Hey Everyone,

I apologize for not getting this last blog entry in a week or so ago, but I've been pretty busy since arriving back in Nashville at the end of October.  And, in less than 2 hours, I am headed to the airport to fly out to Los Angeles for a film/TV music conference.

But here are some final details of the tour.

Final Driving Stats:

Miles Driven     - 4161
Average Speed - 50 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.7


       I was pretty excited to be doing another show in Athens, GA.  Athens, as many of you know, is a bit of a music mecca, and a big college town, and that's almost always a good sign for good show potential.  Friday night (10/23), however, did not hold much promise.  It was my last of 3 straight Wild Wing Cafe gigs, and at the beginning, things did seem promising - there was a huge group of students there at the beginning of my first set, but they had unfortunately arrived about an hour before I started.  As I feared, this meant that they would be leaving soon.  They caught a few songs, and were headed out the door.
       They were replaced by an equally-huge group of people, only this was a group of middle-aged businessmen.  I'm not sure what the occasion was, but they were obnoxious and got worse the longer they were there.  I don't think their mere presence was the sole cause of the badness of the show that night, but not having them there certainly would have helped.  Case in point: I played a pretty well-known cover to start the second set.  Midway through the song, the whole table started singing . . . a different song.  I was amazed.  I think this may have happened with "Happy Birthday" a couple times in my 7 years of doing live shows, but they weren't singing "Happy Birthday".  I don't know - most performers there must just be considered a jukebox (at least to non-students).
       The bright spot of the night (aside from when I got paid for the gig) was as I was packing things up.  A student who arrived during my second set came up and basically apologized for how crappy the response was, saying he wished he had brought more friends of his, who would have also really enjoyed what I was doing.

       Thankfully, the Tour ended on a good note.  My final stop was at Kennesaw Community Church, just outside of Atlanta.  Some people there had seen me play a couple years ago, and were interested in having me do a show at their church.  It was cool to see them again.  And while the attendance was a little slim, the response was great.  As I told them that night, I'd rather play a show for 20 people who are really listening than do a bar gig where 200 people couldn't care less.

       After packing up the car, I headed straight (well, not straight - the interstates don't allow a straight route) home.  I was originally going to stay overnight with some friends, but I was used to late nights by then, and Nashville is in Central Time, so I gained an hour going back as well.

It was good to be home.  But the Tour also went really well.  I sold a lot more t-shirts than I usually do (running out of some sizes of the newer shirts now), cd sales were decent, and I found some new venues that look like they will be regular stops for future tours.

Thanks to everyone who made it out the shows this time around - and if you couldn't make it, thanks for staying connected through this blog!

If you dig the music, please remember to spread the word every once in a while.  Word of mouth is such a big help.