It's late August, and our 3& 1/2 week summer tour with Troy, NY power trio Super 400 has been over for a couple of weeks now.  This past July was one of the busiest months the Easy has ever seen, and I needed some serious decompression time before tackling this blizzog.  But to put it in perspective, we hit 10 states, 16 cities, and covered thousands of miles in just over 3 weeks.  There were 3 legs, one in the northeast, one in MO, and one in the south.

Of course, no extensive tour that we embark upon would be complete without Murphy(our sorry excuse for transportation) having some major go wrong each week of the tour at the most inopportune times......the movie "the Money Pit" comes to mind.....we chose to name the van Murphy not long after we got it because Murphy's Law was and still is directly applicable to this piece of rolling excrement.  Anything(and everything) that could possibly go wrong has never failed to since we've owned it., and it has brought with it nothing but utter anguish, and has done nothing but cause us undue mental & emotional stress, not to mention the mounds of dollars it has cost us.  It's unbreakable stranglehold on our finances continues still.  We hate it, and we curse the greedy, miserable souls who sold it to us.       The prosecution rests.

Vehicle trouble notwithstanding the tour was as Borat says "great success"  and "nice" .  the Super 400 is a kick ass rock band , and we wish them nothing but the best of fortune.  Our tour started in their hometown of Troy, NY.  There were lots of people there, and it was great fun.  We continued on to Garwood & Asbury Park, NJ, Cambridge & Worcester, MA, and also in Manhattan & Albany, NY.  We stayed with our good friend Frank @ his house in rural New Jersey and enjoyed numerous games of washers, episodes of Hogan's Heroes, Match Game, & other tv relics from a bygone era.  Frank was extremely gracious and generous to us and we'd love to visit him again soon.  While we were traveling, we experienced a savory moment of east coast attitude.  While we were pulling out of a gas station, we got to exchange pleasentries with one of the locals. we got a loud "UP YOURS!"  in a thick Jersey accent.(of course Ryan egged him on) Just that alone made the trip worth it.

Our trek continued in our territory with shows in Springfield, Columbia & KC, Mo, and Fayetteville, AR.  Those were all fun shows, and we were glad to introduce our crowd to the rockin Super 400.  We then sailed into Dixie with shows in Oxford MS, Tuscaloosa AL, Charlotte NC, Atlanta GA, where our friend Mark treated us to the delicious Fox Bros. BBQ, and finished up in Memphis TN, our home away from home, and the home of Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken.  I know there's lots of awesome places to eat in Memphis, but Gus's has become a tradition for us, and if you're in the area, we vehemently encourage you to eat there.

Anyhoo, the tour was a great experience for all of us, and we hope to rock with the Super 400 again soon. 

til' next time,  keep it between the ditches, Easy Nation!

see ya on the road! 

A couple of weeks ago, we arrived home from a 3-week long tour of the southeastern U.S.  With lots of things happening in our personal lives the past couple of years, we had been sticking fairly close to home, mostly doing shows in our immediate area.  So after the release of "All Your New Favorite Songs" we thought it'd be a good time to do some touring.  We hit Alabama, Georgia, and both of the Carolinas.  

  Our grumpy old van, Murphy reached the "mile"stone of 200,000, and didn't break down even once!! (knock on wood now, please!) But even if he had, it wouldn't have ruined our good times!  We played a set @ the Day Celebration Festival in rural Georgia which was lots of fun.  Before that, we stopped in Greenville, Columbia & Charleston SC,  where we hit the beach & got lots of sand between our toes.  We also played in NASCAR country. Charlotte NC is the home of the historic Double Door where Eric Clapton is said to have once stepped on the stage along with many other blues greats. 

Fortune had it that our good friends, the legendary California rock band LIttle Feat were playing in Charlotte the same night we were!  So, of course the twins(Shawn & Marcus) got to sit in with them, and in turn, our good buddy Fred Tackett returned the favor & came down to play with us for a couple of tunes! It's always a great pleasure to share the stage with such an accomplished & esteemed rock&roll warrior such as Fred.  He has been very good to us & we owe him a great deal of gratitude.

The Day Celebration in Georgia was quite a time as well.  There were lots of kick-ass bands, but my fave was funk-nasty Sacred Steel artists The Lee Boys.  We also got to see our bud Ralph Roddenberry who is an awesome songwriter and an even cooler dude.  Col. Bruce Hampton's Quark Alliance with our Arkansas buddy Perry Osborn playing guitar put on quite the show as well. 

Music is definitely in the air & a defining characteristic of the south, and we're going back there in July and again in the fall to take in the scenery, eat some home cookin, and rawk more sawks off!!!