It’s still hard to believe he’s gone less than 4 months. All of us his family, friends and fans still mourn his passing. But let us mark this moment on Doug’s date of birth  with the joy and excitement he gave all of us. Listen to your favorite record and groove to one of his great solos. I’m on a vacation right now as per usual at end of August. Working on a transcription of Doug’s ultra-swinging solo to The Touch of Your Lips. 1 chorus done so far. This is the entry music to the website as most of you know. Should be finished up and made available as…

Hey Folks, In this year’s homage to my father, jazz master Jimmy Raney (1927-1995) I address a few issues at once. First, “Happy Birthday Dad!”(I am now waving up to him) Second, The Jimmy Raney book. (I am now looking down at the floor, sheepishly) So, those of you that know me, waited patiently as I hinted and hinted on this book and it never came to pass. AND—

Sometimes I think technology is out to get me… Seriously:) So my phone is really messed up. It’s clicking on its own, dialing people, enabling programs, and moving my little shortcuts to places unknown. After fighting with Verizon to get me a replacement phone, I’m trying to deal with getting some local files off the phone that I’m going to lose when I replace it. Problem is – like many people affected by the recent Android Marshmallow update, file transfer mode is disabled now and there is nothing that can be done to get this phone to switch to anything other than charge mode.

It’s been over 6 weeks since my brother’s passing and although there is still the unreality of Doug really being gone, I do feel acceptance setting in and life – more or less – returning to normal. All the ideas I had that I discussed with Doug:  of helping turn his life around, fixing his teeth, finally getting to do a recording with him, devoting a page where he could answer to his fans and give music tips, now all of this is impossible. So what now? And now the question facing me is, what do I do with my life? And when I refer to life what is the thing that it…

Doug Raney (1956-2016) Doug was a very private person. My nature is (was) to protect him from public scrutiny and the airing of all the things that happened to him in his life. Obviously, this is just not realistic. News travels at the speed of light in our day and age so many of you have heard the news. It is unfortunately true.

Most sons think their Dads are the greatest. The tallest, the smartest, etc. I remember one kid I knew back in Louisville who used to say, “My day-yad is taller than ‘nyone. He’s six-tway-elve”.  Now I remember the kid’s father. Pretty tall but he wasn’t Shaq, ok?  The important thing I guess was that he felt like he was. Now of course me, I always thought my Dad was the world’s best guitarist, by a mile. Thing was though, he was and plenty of people, unrelated to me – from novice guitarists to his famous peers  – believed he was. Imagine that for a kid. And they still say it. Incredible. And he is…