Blue Sky Riders

It’s just a stone. It sits in front of the new Nashville Convention Center alongside several hundred other stones where thousands of people a day can scuff their shoes and drop gum with gay abandon. It’s just a stone …but it has my name on it.

It’s pretty great to have a stone with my name on it that I’m not lying under. This one is part of the Songwriter Hall of Fame that just opened today here in my hometown of Nashville. Up till now there was no physical Hall of Fame. When you were inducted you just existed in the minds and hearts of songwriters everywhere. Like Santa. Or Barbie Benton. (more…)

This was the moment I’ve been dreading. I can remember that from the moment we decided to call ourselves Blue Sky Riders, a part of me knew this was waiting. There they were, entering the hospitality tent of the Stagecoach Festival. It was Sharks versus Jets. It was Montagues versus Capulets. It was Blue Sky Riders versus….. (more…)

Have you ever been to Pioneertown, CA? Me neither. We were booked to play Pappy and Harriet’s, a funky barbecue/ concert joint in a town that was built to shoot western movies in. As we drove closer and closer, we saw less and less of the world we know. We were entering an area where rattlesnakes outnumber humans by three to one. They sold snake venom in the convenience store. Flavored. (more…)

Did you ever wonder what happens on a day off when a band is on tour? It’s kind of interesting.

The night before a day off you sleep like a baby. I guess it’s because you know you have the next day off. No early morning wake up call to get you down to the lobby to go to a radio station or a tv studio. Usually you sleep straight through the free complimentary breakfast you get in your finer hotels. You sleep all the way until… (more…)

Two more shows under our collective belts. We played Santa Cruz and I had to stand there on stage in front of the judgmental eyes of old friends. And, may I say… they went judge-”mental!” Seriously, we had a great show. When I lived in Santa Cruz three hundred years ago, I worked at Marianne’s Ice Cream and all spring I have bee looking forward to going there and having a big scoop of rocky road ice cream. Unfortunately, one of the rules of the rocky road of touring is….no dairy on show days. Ice Cream is probably at least ten percent dairy (I tell myself) so I had to pass the shop by as we rolled out of town. (more…)

Picture a young kid from Connecticut… moved to Santa Cruz, California… desperately trying to play the big club, The Catalyst… the true sign of success in this town.

He never did. The band broke up and he went home to CT with his metaphoric tail between his legs. His disappointment was left to fester inside him like a cockroach in a 79cent burrito. (more…)

Come with me on a magical recap of a magical week in a magical place called South by Southwest! A land filled with special badges, honky tonks, big stages, excellent cheeseburgers and more sunshine than I have seen in years. (more…)

So our record came out last week. All the excitement happened at the tail end of both Georgia and I being sick. By this point I have coughed up a lung and something grey that looks like it could be part of my pancreas or a child’s sock. Young child. Preschool. Being under the weather has made it hard to appreciate the fun of this moment… but I am going to try. God help me I’m going to try. (more…)

So we went to Park City and the film festival….to DC and the Inaugural…now we’re in LA. And I’m sick. Not a big surprise. Someone always gets sick on the the road and we still bull right through it. This time was different. This was Leno. We had to be great. I’ve been on Leno before with Ringo and it’s an amazing thrill and I wanted Georgia to feel what that’s like so I can’t be sick. Then on the morning of the show….3AM actually…I woke up and….I was sick. I had no voice. None. I could not get a sound out. Off we go in our rental car to find a 24hr clinic to see if something can be done. I am NOT cancelling Leno. The Doctor checks me out and offers a steroid shot that should take down the swelling and let me sing. “Is the show soon?” he asked. “Tonight” I reply. “Good luck with that” he said sadly. If I do not talk all day…I might, just might…get thru a three and a half minute song. (more…)

Today we were actually treated like rock stars. It was on the American taxpayer…but it was probably money better spent on us than on another nuclear sub. They put us up in the W Hotel, a beautiful hotel right in front of the Washington Monument. Wanna feel patriotic? Stare out your window at one of the enduring symbols of freedom. That and a great 9 inch pizza from room service will do it, baby! (more…)