A quick stop in Chattanooga

We only wish we could have spent more time out in Chattanooga!  Charles and Myrtle's Coffee House was a wonderful stop on our tour.  Andrew, thank you for the wonderful sound, conversation and cookies!  We finished the show feeling like we should re-work our tour to spend a few more days in this great city...while time was short, smiles were long!  We also enjoyed a chance to share our music at the Sunday service at Unity Church and really enjoyed the chance to experience the service.  It was a breath of fresh air and sent us to our next destination really thinking about our approach to life and relationships.

Blacksburg Mania!

Blacksburg, Virginia is on our top 10 lists of places to move if we get kicked out of Texas!  We played 4 shows there and a special thank you goes out to Sandy and Tom for setting it all up.  We drove into town both excited and exhausted...and left 4 days later rejuvenated and ready for the final stretch of our tour.  

The Shadow Lake community is one of the most wonderful communities we have experienced.  From all of the wonderful people, to the peaceful surroundings, it is a place that is hard to describe in words.  We enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the sound of the frogs from the ponds, and hiking through the forest by moonlight.  

Gillies vegetarian restaurant was a tasty show, and the food was even tastier!  We had a blast doing the radio show at WUVT with Jim...who knew you could have sooo much fun at 8:00 in the morning!   Jim had me at "I hear you have a new dog named Conway?"  

The Peace Thru The Arts house concert was a FULL OUT BLAST!  The crowd was almost as loud as we are.  They energy was high, the food was wonderful, and the friends we made were especially wonderful.  This house concert knows what they are doing...it was a class act from top to bottom.  

We look forward to a chance to come through again in '09!

Chicago, Chicago...living the high life!!!

Our two nights in Chicago were full of new things, new friends, and some great jammin!  We had a blast hanging out at The Joynt in downtown Chicago.  Frank was our tour guide behind the bar, making sure every need was taken care of.  Joe ran the floor at the Joynt without a hitch, and it was fun to swap stories about Luckenbach.  Leslie was there to make sure if we needed anything, it was taken care of...and Dexter was our resident sound guy (and bass player extraordinaire).  

We saw the sights, rode the farris wheel, waded in the big lake, saw the Museum of Contemporary Art, and walked the paths of Millennium park.  Chicago is a town full of some of the nicest people I can remember meeting.  

It was a dream come true to  play a town famous for it's blues and jazz.  I could almost imagine Ella, Duke, Satchmo and Billie wandering those streets as we did.  Thank you to Chi-Town for showing us a big time.  A special thanks to Stan for making sure we were living large and enjoying the high life!

Minneapolis, what a BLAST!!!

Minneapolis was a full out BLAST!  

Nye's Polonaise Piano Bar

You walk in to a smell of good food and an environment reminiscent of 1960.  Wonderful people surround the bar with a quirky stage that sits high and mighty!

Thank you to Molly Maher for adding us to her line up at Nye's Piano Bar.  What a wonderful bar, Mikey behind the bar was a doll.  I still have that book of matches in my guitar case from you Mike!  Everyone is treated like a king here, and the audiences is warm and ready to party!

Lee's Liquor Bar

Man, what a place!  Lou is the owner of this great place.  A huge dance floor, a great stage, and not one bad seat in the house.  Dan was our sound man and he did a great job.

We played our booties off, and had a blast.  We a good showing from the Minneapolis crew, and had the Tompkins Family come in from Rochester, MN to kept the room hopping.  We also got a chance to play for our Minnesota Fan's that had heard us in Texas.  

We finally came to you guys!!!!

A special thank you goes out to cousin Jac for being our Minneapolis road manager!  He not only made sure we had a blast, showed us all the best bars in town, but also put us up while in town.  

Midwest Madness!!!

It feels great to be in the Midwest, watching the endless cornfields, the family farms, and anticipating sweet corn.

Wichita, Kansas was a great time.  We had a blast playing at The Artichoke Bar, and got a chance to experience the city for a great night.  We went and saw The Keeper of the Plains statue and witnessed the huge fire pits ignite on cue in the middle the night.  5 foot flames were screaming out of the black holes setting the sky on fire.  It was amazing.

4th of July was in Kansas City with family there.  We went to the first annual block party with my cousins and laughed with little miss Haley all night.

Next we headed out to Greene Iowa to lay my grandmother's ashes to rest in the family plot and we all said our goodbye's to Niecy.  She was quit a firecracker herself.  In life they say the weddings and funerals bring families together, and we all agreed over breakfast this morning that our celebration over walleye and steak in honor of grandma was full of tears, but left us all feeling more like we had been to a wedding than a funeral.  I don't know if it was all the funny stories Grandma Niecy left behind for us, or if it was the sense that she was somehow there with us drinking her dirty vodka martini, just in a state where we could only feel her presence and not see her.  

Life is an interesting ride for sure.  There is something special to going back and trace the roots of family.  This next month on the road is one full of reconnecting with cities my family have bounced around, as well as Stuart's family.  We are getting a chance to walk the streets of places that our parents and grandparents called home, visit the graves of ancestors we only got to hear about and some that we still hold dear memories for, and all the while make music along the way.

Grandma Niecy was an adventurer her whole life, she traveled and was always looking for the next new thing to spice things up.  I can't help but think she is watching us and laughing at all of our funny stories, and chuckling especially hard at the funny faces we all made as we tried to drink those dirty martini's in honor of her...man grandma, those things are hard core!