3 days it was indeed in the fabulous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. If you count days spent on the road it was actually 6, with a solid 3 days of round trip drive time. For most of the guys, that time is spent twiddling their thumbs in the front lounge of the bus or diagnosing the problem of the week with the satellite reception. (This can be quite a nuisance, especially when driving across the Northwest Arizona desert.) But for the rest of the guys who prefer a more sedated passing of the time, they manage to sleep for a solid day. Sometimes desperate measures even lead to singing of the widely-known "insert insanely large number here" bottle of beer on the wall jingle.

At some point or another, I have to think many folks have taken a family road trip to some hyped up amusement park that just so happens to be at least 500 miles away. Though the drive may be one of the most agonizing times in your life, the finale of finally reaching Wally World (or wherever your destination may be) becomes one of the MOST rewarding moments you've experienced. The Orphans experienced our own Clark Griswold voyage this week.

A list of complimentary amenities like this could only exist in Vegas. They ranged from the free buffet where we were granted 24 hour access, to the in-house restaurants' Midnight-6 am "Cab Driver Special" containing just about every world class breakfast cuisine Paula Deen could think of, for a mere $2.95!

Throughout the course of our stay, we constantly found ourselves at a table somewhere rummaging through a menu - it was unfortunate we actually had to stop and play music, ha! Going on stage with a stomach full of nothing short of a Thanksgiving Day feast made good fuel for the 5 hours of music we provided the crowd with each night. With real Vegas-style set times lasting til 3 am, the guys' musical stamina was definitely put to the test. The sold-out crowds each wanted to do nothing but dance the night away, and quickly 5 hours or what others might see as work transformed into 300 minutes of fun for everyone. Joining us on stage each night was fellow Texas musician and genuine Chick'n Picker Jason Allen. When paired alongside Jason Lerma, epic "call and answer" style guitar solos rang out all night long! Hopefully we'll find ourselves sharing the stages at home with Mr. Allen more often.

Now that we're home, Bryan, El Campo, Austin and Spring have a lot to measure up to this week, but I wouldn't be surprised it they give ol' Vegas a run for it's money!

- Owen

Waking up with the thought of spending the next 5 days either en route to or in the acclaimed city of Las Vegas is somewhat surreal. Any other week on the road we have our eyes on the next day's destination, however this week our first and final destination is Sin City. Check your itineraries folks, it's a three day stand!

We've all been eyeing these next 5 days on our calendars since they were placed there in the summer. Having the band and crew this excited for a gig, especially one that promises a lot of fun afterwards, may be one of the best musical experiences a fan could ask for. A fresh, new energy surrounded the band this past Saturday in Coupland, TX, as the AW band roster returned to 6 members. Just in time for Christmas we've found the final musical piece - commonly referred to as the "turntable, piano, soundmaker" and my personal favorite "the sound board", that mysterious instrument found stage right is indeed none other than THE steel guitar! Please excuse me for my lack of knowledge about him, for I can only tell you 3 things: His name is Joey, he's from San Marcos, and he sure can play that steel guitar! More to come about this exciting new character in the next update...with all this holiday cheer in the air and the likelihood of an eventful 120 hours to come, I may just have to do a mid-action report during the Vegas excursion.

Jondan accompanied Aaron to the Wolf's 12 Man Jam in Dallas this past Sunday, playing his true forte, the mandolin. Though I was not there to experience it, I was told a good portion of the crowd was able to stick around for the heavy-hitting lineup of the final set, and that Aaron may have been having TOO much fun on stage! If you follow Aaron on Twitter you saw just a sample of the pictures I heard he was snapping ON STAGE, and rumor has it he and Charlie Robison had a good time cracking jokes.

There are just 8 shows left for us until we hit the road hard in the New Year...the equivalent of about 20 guitar re-strings, 10 cases of redbull, 30 cases of water, 200 guitar picks and an unheard of amount of Easy Mac - I should probably start packing!

- Owen

Colorado may be my new favorite place to go. I know all of us in the band had a lot of fun this past weekend despite the few unfortunate incidents we had - it turned out to be an awesome run!

We arrived in Ft. Collins early Thursday morning with plenty of time to kill before the 2 PM load in, so a lot of the guys decided to go walk up and down College Ave. in "Old Town" to try and scavenge up some food. Calib and I took the liberty to stay behind and eat our own food from home, all while jamming out to John Mayer's new album :-) Lucky for us, by the 11 PM showtime at the Aggie Theatre the Northern Colorado snow hadn't decided to come down just yet...

