Hey, Friends!

Happy Holidays, and here's to a wonderful New Year!

It's been quite a while since I last wrote, so I got out my calendar and skimmed through the year looking for highlights I might mention. And you know, I think I'm going to have to start skimming over my calendar on a more regular basis. I've never been one of those folks who crosses off the passing days on the calendar--that's always struck me as needlessly morbid--but I think there is something about the brain that does exactly that, whether we like it or not. Have you ever had the feeling that you'd been busy all year, but you hadn't actually DONE anything ? Well, that's how I felt about 2005 until I took 10 min. to look over my calendar and reminisce--maybe it's just the impending ravages of age, but I'd already forgotten about a TON of great memories.

So, for starters, here's a resolution for New Year's: I will take moments in life to remember the good times. It's all too easy to cross those days off the calendar--I wish you all joy and thankful remembrances for this season!

OK, so some of you have already caught on: What about the new Waybacks CD ? I'm avoiding the topic entirely... Well, remember when I promised we'd be releasing it in early February ? As our hulky governor once monotoned, "I LIED." But the album will be coming out in the spring--if my word on this is still worth anything, I'll make a positive guarantee that the album will be out on April 26th. Sorry for the delay, folks, but let me humbily suggest that it will be worth it--there's some really cool stuff on this album. Starting with the fiddlers:

It was a great year in the Waybacks fiddle department. We played shows with Darol Anger, Gabe Witcher, Evan Price (Turtle Island String Quartet), Brittany Haas, Tania Elizabeth (The Duhks), Jim Hurley (Ancient Future), Jason Carter (Del McCoury), and Jeremy Garrett (The Stringdusters). And they all acquitted themselves fabulously and brought their individual and exciting styles to our band--thanks to you all! But, I'm excited to announce that we'll have a full-time fiddler for 2006: Warren Hood! Warren's got a rather impressive pedigree, but you know, I'm going to let his music speak for itself. Warren is an extraordinarily talented singer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist, and I'm absolutely psyched to be working with him! So, welcome to the band, Warren, and to all of you who haven't heard him yet, GET READY!

This email's getting rather long, so let me get right to a few gig announcements, in the hopes that some of you are still with me. And if anyone's left by the end, I'll list some highlights from the past year.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Dec. 17 (***tomorrow***), 9pm
Garrin and Friends at The Independent, San Francisco, CA
This is going to be a really cool show. It's a benefit for the Rex Foundation,
and it's featuring some friends of mine who also happen to be fabulous musicians:
Garrin Benfield, Russ Gold, Steve Adams, Jordan Feinstein, Josh Zucker,
JP Cutler, Kenni, Corinne West, Mokai, Adrian West, Ryan Smith, and
Hawk West. Four Year Bender will be opening. What a cast--this is going to
be a fun night!

Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve), 5pm
Little Wheels Band at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., HMB, CA
It's an early New Year's show--5-8pm... they're calling it an East Coast New Year's
Party. If you're the type who likes to cram as much entertainment into a night as
possible, you can listen to some Americana by the seashore in HMB, then head up
to SF to ring in the New Year. That's what I'll be doing...

Jan. 8, 10am
KPIG radio--John Sandidge's "Please Stand By" live music show
I'll be playing 5-6 songs solo, including some new songs I haven't written yet--seriously.
Please tune in--John always has a great variety of national talent on his show.
Speaking of talent, I'll also be playing a few tunes with my pal Corinne West.
On the web at http://kpig.com.

Jan. 13, 9pm
Corinne West and the Posse at Don Quixote's, Felton, CA
Audrey Auld opening.

Feb. 1
Hitting the road with The Waybacks. We'll be starting in Boston and playing throughout New
England--yes, I love the Northeast during the winter. It's the nicest time of year to visit the
most frigid part of the country, actually. If you'd like to receive calendars and updates from The
Waybacks, please sign up for our mailing list at http://waybacks.com.

Other notes--I've had fun sitting in with some Bay Area pals this month, including David Gans, Jordan and The Ritual, and Lane and the Badass Chicken Bones. Not certain when I'll be joining these guys next, but you should check 'em out anyway--they're great. And I just might stop by to pick a few, which will give you a good opportunity to sneak out the back.

I'd be surprised if anyone is still reading, but what the hell... I'm going to list a few personal memorable moments from 2005. At the very least, I'll enjoy writing this, and I encourage everyone to take a moment to remember some of their personal good times in 2005:

* Guitar duo with Bryan Sutton in "The Pit" at Merlefest (North Carolina). Bryan is a fabulous musician--one of my favorite guitarists around. It's always a pleasure getting to play with him!

