Happy New Year!  It is one of my favorite yearly traditions, the making of the DP "Best Of The Year" Awards.  I know you enjoy them almost as much as me, and without further addooooo, here we go;

Top 5 Gigs of 2007
5) Rick's Music, Raynham, MA.  4/20.  A music store/café with very nice folks. The concert was also a fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, a great organiztion that builds homes for injured soldiers. 

4) Sweet Grass Café, Oscoda, MI. 9/14.  A lovely, quaint café in a small town on the shores of Lake Huron.  A cool early autumn night, with homemade apple pie, and the Paul Bunyan Festival going on across the street.

3) Electric Brew, Goshen, IN with Greg Adkins.  2/10. The Electric Brew has always been one of my favorite venues, it was great to have Greg Adkins share the stage with me, playing for a full house.  As usual, the pregame meal was at the South Side Diner!

2) Messages Concert Series, St. Augustine, FL  7/28.  TheDP 2006 DJ of the Year, Stu Weaver of WFCF in St. Augustine started a new concert series at Flagler College, and I was the first concert of the series, quite an honor.  A wonderful crowd in an old historic building on a beautiful summer night.

1) Swallow Hill, Denver, CO. 5/19.  Probably the 1 gig of all-time.  I got my start as a performer back in high school at Swallow Hill open mics.  I also took numerous lessons and workshops at Swallow Hill, and always dreamed of performing there.  To be a headliner was really an honor, made even better because the incomparable Rob Seals flew out from LA to accompany me on stage.  It was a near sell-out, playing to an enthusiastic crowd filled with old friends.  Perfect!

Best Tour of 2007 - February Midwest Tour with Greg Adkins – I almost always travel and perform solo, but travelling and sharing 5 gigs with Greg was a wonderful experience.  We played in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, which in retrospect, are not the best places to be in February!  The gigs were great, and it was fun swapping songs with Greg, and learning his songs.  Depsite being a Tennessee fan, he is still an OK guy.

Best Tour of 2007 (family version) - October tour in Ohio with my baby girl, Emma Lynn.  You can read all the details of the tour complete with pictures in my blog post from October, but it was a wonderful experience having my sweet baby (she's 4 now, but she'll still be my baby even when she's 20) on the road with me.

Best New Artist of 2007 – Brad Yoder.  It is true that Brad Yoder is not a "new" artist.  He's not even really new to me, as I met him in 2006, but at this year's Northeast Folk Alliance Conference, he really caught my ear, and I became a huge fan.  I now own all of his CD's, and can't get enough.  It also turns out, he used to work at the South Side Diner in Goshen, IN.  Small, wonderful world!  www.bradyoder.com

Best Concert of 2007 – A brief 20-minute showcase by Lowen & Navarro at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis is this year's best concert.  Lowen & Navarro is one of my favorite acts, and Eric Lowen is suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease.  It was an extremely inspirational moment to see Eric, barely able to lift his hands, but still playing his heart out, even to a small crowd in a hotel room in Memphis.  Magical.

Best CD of 2007 – Going to put 2 CD's on this list.

Brad Yoder - Someday Or Never.  This record features some fantastic songwriting, and such solid production, that it works for me even though it is pretty far away from my normal listening range.  I got this CD on November 11th, and despite only having it for 6 weeks of 2007, I know I listened to it more than any other CD I got this year. 'School Together' is my favorite song of the year, and is just one of many gems on this great project.

Greg Adkins – Chase The Western Sky.  The harmony vocals on this CD are so amazing, they alone make the purchase worthwhile. (J)  Seriously though, my cameo aside, this is a great, great record.  Greg worked with producer Chris Rosser in Asheville, and put together a great collection of songs.  www.gregadkinsmusic.com

Vacation of the Year – Taking the kids to Disney World for the first time was a wonderful time.  Disney World is really a great experience for the kids, and to see the joy on their faces was priceless.  I kind of liked the rides too!

Musicians Day Off Day Of The Year – As if going to Disney World wasn't enough for one year, in October, I went to Disneyland with two of my best friends and musical compatriotes. (I have no idea if that is a word).  I joined Rob Seals , producer/sideman extraordinaire (and his wife the Ashbear) and Ryan Brown, long time friend and drummer  for a great day of roller coasters and spinny things.  If you ever go to Disneyland, you need to go with Ryan Brown, he could write the Disneyland handbook.

