The tour begins.

Saturday night I played in Vermont with (Who Are The) Brain Police. Small crowd, but a good show. That band is getting tight.

Right after the show I got in the van and started driving south. Around 4:30am I found a rest area and slept in the back of the van for a couple hours. Then it was off to North Carolina! I got to Asheville Sunday night. It was a nice drive, if a bit long. And there was a lot of rain and fog. Virginia was a nice stretch though.

Now I'm having a huge cup of very stiff coffee at Stacey's place. I'm going to do an inventory of the gear today and make sure everything is set for tomorrow's show at The Rocket Club.

About the tour.

It's coming up fast. And calling it a 'tour' might not be entirely accurate, since it's just two shows within a few miles of one another. But I've got to drive all day to get there, and the whole thing is going to take a week, so it's a tour to me!

On Sunday I'll be headed south, and unless I can book a last-minute show somewhere along the way, I'll drive straight to North Carolina. My friend Stacey lives in Asheville, and she and her roommates have graciously offered to provide accommodations while I'm down there.

The first show is Tuesday, March 31. I'm playing at The Rocket Club right in Asheville, opening for Pete And J, a clever band from New York. They toured with Rusted Root recently. I'll primarily be doing originals at this one, but I'm sure I'll work in a few of the more interesting covers. (I'm still having a ridiculously good time with the loop pedal I got a while back.)

The second show is Thursday, April 2. I'll be at the Beacon Pub in nearby Swannanoa. This show is just me, and it'll be a lot like the solo shows I play up here, with a mix of originals and covers.

I'd like to find a show on the way home, too, but it doesn't matter much. The two shows already on the books are enough to justify the trip. I'll probably hit some open mikes while I'm down there as well; there's something going on in Asheville pretty much all the time, from what I'm told. I will have the laptop with me, and I'll post reports from the road.

There's one last order of local business to attend to before I take off though: (Who Are The) Brain Police are returning to Shenanigans in White River Junction VT for a Saturday night show. I'll probably hit the road right from there, so I guess you can count that as the start of the tour, right?

Giuseppe's.

I'm playing a solo show at Giuseppe's in Meredith tonight from 6 to 9. This is just the sort of show I'd love to get a recording of, but I have misplaced my field recorder at the moment. I'm going to do the whole show on their grand piano. I'm going in with nothing but a one-page song list and a tip jar.

After the show I will probably pop in across the street at Lago, where Peter Lawlor is headlining tonight's singer/songwriter open mic night. Come on out and barhop in Meredith! Not a bad music scene, for a Monday. :)

Live at Lago.

I was pretty under the weather this past Monday, but I managed to get through my Live At Lago show. You can hear the podcast of the show right here. It was a well-attended show with a lot of good performers. Check it on out!

In other news, the track list for the new full-length CD is nearly set. I'd like to settle on one more song. Recording has started on a few of the tracks. Some of them can be built up from the demo versions, and others will need to be redone entirely. I'd like to have the CD ready to go this summer. Details to follow.

The second floor lounge.

A podcast called The Second Floor Lounge played one of my songs on St. Patrick's Day. I'm a little late in linking to it, but there's never a bad time to listen to drinking songs, so here you go. It's a good long podcast of Irish (and Irish sounding, in my case) tunes.

In other news, I've got the weekend off. I was supposed to play with (Who Are The) Brain Police at the Seven Barrel tonight, but my voice just isn't up to it. I'm a little worried aobut that, but it's gotten better over the last couple days so I'm gonna see what happens. (I got through my show at Shooter's Tavern last night, but there was still a lot of material I really couldn't do.) Our bass player has fallen ill as well, but worry not, fans of loud chaos: a couple members of The Undercover Operatives have been enlisted to fill in, and the show will go on as scheduled. Soldier on, Brain Police!

As for me, I'm spending some time with the boys, recuperating, and working on some material and arrangements for the upcoming tour. Which starts in... nine days. Holy crap.

St. Patrick's Day.

Loooong day. Fun though. It started at 7am The Daily Planet Morning Show (WPNH 100.1fm), where I played drinking song with Amy and Annie live on the radio. Annie made me a cup of tea that saved the day.

From there I went to Talullah's Tavern at Ragged Mountain. I played from 2:30 to 5:30. The ski conditions were good, and there was a nice turnout. And then it was off to The Lucky Dog in Plymouth.

I was set up and playing at 7, and by 9 I was starting to fade. But then Finn showed up with his fiddle, and breathed new life into the whole night. He and I played the rest of the night together and it was great. The bar filled in near the end, and they wanted us to keep going at 11, but I had to pack it in.

As usual, it took a while to get home and get to sleep. But I'm well-enough rested for the next stop; I'm hosting the open mic night at Shooter's in Belmont tonight. Tomorrow night I've got a solo show at Shooter's as well. Then... no shows this weekend. Normally that would trouble me. Not this time.

I'm on the radio.

Here's a couple songs from this morning's live performance on The Daily Planet Morning Show.

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Tonight I'm playing with (Who Are The) Brain Police at the Pit Road Lounge in Concord. Come on out and start the weekend with some LOUD NOISES!