Mini-Tour Underway!
The thing about being on the road (for me, at least) is that I get to eat at one of the greatest California treasures almost anywhere up and down 101: In’N’Out. Oh, yes… give me the double-double, animal style, and you better make sure there are fries with ‘dat with a frosty cold beverage (preferably, Coke).
How do you spell love? IN'N'OUT
In any case, I kicked off this little mini-tour yesterday with a day-time gig at the Redwood City Plaza in Redwood City, CA for a two-hour outdoor session. It sounded great, the crowd was tons of fun, and the weather held (no rain!) which made the gig. Plus, I met up with an old friend from Liquid Audio – now Walmart Music – who helped add me to their featured indie artist page today. You can check it out here. (Thanks, Chris!)
Afterwards, I scrambled down to Santa Barbara to set up and play a 7:00 PM gig at Live Culture Lounge. The Redwood City Plaza gig ran a bit late, so I really had to hustle. Long story short, I got pulled over just 20 minutes outside of Santa Barbara for driving 81 in a 55 with just about 20 minutes to go. (Oops…) The good news? The CHP officer let me off when I explained the situation (“I’m late for my gig, man… er, I mean, sir.”) Anyway, a huge thanks goes out to that officer for being so cool. When I arrived, I set up quickly and enjoyed one of the best sounding monitor mixes I’ve ever had. This place has an 11′ high stage (which is pretty cool alone) but the sound is tops. Darin and Sierra who run the joint really have poured their hearts and souls into making Live Culture a great live music venue and it truly shows. (Thanks, guys!)
Afterwards, I ran into my buddy Mark who I met on my last Cali’ tour in April. Mark is involved in the biz in a variety of ways as a songwriter, tour manager, promoter, vocal and performance coach, etc. and, fortunately for me, is a big supporter of what I’m doing. Long story short, we jammed for a bit outside the venue, then cruised up to his pad way the heck on top of some mountain east of Santa Barbara. To be honest, I was getting a little worried when we were driving for like 30 minutes and didn’t see a single car (or much evidence of any homes or people, for that matter) but we finally arrived at a killer spot where he and his girlfriend live. He’s got this little ranch way up in the hills and it’s so darned cool. Talk about a songwriting retreat!
This was my view upon waking up this morning. Niiice.
When I woke up, Mark and I jammed a little more and worked through some agility exercises on the guitar, some singing drills, and traded a few original tunes. It was a fun way to kick things off, but after finally getting to bed at 1:00am, it was a little bit of an effort to do all of that music stuff at 6:45am. In any case, I learned a bunch and had a few good laughs (thanks, Mark!).
Later in the day, I headed out to grab a breakfast burrito and checked the surf. Not much along the coast in Santa Barbara or Ventura, but I did find a nice little (and I mean little) wave at County Line in Malibu. I actually got a ton of waves and enjoyed being in some warmer water. Afterwards, I met up with LA-based songwriter Karen Besbeck to try out some co-writing on the main lawn in front of Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. We had some fun after a few false starts and actually got some music together at the end of the exercise which sounded pretty nice.
Come for the killer food, stay for the killer sounds... Genghis. Mm...
Now, it’s hurry up and wait here at the Starbucks in Malibu while I update my blog, Facebook, etc. and get ready to head to Los Angeles for my gig at Genghis Cohen tonight from 10:00pm until 11:00pm. I’ll be playing with two great writers from the East Coast: Shane Cooley and Adam Smith. I met Shane by chance at South by Southwest in Austin, TX earlier this year and ended up putting together a few shows with him on his summer tour. I’m psyched and am really looking forward to hearing these guys tonight. It should be a blast.
Well, that’s all for today. Stay tuned for more updates this week and be in touch if you plan to be in LA, Long Beach or Santa Barbara over the next few days. I’ll be headed to Long Beach, CA tomorrow to play Viento y Agua Coffee House, then back to LA to play Dakota Lounge on Saturday, then up to Santa Barbara to play a fun outdoor gig at Borders on State Street on Sunday, so spread the word to your friends and family. Would love to see ‘em!