ANYONE GOT A LEER I CAN BORROW?

Ok, so at last entry we were in Cleveland at the House of Blues. Right as we went on stage it began to lightly snow. Well, somewhere in our 90 min show it began to REALLY snow. I swung open the back door to walk ML to the bus when she came off stage and this is what it looked like outside.


Also, to show how much it actually snowed in 90 minutes (about 2 inches), I took a picture of my footprints in the snow. This is what it looks like when you're trying to trudge through the snow in Chuck Taylors.

OK, so we managed to get out of Cleveland, but round about Detroit our transmission on ML's bus decided it was only going to work a half day. We lost 4th and 5th gear and couldn't run over 50 mph for the rest of the 300 miles to Petoskey, MI. I don't know if any of you know where Petoskey, MI is, but if you look at a map it's the very tip of the mitten that is Michigan. It's as far north on the mainland as you can go.

We limped into the gig right at load in, kicked everyone off and sent the bus in for repair hoping it would be a quick fix. You guessed it...it wasn't. So we all piled in the band bus (13 of us) and rode the 610 miles to Prior Lake, MN. We found some guy named Blaine at the gig in Petoskey with a big truck and paid him to haul our other trailer to Minnesota. It was like being at summer camp...a shitload of people all in the front lounge. I slept on the couch since we had no other open bunks. Then we got the call today that the bus won't be fixed until Monday, so at the present time I'm trying to get a bus to Prior Lake to get us. They're not really easy to come by in Michigan or Minnesota.

And needless to day, it's a little bit of an ego bruising when you have to have some guy in a bright red "Blaine's Excavating" truck bring your gear to the loading dock. Humbling.

To top it all off, we hit up the casino buffet around 11 am for lunch and I made the mistake of putting anchovies on my wonderful salad creation. I've been paying for that all day, and so have those that have been standing downwind of me. Oh yeah, and I left my bag on the bus because I figured it would be back in time. I have only the clothes on my back and my toiletry bag.

So if any of you reading this in blogland have a private jet you're willing to donate I'd be more than happy to borrow it for a couple days. I can hook you up with a couple tickets and meet/greets. Takers???

THE BITTER CHILL

There's a line in the Jerry Jeff song "Life On The Road" that says "Don't go up North in the Spring and Fall." I think he's been to Cleveland OH in late February. We're at the House of Blues here tonight. Last time we were here John Eddie opened for us. Tonight should be fun.

Tomorrow we play Petoskey MI at a casino. I just checked the weather. It's 13 degrees there right now. And no, folks, it's not Celsius. The high tomorrow is 22 and the low is 7. Then on to Prior Lake, MN where it's no better. We're surely in for a cold one this weekend. It's that kind of cold that makes your knuckles hurt, your lips chapped and your body ache. And to top it all off, I think I'm coming down with something. Maybe it's all in my head since everyone else has had it.

For the last few hours in the production office I kept feeling like someone was staring at me. It was only after I'd been in here for about 5 hours that I noticed this...




Yeah, that's painted on the wall. Some kind of WWII pilot guy. It's kind of haunting sitting here and feeling his eyes on you the whole time. You don't expect to find that in the backstage of a House of Blues.

TO THE NEAREST EXIT, PLEASE...

So we wrapped our show in Canada around 9:30 pm. Decent show, we sold 3100 tickets but the crowd was a little cold and subdued from the weather outside. And it was Valentines night, which I can't imagine provides a good backdrop for a show. Anyway, we busted ass and got out of the casino around 11:15 pm. It had started snowing very lightly around 5 pm, but by the time we rolled it was near blizzard like conditions. And when you pull onto the road and snow is being kicked up in front of you as well as falling on you it makes for pretty fun times if you're behind the wheel. The only other time I've seen it so bad was Feb. 2007 when we trekked through Oregon and Montana with Dierks Bentley. The size of the snowflakes was about the size of a 50 cent piece and all you saw was white in front of you. We had to drive 20 mph for about 4 hours until it would let up. The 260 mile drive to Bozeman took us about 8 hours.

