I suppose there’s a few ways a post with this title could go. I’m flying back from my first run with the new band, and there were a few themes bouncing around the last couple weeks. This band is a lot lower overhead. There’s no bus call. There’s no soundguy (although I personally hope that’s remedied this year). Load in and setup take about 15 minutes. Billy and Drew managed to work out lift passes for us to all get out on the mountain 3 times in the last two weeks. I grew up skiing a lot in the Rockies with my folks, but had basically taken a 13 year hiatus. The last time I’d been on a mountain was about 5 years ago on the Honkytonk/Railroad tour in 2006, so I had forgotten how much I love skiing until about 100 yards into our first run at Jackson Hole (an amazing mountain).
I miss my family quite a lot. We’d all gotten used to my being home and a cell phone is a poor substitute for a hug. I can already see where that’s going to be a problem again, but I’m hoping that this gig remains a nice, steady, part-time thing because I really like the music. The guys are very nice guys and I’m meeting all manner of the CO scene. I’m already collecting some funny stories about the things you’d expect there’d be funny stories about and yes, the RRE thing bestows a lot of street cred out there.
It feels so good to have a bass in my hands. I’m really thankful.