Back in the saddle again. Tonight we played the Strand Theater in York, Pennsylvania and it felt great to be back and doing our full opening show. We have been in NYC for the last few days but we have been semi-retired. Kenny had two nights at the City Winery but they don’t have opening acts at that venue so Georgia took another gig in Austin on Monday and flew away. I haunted the city like a sad lonely ghost and had a day and night of being a wandering tourist. I went to the 9/11 Memorial and looked up the name of a friend who died in the first plane. Later in the day (to go from tragic to ridiculous in one paragraph) I went to a terrific place in Soho that sells a million different favors of rice pudding, and I sampled several hundred thousand of them.

Tuesday Georgia returned and we once again flaunted club rules and sat in on Kenny’s set. It was a great night. Usually dinner crowds are subdued because they have eaten dinner, drunk a lot of wine… and now they are resting their heads in their arms to catch a tiny bit of sleep while the band plays. This crowd broke that mold and was very alive and enthusiastic! Either we were extra good, or Tuesday is Watered Down Wine Night.

The next day was the actual anniversary of 9/11 and it was very poignant to be in the city on that day. We saw the twin towers of light projected into the sky and it was really moving. I grew up in Connecticut so I spent a lot of time through the years in NYC and I swear since 9/11 it is a nicer place. The people are just kinder and cooler to each other. They still say, “Go fuck yourself,” but I swear there is a childlike twinkle in their eye when they say it.

I got to spend some time with my friend Mark Hudson, he of the colorful beard. We all had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called the Cookshop in Chelsea. I had a pork chop that was so delicious my colon actually sent me a thank you note. Then it was goodbye to NYC and we headed to Pennsylvania. Tonight’s show was sad because our bass player, Shem, has to go and play his other gig (with Don Felder… Mr. big Shot Eagle!) tomorrow, so we are bringing in a sub. If it was just us we would be calling George, our BSR bandmate… but it has to be someone that plays keyboard as well as bass in Kenny’s show… so Scott, our guitarist, recommended someone he knew and he is joining the circus tomorrow and will have a baptism of fire in Newport, VA. I hear they are a sweet and forgiving people in that part of the world so we expect a great deal of leeway in the accuracy department. I am assured he is an amazing musician so any mistakes will probably be made by ME because I will constantly be looking to my left and saying “Hey!… you’re not Shem!”

We’ve got three more shows and then Georgia and I must go home. Kenny continues on for a while… not sure why it worked out that way. At one point in the far away past we must have said we were going to head home on September 14th… and now September 14th is here and we have to live up to our pledge.

We are playing VA, New Jersey and Baltimore. Three more shows. Three more blogs. Three more epic epistles from the road. You all should probably start the withdrawal process now. Like a Z pack of antibiotics… you are going to have to read three blogs tomorrow… two on Saturday… and one on Sunday. Stay out of the sunlight. Don’t read them on an empty stomach.

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