Friday, March 24 & Saturday, March 25...My birthday party!

This week was wonderful! Friday I played at a new place called the Furnace in Orchard Park, NY. The owner was awesome and it was great to be back home in Orchard Park (I grew up there). Saturday was amazing. I played at Griffin's Irish Pub in South Buffalo. It was my birthday celebration and so many people came from all over to be with me. The place was absolutely packed. We filled the front room and people spilled over into the bar. My friend told me he had a hard time getting into the place because there was so many people! What made it great was the family members and friends that showed up in droves. My girlfriend, Lisa arranged the whole party...The cake was wonderful and everyone had a ball. Danny Griffin, the owner of Griffin's got up and sang some Elvis tunes and "Cat's in the Cradle." He ruled! My music partner, Bob Luterek (the second half of Replay and Button-Eyed Eric) performed acoustic and then we closed with some hot Jazz! Seeing people like Freddy Zillner, the Sullivans, Maria Hejna, Ed and Diane Strawbrich and so many more filled my heart! Thanks to everyone for a great evening! This Friday I'm at Tony Rome's in West Seneca and Saturday at Hideaway Bay in Silver Creek. More to come...Peace.

St. Patty's Day Weekend

Wow! I was busy as all get go this week...4 shows and my voice held out! Thursday I played at Bennigan's on Maple Rd. I started with the traditional Irish music (jigs, reels and Irish folk). There was a a respectable little crowd there but I think they were gearing up for Friday and Saturday. When Friday rolled around I started playing at Bennigan's again! 3 to 6 and the place was packed with green beer drinkers! We went nuts! My buddy Ed came out and helped me pack up...I went and picked up my girlfriend Lisa and off we were to Olcott, New York at the Light House. I played all traditional Irish music (I'm the only Italian in WNY that does an authentic Irish show) and then some party bar music. For some reason it was pretty quiet in Olcott. The owners Dave and Carol loved the show but we were all disappointed in the turn out...People must've been drinking other places.

Saturday I did a private party at the Elma Conservatin Club and it was filled with people. I had them all doing the Unicorn dance dancing the Jig! All in all it was a great week of playing...

I'm really looking forward to this week coming up. I play at a new place called the Furnace at 3700 Southwestern Blvd. in Orchard Park Friday, March 24. Saturday, March 25 is my HUGE birthday party at Griffin's Irish Pub on Abbott Rd. in South Buffalo. If you are in the area stop down....It's going to be a blast!

March 9, 10, 11

It was a great week of perfomances! Thursday I played to a crowd of 350 people at the Buffalo Marriott. It was a special party for St. Gregory The Great Church. It was awesome. Friday I played at the Sonoma Grille and it was classy as usual with the people wanting more. Saturday was pretty special for me because my sister-in-law had a suprise 80th birthday party for her father and I was the entertainment. I played at Tony Rome's in West Seneca, NY and it was packed. I can't tell you what it feels like to move people with music. This wonderful old man was SO happy. I can't believe how much the entire family appreciated it. I closed the evening with some Sinatra and he and his wife danced and danced. It really was great.

Nothing much else. I'm preparing for all the St. Patrick's Day festivities here in Western New York. It's going to be a blast, even for an Italian like me! I love playing traditional Irish music. Feel free to comment on this post. I'd love to hear from you!

I'm Back!

Damn! It's great to be back. I haven't gone this long without performing in years! I hope everyone is doing fine. Lisa and I went to Montreal...There is far too much to say about that magnificant city! I'm going back during the summer...Gotta catch the Jazz festival. The streets are so alive...Great food and awesome sites. The best thing about Montreal is their love of music! There is so much to see and hear. The first night we went to a great Jazz Bar and heard a wonderful treo (piano, stand up bass and a female vocalist)...God, they were hot! I won't ramble on any more but if you get a chance...visit Montreal. It's the closest thing to Europe you're going to get in North America.

If you're not doing anything...here is what I'm doing this week:

Buffalo Marriott. Millersport Highway. Thursday, March 9 @ 6:00 p.m. (this is a huge fundraiser for St. Gregory's Church. If you can make it out it would certainly be worth it).

Sonoma Grille. 5010 Main St., Snyder. 204-0251. Friday, March 10 @ 8:30 p.m. (I love the Sonoma Grille. It's always alive with a wonderful crowd. It boasts a pretty sophisticated bar atmosphere too).

