The Jaded Tour - East Coast, Atlanta, Nashville Sept 2003

Jaded Tour of the East Coast Aug-Sept 2003 East Coast U.S - Jaded Tour - August 2003 New York City - Friday August 8, 2003 Well we arrived in New York City. woo hoo! It's been 11 years since i lived here in 1992 and then i visited here only for a week in '96. So it's a lonnnnnnnng time. Chris Valenti was already here spending time with his family on Long Island. Toni Koch and I got up at 4am Friday morning, packed the car, and our roomie Kristi drove us, beary eyed to the airport in L.A. We were flying ATA. Don't ever fly ATA. Godddd. We were in about 5 security lines and we barely got on the plane. The place was packed. Take your shoes off, put your shoes on, take your computer out of the bag, stand in line, make 3 lines, take your bra off.. well no not that part#^#^$%&. By the time we made it through the last security check point we ran to the gate and got on in the nick of time. I know many people missed the flight. Airports need to get this better in order because they sucked at their organization and mgmgt of people. 3 1/2 hrs to chicago, quick transfer and on to La Guardia. We arrived to a muggy, sweltering hot afternoon and a nice gal called Nancy who was our chauffer. nice....... a few weeks back she picked up Barry White.. then he died. My fate was in her hands! We're staying with Erin Hill and her husband Mike in Queens, Long Island City. Circa 1870s 4 story terrace house that has a stair case that works your butt hard. i can see i'm going to lose 10 pounds in this city and i don't even need to leave the house! it's right near Ely Ave 23rd subway so it's a short hop to Manhattan. We can see the Empire State Building where we are. First night was Baggot Inn. Right in the heart of Greenwich Village, on 4th Street, near Blue Note, and all the cool venues. I was in heaven. This is Toni's first time in NYC so she was blown away by all the action. We entered the BAggot Inn and Chris Valenti was already performing. Some of my old friends were here, Marco Rosa, who I grew up with, plus a consortium of friends, and Deb Flanagan who runs Book Music Network. I used their keyboard which was hilarious because the middle A note was really really loud compared to every other note so every time i played it DONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. I cracked up during a sensitive moment, vocally, then hitting the DONGGGGG A. Killed the quiet vibe, but made the show fun. I hadn't slept in ages but we all went to get some Cajun food and laughed a lot, drank beer and added spices to everything. A great first night in NYC. More coming.... my butt is tighter than j lo's Monday August 11, 2003 - Queens It's been nostalgic, deja vu and new all at the same time! With much walking - my butt is better than J Lo's right now from all the walking and stairs! - and window shopping, we have been seeing Manhattan with new eyes. People seem to be a lot friendlier here these days although there are still a few who think they can just jump the queue when they want, as if it's their divine right! Saturday we were invited by Renee Grenier - rhymes with Grand Manier but without the smoothness, or rhymes with "almost there" - from Est Fest to go check out an industry showcase at FEZ, a very hip and happening bar down below sea level (they seem to all be!), on Bleeker Street/La Fayette. They have a grand piano so i'll have to come back to this one! Coincidently, after paying $10 for what we thought we were guests to, and 2 drinks, we happened to be watching our artist friends Emily Zuzik and her bass player, also very talented artist in her own right, Meredith DiMenna of the band the Saucers. It was a treat. Having been left to pay 4 drinks, yes... we were schhhtooooped, left paying the bill, we continued on to some bar hopping, some pizza and cheese eating, with some flirting with drunken irish boys, and then, a long way home having caught the wrong subway and ended up on the upper west side heading to harlem. woops! Yesterday afternoon we met up with my childhood friend Marco Rosa, for a cool - well hot and muggy - free concert in Central Park. Jimmy Cliff performed on the Summer Stage. We drank beer, got a wafting of the smoke nearby, and pretended we were Jamaicans. There were dreadlocks everywhere and yellow, red and black bandanas. Kind a like Aboriginal colors these Reggae mun! What a great afternoon, with slight spits of rain and then lovely sunshine. We dropped in to check out my book at Barnes and Noble near Lincoln Square, check out Madonna's cool pad around 63rd then down to Chelsea to see Dr Brooks at G. G is a cool, hip and happening bar on 19th and 7th Avenue. When I think of Chelsea, I think of the song from Cabaret, "I used to have a girlfriend known as Chelsea... da da.. who used to share 4 sordid rooms in Chelsea... da da.. she wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower... as a matter a fact she rented by the hour!" boo boom. Well, Chelsea is still dirty, with garbage everywhere (they've cut back to garbage collection once every two weeks,) but it's no grimey Garment district anymore. Its a budding upper middle class area now and the apartments are really sprucing up. G is a cool bar which hosted an array of gorgeous unavailable (in my league) men, who fancied going to the gym and biceps more than anything. A very cool place to drop in to though and one of the first people I ever met in Los Angeles, Sean "Dr." Brooks is the DJ here on Sunday and Tuesday nights. We walked into a Madonna remix and I knew i was home! He