Friends, “Winter’s Eve”, the latest effort from Nox Arcana is now available! Once again, I was honored to be a guest artist on one of their efforts, and on this one I sing the title track “Winter’s Eve”. It is a beautiful song full of longing and heart. I really like this entire CD…one of my personal favorites for sure! You can find out more information on getting your own copy from my site www.jeffendemann.com and from www.noxarcana.com.
Look for Skinny Moo at the West Park Station in Cleveland this Saturday night! Go to www.skinnymoo.com for details!

Wow…these past two weeks have been crazy busy…! I have played a Renaissance Faire, performed on the Fox 8 Morning Show and played at the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland with my band Skinny Moo! Yesterday I laid down tracks for a song on the upcoming “Nox Arcana” release due out in late November. All this and I spent a week in New York on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region visiting wineries that I hope to be performing at in the near future…

Stay thirsty, my friends…

My friends, I have awesome news regarding my band “Skinny Moo”. We have been honored by editors of Cleveland Magazine as one of “Cleveland’s Best Cover Bands”. We have been invited to play at the Rock-N-Roll Hall of fame for their annual “Best of Cleveland” party on October 16th! Tickets are available now at Cleveland Magazine’s Web site (the link is listed below).

Apparently, the editors of the magazine sent out people to all of the top bands shows in Cleveland throughout a certain time period (without the bands knowing) to experience their respective shows. Very cool. I personally hate the “popularity contests” where you have to persuade everyone to get on-line, or write in a vote for the band. This is much more meaningful in my eyes.

I know I have been stringing a few of you along with this, so sorry about that…I have been very excited about the honor, and the great publicity we’ll all get from this article and performance. I’m stoked to play at the rock hall, big time.

The information for the event can be found at Cleveland Magazine’s Web site
http://www.clevelandmagazine.com
Ticket information for the event can be found HERE
To go to the page about Skinny Moo directly click HERE
Also, you can look for the post on the Skinny Moo site at www.skinnymoo.com.

Thanks again, Cleveland Magazine! You obviously have excellent taste.

It’s upon us all once more, the Autumnal Equinox.
Although Summer is my personal favorite season, Autumn, I must admit, is tied for second along with Spring. The color, the smells, the eventual return of “Leather Weather” (I do look pretty cool in my leather jacket…). And being that I am all about educational enlightenment, I am sharing this info with you here:
Although our calendars state that the first day of fall 2009 is September 1st, if you ask the Sun, he will state autumn officially starts tomorrow after the autumnal equinox. For those who don’t know what this event really is then you should know that an equinox happens twice in one year, and we have the vernal equinox or the March equinox, and the autumnal equinox or the September equinox.

An equinox occurs when the tilt of Earth’s own axis is inclined neither away and neither towards the Sun which means that the Sun is vertically above one Equator point. The equinox can happen on March 20 or 21, and on September 22/23 and it represents the date when the day and the night are equally long. For example: the autumnal equinox 2009 will occur on September 22 at 21:18 UTC, while the autumnal equinox 2010 will occur on September 23 at 03:09 UTC.

The equinox doesn’t last one whole day; the event represents a moment in a day when we have a point on the Equator where Sun’s center can be observed to be exactly vertically overhead.

Like said the autumnal equinox 2009 also represents the first day of fall 2009 and you might wanna celebrate this in fashion next to your loved one as watching the stars is very romantic.
And for my Pagan friends and family, I wish you the happiest of Mabon’s!

Groovy date, eh? Here are a few cool facts about the number nine:

Math magic
09/09/09
Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

“Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers,” wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9×3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9×62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)…

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year’s Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing’s Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven’t already eliminated them altogether.

Well, another Labor day is upon us. It amazes me how fast the Summer has gone. We technically have 15 days left of my favorite season (as I sit to write this blog), but the looming of the the start of the NFL season screams “Autumn”. I have been busy with booking shows for the Fall and also writing music for the next CD. My wife Valarie is healing up nicely from her ankle surgery and is finally back to work. She has finished another art project for Ariemoon Designs and is also writing for the CD as well. We hope to be recording by November. We’ll be in upstate New York at Seneca Lake’s Bellhurst Castle in mid October for wine and romance. A few songs are bound to come out of that trip (as usual!).

Stay thirsty, my friends…

I was very saddened to hear of Les Paul’s passing on Thursday at the ripe old age of 94. Whether some of you knew it or not, he was the inventor of the solid body electric guitar. One of the most popular guitars of all time bears his name, the Gibson “Les Paul”. He also invented muti-track recording and even the most popular effect of all, Reverb.

He was one of the most influential figures ever when it comes to modern music. It might not have evolved into what we know it as today…Pop, Jazz, and Rock, had he not had the vision.
Every musician owes something to Les Paul, the man. I know I do. His legacy will live of forever, no doubt.

Rest in peace, Les.

Well, I have a week end off for a change. I love playing, but this is a welcome week end to have off. My wife Val is healing up nicely from her ankle surgery, I have been working like mad lately, and I am gearing up for a bunch of acoustic shows coming up soon!
Skinny Moo is jamming regularly, and our next show is at one of our favorite places to jam, the Winking Lizard in Bedford. Hopefully we’ll get through a show there out on the patio that does not include rain…!

We’ll see you there!

Well…I have successfully completed another trip around the star known as our sun…So far my Earth ride has had it’s share of good times and not so good times…nothing surprising there. I am but one of billions living the human experience. I find myself in a reflective mood as I sit and write this….it’s just after two in the afternoon, the sun has peeked out to dry up the previous early morning rain.
A gentle breeze moves through the house and causes the bells hanging near the door to ring. A lawn mower fires up…a car drives by and I hear a bit of the song it’s radio.

I am fully present…it’s taken me over forty years to really understand what that is. My wife called it “having a relationship with being present”. I ponder that as I type.

Last night my band Skinny Moo played at a local club. I knew everyone there. I realized in that moment that I am a very lucky man…I have friends and family that love me…That I truly am a rich man. I am filled with love and gratitude to everyone that came by last night to party with me and the band. It was blast.

After the show, a few friends came back to my place and partied for a while. later, my dearest friend and I sat up until dawn (along with a bottle of Cuervo Silver) discussing our past and future musical projects, our families, guitars, relationships, house repairs, and some of our inner most demons and fears. It was one of the best birthday’s I have ever had….So Far… (yes, yet another shameless plug for my new CD…can’t help myself!)

Here’s to everyone’s birthday’s being as sweet

It’s been a long road, but the site is finally up…a lot of work. Huge thanks go out to my cohort in Skinny Moo, and Web developer extraordinaire, Mr. Scott Martin. You are the MAN! I will now name my next child after you…even if it’s a girl…

Please check out the site, listen to song excerpts of the songs on my CD, and of course, please buy it…! I am extremely proud of this work and we are already working on the next one. The Gallery will grow over time…

I am booking solo, duo and complete performances for my original material now, along with other gigs that will include my material and other classics from yesterday and today with some Irish traditional songs here and there…just fun!
Through out, ‘Skinny Moo’ is performing almost every weekend, and a ‘Hammered’ reunion here and there.

Skinny Moo is playing all weekend, so if you’re in the North East Ohio area, stop in and say “Hello”. Also, it’s my birthday Sunday officially, so these gigs tonight and Saturday are celebrating this auspicious date in history…!

Love and Blessings!