We arrived here at the Austin airport with time to spare and just heard a woman's voice over the intercom announcing that the flight to Chicago is delayed an hour or so. All our carry-ons are in one heap in the corner and our small group is scattered comfortably around, taking advantage of the empty seats in the boarding area. With the news of the delay, Sean left to claim a cup of coffee and Schatz went off wandering as well. The rest of us have flipped open our laptops, taking advantage of the wireless internet.

We're going to play at Schubas tonight. I remember how much fun we had the first time we played that room and know it will be good to be back again.

This preview tour is taking us all over the country with little logic in the routing, except in our cause to visit as many key cities, with our favorite radio stations, as we can before the album release date...less than two weeks now!

Yes...lots of travel, but I've been enjoying each city. On one day about a week ago, we woke up in Minneapolis and met in the hotel lobby at 5:15 AM to fly to DC for an afternoon show, then drove to Philadelphia where we were due to play World Cafe the next morning.

By the time we arrived at the hotel in Phili, we were each ready for an evening to ourselves. I wanted to go somewhere to get a bit of food and read and, after a few inquiries, got a tip on this certain pub that ended up being perfect.

In the upper room of this pub was a quiz night. Now, I've never done a quiz night before. Embarrassingly enough, I hadn't even heard of them until I saw BBC's "The Office" but these two guys who were sitting near me at the bar had a team of 5 others up there waiting for them, and very kindly invited me along to join and be their eighth! Most all of my new quizos teammates were law students or involved in that world to some degree, and I was of little use except in supporting their highly educated guesses and in one question involving cubits and an ark.

Late Friday night in Boston, Chris and I went to a pub and played with some really great irish musicians who happened to be visiting the states for a Celtic festival that happened last week. It was a wonderful night of tunes and song sharing and singing on the sidewalk ... Chris and I left in a cab noting, again, that *these* are the days.

In Austin we met up with more friends who took us to the Continental Club to see the legendary Red Volkaert play Haybale. We went ballistic over his guitar playing which sometimes sounded more like Bobby Hicks fiddling or your favorite pedal steel player. I was trying to dance with my friend but we kept being distracted by his solos and fills. Our show last night at the Cactus Cafe was rad... Austin crowds are so fun to play for.