A bit o' recap for June

June might be processing a little better. When I first got back to town there was much to be done to catch up with things. Red Leaf is in full swing with camp and Susan is headed toward Canada while I am gearing up to finish out her year's schedule already. Dan said today I have lost some of the deer in the headlights look I had before we left on the tour and acquired a little more swagger and confidence, which is nice. I would agree. Before we left on the June tour, which was the first full tour 2000 miles away from a home base I had ever booked, I was FREAKED OUT. Maybe I hid it well to the outside world (maybe I didn't), but you take the thought of 3 people's livelihoods and put it all in your hands based on interacting with venue owners and ticket prices and promotion in places far from home, and it could either work well, be a disaster, or fall somewhere in between. I think it worked well overall...we planned well, budgeted, kept track of things, and kept on point. We did have one lucrative gig pull out a week before we were to be in that town, but Susan (who has obviously been through this more than once) handled it with grace, while I just yelled at the email on the screen in the passenger seat expecting that to fix it. Calm is important. And no one died, and we got some extra downtime in Denver so it worked out. Being the person who books and deals with venue owners and also being the tour manager who walks in the door is unique and seems to be working really well. It allows me to make connections with venues we like on a personal level and not just be a bunch of emails disconnected somewhere in cyberspace. I don't know how common it is to have the booking agent be the tour manager, but people seem surprised and pleased by it so far, myself included. My point...and I do have one...is there are plane tickets booked for New York and a week blocked out for Nashville in the fall and I am excited. Travel and music pretty much top my list and this year has been full of both. Fortunate! And I will still probably scream at a few more emails.