Spring 2002
 
Sunday, May 19th
we're still in atlanta working on the album. it's going great. we're really excited about the new songs that we've written and recorded here. we'll work for another week or so and then take a few weeks off before heading to kansas city to begin tour rehearsals. thanks for your many letters responding to the set list ideas and such. it's actually been very good for us to hear your comments. of course, we're not going to tell you the results! it'll be a surprise. we will tell you that we're probably going to be mixing it up quite a bit from night to night. in other news...jimmy sat in on two songs with our old friends the Blue Dogs at smith's olde bar in atlanta friday night. you all might remember them from the 1998 aware tour. scott, jimmy and charlie have all been spotted at different times at the local movie theater (seeing spiderman and star wars). they've also dropped in on the chat page a few times this past week answering questions from the studio about the new album and having a chat with the fans, so you might want to visit every now and then.

that's all for now. we're heading downstairs to work some more. talk to you all later.

pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

Friday, May 10th
if you haven't noticed, advance tickets for the summer tour are available through our website. there is a very limited number of these advance tickets available and we're sharing with sheryl crow, so get them soon. we want all of our fans to have the best seats in the house! some questions being asked alot are:

how long will train play? answer...one hour (about 12 toe-tapping favorites). sheryl will play about the same. we're sharing all lighting and train should be the first band on after dark each night. sheryl will close, because she's got a few more grammy's than we have and she's cuter. we're curious what songs you'd all like to hear? should we mix it up or play the 12 favorites for everybody each night? are you guys tired of "ramble on"? should we replace it with "dream on"? how many new tunes from the upcoming album should we play? we're thinking one, maybe two and mixing them up every night. should scott do a drum solo? should pat sing shirtless? these are things we'd like to learn from you, our fans. please discuss...

talk to you soon.

pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

Monday, April 29th
happy monday. charlie and jimmy attended the california music awards ceremony in oakland, california over the weekend where train picked up FOUR (not three as many are reporting) awards for "best album", "best single", "best songwriters" and "best male vocalist". they had a great time and ran into many fans and friends. bonnie was there, skygal, swaying, winetrain, trainiac AJ, joe and joanne, mike and carol, ward and june, ozzie and harriet....and then there was sammy, joe, the smashmouth guys, the papa roaches...alot of fun. jimmy did most of the talking when excepting and presenting awards. they presented an award to gwen stefani for best female performer. he called pat on the phone at the podium while excepting "best male vocalist" on his behalf. anyway, thanks to everybody who voted for us. it worked! we've always said that we have the greatest fans in the world.

that's about all for now. we'll be heading to atlanta this week to work on the new album some more. talk to you soon...

pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

tuesday, april 23rd
we played a show in vegas this past weekend to benefit the tiger woods foundation. we were on the bill with don henley. we were feeling just a little bit rusty not having played a show in quite awhile, but aside from a few rough edges and a couple forgotten words it all went well. we hung out with don henley and tiger woods backstage and met dennis miller, dylan mcdermott, carson daly, kevin james and quincy jones. charles barkley and michael jordan were around, but we didn't meet them. we ran into alot of train fans from all around the country who flew in for the event. it was nice to see some familiar faces in the crowd and in the casino after the show.

the week before we were in los angeles for the aerosmith icon mtv special. that was nothing but a good time for all of us. we performed "dream on" for those of you who didn't see it yet (mtv continues to rerun the program). we got to hang out with the guys in aerosmith and sat next to cher, slash, pink...all of the one name stars.

oh, and the big news is that our summer tour is confirmed! we'll be doing a festival tour of outdoor sheds and venues of that sort. train, sheryl crow, ziggy marley, O.A.R. and some others will be performing. there'll be climbing rocks and stuff to do all day outside of the venues. the dates and ticket info will be posted on our website soon if not already. the first train date of the tour will be at summerfest in milwaukee on july 1st. the actual festival dates with sheryl crow will begin in charlotte on july 10th. get your tickets and come out and see us! it's going to be a great tour.

that's all for now. we'll be working more on the new record in atlanta during the month of may. jimmy and charlie will be attending the california music awards ceremony this saturday night in the bay area. they'll present an award, hopefully accept an award (or two!) and possibly sit in on an all-star jam to close the show.

talk to you soon,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

thursday, april 11th
we've finished the first phase of recording our new record. we spent the last ten days recording eleven new songs at the Plant in Sausalito, California (check out some new photos of us at work in the studio somewhere on this website). most of the basic tracks are finished. we're planning to take the next two weeks off and then regroup in atlanta in may to finish vocals on these songs and write and record three or four additional tracks. some tentative song titles (subject to change as lyrics become more written) are "Testimony", "For You", "Never Had a Chance", "Landmine", "All Negotiations", "Avalanche" and "Out Here in the Open". so far this new album is shaping up to have a bit more of an edge to it than our previous two releases. we'll probably debut some of the new material when we tour this summer. you all have heard about the tour, haven't you? we're really excited about it. it's a great lineup and should be alot of fun. anyway...

we rehearsed "Dream On" today at the studio. we'll be performing it on a special MTV tribute to Aerosmith this sunday. it starts airing on the 17th. we're pretty excited about that, too. and then there's the big Tiger Woods Benefit concert in vegas on the 20th. oh, and don't forget about the Bammie Awards in san francisco on the 27th! did you all vote for us? good.

so, we're off for now. we'll touch base next week and tell you all about the Aerosmith tribute show. until then...

take care,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

Monday, March 25th
just a quick note to say hello and let you know what we've been up to...

we're still in san francisco writing songs for our next record, which we'll begin recording next week in sausalito and will hopefully finish in may in atlanta. producer brendan o'brien is at the helm again. we've written about 20 songs so far. probably only about eleven of them will end up on the record, which won't be released until later this year. the songs only have working titles at this point and we haven't even begun to consider album titles yet. our current single, "she's on fire", is doing very well and has helped push our "drops of jupiter" album back up the charts. because of that and the fact that we miss you all and will be itching to tour after we're done in the studio, we've planned a very exciting summer tour (we'll announce the details soon).

what else...we've been invited by MTV and Aerosmith to be a part of a tribute show (to aerosmith), which will be filmed live in los angeles in mid-april. we're honored to be a part of that. and we'll be performing a show for the tiger woods foundation fund in las vegas on april 20th. don henley will appear on the bill as well. we've been invited to golf with mr. woods the day before the show. have you ever seen the movie "happy gilmore"? that's kinda what rob's golf swing looks like.

anyway, happy easter everyone. we'll talk to you soon.

pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie