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So I guess we haven’t talked since Boston. That’s sad huh? Well we’ve missed y’all too. Well Boston was killer. Great crowd that really seemed to be hanging on tight to all 3 bands. We ended the night with Us, Dawn and her band, the Isbell’s, 2/3 of Son Volt and Josh Ritter all doing “Ooh La La.” Damn good fun. We load out and prepare to celebrate a bit only to watch our bus and all of our gear get stolen. Driven right away. We’re stranded in the freezing cold with no coats, no wallets or money, no ids, NOTHING. I spend the next 8 hours trying to negotiate to get our gear back from a disgruntled ex-employee and not get the damn cops involved. We get about 20 minutes sleep before renting a minivan and trying to get to NYC. Quite a task with no cash. Luckily our ‘old pal’ decides to let us get our gear back and we decide to rent a Uhaul to prevent any further complications with the old bus. NYC went well. Great seeing all the Ryko folks. They’re really more like family than record biz people and dammit we like that. Finished up and headed through the snow to DC. 9:30 Club is just the best. Might’ve been the best night of the tour for all three bands at one show. Found killer late night Chinese and hit the hotel. Charlottesville was a new club for us but the response was wonderful. Thanks to everyone there for giving us a place to look forward to coming back to. Post show headed back to Nashville to return our mama-taxi and moving van. This week we opted for the ol’ 15 passenger van and U-Haul trailer. Great night in Columbia SC on Tuesday. At least the music part anyhow. Our lovely U-Haul sliding door won’t open or close. Or if you wanna be positive it WILL do a little of both. We finally get it ‘fixed’ and get to the hotel for about two hours sleep before the odd trans gendered latino sling blade fucker at the front desk starts calling us at 10 to check out when we’ve got a 1 o’clock check out. Bad start to a worse day. We then get 100 miles from Athens and the rental van breaks down. I call the rental guy and he asks me the standard laundry list of questions. Yes, no, yes, no, etc. He proceeds to tell me that the fuel indicator usually reads about 1/4 of a tank off. OOOOOOHHHH!! Well that would’ve been nice to know beforehand. Oh well, we call AAA. They’ll be there in 20 minutes. An hour and 45 minutes later they get there after getting lost TWICE!! Get gas and get our asses to the Georgia Theater. Hurrying like hell to get loaded in and Blade’s bass head and my amp roll down a ramp and smash my hand against a wall. PERFECT!! I’m pissed and hurt but we get our shit together for a mini-sound check. Ok, go to 5 StarDay Cafe because hopefully turnip greens will help. Dawn said she had a rough night on stage and the second we walked onstage we knew why. The sound fucking sucked ass. Constant feedback through the entire first song. We play it off and try to get back on track. It gets progressively WORSE through the whole set. We pride ourselves on being a band that can kind of rise above any situation but this one really got us. We sucked. I was mortified. I hate it for the fans that pay their hard earned money to see us and the best we can give them is a C grade show. It’s insulting!! Not to mention people seeing us for the first time that think that we might just be the worst band ever. The club tried to be nice and apologize but that just didn’t work. We all went to bed defeated. I got about an hour and a half sleep and got to the van at 6:30 to leave for a noon radio performance in Knoxville. I just couldn’t do it. So I decide to email Doug my manager to let him know. He’s in LA and I don’t wanna wake him up again at 3am with this shit. Of course in this comedy of errors he doesn’t get the email. The station is PISSED!! Understandably so. We cancelled once before right after my son was born and here we go cancelling again. And of course it never happens when its the half-ass bullshit college station that can’t pronounce my name. It happens when it’s this killer Americana station that helped our album make the top 10. And our promotions girl Leslie who has worked her ass off to get this station involved and convinced people who said our record would not work, she got them to pay attention and now I’m fucking her over too! So goddam I’m hoping this shit turns the fuck around. So here’s one more reason to come to the shows it’s either gonna be a mother fucker of a show or you’ll be able to say you saw the last show before my nervous breakdown. I feel like I should be on TMZ if they followed people without money or commercial success. It would be easier at times if we could fake this but we can’t. Here’s hoping for a few rays of sunshine and a couple hours sleep!!

