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A night off in the big city of Middletown, NY. Thought I’d drop y’all a line. Been busy since we talked last. Had a great time playing for the Americana Music Conference. Thanks to them for the invitation. It’s cool to be a part of something where all the fans, all the radio folks, etc. are really just trying to hear and see as much great music as possible. The set was fun as hell albeit a bit shorter than we’d like. Got to see and hang with Radney Foster’s guys a bit. He’s got Jefferson on keys and my old pal Keith on drums. It was very good catching up with them. Congrats to Justin Townes Earle for his award. Wanted to make the ceremonies but caught some kinda wicked flu that laid me out til damn near showtime. I did get to do a couple of radio station things while we were home. Rock station 97.1 plus WSM. Its nice to have folks interested in this new record. The WSM thing has such history for me growing up in Nashville I was just flattered as hell that they invited me in. They’ve actually been playing ‘Goodnight/Goodbye’ off the new album. Damn right we’re rockin the am!! Then rolled through Pittsburgh last night. Always have fun at the Club Cafe. It was a little nutty around there with all the G20 stuff going on. Some businesses all boarded up but still open. Fear of rioters. I was gonna riot when I found out the damn thing had NOTHING at all to do with Gatorade. Crap. So tonight was band night off and we partied hard. Siggi bought a drill at Lowes. Blade and Devin went to Olive Garden. I microwaved a frozen dinner and watched HellBoy II, Secret Life Of Bees and then two episodes of Entourage. This was all followed by Real Sex 25. But I opted out of that as 1. I’m in a room with Devin and 2. I’m deathly afraid of boobies ESPECIALLY on TV. Ok truth be told I just went out and grabbed a snack but anyway………Boston tomorrow night. Back at Harpers Ferry. Haven’t played there in ages. Hope we will see some of you there.

Doing a photo op for the United Way tomorrow. Me, my pops and my brother. We don’t do a lot of these sorts of things so hopefully it’ll be fun. It’s definitely for a great cause. Lord knows we could use the karma right? Wonderful shows this past weekend. I LOVE AKRON OHIO!!! What? You may ask. Akron? Yes dammit. Akron. The Tangiers is a wonderful venue. The station, the Summit, is EVERYTHING a radio station should be. With the exception of satellite radio, this kind of radio station I think is really the future. Listener supported. So they’ve got folks that trust the station to provide them with great new music and great shows. The staff at the station actually listens to and enjoys music. They’re even allowed to say what they like musically and why they like it. Again, this makes people TRUST the dj’s. They’re real people not some computer that is programmed. Then you’ve got a great venue in Tangiers. All these things come together for a GREAT night of music. I was really excited after the show. You can see it in the crowd. How respectful they are, how they listen and react. It’s a COMMUNITY! Every city should have a radio station that is doing this. Know the market. Know your listeners. KNOW the bands you play and REALLY KNOW the ones that will come to your city and help you build this thing. Wheeeew! Alright, off my soapbox now. Pittsburgh was a lot of fun too. Club Cafe is another great room. I really want to start doing an acoustic performance for the early show. Then come back and do the late show more rocking. So just know that’s what we’ve got in mind for the future if and when we make it back. That’s really it for now. Very much looking forward to getting back to Chattanooga on Wednesday, then we’ve got Atlanta in there somewhere too. Seems like forever since we’ve been there. I’ll make sure and check back in soon. Yall be well.
ps….I’ll make sure we have a good post on religion soon!!

Hanging outstide the club in Cleveland waiting to load in. Good day so far. Listened to the new Wilco album. I liked it. I know it’s slander to say it, but I didn’t care for their last two albums, so this was a nice change for me. Now, stone me for it…..go. Then we watched Indiana Jones. What’s not to like? It’s strange now on the bus that we’ve got our driver Mike on the road. I’ve not driven the bus for one second since we left home! I’ve never NOT driven in the 9 years I’ve been on the road. It’s taken/taking some getting used to, but I’ll get through it.

Adam #2 is doing a kick ass job playing bass. We’re constantly throwing new stuff at him and he handles it great. Plus he passes the ‘hang test’. Which as much as we’re on the road in an enclosed environment is damn near as important as musicianship.

I should also extend a welcome to Sean our new production manager. We met him in Memphis and he just got to Nashville to start this tour. He’s done a great job as well these last two nights. He’s gonna be a great addition to our little rock and roll family.

Club Cafe in Pittsburgh was alot of fun. Good Wednesday night crowd.

Buffalo was the first time we’ve ever played there and it was a damned pleasure! Beautiful night, great crowd. Really receptive to what we were doing. Joan Osborne closed the show and was really good. Great voice on that woman. Her band was super tight. Created havoc with a few of those lads until the wee hours of the morning. Hoping that will creat a nice little bond for when we see them for a couple more shows later in the year.