Sweep Of The Year - The Cleveland Browns take both games from the Baltimore Suckens, I mean Ravens. The 2nd game, an overtime victory in Baltimore was sweet, with a last second, game tying field goal from Phil Dawson, that hit the upright, bounced in and out and in, and left Baltimore fans sick to their stomachs, which is how they deserve to be!

Have I Seen This Before? Football Game of the Year – Auburn defeats Florida for the second year in a row!  Florida may be last year's defending champ, and a football powerhouse, but my boy Tommy Tuberville absolutely owns Urban Meyer.

Have I Seen This 6 times Before? Football Game of the Year – Auburn beats rival Alabama for the 6th straight year.  Auburn is undefeated in the Iron Bowl since the birth of Christopher Potts in 2001.

Fantasy Baseball Performance Of The Year - 'Thome's Tigers', managed by Dave Potts.  This fantasy baseball team finished 5 out of 11,000 teams on sportingnews.com. 

Book of the Year – Yeah, right, we'll just pretend like I read so many books, I could never pick just one:)

Movie Of The Year – I took a lot of heat for last years choice of Talladega Nights as movie of the year.  That made me very tempted to go with Blades of Glory for this years movie of the year, but I'll refrain, and go with 'Dan In Real Life'.  Great acting by Steve Carrel, as my favorite character from another show (The Office), he did a great job of creating a new, believable character, that I never confused with Michael Scott.

I spent the weekend at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Monticello, NY. For those of you unfamiliar with Folk Alliance Conferences, it is a few hundred songwriters getting together with concert presenters, DJ's and other folk music industry people, and spending 3 days sharing songs and coffee. The idea of attending these conferences is usually to try and get gigs, increase name recognition in the scene, and generally hope to enhance your career.
However, for me this weekend turned into getting much needed inspiration from fellow songwriters. I did have several showcases, and hopefully will get some work out of that, but really I felt more like an audience member than anything else.
Here are my highlights from the weekend;
The trio 'We're About 9' was probably my favorite act at the conference. I have known of them for years, but have only heard them play one or two songs, and didn't realize how much I liked their music. Great harmonies and energy, but the quirky, inventive songwriting is what really stood out to me. Check them out at www.wereaboutnine.com

My best single moment of the conference was hearing Joe Crookston play his song 'Freddy The Falcon' at a small late-night showcase. I heard the song last year when he had just written it, and the chorus was stuck in my head for the whole year, and I would occassionally find myself humming it. Usually when I remember a song that fondly from the past, it often ends up disappointing me when I hear it again, but this song was even better than I remember it. I got that wonderful chill in the spine feeling that can't really be properly described. That song is going to be on his upcoming CD, but in the meantime you should check out his last CD, 'Fall Down As The Rain' at www.joecrookston.com

Another gem that I somehow overlooked last year, and didn't even fully appreciate until listening to his CD's on the way home is Brad Yoder. He is not your typical folk singer/songwriter. He's a little more pop than most folkies, and he's got more funny songs and quirky songs than I usually like, but upon honest evaluation, I think I'd proabably have to put 3-4 of his songs in my Top 10 of the conference. It's pretty hard for me to describe his writing, except to say I listened to his CD's for 2 hours driving home from the airport, and when I got home, I immediately put them on and listened again because I just had to hear them more than once. He's got several free mp3's on his website, www.bradyoder. Do yourself a favor, and go download 'Local Band', 'Excellent Trouble' and 'Everybody's Got A Record'. Then, send him a couple bucks because this music is too good to be free.

There were other old friends who I always love to hear, including Jud Caswell, Joe Jencks, Amy Speace, Marc Douglas Berardo, Anthony Da Costa and Karen Mal. They are all worth checking out. Jud and I will be touring together in the Northeast in 2008.
There were also some new faces that I was unfamiliar with, that I am glad to have found out about, including Laura Bullock who's song 'The Net Below' was one of my favorites of the weekend. I was also pleasantly surprised to see my old friend Jenny Goodspeed, who has just released a new CD. Jenny is the harmony vocalist from my 'South Side Diner' CD. She joined me on 'One Mississippi' for old-time's sake, even though we hadn't rehearsed it since 1997, it sounded great.

I started a couple new songs this weekend, and hopefully the spark of inspiration will get me several new songs for you to hear.

