Friday, February 25, 2005

Here we are...

We made it safely to Tacoma and I'm writing from the hotel room now. The week behind us has been all kinds of interesting... more on that later, folks, I just want to let you know that we (and our instruments) got here safe and sound.

As usual on the road, internet access is intermittent, so thus the delay in a post from any of us. Here's a bit of an update.

We played one set this afternoon and while we were tired, I think it went over really well. It was a "workshop" set, "Meet the Wilders". I think we gave folks a decent intro... tonite we play a late night set at "Club Wintergrass"... it's a night full of dancing, but not called square dances, just any kind of dancing. Should be fun and boy, I can say I'm already glad that we don't have a set until tomorrow evening. Usually we play in the afternoon and then the evening but this time we get to sleep in... I can't wait.

This festival is a big'un. There's all kinds of folks jamming everywhere you go. I asked when we checked in if they had a quiet floor (the term for when you're at a hotel festival and there are floors that are designated no jamming -- thus the quiet) -- but no such luck here. They said they tried that and it didn't work, so they just let the jamming happen wherever and whenever... I'm hoping that us being on the 19th floor will help cut down on too much late night noise. When I really want to sleep, I really don't want to hear guitars and loud voices, you know?

Anyway... shows so far have been good. Cain's was fun -- thanks to y'all who were there, we sure appreciated your support! Wichita was also fun as it really helped to kick off the tour at a festival where everybody knows us and is right there with us from the start. I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend and then onward... upward... there will be perhaps some more detailed posts coming up but for now, let's leave it at this.

I'm feeling like this is a letter and it always kind of is for me, so now I'll say I hope you all are well and safe and happy... hope to see you soon, take care!

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Updates, albeit scattered

Hey y'all,

I just saw a news flash on Blogspot when I logged on and they have updated the way comments worked. I wondered what some of you were talking about... that must be it. Creating a new post looks the same to me though.

By the way, the Trading Spouses thing got shrunk to one episode -- I heard from Dan O'Brien this week -- and it will air on Monday, this Monday, 2/14. Since it's so short, there's even less chance of a Nate sighting, but maybe there's still hope.

So, yes, Salt Lake City was cancelled. We got the call Tuesday night! They were just not selling enough tickets and so they pulled the plug. A drag, but then again, it's kinda nice to be home this weekend to get ready for the tour. Though we could have used the sales for the band bank account.

Speaking of sales, there should very soon be a new button on our Goods page for the DVD, thanks to our web page dude. At that time y'all can order via Paypal. I will try to keep an eye on that and at that time will send out an email to the mailing list. I still haven't seen the finished video myself! Maybe we'll watch it on the road.

I have spent a lot of time in the past couple of days on the ol' iBook, emailing daily several times with Agent Mary, making more cyberconnections in preparation for the tour, making small handbills for various upcoming shows, mailing them, updating our schedule page,... on and on. That kind of work alone makes for nearly a full-time job. That also means that I am finally feeling better and I believe I'm out of the chest cold woods. It was a tough run! I was fine down in Louisiana but might have caught some more germs from Dirk's baby daughter, or something like that. So it was relapse city and a tough weekend in Lawrence. Thanks again to all of you for your well wishes.

Man, I hope we have a good crowd in Tulsa! I think it ought to be decent -- look forward to seeing some of you there -- my folks might even come, although they usually go to Tulsa for the opera (Mme. Butterfly is my dad's favorite)... my Mom read a story online somewhere about the ghost of Bob Wills which reportedly haunts Cain's. So we'd better do a good job or risk the wrath of Mr. Western Swing himself!

I never said anything about Louisiana. If I had to sum it up, here's what I'd say:

Louisiana rocks.
So does Dirk Powell.
I can't wait to go back there again.
Don't know when that'll be.
Hope we can do our next album with him too.
This album will be groundbreaking (I think).

As you all know, I could say more but I'll leave it at that, for now. It's hard to do but a good challenge for me.

Hopefully my story-writing skills will strengthen when we hit the road... this post is a bit scattered and multi-topical, but I just wanted to hit on a few things for y'all. So now you have the latest... y'all are the greatest.