spins so well! He even got us free drinks. Toni was in her element. Having let her t-shirt hang out all day she decided it was time to "go get dressed" and put on her black studded belt for the occasion. I was having a ball listening to the grooves, hanging out with Sean and eating pretzels to help me down my vodka and cranberry. the tequila shot was a smooth transition to get my tummy juices going for dinner and we bid Sean adieu and hopped up the road for some Thai food at SPICE on 8th and 20th where the candles were low and the mood was vibey.. and my food was really spicy! Home to Queens by midnight and up at 11am. These were late mornings because we just couldn't get used to the clock! Monday 11th rolls around and we have breakfast at the local diner at 2.30pm. What a trip! We catch the 7 into town (subway) and sit at the Paris Theatre, right next to the amazingly gorgeous and regal PLAZA hotel on 5th and 59th near Central Park. We saw the average Le Divorce movie tonight with whatsherface I hate American 22 year old punk Kate Hudson... then we sauntered down the 6 line to the Bowery. CB Gallery was our target, to hang some gilli moon posters up on the window for the Thursday show. It was REALLY hard getting the door guy to put up 2 posters, not one, and even worse to bear the hard nose NY ass*le who tried to push us into buying a drink at the Blues bar on Bleeker street. We were invited by a street promoter to go listen to some AWESOME blues, R&B hip hop, I swear i was so in heaven. But after 20 minutes the mgr insisted we buy a drink if we wanted to stay. Now, I don't mind these kind of policies, but for him to almost shove his fist down my throat to make the point and ask us to leave because we didn't want to be the alcoholics he insisted us being, just make me puke. One thing i've noticed about this town. They are REALLY pushy. AND not necessarily friendly. Very arrogant in fact and rather insulting to women. But i did like the little bar in Soho and we met this cool restauranteur who invited us out to his private 50th b'day party on sunday, so .. you get some you lose some. home by midnight. gigs all week this coming week. woo hooo! Thursday August 14, 2003 - Long Island to Manhattan Everyday becomes one subway blur of holding on tight to the subway poles, sub-terrain heatwaves (it's like Singapore down below) and staring at the subway map long enough to know that you really are in Manhattan! Blue, red, yellow lines on the map going this way and that. No wonder i'm getting dizzy! We hit university town, around Hudson and Christopher (christofaw!) that night for a songwriters night at Caffe Sha Sha. A she she kind of caffe with a double ffs to make you know it's she she. Amy Leah Emerman runs these little coffee house to-dos and I found it comforting and cool except that the as much as everyone was quite talented (they really were) i just realized how different us L.A folk perform to the New Yorkers. I guess 9/11 hit their hearts pretty bad because nearly every song was sad and dark and slow and weepy whereas myself, Chris Valenti and another californian, Randi Driscoll, sang with vivacious life. But it was fun nevertheless. Amy is a delight and i wish i had more time to hang out with her. ...looking for elsie in chelsea.... Toni and i hit the streets after for some street promo and we dropped back in to the Bitter End where I'm performing on Sat night to drop off some posters. Bleeker street is really jumping at night, no matter what night of the week. After another awesome slice of pizza on the street (although some dude thought it was his right to just jump in the line in front of me - "stick with me kid, and you'll learn to push in (he ACTUALLY said that to me!) - we headed home on the 6 then the E and crashed. We were up at 9 so fast i felt my head never hit the pillow! We decided to head out to Long Island early to take a spin on Chris Valenti's brother's boat. We met him at the ol' T-Bone dinner in Forest Hills for a few eggs and a lot of coffee, and with music gear and promo in tow, off we went on the LIRR - Long Islan Railroad - to somewhere near Islip starting with a K, some Am. Indian long name that I'm sure, when they named it, they didn't have to spell it. Donny, Chris' brother, met up with us at the station an hour later but he was too busy for a boat ride so we dropped the gear off at Chris' family home which is so beautiful, very East Coast, long tall, 2 storeys with a nice yard and lovely green trees. We had a beer and food up the street in Bayport and took a look at the marina before washing up and heading to Levittown. Levittown is somewhere near Farmingdale and Munchaba, named after nobody in particular, and as the owner Bob said, just sounded good to say, is the coolest, hippest bar this side of.. well... Queens i guess. Cool well lit candles, an old piano that nobody plays, a bar with tenders all smiling and ready to pour a shot or too, and lovely management, this club was one of our faves so far. Chris' mother, Pat, was spending her birthday party here with a bunch of rowdy friends all smiling and ready to party. (Maybe it was the attraction of Karaoke after us that made her decide to sing....!) Chris got up for a few songs to warm the audience and then i followed on my new lightweighed 282 Yamaha keyboard that fits almost in my purse and still has a nice piano sound. I LOVE my loop station. Once again, I pulled out the Boss RC 20 for some fun, just like i did in the South West, and made 1000 voices sing and purr with my new 4 octave toy. What fun. We made some cool