Fall Tour Florida Style

First off I want to thank everyone who has been actively searching us out on Pandora.  We received confirmation on the night of our CD Release Party that we are IN!  woo!  thanks guys.  The music is up there as of today, but it takes awhile to get our music....but...when you do hear it please give it a thumbs up so that we get more plays, oh and also we are currently under the Lucas Band Cates...which is par for the course since lucas's name is spelled incorrectly all the time...this time its just out of order....don't worry we and the kind folks of Pandora radio are working on it!
Second, thanks to everyone who was at the CD Release Party.  It was a bonafide success and we owe it to you guys for making it great!

Ok on to the tour.....so far its been filled with uninvited guests in good ways for the most part.  The first night was Wednesday; we drove from Madison to Atlanta and stayed in an old district with Luker's cousin.  The street was a narrow old street and used to be a drive through crack house....more of a crack block since all the homes were old run down and filled with history.  Now within the last 10 years developers have plowed the crack houses to the ground and built beautiful homes in what is now a blossoming district.  I slept ok that night, but my dreams were filled with angst and feelings that ghosts were around me.  At about 4 or 5 in the morning I was rousted by the sounds of someone in the Kitchen downstairs making breakfast and causing a ruckus.....Kenny was in another room and heard the same thing....Lucas was on a couch adjacent to the kitchen and also heard the breakfast making......he thought it was me and Kenny, we thought it was Luker's cousin.....turns out...no one was up at the time.   Yup, weird.  It also turns out that Luke had the same dream that I did...also weird.
Last night we played our acoustic show at Creekside in St. Augustine....on a deck....on the inter coastal waters....it was a nice first show of the tour..very relaxing.  During the show a furry little raccoon kept creeping next to the stage toward the tables with the hopes of a snack, but was scared back a number of times before climbing the tree next to us to watch the show.  We sold a ton of discs and felt pretty good about the start of tour.
Today Kenny and I were boogie boarding outside of the condo when I looked over his shoulder and saw a set of fins poking up from the water.....now the first thing i did was soil my swimsuit....that's a given, right?  I started calling to Kenny; "Kenny!  swim this way...now!"  Kenny:"What?"  Me: "Swim here, toward shore....NOW!" Kenny: "What?" Me: "Fins!"  Kenny:  "Oh shit!"  Well we hauled to the shore were we were told by a worker that was setting up chairs that they were dolphin fins.....whew.....awesome.  So we swam back out and swam with the dolphins getting as close as 50 feet...it was amazing.  So I think I'll get back to that ocean and relax....we play a street dance tonight in St. Augustine and are really looking forward to it.  I'm excited to see who will show up tonight.

out of control dinner

So tonight I made meatloaf.....yup....I did.  I'm not shameful, nor will I take it back.  I made what I made and I loved every ounce of it......sure most people don't mix brown sugar, saltine crackers, onions, and tomato sauce(plus other items)....but that doesn't mean it doesn't taste like heaven.....i mean who are you to say meatloaf isn't delicious....cause it is.....it's damn delicious, in fact I don't blame Michael Lee Aday for taking the name: Meatloaf.  It's masculine, old school, and brave.  Do I have a picture of my dish....hell no!  I ate it.....and it was good!  Oh I might have leftovers, but why do you care?  I mean, do you want my meatloaf leftovers, cause you can't have any.  I'm not selfish, I'm protective.....like a father would be of his teenage girl.  Are you looking at my meatloaf?   You better not be.....punk.  My meatloaf is classy and deserves someone who will appreciate it; someone who will do anything for it; someone who won't ever eat, but eat rational amounts so as to conserve the leftovers.......like meatloaf sandwich, re-heated dinner, or cold meatloaf breakfast; how 'bout meatloaf smoothie, or meatloaf on a salad....no?.....then what about ground meatloaf in potatoes, or meatloaf balls?....wait...that just doesn't sound good at all....but the others...yes the delicious other options for meatloaf....well, i can't wait till tomorrow.

recommended listening:  Meatloaf, Dead Ringer For Love from The Very Best of Meatloaf (even though we all know I just made the very best of meatloaf)

"the town that greets ya"

At least that's what one passer by sain of me and kenny as we sat adjacent to a small city park in salem illinois while drinking our coffee. As I look at the main intersection of salem I feel like I'm back in the 1950's. Salem hasn't changed much; not the downtown, at least. We are playing here tonight in what has been fondly labeled "the cougerville of illinois". Our usual establishment, becky's, has been closed since we were last here, but TDubs(our local illinois promoter) has kept us in the salem loop at the Village Garden for tonight's show. We are accually playing outside the bar, so more people could see the show, and I'm told the town of salem changed a city ordinence so we can leagelly play outside. It helps that a few of our fans here include a county judge and various members of the city counsel :-).
Last night we played mabry's, in greenville, illinois....yea I don't know where that is either, but we did get to take a rollercoaster of county roads to get. I told chet that I had his back, just in case.
I met some interesting folks there inluding two traveling business men who are helping us in the indianapolis market, one dude who spent four months in a coma after a falling 284 feet in a snowboarding accident(he also had to jump from a burning plane last year....hasn't really been his decade), and a woman with a hole in her head...I felt it...it was weird....accually she made me feel it....it was weird. she was accually a very nice woman, and she came to the show with her boyfriend simply cause the heard about us, which leads me to believe that somehow rural america gets a news feed that the rest of the country doesn't subscribe to. I mean, we're in greenville. I think we should do a tour of towns with 5000 people or less and call it something like "getting some boon 2009 tour". Just a thought.

goodbye mountains

The mountains humble me. They are so massive and I am not: brilliant, right? For me they were the constant in our tour. They were almost always by our side, and always different. Even the same chunk of rock appears different every time you look at it. They are stunning and beautiful, and as we drive east this morning and the mountains grow smaller and smaller behind me I still keep looking back hoping they will follow.
Last night we played at the Vault in Ft. Collins, colorado. The venue is located in old town, and used to be a bank...hence the name. It was the last real rockin show of the tour, and we left it all out there. Boone and Ginny, you guys are the best! Thanks for putting us up and making the fort a second home. Tonight is meadowlark coffee in lincoln, which will give a more chill atmosphere to wind down the trip. We'll get to kick it with josh hill(of the josh hill band). Definitely check him out on myspace...he's in our top friends I think...mine for sure. Dude is super talented and funny as hell.
Wow, is the tour really over? I guess...but the circus will keep rollin as always. Our first show back in madison is the clean lakes festival at 11:30 on saturday the 6th. That night, of course is kenny's 4th annual birthday mustache bash, and you have my guarantee for madness.
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this tour great; y'all put your foot in this...both of them.

Home, home is where I always want to be. - josh rouse

Cheers.