Summer 2002
 
Wednesday, September 11th
we'd like to start out by saying that one year ago today we woke up in dallas, texas and got on our tour bus to head to the next city. we turned on the television just in time to see the second plane crash into the twin towers. we all sat there on the bus in disbelief as we watched those towers crash to the ground and watched the breaking news about the pentagon and the flight 93 crash in pennsylvania. we knew there wouldn't be a show to perform that night and weren't sure (and didn't care at the time) when and if we would perform again. we started our tour back up about a week later in st. louis and it felt really good to be providing some little form of entertainment and relief for the american people and most of all for our fans. it seemed to us that everybody (including us) needed a break from CNN and it felt really good to be together with people who were going through similar emotions. as we look back and remember that horrible day one year ago today, we'd like to extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family members and friends who lost loved ones and the innocent victims who lost their lives. we will never forget and hope that our music might have provided some little form of relief during your darkest days.

and on a lighter note...

we're looking forward to performing a few festivals around america next week. we'll start out somewhere in florida on friday night, head to new orleans or thereabout on saturday, and then on to san francisco on sunday. we heard a rumor that there will be a number of train fans (trainiacs?) coming to the san francisco show from all around the world. we'll try not to suck that day! just kidding...it's going to be a great time. we also heard a rumor, but aren't allowed to say much about it at this point, that there may be a couple of free noontime concerts that we'll be performing somewhere in the midwest next week. it's supposed to be some big secret that will be announced on local television and radio shows the morning of the performances. we're not allowed to say where or when, but if we lived in st. louis we'd probably be listenining to the radio or watching television on tuesday morning just in case we were to be performing somewhere downtown at noon. not saying that we will, but we've always loved st. louis and haven't been there for awhile and we're kinda thinking...anyway, for some reason we're supposed to fly to chicago from st. louis on tuesday night, so if we were you and we lived or worked in downtown chicago we'd probably listen to the radio or watch television on wednesday morning just in case there were to be some free train concert at noon somewhere. again...not saying that we're going to be performing a free noontime concert in downtown chicago next wednesday, but for some reason we've got plane tickets that go there and hotel rooms and....just a wild guess.

now for some bad news...

it looks like our new record will not be released this year after all. we're probably just as upset about it as you might be, but there are good reasons. it's not ready! the music is ready (even though now that we've got some more time we'll probably end up writing another song or two), but the artwork, promotional stuff and marketing plans that all need to come together for an album to be released just won't be ready in time. we'd really be rushing and decided, along with our record company and management, to wait until early next year to give us more time to get things together and release this record the right way. we promise it'll be worth the wait and might even give you a taste of it on our website sometime soon. good fans....sit! (eh?)

anyway...thems are the notes from the road for now. we'll look forward to seeing a bunch of you next week.

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

Friday, August 16th
we're in philadelphia today for a show across the river in camden tonight. the jeep tour with sheryl crow wraps up tomorrow night in mansfield (boston). we head on to sacramento for one last radio show at arco arena on sunday night. after that we'll drive to san francisco for two more days of last minute finishing touches on the record. then we get to go home for a bit.

this past week has been crazy! we had very good shows in nashville, indianapolis, pittsburgh (a sort of homecoming for pat), detroit, chicago (a sort of homecoming for jimmy), new york and last night in virginia beach. we were supposed to have two days off in new york city, but we all know how that goes! on the first day off (monday) we woke up in chicago to catch a very early flight to new york. upon arrival we were taken directly to a meeting with our stylists to be fitted for photo shoot clothing. that took up most of the afternoon. then we were treated to a bruce springsteen concert at madison square garden. we share managers with the boss, we also share producers (mr. brendan o'brien produced bruce's latest release) and the boss and jimmy shared one of brendan's classic fender telecaster guitars (both jimmy and the boss played the same guitar on much of their respective new albums and both asked fender to build duplicates for them, which you can see both jimmy and mr. springsteen playing on tour). anyway, we had a great time at his concert and spotted the likes of steven spielberg, spike lee, billy joel and meg ryan backstage. after the show we all went home to bed as we had a 6AM wake-up call the next morning. day off number two turned into a 15 hour photo shoot on one of the hottest days of the summer in new york city. these photos will be used for the new album, press, publicity, posters, etc. and we decided that since the album will be released in the winter that we should look the part. that meant dressing in sweaters, coats, scarves, hats...hot! it was a tough day, but we had a great photographer and a great crew that helped us get through it with minimal complaints. we're pretty confident that we took some great photos, which would make it all worth it. we were all completely exhausted at the end of the day and were poured into our beds to rest up for the following days' show at jones beach. when we arrived in virginia beach yesterday we were still recovering from the new york "days off", but checked ourselves into a recording studio for the afternoon to listen to the finished mixes of our new record to make sure that we didn't have any last minute changes to make. we do. just a couple. two days in san francisco should take care of it. we're still set on getting this record in stores by early november and we're very excited about it and pretty sure you will be, too.

