Texas Tour 2010

I'm glad I am the way that I am, or I would never have done anything with my life. I get an idea and run like hell with it, and it's only just before it's about to all come together that I start having any doubts at all. By then it's too late to back out, and everything seems to work out fine.

That's where I'm at with next weeks ARL Band tour through Texas; the doubt part.

It's nothing legitimate. It's just the idea of taking my band, which is essentially a big fish in a tiny pond, into one of the most competitive music markets in the united states. We're not really competing for anything, other than being invited back, and hopefully to more and bigger places. It's just that you always want to be more ready for that kind of thing than you are. You wish you could have practiced one more time.

I'm not nervous. I don't really get nervous. Since I can't really open my eyes while I sing, it doesn't matter one gig to the next where I'm playing, or who is there. The only time I've ever really been nervous playing was doing a live radio thing. That scared the hell out of me. My eye closing technique didn't work, because it was already completely up to my imagination who was listening.

We kick off at what I understand to be a true Texas Honkey-Tonk. A dream for my buddy Blake Martin and the Los Mustangs Band who opens every show for me. For a kid from Detroit, I'm not sure I'd use the word dream. Then again, I have no idea what word to use, because I've never done it. Next is outdoors on Congress street in Downtown Austin. I should be scared, but I'm not. What really gets me is the last gig of the week. A brand new, VERY high dollar music-specific venue in Fredericksburg.

Fortunately, my band is amazing before I ever open my mouth. Seasoned professionals who have paid their dues, and a lot of those dues were paid in Texas.

Hopefully this is the first of many. Cross your fingers for me, and if you're in the Texas hill country, come on out and see the show. Dates are up on musicofARL.com.