New album progress and random thoughts

Howler’s Coyote Cafe is split into two parts.  One side is a bar and the other is a music room.  The stage is against the windows and you can load in right from the street which is nice.  Parking is a bitch though since it’s street parking and there are a lot of one way streets around the venue.  A sign in the window says ’6 packs to go’.  Nice.

I was playing the night with another band.  I looked them up on the internet the night before.  They are from Burlington, VT.  Small world yet again.  Here I was 500 miles from home sharing a show with a band from a town only 3 hours away.  And it’s really closer than that.   There are just no highways to get there and you wind through the mountains and up the east side of Lake Champlain to get there otherwise it’d only be about an hour and a half away.  When they arrived I began talking to the guys and one of them grew up in Chittenango NY.  This is about 5 miles from Fayettville which is where I lived before I moved to Saratoga.  Small world indeed.

The Joshua Panda Band play folk-country songs with 3 or 4 harmonies.  They were really good.  I loved the close harmonies, and they could all play their instruments really well.  Upright bass, acoustic guitar, telecaster and pedal steel.  Great sound.  I got a copy of their CD and didn’t get a chance to listen to it yet, but based on what I heard live, it’s probably pretty good.  Check them out here

Jo runs the place and bought us all pizza before we played.  It’s always a nice thing to get a meal on the road.  Eating can be a big expense.

I played first since I was solo.  A small but enthusiastic crowd was there.  I loved this show.  The sound guy was great, the sound was great and my voice felt better all the way through the night than it had up to this point.  I guess that should be the way it is since I’d been singing and playing a lot leading up to it and my voice was in shape again.  I recorded the show and I’m going through it to post up to youtube in the next couple of days.  I think there will be at least 3 songs from this show going up.

I just want to tip my hat to Jo.  She was very nice and compassionate and worried about the musicians.  She kept apologizing to me about the turn out.  I kept telling her not to worry. I’ll be back in the Spring.

Back to the hotel and leave in the morning.  This time I’m going to follow the directions I’m given and not take any adventures off into toothless backwater land.  It’s still raining.  Chilly.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 75 and sunny.  Should be a good day for a drive.