cash at the door and i gave brother Donny a Warrior tshirt (he wanted to rub off the 'girl' on it and i told him that 70% of my customers were boys.) He was like a cuddly teddy bear and I thought he was fabo, as did Toni. Maybe we WILL get on his boat! Chris' dear friend Cathie drove us home to Queens which was, in my estimation, such an angelic thing to do knowing she has to get up at 6.30! Toni and I, again, crashed like dead weight. This travelling really tires you! Wednesday 14th and we're in to Manhattan again. The 7 subway was out because some guy pushed some guy in front of a train and they had to stop the line. I heard that the guy saved himself by rolling into a ball under the train. wow! We had lunch with the Aliotti family's dearest and greatest NY surrogate mom of all mom's ms. Francie Alston. What a treat, at Bien Venue cafe somewhere around 37th and Madisson, eating salmon and creme brule and chardonnay (well not in that order!) We talked of old times when i was here in 92 rollerblading up and down the streets, about the family, travelling, turkish baths and.. music. What fun! ok... woops... lights just went out. that's weird. must have blown a fuse in the basement. I'm running on battery right now.... Carole just told me the whole of Manhattan has gone out. Wow! I hope this isn't disastrous. Should I stop typing? (pause, come back). I just went out on the street and everywhere is stopped. It's slowly getting dark. People are trapped in subways and all planes are stopped. There's a mass exodis over the 59th Street bridge. People on foot scrambling to excape the city. People streaming down from the subway after being led out by police officers. (later). These guys are hawking flash lights on the street corner and the liquor store is still open selling the rest of their slowly melting beer. I had a beer at the pub. It was refreshing. Some old lady got so disturbed. She has no idea how to get home. She lives in Flushing. I found 3 others going her direction so they could share a cab ride. Erin, Mike, Carole, Toni and I are going to eat kebabs on the BBQ out back under candle light. I canceled my gig at CBGBs. No way I'm getting in there now. I think they'll close. It's hot without a fan! Friday August 15, 2003 - Queens hi everyone, thought i'd send a post to those who got a little concerned last night over the black out on the East Coast. I don't normally send so many posts but i think this one is deserving as we got stuck in Manhattan. We are OK. Everyone is ok. we are in the dark It'll be one of those questions at a party: "where were you when the lights went out." I know a few who had to walk miles and miles, some got stuck in elevators, and I met someone who excaped a subway. We were all set to go to perform at CBGB's - CB Gallery on Bowery in Manhattan, when the lights went out in the terrace house in Queens, where we are staying with Erin Hill and Fam (great Indiegrrl). Chris Valenti was stuck out on Long Island and no trains were running. I called the venue and they were open to do doing something acoustic and in the dark, but the subways were at a halt, the trains were stopped, the bridges were blocked and the heat was a sweltering, muggy 90 odd degrees. Sorry to those even out of state who were going to log in to the live webcast at CB Gallery. In any case, we are all fine, and glad we were on the other side of Manhattan across the river. We just watched the mass exodis on foot across the bridges, excaping trains, and sat at the local Irish pub drinking a beer instead. The subways are still down on this eerily quiet Friday in Manhattan, but lights are on and we expect a good turn out tonight at Joyous Life and tomorrow at the rockin' Bitter End on Bleeker Street. take care all. Saturday August 16 - Manhattan NY Talk about Mars being way too close to the Earth. Seems like everyone is in a pissy mood. It all started with the blackout. Our Friday night gig at Joyous Life was canceled also and we ended up being in a rare state of quietness for several days in the middle of New York, which is a weird thing, but I guess we needed the rest too. By Saturday afternoon, though, it was time to venture out from our dark cacoon and head on down to the Bitter End on Bleeker street for a last minute awesome show. They have this honky tonk piano that you can tell has been played on by the best of them and alot of them over many years as it was almost crunchy to play. I had to stand most of the time to bare my weight down on it to make any cool sound, otherwise it just didn't move, and it was slightly off pitch which most old famous pianos are. But the room was, well, awesome. Playing the Bitter End is like playing the Whisky or the Troubadour in L.A. It's a famous haunt and a "must". As soon as they opened the doors the place packed like sardines and this was mainly due to the main act - the House Jacks www.housejacks.com - who I was opening for. What a group. I wouldn't say they're a band, per say, as they all use voice percussion and sing acapella.. well they are a microphone band! 4 guys (the 5th wasn't there) who play every instrument under the sun and can sing any note in perfect harmony with each other, totally blew everyone away. Well, back to me.... I very much enjoyed the set i played and once again my trusty p.p loop (RC 20 Boss loop station i was inspired to purchase in march after seeing penelope swales use one), was my fabulous vocal harmonizer for the night. Sold some cds and a t-shirt (the t-shirt to a lady who came up and said "I just want a t-shirt". and I said "oh great, wanna