Well, I’m off to the thrift store that is in the basement of the club we’re playing. Adam just returned from there with ANOTHER Rossington-Collins bumper sticker. Lucky bastard! See y’all soon…………

So we’re drawing near that time to pack up and hit the road again. Big thanks to my friends/bandmates for allowing me to take this wonderful time off at home. Everyone’s been scratching around, itching to get the big bus rolling again.
The new album is done. Mixed, mastered, sequenced. There’s a title and a release date with label. More coming on that soon. Also lots of good things coming in on the touring side. That’ll all be posted in some sort of ‘official’ blog-journal-memo thing soon. Plus there will be a redone willhoge.com. Thank god. I’m not even sure I remember any of the people that are in any of those band photos. One of them might actually be Leo Sayer, I’m not sure.

We’re rehearsing tomorrow and Tuesday with our new bass player Adam Beard. Yes, two fucking Adam’s. I’m uncertain how we’re gonna deal with that. Well, guitar Adam was here first, and he’s bigger than new Adam, so I’m relatively sure Adam 1 will keep the name. We’ll give it a week and then if no nicknames for Adam 2 present themselves we’ll open it up to y’all for voting for his new name. He’s a great player. Locks really well with Siggi. Sings background vocals well too. Not that he’s had any time to learn those yet with the 30+ songs he’s had to learn in the last week. That doesn’t even include the new album yet. Sorry #2! Anyhow, y’all will meet him soon. He’s a good guy. You’ll like him. He likes beer. I don’t know if he likes Jack Daniels yet. He’s got a new bass rig. He owns his own car. I think he likes the discovery channel and perhaps imported cheese. There, that’s all I know until this week. We’ll break him in real good between Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Chicago on Sunday. Let’s see how it goes…………….

Back home for a couple of days trying to rest a bit. It feels good to let you know that the Pittsburgh show on Saturday was sold out too! After the Bowery show in NYC we were just hoping for a good night, but this was great! Club Cafe is a little room, but lots of fun. Great crowd, killer energy. It’s sort of a weird deal with the early and late shows. We’re working on a plan to do BOTH the early and the late show next time through. Then you could come to one, or both. Two different shows, one night. We’ll let you know what happens there.

This was certainly the best run we’ve had into the northeast. It made us all very proud. Thanks to everyone who was a part of it. Hoping that trend will continue back into the midwest this week. Minneapolis, Milwaukee and then Chicago. We’re HONORED to be sharing these shows with the Bottle Rockets. They’re an incredible rock and roll band. I’ve always been a fan. I got introduced to their music by Dan Baird, my original guitar player. I was hooked. Then a few months ago they got put on a show with us in Cleveland and we all hit it off. We talked about trying to do a few more shows and this just worked out. PROMISE ME YOU’LL BE THERE TO SEE THEM!!! You’ll love it. Great band. Truly a pleasure to get to share a bill with them.

Things are going well with the new live album, “Again Somewhere Tomorrow.” Thanks for your patience with the online orders as well as SnoCap. All the kinks should be worked out, so if you’ve not done so yet, please give it a shot. The video for ‘Pocket Full Of Change’ is now finished. We should see the final edit from our pal Drew Gurian this week. Even the first rough cut was much cooler than we’d expected. Way to go Drew! We’ll have more announcements soon about when and where to look for that.

Also want to turn you on to a really great DVD. It’s called ‘Before The Music Dies’. FIND IT!! Very telling about this roller coaster ride we’re all on. I feel sure you’ll feel the same about it. It’s an indie documentary done by two guys who just LOVE music. Reminds me of lots of y’all. Great interviews, great performances, funny stuff too. Let me know what you think.

Alright, back to watching PBS. Bye for now…….

Started off this week in Philly. Great show! Best we’ve done there. I really love World Cafe Live. I know I’ve probably said it before, but it reminds me alot of WorkPlay in Birmingham so you know we like it! Cool people on staff, just a great night.

Next night was Annapolis at the Ram’s Head. One of those sit down rooms, but always turns out to be fun. That held true again. Many thanks to everyone there for all the love and support. I was worried that I may have burned a bridge there when I made a comment in between songs about porno films. See this place has a very strict NO TALKING policy. Now that’s GREAT!! There’s plenty of other shows that I wish people would be more quiet, but in between songs it’s just awkward as hell. To which I responded something about, ‘….this must be what it feels like to do a porno film. You and a couple ladies go at it. You’re feeling like the man. Super pimp. You finish(you know what I mean) and then there’s a room full of people just standing there. ummmm….nice work. Could we try that again. Maybe hold her leg a little higher, and you, moan a little more….’ blah, blah, blah. Anyhow, I felt lucky that it came off funny. You gotta love adult film humor.

