Through the years I have played in some weird places. Huge box-like rooms full of right angles and glass that make the sound bounce and echo like Heidi on a bad acid trip. After those kinds of gigs we always come off stage and say the same thing: “Man, that sounded like we were playing in an airplane hangar.”

Fate had it’s revenge tonight.
We played a corporate show… in an airplane hangar.

Oh fate, you are a whimsical douchebag.

We are in Grand Rapids, Michigan playing a show for the  Bissell Pet Foundation. A very worthy cause. I see so many pets with blotchy make-up because they chose the wrong foundation. The event was held in an airplane hangar.

Sound check gave us no reason to look forward to the show. What we heard on stage was living down to the joke in every way. We always say, “whatever is wrong with the sound will be fixed when there are people in the room.” We are pretty sure we will need every man, woman and child in Asia to show up to this event to soak up this echo. But you know what?

We sounded great! We hadn’t played together in a while and it was fun just all being together, but on top of that… we kicked ass! Our sound guys wrestled Heidi to the ground and made her their bitch. We played three songs off the new CD… a bunch of the old “hits,” and did our “Songwriter Segment,” leaving the crowd exhausted and satisfied.

Tomorrow Georgia and I fly to LA for a stopover on our way to Hawaii – to take part in a songwriter conference – while the rest of the band wakes up at 4:30 AM to catch a flight to Miami to play a Kenny show. I feel very bad for them. I feel very good for us. Those two feelings do not have to be mutually exclusive, do they? If they do… and I have to choose one… I choose feeling good for us. 4:30 is a beautiful time of the morning… pre-dawn… crisp… they are one lucky bunch of guys (to my way of thinking.) Georgia and I will miss that wonderful part of the day by waking up at 9. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

We will come back from Hawaii tanned and refreshed and head to LA yet again to finish mixing the new CD. Yes… fly from Hawaii to Nashville then back to LA a few days later. That’s just how the schedule worked out. Feel sorry for us yet? Don’t. Did I mention it’s Hawaii and LA?

Speaking of the new CD…
Let me take a moment to explain where we are in the process:

We have four more songs to mix. That will bring the total up to 12. That is a CD in anyone’s book. This whole thing took longer than we thought it would and we apologize. When you hear the CD you will understand why it took so long to make. Because every song on the new CD is 18 minutes long. No…just kidding. Because it is tremendous. There. I said it.

Then… after we mix we have to master it. That puts the radio friendly shine on it. Before mastering you have a cheese pizza. After mastering… you have a deep dish pepperoni pizza. Yum.

We have shows lined up for the Fall to unveil our new music.  I guarantee that when you come and see us… it will NOT sound like an airplane hangar. Unless we actually DO one or more shows in an airplane hangar. (We’re NOT, right? I REALLY should start going to more of the band meetings. But they’re soooo boring!)

By the way, at this last show we got free stuff. Musicians LOVE free stuff. Corporate gigs mean corporations and they sometimes, out of the goodness of their hearts, give you samples of their products as a “Thank You” for keeping the show G-rated. So we have boxes of free stuff coming. We are very excited! I did a corporate show once in 1996 for a catheter tubing company and they shipped me so much of their  product that I was able to macrame a two person hammock that sits on our back porch to this day.