Fern Hill Hotel

Always a pleasure and privilege to play on special occasions like this one! Lovely intimate Valentine's atmosphere in the Snooty Fox Restaurant on the evening.

Photos from Nicky Grieshaber - Keys Alive's post

Posted yesterday on a page I discovered only a few days ago: The Wedding Inventory (Vendors Connect), https://www.facebook.com/groups/WeddingVendorsConnect. A very useful site to know about. * * * * * MAKING MUSIC, MAKING MEMORIES A romantic engagement dinner or pre-wedding bridal party evening coming up? Or on the big day, would you like some beautiful, ambience-enhancing background music for your guests to enjoy while you’re having your wedding photos taken? Whatever your special event, tasteful, live, unique-to-the-occasion piano music is what I’m all about, to provide a special touch that you and your family and friends will always remember. My repertoire in the broad field of popular music is extensive ... Foot-tapping, spring-in-the-step-putting, memories-evoking melodies, from wavy waltzes and folksy favourites to perky pop. Importantly, I have a high-quality digital piano for venues where no acoustic piano is available, so you aren’t even limited to being indoors, as long as there’s a suitable electrical connection for an extension cord available. • Listen to a few mini-snippets of my music on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/user-925482629. • Please also see my Keys Alive! website at www.keysalive.co.za and my Facebook page: Nicky Grieshaber – Keys Alive at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/…. PS. I live in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, but can travel (within reason) (and/or within your budget! :) ).

Thank you for all the positive responses to the news of my website so far! :) Still some work to do there (a website is always a work in progress) - like better photos, more photos on the gallery page, some technicalities sorted out to get a few images moving that aren't moving - but this will come in due course. A really cool feature for me is that my Facebook page (not just the link - and "live", what is more) can be accessed from the Gallery page - so if you were to look there in a minute or so you should also see this comment I'm posting here now! Have a good weekend, everyone.

Very excited to be launching my website. TODAY. NOW. DONE. URL: www.keysalive.co.za. Thank you, Des (www.desdesigns.co.za) for all your hard work on this!

Fern Hill Hotel

That "live music" tucked into the description ... Guess who?! Fern Hill's wine-pairing dinners are always extremely classy and the atmosphere is great - lovely occasions for which to provide the background music. Add the Valentine's Day element and all concerned are in for a wonderful evening.

Camp Orchards

Fern Hill Hotel

Very pleased to have been a part of this happy landmark occasion for these very deserving students and their proud teachers, families and sponsors. Well done to everyone.

Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine

A really beautiful venue, inside and out, where I've been privileged to provide my Keys Alive! music on several special occasions. Looking forward to meeting the 2017 students. All the best to everyone!

Fern Hill Hotel

Looking forward to playing at Fern Hill Hotel (https://www.facebook.com/FernHillHotelZA/?fref=ts) on Christmas Day! I will be in the restaurant, while Charles Webster (https://www.facebook.com/charles.j.webster.5?fref=ts) will be entertaining diners in the Fern Hill theatre.

An old story, but I love it! (For "bagpiper", read anything that would apply to you as a muso - grand piano player or electric guitarist excluded, of course, unless you took a generator or battery along for the latter!) * As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologised to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played my heart and soul out for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played "Amazing Grace" the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low, my heart was full. Then, as I opened my car door, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

LA CASA tomorrow night (Tuesday, November 1) - about 30 minutes of Keys Alive! during the open mic slot before the main attractions start at 8.

Namaste Photography Kzn

Opportunities and honours like this don't come often: doing the opening act on the opening night of a new music club and venue – and it came my way. Thank you Johnny and the other organisers. It was a great evening of sharing great (Beatles!) music.