GO NORTH young band!!

Hey ho everyone! We have been on this latest tour for a few weeks now, starting down the barrel of the last weeks worth and it has been really good.

This has ben a tour of invitations and tours so far. We started in Cleveland at the House of Blues with the Rev before we hopped the border into my glorious homeland for a weeks worth of Canuck shows. H.O.B. As usual was fantastic and we were cordially invited to peruse the Rock n Roll hall of fame to see the latest exhibits. They had a baseball exhibit which sounds kinda funny but not if you consider all the crossover -- even we try to get to as many games as we can.

After the border crossing we played two Toronto shows and I got to hang out with some cousins Jennifer and Jonathan whom I hadn't seen in years. That same night I met this super cool dude Stefan, a horror movie actor and voiceover dude who I just picked out of the crowd because he was so cool looking. Turns out he was in Silent Hill and Resident Evil. He has the coolest job ever and has even gotten to write his own death! One day he did the voice of god in the morning and the voice of the devil in the afternoon. One day I'd like to follow in his footsteps. Be some kind of voice for anything, maybe a puppy!

We did a Ottawa show and stocked up on Poutine, the only truly Canadian food! So very delicious at 3 am eating out of a styrofoam cup with a plastic trident. Quebec City was great and Montreal even better cause we went to Schwartz' Smoked Meat!!! We played the night the Montreal Canadiens lost to Philly in the Stanley Cup playoffs and the city was prepared for the worst. There were probably four cops on every single block geting ready for a riot. Last game 20 cars were lit on fire including a bunch of cop cars.

All the Canadian gigs were played with GRADY as the opening slot. The band is based out of Austin but they're all Canadians. Gordie was the engineer on our latest record and will begin mixing on it as soon as their tour is over. Being familiar with the newest songs we got Gordie to come out and play harp with us every night on our latest hit song 'Lazy Jesus'. A crowd-pleasing favorite!

Once back in the states we met the new opening band, Backyard Tire Fire. All cool dudes who are totally fitting in with ease. It helps to dig weed and baseball even more than Blaine. After knowing them one day Blaine drove with them to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame. The highlight was seeing Babe Ruth's bat. He looks just like Jimbo!

In Baltimore we got invited to visit Duff and his crew at Charm City Cakes. Talk about cool! Mary Alice was awesome and they hooked us up with a bunch of cool 'Baked in Baltimore' schwag and a shitload of CAKE!! Travis sold merch that night wearing JUST his charm city apron. Being the total Food Network geek that I am, it was super cool.

Right now we are in the van driving all the way to Dallas from Bloomington, Indiana. Last night we had a suprise visit from our old roadie and good buddy Pat Nyffler. He's a full-time dad to a 4 year old girl named Lucy and doesn't look at all like a roadie anymore!

Hopefully we'll hit Interstate bar b que in Memphis in a few hours. Our bbq levels are dipping dangerously low. Plus we haven't had bbq spaghetti in some months now. We had delivery of some awesome Mutton from Owensboro but no one got their fill.

We'll be in Austin in a few days, Gary Lindsey's blues band is opening for us. That is going to be a hell of a night -- our buddy Chief is throwing a party at Emo's as well called Cheifest with the New Bomb Turks playing so hopefully we can catch some of their show also.

Nine Pound Hammer play next week in Lexington so Blaine and I will have approx. ONE day in our house before we gotta take off again, then he's off to Europe with the Hammers for three weeks, then we meet in Salt Lake City!!! More Rev and as long last we play again with the SUPERSUCKERS!!!! Should be a ball.

Rock on!

Ruyter