Had an inspiring weekend with the wonderful Vancouver Symphony under the direction of Jeff Tyzik. Then raced back for the Carlyle Sunday night where we played for a fun crowd including Broadway star, Haydn Gwynne, who’s currently in Richard III with Kevin Spacey.

Had a great time ringing in the New Year with show biz legend, Don Rickles, at Harrah’s in Atlantic City.  Sold out crowd and Don’s definitely still got it.  Look forward to more with him in 2012.

Happy Birthday to my nephew Troy who turns 3 today. He just happens to share Frank Sinatra’s birthday, too, who would have been 96 today.

My homecoming was turned into a really wonderful holiday kick off.  Following the performance at my high school I had the great privilege to attend the Glens Falls Christmas Tree Lighting.  Check out the photo of me and Glens Falls Mayor, Jack Diamond.

Hey everybody – it’s been a while since my last tour post.  But it’s my goal to get this part of the site back up to date – so check back for all my travel/tour news.

In November I had the wonderful opportunity to return to high school and my hometown.  What a welcome!  I had a great time playing at the school, several of my teachers were there as well as some school friends.  They just made the event so special, a real homecoming.  Thanks to everyone who turned out.

The vote was in – here is the 2nd annual Christmas song/card

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0evfDGNlnw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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!

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.

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

We’ve had a great time in Sioux City.  We went out on the town last night and ended up at the Firehouse, a local bar that once was a real firehouse.

Our soundman/road manager Ross is a great guy and we’re starting to get into the routine.  Had a great show tonight and now we have to get up early to start off to Pierre, SD for a matinee tomorrow.