Hello friends!  Just thought I'd take a few minutes to say "thanks" to my new common'taters' - people who have left their messages for me on my site here  (there's a pretty funny email going around about 'common-taters' and their potato brethren : ). 

T-shirts will be getting ordered in the next week, according to Elisa.

Had fun playing the Moose fund raiser Saturday night and then working in my studio on Monday with Michael Hund.  (Unfortunately, working together Sunday got scrapped because I was on the losing end of a confrontation with Patron and Jaegermeister after our show Saturday night.  What was I thinking?)  We did start work on a couple of original song ideas.  Let's see if they stick.  Some nice hook ideas. Melody still needs work... and lyrics.  Michael had to fly back to Buffalo Monday night.

My buddy Joe Iaquinto is in the studio tonight with Chris Ralles, former drummer for Kenny Loggins and Pat Benatar, working on tracks for our project.  Break a leg, boys!

I am spending a few day in Las Vegas this week.  Just chill-axin.  No gigs.  I do hope to get to see my pal Russ McKinnon, playing with Barry Manilow at the Hilton, and his girlfriend while I'm there.  Lottie just threw him one hell of a birthday party at a club here in the San Fernando Valley a couple of weeks ago!  My, my, my.

Alright my little chickadees, time to roll.  Thanks for dropping by.  Will see you here or on FB or MS or... : )

Kenny

First, special thanks to Lisa Keider Smith for building me a Facebook fan site at We Heart Kenny Cetera.  I am honored that it has reached over 100 members!  And, as an artist with no "products" as of yet... cool!

It was a pretty busy weekend starting with Kaylie's gymnastic meet early Saturday afternoon (she did GREAT - beat her personal scores from last time!), then a gig Saturday night 120 mi away, but right by the ocean where some wonderful ex-neighbors of ours now live. So, I was able to spend the night with them (because I really suck at driving home long distances late at night!), then on Sunday morning met aNOTHER friend of mine, originally from Chicago, who lives about 10 mi away from them, and loves to go to the beach in Laguna every weekend (Orange Co., CA coast). So, I met him and his nephew at the beach for about an hour, just long enough to catch a few waves on his nephew's boogie board in the 67 deg. water, then drove home midday Sunday through LA traffic, which slowed my drive time down considerably.

And finally, Elisa and I were invited to a 50th birthday party for Russ McKinnon last night at Cafe Cordiale in Sherman Oaks.  The whole place was shut down just for the party.  I met Russ back in the mid 80s when I took over the room he was renting in a house that another mutual (drummer) freind of ours owned.  I later recruited Russ on drums for an original project I was doing after the Chicago tour with songs written by Chris Pelcer, who is now writing with my brother.  Russ has been Barry Manilow's drummer for the past 8 or 9 years, after several years with Tower Of Power.  There was a plethora of "in demand" studio musicians, including Brandon Fields blowing some burning sax, along with a bunch of friends and  Russ' family from OK.  Happy Fif... uh, Forty-Ten, Russ.

Anyway, it was a blast, and it wasn't nearly as far away as my gig the night before.  But, we partied a bit and got home late. So this morning required a few cups of coffee, and I'm still fuzzy around the edges!

I had a good long conversation today with my pal and musical guru Joe Iaquinto plotting our next steps to bring the "Kenny Cetera Band" to life.  People, songs, concept.  Thanks for your continued support and please bear with me as I get through the building stage!         Kenny

Just wanted to write a message to thank everyone on my Facebook, MySpace and Twitter sites for the nice Father's Day greetings this past weekend and share a little about the fun Father's Day I had.

If you've been to my Facebook site, you might know by the photos I posted there that my brother Peter was in town and visited.  He brought his two daughters, Claire and Senna, to our house for a fun family hang together with my wife, Elisa, and my three girls, Aislynn, Kaylie and Sheridan.  Senna and my two older girls are each one year apart in ages and they never have a problem hanging out, even though they don't get to spend time together very often.  As they say, blood is thicker than water.

So, we had a beautiful day.  The sun was out but not too hot, as it can be here in So. Cal.  Elisa prepped all of the food and I barbequed some chicken (maybe a little too dry, but with chicken, I prefer OVER to under-cooked).  The girls played Wii games and showed Uncle Peter their Guitar Hero III prowess.  Even Claire and I got in on that action.  Then, as planned, I played Peter a game of Wii bowling that I was challenged to and I lost in my own house!  You'll get yours!!!

I also got him to strap on a bass guitar and play a little with me on drums in my new little music room/vocal studio that Elisa and I just recently created in one of the rooms in our house.  Since that's been a rather popular theme on Peter's website for a while, I had a feeling those photos of him "suited up" would get quite a lot of attention, which is why I made sure Elisa snapped a couple.  That and the fact that I don't have any photos of me on drums with him playing bass from the Chicago 17 Tour we did together.  And, I only have a couple funky old pictures of me playing drums with my brother Tim on bass at a gig in a C&W lounge we did in the 80s.  You'd think that as brothers we'd played together a lot, but no, not true.  Other than the Chicago tour, of course, when I played drums along with Danny Seraphine on a couple songs, my brothers and I have not played together much.  That tour was the bomb, though.  But, I'll jump at any chance I get to play or sing with my bros. - and sisters, for that matter!

I really hope everyone had an enjoyable Father's Day, too, and for now check out my Facebook site for the photos (while I'm still learning to post them here).

Kenny C. U L8R

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

OK, well, I started this blog MUCH earlier today, but kept letting myself get sidetracked with reading teenage vampire books, hockey playoffs, kids coming and going, reading.  I need to get this done before midnight tonight!  No, not because of vampires, but...you'll see in another couple sentences.

Well, I am very excited about having a website!  Elisa (my better half) has been cracking the whip, yet again (I LOVE it when she does that...oh, beHAVE!), for me to get more exposure here in the cyber-world.  I'm down with it, so, here we go.

First order of business, and the reason to get this done before midnight tonight, is that today is my sister Peg's birthday, and I want to wish her a happy b'day here while it IS still her birthday.  She was the brains in our family; graduated valedictorian from her high school, was a chemistry major in college and she MARRIED a rocket scientist!  Well, almost.  He's a professor of chemistry, a professor of research and associate Vice-Chancellor at East Carolina University.  Happy Birthday, sis!

Today, I am still VERY proud of my 11 yr old, Kaylie, for her successful gymnastics meet yesterday.  It was just a mock meet with the girls at her gym, but she came in 1st Place in 2 out of only 4 events for girls in her level (4)!  I thought she was good, and I AM biased, so this was reassuring.  Nice work kiddo. 

And 'Thanks' to those who have been helping support her to stay in the program.  She really IS applying herself.  By the way, Elisa has posted some pictures of Kaylie at the meet on her Facebook site.

I have received a couple song demos in the last few days to consider for myself that I am pretty excited about in my search for some new material, and I am considering some of my favorites from one of my old friends, Chris Pelcer.  He's the Australian writer who's songs I was involved in putting together a band around some years ago, after my tour with Chicago.  One of the songs we used to do was "Whatever Gets You Through", which ultimately (for Chris) ended up on one of my brother's CD's.  I recently dug out the original demo Chris and I recorded with me singing and one of these days I'm giong to post it for you on MySpace or here, or somewhere, so you can check it out.  The sound of the recording is a little rough, and Chris could never keep his guitar in tune! 

I have been in touch with other songwriters who's demos I loved, and have them posted on my MySpace site, Jeff Silverman and Mark LeVang, and hope to have something new in the works very soon.  Along with this, I'm working on putting together a new band.

Finally, I'm done for tonight!  Peace.