Buffalo Blurb

Hey there to all of you Buffalo friends and fans. This here is the long overdue update on what's going on in the Norton Zone. So much has happened in the past year! Where do I start...I was married last June (yes, it's been a year already!). Our home is filled with the sounds of kids...Cindy's two daughters (9 & 13) and my two sons (15 & 16). Cindy and I celebrated the beginning of the New Year with an incredible Steve Miller concert at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

I have just negotiated a deal with Blind Pig Records for the long awaited release of my new CD "King of the Highway". I expect a September release, and I hope to have more info available soon.

I had a great spring! I had the incredible honor of touring with the most talented and beautiful Olivia Newton-John. I performed with her in 16 shows across the country with a tight and highly talented band. I even got to sing a duet with Olivia on "You're The One That I Want" from the hit musical "Grease" as well as playing on a beautiful rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on which I was featured on Chromatic Harmonica.

Now I am back on the road with Steve Miller, celebrating my twenty-fifth year as a member of his band (WOW!). That's a quarter of a century rocking and rolling with the Gangster of Love...Yee ha! I'm still having a great time!!!! Steve is playing great and the crowds have been incredible. Thanks to all of those Miller fans out there!

Last week, while we spent a few days off in New York City, a few of us went down to the Iridium to celebrate Les Paul's 85th birthday. Steve and I got up on stage and played a few tunes together...I followed that with a vocal and harmonica rendition of "Since I Fell For You". It was a great time shared onstage with one of music's greatest talents, as well as a great musical inventor. Les was in great form, still burning up the strings and being quite a character. His band, including incredible rhythm guitarist Lou Pallo, is always hot and right on the money. We all had a ball and wish Les many more birthdays to come!!

I would like to share with you all a few pieces of history about my musical roots.

My father was the harmonica player that first got me into the music and taught me how to play. He used to sit around at home playing old time folk songs. I first started playing harmonica around the age of seven and would sit with him and join in...at first trying to mimic him, then later trying to harmonize with him. I won my first talent contest in the sixth grade. I have been playing harp for over forty years now. My father is turning 84 this year...still going strong!

My mother was a singer. Back in the forties, she used to sing with jazz bands at a few clubs in San Francisco, including the famous Domino Club. She sang often in our home. I began singing with my church choir at a pretty young age. Later, in Junior High, I got into singing and playing in some rock bands at my church. I have always considered my voice as my second instrument. I can still hear my mother's voice in my vocals and in my soul.

Many of you may be unaware that my great uncle (my grandfather's brother from my mother's side of my family), Herbert Stothart, received an Academy Award for the music on "The Wizard Of Oz". All of the musical arrangements and orchestrations on the hit songs were his. As well, he composed the underscoring that helped make the film so musically incredible. Herbert Stothart is one of those Hollywood notables that you never heard much about but who made so much music from Broadway's first plays, through "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Romeo & Juliet", to "Son of Lassie" and "National Velvet". He was a film composer for MGM for a few decades and helped compose many of the hits that we remember from these movies including being a co-author on "Indian Love Call", "Donkey Serenade" the Betty Boop theme song ("I Want to be Loved by You") and scoring the Nelson Eddy Jeanette Macdonald musicals that were such a success. I am proud to have Herbert Stothart as part of my family's history.

I am so pleased to finally have my new CD on its way to you and to be able to let you all hear and enjoy these tunes. I am still working on my acoustic music CD and have been composing and rehearsing tunes with harpist (that's a pedal harp with strings) Michelle Sell. We are putting together a beautiful collection of instrumental pieces that currently has a working title of "Harps Entwined". The sound of Harmonica (harp) and the Pedal Harp together has a beautiful sound and our writing and instrumental talents combined has been producing some wonderful music. I'll keep you posted.

So that wraps up this note...thanks for your continued and undying support and for your patience as I attempt to answer your e-mail in a timely manner. Enjoy the music!!!!

Harmonically yours,
Norton Buffalo