I'm on my way to Nashville this weekend! Moving is proving....hectic, shall we say? So if you've sent a message or anything and I haven't gotten back to you, don't take it personally.

I'm excited to get to Tennessee and settle in. Nashville seems like such a great town, and all the people I've met there so far have been so nice. If you're from that area or familiar with the town and have any tips, feel free to let me know ;-)

I'm off for more packing and moving madness! Stay tuned for updates once I reach the sunny South.

No, not the fact that my A/C is finally in the window and running - though I'm pretty darn excited about that. Nor the fact that I get to play two shows for all y'all this weekend - though I'm SUPER excited about that.

No, the big news of which I speak is the fact that I will be moving. In the macro sense. From Boston...to Nashville. In August I'm going to (somehow, as yet to be determined) cram everything I own into my car and trek 1000 miles to set up residence in Music City.

What does this really mean? Well, it means I'm selling as much of my stuff as I can (anyone want a desk for cheap?)... it means I'm looking to make friends with people in Tennessee (anyone?).... and it means I won't be around as much. That's the sad part.

I'm planning to get back to Boston and New York at least a few times a year to hang out and play some music, but it won't be as often as it's been. So THAT means that we should all take advantage of this 'last' summer, and live it up! Come out to the shows if you can, say hi, hang out....and if you're around Boston, come out to all the other great live music that'll be happening. I know I'll be out and about as much as I can be. It'll be like the summer after high school all over again.... except with real IDs, without curfews, with better perspective on so many things....and just way cooler all around.

On that note, I need to get back to my to-do list, which seems truly endless these days. I hope I'll see ALL of you this weekend to kick off our 'summer of love'. or something. :-)

Be well. Stay cool.

Hey folks,

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. For the last few weeks I've been nursing a sprained thumb, which makes typing difficult. Before that, my only excuse is how busy life was all spring.

I'm getting psyched, though, for the shows in June. My thumb has made playing pretty much impossible for a while, so it'll be really good to finally get back up with the boys and play some music.

I'm also psyched for this duo show Brian and I are playing. I'll miss having Max and Steve with us for the evening, but I think the new take on the songs is actually pretty awesome - that whole "stripped down, acoustic" thing people are always talking about. It gives everything a new spin, and it's a lot of fun to find a new side to a song we've been playing for a while.

Now I'm off to soak up some sunlight (through my SPF 45) while it lasts. I just wanted to say hello, and I hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend!

See you ....soon?

In case you’re wondering how the cupcakes were last weekend - they were delicious, shortly after midnight, standing on a street corner in the East Village. Delicious. Everyone involved agreed.

The show was slightly less delicious: we arrived to find that there was essentially no gear and no sound system. This made things a bit tricky. Lucky for us, guitar-man Brian hopped into a nearby phone booth and Super Soundguy emerged to save the day. er. save the night, I guess. So, in the end, we did get to serenade the crowd in that funny little leopard-print-clad basement, with the sounds of the drag cabaret upstairs wafting through the open door.

Someday we’ll find ourselves a ’home’ in The City, but until then the adventure continues.....

We’re super excited about heading down to NYC for the show this weekend. Some of us are also super excited about stopping at Billy’s Bakery, on 9th Ave., for the most amazing cupcakes in existence. Best $2 you’ll ever spend, really. (Unless you’re allergic to baked goods, in which case you might want to abstain.) My personal favorite is the chocolate cupcake with the pastel-colored buttercream icing.

If we can time the sugar high just right, it should be an amazing show  ;-)

I don't know who first renamed February 14th Single Persons' Awareness Day (SPAD) - I heard about it from a friend one year and have been a fan ever since.

I generally think Valentine's Day is a terrible holiday. The only good thing about it is the excuse to eat chocolate, but who needs an excuse for that? No, I think Valentine's Day is basically stupid. A boost for the greeting card companies and florists. And yet, too many people spend V-Day sitting around feeling sorry for themselves because they don't have 'significant others' to coo and cuddle with.

Lame. This year, get off your ass and come celebrate SPAD. I'm psyched to have something really fun to do on February 14th, and an excuse to spend the evening with a bunch of my friends. You should come spend the evening with my friends, too. They're pretty cool. We'll be at Church (the new venue on Kilmarnock St., not a religious establishment), and the boys and I will be making some noise starting at 10pm.

So stuff that heart shaped box of chocolates in your pocket - they'll go well with your beer. (or glass of wine, if that's your thing.) Put on a cute outfit - or don't, we don't care. (See? another benefit over having an awkward date.) Grab all your friends - hell, grab your 'significant other' if you've got one, we won't discriminate against the happily (or unhappily) coupled. Just come hang out.

Do something fun on February 14th for once.

SPAD.

http://www.ascap.com/press/2008/0128_bergman.aspx

Read it. Get outraged.

We can't seem to live without music - it's piped into grocery stores and elevators, chopped into bite sized pieces for ringtones, and pasted behind every program and advertisement on television - but apparently the "powers that be" don't find any value in the creation of music. They think the people who sell music should be very well compensated. But the people who actually make the music? The ones who stay up into the wee hours writing, after getting home from their bill-paying day jobs; the ones who spend dollars they don't have to keep their instruments in playable condition; the ones who beg friends for rides because they can't get where they're going on public transportation but can't afford cars; the ones who spend hours and hours practicing their instruments and honing their skills; the ones who craft each note and word of the songs that make up our daily soundtracks.... apparently those people don't deserve a dime.

We have forgotten to value what's important. We cannot see past Wall Street. We are neglecting the substantive endeavors of life (fine and performance arts, literature, culture of all kinds) and we are in ever-growing danger of losing them all together.

So read about it. Get pissed off. Make some noise. What kind of world do you want to live in?

I consider myself quite fortunate to have some ridiculously talented friends. You've already heard about some of them (and hear some of them on stage and on the CD), but I think Ms. Amy Lithimane is new to you. She just gave me the photos she took at my most recent Boston shows, and I've put some of them up for y'all to peruse at your leisure.

Thank you, Amy, for rocking that SLR camera the way you do.

That always seemed rather extreme to me: "I'll sleep when I'm dead." I love sleeping. I wish I were sleeping right now. But lately I've begun to understand this hyperbolic statement, as the things I have to do and the things I want to do conspire to keep me away from my bed and my glorious down comforter.

There are definitely things in life for which it is worth getting four hours of sleep. Being able to pay the rent is one of them.

But now there is a day to be tackled - or at least not slept through - and so, for everyone out there who has not slept and is just trying to make it to 5... I bid you farewell and wish you lots of caffeinated productivity. Now thank the deity of your choice that it's Friday, and let's all sleep in tomorrow.

First off, if you don't know about Pandora you're way behind. Go to www.pandora.com now and catch up. It's THE online radio station, based on the 'music genome project', which lets you seed your own stations with artists or songs you like and fills them in with other similar artists/songs based on a whole slew of criteria they've come up with.

Now that you're up to speed... I submitted the album to Pandora for inclusion back when I first got it from Discmakers, and I just found out that I'm in! So you can start your very own 'Alison Wood' station, or if you're listening to another station and my songs fit the right criteria, I might pop up. AWESOME.

If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about this. So go to Pandora, put in my name, and get a little excited on my behalf