WEEKEND RECAP

Great to be back on the road. Not much changed, the same guys who have gas still have gas. The same ones who sleep till 2 pm still do that. I think every band on the road has those people in their group. We played a show with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin brothers in Oklahoma last summer. I walked into the trailer behind the stage to find them after the show and invite them up on the bus to meet ML and have a drink. I found them as they were changing and as I walked in I heard one of them yell "Goddamn man. That's awful!" Then it hit me...the gassy fumes that plague every band on the road because of the one member who can't control his bodily functions indoors. I realized that, while they may be 60 years old and have been all over the world and sold millions of records, they still that token band member that always lets 'em rip without warning. One way or another, whether it's from laughter or stench, it's gonna make your eyes water.

So I have this relative that got me $352.51 in Sharper Image goods for Christmas. I took it all back and turned it into a gift card, but there's nothing in the store I want so I'm trying to sell it on eBay. No luck thus far, but I had someone email in and offer me $280. It's so worth it to me to not have that much Sharper Image shit in my house I might be willing to pay someone $70 to take it off my hands.

I made a red curry pork tenderloin for dinner tonight. I think I was Thai in another lifetime. I made Tom Kha soup to go with it. Both were surprisingly easy. I think my favorite part a about being home for more than two days at a time is getting to shop for groceries and actually use my kitchen. I need to go buy a cannister of propane and get my grill up and running. It's been bone dry for about 2 months.

I bought David Gray's Greatest Hits today. He's the little british guy everyone got to know when they heard "Babylon" a few years ago. A great mellow record. Speaking of mellow, I also got Chet Baker's "Best Of." Chet was a damn good trumpet player who dies at 59 after a long battle with bad drugs. I listen to that record on planes all the time, listen to his version of "My Funny Valentine."

Bush gave his state of the union tonight. I didn't listen, but I'm sure he told me that our soldiers were keeping everyone in the middle east safe, that mortgage lenders were in the wrong for what they did to borrowers and that his last year will be prosperous. Translation: Your stocks are in the shitter, we're stuck in a country we can't get out of without having egg on our face and I have absolutely no hope of things turning around for the next year. That about sum it up? Anyone?

If you ever get a chance to go to the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi they have a good buffet. They gave ML the penthouse, it was very modern with dark wood furniture and a bar. I used the crapper in it. It was like any other crapper in any other hotel. Nothing special there. Saturday we played Cypress Gardens. Avoid playing a theme park if you can help it. There's really no good that can come of it.

As my dear friend Christian Seger once said, "I belong in an arena."

Somebody Wake Up Saint Christopher...

We're back on the road, baby. After almost six weeks off we rolled out of rehearsals tonight and are headed down the road to Leesville, LA. I'm extremely glad to be doing our own shows and not be on a tour for a little while, I do wish they were a little more consistent. We go from a military to a casino to a fair to a club to a rodeo. Talk about not being able to get in a rhythm.

Pour a little out for Heath Ledger. While I still haven't been able to stomach watching Brokeback Mountain, I do think the guy was way talented. Damn shame. Also, pour some out for Britney missing her court hearing (again) to get her kids back. She needs a kick in the ass from a large boot. Something. I'll take wagers on who is gonna die first, her or Amy Winehouse (who, coincedentally, was caught on video smoking crack at a party this week. Wow.

In lighter news the stock market is tanking. Hard. Can someone please find me a candidate that can fix the economy? QUICKLY.


I'm looking forward to being back on Louisiana soil tomorrow. I grew up there and it still feels like home...well, a backwoods home but home none the less. I love that you can by liquor at the gas station at 4 in the morning if you'd like. I don't really need to, but just having that option is a nice thing. Almost to Terrell, it's time for bed. I gotta get up early and get strip earched at the gates of the base tomorrow. Never a dull moment.

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio??

