01.01.12

Happy new year all!
2011 was a very good year for us in terms of music, folks. As you probably surmised by now, with the release of FEEL THE HEAT in March, we had the great fortune to include, in my humble opinion, one of the top drummers in the biz, Mr. George Sheppard.

From the first show, we could feel the energy level rising and the excitement starting to build.
An easy guy to get along with, the yuks factor began to become a daily laugh a minute! Yes,this is important to making everything run smoothly and keeping a positive attitude.

In criss-crossing this great nation of ours, we fine tuned our playing until we had what I like to call the "runaway train" element really chugging along! New relationships began and flourished,old ones continued to grow and it all just flew by in no time at all.

FEEL THE HEAT is STILL selling well and we are still enjoying playing those tunes. The THACKERY signature guitar is now ready to be unleashed and you can click on the link to find out more and place your order if you so desire.

I really love the look and feel of this custom instrument, not to mention its versatility. Three (count 'em) Barden noiseless P90 pickups, a Fishman acoustic bridge pickup, interchangeable necks, patent pending vibrato system invented by Gary Brinkley and yours truly and a blending circuitry for the pickup configuration! Check it out!

OK, now on to what the future holds.

One of the high points of our 2011 was an invitation to the October LEGENDARY BLUES CRUISE! These things just keep getting' better and this particular one was a real corker.

I'm very fortunate that I've been involved since the early days of this wonderful experience and over the years, the cruise folks have allowed and encouraged me to bring special guests to make it even more of a special event.

This time, we brought along a small horn section consisting of Joe McGlohan and Jim Spake as well as the incomparable JP Soars.

After a couple dry runs at THE DOUBLE DOOR in Charlotte, NC, we boarded the ship in San Diego and unleashed the six piece extravaganza.

Sometimes the Gods smile upon us and the planets line up and a sharp sound engineer hits the RECORD button!

Our pal Steve Spirn did just that and got, what we think, is a very, very hot recording of two of the shows on the pool deck!

Suffice it to say, I'm working on a two disc release of these two fine live sets sometime before Spring.
No gimmicks, overdubs, effects, or embellishment. This is as it happened. Raw and greasy!

Keep an eye on this site for the exclusive pre-order announcement and please sign up here for our CONSTANT CONTACT bulletin. We will NOT spam you to death but rather only send you a notice when a new CD or other cool item is available. Oh, and a couple touring schedules just to let you know where we are gonna be.

The west coast booking of the Spring tour is almost done and we can't wait to see all of you! We will post the dates on this site very soon so, keep an eye peeled.We don't wanna miss ya!

Let's all have a blast in 2012 but let's all be kind to each other and safe out there!

~ Jimmy, Bumpy, and George ~