Tag Archive for: Beijing Blues

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Back in China for a Woodie Alan reunion!

I am writing this on a plane to Beijing after a completely discombobulating 24 hours, which started with wonderful news and took a sharp turn toward the very sad mid-afternoon with news of Gregg Allman’s passing. It began in the morning…
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Derek and Doyle Take Shanghai with Eric Clapton

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); In honor of the release of Eric Clapton's new double-CD Live In San Diego (with Special Guest JJ Cale), I present the following article, which I wrote for Guitar World. Hanging…

Beijing Blues: “They say the sun is shining, but I can’t see it anywhere.”

Pollution in Beijing remains very bad, but they are NOT actually showing pictures of a sunrise. That was a bogus report which I am ashamed to admit I passed along as factual, along with many others. I  will be very happy when the lyrics…

World blues: guqin/guitar duet

This was a fully improvised performance at the Xiamen Beach Festival discussed in the Big in China prologue. Zhang Yong opened up with a solo guqin piece and 10 minutes before he went on, e told me to come out when he looked at me and nodded…
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When Dixie met Woodie

As detailed in Big in China, when my father, Dixie Doc, visited Beijing in July, 2008, he played two gigs with Woodie Alan. We transformed into a passable Dixieland jazz abnd for about 4 songs per night... "All of Me," "Bill Bailey," "When the…

I’m getting the band back together and heading to Shanghai and Beijing Lit Fests.

Very excited to announce that I will be headed to Beijing and Shanghai for book talks and Woodie Alan reunion shows.  March 15 in Shanghai, March 17 in Beijing. More details here. I am appearing at the Shanghai Literary Festival and Capital…

Chinese pollution and the Beijing Blues

I will be very happy when this Big in China excerpt about living with the horrible, pea-soup pollution seems like old, oudated news. But over the past few days, the pollution readings have reached beyond "really awul" to "just insanely, unbelievably…

Andy Aledort with Big In China: 5-18 in NYC

I am really proud and excited to announce that guitarist Andy Aledort will be joining Big in China at Uncle Mike's in downtown New York on Friday, May 18. You can see details on the event here. WHAT: Andy Aledort with Alan Paul and Big…

Jinshanling-Simatai Great Wall hike

I came across this video I made several years ago capturing the wild Wall hike I always loved to do. This time, I completed it with Jacob, then 10 or 11, my nephew Jesse, about 16, and a visiting friend Nico, 14. It was scorching hot and this…
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Butch Trucks loves Big in China

I had a pleasant surprise a couple of months ago when I randomly received an email from the Allman Brothers manager saying that drummer Butch Trucks wanted to chat with me - he had read Big in China and was really fascinated by it. This led…