drag

welcome back my friends

to the show that never ends

we're so glad you could attend

step inside, step inside

yes

the beat goes on

and the summer heat

is on

and I have two days before I

pack a bag and hit the road again

makes it hard to hold down

the fort sometimes

I'm not the most organized

person in the world and constant

movement and random locations

don't help that in the least

but I do see a ton of random events

I arrived at the venue in midland

a little early and stood outside

watching the quarter mile drag races

the end of the sprint

ended across the street from

the club's parking lot

I stood there for a while

watching the cars run

kind of enjoyable really

after the show,

I was standing outside talking

to some of the dudes from the

opening band

and I saw a drag car

come flying by

his brakes had failed

and his little parachute didn't

do as much to stop him as

the chain link fence that mangled

his car

me and the dudes took off

sprinting towards the car to

see if we could pull him out

and who doesn't want

three guitar players as the first

to arrive on an accident scene?

the driver was fine

but the car was upside down

in the fence and demolished

pretty wicked thing to watch

hey,

thanks san angelo

that was the coolest gig

I've ever had in that town

thanks for coming out and listening

midland was cool too,

especially with the drag crash

shout out to rayford and the mystery fest...

hubba hubba

illinois is not missouri

probably one of my favorite

nights playing on stage in a long

time tonight at six strings

in bloomington, illinois

the radio station

had been playing our music

and people knew it

that sounds simple enough,

but I haven't really been

'working' anything in a while

so it's always a surprise

the sound was incredible

I did pull a spinal tap moment

and mentioned how great it was

to be in missouri

'you're in illinois!' I heard

yelled back

I laughed, the crowd laughed

I flew off the stage

on a harness while rainbow

laser beams shot out of my eyes

the requests were cool

and songs I wanted to play

a laid back crowd

that wanted nothing but

our songs

hard to beat

then I was walking down the

sidewalk and some people stopped

me to say they enjoyed the show

they were heading to a tattoo

parlor so I followed along

with them

it was closed but the owner

opened up the shop

I took pictures with the

people from the show inside

the tattoo parlor

while I talked to another dude

about doing his record

I was thinking while I was

looking into a camera

with my arm around two strangers

what an odd life I have

I enjoy it quite a bit

get up there jackass

sitting in a hotel room

by myself in normal, illinois

last night was great at

otis campbell's

bob, the boss man said

showtime was 9 or whatever

we wanted...

we got there at 9

and no bob

so we decide to wait until

he gets there

at 9:30 bob came in

and we were standing there

talking when this girl

walked up to me

and said:

"we drove from arkansas

and you are supposed to play at

9 and if you don't get up there

RIGHT NOW we are leaving."

I thought she was kidding,

and I was about to explain to her

that we were waiting for the

guy who hired us

when she turned at

snapped at her husband who was

at the bar and she huffed out

it was unbelievable

one of these days

that 'whole world is

revolving around me' syndrome

will disappointingly wear off,

or it might not

I see a future bell ringer

either way we kicked out our jams

and packed up the van

tonight we play at

7:30

someone will probably show up at

10 and be pissed off at me

an hour and a half until

show time and a shower

wouldn't kill me

there is a steak and shake

right next door to the hotel

mmm hmmm.

sniphlus

thank you allergies

for hosing my acoustic

recordings tonight

strum (sniff)

strum (honk)

ridiculous...

laying down a new song

I wrote last weekend

or whenever it was

all the days run together

and I am home for a day

only to pack a bag and leave

again

such is the nature

heading north to missouri,

illinois and ohio

had last weekend off

to put a sizzling tan

on the fat

time to pack up the good times

van and head out once again

closing in on another new album

in the midst of rampant touring

good to have a job

shoot dangit

sometimes I look around at

the little three piece band that I'm

in and just crack up

we can hang out

or sit in a room

together and be all alone

at the same time

if we want

that's hard to find

we sat in a hotel room

in waco tuesday night

waldo flipping through his

ever mounting array of gadgetry...

skinner staring at his phone...

me picking out 'dream on'

by aerosmith

all in our own little worlds

a few feet from each other

shot a couple of live songs

and an interview yesterday

in austin at one world theater

for ray benson's texas music show

I haven't been in front of a camera

in I don't know how long

never have liked being filmed

HATED making old great divide

videos...and I think it shows

but glancing over at skinner

with his eyes closed,

cardinal jersey on,

thumping holy hell out

that bass

or waldo and his

brilliant bald head

shimmering behind the kit

I couldn't help but

feel a little better about

the whole situation

it was all pretty painless

and the crew was as cool

as you could ask for

adam odor and the guys

from bismeux were taking

care of the sound

hadn't seen adam

in a month of sundays

we both exchanged cd's

that we vowed never

to listen to

actually talked a little

about a tour with his band

11 bones in italy

I'm already ready to go back

as we left the shoot

I couldn't help but thinking

of skinner beaming into

countless living rooms across

the globe

that alone

was worth fighting

austin traffic