I'm back in Nashville, glad for a night's sleep in my own bed, and waking up to my dog Cash licking my face, but that's not to say I didn't have a blast on my brief road trip.
I came home with a new Fender Strat and a Vox AC30 that I'd long been wanting to add to my arsenal, so any money I might've put in my pocket(or gas tank) as planned, was diverted, not that it would have put a dent in my tab anyway.
For all the money I lost this week, I'm pretty sure I gained a couple of pounds, from all the Taco John's I ate, seeing as it became a more or less daily stop.
As for the shows, we debuted the new lineup of The Great Affairs, which consists of myself, Henry, & Patrick of fORMER, and Kenny Wright of Bonepony(for anyone not keeping up), on Friday, the 13th at The Rutledge. We did about half of the latest fORMER record, a couple of old favorites, 3 or 4 tunes from The Great Affairs catalog, and a pair of oddball Cheap Trick covers, "I Can't Take It", and "Reach Out"(from the 1981 Heavy Metal soundtrack). It felt good to see people digging on this reconfigured variation of the band. We plan on keeping this interesting as we proceed, adding a revolving cast of unique covers to the set, drawing a bit more from our well of recorded material, and slowly introducing new tunes along the way.
Speaking of new tunes, it looks like I'm going to be doing another solo acoustic set, this time in Nashville, at some joint called Sassy's Lounge, on Nolensville Rd. this Saturday, April 28th. I go on around 8 or 9, doing 45 minutes to an hour of whatever the hell I feel like busting out, I guess. With that in mind, I'll probably do a little bit of everything, and probably take a couple of new ideas for a test drive while I'm at it. I hear the show's free, so if any or all of this intrigues you, come on down.
Back to the road...I left Nashville for Cincinnati on Saturday, and most of the details of this adventure are chronicled in one of my Hearing Things blogs under the heading "The Glamorous Life"...check that out. The Cliff Notes version: Billy Carri played, I drank beer, people bought me more beer, I played, some people paid attention, some people talked...LOUDLY, Atlantis Becoming played, I drank more beer...and a couple of shots(Thanks, John), I sold stuff...CDs, T-shirts, etc., beer got spilled in the stuff I sell, Billy Carri played some more, belligerent drunk with funny mustache heckled Billy Carri, I prayed for mustache guy's life, backup arrived, mustache exited the premises, crisis averted, more beer, got paid. Next thing I know, I wake up in a Walmart parking lot somewhere in Indiana. All of the above is 100% true and accurate, as far as I recall.
I spent Sunday sleeping and drinking Margaritas...not at the same time.
Monday, I worked in my shop, caught up on the latest comings and goings in Pekin, IL, and read a book.
Tuesday, I played The Brass Rail with the esteemed Jeremy David Baker of ELTORO, who brought me a couple of shots during my set(much obliged, sir), and afterwards I got to catch up some with my ex-Loveshine bandmates, and a handful of other folks I don't see enough of these days. The evening ended with my mother dragging my grown ass out of the bar, as she had made the determination that it would be in my best interests to exit while still upright. I believe she was correct. Thank you, Mom, and thank you Nic Bell for giving me another place to trot out my ditties, and make a little ching. You are a kind and generous soul, no matter what anyone says, and even though you love Nickelback.
Thursday night, I popped into TNT's in East Peoria, IL, for my buddy Don Mabus's open stage. My former Best Of Seven bandmate Rob Wood had flown in to visit his family, so we got up and did a few songs...we were not awesome, but it was fun, for us at least.
Taco John's again....after taking a "shortcut" that got my lost on some Creve Coeur backroads for 15 minutes. Thank God for GPS.
The next morning, I hit the road with a truck full of swag, and a "books on tape" of Rodney Crowell's memoir "Chinaberry Sidewalks" for company. I made it to Nashville in just under 7 hours.
From here, I've got the acoustic show Saturday, rehearsals with the band for our show with Lit on the 5th in Clarksville, as well as a string of road dates in mid-May, but I'll also be cranking away in the studio.
OK then, I've gotta go grocery shoppin', Record Store Day'n, gettin' to a cookout this afternoon, and a rock show this evening, so.....
Peace,
D.