Wow...September has been such a busy month that until one of my photographer friends, Kevin Dingman, reminded me at last night's gig that I hadn't written in my blog for nearly a month, I had no clue how fast the time had flown by!
....but let me start back at the beginning. Early in September I flew back home to Seattle to attend my best friend Sandy's wedding. It was an awesome, laid-back affair. The ceremony was outside, and Sandy rode up to her groom on a tractor! There was tons of awesome food, beautiful weather, dancing, karaoke, and a bonfire. Although the trip was a whirlwind, we had a fantastic time. The following weekend we attended another friend's wedding in Iowa, where I performed and where we had the opportunity to get completely silly. I even danced....
In-between family and friend events, we've had one of our busiest months ever, as a band. We've had the opportunity to play (or are going to play) Twilight Fest, Flatbranch, Cherry Hill outdoor concert series, the grand opening of the Virginia Avenue dorms at MU, the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, D'Agostino's and we have many more cool events coming up in October. We're stoked about the upcoming CD release. (Friday, October 15th at MoJo's.) I've been pulling my hair out getting the details together for the enhanced portion of the Nashville CD, but it's going to come together beautifully. DiscMakers is rushing me some of the CDs overnight tonight so I have them in time for the MU gig tomorrow, and I will have the rest of the CDs in my hands by the end of this week, but let's keep that between you and me (and whoever else reads this, right?) because the OFFICIAL release date is not for three weeks!
I've blogged about the Nashville project perhaps ad nauseum, but I'm just so excited about it. It looks like it's going to sprout some other great opportunities for me as well, like a possible showcase spot in Nashville sometime in the next couple of months, and perhaps on a recurrent basis. My producer, Matthew Wilder (who I hope to work with again in the near future) is putting together a showcase with myself and some other up-and-coming acts at a great club, and with fabulous Nashville-area musicians. (I think the bassist who performed on my CD, Gary Lunn, might be performing with me). Although the rest of my awesome Columbia-area band won't have the opportunity to perform with me this time around, it looks like several, if not all of them, might pile into the big ol' "touring van" and come along with me for moral support. Anybody who reads this is welcome to come, actually, if you want to spend a weekend in Nashville and lend me the support of your body filling up space, your voice calling out and letting me know you're there. I will appreciate it greatly! Details of the when and where for this showcase will be posted on the website under "gigs" when available.
As for that "touring van" I just spoke of, we bought a big, used Mo-Ex van, which has room for 15, plus cargo. We've had to replace the battery and it has a couple other little quirks, but it's the first vehicle that can handle the entire band plus gear, especially if we get a little trailer. We're really proud of it!
I wish I could write more about all of the events we've experienced recently, and share my thoughts about things to come, but it seems when I actually get around to writing in this blog, I never have the time I had hoped for. I'm sure I've forgotten a million things. But hey...I guess this computer screen will be there when I wake up. So, goodnight.