So the ironman Brett Favre just gave everything he had in -4 degree weather, but alas it was not enough to best young Eli Manning's New York Giants. Since the Cowboys were eliminated last week, Favre was my one last grasp on this NFL football season. Honestly, when the Super Bowl rolls around in two weeks I will most likely watch kickoff, a few commercials and the post game coverage. I'll most likely be in the middle of my afternoon nap for the majority of the game. This feeling really brings up a question that I feel many others my age may be facing...can we identify with the sports world of today?

I grew up watching players like Danny White, the Celtics teams with McHale/Bird/Parrish and baseball players like Mr. October - Reggie Jackson- and devoted, yet non-flashy, heroes like Dennis Eckersley and Tony Gwynn.

I watched "60 Minutes" unfold the Roger Clemens drama last week and then watched Clemens' press conference the following day. While it doesn't matter to me whether Clemens did or didn't use steroids (I choose to believe he didn't), it kills me that he must drag himself through this proving ground of "guilty until proven innocent" world that is any allegation made in modern times. Because of these charges and Clemens lack of desire to have to fight, he's all but chosen not to return to major league baseball. Now, I've never recovered from the strike in the early 90's that killed the World Series and, should this ordeal be the cause of Clemens choosing not to return for another season I will NEVER ever watch MLB again. I'm not a big fan now, but I can stil embrace the players like Clemens, Biggio, Kenny Rogers and a few other antiques that have managed to last this long. Brett Favre, on the NFL front, fits this same mold. I find it harder and harder to follow NFL teams because of the constant trades, salary caps, cuts, releases and non-loyalty from owners and players. Favre is the last of a dying breed on this front, he's spent almost two decades in the league, and for almost all of those years he's spent on the Green Bay Packers. As I watched him throw that last interception tonight, I wondered if I was indeed done watching NFL football for a long while.

Indeed, we still have a few players who can manage to stay with one team for a very long time, but usually it's the near-franchise players (Strahan, Marvin Harrison, Roy Williams). What happened to the days not so long ago when I could name every player on any NFL team and they stayed there for years...Steve Tasker, Don Beebee, Jim Kelly, Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, Carwell Gardner. There's six players from a mid-90's football team that never won a Super Bowl and never headlined shoe campaigns or made the headlines for point-shaving scandals or big time coke busts. Players now are rewarded for being non-team players and running PR campaigns in order to be high-profile and attract endorsements.

Maybe I'm just a dinosaur, but I thought these were team sports where guys realize they're part of a bigger picture. Even hitting in 72 out of 73 games (including his MLB record 56 game hit streak), Joltin' Joe never told his teammates to climb on his back and ride him to victory, he relied on them in the good and bad times to contribute. Where have you gone, Joe??

My Celebrity iTunes Playlist

Since iTunes has not yet called me to post my Celebrity playlist, I'm guessing they don't realize that I'm as big and important as I think I am. Until they come around, I'll go ahead and leave the list here. So here we go, about a dozen or so of the greatest songs that you know (or should). And bear in mind, I'm a musical snob. If you're mad cause you don't see any Rascal Flatts or "Fergalicious" you probably shouldn't be reading this blog anyway. Try Country Weekly or People.

1. Bruce Springsteen - "The Promise"
Found on the 18 Tracks Collection that came with the Tracks box set, this is pure songwriting. While I'm as big an E-Street fan as any, this tune is Springsteen solo with a simple piano, sosimple I can even play it on the ivories. A similar theme as 'The River," this tune is a coming of age realization that all those things you dream about as a child or teen, you one day wake up to find them no where near reality.

2. The Band - "It Makes No Difference"
While I first heard this song on the "Northen Lights" record, you must watch "The Last Waltz" to fully appreciate the heart-wrenching vocals of Rick Danko on this masterpiece. While penned by Robbie Robertson, Danko sings every word as if it were the last song he'd ever sing, as if his heart was shattered. "I love you so much/It's all I can do/Just to keep myself from telling you/That I never felt so alone before." Maybe the most powerful line in recorded song.