sign my email list too?" and she said "oh, I don't do internet." um ok... After the HJs played too, we all went off for a HJ/gm afterparty at LoZoo bar and got seriously wasted on some kind of shots and then Toni and I zig-zagged our way through the East Village to some subway at 2 in the morning and we actually found our way home! although don't remember hitting the pillow;) Sunday August 17 - Manhattan NY to Montclair NJ Sunday morning was a horrible hangover hell. But Toni and I managed to get ourselves to the 42nd street port authority (thanks to Mike and Erin who drove us) and then we caught the #66 bus to Montclair NJ with all our luggage, migraines and muggy weather. I can't believe how nice Patti and Susie were greeting us at their sunday Smartwomen broadcaster BBQ (www.smartwomen.org) but I think we looked like death warmed up. flowers in montclair ANYway, we got accustomed in this beautiful house with too many flowers and 2 dogs that look too cute to be real.. they look like toys! And two cats that have the biggest personalities. Patti runs www.smartwomen.org which is an awesome new internet radio station and so much more. A group of women round the country who chat and discuss issues and the music she plays live is great: all broadcast from Patti's attic in this gorgous house that looks like Tara out of 'Gone with the Wind'. W enjoyed the BBQ meeting all her broadcasters and one lass, Jasper James, who sings great songs, is one broadcaster who i ended up having a great interview with live on Tuesday. That Sunday night, still feeling seedy, we crawled down to Bloomfield Ave to the Luna Stage to play a couple of songs at Kirk's cool Open Mic. There were tons of people there and Susie, Kirk's wife, gave us the grand tour and the big auditorium like room Chris and I will perform in on Thursday. There are loads of songwriters in this town!! Quite the hub. After a few ditties and a few new friends, we crawled home via a mexican joint for a nachos, and this time.. no margaritas!.. and slept till noon on Monday to get over the travelling, blackout, turmoil and humidity body boiling. Monday afternoon and I discovered our Syracuse show at Bennigans was canceled and I still don't know why. Still dumbfounded, Toni and I decided to sit on the porch and meditate about the meaning of life and what are we going to do next. Mars is certainly in the house. I ate my left over nachos, Toni did street promo for our exciting gig Thursday and by Tuesday we were awake again. Tuesday August 19, 2003 After seemingly 2 hours in traffic to get through the Lincoln tunnel and our lovely hostess Susie standing up through the sunroof while driving to see what the hell was going on with the obstruction (yikes ;), we found our way across town to Ave C and 10th Street to a humble, rather bohemian dive called C-Note. Awesome artists inside, just funky part of town. Michael McHugh runs a songwriters series every Tuesday, with Dan Herman, and we met Chris Valenti (who arrived in the nick of time) and did our own sets on stage to the noisy bar crowd (ok there were 5 listening but, hey, they were my friends!) A slice of pizza and we were ready to rock and roll back over the Lincoln Tunnel which again was obstructed with construction and Susie, who needed to be up by 5.30am, was going mad again and i thought she was going to ram the car into the back of the truck or something. but anyway... we got home, and i waited up till 2.30am for Chris who never arrived as he ended up going too far south and i left him to his own devices. maybe i'll see him again... HA HA! Time to hit manhattan again, this time via train so we miss the freeway hell, to have lunch with Voodoogirl's friend Carman, and a bottle of Chardonnay. Lata! Wednesday August 20, 2003 Meeting Carmen Moore was like meeting a creative angel living and breathing on the planet. He is a spiritual activist, bringing harmony and union to the world through his music for children, religions and just plain old peace. Carman lives in a humble pied a terre on 66th near the Lincoln Center which is in fact his place of work as he conducts and composes some of the largest music events there. Right across the road is his second work home, Central Park, known for his open air concerts. He made the best tunafish salad and we brought some Aussie chardonnay so we spent a glorious afternoon talking about opera, classical music, R&B, pop and how to create world peace. Carman is a good friend of Voodoogirl (http://www.songsalive.org/m_voodoogirl). With time to spare before the evening's last minute gig at Meow Mix, Toni and I headed down on the subway to the last stop, to go check out the Statue of Liberty. Now I was about to goof and buy the expensive tickets for the tour until Toni had to pee so we stopped into a Starbucks and the girl behind the counter said - "no, you can just catch the free ferry to Staten Island and see it on the way!" Woo hoo.. so there IS something for free in New York. Scrambling with latte in hand, we dashed over to the ferry, which is more like a cruise ship it's so big - and found a nice seat outside along the side... ready for the view ahead. Toni STILL had to pee, so she found that on board plus about 200 other passengers who all were going home to Staten Island. What's truly remarkable and rejuvenating is to find out, for the first time in my 3 times to New York, that this city, in fact, is on a beautiful, magic harbour. I had never seen the water in NY, silly me, and by going on this ferry my faith and love for New York was revived. I "could" tangibly live