Hello from home
Hello Friends,
I've been home now for quite a few days and it's still taking some getting used to. We had an amazing summer tour, played so many festivals, amphitheaters and other great venues in front of so many people with so few breaks or days off it became a bit of a blur after a while, trying to remember where you just were, where you were and where you were going next. Honestly, we've been doing this long enough that I think most of us don't put much effort into keeping these facts up to date.
Thing is, every night is the most important night, because we're obsessed with trying to get it right. "It" meaning the whole kit and caboodle. The feel, the tempo, the pocket, the pitch, the soul connection, the harmonies, the phrasing, the inflections, the cut-offs, the dynamics, and most of all--the mojo. The mojo is that hard to define thing that is the difference between a technically sound performance and one that moves you because it is so genuine and transcendental. Oh yeah, that MO-JO.
So whether it's in front of 30,000 screaming fans or in front of 1,500 the object is still the same, so worrying where we are, where we were or where we're off to next tends to take a back seat. Mind you, we DO get a day sheet shoved under our hotel room door with all of that pertinence, written in a large enough font where it need not even be picked up, but can be read on the floor. It was funny when one day several of us admitted that the only thing they read was the line that says what time bags were being picked up so when knew when to be ready to leave for the gig. That's our life on the road.
We had been performing "Just Be" every chance we got, but then switched it with "Everything All The Time" for the last few weeks, finding that we could get away with playing this new song (so new it's not yet available) during the encore because it ROCKED so hard that it was not an "Oh no, not a NEW SONG!!!" moment for those in attendance.
Jim Ladd played "Just Be" on his "Headsets" program here in Los Angeles on KLOS a couple of nights ago and it was great to hear it on the radio.
The release of "One With Everything" is just around the corner and we can't wait for you to see and hear it. It's been such a labor of love, from the young members of the orchestra and chorus whose hearts and souls inhabit its landscape, to Liza Grossman, everyone in the CYO organization, and all those who took it from there along the technical chain, revising and revising until the last hour of the last day of the extended deadline. Hats off to you all.
My dog Clyde just came in here and gave me that sad look that seemed to say, "What's a dog have to do to get a little attention around here?" He's right. I'll stop here.
See you soon.
Tommy