OK, so we hit the border and I'm expecting flogging and cavity searches. I jumped out at the Canada side while my drivers backed in to their loading docks and, low and behold, the Canadian folks took one look at my papers and stamped them. I was back on the bus by the time they had parked successfully. So off we went across Peace Bridge to the U.S. side where they had promised to board and search us on our re-entry. We pulled up to the booth, the young guy jumped out and up onto our bus. Within about 30 seconds he started talking hunting with ML, called two of his customs buddies up on the bus and we all began to have a little pow wow. I reached into a bag and pulled out three longsleeve black "Kerosene" T's and passed them around to my dear friends from the US Customs. Jimmy Buffett wrote in his autobiography that he breached customs in at least a dozen countries by simply carrying a box of T-Shirts and CD's. That trick always works. Those guys jumped off and searched our band bus (and also harassed Alex Weeden, our guitar player/glutton for punishment, about a made up statutory rape charge and intestinal issues) and we cleared Canadian and US Customs and immigration in 16 minutes from the time we pulled in. I don't know if there is a record for time in crossing, but I'm pretty excited with 16 mins. It makes me not even sweat the fact I have to return twice in the next three months. Well, at least for now I'm not sweating.

So we made the 550 mile drive to Lancaster (pronounced LANK-a-ster), PA and were there in time for our 10 am load in. This was a fairly cool theater that seats about 1600. We made it to about 85% capacity but it looked good. Once ML launched into "Gunpowder" the crowd stood up and never sat back down. It was a good gig, the people were happy. At the end of the night, the buses were parked in the public parking lot and the building has no security whatsoever, so we had to do a Sanford and Son job with caution tape to try and keep people away from bus doors and load out. After about an hour, we still had probably 50 people hanging around so ML jumped off and signed a few things and took a couple pics with fans. Maybe it's because I'm on the other side of things, but there is not one person in this word I'd stand in sub freezing weather at the CHANCE I might get a picture or an autograph. Really.

So we ate amazing local pizza (I didn't, I had salad because I'm lo-carbing) and pulled out for Florence, Indiana. We sold out in advance at Belterra Casino. It's not a big room (maybe 1000-1200) but a nice place. Wierd set-up, almost an in the round stage. I had people looking at my ass when tuning in guitar world. I'm sure that wasn't part of the ticket price. When we were done I sent ML and a couple agents from our booking agency up to the high roller room to play blackjack. I think ML broke even, everyone else (including our band guys that followed) all got smeared in the casino. I made it in for one beer, 45 seconds at the bar before having my fill of drunk idiots and then returned to the bus for a relaxing evening. We pulled into Nashville around 5 am and Brittani came and got me. I caught up on sleep until noon that day, God I needed it after not getting any the first two nights on the road. Now back to work in the office world.

I'D RATHER HAVE A HEMORRHAGE...

So it's T minus 6.5 hours until I have to deal with Canadian customs. After probably a dozen man hours of cultivating paperwork, permits, passports, visas, carnets, buffets and and duvets, I'll show up tonight and inevitably have to jump through a hoop or do some kind of stupid human trick with my hands. I don't understand why if our countries are such great allies why it's such a pain in the ass to get two buses with trailers full o' gear into the land of the moose. God, when i go to Mexico they hardly even make me take my foot off the accelerator. They're just so happy to see white folks coming to spend money they swing the gates wide open. 

We're crossing tonight at Peace Bridge near Buffalo. I've only gone in before thru International Falls and Sweetgrass (Montana). Last time I went with ML we had a keyboard player that thought it would be funny to joke about beating a murder rap while sitting in the customs office. His humor didn't really jive with anyone else. We should have left him in Canada. I hear he's doing well in his new gig.

It snowed all night and day today in Nashville. It only accumulated about an inch, but it was nice to see it falling all day. It did scare the shit out of me, though. I didn't know how long it would last and I'm pretty sure Nashville airport isn't stocked with de-icers and snow plows. The weather all over has been causing little flight delays all over, it's about to give me a rash from worry. Deep breath...let it out. Deep Breath...Hold it. 

Emmylou Harris got inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame yesterday. Good for you, Emmy. Tom T Hall and The Statler brothers made it too. I love that Statler that sings the really low parts. I swear he's the one on the Wham! record singing "Jitterbug" while George Michael sings like a ferry. And yes, I do realize I just acknowledged that I know a Wham! song. I was a child who grew up in the 80's with a teenage sister. Of course I know that song.

Boarding. Gotta run. More after the forced penetration at the border.

GRAMMY WRAP UP

Sorry, I've been a neglecting blogger. I've been on vacation. Actually, I've been playing with my new toy...Xbox online. I feel like a 12 year old sitting in front of the TV for two hours playing video games. It's just so stress relieving, I don't know what it is about it.