here now seeing the cruise boats, yachts and blue crystal magic that this harbour provides, let alone the awesome view of the Manhattan skyline from the Atlantic Ocean. THIS is what the travellers to NY would have seen originally. A harbour, a port, a beauty. And then, the little green French thing. I thought it was really big, but in fact it looked like one of the trinkets you pick up on a tourist stand. The statue of liberty, luminous in shadow as the sun was setting, one arm up holding a fake flame, the green metal shining against the sun. What a weird statue, on it's own island, separating Manhattan, New Jersey and Staten Island like the peace holder (it's ok little states and islands, you can all get along!) I was filled with mixed emotions about the Statue. At first, it was rather majestic, and I said to myself "ok now I've seen it and yes it's cool." Then I felt a resentment that we had glorified a French statue for... what? What kind of liberty is this country really under right now??? Then I thought, "heck, I'm on the harbour, the sun is gorgeous as it's setting, the boats are out, and I'm relaxing looking at a female metal icon of strength and unity." Such mixed emotions. Or maybe I was just tired. Yeah, maybe that was it. So I laid down on the return trip and fell asleep. Back into Manhattan, sleepy eyed, Toni and I traversed the CBD and Wall Street district, past happy hour time at the Irish pubs and pizza slice hop-ins, to find the J line subway up to Alphabet city... Lower east side. Patti from Smartwomen Radio (http://www.smartwomen.org) put me on to Janine from Girls Salon to do a couple of numbers at Meow Mix. On Houston between Ave A and Ave B, in a very seedy part of town, but apparently hip now... was Meow Mix, the all female bar. Janine Avril runs a cool night called Girl Salon where she invites various women to perform. I met Rachel Sage, and reconnected with Carol Plunk. There were some very brave female artists in there including the VIM artists who, at such a young age, had the ability to be so expressive and detailed about sexuality. I hopped up for 2 songs, thanks Rachel for playing her keyboard, and was inspired by how strong the other artists were. On our way home we ate pizza and I browsed the Village Voice again. Thursday August 21, 2003 Big day big day. Whilst being out in Montclair Toni (and some help from me) had done an enormous amount of street promotion putting my flyers and posters up in all the local store windows to promote tonight's gig. Luna Stage. The Stage of gilli moon, was awaiting me. Donny, Chris Valenti's brother, dropped our golden boy off at the house after their couple of days in Atlantic City (hmmm I wonder what those two boys really got up to?!), and by 4pm we were down at the theatre. Yes I said theatre. This is not ordinary club. This is a beautiful, majestic theatre with tiered seating, several rooms, a makeup room, box office and more. The seminar was small attended but encouraging to those who came and straight after I hopped on the piano and performed what I felt was the best show for the tour. I had my keyboard and loop station set up also so I was going backwards and forwards from one set of keys to another. The sound was magic, thanks Dave, and the room was very special and conducive to a great show. Thanks Kirk and Susie for everything. After me, Chris Valenti, too, performed his best show I've seen, with multimedia use of the projector showing some short films. All in all it was a wonderful night and I slept like a baby. I just wish that more people knew about the show... One day, one day... Tuesday August 26, 2003 - Montclair NJ Our last weekend in Joisey was actually rather opportunistic. I ended up landing two last minute shows - one in Hoboken NJ - home of Frank Sinatra, Pizza, the Mafia, turnpikes & bridges and swamp land. Hoboken has a cool view of the Manhattan Skyline, now sorely missing the twin towers. I did this cool show at the Frozen Monkey Cafe (www.frozenmonkeycafe.com) booked by Deb Flanagan. The main street is like one in Melbourne, little italian and eclectic flavored restaurants and bars, with people sitting out on the pavement on the warm night. We set up the stage in the window and performed to kids ordering ice-creams and such. I shared the stage with 13Hands (aka Daniel) who has superbly mastered numerous loop stations and pedals. I was so inspired watching him perform, and we palmed off each other all night singing 4 to 5 songs a set each. Great fun! Sunday was brunch with the Marco and Christine at Thalia on 50th and 7th, where they serve omelets and Champaign specials. Marco says, "ok, now I want my first girlfriend so sit opposite my last girlfriend so they can share notes." I laughed so hard!!!! You see Marco and I grew up together and at the age of 4 or so we were stuck like glue coz all our parents were too. Christine is a cool chick. From brooklyn, lived in NY al her life and Boston for college only. Strong and warm, I think she makes a wonderful partner for Marco. we parted ways after lunch and Toni and i wandered the streets of madison ave where there was a street market of nik naks. we went for a drink down at G in Chelea hoping to find Sean, Dr Brooks, again, who spins there. but he wasn't. then we went over to my last gig for NY to C-Note and Marco and Christine met us up there again to watch the show. She bought a cd for Marco because he had downloaded all my songs and it was time to fork up the $ if ya know what i mean ;) The C-Note is really a hole in the wall dive in the dregs of the East