H-Town!

We had a swell time in Houston this weekend. Susan played in Boerne (San Antonio) on Thursday and then we just hoofed it to our friends in Tomball (north Houston) so we could wake up where we needed to be instead of waking up somewhere we didn't need to be. Always a good rule of thumb. The Gene Simmons of folk. We caffeinated up and headed to KPFT for "Wide Open Spaces" with Roark, the coolest DJ on the planet. His show is named after that one song that Susan wrote you may have heard of it, so that's cool. If you check out their Facebook Fan Page you can see all the videos from the interview. The static and the blur: an interpretation. Photo by Melissa Noble! Then we killed some time in a park whereupon I laptopped on a picnic table and it was a lovely day. Then we headed over to the house of some fine friends who made us DINNER oh my that is always a perk. Thanks Nancy Jane, Leslie, and Jim! Nancy Jane, Susan, Leslie, and moi...songwriter girls unite! THEN we headed to an awesome concert series called Heights Live! right in the middle Houston. These folks have created a listening room in the fellowship hall of a church, and then in the set intermission they SERVE PIE. Um hello? Folk music and pie? The version of Susan's "Perfect World" that we did all Vaudeville style when Susan's arm was broken was requested, so I got my strum on. It's been so long since we have done it that was I was hoping I didn't forget it, but the I realized Susan has the hard part and all I have to do is...strum. So that was fun. I'm glad she has 2 arms again, though. And then we drove to Dallas. Thank you, Houston, for your kind hospitality! And check out Heights Live if you're in the area...great folks. And listen to KPFT, too.

It's Getting Political In Here

Yesterday was all about promotion as The Boss did 3 radio interviews to promote the string of Montana gigs this weekend. Our first stop was a station with super nice people, and one of them informed us that the station hadn't played the Dixie Chicks since "The Incident" in 2003. Talk about a grudge. I AM NOT EVEN going to get into whether anyone thinks it was right, whether anyone thinks with hindsight it was right, whether it was geographically right or timed right yadda yadda. I have come around to the fact that most of the artists I respect have some of the same and some different opinions than I do, and that's fine. Radio, however, seems to hold a grudge for a while, maybe even to the point where the reason for the grudge is long gone and it's a simple matter of, "We don't play them." Anyway, I was wondering how the fact that the writer of one of the Chicks' biggest hits was standing in their "No Dixie Chicks Zone" was going to affect anything. But everyone was super nice and the DJs told Susan how that song affected them at various points in their life, which is always cool to hear. So it was open arms for the songwriter, for sure. I was relieved about that, but it made me wonder where the disconnect comes from for some of these long term haters. A songwriter writes it, studio musicians with families to feed play on it, publicists from Oklahoma, or Washington, or Vermont promote it...the artists tour with it, and in this case the songwriters tour with it, too. The merch girls sell CDs from it. It's a giant ecosystem and to blacklist the Chicks for exercising their free speech seven years ago affects a lot more people down the line than those 3 women. It's like boycotting Arizona Iced Tea which is made in New York because you don't like Arizona. Blah. So there's as political as I'm going to get. I don't dwell on politics too much. It wastes my mind space, and it's a better job for other people with other dispositions. I am a big fan of being aware of who and what your actions affect, though...and thinking a little bit ahead past your kneejerk biases. Real people's jobs are at stake here. We're all trying to make a living by working hard, which is about as American as I can define. Switching gears, it was over to Montana Radio Cafe for a lovely hour on Scott's front porch. Scott broadcasts with his own station from his gorgeous farm outside Bigfork, MT. You can stream his station live online right here. Scott plays great stuff! We play The Raven right along the shore of Flathead Lake tonight, and it's a full moon! Should be fun. And long live the Dixie Chicks.

Coming Home Radio

Go about 40 minutes in on this interview from Coming Home with Dave Wheaton for a spot with Susan. She talks about our touring this summer...and banjos and donkeys. (There really were donkeys).

I Heart Taos

It is soooo nice to be back in New Mexico and get to be here a couple of days. We're staying at a resort near the venue (sometimes...ok many times...we luck out with where we get to stay) and the smells and sights of the sage and skies and mountains are good for whatever ails. This morning Susan and I headed over to KTAO and did an interview about the show tonight, and Susan played a second time on the afternoon show. The KTAO studio is gorgeous and perhaps where I want my retirement home to be. I don't know if they'd sell me the whole station so I could live in it, and I could only probably pay them $45 for it, but I can ask. Hank the dog helped Susan out with her interview...too bad he didn't hop in the van with us. Time to go set up at the Old Blinking Light! They have awesome green chile stew. Yesssss.

Lyrical Venus Podcast for Download

My good friend Heather over at Lyrical Venus has uploaded the podcast from when I was on her radio show in October. That means you kids can go take a listen and download it if you like...yay Heather! Download it on the website (it was the October 14th show)...or here's a direct link to the mp3.

More Radio Waves!

My blog buddy Heather hosts a weekly radio show called Lyrical Venus featuring female singer-songwriters on KRUU in Fairfield, Iowa...and she was stellar enough to ask me to be on her show this week since The Early Year is out and about and looking to dress up and hit the town. See her nice post about the whole shebang here. She even got ALL her facts right. That's impressive. Here's a link to her radio station blog... And here's a link to LIVE STREAM the interview tomorrow (Tuesday, October 14th)...Lyrical Venus starts at 9 AM Central time...I'll be on sometime during that hour. Tune in, kids. Support the awesome radio people who get the word out about the discs that we singer-songwriters make. Thanks, Heather!!

First time on the radio...

Susan had an in-studio at KFAN in Fredericksburg before her gig in Comfort this weekend, and I was of course along to document. She is always nice and introduces me around and plugs my record...so Rozzie, the awesome DJ at KFAN, took a copy of The Early Year and while we were driving to Comfort, we heard New Mexico Boy on the radio! So you always hear those stories about hearing yourself for the first time on the radio. Usually it involves pulling over if you're driving and crying or something. I couldn't pull over because Susan was driving, and there was no crying...but we did scream a lot. Because I have a camera attached to my palm everywhere we go these days...it got caught on film. So cool to share it with some of my favorite peoples. The good life indeed.