Montgomery, AL. This was an In/Out affair. We rolled out of Nashville early, and returned in the pre-dawn hours of the following morning.

It was worth every over-caffeinated mile, even if we did have to eat our lunch in a Publix parking lot. That’s a story for another time…. or never.

The Performing Arts Center in Montgomery is a gorgeous 1800-seat theater, in the city’s downtown, just steps from the Alabama River. On April 12th, Styx were playing a sold-out show there, and we were the scheduled support act.

Some technical issues with the house lighting rig aside, this one came off without a hitch. We slammed through our allotted 40 minutes, and immediately wound our way to the merch table, to see if we’d made the right impression on the previously uninitiated. It would seem so, as we did pretty good business, particularly with the “Duster” tee. I don’t know what it is about that shirt, but we’ve been pressing that design up for over a decade now, and it never stops selling. Maybe it’s because our faces aren’t on it. The older we get, the lower the value of that particular asset.

We had a few days off, before we had to hitch the trailer and head up to Amish Country. Our next date with Styx was set for April 16th, at the Blue Gate PAC in Shipshewana, IN, where we’d previously holed up in an Airbnb a couple of years back, while doing some festival dates in the area. I remember we played a gig en-route, checked-in late, and woke up to discover a steady flow of horse & carriage traffic out front. They have their own lanes!

We drove up the night before, and crashed at a cottage a few towns over, graciously provided by our buddy Jason, a regional radio personality(who apparently moonlights as an Interior Decorator/Luxury Experience Coordinator). Weather advisories warned of flooding, and while we managed to avoid having to drive through anything too hairy, we did see some poor bastard stuck in the exit lane of a Taco Bell, his minivan partially submerged in a puddle that had to be at least 2’ deep. He appeared to be noshing on some Cinnamon Twists, while a member of the local constabulary hailed him a tow.

Tiny town, huge venue. Totally state of the art. Amazing production. We were blown away. It was like playing a miniature arena stage. LED walls, and shock & awe-level lighting. My kinda jam.

 

See/hear for yourself.

 

And then…

The Ryman.

2003, I arrived in Nashville (for the second time, but who’s counting?), a very different place than the city it has become in the years since. I was fresh from the near-miss Best Of Seven(management, label interest, publishing deals, poof!), jumping into the fire with Bombshell Crush, which begat fORMER(and my transition from a quite comfortable position in simple guitar-slinging to that of anxiety-riddled frontman), which birthed The Great Affairs. TGA played our first show, at The 5 Spot in East Nashville, on July 30th of 2009. April 21st, 2026, almost 17 years, and hundreds of shows around the country later, we got to play the Mother Church - The Ryman Auditorium.

Sure, we weren’t the headliner, but I’m not cryin’ in my beer over that. We made it onto that stage, and we played it like we owned it. Another day at the office, my ass. I felt it. We all did. It was an honor and a privilege, one I had no idea could still be a possibility for us, and we got to share it with friends & family, in our adopted hometown. To the Styx guys, and their crew (BW, you’re the man!), thank you for believing in us, and giving us that shot. We are truly grateful for all of it.

Where do we go from here?

I honestly do not know.

I guess we just keep plugging along.

As such, our next order of business will be….

We’ll see you soon, Bloomington, IL.

 Be good to one another,
   D.

p.s. Here are the last two songs from The Ryman, captured by our buddy Jim Arrington, who had some pretty prime real estate in the balcony.

Here’s one for the “Didn’t have THAT on my Bingo card.” file.

We’re playing the historic Ryman Auditorium on Tuesday, April 21st.

Yeah, the Mother Church, home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974.

Nashville, TN. Home.

To call it a big deal for us would be severely underselling the gratitude we’re feeling right now. Huge, this one. Huge.

That we get to do this with Styx, who’ve once again invited us along for a handful of what I’m pretty sure will all be sold-out shows, makes the whole thing that much cooler.