Village.. but, hey, they seem to be having a regular line-up of singer/songwriters... and i actually enjoyed it even though my set was cut short from the late open mic ending and early arrivals of the blues band regulars. If there was ever a dream (apart from Wembley Stadium) it was to also tinkle the ivories in a piano bar in the NYC East Village. So there. Done! wonderful day in manhattan. Monday came along really quickly and I've been in my pyjamas since waking at noon since. And it's now Tuesday night! I guess I've had to catch up on work and sleep so resting in the SmartWomen household has been awesome. Patti and Susie are delightful new friends and i think it will be long lasting. And I'll miss the dogs and cats the most. toni do we have enough room in the bags????? Off to Philly and the IMC www.imc2003.com Thursday September 5 - Boston MA The independent Music Conference August 28 - Sept 1, was an absolute blast. www.IMC2003.com for all the details. We got to really discover the heart of Philadelphia, the town of independence, the constitution, the meeting of cultures. I found the Sheraton Hotel (along with awesome grand piano in the Sheraton room ;) was a pleasure to deal with and Noel's vision for a conference really came together. Next year we hope to have more attendance. Songsalive! will certainly be involved again. I discovered that Philly was predominately african american, at least in the center of town. The club that i was scheduled to play at, Tri-tone, is on 15th and South and I have to admit, it was a sad place... Maybe 10 people I saw sitting on the sidewalk in broad daylight, drugged out of their minds. Shady part of town. But by night... wow a completely different vibe. This club is one of the hottest acoustic jazz places and by the time Sunday night came around, the room was packed with all walks of life. I loved the show and everyone was stomping to "Woman" to another dimension ;) Thanks to Noel, Elaine, Carol, Ted and Jennifer for great team work. Plus Judy Sandra, Toni Koch and Libby Lavella for being an awesome Songsalive! team in PA. By Tuesday Sept 2nd Judy drove Toni and I back to the SmartWomen HQ in Montclair NJ as that night was going to be a wonderful surprise for the gilli moon empire! New York City, here was returned, on a cold rainy night. The summer had ended abruptly, but my rollercoaster ride was on it's way up. living the buckley legacy.... I had an AWESEOME gig for Sony /Columbia Records and Mary Guibert for the Jeff Buckley Cd and DVD launch. If you're not familiar with Jeff Buckley, please read about this talented soul who left this world too early, at www.jeffbuckley.com. Mary, his mother and taking care of his Estate, put on a most amazing event at Sin-e, a venue that Jeff used to perform at regularly. Now on Attorney Street in the East Village, Sin-e was always supportive of Jeff and other singer-songwriters. Tonight was a celebration of a DVD interview and new CD of recordings Jeff did at Sin-e when he was alive. With a bunch of Sony dudes sitting on seats in the corner, and the rest of the 300 crowd standing afixed to the stage, Mary hosted several artists who were inspired by jeff buckley (personally "grace" is on my stereo every morning almost!). i was the first artist and i had 300 eyes watching and standing and applauding. very honored to have been chosen to perform as an artist inspired by jeff, infront of all his diehard fans. people travelled all over the world to get to this concert ;) what a blast!!!! the hardest $50 I ever made.. Wednesday 3rd... so... catching a train to boston where rhonda stisi smith is picking us up. What a debarcle, this day was. Destination Maynard MA for a half hour set for Patty Keough at the Sit 'n Bull Pub. So the train from Montclair NJ was at 11.20am in order to get the 12.30pm train from Penn Station to Boston. Our lovely host and friend for life, Patti Wolf said she'd drive us direct to Penn. Cool! But coming out of the driveway at 11.15am we discover the car has a flat. We rush to the nearest Mobil. 11.17. "Patti, we have 3 minutes to get to the local train station to get to Penn to get the only train to boston." Yikes... so we rush and with 30 seconds remaining we say goodbye and onto the train. Penn Station: our 12.30pm Boston train (did you know it's $60!!!) was delayed. By 2 hours. 2 freakin hours!!!! We're on the train, eventually, and as we approach Boston there's an emergency on our carriage. Some young girl has passed out and we had to wait for the ambulance to arrive before leaving the platform. Yikes. We arrived in Boston after 6pm! Rhonda and Kyle greeted us and it was really great to see her. We got to her place at 7.15pm. The show started at 7.30pm. Rhonda said, "hey, take the car!" So Toni and I, without even unpacking or stepping into the house, got into the car, with a rough map to Maynard. This town was supposed to be the next town over. So why did it take us an hour to find it? We go SO lost, it was dark, and raining, and i thought i was driving the country roads of Australia. I was expecting a kangaroo to jump across the road any moment. No such luck. Finally we found the town, and the Pub, after asking every man and his dog. And fortunately i was going on at 9pm. Cool. We arrive at 10 to 9. What a DAY!!!! I earned $50!!!! I worked hard for this one! Monday September 8, 2003 - Atlanta GA I've written a brand new poem. It's called The Orange Sun. I was looking out at the awesome sunset above the clouds, flying Delta from Boston to Georgia, got a little homesick, and tour sick, and just overwhelmed