that's all for now. thanks to everyone who came out to see us on this tour. we had a great time, but are really looking forward to headlining on our next tour. we've got all kinds of ideas brewing and are really excited to get out there with a new album and a complete train show for you all.

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

Thursday, August 8th
we're in indianapolis today for a show tonight. three members of Oasis were injured in a taxi collision here yesterday, so we're staying clear of the cabs in indy.

anyway...sorry we haven't written in awhile. we've been very busy on the west coast the past ten days not only doing shows, but finishing up our album in sausalito as well. we worked all day in the studio and played shows at night. we were able to squeeze in four days at the studio, which was enough for us to record another two songs for the album. that would make a total of five songs written and recorded during this summer tour. we told you at the end of may that we were finished working on the record, but being on the road proved to be an inspiration. the song "drops of jupiter" was written and recorded after we thought we were finished with that record, too. we really do think we're finished now, though. we have to be if we want to keep our november release date, which we do. we'll be doing a photo shoot for the new album while in new york next week.

back to the tour...

the dixie chicks joined sheryl crow onstage in nashville last night. we saw them in the catering area before the show and sheryl told us they were going to sing with her, but our bus had to leave before we got to see them. see, that's what happens...you win one grammy and you're lucky to get the crowd to sing along with you, but you win eight grammy's and you get the friggin' dixie chicks and gwenyth paltrow! you go sheryl.

anyway, aside from being in the studio and not seeing much california sunshine while on the west coast, we did have some fun shows. san diego was good, LA was very good (great crowd), mountain view (san fran) was good with the hometown crowd, paso robles was alot of fun, concord (east bay - basically our hometown crowd) was even better than the mountain view show (from our perspective) and the gorge in washington state was probably one of the best shows of the tour (the crowd was unbelievable). we took three days off after the gorge and flew home for some rest and picked back up in nashville last night. there are only about eight shows left of this tour, but we've added a few dates of our own that should be popping up on the website any day now. august 19th in sacramento, august 31st in denver, september 20th somewhere in florida, september 21st in new orleans and september 22nd in golden gate park, san francisco! that's about as much as we know. keep checking our website for more details.

we'd like to give a shout out to our fans in europe who have been sending us so many letters and spontaneously flying over to the U.S. to catch a show. we really appreciate your support over there and promise to give you a tour of your own next year. also, thanks to our south african friends who showed up at the gorge and brought us gifts. you rock!

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

Tuesday, July 23rd
we're home on a break from the tour for a few days. we'll pick back up in san diego on thursday. things have been going great! we're having a blast playing these beautiful outdoor venues every night and the crowds have been terrific. we're convinced that we have the best fans out there. sheryl crow has some great fans, too, and they've been very kind to us, but our fans rule. anyway, we recorded three more songs in atlanta last week that we're excited about for the new record. we've played four new songs on this tour so far..."lincoln avenue", "following rita", "superstar" and "out here in the open", which we debuted in albuquerque sunday night. we'll probably try one or two more new songs out on this tour. for those of you who thought pat was giving you the finger onstage this past week, he slightly fractured his middle finger while playing basketball when we were in atlanta recording. he took the brace off for the performances each night, but was still a little stiff with that middle finger. he's fine now, though, and has even improved his golf game due to the injury!...not really...that was a joke that he wishes was true. hey did you guys notice gwyneth paltrow taking the stage with sheryl for a song this past week? yep. she was out on the road sitting in for a few nights on a song that she sang harmonies to on sheryl's latest release. we didn't really get the chance to hang out with her much, but it was cool having her around. the bus movie of choice on this tour is "the royal tennenbaums", which she starred in. check it out...it's a great movie.

that's about it for now. we'll check back in before long and hope to see most of you on what remains of this summer tour. unfortunately, we probably won't be doing many shows after this tour until early next spring when we tour in support of the new album, which we're looking to release in early november. so come out and see us!

