2014 The Year That Kicked My Butt! Hello Friends, Family, and Fans! 2014 was the year that kicked my butt. It was a really great year with some major strides and struggles, it brought out the sides of me that are seldom seen or heard. January: The Recovery The year started out with my daughter Ava recovering from Ureter reimplantation surgery. Having to be away on the road to pay for the surgery and keep the rent paid was worrying me sick. Fortunately my wifes mother came out to help us get through it. Thank you very much Vicki! I really want to thank the wonderful staff at Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital for a successful operation. Ava is feeling great and fully recovered. February: Polar Vortex Touring This was a tour that we should have cancelled before we left due to the inclement weather. We left Cleveland on two wheels, thats right two wheels. We hit a sheet of ice a quarter mile long. I quickly told the guys to move to the left side of the vehicle to balance us out. It worked and we were able to stop on all four. Growing up in Idaho taught me a lot about winter driving! A big shout out to all the brave fans that came out to the shows. Yall are the greatest! Looks like Ill see you again Feb of 2015. March and April: Coast To Coast March started out with me heading back to California to perform a few shows with Junior Watson. Time flies by so quickly. It had been six years since I had gigged with Junior. The shows were a blast. Kedar Roy, Ronnie Groove Smith and Fred Kaplan made for a great rhythm section. The Bo-Keys and I hit the road for a coast to coast tour. This was the first time I had toured with a large band. It was a great learning experience. The band did a fabulous job, earning nightly standing ovations and after performing Crying there wasnt a dry eye left in the house. Id like to thank the Bo-Keys and Intrepid for helping make this tour possible. The Grammy Drop concert was a real treat and what an honor to be interviewed by Grammy Foundation Vice President, Scott Goldman. While in LA, I popped in and did an interview with Tavis Smiley, he is one cool cat! A big shout out to Shore Fire and Sue Shrader for these opportunities. Upon its March release, Memphis Grease received many great reviews from USA Today, Mojo, Esquire, American Songwriter, Blues Blast Magazine and Living Blues. It held positions on the Billboard Blues Top 10 for a number of weeks, as well as reaching number 1 on the Blues Radio Charts. April ended with my wife Jaki and me announcing we had a baby boy on the way. May: Soul Blues I was awarded the Blues Music award for Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year. This was my first award after receiving many nominations over the years. I was so surprised. The Blues Foundation does so much for the Blues community. The Bo-Keys and I performed the Doheny festival and I had the honor of sitting in with Greg Allman!! Stax to the Max is a big show that happens every year in Memphis. This year I was on the bill with the Bo-Keys, Sam Moore, William Bell, Toni Green, The Mad Lads and the Temprees. The show was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a real dose of Memphis fat back soul! June: Two Bands In the spring I called upon Wes Starr, Paul Taylor and Elliot Sowell to hit the road for another east coast run. We stopped in to see Tony Colter at XM Radio and The McNeil PBS News Hour. The end of the month had the Bo-Keys and me performing WNYC Sound Check. Thank you Nick Loss Eaton for setting this up. July: The Globe Trotter The Bo-Keys and The London Grease were flying around the US and across the pond. We hit great festivals from The Waterfront in Portland, Oregon to the Pori Jazz Festival in Pori, Finland, all the while performing club dates in-between. A big shout out to Peter Damman of Waterfront and promoter John Finn for my England and Finland tours. While in London I had the opportunity to perform Ronnie Scotts and a live spot on the Paul Jones BBC show! I want to thank pianist Paddy Milner for this hook up. Wheres the baby? Hes late. August: Otis Otis my boy arrived on August 10th, two weeks late, but happy and healthy. Jaki gave birth the hard way, all natural. Shes one tough cookie, you have to be if youre gonna keep me in line. I needed a band in a hurry. Being constantly on the move gave me little time to put a band together. Music writer Tom Hyslop recommended a young guitarist from Marquette, MI named Travis Swanson. I had heard the kid once on a jam and knew hed be able to play my material. I needed a bassist so I put a post on Facebook and found Matthew Wilson from Milwaukee, WI. Matthew comes from a family of great blues musicians. Danny Banks joined back up on drums after touring with various acts. These guys are hot players and the ladies think they are handsome. They are all living in Memphis and are loving it, especially Central BBQs hot wings! September and October: The Balancing Act The road and the family. Its a lot of work playing music for a living and making sure you have time for your family. I am dedicated on both fronts and fortunately Jaki stays home with Ava and Otis and helps me out with the business. Our kids are definitely better for it. The band was cooking and we toured around the southland and up through the midwest performing festival and club dates. November: Europe and Anniversary Jaki and I have been together for fifteen years. She is such great woman and I am so lucky to have her. We met in Boise in 1999. Id like to thank her former roommate Anna Kelly Hoffpauir for taking harmonica lessons which gave me the opportunity to meet my future wife. We spent most of November performing all the major blues festivals in Europe. We performed in Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. It was great to see all the American and European bands that dont tour in the states. The young band really brought the house down over there. So proud of these guys. Id like to thank Intrepid and Erkan Ozdemir and all the great promoters for putting those tours together. The month ended with us hosting the band family and some close friends for Thanksgiving at our house and little Ava Grace turning a big four years old. December: The Nominees Are? I received the most BMA nominations ever in one year. Six in total for Soul Blues Artist, Soul Blues Album, BB King Entertainer, Song of the Year (Bad Luck Is My Name), Album of the Year and Band Of the Year (Bo-Keys)! The BMAs are the Grammys of the Blues world. Unfortunately I got did not make the Grammy cut, oh well there is always the next record. Memphis Grease made the Top 10 Album list by Memphis paper the Commercial Appeal. This is big considering the magnitude of fine recordings that come out of this great music city every year!!! The band and I wrapped up the year with gigs in Macon, Mobile and New Orleans. As I write this, I just learned that PBS Newshour included me in The musicians we listened to in 2014, the Arts portion of their year in review. Also featured were Willie Nelson, Charles Bradley and the Beatles! I am fortunate that I have been able to spend time with my family over the holidays and have had time to reflect on a great ass kicking year. I am so thankful to have such wonderful family, friends, fans and musicians to spend my time with. Thank you all for making me the person I am today and I look forward to making 2015 a momentous year with yall!!!
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 21:31:31 +0000
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