Ladies and gentlemen, with no further addieu (addoo? aidooo?), I present the DP Best of 2006 Awards!
Top 5 Gigs of 2006;
5) Moonlight Music Café - Birmingham, AL 4/15 - Opening for Lucy Kaplansky. This was both a great gig, as well as my last time playing at this wonderful venue in B'Ham. Keith H. put his heart and soul into this venue, and made one of the best listening rooms in the Southeast. He had to close his doors this fall, and I will greatly miss him and the Moonlight.
4) O'Susanna Concerts - Blytheville, AR 11/18 - Something about the setting, on a cold winter night in a small town in Arkansas. A small locally-owned bookstore with a wood stove and wooden folding chairs signed by 15 years worth of authors and musicians. David and Susie have done a great job of establishing a concert series in a place you would least expect it.
3) Vanilla Bean Café - Pomfret, CT 9/16 - Opening for Pierce Pettis. Pierce is one of my all-time favorites, so it was quite a thrill to open for him at this charming venue in Connecticut.
2) Acoustic View House Concert - Byron, MN 4/28 - Mike and Stacy started their house concert series after seeing me at Acoustic Ave. House Concert in 2005 (see best of '05) They did a great job in only their 2nd house concert, and had a full living room of about 30 folks.
1) Canyon House Concerts - Phoenix, AZ 12/1 - Absolutely wonderful house concert series in the Sonora Desert of Arizona. A sold-out crowd of 70 packed in, and what a great, receptive audience! Many thanks to Jeanne and John for all their work in putting on the show.
Honorable Mention; Cousin Andy's - Carbondale, IL, Preacher's House Concert - Auburndale, WI (a 2005 Top 5), Prairie Grapevine Folklore Society - Springfield, IL, Mozaic Room - Avon, MA opening for Kate Campbell, Hattiesburg Public Library - Hattiesburg, MS, Daily Grind - Murphy, NC, split gig with Greg Adkins, Cherry Creek Arts Festival - Denver, CO.
Best Tour of 2006; April Midwest Tour - Started out in Hannibal, MO (hometown of Mark Twain), then headed up for a weekend in Appleton, WI for a conference at Calvary Chapel Appleton. I stayed that weekend with the Vanderloops, who make the list of 10 nicest people of 2006. From there, I played at Preacher's House Concerts in Auburndale, which after a great gig there in 2005, I wrote an all-time classic song, 'Punctual in Auburndale', noting how everyone was very on time for my concert. After a fun in-the-round show with Madison Songwriters, I headed off to Minnesota. There I played at Acoustic View House Concert (see Top 5 gigs), another very fun show in Cambridge, MN, where I was treated to a birthday 'Blue Ribbon Brownie' at Applebee's after the gig, and also performed at Book & Bean Café in St. Cloud.
Sideman of the Year - As you know, Rob Seals is my sideman, greatest sideman there is. But with Rob living in LA, we don't get the chance to play together much. This years award is a split-decision. The 2 winners are Rob Slocumb, of the duo, Martha's Trouble, and singer/songwriter Greg Adkins from Knoxville, TN. Rob sat in as part of the "Dave Potts Band" at this year's Summer Swing gig in Opelika and did a great job on backing guitar. Greg and I did 2 shows together this summer, and he learned piano parts to a couple of my tunes, which sounded great. We also did a in-the-round gig where we played together all night, and he jumped in and played on all kinds of tunes he'd never heard before. Greg and I will be doing a Midwest tour together this February.
Best concert I saw this year - Alison Krauss and Union Station at Columbus Civic Center in Columbus, GA. 1/19. Many kudos to my wife for surpising me with tickets for our anniversary.
Favorite new artist or group - I had a great year in meeting and hearing some great new artists. The winner of this award goes to Zane Williams. I met him at Kerrville, and was offended that he didn't win the New Folk Contest. Honorable mention for favorite new artist this year is Jud Caswell, who I also met at Kerrville. Luckily he was one of the winners of the New Folk Contest, so the judges were spared.
Best post-gig lodging - After a very nice, although laryngitis-plagued gig at Sounds of Grace Concert Series in Berryville, VA, I stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast on the banks of the Shenendoah River.
Best radio station/DJ - Probably at this point should give a lifetime acheivment award to WDBX in Carbondale, IL - They won this award last year, so instead of going 2 in a row, we'll give them the LAA. And, the 2006 award goes more to the show 'Messages', hosted by Stu Weaver on WFCF, 88.5FM, St. Augustine, FL. He played the new CD nearly every week on his show after it came out in August, Thanks Stu!
Airline of the Year - And once again, the winner is AirTran! I took my guitar on 5 round trip flights, and was able to carry it on every time!
Best family event of the year - It's a 2-way tie; Barnum and Bailey's Circus, Feb. 15 in Atlanta, and the Alabama National Fair in Montgomery, Oct. 10.
Best half-family event of the Year - Christopher came with me to a gig in Fort Walton Beach, FL, and we spent a day together at the beach, and the swimming pool at the Marriott. About 2 seconds after he woke up, he said "where do you get breakfast around here?"
Best comment made after making a wish from breaking a Scandinavian cookie into 3 pieces (a highly sought after award) - Christopher Allan Potts on his second attempt at breaking the 'wishing cookie' into 3 pieces said, "Dinosaurs have just come alive" Dec. 21, 2006.
Dessert of the Year - It's ashame that I have never given this award before, and if I had I would be giving the Lifetime Achievment Award, as it would be the 3rd straight year for my wife's amazing Candy Bar Cheesecake!
Total Geek Day of the Year Award - I'm awarding myself with the geek day of the year for my first ever live fantasy baseball auction draft, held in Atlanta, April 2, 2006. Come on, Ryan Howard for $16? That's a steal!
Storm of the Year - Feb. 11th, I got snowed into Boston, after flying up to play at Mozaic Room Coffeehouse, I got stuck in one of the largest blizzards in the Northeast in the past 20 years. Luckily I had a wonderful place to stay, and spent a full day watching the Olympics and compiling stats to make fantasy baseball rankings. (speaking of geeks)
College Football Play of the Year - Auburn's blocking a punt, and Tre Smith diving into the endzone touchdown to defeat otherwise unbeaten Florida. Our house is about 2 miles from Jordan-Hare Stadium, and we could hear and feel the stands rocking from here.
NFL Play of the Year - Well, you know, the Browns pretty much sucked again this year, so I'm giving the 2006 NFL play of the Year to the 1989 Cleveland Browns, since I watched their highlight video this year, we'll go with Bernie Kosar's 97-yard touchdown pass to Webster Slaughter against the Bears on Monday Night Football, Oct. 23, 1989.
TV Show of the Year - The Office. It just keeps getting better and better. Incidentally, my booble-head of the year award goes to my Dwight Shrute bobble-head.
Movie of the Year - I apologize for this in advance. But, you know, I've got to be honest here. Millions of people are counting on me for my expertise and my thorough evaluations. As much as you might not want to admit it, you know it's true, the movie of the year was 'Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'. Come on, you know it was.
This year's runner-up, perhaps a bit more legitimate is, 'Inside Man'.
Thanks for tuning in, Happy New Year, and I look forward to seeing y'all in '07. -Dave

