1. New "Sweet Home Alabama" Alabama is a great place to live: Very friendly  people, statistically 300 sunny days, and there is all the great music, the wonderful festivals in and around the vicinity of Alabama, such as New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta etc. ... and the Golf of Mexico isn't far either. I live in a house overlooking a nice little lake. I did not yet start fishing since I rather like to drive the Harley or play music. When I mention here in Alabama the Blues Rock Trio "Hessi James" and pronounce it the "hessisch" way, people understand Jesse James or want to spell it Hesse James. In the basement, there is the practice room, where we play our fun music. It's the place where I like to go after the work is done and where we practice with "Blue Light" and also frequently with "The Bar Stool Profits". We recorded recently the "The Bar Stool Profits" Demo CD in that music room.  2. The Alabama Blues Project ( www.alabamablues.org ) "The Alabama Blues Project" (ABP) supports the rich blues culture of Alabama, and communicates the Alabama blues scene within and across the south eastern region as well as to other countries, i.e. European countries, which ABP musicians toured before. Being a charitable organization, the ABP organizes blues events and supports education at schools and and offers diverse educational programs for kids such as summercamp blues workshops to get the kids in contact with music and learn about the histoy of blues music.  I work in the Board of Directors of the ABP and have thus the chance to get in contact with all the active and highly motivated members of the ABP and with musicians that support the ABP. 3. The Band "Blue Light Specials" Link:  www.myspace.com/bluelightspecials The Band "Blue Light Specials" consists of Bill Dooley on bass and vocals, Gunars Cazers on Guitar, Harmonica and vocals, Jim Brown (previously Buddy Martin and Gene Falls) on drums and me, Matthias "Hessi" Tormaehlen, on guitar and vocals. Occasionally we have additional musicians and like to jam along with other vocalists, guitarists or key board players. The set lists of "Blue Light" is a special selection of old blues that features a lot of the excellent harmonica work of Gunars (blues of Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters). But we play also  all varieties of vintage blues rock such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and classic  southern rock. Also - to complement the harder rock edge - we love to play some more jazzy or bluegrass tunes from time to time. It is always a lot of fun to play on parties and festivities. 4. The Band "The Bar Stool Profits" I used to play with "The Bar Stool Profits". The following demo recordings were done in my basement and with me on guitar: http://www.myspace.com/thebastoolproftis The band members of "The Bar Stool Profits" are: Alan Dudley - vocals & percussions, Mike O'Handley - guitar & vocals, Chris Green - bass, Shannon Whitehurst - drums, Matthias "Hessi" Tormählen - guitar & vocals, now as my successor Russel Miller on guitar and vocals. The program covers alternative and classic rock as well as southern rock. Mike O'Handely and myself played 10 years ago for a longer duration of time with "Full Circle", then we met Alan Dudley and established "Mad Cow". We have been playing for some years before I returned to Germany. Now here we go again! In that band I am considered the "Blueser" since I love to apply blues licks and phrasing whenever possible and halfway adequate.  Mike O'Handley plays a big variance of modern clean to modern high gain sounds with a cutting edge, I join into the high gain with a warmer midrange vintage tone. The two of us complement each other in an ideal way. We love to play powerful and with variatons of dynamics. Mike and myself, we use our Mesa tube amps with two big 4x12 cabinets each whenever the room is available. The bass and the drums are tight and powerful, and Alan with his strong vocals puts the best to it! Anyway, whenever we practice and play life, it is a lot of fun!  "The Bar Stool Profits" recorded recently a Demo CD with 6 Songs in my basement which we are proud of  because we think it was a fun project and turned out nice. In the meantime, we play gigs in our hometown Tuscaloosa and in Northport as well as in the areas of Birmingham, Selma, Columbus. Here are some examples, refer to the above mentioned webpage for more: 1. Counting The Days 2. Low 3. Simple Man 4. Plush 5. Are You Gonna Go My Way