Urbana, OH—July 18

Hit the road for the 4 plus hour drive to Urbana. Turns out we’re playing in a beautiful park in a rural area. We had our doubts as we pulled up to the little wooden stage and saw a tiny PA head there waiting for us. But that was just for monitors, soon the real PA arrived and to our pleasant surprise, the older gentleman who was running sound, who we feared might be a farmer by day, turned out to be just about the best sound man we ran into on the whole tour, spending much of his year on the road doing front of house sound for major touring acts. Go figure. The crowd was all local folks who enjoyed our mix of originals with some more familiar favorites that we threw in. Turned into one of the funner gigs of the tour.

Cleveland—July 17, 2009

Hit the ground running at 7:30 am, heading to WDOK and our friends Trapper and Terry on the morning drive show. Quick interview and a couple of songs and off to WKYC TV channel 3.Turns out that one of the cameramen at the station is a guy who’s voice we all know. He’s the AOL guy who says, “You’ve got mail!”. As chance would have it, my good friend from the Jim Brickman tours, Anne Cochran, was guest hosting that morning and we did a short chat and a tune, then piled back in the van and hustled to WCPN, the NPR radio station located in the new swanky digs at the idea center in playhouse square for a live one hour concert from their studios on their “Around Noon” series. We set up all the gear and played 5 tunes and interviewed with the very erudite host, Dee, all of which was webcasted simultaneously. Then packed it all up and back in the van to WCSB, a jazz station operating out of the old NPR studios. We played informally for about an hour out of a single amp and a cajone (a wooden box that serves as a drum.) Then back in the van and over to our new hotel closer to the venue, check-in, 30 minutes to regroup, and then off to soundcheck at Cain Park, which is a beautiful outdoor (covered) amphitheater and a large stage. It looks wonderful but is cavernous when it comes to the sound. We unloaded again, set up, and struggled for about 2 hours to get some sort of clarity with the sound and finally turned the soundcheck over very tardily to our opening band at 7, an hour before the start of the show. Guitarist Doug Wood, bassist Darren Frate and drummer Ivan George opened for us. Doug is our booking agent and was also responsible for all our publicity in Cleveland, lining up all 3 radios, the TV and also an online CD review that week in CoolCleveland.com. So he definitely gets the MVP in Cleveland, as well as the rest of the tour. Doug probably spent more hours booking and dealing with the tour than we did, including all our travel and rehearsal and shows. Definitely the kind of guy who has your back and who you want on your team.

Pizza delivery never showed so it was a hot dog from the concession stand and onto the stage a little hungry for our 5th show of the day. 3 songs in, a cable somehow gets loosened on my pedalboard and the violin mysteriously disappears from the mix. A few panicked moments later, he found the problem and dropped back into the mix just in time for the second verse of “Peace and Quiet”. One few minutes later, his E string breaks at the start of the next tune and off he goes to grab the spare, which hadn’t really been played in about 2 years and which posed a constant tuning issue for the rest of the show. But on we went, playing an excerpt from the very demanding contemporary electric violin concerto “The Dharma at Big Sur”, solo Bach for electric violin and the rest of the show on the spare violin. The sound never did get better onstage. In fact, it got louder and worse as the night wore on, adding to the challenges of an already challenging day. But the show was still a blast to play for a crowd that included a lot of friends and the standing ovation helped everyone’s attitude.

Cleveland—July 16, 2009

After a stellar breakfast at an organic restaurant in Athens called Casa Nueva—Futch and Steve insist the pancakes were the best they’d ever had—we hit the road for Cleveland. Pulled into town just in time for evening rush hour and since our hotel was a couple of blocks from the stadiums, we had the added fun of hitting the area just as both stadiums were filling for the evening games. Just swarms of people, cops not letting cars turn, etc etc. and we couldn’t find the hotel. Eventually we made it and had the night off in preparation for the big media blitz the next day.

Athens, OH—Wednesday July 15

Several hours drive up to Athens. It’s a small really cool college town (ohio university) and we played at a place called Jackie-o’s, which, it turns out, is a brew pub that has 18 of their own beers on tap and we were playing smack in the middle of ohio brew week. Despite that potential for personal artistic disaster, we provided a focus for a packed crowd of very happy and very musical folks ranging from (of age) students and ex students on up. They are in the process of expanding into the building next door, so our backstage area was the patio next door (luckily it was a rainless night) and the only bathroom, besides the one person unit just off the bar, (and in a place that serves 18 beers on tap, the bathroom tends to be a popular place,) was in the place next door which was in the process of renovation–actually still in the demolition stage–so there was no electric. a flashlight was provided, but you’d be surprised how necessary light is for effective bathroom use, both standing and sitting…We played for 3 hours. It was hot, loud, soulful, funky, rocking and a total joy. It was one of those nights where we felt like we could do no wrong, as long as we didn’t stop playing. A local sax player named Ted joined us for a slow blues. The crowd was with us every step of the way, got encores long after the 1 am end of the gig, and helped us move gear. What a joy. Great food, too. Looking forward to returning.

Louisville—Tuesday July 14

Futch and Tracy are on WPLN NPR radio “Live in Studio C” show at 11am, (steve went up to Kentucky early that morning to spend the day with his family at 6 flags Kentucky kingdom.) then jump in the van and head up to Louisville, lose an hour with the change to eastern time, and get there by 5 for a soundcheck at one of the premier indie record stores in the country, ear x-tacy, for an instore. Had a great time, left with a few new purchases, had a late dinner at a great place called ramsi’s.