The last run of the year begins in about 2 hours as we head towards Huntsville. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. Lots of friends, family, etc. All was great here. Actually playing Santa Claus is WAY cool. A kid kinda reinforces the ‘better to give than receive’ thing. Good times had by everyone on my end. I’ll catch up with everyone on the ride to Alabama and update you on any and all of their favorite/worst gifts too.

Made it through the acoustic gigs. I’ve got to say I had a damned good time at these shows. It was just Llama and I on the road so the bus was a wee bit empty feeling. All 3 of the shows were a blast. York, SC was this really nice little theater. Everyone there was incredibly gracious and the whole experience was a good one. Met back up with an old pal Eliot Morris for this show. Good seeing him and he was playing a singing great. I was so nervous about these shows. Would anyone come? Would it be good? If not, I can’t blame Siggi like I normally do, it’s just all my fault. Luckily for Siggi and myself, it went well.
Next night in Augusta was a cool little community theater. They do more plays and such and this place so there’s all sorts of costumes and props in the dressing room. It brought back fond memories of my old band’s first gigs in Nashville. The only place that would let us play was a transvestite strip club. Backstage was all whigs and make up and boas and props. I guess that another story, but Le Chat Noir reminded me a bit of that. It’s hard not to come onstage dressed as a nun when presented with the opportunity. Fortunately I fought the urge and just went out in normal rock regalia. Crowd response was again very encouraging. Eliot had another really good night I thought.
Next night was the sold out show at Eddie’s Attic. There’s really nothing but wonderful things to say about Eddie and the whole cast and crew there. It’s a place I will ALWAYS come back and play. Count on it. Our friend Shalom who runs sound there had had a heart attack the previous Sunday. Luckily he’s ok. Back home doing fine. Of course like most Americans, and even more in the music biz, he was without health insurance. So we’re doing what we can to help. I can’t say thanks enough to those of you who donated to the get well fund after the show. It means the world to me and will be an even greater gift for him. We’re putting all the money together now and will be sending it to him January 2! If anyone else is interested in helping out drop me a line and I’ll get you some info as to where/how to help. The outpouring of support afterwards was a perfect end to a really perfect little 3 day run. Justin Townes Earle was the opener in Atlanta. He’s a fellow Nashvillian(whom I had to got to Atlanta to meet) and a great singer/songwriter. I’d love to have him out for some more shows later next year.
Got to revisit lots of songs that don’t get as much attention during the rock and roll shows. It was quite educational. I’d hoped to get some new stuff finished, but I was kind of caught up in the whole experience and got lots of new inspiration, but didn’t finish shit! Oh well, another time.

So that kind of brings us full circle as to where we’re heading now. We’re spending tonight through March 1st on the road with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. I’m so excited about this tour. All great cities. Sharing the stage with a great, like minded rock and roll band. I’m ready to get it started. We’ll be swapping off who opens and closes most of the shows. I don’t know if it will even be announced as to who is doing which because it won’t matter! You just need to be there. Come to see us…..stay to see him and vice versa. It’s gonna be a good one! I’ll check back in later in the week and let y’all know how it’s going so far and leave a more detailed and gushing thanks to all of you for a great 2007!

Alright, I’m off to shower and pack up…

Fortunately for renters everywhere, there’s NOT another story like the last one……..yet. However, Friday in Richmond was a good night. The last time we were supposed to be there I had to cancel because I was in the hospital. So this was really the first time headlining there and it was good. Lots of dudes rocking. It was cool. We’ll hope to see you back that way soon.

Wilmington of Saturday was an even bigger surprise. GREAT crowd!! Singing along, having a good time. It was a pleasure.
The presales for “Draw The Curtains” should start late tonight or tomorrow. It was delayed just a bit as we had to finish mastering the live CD that will be available with it. That’s all squared away now. Sounds even better than before. Just to let everyone know the only place you will get the bonus live CD is by ordering the album through us. Amazon, iTunes, etc. will not be making that available.

