Another great show with Michael Morris tonight

Just got home from the 400 Bar when once again I sat in with Michael Morris and band for their Tuesday night residency. Man, Michael's got some wonderful and classic-sounding songs, and a good good band to back him up. I was busy tonight: played accordion, melodica, harmonica, 6-string banjo, and here's some pix of me playing mandolin with him. Those of you folks in the Twin Cites, go to Michael Morris' MySpace Page and check out his performance schedule...you've gotta see this guy now so you can say you saw him in the early days before he got HUGE.

Why has is been five years since I played in somebody else's band? It's SO FUN to do this kind of gig. I always enjoyed being Beki Hemingway's keyboard/mandolin guy, and it's great to be back in that role for a couple gigs. I guess I haven't really heard anybody whose music I have felt strongly enough about to want to back 'em up, but Mr. Morris is the real deal. It's exciting to see the wave he's catching, and it's impressive to see how forward-thinking and intentional he's being about his art AND his business.

Watching Michael start so strong right out of the gate gives me all sorts of weird ideas. Like, what if I changed my name, or started a band with a "band name," wrote all-new songs, totally reinvented myself, and started over from zero knowing what I know now about songwriting/showbiz, etc.? Last month after I show I went back to my hotel room and watched a VH1 special about the country band Sugarland. Interesting story...that's what they did: a bunch of singer/songwriters (including Kristian Bush, who I listened to ten years ago in his first band Billy Pilgrim) get together, start a new band with a new name, write all new songs, and totally reinvent themselves. BOOM. An effective way to kick some new life into their careers.

As I've spent the past few months assembling this forthcoming "Best of the 20th Century" CD (for release in early 2007, I hope) I've been realizing that this music career I'm conducting is really the exact same track that I've been on since I was 16 years old. I've always done what I've done the entire time. That's pretty rare in this business, methinks. Well, no plans for reinvention at this stage in the game. Soldier on as always!