after taking the summer off from touring i was a bit eager to get back on the road. double edged sword when it comes to touring. miss it when your home and miss home when you are touring. so is life as a musician. so i set out early on the 6th of oct. with a car full of gear, clothes, food and my ipod full of my favorite 7,000 songs(which is not my full collection). i had to really cruise cause i had to be in denver,co on the 7th for my first show. so i drove a lengthy 12 hours the first day landing me in des moines,ia. i grabbed a room and passed out only to wake up the next day to drive once again. this day was easy. a mere 9 hours and i was eatin' pizza watchin' the yankees (blow it for another year) at my friend dave's house. was nice to see dave for the first time in 6 years or so. onto dulcineas 100th monkey for my opener of the tour(10/7). i was sharing a bill with a couple of bands and only got to play for 30 min. or so. which is cool with me after driving for 2 days. i played well and got through it with no wondrous moments, but it was solid. met up with and hung out with a bunch of old friends and hit the hay for some serious shut eye. the next night (10/8) was at the mountain sun in boulder,co. i've played this place a bunch since 1996 and always love it. was a bit of a light crowd due to the rain. if it snows everyone goes out but if it rains ... well ... not so much! anyway i played really well and was starting to hit a groove. always play a more rockin' show here than most places and so that's how it went down. a guy named ben jordan played some tunes in-between sets and was likable for sure ... nice guy! wen and chilled with a couple of friends outside of boulder and then shot off to utah on the 9th for a long ride through the mountains. of course rain this time of year on the front range means snow in the mountains and snow it did. not much but enough to keep me on the main roads and not wandering around like i like to. once i hit utah after a couple of stops to soak up the beauty of CO i hit one of the worst rain storms i have ever been in. was harsh!! but i did clear up and i pulled over to do a phone interview w/ janie franz of the high plains reader in north dakota. got to my destination of monroe,ut where my next show was the next day the night before. and glad i did. mystic hot springs is crazy cool. i soaked for about 2 hours in a natural hot spring and meditated with the stars. it was very calming and centering. woke up the next day and started writing a new song that i currently am in love with ... it's called "change the world" and it is unlike anything i've written before and as i now am aware of has pointed my song-writing in a totally new and fresh direction ... the next level. 10/11 is the next show at the hot springs and i was DVD taping this show for a hopeful release. out of 22 songs i was ok with 9 of them being released. so at best you will see a couple of them on my website or myspace for fun. i played ok but not the best. i had my mind on other things like my new song! woke up the next morning and head off to visit some great friends in donnolly,id. haven't seen scott and sam in long time and now they have a little one named augustus. what strong name. he rocked and was so sweet. this brings us to the 12th. so i started heading up to northern ID where i had a gig on friday. i took my time and pulled off to go for a hike with my guitar and wrote another song about my ever loving and beautiful partner. i was missin' her alot at this point. got some fresh fruit and huckleberry tea from a road side farmer and ended up in coer d' alene,id that night at my buddy john's house. but john was in seattle,wa at a roger waters concert so i just chilled in his hot tub and drank a glass of wine. woke early the next day and hung on the dock by the steamin' river and meditated for a while. met up with john later that day and headed up to sandpoint,id to playa show at pend d' oreille winery(10/13). a cool mellow place. i played really well and did a well rounded show of all my material. after that we went out to a fantastic dinner and then chilled out the rest of the night and caught up on life. next john and i and a bunch of his friends went to pullman,wa to see washington state cougars play the california bears. bears crushed them but it was blast to tail gate and see a college football game. next off to missoula,mt and the top hat (10/15). love this place and have made it home since 1996. had a fun crowd of college kids and played really really well. did my best version of girl from the north country to date. i played one of my new songs "way to love" which i had woke my self up singing in a dream when i was at scott and sams. so i wrote down the words and went back to bed. next