my best new friend...

darlin don't you go and cut yr hair...

it is true that i am an indie rocker at heart. i mean, give me ANY Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr. or Pavement record over ANYTHING played on the radio in the last ten years anyday. now, try as i may to maintain my cynicism towards "radio" rock, i keep meeting people who play this kind of music, that i just can't find anything to dislike about... it's a bit of a conundrum.

Saving Abel are some of the nicest guys in the world... and even though i don't have their album in my iPod, i can see their appeal and i can also see that they do what they do very well. writing a hit song is not easy... period. hating on people who do IS easy though... it's also a cop-out in my book.

so that being said, here's to the success of yr peers.

no matter what you might say about the next guy's style, at least give props where props are due.

in other words... who am i to judge really? who are any of us?

maybe i'm really just lecturing myself... it used to be fun to cut down others who's thing i didn't agree with...

but after awhile i realized that i only really did it to those that achieved some sort of success...

and that's really just jealousy, isn't it?

1 mother-flippin love...

i can't lie, i've been suffering from a little bit of post-Gabe depression/road-burnout.

the worst part about complaining about touring isn't that no one wants to hear it (because they would probably trade places with you in a second), it's knowing that if you were home for any REAL length of time, you wouldn't know what to do with yrself and you would be complaining about NOT touring.

a day off in NYC is one part of a three-point-cure for homesickness.

part two is to play a show with an old drinking buddy who (like you) is not only healthy, happy and sober...

but at the top of his musical game. the new improved Eve 6 was amazing in Raleigh and it was great to see my old buds Max and Tony.

the third and final step in the Road Blues Antidote is to have a good bud with a matching tattoo.

Wes finally made good on our agreement to get matching "5" tattoos on our hands for increased high-fiving pleasure... better late than never buddy!

joining the circus...

why there isn't a long line here, i have no idea.

Gabe Stone joined the Mudd Puddlers for a few days on the road.

what can i say?

the kid has got a Rock n Roll heart.

luckily for him, he arrived in the midst of a week long Squirt Gun War.

Monkey Bunk.

hearts are going to get broken. i guarantee it.

big ups to Jessica Scantlin for escorting the Gabers out to see his old man.

Auntie Jenny thanks you too.

you are missed already little buddy...

you have no idea.

lesbians like waterfalls too...

god gave us skin, so let us party naked..

so, we bid a fond farewell to Tyler Read, who are done touring for the summer. they are some of the nicest guys i've ever had the pleasure to tour with and i wish em all the success in the world.

reunited and it feels so good...

we've bumped into Three Doors Down twice before in the last few months of touring. you can only delay the inevitable for so long... (Wes is clipping his nails here, btw)

so after three and a half years of avoiding each other... Wes Scantlin and Greg Upchurch finally buried the hatchet and hugged it out like two grown men. 

also, you may remember Sargeant Shanahan from the Iraq posts... well, home on leave from war and drunker than a pack of Indians on payday, he brought down the fam to the Fort Wayne, Indiana show and barbequed the crap outta some sirloin. long live Captian Shanannigans! a true patriot...

from our cage to yours...

still got it...

i hope i ain't just spinnin my wheels...

 

the real stars of the Sweetwater County Fair...