* Midnight Jam with Chris Thile, Jens Kruger, and Paul Diffin. Man, oh, man was this fun! The Midnight Jam is a special after-hours show at Merlefest, and mandolinist Andy Owens was the emcee. There's nothing cooler than being told by the emcee, "Hey, you're doing a quartet with Chris, Jens, and Paul." They're some of the most frightening musicians on the planet, and I mean that in a very good way. The experience is even better when you ask, "When are we going on, and what should we play ?" And the answer is, "30 seconds--whatever you want." We played a maniacal version of "Rocky Road Blues" and whatever we may have missed in taste, we made up for it with energy and speed. Rock and roll with mandolin and banjo--I love it!

* Benefit for John Garamendi. Waybacks had the privilege of playing at a fundraiser for John Garamendi, California candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Mr. Garamendi gave a speech that night that I thought was marked with a level of honesty, optimism, and passion that is sorely lacking in politics these days. I wish John Garamendi all the best, and I hope to see others follow his lead!

* Chattanooga Nightfall concert. Waybacks played outside on a nice big stage in downtown Chattanooga. This was all great, of course. But here's the notable fact: it was one-hundred and twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. I never actually saw a thermometer, but I'm quite certain my estimate is accurate. I could have jumped into the fountain (and probably should have) and would have gotten no wetter. I love Tennessee, but there are reasons why I moved to California, folks!

* Tour of the Pentagon. Warren, Joe, and I met some nice gals at a concert in Virginia, and they revealed they were employees at the Pentagon and offered to show us around. This trip was worth it just to see the look on the armed guard's face at one of the entrance gates when I walked up in my jeans and t-shirt and proclaimed, "We're here to meet some friends of ours." He gave us a "like hell you're ever getting into this building" look, yet ten minutes later, there we were, inside the Pentagon getting photographed and fingerprinted for temporary credential badges. Add a few more pages to my FBI file.

* Speaking of patriotic, I had the narcissistic pleasure of getting to play the National Anthem at a July 4th fireworks display in Wintergreen, VA. Hendrix might not have been proud, but I had a lot of fun...

* Grand Targhee (Wyoming) Jam lead by Sam Bush. Oh, man, we had at least fifteen people up on that stage at once. Sam, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Drew Emmitt, Scott Vestal, Byron House, Betse Ellis... I couldn't even see everyone. But, we made music--amazingly, with all those instruments onstage and impromptu, we came off sounding almost rehearsed. Big kudos to the sound crew.

* MarketFest in Redding, CA. Ever seen a stage that's located literally 100 feet from an active train depot ? The first time that whistle blew, we almost jumped out of our skins.

* Winfield Stage 4 (Kansas). Another one of those wonderful moments when no one knows what is going to happen next, but everything is running like a clock. We were joined by Stephen Bennett, Robbie Gjersoe, and Kim Walker for one of the most memorable jams of the year. And that Winfield audience--they tore the roof off of that place!

* Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Golden Gate Park. As usual, when anything cool is going on during one of my guitar solos, I miss the entire thing. Apparently, two magnificent hawks were fighting over some prey, and they were swooping around, chasing each other right over our stage. The finale ? When one of the hawks dropped the dead rabbit it was carrying right into the audience. Given the location of the show and the number of Peace flags being waved, I naturally gave this event more political significance than it was likely due...

* Riverhawk with Emory Lester (Florida). Another one of those impromptu duo shows that turns magical. I never get to hear these things, so I don't know how good it SOUNDED, but Emory and I had a blast playing tunes in a shack on the swampy outskirts of the Riverhawk festival.

* The Old Mill Tasty Shop in Wichita, KS. The best meal I had all year--no question. When you're traveling, keeping odd musician's hours, you frequently settle for grease-pit diners, 24 hour chain restaurants, or backstage cat food sandwiches. Every now and then, though, the clouds part and local angels from Wichita, KS, deliver you a repast that rings through the ages. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating and am being influenced too heavily by the recent secular-Christmas-capitalism debates, but then again, if you've never tried the seafood chowder or the chili verde or the cream gravy or the milkshakes or even the green beans at the Old Mill Tasty Shop in downtown Wichita... you've got a pilgrimage to make, my friends! And let's just say that Thomas Frank absolutely did NOT mention this lunch spot in his book last year. I'm already looking for an excuse to get back there.

Best wishes for the New Year, everyone, and I hope to see you all soon!

James
james@nashvillain.com