3. Chris Wall - "Three Across"
From the "Tainted Angel" record, it's almost easy to miss the great guitar licks and harmony provided by Reckless Kelly (who serve as the band throughout the record) because you're lost in the lyrics of this one. Wall's unforgettable realism and imagery paint the picture of the guy who grew up the "third wheel" and watched his buddy get the girl of his dreams. Then he watches the town around him and all those memories of drive ins, cheap motels on the edge of town and drinking in lake parking lots "just disappear." One of the greatest country songs I've ever heard. Period.

4. Counting Crows - "Raining In Baltimore"
Such a dark build through the whole song. I can see that hotel room he wrote this in. It's probably that lonely Best Western built above the bus station outside of downtown. I can see the rain on the window just from those lyrics. I'd bet everything I own this was written after weeks on the road and being stuck in that shithole. It's on the first record "August and Everything After," a very fine record to help you through a break-up.

5. Willie Nelson - "Always On My Mind"
I couldn't dream a better letter to an ex-wife on one of those nights when you realize you've done it all wrong. You have so much to say and you sit down to write a 9 page letter, but all those pages couldn't say it better than this tune. And Willie's delivery is classic. Probably the best singing he ever did is on this track. It's on "Stardust".

6. Guy Clark - "Anyhow, I Love You"
From "Texas Cooking" record, this tune has God's harmony choir singing on one track...Emmylou, Waylon and Rodney Crowell. When Waylon comes over the top with that high harmony at the end of the tune my knees buckle every time. And the chorus is so country, so simple...but brilliant.

7. Jason Isbell - "Dress Blues"
If any of you reading this have this record "Sirens in the Ditch" from Jason Isbell, i'd be extremely surprised. This guy played guitar for the Drive By Truckers who haven't really impressed me, but this song knocked my dick in the dirt. "Mommas and Grandmommas love you/That's all they know how to do/But you never planned on the bombs in the sand/Or sleeping in your dress blues." Rather than write a protest song about war, Isbell just writes about the most heartbreaking part about it...a town coping with the loss of one of its' own. This song might convert a republican to democrat.

8. John Eddie - "If You're Here When I Get Back"
Just like Jackson Browne's whole "Running on Empty" record, this song might be lost on someone not on the road for days, weeks and months on end. However, to those of us who know that feeling, our life is written in this. Regret for leaving, longing for home, fear of unfaithfulness and joy of returning. And Springsteen-esque description.

9. Jordan Zevon - "Studebaker"
A version of his dad Warren's old classic, this song reminds me of the O. Henry short story "Gift of the Magi." It's the old ironic tale where the wife sells her long hair to buy her husband a gift and the husband sells what he has to buy the woman a fancy hairbrush set. The character in this tune spends all his money on a car to try and get out of a dead end town and live life, only to realize that his "damned Studebaker keeps on breakin' down again." Isn't it ironic. Don't you think?? Sorry, poor attempt at humor and to make sure you're still with me.

10. Keith Whitley - "Dont Close Your Eyes"
You could quite conceivably interchange about 14 other Keith Whitley songs with this one, but the point is that on all of them he proves that he was the GREATEST country singer that ever lived. Purists will fight me with Merle, Cash, Hank Sr, etc, but I stand behind this claim. There was no purer voice than Whitley, and no greater loss than his early death. Only the good die young.

11. Marc Cohn - "Walkin in Memphis"
From his "Rainy Season" record. This song is the greatest produced track I've ever heard. When it goes to the bridge "And Reverend Green..." and starts walking the song morphs into a spiritual gospel tune and the B3 organ drives it home. I get chills just thinking about that part. And fuck Lonestar for even trying to play that song.

12. Otis Redding - "These Arms of Mine"
PURE SOUL. NEVER WILL THERE BE ANYTHING LIKE IT.

13. Patty Griffin - "Up To The Mountain"
The newest entry on the playlist, it's from her 2007 "Children Running Through" record. An anthem to keep going when it's hard and looks like there's no future. Beautiful song and vocals that make you cringe they're so good.