Tony Rome's. 1537 Union Road, West Seneca. 675-4351. www.tonyromes.com. Saturday, March 11 @ 9:30 p.m (come down to Tony Rome's! We have a huge party of about 60 people showing up as well as the regular crowd. I'm going to rock the place!).

More news to come...Check back here often!

Peace!

Feb. 25 & 26

Hi,

Man....Saturday kicked butt over at Hidden Hollow in West Seneca. I had quite a few friends show up at the show and we partied on until about 2:30 A.M.! Sunday was the 12th annual "Doc's Day For Kids" at the Buffalo Brew Pub In Williamsville, NY. The place had about 300 people there...It was the 6th time I played this event and it was incredible. We raised thousands of dollars for childern in the Catholic Health System. I saw some people that have come to my other shows there and I appreciate you showing up and contributing. I am taking two weeks off and I will be back on March 9. I can't believe I actually have a vacation! I'm going to Montreal with my girlfriend...I can't wait. Check back here for more news...I will still make posts during my time off. I'll see you soon!

Feb. 17 & 18

Hi,

What a great couple of nights I had. Friday I played Simmie's in Lancaster, NY and although the weather was really cold a bunch of people made the trek out to see me play. We had a good night of dancing and partying. I tried some new songs and it was awesome. I love when that happens. I love to work up new songs (or songs I haven't done before) and un-veil them so to speak. Saturday was excellent. I always have a great time at Tony Rome's and Saturday was no different. My buddy, Ed Strawbrich helped me set up (Thanks man!) and we both thought it was going to be a quiet night...We were wrong! More people arrived, and then more...We partied our butts off! Joe Sorrentino, the owner came up and sang a couple tunes and at the end of the evening told me "Man, this is your year! You always do such a great job here." What seemed like a slow night turned out to be "party as usual!" My brother Anthony even showed up out of the blue and joined the festivities.. Birthdays, friends, partying and dancing...It doesn't get better than that!

Feb. 9, 10, 11

Hey,

The week went very well. Thursday Bob Luterek and I performed as "Replay" at the casino at Buffalo Raceway. Replay is a side project that Bob and I do. It involves Jazz and more produced things. Bob gets a ton of sounds from his Roland synth module. This enables him to do sax leads and such on his guitar! It was great! Friday I was at the Sonoma Grille in Snyder NY. It's a beautiful, trendy place with a great intimate atmosphere. Saturday was an absolute party! I played at Fudd's Hidden Hollow and the owners, Shawn and Marsh were great to me. I had friends come from all over Western New York. There were 4 birthday parties and a retirement party going on all at once! I rocked it out and booked more gigs there all the way to May! Look for me there throughout the summer. I'm tired gang...I'm stopping short here...If you have a chance, join my group site at:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/greggsansone/


See you down the road!

January 27,28, 29

January 18 to 22

I had a wonderful week....Busy as all get out though. I'll try to be brief. Wednesday I played at Average Joe's. Despite the horrible weather alot of people showed up. It went well. Thursday I went to the Buffalo Thrills party...For those of you who don't know, Buffalo Thrills is the agency that represents me. Learn more about them at www.buffalothrills.com. A ton of people were there. My buddy, Michael Bly was performing an acoustic show so I joined in. Nice to kick back and play. Friday I played at the Byrncliff Resort 11 miles outside of East Aurora, NY. What a beautiful place! It really has a wonderful crowd because people are there year round enjoying the lodges and the outdoors. They loved my show! Saturday took the cake...It was the first time I played at Griffin's Irish Pub on Abbott Rd. in South Buffalo...My friend, Danny Griffin (the owner of Griffin's) never heard me before and the crowd was nuts! Danny got up and sang, people partied their tails off and then came up and told me it was the best music they ever heard at Griffin's! Danny and I really connected... Go figure. Many of my friends were there including Ed and Diane Strawbrich and Bob and Gerry Luterek. Bob jammed with me and a great time was had by all. I didn't get to bed until 6:30 a.m.! That's it gang...I'll be in touch soon. I am going to record some new original tunes in the next two weeks...I'll post the music on MySpace.com so you can hear it and download the music. We'll be in touch.

January 13 and 14

What can I tell you? Friday went o.k. at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island except for the fact that management wanted me to turn the volume down (the bar was filled with people who wanted to party)....I was looking forward to playing at Tony Rome's on Saturday. I wasn't disappointed...Good God, The place was mobbed! It was so wonderful to see so many of my family members and friends. It was Lisa Santora's birthday and so many people came out. The sound was great and my buddy Bob Luterek came up and jammed on some tunes! What was really amazing is that friends of mine came out that I haven't seen in so long. It was a great experience. I am so happy when performances turn out like that.

Bennigan's

Wednesday, January 11 went great at Bennigan's! So many of my friends came to the show...There were people there that never heard me before and they were really entertained. I love that...New people enjoying my music...It adds to the vibe so to speak. It was the first time I played Bennigan's and everyone had a great time. I'm looking forward to playing there again at the beginning of February!

January 6, 7 and 8

New Year's Eve....

You won't believe this...I played a rather "high class" New Year's Eve party with my good buddy, Bob Luterek at the Niagara Falls Country Club. As you may imagine, there was quite a bit of "old money" there and the average age was about 72. There were some young people but I had to chalk it off as a chance to play some kick ass Jazz and get paid really well for it. There were tables all in front of the stage area. While Bob and I were playing and entire table of elderly people got up to leave. One woman (about 82 years old) was wearing one of those velvet outfits, you know, the loose fitting burgandy velvet top with matching slacks. As she passed in front of the stage area her pants fell down completely around her ankles! I kid you not! We could see everything! They just dropped! The woman's son helped her with her pants and ushered her out while the bartenders looked at me in shock...I couldn't believe it. Later on Bob said that it was funny that an old woman dropped her pants for me...I told him I've played there a number of times without any disrobing...It must have been him! Ah....the life of a rock star!

Happy New Year!

Well it was a nice rest but it was great to get back to things. New Year's Eve I played a show at the Niagara Falls Country Club with my good buddy, Bob Luterek. It went really well. What I enjoyed most was playing quite a bit of Jazz with Bob joining in on guitar. We really did some great pieces and it showed me that I will do more shows like that. I get into the pure musicianship of those type of shows....Don't get me wrong, I love doing my solo shows and playing in all sorts of venues...I just love playing Jazz and standards as well. This week I start back at some of my favorite clubs...Tony Rome's and The Light House. Not much else going on...I hope you all had a magnificant holiday season!

Average Joe's Christmas Party

What a great time we all had at Average Joe's on Wednesday. I can't believe how packed the place was...You couldn't move! People really enjoyed themselves and I had a number of friends come out and see me. I also met the manager of Bennigan's and he hired me for some Wednesdays starting in January! In any case, I'm taking a small break until New Year's Eve. I really need it. I will play with Button-Eyed Eric (my acoustic duo with Bob Luterek) at Night-Life Magazine's anniversary party on Wednesday, December 28 but that is just about five songs. I hope you all have a great holiday season and I will see everyone soon!

Saturday at Hidden Hollow

What a great time I had Saturday night! There are few times when I play at a place where the owners are really great people that appreciate the music and treat musicians well. This was one of thse times. Hidden Hollow's owners, Marsha and Shawn greet everyone and make you feel like a friend. They loved the show so much that they immediately booked me for two more gigs in February! Check out this little place on Indian Church Rd. in West Seneca. Better yet, come to one of my shows there!

Winter Wonderland

Icy Thursday! 12/15

Good Lord...It was pretty damn icy Thursday night! I played a private Christmas party at Salvatore's. Everyone showed which turned out to be great. I was really suprised...I thought people would've stayed home. In any case, things went well. I hope the weather holds out for all my shows this weekend. See you all soon!

Saturday 12/10

Played at Fanny's Saturday for the Kensington High School Alumni Association. It went quite well and there were people that knew my father's restaurant from years ago. It was wonderful talking about the old days! I had Friday off (the first time in months) and I actually went out and saw "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat." It was awesome! I still have to do my Christmas shopping! Yikes! I'll be back in a few days.

Wednesday and Thursday

I played Average Joe's on Wednesday and it was a really good time. Baby Joe Mesi came in and stayed for about half a set. I'm looking forward to doing the Christmas Party there on December 21. Thursday I did a private Christmas party at the Tri-Main Building. Whta made this especially great was that they rented a baby grand piano and set it up for me! It was awesome! I love the dynamics and purity of a baby grand. I'm off Friday and then I do a private show on Saturday so that's really it until next week. See you soon.