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.

Yesterday's band practice has me flying high...although not the full band was there, we had all but 2 members and started working on some of my new tunes with a new instrument. My KORG keyboard finally had to put its walking shoes on and I introduced 3 new songs to the band, plus we worked up 'Brave New World' with me on keys instead of guitar. Although it had seemed in months previous that there might have been some reservations about how things would work with me on piano (I play piano entirely differently than I play guitar - and I don't just mean in the obvious ways due to the difference in instrument. I play the piano more as a self-contained solo instrument, and am definitely a background rhythm player on guitar) but everyone jumped right in and seemed very excited about the new songs. Ideas were flying from every direction. BA recorded the session and it's amazing how 'nearly complete' those new songs sound after only a couple hours of practice. We are planning on having these new songs ready (plus several more) for the October 15th CD release of the Nashville EP, 'Out of the Wilderness.' We are experimenting with different genres and sounds, as this is a good time to allow ourselves total freedom since we're taking this new direction with the keyboard. The songs that I write for piano are distinctively different than those I write for guitar, so it's going to be a lot of fun to follow this path where it leads us.

Kevin, who has been taking photos for us for several months now, was also there but regretfully didn't have his camera. It would have been fun to have a visual memory of this night. I was once again reminded of how and why I keep doing music; it constantly surprises me. I am renewed and excited about things.

Music Folk in St. Louis, where I performed last night, is a very beautiful little music store specializing in wood instruments; guitars and violins abound, and they make it their goal to promote acoustic music and get songwriters together to network and share fans. I performed in-between a set by Tom Wood, and Patsy O'Brien. Patsy, a guy who has toured all over the states and in some other countries (like his ancestral Ireland) was exceptional in his live performance and songwriting. Tom had some great stories to tell and was a dynamic personality. I felt honored to be playing among these two gentlemen, and the night went well. It felt a little bare and a little strange to be stripped of all the usual "gear" that stands before me onstage; no microphone, no stand, no cords, no nothing. Just me and a stool and a guitar and my voice, belting it out to the very back row like I used to when it was just me in my little apartment and someone would come and ask to hear a new song. I don't know why I was nervous to get back to that, but it did, after all, feel pretty good. And it was my first ENTIRELY solo performance in about 5 years!

So last Saturday night was definitely one of the highlights of my performance career! My band had a chance to open for Little Feat at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, and it was fantastic! First of all we had great gear and great sound, which always makes performing more fun; we were in great playing form, and we appreciated the excellent crowd response! There were some tapers there, and so our opening set is floating around out there, followed by Little Feat's 2-1/2 hour mind blowing set!

A couple of Little Feat's band members congratulated me on the set and said they thought my music was great, which was the height of a cool compliment from these musicians' musicians. Little Feat concert-goers are mostly musicians themselves, and they can be both critical and die-hard loyal. These were die-hard loyal and they embraced us like they'd come to see us just as much as to see Feat. We've gotten lots of free photos from photogaphers who were shooting pics during the show. I was telling my mom about the show yesterday and one of the things I said was that it's so awesome to me that we have these photographers who attend our shows and share their talents with us. If it weren't for them, I'd have no recorded memories of anything I am doing right now because I never have a camera in my own hand, I always just have a guitar, a microphone, or a CD in my hand. Thank you Kevin!!!! Thank you other photographers who've given us permission to use your work!

Thank you to the 1200+ crowd that was at the club Saturday, many of whom came up and talked to me after the show with words of support and encouragement. It was a great night for all of us.

Thanks to Little Feat for helping get the ball rolling to get us on the stage before them. These people, who've been on the road for about eight weeks without a break, pushed their sound check up 45 minutes for us so that WE'D get a chance to sound check and have the best show we could have. Thank you members of LF!!!!

Also thanks to my other acoustic guitarist Bill Adams who really sparked this whole thing. He has a radio show on KOPN 89.5 (Blue Plate Special) which showcases much of Little Feat's music and he's been a fan and follower of Little Feat for nearly as long as they've been around. If it weren't for him handing my discs to the members of LF and keeping us in their minds, there's no way this could have happened. Thanks BA!

I also had a chance to meet a representative from the KC-based Clear Channel promotions office, and he heard our entire set, which is great. I hope we have the chance to work with these people again in the near future.

In any case, we met some new listeners, we shared a stage with a fantastic band, we had a great time and we won't soon forget it.

Got the first set of art proofs for the Nashville release today, and I
am pretty darn excited about them. The graphic artists at DiscMakers are damned good at their jobs. (Free plug for them, eh?)

Anyhow...this weekend we had a fun gig down in West Plains, MO. There is this converted old yellow mansion there which they've turned into the "Yellow House" Community Arts Center, where there is live music, art and photography exhibits. The performance was a blast for an intimate, very involved audience. We hope to be back there again soon.

The best part of the night may have been at the beginning of sound check, when my bandmates presented me with a new vocal microphone. I had been upset when everyone showed up nearly an hour late to leave for the gig, and then I found out it was because they were all in cahoots to get me this wonderful microphone. I had been needing one for some time, and I am thrilled with how it sounds, and send a huge thank you to Michael, Matt and BA, who knew what to get me, and how to keep it secret from me! (And how to deal with my silly mood when they were all late because they were doing something nice for me!) :)

I want to send a HUGE thank you from the entire band out to Kevin, who has been taking photographs for us at several gigs, and has travelled extensive distances on his own time to take pics for us. He was at the Yellow House gig, and we really appreciated it.

Along those same lines, anyone who takes pics for us regularly (Kevin, Stacie, Brooke, Doug) and anyone who's taken pictures of us on occasion and given us copies for our own use or for placement on the website, (there are many of you, and some of you I don't even have names for) THANK YOU!!!! We cannot tell you how much the support means, and it's a source of PR for us which is invaluable.

Very cool news is that my band is going to get to open for Little Feat in Kansas City at the Beaumont Club on August 7th. Their promoters are part of Clear Channel, and it's very difficult to become involved with that company, because of its size and scope, so to be able to do this show and get our names out a bit more is really going to be fabulous exposure. But hey, we're also not forgetting for an instant how incredible it's going to be to share a stage with Little Feat, and we're going to make the most of every second of our opening slot.

There is good news and lots of excitement on the horizon...things are going very well. Keep checking the blog and website for updates.