News from 9/22/03

First off, a huge healthy hearty THANKS to everyone who came out to RainFest on the 6th. The killer lineup (also including Ciara, Admiral Twin, Omnichron, Tony Romanello Band, Oklahoma, Rewake) did NOT disappoint, and we raised a lot of money for a great cause. Fun show, fun crowd, none of whom ran screaming from the premises during my set. Now if I can only find a way to get through the medley without breaking TWO STRINGS next time, I'll be in business. (Big extra thanks to Charlie 7 for tap-dancing so nicely about RainFest while I changed the first of said broken strings; the second one, of course, is why I quit the medley a verse too soon, if you were wondering.)

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Well, it's been a quiet week at Lake Rossbegone.

After what can only be described as two hellish weeks -- capping off two hellish months -- at The Day Job, I took last week off. But instead of my usual approach to vacation -- going off on an planned or unplanned mini-tour or driving cross-country to see my family -- this time I just stayed home.

And pretty much goofed off all week.

Thing is, I goof off exactly the same way I work: I set a ton of goals and I multitask like crazy. For instance, right now I'm updating the site, making coffee, stripping an audio tape to use later today for recording purposes, and listening to a CD. Most days I would also have the TV on, muted.

So in fact, I actually had a very full week. I saw a couple great shows by other folks (see below), caught up with a good friend, worked on the site a lot, started recording the new EP, watched a few movies, watched the Sooners win (not a big shocker), watched the Browns win (in a great 5 minutes that followed 55 boring ones), listened to a lot of music (I still can't get the latest Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers album out of my CD player), cooked some meals, read a lot of comics, cleaned the house, spent quality time with my cats and with That Special Someone, etc...

Oh yeah, and I wrote a new song, and learned another obscure cover.* Like I said, slow week.

(*And I say 'obscure' because if I just told you I'd learned a version of Steve Taylor's "I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good," only about 4 of you would know who and what I was talking about, right?)

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As far as the site is concerned, I spent some time adding to the News From Around the Bend pages, including the whole of the second issue, so head over there if you're interested. Also I revamped the links area again, adding a moderately-well-hidden 'dead links' section and moving some things there. To balance the karma, I've added some links to the other pages to replace the ones that are gone...

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It was actually a big music week, and I missed more shows than I saw, but the two I made it to were excellent. First, the Boondogs & Noelle Hampton at Arnie's... yowza. The Boondogs are always worth the price of admission, and Noelle Hampton was a more than pleasant surprise. I think about a third of my record collection is made up of "bands I discovered when they opened for the band I was there to see," and she's the latest addition to that group.

Two days later, it was a trip to Stillwater to witness my friend Adam Brodsky's 44th show on his Guinness World Record attempt -- 50 shows in 50 states in 50 days. Adam's opening act wasn't bad, but played too long and broke too many strings, the middle act was pretty good, but by the time Adam got onstage the crowd was restless and far from attentive. But Adam did his usual ass-kicking-names-taking job as far as I'm concerned -- not bad for a guy who confessed to me before the show that as a result of the tour "the last thing I want to do on any given night is hear music, especially my own." The tour's over now, and it's in the hands of the Guinness folks, but you can read all about it here.

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While we're on the subject of great music, please go vote for someone in the 5th Annual Tulsa World Spot Music Awards. There are a lot of great bands up for awards this year, and every vote counts.

I'm not up for an award this year, but I will be presenting one at the ceremony, which I think you'll agree is quite cool. So go vote, then come to the Spotniks on October 11th at the Brady.

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Now here I am, 8 o'clock Monday morning, ready to go back to work (OK, not really, because the next four months will be even busier than the last two, but I have to go back this afternoon whether or not I want to), and you're wherever you are, still waiting to hear what's next from Acoustic Ross.

Well, like I said, the new EP is underway, and it's gonna be awesome. The artwork is half-finished, the tracklist is just about finalized, and the bonus tracks are going to be supercool.

Plus I've got a few more shows in the works for later this year, and I've already got some really cool stuff on tap for next year.

And I've got three months' worth of gig photos to scan and post, so you should finally be seeing those soon. Seriously.

So the last quarter of 2003 is shaping up. And 2004 is already looking pretty good. Trust me, you'll want to stick around.

-- R