day was a drive day and so i stopped in bozeman,mt for a sandwhich at franks and to hang with good friends al, spruce, and brett. pretty rainy and snowy on this day so i left as soona s my belly was full. made it to glendive,mt that night and slept off the drive at a super 8. woke up the next day to 5 inches of snow on the ground. so i made some coffee in my french press travel mug and hit up ace hardware for a scrapper and cleaned my car. i then drove for next 5 hours at 40 miles an hour through a classic north dakota white out. once i got to the east side of bismark it cleared up and the sun even came out ... bamm ... just like that. got to fargo and settle into the sleep inn and showered up and had some tea and the headed to the red raven espresso bar in fargo,nd(10/17). my first time playing fargo and this venue. what a cool place. it was like an underground punk venue. it was a blast and i played a about 2 hours and hung with my friend captain cory while this punk all done up with ear rings and hair all stickin' up play some songs for us. his name was mario and was SO funny. i thought he should be a comedian. too much fun. i loved this place and got a tip of a sketch of me playing from an artist in the crowd. it's up on my myspace page. next show was at concordia college in moorhead,mn(10/18). my buddy Amer booked me at this show. he is a wonderful spirit and so smart. we have killer conversation and really enjoy each others company. The show was fun and very intimate. the people that did show up really dug and i felt comfy enough to play one of my new songs ... Change The World ... this song is very powerful b/c it speaks truth in no uncertain terms. This is a song i wrote for my band "Ruha" but can be played solo. i was blown away by this song and still am. I had the next day off so i hung with Amer and ate some thai food that rocked. the next it was off to grand forks,nd and the home of the UND. i had 2 gigs booked for this day(10/20). one was at the hockey arena which is huge and holds about 10,000 people and all 10,000 people showed up. so i played an hour before the show and in-between periods. i was a little skeptical about this show but it went great and an i met some wonderful folks ... plus i got to watch Univ. of Maine beat up on UND. then it was off to suite 49 for my evening show. this place was very cool and had a great stage and sound system. crowd was fun and table 1 really dug it. got to hang with my buddy captain cory who i met 4 years early when i played 10,000 lakes fest' in MN and the parrots cay in grand forks,nd. cory came up and jammed several tunes with me on harp and it was great! that marked the end of the major tour portion of the tour. now as i headed back to my ghetto motel and i do mean ghetto ... my window faced a white brick wall ... i thought of my long rode home to syracuse. 22 hours to be exact. i tried to sleep but it's hard to when you know you have to get up in a couple of hours to drive all day and then again all day the next day. but i got enough shut eye to make it all the way to the first exit in ohio and i grabbed a solid 8 hours of sleep and woke up the next day and was home by 2pm to hang with my family. it was great to be home but i still had 3 shows left which was great! so monday night (10/23) i had a gig at the dinosaur in syracuse. this place is the best place to play in 'cuse and has a great rep. for bringing top notch music. only the best play at the dino. so i was very honored to be back here for the monday night songwriter night w/ ashley cox , brianna lane, and ki'hme. my buddy david came down to say hi and it's always the highest of pleasures to see him. he is one of my very favorite people in the world. i played wonderfully and had a spectacular time. my next show in schenectady,ny on 10/26 i had to cancel cause the fuse box in my house went on the fritz and took out half the electricity in my house. good thing my partners brother is a grade AAA electrician and he swooped in and put in a whole new box and rewired all of it!! i can not thank him enough ... thank you Robby!!! so i was bummed about missing the show but somethings take priority ... like the safety of my family! so onto the last show of the tour .... 10/27 @ the blue frog coffeehouse in cortland,ny. i had never played here before and was excited. i really like the place and the vibe. i thought i played very well and had the attention of the people that attended. i hope to play here again in the future. i really dug the atmosphere. so i guess in short this tour was very fun and got me some of the best music i have ever written. i have turned a corner with my song writing and can't wait to see where it leads me. thank for all of your support and love. until the next time. peace!