by the aesthetic beauty of the sun setting. It's rather melancholy but know that it was only momentary. Sometimes we need to realize our own mortality. As much as I enjoyed Boston and the Nemo Conference, I was glad to leave, only to know that I was reaching towards the last legs of our tour and home bound. Both days at the Nemo conference at the Hyatt (formerly the Swiss Hotel in town, actually on the edge of China Town), was an absolute career blast. I've become to be known as the conference gal, and everyone knows the gilli moon name from one conference to another. While many of these music conferences are knocked, I think they all, in their own way, have value: mainly they become pseudo epicentres of culture, music and society, in one hotel floor. It's an easy way to get your name out there as each person takes your memory with them to their part of the world and spreads the word. Great marketing for any artist and a good way to spend advertising money: just attend. I on the other hand not only had the opportunity to perform for Nemo, but also speak on the marketing panel with the smartest guy in business (notice I say guy and left the female realm out) - Derek Sivers from cdbaby.com. I truly respect this man for his tenaciousness and rebellionness which I exude myself. We were like the pivot for the panel speaking on behalf of the young revolutionists in the so-called independent music business. As book ends we had Brian Cohen Sr VP of Marketing for Elektra and 2 other seemingly "label" oriented professionals. When I spoke of truths and real hard-core facts and definitions about music marketing, everyone in the room was taking notes. And then, as for every sentence, I was cut off by others who wanted to continue to keep the audience in the dark. It was this panel that made concrete all my beliefs that the business professionals simply want to keep artists in the dark for control sake. While I, fighting for the underdog, and a grasp on the reality, wanted to give the artists the weapons, the info, the facts on what they could do to market their CDs and compete. If it wasn't for my arian nature to speak up I would have never had an opportunity to get the facts out. Poor Derek hardly got a word in. Too much to go into detail here but just know, this panel scared me and enlightened me at the same time. The showcase on the outside stage was also a lot of fun and I met heaps of artists and indie people that will be lifelong. I love conference crawling and can't wait to do it again. But tired and weary, Toni and I got on the plane (thanks Rhonda for all your wonderful hospitality - check Rhonda Stisi out at www.warriorgirlmusic.com/rhondastisi) . where's Tara? Arriving in Atlanta GA was a breeze. We are staying with Toni's friend Joanne and her husband John. Toni and Joanne haven't seen each other in 19 years. Can you believe it? it's quite powerful watching the two of them together. We've spent the majority of our time sleeping, listening to the frogs out on the porch surrounded by the deep south's humidity, and watching movies. Tonight... Eddie's Attic. I might get the chance to win $1000. Woo hoo!!! the hardest $60 I never made...! Monday September 9, 2003 continued.. Atlanta GA Off we choofed to Eddie's Attic in Decatur Atlanta. Joanne at the wheel, lost in big houses, green gardens, swamp like green creatures (weed) over all the huge trees and "ya'll" as the word spoken every second. Eddie's Attic is the hot spot of Atlanta to perform in.. and it's the Monday night Open Mic that is the tester for all new artists coming in to town. People come from all over the world to sing here on a Monday night, and tonight gilli moon was steppin' up to the plate. Having disembarked my little PSR282 Yamaha again and spent the 15 minutes building the keyboard stand (ya need these screws and screwdriver to get it set up but travelling disassembled it almost fits in your purse) i got my traditional before-gig merlot with toni, and waited for my time on. We also spent time with Joanne's friends Lisa and Alyse. No.5 and I was up for two songs. Got them hooting and hollering with some clap along songs - Temperamental Angel and Tiny Diamonds.. and then back to my merlot to try and appreciate the rest of the artists.... I discovered that this was a professional open mic competition where there would be 3 chosen out of 20 to play again, and the winner gets .. a big fat wad of cash.. all of $60. Well we'd been on the road so what the heck, we needed the money, even just to pay for the food and drinks for the night! So i sweated and poured my soul and heart out. And besides, we all waited till midnight to see who won. What a long long day... again. Well long story short, I didn't get chosen (was it that jinx on me as I never win a competition and is that why I hate them so much?) - but Kim Shar-Meredith was chosen and won so at least someone I knew got the gold. Besides, she came in from Hawaii, sung like Melissa Etheridge, stomped her foot and winked at you a thousand times so I think the winking and stomping certainly deserves $60 don't you? Back to Joanne's ranch and we slept like a log and got ourselves ready for the road to Nashville. Tuesday September 9, 2003 - Atlanta GA to Nashville TN Alyse came by at noon with the tour mobile of the century ready to take Joanne, Toni and myself to Naaiiiaaashville, the heart of "y'all", guitars, country music and smoky filled rooms. For some odd reason it took forever but we certainly enjoyed lunch which was at the Chatanooga Choo Choo. It was cool. The old train was there, all