14. Roy Orbison - "I Drove All Night"
I heard that Guy Clark told someone if you could capture 25% of what you're feeling in the words of a song that you were doing a good job. I can feel every bit of that 90 mph journey when you're eyes feel like they want to close but you've only got a few more miles to get there and into someone's arms. God he could sing.

15. Ryan Adams - "Desire"
This track is on "Demolition," which was a collection of songs that didn't make his first couple solo records. Not bad for a track that didn't make a record. It's stripped down so you don't lose the lyrics and it give it that lonely feel. One man's trash...

16. Todd Snider - "Long Year"
"It's been a long, long year...How did I get here?" If I had a dollar for everytime I've asked myself this very line I'd be a very rich man. I probably wouldn't be writing this blog and I would have an iTunes celebrity playlist. This is on "Happy to Be Here." Todd's a lyrical genius. Our generation's John Prine, only wittier.

17. Tom Petty - Southern Accents
Johnny Cash once said that if "Dixie" wasn't the song of the South that this would be. I can't write anything better than that, so just go listen and realize Johnny was right.

18. Waylon Jennings - "If You See Me Gettin' Smaller, I'm Leavin"
I think this is off "Ol Waylon," but whatever it's off of it's pure genius. "Who knows who they came to see/A Mad man full of beer/A four piece band and a charter bus/My borderline career." All about dealing with the feeling of just wanting to give it all up, disappear and be normal, walk away from the never ending circus.


That's it. It's not the 18 best songs ever, it's not my favorite 18 songs. It's just 18 songs that everyone should hear. Music that will change your life. And the world.

FEEDING THE DIVA (OR DIVO)

In case you missed it this morning, OJ Simpson was back in court for attempting to contact a co-defendant in his trial. When admonishing him, the judge said "I don't know if it's arrogance or ignorance" that makes you try and do what you want to do. That brings up a great question for those celebrities/powerbrokers that we often hear about... is it arrogance or ignorance that makes them do things we deem stupid, reckless or even "above the law."


We see Britney driving around Studio City almost daily with a horde of paparazzi in tow. First of all, I don't understand how that STILL sells magazines, but let's move on. Since she was 12ish, she's had managers, tour managers, road managers, agents, personal assistants an lawyers on the payroll. While some of them might have initially stood up to her on issues of disagreement, Britney - in the end- pays all of them. You argue with someone enough you eventually want out of that relationship...it's human nature. You replace them with someone more like minded. So, in this gradual changing of the guard, Britney has filled her like with enablers and "yes men" who exist only to profit from their dealings with her and to not piss her off. Could it be that she's had people for 13 years going to Starbucks to get her coffee, to drive her to where she needed to go, to provide security from paparazzi, to shop for groceries for her and to fill her cars with gas only now she views that as normalcy and chooses to try and engage in those things. I mean, honestly, the rest of us do all those things on a regular basis. In her mind there's no reason she can't. However, those of us who live in reality realize that those things attract unwanted attention and would most likely be avoided by anyone with the means to avoid.

Is Britney brave and defiant in trying to live her life like any normal person on a day to day routine?

Look at OJ. After skating by on his murder rap, you'd think the guy would at least keep his nose clean. Instead he dives headfirst into a world of shady guys running cash only businesses and wearing full length furs. Though I think OJ is one of the most charismatic people on the planet, what kind of normal human thinks it's OK to storm a hotel room at gunpoint to retrieve stuff (even if it is stolen from you). His reckless abandon in trying to contact his co-defendant after it was strictly prohibited by his bond proves to me that he has no regard whatsoever for laws and probably is guilty of the original crime.

