Hi All!  I enjoyed a fabulous week in England culminating in great shows at London's St. John's, Smith Square, a beautiful church built in 1728 right near Westminster Abbey. The occassion was the 40th Anniversary Celebrations of Procol Harum. Procol themselves played Friday night. The Palers' Band opened the Saturday festivities with 2 great sets of Procol music. The evening's show heard The Palers' Project (a collective of fans from around the world who record their own interpretations of that great British group's music) open for Gary Brooker & Friends and Procol Harum themselves in a unique performace of rare and unreleased material. I featured prominently in all 3 of these great sets and had a blast, as the following pictures and this sound bite of Gary's guitar solo will attest to (long goodbye).

  

                                                                               Dave Ball (Procol's Live with the Edmonton Symphony album) w/ Allen "OE" Edelist

 Keith Reid (Procol's lyricist) with Gary and George Lovell

Three double-CD's have been recorded and released so far by The Palers' Project. These are all available to the public at The Palers' Project link. Complete track listings, bios, and samples of all the material are on this great site. (thank you Roland)

Below are some samples of Gary Shepard's contributions to the second Palers' Project double-CD, From Shadow To Shadow , released in May 2004.

shadow_cover_small.jpg

Click the song title to read about the track's creation, click the mp3 link to hear a sample.
Disc A, track 6: Juicy John Pink mp3
Disc B, track 2: The Pursuit of Happiness mp3
Disc B, track 10: Wish Me Well mp3
Disc B, track 17: 'Twas Teatime at the Circus mp3
Disc B, track 18: Hulluuteni Syksy mp3
Disc B, track 19: Look to your Soul mp3
Disc B, track 20: Grand Finale mp3

Read reviewer comments of performances on this great CD by clicking the "Reviews" link to the left or by clicking here, the first review of which is from none other than Gary Brooker, "The Commander" - vocalist, chief composer - the life and spirit of: Procol Harum.

Read about all the contributors from around the globe here.

Trace of a Feeling, released May, 2006.

Disc A, track 20: Crucifiction Lane

Disc B, track 19: All Our Dreams Are Sold

In 2007 I had the pleasure of playing in Lejre, Denmark. and had the extremely rare privelege of playing piano for Gary Brooker (vocalist, composer of Procol Harum) on the song "Poison Ivy," plus playing guitar on "Whaling Stories," at the end of which Procol Harum accompanied the Palers onstage for the rousing 'Shalimar' finale.

In Denmark, due to the need for a backup stage guitar for Procol Harum, I was the lucky recipient of backstage passes to the Ledredborg Castle concerts, as detailed in this fun travelogue:     http://www.procolharum.com/006/gs_backstage-diary.htm and in the liner notes from Procol's latest CD and DVD combo: Live at Ledreborg. I have photo credits on their CD and DVD from this great event.

 Check out some great pictures from that week;

                           Poison Ivy w/ Gary Brooker 

Whaling Away:

Some of the gang:  Jeff Levine, Roland Clare, Me, Richard Beck, Jeremy Gilien

Gruelling it out at Domus Felix in Lejre

The Ledreborg Castle during the Procol Harum concert.

I also played extensively in Los Angeles at the 2003 Palers' Convention at the BB King Blues Club at Universal City.

Shalimars to everyone!