So the Grammy's were Sunday night. Amy Winehouse made a near sweep. I think it was deserving, however I do think that Springsteen's "Magic" was overlooked in a lot of nomination categories. ML got beat out by Carrie (surprise). I was a little surprised that Dierks didn't take home a Grammy, he was nominated for four. I thought he kind of skewed towards Grammy voters...commercially viable but still holding on to artistic integrity. The Grammy's, in my mind, have always been somewhat cool in that sense. They would vote Bob Dylan for record of the year over a Justin Timberlake or vote Allison Krauss over Martina McBride, etc. I guess it hasn't really happened that way in a while (except for the Herbie Hancock thing for Record of the Year). It used to be the award of the underdog, now it's almost just another popularity award with an occasional upset.

I will preach on one thing that the Grammy's opened my eyes to. Actually, two things, but let's start with number 1. I've seen a shift in females in music over the last several years. I think the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow had a whole lot to do with this. They became women singer-songwriters who were artistically sound, played their own instruments, made great music, put on a good show and could sell tickets. Since then, we've had an explosion of females in both country and other formats that have followed this formula to paydirt (or are well on their way). Look at the success of Amy Winehouse, Colbie Caillat, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson and Miranda. Honestly, I've bought about 20 records in the last six weeks and about 14 have been by females. Of the other six, four of them were made before 1984. The male singer-songwriter guys are having a much tougher time breaking through to the same level the females are. You can't really count Justin Timberlake because of his boy-band success that followed him, but honestly who was the last male singer songwriter that burst onto the scene and really made waves both commercially and artistically? Ryan Adams? Keith Urban? The former has trouble selling out theater gigs and doesn't break more than 100,000 in sales of a record. The latter definitely fills arenas and goes multi-platinum, but I'm sure there would be people who argue his artistic integrity (though after touring with him I would aid in his defense as a staunch supporter). Really, there's a ton of Matt Kearneys and Jon McLaughlins and Josh Rouses, but none of those guys make it to the next level. They're stuck in a male singer songwriter purgatory. I guess this female spawn is the answer to Willie, Waylon, Petty, Springsteen, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Steve Earle and John Prine's revolution of the 70's and 80's. Females had their Emmylous and Joni Mitchells then, but they were surely fewer than their male counterparts. 

OK, now point two that I wanted to make. Since when did Grammy performers command so much power as to be able to perform two songs each. Sunday night saw Kanye, Winehouse, Fogerty, Tina Turner/Beyonce all get the chance to do multiple tunes. How about a good old fashioned award show where everyone gets one song and you have time for more performances? Really, how bad was the Grammy show? Appeal to more people by having more performances and help do your part to launch other genres and artists, don't just appeal to advertisers by giving the big names the most time. In essence, the Grammy's have indeed become corporate. 

So I'm off tomorrow to Canada (EH!) and then back stateside for a couple shows. Nothing like a 559 mile bus ride in between gigs in two different countries. God, I love booking agents. Never met one I didn't like. =)

Riding on the City of New Orleans

Played the House of Blues New Orleans last night. I hadn't done it in about six years since my first stint with Ingram. It was the second night of Mardi Gras so the locals hide and the tourists are shithoused by at least 5 p.m. Makes for a fun time around 10 pm when everyone's yakking in the street. And we almost pooled our money to send our monitor guy to Bankok Massage down the street from the club. You can't make this stuff up, it was really called Bangkok Massage.

I hate playing the HOB New Orleans because I'm in a city with amazing food all around, but the HOB food is so good and FREE that I can never manage to pull myself away. I sat up front for the drive out of town and when you see the repaired Superdome versus the pics from Katrina it amazes you to think how powerful that storm must have been. I would have loved to have been able to drive down to 9th Ward and see the carnage being cleaned up but, of course, a show day never permits time for it.

We're doing San Antonio Rodeo tonight. If you haven't done San Antonio, you should see it. They put you on an island stage thats about 22 feet in diameter and it spins. About 4 songs in you're completely dizzy. Oh, and did I mention that the crowd is a good 30 yards from the stage? Our buddies in Randy Rogers band played last night and left us sweet love notes taped to the stage.

After load out we head to Lawton, OK to play Fort Sill for the military and then I get to go home for a week before trekking to Canada (eh!) next week.