Wow. When does it get that bad. It's not an overnight shift, but when do the people that have been enabled by money and pwer wake up one day and go , "Shit, I can do WHATEVER I want." It's like Pete Townshend throwing TV's out the window at the Hyatt in LA in the 60's. He wasn't raised thinking that was acceptable behavior, yet he somehow migrated to the point where he thought if he had the money to be careless and pay for damage it was OK. Hey Pete, "IT'S NOT OK." There's a current country duo and one half of that group is very much of the same principle. He emboddies the philosophy of "do whatever you want, sort it out and pay for it later" and this is exactly the motto that requires "yes men" and enablers, then turns someone into a person who doesn't live in reality.

If you never get to this point, you can stay a celebrity and still lead a private but normal life and still have people that surround you and don't buy into the star side of things. They still call bullshit on you. But once it moves past the part where you control everyone who is supposed to be controlling you, all control is lost and you end up shaving your head at 4 am or storming a hotel room at gunpoint to get your suit back.

"CAN YOU PLEASE TURN IT DOWN A LITTLE?"

OK people, here's a rant. IF YOU HAVE A BLACK TIE EVENT, DON'T BOOK A COUNTRY OR ROCK BAND TO PLAY IT! Please, jus do me that favor. There is no bigger asswhip than people booking a show and having no idea what they're in for. Country bands have amps that go to 11 and drums that make noise when you hit them. I've never understood why so many parties want to pay insane amounts of money for a big name and then don't want them heard. Ponderous.

I'm reminded of a show we did with ML about two years ago in upstate Pennsylvania at an RV resort. We got all set up and during soundcheck the old hag running everything came up to our Front of House engineer and asked him, and I quote "Can you please turn the bass down 6 or 7?" After briefly wondering what 6 or 7 meant, he politely said "yes ma'am" and turned an imaginary knob on the console and asked "is that better?" "That's perfect," she responded. I love my job.

We're currently 94 miles out from Nashville on I-24 rolling back from Miami. Bus internet is a beautiful thing, I don't know how people survived without it for so many years (including me). Lord willing and the creek don't rise (to quote Levon Helm), I'll be home in time for kickoff of the Cowboy game. I really hope Jessica Simpson doesn't show up and cause a game losing fumble like Carrie did last year. I saw Tony Romo about three months after that game last year at the ACM awards. He was at the Sony Party sitting all by himself and, as much as a Cowboy fan as I am, i still hadn't forgiven him for blowing it and couldn't find it in my heart to forgive him and go talk. I'm sure he's crushed that he didn't get to make my acquaintance, but I've since moved past it and wish him the best. Until he loses, that is.

Our driver just opened a window and I realized we're not in Miami anymore, Dorothy. The 80 degrees i felt yesterday has been replaced by the chilly TN winter. Can anyone tell me where it stays 60 degrees year round? I'd like to go there. My fall wardrobe is much cooler than anything else, I need jacket weather to look cool.

I watched "Factory Girl" the other night, a movie about Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol. What an interesting story that was. I've never been a huge fan of Andy Warhol, I can appreciate what he did but didn't really see all the hoopla. When he died his estate was worth 300 million. I might pay $100 bucks for one of his pieces. Different strokes for different folks. It's funny that Edie Sedgwick has been the model for all the "it" girls like Paris, Nicole, etc. They probably have no idea who she was, but the fact they follow the same path is funny to me.

I gotta run, we're about to duck into a Stuckey's and I haven't seen one of those since I was in elementary school. Last of a dying breed, I can't pass it up.

GOOD MORNING, FLORIDA!!

It's been over four weeks since I've been on the road. Not much has changed. Florida is still a long stretch of semi decent interstate. However, in case you haven't been to South Florida, it's a shithole. It reminds me of Waco. I think Fort Myers is the worst. When I was with an artist we'll affectionately refer to by his alter ego "Black Mangrum" we played Fort Myers with Pat Green. I've never seen so many people with so little teeth. Well, I take that back. We did another show in South Florida with ML- a festival with Blake Shelton- and it was indeed worse. My dear friend Christian took pictures and made a slideshow. Here's a sample from that slideshow:


This is totally representative of the entire crowd, I'm not just picking the best. I'll ask Christian to post that slideshow somewhere. He set the whole thing to redneck music...yep, "Sweet Home Alabama." It really captures the feel of the gig.