This leads us to last night in NYC. Two days ago I’d gotten an email that the presales for the show were good. We were all happy as this was to be our first time headlining the Bowery Ballroom. Got there yesterday and the numbers were even better which is great because the club folks get much nicer to you. Anyway, the club was just great. Finally felt like we were in the right room in NYC. Well the show sold out!! A couple hours before we went on they told us and we were just thrilled. It was a killer night. The Trews played first and sounded great. Good to catch up with them again. Hopefully more of that soon. Good bunch of local guys called Wormburner played next. It was good to know them. Then Matt Mays and his gang and then yours truly went on. It was one of those nights that just felt good from the get go. Had lots of our friends there. Our booking agent Jordan was there and I was as proud for him as I was for us. Thanks for all the hard work! Our new lawyer Reid was there. Great to get to hang with him a bit. Then all sorts of folks from other shows around the area. Thanks to y’all for making this whole thing happen. The folks at the club were really supportive and we’re already working on getting back again. So please keep on spreading the word!

Heading down to Pittsburgh tonight. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Should have some more exciting news for y’all soon. Keep on listening………

So here we sit at the Liberty Harbor Marina, or ‘home’ as we like to call it. When we first got the bus I think we were here probably 15 times in the first month. It’s great.

Special thanks to Erica (merch gal, not singer) and her family for taking care of us on our day off on Monday. We crashed for a bit at their place, made a big spaghetti dinner and then hit the road. It’s nice having Siggi’s mom in Chicago and now Erica’s people in Michigan. It gives us some yankee safe havens when we’re up this way.
Played Pittsburgh last night at Club Cafe. I LOVE THIS PLACE!! I played there once years ago and loved it, but our old booking agency just would NOT put us back there. It’s little, rockin, loud, people are respectful/receptive. I can’t wait to go back and do it again there.

Thanks for the b’day wishes from everyone. We had a great night. The band got me ice cream with candles(42 of ‘em) and it rocked. We also got some bus safety materials from our friendly bus attendant staff.

What is a bus attendant? Funny you should ask. I’ll tell you this, this WILL be our long standing contribution to the glory that is rock and roll. We’ve been beta testing the program for the last few months on the east coast and it’s gone incredibly well. It looks like we’ll be rolling out the nationwide plan starting in January ‘07. Keep your eyes peeled for more details. You like travel? You like rock and roll? You like drinking? You like taking care of grown men who are incredibly incredibly incredibly immature? Then this job is for you! ps…..willingness to show boobs helps.
Looks like the west coast run is now in place for Jan/Feb. I’ll post actually dates later. It starts the 17th in Baton Rouge and ends back in Louisville on Feb. 11th. This is gonna be an amazing bill. The lineup will be a great band called the Drams up first, then, from Philadelphia the amazing boys from Marah and then some jackasses from Nashville will round out the night. We’re hitting bunches of places and it’s gonna be a helluva night for everyone involved. More details coming soon.
Off now to Hoboken……….

So we’ve got the next two days off to make the drive over to Pittsburgh. Stopping in Chicago tomorrow to kill a day. I think we’re doing the museum tour. Never been so that should be fun. This also means I may very well buy a book and a movie and spend all day doing nothing on the bus. I’ll let you know which prevails.

Last night’s show in Milwaukee was one of my favorite shows we’ve ever done. I think all of us felt the same way about it. I was dreading playing a 21+ venue. Those are never great because I feel like we shut alot of fans out. But, it was our only choice and we went for it. Then, the weather turned to shit so we didn’t know what to expect. Well it was killer! Thanks to everyone for coming and for the response. Those seated venues alot of times are so sterile and boring but that was not at all the case with y’all! The show was fun as hell. We finished and left the stage. Some folks that had been in Madison the night before started chanting “…10 MORE SONGS!! 10 MORE SONGS!” We thought this was funny as hell. Me and Dean laughed and just said fuck it let’s do it. So we came back and actually played 12 songs for the encore. So that clocked in for the show being 2 hours and 51 minutes. We had a blast. I was totally spent afterwards. But that show plus the good time we were shown during the Miller Brewing Co. tour earlier in the day ensure that we’ll be back to Milwaukee asap.

Drove today to Minneapolis, which Erson once mispronounced as Mineanapolis and now none of us can get the damned name right. Beautiful drive. They had a bunch of snow so everything was covered white. That coupled with the Frank Sinatra soundtrack playing from the front lounge made my time in the drivers seat fairly awe inspiring. Had a tough one tonight at the show. The 400 Bar is sort of always a weird vibe. The crowd was good, but the sound ain’t great and it’s a super sketchy neighborhood. Just weird. The whole night felt like we were climbing up hill. We’d make it a little further, then just have to lower our heads and keep on going. Again and again and again. We avoided implosion which is good. (we refer to that now as the ‘Scottsdale’. If any of you were there at that show in AZ, you know what we mean!) Anyhow, we made it through and we’ll hope for perhaps a more vibey experience the next time through. Thanks to those that took the ride with us.

OK, now back to the front lounge for movie time. Sleep tight.