Squeaky Wheel Tour and Tonight's Gig

Granger and I just got home from doing a last-minute show at the Main Street Cafe in Milton, Florida. We had a great time, and considering we haven't done a four-hour show in about three years, we kicked butt! We were pulling songs out of the yin-yang, and enjoying it immensely. The people at the Cafe were a lot of fun, and the food there is absolutely incredible. I swear they have the best Ranch dressing I have *ever* tasted, and they have the most delicious herb butter on fresh bread that makes your mouth just dance with joy in anticipation of the next bite. And that's just the salad...the main courses are just as good, believe me. We're playing there again (tentatively) on the 17th and definitely on the 24th of November, so if you get a chance, do come out to hear us, and plan on eating dinner. Amazing food.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of doing long shows is getting to listen to Granger sing more songs. I just love listening to him, he's such an incredible musician, and he just makes me swoon when I hear him sing...not that I'm prejudiced or anything, mind you, but he's just the sexiest man on stage (and off, but I shan't go into details)!!!

We had hoped to be in Nashville today, participating in the Squeaky Wheel Tour. For those of you who don't know, in my web designer capacity, I do the web sites for the GINA For Missing Persons Foundation, a non-profit that dedicates itself to finding the missing. It was started by Jannel Rap, a wonderful musician in California, whose sister Gina Bos (also a musician) vanished on October 17, 2000 after she left a pub in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she was performing. Her car was found with her guitar in it the next day, but she is still missing. Jannel decided to use her music to help garner support for the missing by giving concerts not only on her own, but with all her fellow musicians. I'm both a participant as a musician, and, as she puts it, the "Web Goddess". (I think I like that term...wonder if a silk toga comes with it?!) The Squeaky Wheel tour has been going on since October 17th (the day Gina vanished) and ends on November 4th, which is Gina's birthday. I guess it's actually already November 4th right now - happy birthday, Gina.

The tour is a yearly event, and musicians from all over the U.S. and around the world participate by donating their own shows to the tour and profiling missing persons from their area. We had hoped to do some shows here locally, but didn't have any booked until this last-minute show. So, I approached a lot of my musician friends and asked them to participate. Thank you to those of you who joined the tour - you know who you are - and I'm happy to tell you that so far 13 people have been found since the tour started :).

We opted not to go to Nashville today for many reasons, but the main one was my son's school. It's a long trip for us, and I'm pretty much a stickler about not missing school if you don't have to. Since the Nashville show was at 2:00 in the afternoon, it just wasn't feasible. But, next year, we hope to be joining Jannel and crew somewhere along the way on the tour. If you want to find out more about the GINA Foundation and the tour, go to http://www.411gina.org/.

In the meantime, it felt soooo good to get out and play tonight. Our gigs have been infrequent since we moved to Florida, but it's been a lot better this year. We're looking forward to other shows in the works, and are definitely looking forward to our return shows at the Main Street Cafe.

Right now, I'm having that "after the show good-tired" feeling, and am thinking about a french bread pepperoni pizza with colby cheese on top....yummy! So I'm off to have a midnight snack and settle in for the night. Jammies, here I come!