Hey y'all -

Very exciting news, the new CD, $12.99 is finished.. It is now at the manufacturer and will be available in just a few weeks.. Rob Seals, as usual, did an amazing job producing this record, I can't wait for y'all to hear it.  I am going to put up some sound clips in the next couple weeks.

In addition to the new CD, I also have brand new T-Shirts, Bumper Sticker and Magnets.  It's like DP-a-merchandise-palooza. 

Hope all is well with you and yours,

DP

So, this is just about the weirdest thing ever – I was in Connecticut last weekend (that's pretty weird in itself, northeasterners LOVE some donuts).  But, here's what happened.  I was staying the night at a Motel 6 in Hartford, CT.  I get a call Saturday morning from an old musician friend that I haven't heard from in at least 2 years.  We start talking, and I tell him that I'm in Hartford.  At that point, he says, "Do you like bowling?"  (always a good question, and for the record, I do not like bowling")  He says, "well, I used to be a semi-pro bowler"  (first time anyone's ever told me that).  Then he tells me he once was in a bowling tournament in Hartford at the 'Bradley Bowl'.  Well, so when I open the curtain to look out the window of room 268 at Motel 6, what do you suppose I see??  You guessed it, 'Bradley Bowl', directly across the street.

There are only 2 words I can use to describe that : Jacked Up!

 

On a side note, there was not a blizzard on this trip to the Northeast, but it was about 55 degrees… and everyone there thought it was so beautiful, they were all wearing shorts.  But, in reality, it was very, very cold!