More good news, our friends at EarXtacy in Louisville will be making the album available for sale Friday night in Louisville. There will be a signing after the show. We’re all so excited about you hearing it. So come on to Louisville and pick one up.

I’m sure we’ll be making a big announcement about this later but I wanted to go ahead and let y’all know about New Year’s Eve. There’s gonna be a run of shows announced between Christmas and NYE that is gonna be way cool, but as for NYE it’s gonna be a great GREAT way to end the year!!! Charleston, SC at the Music Farm with Charleston’s own Leslie, our friends(and future touring partners)Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and then yours truly. It’s gonna be a killer. You ought not miss this!
Alright, gotta go.

Yes I ripped that subject heading from Simon and Garfunkel. Sorry but I just finished my shift driving and was rocking it on the XM. Sounded PERFECT!! Damn. Had a good time in Columbus, OH tonight. Seems to always be shitty weather, but fun shows there. Great crowd.

Night before was Clinton, SC at Presbyterian College. I didn’t know this until after the show there but ‘presbyterian’ is actually an old Latin word with not only one, but TWO meanings. ‘really hot girls’ and ‘dudes that like to drink’. I had no idea! The things you learn every day out here on the road. Anyhow, it was a great night. Witnessed my first ever game of beer pong. Saw Siggi BMX through a dorm room. Pretty impressive. Thanks to all the folks there. We were treated smashingly well! Sorry we were unable to play longer but apparently the po-lice don’t like no noise after 10pm. And that’s that.

The week started in Akron, OH at the Tangier. If you’re in a band and reading this PLAY THIS ROOM!!! It is KILLER!! Very much like an old 60’s casino in Vegas. Great sound, great stage. They’ve hosted Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, Larry from Three’s Company. Yes, LARRY!! This place is cooler than the Regal Beagle. Special thanks to all the kind folks at 91.3 the Summit for putting the whole thing together. People bitch about radio all the time(me included), but then you find a station like this to make you believe again. It’s EXACTLY where radio is gonna end up. Very localized. Community supported. They pay attention to the listeners, the listeners pay attention to them. DJ’s with actual musical likes and dislikes. DJ’s with personality and knowledge of music past and present. It really made my day how all that worked out. So let me be first to say we can’t wait to hit Akron again!

‘Twas our last night of touring(for now) with the Alternate Routes. We’re wishing those lads all the best and really hoping to see more of them in the future. They ended up being one of our favorite bands we’ve toured with. If you’ve not picked up their album do so.

Ok, we’re about an hour from home so I’m gonna lay it down for a bit. We’ll talk soon.

So it’s just BARELY summer and it’s already hotter than hell down here. But at least we’re heading into the gulf coast region where it won’t be nearly this hot. haha. Kidding of course. Huntsville tonight, Friday in New Orleans and Saturday in Mobile. I haven’t been to that area since the Katrina stuff so I truly don’t know what to expect. Not from the show, but just from the city and the surroundings. New Orleans has always been a strange and exotic/frightening place to me. Curious as to what it’ll be like now. I guess I’ll let you know.

So we made it back home safely from Canada. MVP of last week goes to John Angus from the Trews for his work with us on Friday in Toronto. He filled in for Dean on bass and just killed it!! That show really made the whole Canadian run worthwhile. Falling in love very quickly with that whole country. Stoked about going back in June and hoping there’ll be some further Canadian news soon.

As for USA stuff. Trying to get all geared up for summer and the west coast run. Thrilled about getting back to all those places. Also there’s gonna be a new live CD that is going to be a limited hand numbered addition that will only be available in Charleston, SC for the shows on July 7,8,9. It’s from the show we did last time at the Music Farm. It turned out really good. Jordan and I will be mixing it here in the next couple of weeks and it’ll be ready to go. There will only be about 300 made, so you better get to the show and get one. Or get someone there to do it for you. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

Good news on the radio front for ‘Woman Be Strong.’ I’ll give you more details in the next post. (this is to give me time to go figure out how to get all the info in the email I got posted here for y’all. I know, not computer savy. Sorry, I’m a lead singer)
See you soon