Hey y'all!

I have returned to Saint Louis and I just got home from playing my first "welcome back" gig at Cummel's Cafe downtown. There was pretty much nobody there for most of the time, but my good friend and amazing musician Dora Magrath (myspace.com/doramagrath) also came and we each brought some friends and we had a good, relaxed time, switching back and forth and even some freestyling! They have an open mic every Thursday night, but the only condition is that you cannot play any covers, it must be all originals, and that severely diminishes the amount of songs I can perform. So I plan on continuing to go there and play because I really enjoy that sort of relaxed atmosphere. It makes me feel much more comfortable on the microphone. Plus, they have an actual piano, which is great. I love my Korg keyboard and all, but nothing beats the sound of a real piano. My plan is to write as many new songs as possible in these next couple of weeks before I get really busy around August 29th (and still keep writing as many songs as I can after that), and to keep going back to Cummel's with, hopefully, at least one new song each week.

Before I went to Cummel's today, I practiced for quite a long time and wrote a new song! Well, the lyrics are actually something I wrote on the plane coming back from Japan, but I wrote all the music today and I think it's lovely. I always say this about any new song I write, but I think it's one of my favorites.

I'm still looking into renting a recording studio sometime and I will certainly let you all know when that happens. Until then, come by Cummel's Cafe (1627 Washington Ave.) on a Thursday night, if you're around! Patrons or no, I plan to play there just about every week from now on.

I'll be on the lookout for other venues to play at as well, so heads up for that news, too! Thank you!

Love,
Lawrence D