painted up red, yellow and red (representing Aboriginal colors coincidently) and all the souvenirs were little trains! But we couldn't stay as it was already 3 and we had to get to Nashville by 5 so we could get ready for my gig at the Boardwalk Cafe. So at around 5 we were still somewhere in Franklin and I as getting worried when all of a sudden... lightbulb... I was talking to Judy Sandra in Nashville and she reminded me that it was only 4pm! We had gained an hour. We nearly broke out in a rash we were jumping up and down with joy so much. Just an observation of the freeway between Atlanta and Nashville. It's like driving through a jungle. It's so green. And huge trees. Talk about huge houses. They only have huge hosues so they can stand out from the giant trees! And not tall trees.. just big fat and green. Lots of leaves. The sad part is that most of them have this creepy crawly noxious weed suffocating them (the weed was brought in to combat something else) and now the trees can't breathe. It's scary. It's like "Day of the Triffods". So we finally got into Nashville. I've noticed that some of these so called big cities in America are absolutely tiny. They should come see Sydney... we spread out like wild fire down under! Anyway, Nashville was... well a cute city I guess. There's this one building, the bat building, owned by Bell South (phone company) which had two antenna towers just like batman's ears. Broadway, 2nd Avenue and around there had the famous BB Kings, Hard Rock, cool bars and hangs... but nothing, and I mean nothing, was open for food after 10.30. It was weird. There was not crazy energy like, say, the streets of New Orleans. This is a quiet city, or at least this is what I saw. I was kind of disappointed in the atmosphere. We checked in to the hotel quickly and changed rooms from a small to large so we had a convoy of suitcases for an hour.. (they totally duped us into putting 5 girls in a small room while our 2 male friends got a suite for the same price. Is this a sexist city????) - washed our faces and then.... rushed out again. Judy (our Songsalive! rep in Nth Carolina) had her car and Alyse had hers and the posse jumped into the vehicles to head to the Boardwalk Cafe, somewhere out in the suburbs. more coming... stay tuned for Nashville updates!!! Monday September 15, 2003 I'm home. And boy even this past week was a race to the finish line! Nashville was a blast. From Monday Sept 8, we had a convoy of Songsalive! artists perform at two showcases during the week. The first was Jack's Songwriter Night at the Boardwalk Cafe out in the burbs. It was a cool place and we were immediately introduced to the circle song presentation format. The next night was supposed to be at the Broken Spoke but they locked their doors all of a sudden (didn't pay their bills) so in 48 hours we had to move to the Hall of Fame Lounge.... nice cozy RSL type looking place on or near Music Row, next to BMI. There weren't many people there but Debi Champion was a champion and a gem! As Cindy Alter couldn't make the night we had Deborah Bishop step in her place. Other performers included Jon Batson and Judy Sandra. On Thursday night I performed with some cool triple threat chicas and i turned sound person, MC and checked my internet email at the same time! The 2NMC conference was interesting. It was our third one so i was a little conferenced out. But I caught up with people I knew and slept well. We tried, one night, to find food after 10.30pm. Practically impossible in Nashville. They go to bed early! We ended up at an all night slimey diner on 1st Ave, with the artists plus Steven Memel, Toni, Joanne and Alyce. We laughed so hard I can still feel my sides splitting! Another nice experience from Nashville was seeing a fabo songwriters 'do' in the hills that Pat and Pete Luboff put us on to. I was amazed at the talent, and in awe of their camaraderie and care for each other. I think there is a very supportive songwriters community in Nashville. On Friday 12th Toni and I rented a Budget car for an over-exagerated price and we sped back to Atlanta and got in early enough to catch the flight to L.A. We had a big dilemma: We only had 1 hour to get out of Delta, pick up our bags, catch a shuttle to South West terminal, check in our bags again, go through security and get on the plane. It was like a mind game... how worried was I going to let myself get, or was I just going to see what happens? All in 20 minutes we were in and out and in again, and once we got on the plane we had a beer to celebrate. What perfect timing. We saw L.A so fleetingly just to change planes ... I was SO missing home. The weekend of 13th and 14th in Palo Alto was quite frankly the best event to top off the tour. The West Coast Songwriters Association put on their 21st songwriters conference and it was fabulous. We were put up in a great, jungle style, hotel with free DSL (always love that!), wined and dined, and treated SO well. Ian and Joannie Crombie are the sweetest couple and I met such amazing music professionals and songwriters. We had a Songsalive! booth and we had dozens of artists buy the book, sign the list and want to get involved. The bay area is brimming with talent. In one morning we organized our own Workshops for the third thursdays of the month and Quentin now has a team to help him up there. www.songsalive.org/norcal for details. All very very nice. We came home Sunday 14th evening and I've been sleeping ever since. Oh I love my jacuzzi and bed with remote control! Signing off. Welcome to a brave new world. gilli