clean towels in Nebraska

This is my first blog since the Virginia Tech tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims as well as their family and friends. VT was the first college I performed my own music at, thanks to a good friend who has since graduated. It was an outdoor concert that we did in 2003.

I have a birthday show at the Hotel Cafe this Thursday, April 26th at 10 pm: come one, come all. I've also uploaded a bunch of photos to my myspace page. Feast your eyes, if you're hungry.

'Member when I posted that blog saying I was going to put a new song on my myspace page? The whole "you can add a fifth song" thing to the myspace profile was apparently only for a limited amount of time. Regardless, I decided to yank "Realistic Fantasy" and insert "Easy for You" into the starting lineup. Enjoy.

I've safely returned from a musical raid on the great plains. I played Omaha, Lincoln, and Kearney, NE as well as Manhattan (the Kansas one). It was a trio tour, featuring Joel Fountain on drums and Jesse Chandler on keys. Joel and I played a bunch together in college. He was also an integral part of the garage/songwriters weekly workshop we did back in '04 with Alan Hampton. Jesse was a member of Qedrowan, (no that's not a typo) the band that Overground morphed into. Jesse plays a mean keyboard, or morg, if you prefer. *Special shout-out to Brian Corey for lending us gear. If you need a Rhodes, he's your dude.*

This tour was brought to you by the letter "Z" and the good people at Nebraska Furniture Mart. We played their awards banquet, and it marked the first time that I played "the jazz" before playing a set of "the rock and the roll". It was a "worlds collide" sort of gig that left me with a swollen lower lip from playing more soprano saxophone then I'm used to these days.

We invaded my folks' place, as I am apt to do when I'm back in the home country. Home cooked meals make it feel more like a luxury vacation (they wash the towels A LOT in Omaha) than a tour. I'm ok with this. Dues are paid in other places.

On all these shows we shared the stage with Sarah Benck and Matt Whipkey. It brings a little tear to the eye to think of all the great musicians I've gotten to know over the past few years of touring. Big ups, yo!

I found out on this trip that Nebraska passed a concealed gun law in April of 2006. Our third show of the mini-tour was in Kearney, Nebraska. There was a pool table full of chicks and dudes who were completely trashed by the time we walked in for sound check. Later, Matt Whipkey was on stage, and doing his best to rock in spite of their drunken loudness. He dedicated a Springsteen cover to them and after a little banter back and forth we heard the alpha male of the pool table yell "I oughta take you back and shootchya!" The trick is, Jesse observed this guy stretching earlier and the guy was actually packing heat. Now, I don't mean he had an easy-bake oven in a backpack, the guy had a pistol tucked into his pants. This was mind-blowing to me. After the dude made his "takeyaoutbackandshootchya" comment, I started knocking on wood to see if the table I was sitting at would be thick enough to stop a bullet. Not good times.

After the Viriginia Tech massacre I read an article that Ted Nugent wrote for CNN saying that gun free zones are responsible for the high number of fatalities in Blacksburg. His idea seems to be that if we are all armed and someone goes nuts then he or she will only get a round or two off before getting mowed down. This is true. Shooting sprees with a high number of casualties were probably not prevalent in the old west (at least not in the movies) when many people were armed. The problem is, everyone runs a high risk of being shot at all times when all people around you have a lethal weapon. For example, you run the risk of becoming target practice on stage in Kearney, NE.

I have no doubt that the guy in the bar the other night felt safe because he had a weapon to defend himself. I, on the other hand, did not feel safe. I would prefer not to need Kevlar to sponsor tours.

Thanks for reading and see you Thursday, if you're able.