Back in the saddle...so to speak...

Greetings friends,

I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations were filled with family, friends, and calories.

I write to you while sitting in my favorite chair at my home in Nashville. After nearly a month-long, self-prescribed break, it feels great to be back "home". It feels even better to know that I am getting back to work.

As many of you know, at the beginning of November I took a trip, my first ever, to Europe with my older brother. We flew into Berlin, stayed there a couple of days, then moved onto Amsterdam. After a day or so there, we headed to London, then to Dublin for a few days before coming back to London for the remainder of the trip. I won't go into too much detail about our travels, but I will say that it was a great experience getting to see the different countries; the countries where our families are from. That is not to say that we didn't run into a few snags here and there, but overall the trip was a blast. I cannot wait to return to both England and Ireland (hopefully to play a little music)!

Upon arriving back in Texas, I was excited to play a couple of shows since I had gone two weeks without picking up an instrument, or singing a note. I played the show at Momo's in Austin, but when I woke up the next morning my voice was completely gone. I spent the next day and a half trying every singer-trick in the book, but it turned out to all be in vain, as my voice just would not recover in time. It pained me to do it, but I was forced to cancel the show in Waco due to my inability to speak (much less sing). I am still very disappointed in having to miss the show. I was very much looking forward to playing for my hometown friends and family, but that is part of this business, I suppose.

Voice, or no voice, I did get to spend a lot of time with my family, particularly my 89 year old grandfather. He, my father, and I all went fishing one afternoon at the place that my grandfather took my brother and me as kids. Between the three of us, we caught 12 black bass, cleaned them, and had a good ole fashioned Texas fish-fry the next night for the whole family. To this day, I don't think there is a meal in the world I love more than black bass cooked by my grandparents! Being on the road most of this year meant being away from my family for most of the year as well. So it was wonderful getting to spend so much time with them.

After Thanksgiving, and yet another Texas Longhorn loss (I'm not even going to begin writing on that topic, as my frustration will surely take up many more pages.), I made my way back to Nashville. I'm very ready to get back to work. I enjoyed my time off, but I also hated being away from music for so long. What can I say? I'm a workaholic!

I leave this coming Tuesday to fly up to New York, where I will play a couple of shows. After that I will have a few random shows in Nashville throughout December, and will hit the road hard again in January. So stay tuned...we're back in business!

Peace,
JD