The following day was an incredibly rare "off day" on the road, so we took the bus down to our good buddy Rob's house in Pueblo where we spent the whole day relaxing and playing video games for the most part. I think Calib held down Cabela's Big Game Hunter on Playstation for the better part of 7 hours. Clint was found on his Mac book playing old school Contra while Damian and I were the more modernized ones playing iPod apps, ha. While we enjoyed all of this downtime, Aaron on the other hand was an hour and a half up the interstate in Denver, meticulously working on the studio album...he really wants this new record to be something special!

The following day was our second visit to Cowboys in Colorado Springs, where the wet Southern Colorado snow finally made it's way around 9 PM...but not before Aaron and the Orphans had a chance to introduce some real Texas honky tonk melodies! We enjoyed being a part of this free benefit show with the local station KATC, thanks to all of you who came out to support...and got to check out the debut of Aaron's current single "The Road". Behind the scenes, we all got the chance to go upstairs and bowl in the club's bowling alley! It was no ordinary alley, rather the world's longest at a whole 25 feet longer than a standard lane! And believe me, that extra distance makes all the distance in the world, ha. Out of all of us, Calib racked up the highest score of a mere 101. It was a blast, and a good warm up for the show I imagine!

We won't be getting much break from the snow and bitter cold, as we're headed right back up north this coming weekend to see the folks in Lincoln, Nebraska as well as the visitors from Manhattan, KS at the 2nd annual Mayhem in the Midwest at Uncle Ron's. Hopefully the cold doesn't follow us down into the panhandle for Saturday's Midnight Rodeo Amarillo show.

- Owen

Getting to play Lubbock twice in one month is an event that has never happened for us, and probably won't again...but man we enjoyed it! This show was very possibly the best we've put on in the panhandle and major credit for that goes to the fans that came out, as they were one of the most energetic crowds we've seen. When you add the elements of the band being excited and energized together with a crowd that only wants more, it makes for a show you'll remember the rest of your life!

For those of you who have never heard of Jeff Allen, do yourself a favor and check out the man's music. We had the privilege of playing with him at Graham's in Odessa last Saturday, and I'll tell you the man is just as genuine and great as his music is. Jeff opened for us and definitely did the job of getting the crowd pumped and excited. By the time we hit the stage, we had ANOTHER crowd roaring and ready for a second helping of great music that Aaron gladly supplied. :-)

A lot of excitement is growing on the bus for our Vegas trip coming up in December. A good portion of Saturday afternoon was spent talking about just how much fun it's going to be! BUT, for the time being we'll look at what's in front of us...Fort Collins Colorado this Thursday and Colorado Springs on Saturday! That reminds me...I should probably go shop for some winter clothes, ha! We're really looking forward to seeing all of our CSU fans at the Aggie Theatre there. Honky Tonkin' in the snow makes for a whole different experience than in the dusty panhandle!

Week to week, all of us on the "road squad" get an updated itinerary of future dates...I will be the first to tell you that the first few months of 2010 are gonna be a wholeeee lotta fun!

- Owen

Even though November may only lay host to 8 show dates, I have thoroughly looked them over and each one promises a dose of high energy fun! Some of our most anticipated returns such as Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colorado are on the itinerary, as well as this Friday's visit back to Lubbock. Since we haven't seen the majestic views of Colorado in quite some time now, we're all jazzed to head back to the winter wonderland...except maybe our bus driver, ha!

This past week had to have been one of the most fun and easy weeks I have ever experienced while on board with Aaron. It was awesome to be back in Stillwater after playing Calf Fry with Jason Boland earlier this year, and this time around we joined up with our good friend Casey Donahew and his gang. While we were up there, Aaron had a photo shoot for the new album...I've had the opportunity to see some of the photos and man they look great!

Friday night at Billy Bob's turned out to be the most energetic, lively crowd we've ever had at the world's largest honky tonk! With a constant roar from the crowd after every song, I felt as if Aaron and the Orphans left the audience savoring every last note and lyric. Calib pulled out one of the best drum solos I've ever heard him play which made for the highlight of the night.

The end of the year is in sight and there are so many exciting things on the horizon. Aaron's baby girl will arrive at the end of the month, so we'll be taking it a little bit easy...but that doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of quality shows coming up, like the just announced New Year's Eve in San Angelo and National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas! A lot of preparation and planning is going into 2010 so the gang will be back with a vengeance and ready for y'all to hear the new album!

- Owen

With so many good things happening out on the road this week in the short span of just 4 days, and so many more to come, I believe its safe to say that just because summer is over it doesn't mean the fun is! This last week before I left for our 12 AM bus call in Abilene, I remember looking at the calendar I keep in my apartment and staring excitedly at the 4 fun stops we were making that week - Huntsville, Corpus Christi, Waco and Fort Stockton.

