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…)