So much has been going on lately that I haven't been good about writing blogger updates. But now that I have a minute, I'm going to write about all the great, exciting news that has come up of late. First of all, I am looking forward to a great string of gigs we have in the Columbia area through the summer. My incredible booking agent, Jane Accurso, has managed to book us in all the great festivals. The first is Art in the Park, June 5th, and we play at 1pm. The second, and one of the most exciting, is that we were invited to play for the 4th of July fireworks festival on Faurot Field in the Hearnes Stadium. The other band playing will be Del Alma, and our show will be followed by the symphony playing along with the fireworks show. Should be an awesome event! Also, on September 9th, during the second Twilight Festival month, we will be playing the mainstage on the courthouse aquare, another thing we've been really looking forward to.

The Nashville project continues to plod along. After a whirlwind rush of activity, I'm a little dismayed by how long these final steps are taking, quite honestly, simply because while I know everyone involved is doing their best job, and has my best interests in mind, I'm a 'let's get it done NOW!' kind of person, and I have no control over other people's timelines. So, I wait. But it's going to be something I am SO very proud of when it's finished, hopefully ready for radio play on commercial, college, and community radio, and ready to try to attract labels and investors. The band has heard the demo and we've decided to work up live versions of the Nashville sessions. Lately we are playing more festival and showcase type gigs, which don't last for 4 hours like the bar gigs we 'grew up' on, so we don't need to stretch everything out to 10 minutes. This way we will give the audience a little more 'bang for the buck' at a shorter show.

We've been discussing what steps to take once the Nashville demo is completed and besides the huge radio campaign, we will be creating a multi-pronged approach to inform press, having several CD release parties in different cities, researching distribution and on and on and on and on and on.

Michael and I are most looking forward to our trip out to Seattle this summer! We are going to have time for one performance amongst all the other things we have scheduled to do, at Seattle's See Sound lounge. It will be great to meet with all the Belltown execs, and see family and homestead all at the same time.

Have a great summer, and I will check in from time to time...

Well, this is the second time I've attempted to publish today's blog, so if it shows up twice, I do apologize. My first attempt doesn't seem to have made it to the website. This past weekend we had a great whirlwind trip to Chicago to play for my brother-in-law's surprise 30th birthday party. It was at a small southside bar called Paddy B's. We wish we could have taken the entire band, but since the bar was so small it was just Michael, myself, our other acoustic guitarist BA, and harmonica player Matt. We woke up early Saturday morning to drive to Chicago, and we got to the bar at 6pm, set up, and played until nearly 1am. We can't quite decide if it was more fun to play the music, or to ride up and back together, teasing each other the entire time, stuffing our faces with Krispy Kreme donuts and hoping to stay awake on only a few hours of sleep. We had a great brainstorming session on the way back...ideas for where we'd like to play next, what I should call the Nashville project, etc. These are the times I will remember.