Well, the deck has been shuffled, and a new hand has been dealt. Henry played his final shows like the true boss that he is, and Matt stepped back into those shoes like he'd always been there. Truthfully, we couldn't have asked for a smoother transition, and both guys handled the passing of the baton like total pros.
With Louisville, Cincinnati, and Clarksville now behind us, we move on to overhauling the set with a revamped lineup. As much as I hate having to more or less start over, this has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach, possibly resurrecting a handful of tunes from Matt's earlier tenure with the band, as well as swapping out a few of the covers we've been doing in favor of new ones. Hell, Patrick Miller is even taking a turn at the mic, handling lead vocals on a classic Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac tune. Clearly, anything goes at this point.
New material is slowly starting to flow too, and I've been demoing a few ideas here and there, along with collecting the skeletons of others as voice memos on my phone. It shouldn't be long before we have the makings of some sort of release...or at least enough tunes worthy of heading into the studio and committing something to tape for future use. We're coming up on the one year anniversary of the "Dream In Stereo" LP's birth, so I suppose it's about time we start looking at the next chapter. More on that as things develop.
The first order of business is getting out and playing some shows to break in the new guy. We start that this weekend(9/26) at Hub Fest in Marion, IL, followed buy a quick 3-song set at The High Watt here in Nashville on Monday(9/28) for the 8 Off 8th series. Both shows are free, so if you're in vicinity of either gig, don't let a lack of funds prohibit your attendance.
In October, we've got just a couple of shows on the books, but we'll likely add one or two more between now and then. As it stands, we have just Saturday, October 10th at The Crowded House in Madisonville, KY(a full-band acoustic show), and Rock N' Skull Fest at The Leeway in Pekin, IL on Saturday October 17th w/Firehouse, Trixter, Loudness, TUFF, and more. Watch the calendar at TheGreatAffairs.com for updates.
In November, it looks like we'll have Bowling Green(TBA) and Paducah, KY to contend with, as well as a return to John Brown's On The Square in Marion, IL for a post-Thanksgiving hoedown. Again, with the new booking agency, we'll probably be picking up a few more dates as we go, so please keep an eye out for something in your area, because we fully intend to expand our previous radius to include a lot of territory previously off-limits to us due to our former logistics. Speaking of which, shows are on the books, pending, or under investigation for GA, MO, AK, IN, and WV. We might even roll up on Texas in 2016 if the new guy at NahPro Entertainment swings a big enough stick.
See you soon,
Denny