Well, another great year is coming to a close.
That means it's time for the Dave Potts 'Year in Review'2005 Awards
Top 5 Gigs of 2005;
5) Freedom Farm House Concert - West Liberty, OH (4/15/05) A wonderful house concert, actually a barn concert in central Ohio. 35 people in a beautiful, all-acoustic setting. Thanks to Gary and Annette
4) Preacher's House Concert - Auburndale, WI (4/24/05). Mark and his family packed out their living room in Auburndale, squeezing in about 25 folks to close out my spring Midwest tour.
3) Acoustic Avenue House Concert - Longmont, CO (8/27/05). Wonderful new house concert series in Colorado. We had about 30 people, including some of my old friends and family.
2) Traverse Brewing Company - Elk Rapids, MI (9/16/05) A small, intimate room in a small, intimate town, in a cold, beautiful state. Many thanks to Seamus Shinners for setting up this gig. About 30 people jammed packed into a room meant to seat about 25. Great crowd!
1) Kerrville Folk Festival - Kerrville, TX (6/9/05). Pretty much a lifelong dream of mine to perform at Kerrville. After being a NewFolk Finalist the previous 2 years, to be booked for a show at Threadgill Theater was such a privelege.
Honorable Mention, rounding out the Top 20 ; Open Door Coffeehouse, Arlington TX, Minstrel Coffeehouse, Morristown, NJ, Lighthouse Coffeehouse, Des Moines, IA, Acoustic Sounds Café, Little Rock, AR, Fredersicksburg Songwriter Showcase, VA, Down Here House Concert, Cortland, IL, Someplace Else Folk, LaGrange, IL, Mama's Coffeehouse, Detroit, MI, Summer Swing Series, Opelika, AL, UU Coffeehouse, Columbia, SC
Interesting that 3 of the top 5 were house concerts, and a 4th was another small intimate venue. I guess we'll be looking for more of those shows coming up in 2006!
Best Tour of 2005; September Midwest Tour - Stops in Traverse City and Elk Rapids, MI, Ripon, WI (after a nice drive through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), Des Moines, IA, a live radio show in Cedar Rapids, IA, the always wonderful Electric Brew in Goshen, IN, Champaign, IL, Cortland, IL, and LaGrange, IL. (with a stop at the world's second best pizza chain, Giordano's)
Best concert I saw this year - Jake Armerding at Sundilla Concert Series in Auburn.
Runner-up - Erik Balkey's house concert at my house in January. I did the most pathetic job in the history of the world in putting on a house concert for Erik. Almost nobody showed up on a cold, rainy night, but still, Erik played for my wife and I and two of our friends, and was great as usual.
Best event attended while on tour - It wasn't so much the Brewers-Dodgers game at Miller Park in Milwaukee, but in fact, it was the world famous sausage races during the 7th inning stretch. Just when you thought the polish sausage had it wrapped up, the hot dog accelerated around the final turn for the photo-finish victory. Great stuff!
Most Listened to artist or group - Alison Krauss and Union Station. I've been getting just a little blue-grassy!
Best radio station - WDBX in Carbondale, IL - Thanks to Randy and Gaye Auxier, Vern Crawford and Jane Reh, I got quite a bit of airplay on this great community station. Also did 3 live interviews on WDBX in 2005. www.wdbx.org.
Airline of the Year - AirTran. I took my guitar on 3 round trip flights, and was able to carry it on every time! That more than made up for the near-explosion and 7 hour layover in Tulsa.
Best rookie Quarterback in the NFL - Charlie Frye, Cleveland Browns
Best replacement for the best running back tandem in college football history - Kenny Irons, Auburn
Celebrity Sighting of the Year - In New Jersey, at a pizza place, I saw a dude who looked a lot like James Van Der Beek, who played Dawson on 'Dawson's Creek'.. It turns out it wasn't really him, but after lunch, on the radio, I heard the theme song to Dawson's Creek ('I Don't Want To Wait, Paula Cole). On a scale of 1 to Katie Holmes, I rate that moment a Pacey Witter on the celebrity sighting scale.
Best Ribs of 2005 - Well, here's the thing; Byron's Smokehouse in Auburn could win this award every year with no competition, so I've decided to give them the Lifetime Achievement Award for rib cooking perfection. That allows me to give the 2005 award to - 17th St. Bar and Grill in Murphysboro, IL.
Movie of the Year - Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash story, Great music. Runner-up - Elizabethtown. Very weird and very cool