Dave, in 2014
Rest in peace, my friend.
Obituary for David Leroy Thornburg
You know, you were 38 when we became friends in 1978. I was 22.
When you died a couple of weeks ago, you were 85.
Well, here I am, 69, finally getting up there myself.
I’m gonna miss you in many ways.
We were in “Ireland,” yes, the Emerald Isle, for nine short but glorious days divided almost equally between Belfast and Dublin. Glorious… Divided… These words didn’t just pop into my head, but that’s a different story. Among the many common denominators, Guinness!
An airplane doodle…
Squint and you’ll see they’re enguinnessed.
What a pleasure to see Sir Van again, this time in Belfast! And what a performance!
Oh, and dinner included a little birthday cake to celebrate his 80th!
This freehand digital painting was done on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil using the Sketch Club app, with a final sharpening tweak in iColorama. I started it yesterday on the train from Belfast back to Dublin and finished it off in our room last night at a residence hall on the campus of Trinity College. The whole image took me a little under two hours. Obviously, I’m rounding things up to the nearest 1,000 for the fun of it. One of these days I can come back to this image and finish her off, but for now I’m still enjoying the tunes in my head. Hey, I painted Van on my iPad back in 2014, click here for that.
Here’s a look at the whole team, virtuosos everyone of them!
Van with the whole band
Play list: June 24, 2025.
After Gloria, and once Van had left the stage, the band played on for another 15 minutes improvising their asses off. We all stood in amazement.
Click here to learn more about the Hotel Europa
Hotel Europa, Belfast, Northern Ireland
For this post I got to spend some lagniappe time with Albert Rouzie, another local guitarist-performer also on stage the night of 5/22/2025 at the Bob Dylan tribute show at Casa Nueva in Athens, Ohio. He performed:
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Man In The Long Black Coat
Highway 61 Revisited (Mason-harp)
Blind Willie McTell (Todd-harp)
The program, organized by Steve Zarate, went kinda like this:
Mason Alexander Ault
Mason Alexander Ault – See Lagniappe Time: Part 2
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
To Ramona
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Just Like A Woman
Bob Stewart
I Pity The Poor Immigrant
Girl From The North Country
Mr. Tambourine Man
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Caitlin Kraus – See Lagniappe Time: Part 1
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Albert-guitar)
Masters Of War
Queen Jane Approximately
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
Steve Zarate
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Todd-harp)
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
I Want You
Mama You Been On My Mind
If Not For You
Todd Burge
Jokerman
You’re A Big Girl Now
Gotta Serve Somebody (Steve/Caitlin/Mason/Albert-b/g vox)
All I Really Want To Do
Bruce Dalzell
When The Ship Comes In
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Dark Eyes
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
(Closing songs)
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
The Times They Are A Changin’
My Back Pages
“Lagniappe” is a concept and a term I became familiar with while living in New Orleans. In Cajun culture, “lagniappe” (pronounced “lan-yap”) means a little something extra” or a bonus. It’s often a small gift or extra item given by a merchant to a customer, usually as a thank you or to show appreciation. it’s kinda’ like the notion of a “baker’s dozen.” Lagniappe time, then, is being able to spend a little extra time with live performers sketching freehand on my iPad Pro mainly in the Sketch Club app. I’ve illustrobloged elsewhere about lagniappe.
Generally, we’re encouraged to “let go.” It’s hard to do; and, it’s particularly hard to let go of my experience of the 5/22/2025 Bob Dylan tribute show at Casa Nueva, Athens, Ohio, organized by Steve Zarate. So I plan to spend a little, what I’m now calling “lagniappe time” with each of the performers – like I did here with Caitlin Kraus.
“Lagniappe” is a concept and a term I became familiar with while living in New Orleans. In Cajun culture, “lagniappe” (pronounced “lan-yap”) means a little something extra” or a bonus. It’s often a small gift or extra item given by a merchant to a customer, usually as a thank you or to show appreciation. it’s kinda’ like the notion of a “baker’s dozen.” Lagniappe time, then, is being able to spend a little extra time with live performers sketching freehand on my iPad Pro mainly in the Sketch Club app. I’ve illustrobloged elsewhere on the subject of lagniappe.
That evening Caitlin Kraus performed the following Dylan songs:
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Albert-guitar)
Masters Of War
Queen Jane Approximately
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
Mason Alexander Ault
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
To Ramona
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Just Like A Woman
Bob Stewart
I Pity The Poor Immigrant
Girl From The North Country
Mr. Tambourine Man
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Albert Rouzie
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Man In The Long Black Coat
Highway 61 Revisited (Mason-harp)
Blind Willie McTell (Todd-harp)
Steve Zarate
Subterranean Homesick Blues (Todd-harp)
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
I Want You
Mama You Been On My Mind
If Not For You
Todd Burge
Jokerman
You’re A Big Girl Now
Gotta Serve Somebody (Steve/Caitlin/Mason/Albert-b/g vox)
All I Really Want To Do
Bruce Dalzell
When The Ship Comes In
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Dark Eyes
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
(Closing songs)
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
The Times They Are A Changin’
My Back Pages
“Before you answer…” was selected as part of Calm or Chaos, an online gallery exhibit sponsored by the Cape Cod Art Center and the National Association of Digital Artists
Click here to view the exhibit or take the tour.
Click here to view the exhibition catalog.
Before you answer…
On Sunday, March 23, 2025 at Eclipse Company Store in The Plains, Ohio I finally got to see Take 2 . . . over a delicious Peanut Butter Porter from the Saugatuck Brewing Co.. Band members include: Jeff Carr, guitar and vocals, Scott Schell, harmonica and vocals, Ken Dean, percussion and vocals, and Mike Sisson, bass and no vocals. A wonderful night of blues, contemporary folk, Americana . . . and craft beer.
I snapped a reference photo on my iPhone because I knew I’d want to do some digital painting on my iPad. I’ve never gotten so carried away on an iPad painting. Take a look at the stats from the Sketch Club app that I used.
See tag #Athens Ohio Musician.
Click on image to enlarge
Reference Photo:
Reference photo – portfoliolongo
Sketch Club App Stats:
I’ve been intrigued by accordionist Vincent Peirani for quite a while now. Here’s a quick digital painting of a screen shot that I used as a reference.
See YouTube link below for a sample.
Technicals: Sketch Club app, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, iColorama
peiriani at 30,000 feet
All joking aside, I’m pleased to share the following from the National Association of Digital Artists (naDA):
…a collection of images – mostly digital – and other impressions…
portfoliolongo 