November 15, 2009 | Burlington, IA - Hotel recording studio

I brought a little portable recording studio on the road with me for the trip.  My friend Jami Weiderholt tipped me off to a songwriting challenge on NPR to write a song in a weekend so I wrote the song this weekend and recorded it at the Fairfield Inn in Ottumwa this morning before we left for Burlington.  They were trying to get us to get of the room because check out was at noon so we just took the second take.  We just did bass and vocal. Steve played bass and I sang it live. The challenge was to write and record a song by 8pm on the 15th.  The song had to include at least one word from a random list of words.  The word I chose was "firecracker".

My road ready recording studio. It takes about two minutes to set up. Notice the fold up piano!

November 14, 2009 | Ottumwa, IA

Apologize for the spottiness of blogging.  The relentlessness of the traveling doesn't leave much time for pontificating in my hotel room after the show. We've been having a great time both on and off stage.  Driving a lot, eating a lot of fast food and having a great time in our two hours on stage.

I wrote a song today in response to a challenge from NPR to write and record a song in a weekend containing one a select bunch of words.  I'll be posting it up on Facebook soon.

Ottumwa Sign

November 4, 2009 | Johnson, KS - Fly on the Wall

Finally a travel day with a night off! We drove six hours today from Grand Island, Nebraska to Johnson, KS.  It's so different being in this part of the country.  I realize now what a city boy I've become being in NY for 12 years now.  It's really been great driving every day through all of this farm country and then doing shows very night.  It really gives some needed perspective and a welcome break from the relentless momentum of city life. We tried to go bowling with Steve Doyle because that's what he wanted to do on his birthday (which is tomorrow).  We ended up at Prairie Lanes in the next town over (28 miles away!).  No luck on the bowling because it was a league night.  So we finally landed at the Windbreak, the local bar.

I'm posting this pic of the wall of my hotel room here in Johnson.  It's a pretty nice and simple room and it even comes with a fly swatter hanging high on the wall next to the LCD TV!

Flyswatter comes standard

October 29, 2009 | Fall Midwest Tour Day 1 - Brainerd, MN

Just got home from the first night of our string of Midwest performances.  Tonight we were in Brainerd, MN. Brainerd is the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe, the OX. When we got into town, we decided to eat at the Bonanza next to the hotel.  A Bonanza is basically an all-you-can eat steakhouse.  Steve kept getting up to check the sign to make sure that we could get the sirloin tips AND the lunch buffet, too, for the one low price.  It seemed too good to be true.

We got off to a great start, though I think it will take a few days to get the routine down.  Basically we get up every morning, drive all day, do the soundcheck, go back to the hotel to change, do the show and then scramble to find a place to eat that stays open past 10pm.

I'm hoping part of the routine will be to actually use the tour blog feature on my website.  I'll try to post pics and videos along our travels.  I didn't take many pictures today as we had enough to do getting our levels and equipment set.  Here's a picture of Steve Doyle embracing the stage at setup.

Steve Doyle embracing the sound check!

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