post the dates and times here on the website soon. This past weekend was spent at the Cape Cod Mandolin Camp studying with the great jazz mandolinist, Don Stiernberg. Don is a student of the late great Jethro Burns, an amazing mandolinist and a wonderful teacher. I've got plenty of material to keep me busy in the practice room for many months to come. Check the calendar page for new dates and I hope to see you at a show soon.

Hey everybody - check out the Photo Gallery for some new shots from recent gigs including a rare shot of me behind the drumset during soundcheck. Bill was out for a few minutes so I jumped in.

We had a great gig with Ben Rudnick and Friends at the Hatch Shell in Boston yesterday. We were playing for the NSTAR's Walk for Children's Hospital. Ben and I were pleased to see one of our favorite Celtic players Brian Scalabrine at the event. The sound was great (thanks Stu) and the weather held. I will be posting a photo or two from the event.

This evening, June 9th, I will be directing the Timberlane Guitar Ensemble for our last concert of the school year. The concert is at 7:00 p.m. at the Timberlane Performing Arts Recital Hall. Admission is free. Come on down and listen to the talented young guitarists I am lucky enough to work with. You will not be disappointed. Hope to see you there.

I was supposed to play a Ben Rudnick and Friends show at the Hunt Library in Nashua this Sunday. The show has been cancelled. We will be at Greely Park in Nashua at 7:00 p.m. on June 18th. Hope to see you there.

Last Friday night we celebrated Alyssia's
graduation from Suffolk University with a Lichen Family and Friends gig. First I would like to everyone who sat in; Don, Ben, Wayne, Arnie, Christos, Jenn, Christian and especially the graduate herself, Alyssia. Everyone did a great job. The horn section was fabulous, Alyss and Chris performed like the true veterans they are (even at their young age) and there was more than enough great guitar playing to satisfy even the most hardcore guitar fan. Thanks to my bandmates in Lichen - 28 years and still going strong. Thanks to my Mom and sister Steph for helping set up. And thanks to everyone that came and brought a dish to share. It was a special evening.

Things have been really busy for me lately and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while. That's fine with me, but I haven't had a chance to post here as often as I would like to. We are playing a special show this Friday in celebration of our duaghter Alyssia'a graduation from Suffolk University this past Sunday. It was a great day, although a bit cold down by the water in Boston. We are going to have many guest performers this Friday including a horn section! You don't want to miss this one. Check the claendar for details and feel free to send me an email if you have any questions. Hope to see you there.

I'll be performing tenor banjo with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra at Merrimack College in North Andover Mass. at 2:30 in the afternoon on Sunday May 3rd. I don't get a chance to play with an orchestra too often so I'm really looking forward to this show. Try to come on out if you've got the time.

Hey everyone - As I've mentioned here recently, my traditional Irish band Celtic Knot has just released our 1st cd entitled "St. Patrick's Holiday". It has been doing very well and at the moment is only available from me, but that will change soon (I'll keep you posted). For now, if you would like one, please contact me through this website and I'll be glad to get you one. We have also come out with a new cd for Ben Rudnick and Friends called "A Frog Named Sam" that is also doing very well with heavy rotation on XM Radio. I composed 2 of the songs on the Cd, "The Santa Fe" and "John's Jig". This Cd is available now at benrudnick.com. We'll be going down to Washington D.C. in September to perform live on XM and we're going to da a show in Virginia while we're there. Between BR&F and Lichen, things are shaping up for a busy summer. Check the calendar page to see when I'll be in your area and stop by to listen and say hello. Hope to see you soon.

Hey there everyone. I am excited to say that our 1st Celtic knot CD is finished and will be available for the upcoming St. Patrick's gigs. We are really pleased with the results and hope you will be too. Come check us out at the East Manchester Fish and Game Club this Saturday night or at Penuche's Grill in Manchester on Tuesday night (St. Patrick's Day).

Once again Di and I spent Saturday afternoon at Ashford Audio mixing our first Celtic Knot CD. We are happy to say that mixing is finished and now we just have to decide on the order of songs and have it mastered. Our daughter Alyssia is working on the cover art and we are looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. She is so talented as we've always known, but we saw what she can do in this genre when she made an amazing poster for our New Year's Eve Lichen show.

Di and I went into Arnie's studio on Saturday to begin mixing our new Celtic Knot cd. We got a lot done actually finishing 5 songs: "Brad's Polka", "South Australia", "Drunken Sailor", "Botany Bay" and "MTA". We are heading back in this Saturday to continue. We are pleased an excited about how this new release is turning out. Chack back for updates.

This Saturday, Di and I will be heading into Arnie's studio to mix down tracks for our first Celtic Knot release. It is yet to be titled, but was recorded live last St. Patrick's Day. We are really excited with the rough mixes and will keep you posted on the CD's progress on this page.

Hey everyone. Check out the photo page for pictures from our show with Barry Mitterhoff taken by my lovely and talented daughter Alyssia. Scroll down to see them.

Last month I had what was one of the highlights of my music career as I played two shows with Barry Mitterhoff. I have known Barry for many years, first meeting him when Di and I would attend Tony Trischka and Skyline shows. After seeing and hearing his playing, I arranged to take mandolin lessons with Barry whenever he was in the area and our schedules allowed it.

For the past five years Barry has been touring the world with Jorma Kaukonen and Hot Tuna. Di and I recently got to catch up with him when Hot Tuna performed at Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry. It was great to reconnect with him and I let him know that I would be playing in New York City the weekend before Christmas and would like to get a lesson if possible. Well, I did get a great lesson and Barry also played two shows with us (Ben Rudnick and Friends) at the Jewish Museum on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The show was a real treat and Barry not only played magnificently, but also brought the best out of us.