country roads in China - Heart of a Dragon - Man in Motion Tour

Heart of a Dragon News — musician



We Are All Disabled - Part 5

Queen Never Had a Bad Hair Day   I have a show in a few hours. The song list is set. Guitars and amps are jammed into the tour bus which these days is a faded electric blue Ford hatchback. Clothes for tonights performance will be blue jeans - they are in the dryer as I write and a classic shirt from a vintage shop. The kind Eric Clapton looked so good in at the George Harrison memorial concert.

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We Are All Disabled - Part 4

The Girl Who Blinked...    My MRI The bed bug bites from the cheap motel in LA are gone now but the memories of being in southern California, in the middle of music business and belonging, are still so strong.     It’s raining outside and my shoulder, elbow and arm are really sore again. They just hurt. Before LA, I went to a clinic and had an MRI scan to figure out exactly why I was hurting....

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We Are All Disabled - Part 3

Fierce bed bugs, Ted’s electric guitar and a band called Rabbit… I was bitten by bed bugs in a cheap motel in LA a few weeks ago on my way to play for the National Association of Music Manufacturers.The event was not open to the public but somehow 90,000 people show up to talk and listen and learn everything new in the music business. Rock stars, lots of them, wander around. And yeah, I was there...

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We Are All Disabled - Part 2

Losing a job and finding a life... I was in LA in January and had a blast hanging around and playing with some hugely talented guitarists. Sometimes, I want to believe I’m one of them but other times, I’m not so sure, especially today when I think about how music will pay the rent for the rest of my life. I lost my job recently after 20 years of working with Rick Hansen. We did everything together,...

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We Are All Disabled - Part 1

Don Alder is a musician and partner in a grand adventure - "Man In Motion" that forever changed the way we see disability. He lives alone in a basement suite over run by guitars, note books full of ideas for songs and everywhere, memories of going around the world with his best friend, Rick Hansen.  The Guitar That Saved My Life... I was 13. We lived in a small town close by a creek down stream from...

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