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

Sunday, July 14th
we're back in the studio in atlanta today trying to finish up the new CD. we'll be recording another three or four new songs that we're all really excited about. we pulled our bus into the parking lot of the studio at about 11AM after an all night drive from Columbia, Maryland where we played to a packed house last night. we'll record today, tomorrow and tuesday and then fly to houston on wednesday morning to continue on with the tour. the first four shows of the tour this week were all really good for us. typically it takes us a week or so to settle in to a tour, but this tour started off with a bang in charlotte last wednesday and we managed to keep things rolling right into atlanta, raleigh and columbia. we're feeling really good about the shows and are having fun mixing up the set lists a bit each night. even though the attendance was a little light for the first couple of nights, the crowds have been very enthusiastic and the reception for the new songs has been really great. all in all things are off to a really good start and we're already feeling comfortable and at home out there every night. the other bands are all very cool. we haven't been able to check out the side stage yet, but hear that howie day and tonic are tearing it up. sheryl crow and her band are all very nice and sound great as does o.a.r. and ziggy marley.

our lunch just showed up at the studio, so we're going to eat now. sorry we haven't had many funny stories to share with you lately, but you know they're coming! it's early on in the tour. just because we're not always being funny doesn't mean that we're not out here having fun...because we certainly are. come join us won't you?

pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

Wednesday, July 10th
hope everybody had a nice 4th of july. we all went home for the weekend, but we're back in charlotte, north carolina to begin the Jeep World Outside Festival tour tonight. our shows last week in kansas city, milwaukee and memphis were all alot of fun for us. we worked some of the bugs out and warmed up some new songs that we'll be playing on the tour. we heard that alot of people didn't make it into the venue in memphis due to the traffic. we were sorry to hear that. there was an insane amount of people at that show (probably around 60,000). so many that they spilled over into the secured fireworks area, which caused a 50 minute delay of the fireworks display at the end of our show. we were already back at our hotel when we saw the first fireworks hit the sky. anyway, we hope that those of you who did make it in had as good a time as we did.

for those of you coming out to this Jeep festival tour thing this summer, you might want to come early. doors are traditionally going to be at 3PM everyday with bands starting not long after. bands will alternate between the main stage and the side stage, so there will be constant music. there are all kinds of outdoor activities set up on the grounds including mountain biking, scuba diving, kayaking, ski jumping, rock climbing and alot of other stuff. it really seems like it's going to be a fun day out for everyone. just be sure to be back in your seats at the main stage by 8PM!

we'll check back with you after a show or two and let you know how it's going.

later,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie

Sunday, June 30th
we played the first show of our summer tour last night in kansas city. it was a big radio festival show with alot of bands, so it wasn't a very long set, but it was a very good opening night for us. Five for Fighting were there as was India Arie, Def Leppard, Michelle Branch, O'Town and many others. it was really hot outside during the day. we didn't go on until around 9:30PM, so things had cooled off a bit. here's our set list (40 minutes)...

she's on fire, respect, meet virginia, lincoln avenue, dream on, i am, free, drops of jupiter

there was a time before we went on when our dressing room seemed to be the place to be. there were members of Def Leppard, Michelle Branch, John from Five For Fighting, and India Arie all having a chat with us and making some jokes. it was a really nice day with alot of great music. it was nice for us to get a show under our belt. today we flew to milwaukee where we'll perform tomorrow night. we'll drop you a line later in the week.

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

Friday, June 21st
hi everyone. we're about to begin our summer tour next saturday in kansas city. we arrive there early next week for a few days of rehearsals. we need to refresh on some of the old material and learn some of the new tunes that we'll be testing out on this tour. we've got a really cool stage design with a great backdrop and lighted risers for the drums and piano. there will be no amps onstage this time around. we're really looking forward to getting back out there again. we've got some really great looking new merchandise, too. three t-shirts, a gals tank, a hat and a key chain.

not much else is going on. we're taking a break from working on the new album, so we can tour. we'll finish up when the tour is over and are still hoping to release the new cd before thanksgiving.

did you hear that NASA woke the orbiting space shuttle astronauts up with "drops of jupiter" last week? yep. they thought about waking them up with "she's on fire", but decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

anyway, that's all for now. we'll touch base more often once we hit the road, so keep checking back with us. and for the love of god, get your tickets to come out and see us if you haven't already!!

later,
pat, rob, jimmy, scott and charlie