We’ll be supporting them in Montgomery, AL on April 12th, and Shipshewana, IN, on April 16th, giving us a couple of chances to make sure we have our act together before we step to the mics in our own backyard.

Wish us luck, and, if you’re gonna be at one of these shows, we’ll be out at the merch area after our set, so please find us and say hey.

Be good to one another,
        D.
        The Great Affairs

p.s. Rizzo did a couple of cool podcast appearances recently, covering two wildly different subjects. You should check ‘em out.

A-Sides (Remembering Chris Cornell)

NMD (Weird NOISES)

If you hadn’t heard, we got slammed with some crazy Winter weather here in the Southeast last week, and Nashville took quite a beating. Somehow, miraculously, my place was located in a sector of the power grid that held fast, but Rizzo & Matt lost juice for days, while Kenny had the weatherhead ripped clean off of his house, dropping a live electrical line across his vehicles and the yard beyond, landing him in the Stone Age as well.

In the 23 years I’ve been a resident of Tennessee, I’d never heard of a tree “exploding” from the cold, but I’ll be damned if I don’t now know firsthand just exactly what that sounds like. Our entire backyard “looks like Chernobyl”, as a buddy opined, having seen photos and video of what remains standing out there, and all that litters the ground below. Kenny’s chicken coop was nearly a casualty, but thankfully he arrived to rehearsal with fresh eggs for everyone last night, providing peep proof of life.

Prior to these Roland Emmerich-esque misadventures, we did manage to pull off a local show, our first in over a year, at The ’58 room in Eastside Bowl. As luck would have it, 3 of us were battling assorted illnesses for the occasion, but with the help of steroid shots, and other assorted “home remedies”, we trudged on, and while not operating at our collective peak, got through it. Here’s a warts n’ all recording of “Dyin’ To”, from the ‘4’ EP, captured through whatever microphone Matt had placed at the back of the room.

DYIN’ TO (Live at The ’58)

The Great Affairs · Dyin' To (Live at The '58 1:15:26)

 

 

Since we’re throwin’ up links, here’s a detour to a conversation about Thin Lizzy, with our buddy Andy Halleen at the A-Sides Podcast, featuring Kenny.

A-Sides: 50 Years Of Jailbreak

 

Up next is John Brown’s On The Square, on Friday, March 13th.

In the meantime, we’ve actually got some new tunes starting to percolate. Rizzo brought a couple of cool riffs in, I tossed a greasy little Open E number to Kenny, for his 2 cents, and I’ve amassed a half dozen or so arrangements that are simply in need of their final lyric treatments, before I can spring them on the guys. It might be slow going, but the wheels seem to be outta the mud at least.

OK then, I’m gonna go drag brush up a hillside, ‘cause that’s what passes for fun around here, I guess.

More news when there’s more news.

Be good to one another,
 D.

Our first show of 2026 is set to go down, here in our own backyard for a change, one week from today - Thursday, January 15th, in the ’58 at Eastside Bowl. Doors at 7, Show at 8. We get things started, followed by Salmon In The Current at 9PM, and Doc Downs & The Next Round closing things out. 10 measly bones to spectate indoors, and free to overhear from the parking lot, if you’re broke and not averse to chilly temps.

Me, I’ll be on the warm side of the glass, just happy to get some of these proverbial ya-yas out, having had no such opportunity since September.

Matt will be debuting some new piece of bass gear, I can’t recall the name, but he busted it out at rehearsal last night, and I’d almost swear it made him sound manlier. I think he grew a full beard in the 3 hours we were in that room, and definitely seemed more virile than usual. In fact, I didn’t see him play Candy Crush Saga on his phone even once.

After we wrapped up a run-through of the set for 1/15, our remaining time was spent tossing new riffs around, seeing if we had enough bits & pieces to seriously consider hunkering down to work on some new tunes. I believe the consensus leaned to an affirmative, and I expect we’ll get the wheels rolling on that business shortly. Hell, I might knock a few things out this afternoon.

OK then, If you’ve made it this far, this is me leaving you alone now…until next time.

Peace,
D.