Back home, East Coast tour summary, etc.
I got home one week ago from my East Coast tour, and it's taken me this long to get re-stabilized. Finally, some free minutes to post a blog update! Thanks to everybody out East who booked me, hosted me, and came out to the shows. It was a very encouraging and fulfilling trip, and I really enjoyed sharing music with y'all for 10 days.
Thought I'd share some nice photos of some of the old and new friends I encountered on my trip. First of all, here's my pal Sarah Marshall of Baltimore, MD. Sarah's been listening to my music for years, has seen me perform a few times over the years, and even attended a songwriting workshop that I facilitated down in Virginia years ago. These days Sarah's dealing with some health concerns that prevent her from road-tripping to concerts, but I was very happy to visit her in her inner sanctum (and she even wore her Salt Lady Records tshirt for the occasion!). Sarah is a very wise and fiercely creative person, and I'm pleased to say I may have nagged her into starting her own blog! Check out Sarah's posts, and maybe you, too, will learn about Tanka poetry. Funnily enough, super-Hollywood-producer Jud Apatow will be releasing another comedy blockbuster in Spring 2008, and the movie is called "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"...but I don't think it's about the Sarah that I know. She is quite unforgettable.
This cute boy is Zachary Spahr, the son of my long-time friends Brian & Michelle who are finishing up their seminary years in Gettysburg. Little Zachary has also been facing some serious health concerns, but thankfully he's doing very well these days, attending rock concerts, and absorbing the world around him. My son Paavo has included Zachary in his evening prayers every night since Zachary's birth, so it was very special for me to meet Zachary in person for the first time. Here's Zachary's blog and message board.
This takes you, dear readers, up to Wednesday of the tour, where I blogged the last time from NYC. I woke up in the studio, and zipped down to 14th Street to meet my musical pal George Baum for a breakfast appointment. You may be familiar with George, thanks to his fine work as one-half of the acoustic duo Lost And Found. George is one of the finest instrumentalists and songwriters that I know, plus he has excellent musical taste...we've been known to play Annie Lennox and Paul Simon covers on the occasions that we perform together.
These fine looking young men are me and George in a torrential rainstorm outside of Madison Square Garden on 7th Avenue in New York City last week. Yup, the Garden, where Zeppelin performed, and where George and I enjoyed a bagel and vitamin water for breakfast. Thanks to George's guidance, I managed to buy a ticket and find the right outbound platform for my New Jersey Transit train ride back to my rental car, and I successfully resumed my tour that afternoon.
Played Thursday night in Huntingdon Valley, PA, and the musical highlights included a cover version of the song "All You Zombies" by legendary Philly rock band The Hooters, as well as a request for "Wide Awake" for an audience member that heard me play it on tour in Germany way back in 1991. Now that's a supportive fan (thanks Michael, you're awesome)! I also served as the guest musician that evening as well as Friday morning at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and man, can those seminarians SING. I taught them the tones for "Psalm Tone Blues" and they hit it out of the park.
My tour concluded with a weekend convention on the Jersey Shore called "Among the Wolves" (aaahhhoooooo!). 'Twas wonderful to witness the fantastic community of folks in New Jersey, and to be welcomed so warmly by them.
My flight home last Sunday night was uneventful, and I was thrilled to reunited with my family! It's been very very nice to be back with my sweetie after such a long tour. Here's a photo of Dawn, who occasionally gets told that she looks like author J. K. Rowling. Yeah, I can see it.
The inlaws visited last week, and were kind enough to watch the kiddos so I could get some work done. Thanksgiving was fun, the food was delicious, and I spent the long weekend updating my webpage and doing the not-so-glamorous business side of showbiz. Played mandolin in the church bluegrass band this morning, and did some more domestic stuff today. That's the news. I'm glad to be home! Oh, and my album of the week is Rising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, produced by T Bone Burnett.
Thought I'd share some nice photos of some of the old and new friends I encountered on my trip. First of all, here's my pal Sarah Marshall of Baltimore, MD. Sarah's been listening to my music for years, has seen me perform a few times over the years, and even attended a songwriting workshop that I facilitated down in Virginia years ago. These days Sarah's dealing with some health concerns that prevent her from road-tripping to concerts, but I was very happy to visit her in her inner sanctum (and she even wore her Salt Lady Records tshirt for the occasion!). Sarah is a very wise and fiercely creative person, and I'm pleased to say I may have nagged her into starting her own blog! Check out Sarah's posts, and maybe you, too, will learn about Tanka poetry. Funnily enough, super-Hollywood-producer Jud Apatow will be releasing another comedy blockbuster in Spring 2008, and the movie is called "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"...but I don't think it's about the Sarah that I know. She is quite unforgettable.
This cute boy is Zachary Spahr, the son of my long-time friends Brian & Michelle who are finishing up their seminary years in Gettysburg. Little Zachary has also been facing some serious health concerns, but thankfully he's doing very well these days, attending rock concerts, and absorbing the world around him. My son Paavo has included Zachary in his evening prayers every night since Zachary's birth, so it was very special for me to meet Zachary in person for the first time. Here's Zachary's blog and message board.This takes you, dear readers, up to Wednesday of the tour, where I blogged the last time from NYC. I woke up in the studio, and zipped down to 14th Street to meet my musical pal George Baum for a breakfast appointment. You may be familiar with George, thanks to his fine work as one-half of the acoustic duo Lost And Found. George is one of the finest instrumentalists and songwriters that I know, plus he has excellent musical taste...we've been known to play Annie Lennox and Paul Simon covers on the occasions that we perform together.
These fine looking young men are me and George in a torrential rainstorm outside of Madison Square Garden on 7th Avenue in New York City last week. Yup, the Garden, where Zeppelin performed, and where George and I enjoyed a bagel and vitamin water for breakfast. Thanks to George's guidance, I managed to buy a ticket and find the right outbound platform for my New Jersey Transit train ride back to my rental car, and I successfully resumed my tour that afternoon.Played Thursday night in Huntingdon Valley, PA, and the musical highlights included a cover version of the song "All You Zombies" by legendary Philly rock band The Hooters, as well as a request for "Wide Awake" for an audience member that heard me play it on tour in Germany way back in 1991. Now that's a supportive fan (thanks Michael, you're awesome)! I also served as the guest musician that evening as well as Friday morning at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and man, can those seminarians SING. I taught them the tones for "Psalm Tone Blues" and they hit it out of the park.
My tour concluded with a weekend convention on the Jersey Shore called "Among the Wolves" (aaahhhoooooo!). 'Twas wonderful to witness the fantastic community of folks in New Jersey, and to be welcomed so warmly by them.My flight home last Sunday night was uneventful, and I was thrilled to reunited with my family! It's been very very nice to be back with my sweetie after such a long tour. Here's a photo of Dawn, who occasionally gets told that she looks like author J. K. Rowling. Yeah, I can see it.
The inlaws visited last week, and were kind enough to watch the kiddos so I could get some work done. Thanksgiving was fun, the food was delicious, and I spent the long weekend updating my webpage and doing the not-so-glamorous business side of showbiz. Played mandolin in the church bluegrass band this morning, and did some more domestic stuff today. That's the news. I'm glad to be home! Oh, and my album of the week is Rising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, produced by T Bone Burnett.
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