Prep day—Monday July 13

Pick up the rental van from the airport, start the pack. 2 boxes of snacks from Costco, cooler full of waters and mango juice. Michael earns his packing merit badge squeezing all our gear into the back. All set to go so we can bolt right after our WPLN NPR radio appearance on “Live in Studio C” the next morning.

Nashville—Sunday July 12, 13

Next morning we set out first thing for the philly airport. I had a solo concert at Belmont University in Nashville at 4, so we were watching flight schedules and weather reports, but everything worked out fine. It rained like Niagara Falls for the load in at Belmont, umbrellas over amps, backing up to doorways–still got soaked.

Monday, July 13 is tour prep day. Michael and I pick up the rental van from the airport, quick stop at Tour Supply for industrial strength batteries and a speaker cable and then to the studio to start the pack. 2 boxes of snacks from Costco, cooler full of waters and mango juice. Michael earns his packing merit badge squeezing all our gear into the back. All set to go so we can bolt right after our WPLN NPR radio appearance on “Live in Studio C” the next morning.

Black Potatoe Festival, Clinton, NJ—Sat July 11

Couple of hours drive over to Clinton. It’s a small and very friendly festival in a beautiful setting by a small river and old mill, in front of a abig rock wall. Unfortunately the weather was real threatening but we had an afternoon set and managed to play an hour and get offstage just before the rain started up. Then hung around and caught jim weider’s set (he’s an ex-member of “the Band”) and he’s got Rodney Holmes on drums (Santana and others.) cool band.

Reading, PA—Fri July 10

Case up all the backline and load it into the car, drop it off, then back to the hotel to reload with all our gear. Drive 3 hours or so up to Reading, PA. Talking about slavery around the world, the American revolution, and the idea of pluralism—.how there can actually be more than one right answer and more than one truth. I say, what is it about human nature that we think we have the only answer, as in the subject of religion. Each religion thinks there was is the only true way, when obviously they are all equally true or false.

Futch says: if I’m riding in my car and I blow the horn, I hear a steady pitch, but if you’re standing on the street, you hear the pitch go down as I pass, the Doppler effect. Now who’s right? They’re both right. 2 different truths happening at the same time.

Steve says yes, the guy in the car is correct in his perception, as is the guy on the porch, but that is exactly what it is, their differing perceptions based on physical conditions or limitations. That does not change the one source or one truth, just their understanding of that truth. That’s where human nature comes into play in thinking we have all of the answers based on our understanding, but there is much more there than we can perceive. We don’t have to hate each other because of the differences in what we believe to be true. “I’m right, you’re wrong” never gets along. That’s the cool thing about the makeup of the band. We all come from different backgrounds but we respect those differences and appreciate what each one brings to the mix.

I say that it’s human nature for us to not want to accept things that are different from us—different cultures, languages, music, food, etc but that there will come a time (maybe not for hundreds of years,) when we will not only be more accepting, as the global village gets smaller and smaller, but that we will welcome it and understand that the best often happens when there is a mix of things—mutts are stronger than purebreds, etc. That cultures like the US and Brazil, where there is a melting pot of cultures, produces great culture but that there will one day come a time when the tension of those cultures rubbing up against each other will disappear, because it has to in order for us to get along, like traffic has to obey certain rules or we all crash into each other.

And that, as a band, if we can contribute in some small way to this trend of accepting what is different from us, that we are really contributing something positive to the civiliation. And that our “mission” with the band is to show people that you can love James Brown for the funk and love John Adams for the beauty and a pop song for the fun and Hendrix for the heaviness and that you can like it all, that there’s more than one musical truth and they’re all valid. And that if we can help to break these barriers in some small way, to set an example through the metaphor of music, maybe we can speed up this process towards a civilization that’s pluralistic and glad about it, instead of pluralistic and mean about it.

Our good friend David Cullen joined us onstage for a few tunes. David is a guitar player extraordinaire who happens to live in Reading, and by a fluke wasn’t working that night, and as a home town favorite, he brought the house down. David and I have played shows together in Reading and elsewhere for several years and the chemistry is always great. And a shout out to the Peanut Bar for providing some very delicious and welcome dinner. And a big thank you to Kevin Brett for shooting the show. There are a ton of amazing shots which you can see in our gallery.

Watkins Park, Upper Marlboro, MD—Thurs July 9

Watkins park, MD

Got some catching up to do. Thought I’d have all this time sitting in a van to plumb the depths of my inner road warrior and keep everybody abreast of our every little rock star moment, but seems like there actually hasn’t been 5 minutes in a row, between phone calls with the agent, publicist, family back home, set list discussions, tour logistics and taking my turn driving. Turns out this is really a lot of work…

So—our first leg of the adventure was a 3 date run centered around philly. Flew into philly, rented an SUV and crammed all our gear in there and headed down to Baltimore. We left predawn and had a show that night outside DC. Thing is, we had to rent backline (drums and amps) and the prices in DC were high so we arranged to pick it up in Baltimore and also booked a hotel there. So we checked in and then emptied all our stuff out of the car, Michael (trusty road manager) went and picked up the backline and then came back to the hotel to get us, but since the backline completely filled the car, we had to take everything out of its cases and squeeze ourselves and the minimum of our gear—instruments and my case of pedals and preamp, etc—into that Saturn SUV. Michael must be good at tetris, cause this was straight up tetris. Couldn’t get a piece of paper in that vehicle by the time we were done. Then drove an hour to DC, set up and played a free outdoor concert in Watkins park. Great crowd and fried chicken for the band. After the show, back up to Baltimore, unload everything from that SUV and sleep like the dead.