Greetings from Orlando, FL. I arrived late last night and am now quite happy to now be reunited with my daughter; we survived the 10 days!!! And, within those 10 days I have performed with my “Bangin Band” in Park City, Utah, Minneapolis, MN and Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA.

Let me begin by saying Park City, Utah took my breath away! I was not anticipating going there only to be pleasantly surprised by everything surrounding the experience. We stayed one of the lodges in the area – it must’ve been an 8 star hotel because the pancakes were $12.00 !!! They were great, but damn! Next time I will bring a box of my own pancake mix and be just as satisfied. My room was heavenly, complete with 2 fireplaces, a full kitchen and a Jacuzzi….and I was all alone. I made use of the Jacuzzi and the fireplace and enjoyed a meal on one of the terraced restaurants overlooking the lift that was actively taking mountain bikers to the top of a mountain allowing them to enjoy a downhill ride. At 7,000 feet I think the act of going downhill was a lot easier.

Speaking of elevations, our hotel was at 7,000 ft while the venue was at 8,000+. After 4 weeks of sharing the stage and not having to be the whole show, I was already a bit nervous. Add the elevation and the fact my new band and I had only performed once together back in May and one can understand why.

Ryan Shaw (pictured here) shared the bill and opened first. I got a chance to watch him at work for a brief few minutes before I went on. I also wanted to show him my support, not that he needed it! Last time we were in the same place was when we did our showcase at Joe’s Pub in Jan 2008. We took a picture together – looks like we planned our attire all the way down to the locs.

When I went on we began with BLACK IS THE COLOR which has now become quite a piece fusing even more of “me” in it than before; you’ll see when I come to your town and I was off to the races. At times, I was reminded by my lack of breath that I needed to pace myself so I would alter my delivery of a line I might normally hold or else …….NO AIR, NO AIR. The show was a challenge I rose to, reveled in and was quite happy with especially when the entire audience stood up, stayed up and danced during my encore: STOP BY MONIES. I still smile at the thought. My band and I were back in the saddle and riding hard.

On our return to PA for one day before leaving for Minneapolis, our United flight was delayed because of mechanical problems which meant we would miss our connecting (and the last flight) flight out of Chicago. Once I took some deep breaths and reminded myself getting upset wouldn’t solve anything, I called our travel agent. Miss Nancy, the mother of the agent I normally deal with, came to our rescue immediately putting us on a Delta flight leaving 4 hrs later headed for Philly. Unfortunately, we would arrive close to midnight but at least we’d be in the state of PA. To make a long story short, it took us 13 hours, a lot of nail biting and teamwork to get to our respective homes, but we made it safely.

Minneapolis was a private party and we got in the day before so we had time to walk around the area. My band members are all accomplished, positive, amazing musicians and we share a lot of laughs offstage. This evening was no different. As we walked around looking for somewhere to eat, we wound up at the Dakota Jazz Grill. We met the owner, Lowell, who shared he’s been trying to book me for over a year now; COOL!! I wound up sitting in on SUMMERTIME with the band that was playing, cuz I couldn’t help myself when the first chords rang in the air, had drinks and a great meal with promises to return sometime soon.

Our Musikfest Candlelight Series performance capped off the entire weekend and was fraught with every challenge one could imagine in one day. We departed our MN hotel at 5am for a 7am flight into Philly. Upon our arrival we went in separate directions only to meet up again for sound check. I realized upon arriving at our hotel that there was no need for me to even check in considering I had just enough time to eat before my radio interview and soundcheck, so I didn’t. Soundcheck found some of my band members without their music because they thought we would have time to return to the hotel before the show; WRONG. And, Foy Hall’s hall (haha) was an acoustical nightmare!! BUT, alas, we pulled it off complete with some good footage filmed by Service Electric. We received an amazing review, so it all worked out putting a nice flourish on a an otherwise challenging week. What was that commercial that said “Never let ‘em see you sweat”? Indeed.

I am now in Beijng, China and this experience will be chronicled in forth coming blogs…..

Hope all of you are well! Remember to stay that way!

Simone