Switch It Up

One of the 85,000 things I love about working for Susan is that there's always a surprise. This last weekend at her gig with the marvelous Elizabeth Wills, we witnessed both Susan and Elizabeth playing congas on each others' tunes. Then there was the uncommon marriage of banjo and cello onstage, too...it worked. I enjoyed it a ton. I've seen and played tons of songswaps and set swaps where artists pretty much do their own thing, and it's a rare treat when interests, talents, and schedules line up so the artists can play on each other's stuff. I had some allergies set in before that gig, which I opened, and I could sing fine. The next morning I woke up with the voice of a teenage boy in puberty. I sound a lot more pathetic than I feel, which is probably cooler than sounding really good and feeling like crap. Oh well. My theory is that if indeed I have acquired allergies, I will be fleeing Texas in 2 days anyway and the clear skies of Montana will save me. We can hope. If it's a cold it's super mild anyway. This photo is from Alabama. Maybe there will be less bugs this time. We cleaned out the van yesterday in preparation for 24 days of travel. I need to pack my suitcase and make sure I have every piece of technology imaginable in my bag with appropriate cords. Will someone please make everything charge itself via laser beam or something? Solar power even? My bag would be so light. I'm looking forward to the big skies of Montana and Wyoming, and I'm excited to spending some time in Boise, which I know is a neat town. I'm also pretty stoked about booking Susan for a week on the East coast in October...that's in process and I'm all about going to New York and hopefully Boston and/or Washington, D.C. That's what's neat about planning tours...you get to be excited about going new places (well, new for me anyway). I've done it enough by now to know that there's probably not much sightseeing to be done on a short trip like that, but sometimes being among the locals at a music venue is a neat way to steep in a city or town, too. There's plenty of steeping to be done starting Wednesday...better pack some deodorant. Natch!