3 of the 4 stops we'd made before and were excited to return to, and while we were unsure of the odd ball Fort Stockton, we left with it being a loved favorite. The event of the day was the town's 150th anniversary, and they'd chosen to celebrate the right way with the Honky Tonk Kid! The entire town's population is a mere 7,404, so we didn't expect that West Texas haul to be so exciting.

Every bunk on the bus was vacant that morning and the bus was still and quiet...too quiet. The guys had retired to their respective hotel rooms and had their eyes glued to the TVs with one channel on lockdown. The Red River Shootout was their only concern. Unfortunately that only lasted until 2 pm when our "real" workday started - time for load in! With a good quality stage and lighting package already on site at the city park, immediate anticipation for the night's event was cast over the entire AW camp. We were blown away by the genuine support we were shown by the entire Pecos region. We thought it was almost impossible to match the previous night's fun at Waco's Heart O'Texas Fair, but I assure you Fort Stockton held their own when it came to hosting a good time!

All of our coastal friends down in Corpus gave us a great night at Brewster Street too...with their new in-house lighting director, performances are visually intensified that much more! So be sure to come back to Brewster Street next time we're in town all you beach dwellers :-)

Looking forward, this week will take us to Paris, Wichita Falls and Lubbock, Texas and we're eager with anticipation for them all...be sure not to miss the always lively Lubbock. I don't know what could be more fun than playing outside Texas Tech's football stadium to 60,000 crazed football fans? Be there!

- Owen

The rain seems to be letting up at the end of this Texas drenching, but one thing in the forecast is Friday's show in Waco! The Heart O'Texas Fair is a major touchstone on this year's calendar. All of us in the AW camp are as excited as can be...you can count on us to show up and do our part to give you a great show!

A big shining star on the horizon right now is the release of the new single "The Road", which will be featured on the new album due out early next year! So of course be sure to call your local radio station and request it! The band should be adding it to the live set this week so come check it out, I can't wait to hear the fully assembled live version after getting familiar with the tune.

This past week, Pittsburg, TX treated us to an awesome, energetic lively crowd, just as I predicted. There were twice as many of them as there were last go round and we definitely had twice the fun. Cowboy Jim's did some serious remodeling to their honky tonk and it's now officially the bumping place to be and play for all your Pittsburgians! Oh yes, Chris (our FOH engineer) and I wanted to make it a point to give some seriously deserved props to the lasagna and pizza we ate there. From the crew standpoint, it was a top notch delicacy!

4 shows and 4 great nights on tap for this week. I'm gonna call both Waco and Corpus the "Featured shows of the week" cause there's no doubt they'll be a blast. See ya there!

- Owen

I've traveled to a lot of clubs and honky tonks across the country, and found that no building keeps it's facility cooler inside than Cowboys San Antonio, ha! Then again, not a lot of places can offer up what this true Texas-sized dancehall/rodeo can. Friday night was a splendid evening for everyone in attendance, and those of us working as well. A HUGE thanks goes out to all the fans that came out and showed some love Friday night, y'all definitely made it our best visit to Cowboys yet - we love being in San Antonio! (And to the drunken lady that climbed up on stage and I had to usher off, I'm sorry I was only doing my job, ha!)

With the seasons changing and the schedule nearing the year's end and moving full speed ahead, a lot of excitement is looming overhead at "Camp de Watson". This weekend takes us back to Knuckleheads in Kansas City, MO where we will be glad to see you "Kansas Citians". ALSO, the annual Heart of Texas Fair kicks off soon and we'll be playing later this month - it's sure to be an awesome night. Be sure to check out our tour schedule often, it's updated frequently and may have a new show in your area :-) I've even got the inside scoop around here and still have to check in for dates that seem to pop up overnight.

News from our camp this week includes me and Damian's new fiddle trick you can catch during the "Orange Blossom" breakdown. Watson will tell you it took us hours to master when in fact it was a spontaneous event one night during the show. Damian and I felt we had to clear that up due to some puzzled looks we were getting after Watson's explanation.

Now that football season's in full swing you can bet the bus TV is tuned to a live game or ESPN, often times at 4 AM for all the scores and stats we missed during the show. I would say the bus is split down the center between supporting the NCAA or NFL..I know for a fact Clint, Damian and I have our votes in the college ballot box, while Jason, Jondan and Watson have taken a liking to the NFL.

The much-anticipated gig this weekend is Cowboy Jim's out in Pittsburg, Texas...it's rumored that the crowds never fail to show up in the masses. I'll let you know next week!

- Owen