I've got to get my sea legs back on me. This bus bounces a little more than I'm used to, but thinking I'm a seasoned pro I tried to delve into split screen Halo 3 last night while rolling. After about 4 games I was overcome with a bout of motion sickness and retired to my non-condo bunk for the rest of the evening. I felt like a sissy. I'm about to dive into a box of Honey Bunches of Oats with Cinnamon Clusters...I'll tell you how it is tomorrow.

I'm getting ready to buy an Xbox 360 for home. I've stayed away from it because of the addictive personality that I have and once I sit down to play I'm likely to stay for several hours. However, I've been captured by the online gaming community. It's really wild how 24 people can team up together online to shoot each other. Enthralling. I can't wait to get pulverized by a number of 12 year olds. Oh well, at least I know I'd best them in 10 Yard Fight or Excitebike. Old school baby, keeping it real. With that Xbox I'm going to buy a small flatscreen for my office. I went to Best Buy yesterday and I'm shocked at how low the prices have gone. You can get a 30 inch LCD for under $650. Unreal. The same 40 inch I bought for $1500 last year is now just over $1100. Bastards.

100 miles to the gig. I need to print some daysheets and listen to this bus driver tell me the same story about wanting to move to a beach and drink margaritas that he's told me two other times since we started rolling last night. God love 'em.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

So I'm sure if you're reading this you who I am and that I tour manage (or mangle, depending on your role on the tour). This will be a great distraction from the humdrum life of the road, where nothing really goes on anyway!

I'm actually sitting at home in Nashville today on a rainy Thursday. Jimmy Buffet said he moved from Nashville to Key West because he got so tired of it always raining. I wrote a song about that line from his autobiography before I'd ever even been to Nashville. It has a pretty obvious title...yep, "Raining in Nashville." Pretty clever, huh?

I leave in about 15 hours to go on the road with Chris Young, an artist on RCA. I'm filling in for my good buddy Troy, Chris' regular TM, whom I may not be calling "my good buddy Troy" after tomorrow night. Troy booked me for the gig, a 914 miles bus ride to Miami for a two song set and then a 914 mile jaunt back to Nashville, before telling me one small transportation detail...we would be doing all this on an Eagle. Seeing as how Eagle quit making buses in 1993, this bus is AT LEAST 15 years old. I do hope I'm pleasantly surprised, however I have a feeling I won't be. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. And yes, I do realize I'm completely shallow and a bus snob. Chris Newsom, my production manager with ML, will be on the gig with me as well. Bus misery loves company.

On a political side note, I've yet to endorse a candidate in the '08 presidential race yet. I know all the pundits and commentators are eagerly awaiting my ringing endorsement, but I have yet to decide. I like Edwards but he reminds me of a Saturday Night Live character with the accent and the waxing and waning eyebrows. Obama has charisma but seems like he lacks confidence sometimes. Hillary is too far of stretch. I'm still trying to come to grips that after arguing for months in 2000 with my good friend and former band mate Kinley Wolfe (of The Cult fame) that I might actually vote Democrat. I like Huckabee's demeanor and he plays a mean 4 string axe, but I think putting a minister in office would jeopardize too many political decisions that need to stay non=religious. I'd like Ron Paul a lot more if he wasn't such a whack job. I watched Howard Stern on Letterman tonight...he said there's way too many people in the race and he was waiting until there were two or three left to make a decision. Maybe he's on to somehting.

India introduced a $2500 fully functional automoble today that may be introduced in America in the next few years. I doubt the automakers let it happen, but we'll see. It looks like the little mini cars you see on Key West or in Carribean islands, except these have doors, A/C, etc and get 60-70 mph. I might have to buy one just to have something to laugh at myself in.

If you don't read the NY Times or Wall Street Journal you should.

I've got to get some sleep. I started this blog at 1 pm and it's 2:18 am. I've got bad ADD.

Peace.