Past several days have been filled with music. Awesome.

Last Monday ETB at Friends, The Cowboys were playing Monday Night Football. Affected the crowd a bit, mah. Still hot at night, good they had the windows open to attract foot traffic on 6th Street but was like someone left the oven door open. I didn't drink much and it felt great. Driving back to Lakeway after playing for 4 hours keeps you sober to say the least.

Spent the bulk of this week editing pics from the 99 day Eric Tessmer Band summer tour. Have them posted on my FB page, and about to post 2nd half of pics on the ETB FB. Also my business cards came in and they look great. QR code on the back works too, sweet.

Thursday Tim Abbott invited me to hang out at Matt Smith's SW Austin studio again, he was having LZ Love do guest vocal tracks. Great meeting her, talk about an amazing singer. She hit her takes out of the park, and then did some guest ad libs on two other tracks as well. Wow. Home runs each time. On the ride to and from her and Tim had several deep spiritual conversations. Glad I'm having more and more people in my life that don't watch TV and discuss ideas as opposed to events or worse yet, people.

Awesome again to be a fly on the wall at Matt's studio. Guy is a certified card-carrying bad ass, anything I can learn from just being around him will help me immensely. Gave me a great compliment too in his deep baritone: "You've been here most of the day and finally the first words out of your mouth were: 'That was fucking bad ass!'" Don't want to impose or buck the energy when people are trying to work, and would like to get into the rotation as a session bass player or guitarist. Gave him as requested a highlight reel CD of Mother Truckers, Eric Tessmer Band and several of my own solo tracks for playing examples. Glad I got to deliver it in person as well.

Friday morning ETB had plans to meet with our publicist friend Suzanne Penneley (publicity for Mikkey Dee of Motorhead and Chris Adler from Lamb of God) to discuss working with her for real now, but her house gotten some storm damage, so that was postponed til Sunday, giving me more time to edit/post ETB tour pics. Later that evening Tim, Tracey, Triniti and I went to Lakeway High School for The Eggmen featuring the LHS orchestra, featuring Tracey's son Theren on one of the stand up basses. It was bad ass! The kids (God I'm old) sounded great, and it was also badass to hear Beatles music pulled off live, and totally nailed. Gave me a new appreciation of vocal harmonies and the intricacies they put into them, especially in the context of what seem like simple pop songs. Awesome. Wish I could sing better, maybe I would if I actually practiced...

Later on T and I went to the Dixie Witch Euro tour kick-off party at Red 7 downtown. Being that we are broke as a joke I texted Trinidad (drummer/vox) about getting on the guestlist in return for both of us taking pics. He accepted, sweet! We got there in time to catch our good friends Sabbath Crow, added last minute and the first show for them in a year + now that our other friend Ric Furley is no longer drumming for them. Also Honky had to cancel last minute to Sabbath Crow was pushed back, meaning we got to see them. Great set by DW as well. Will post pics soon as I edit them, which I will be starting shortly. Talking to my friend Dave TV, he pointed out Nick Oliveri in the crowd, handed me his camera, and I finally got the shot on the 2nd try. You'd think cameras would be more standardized, but even a seasoned photographer such as my self can be stricken retarded by a strange camera. After Dave's second round of instructions I got the shot \m/,

Saturday was the wild card. Van getting low on gas, but Kyuss Lives was at Stubb's. We had absolutely no money for tix, prolly sold out anyway. But we made tentative plans to just stand outside and listen, heh! But I was actually a little tired from playing guitar for several hours in the garage -- that felt great. Ran thru most of Ocean of Stars album, new stuff I have in the works, old stuff that I still remembered how to play. Good to know I haven't lost as much as my guitar playing ability as I'd thought.

But I digress. Tim said LZ Love was playing a stripped down set not far from here. Also my good friend and ex-Southern Gun Culture bandmate Amber Lucilee was playing out in Lakeway as well. As much as I wanted to see (well, HEAR) Kyuss Lives, the price of gas superceded any once-in-a-lifetime events. Sorry guys. Caught tail end of LZ's set and got to chat with her/band. Tim has been wanting Triniti to meet her, and of course they hit it off. Turns out the bass player is Nick from South Austin Music, who has worked on my Marshall a few times. Made arrangements to bring it by again and have him put those new JJ E34L's in it, which have been sitting in the boxes for 4 months. After T and I went to Jasper's for Amber Lucille. Good to see her and Charlie Murphy, haven't seen them since before the ETB summer tour. Good to catch up. Jasper's is a decent place, guess we finally have a bar out here.

Today got up early (8am) for the rescheduled ETB band meeting in SW Austin. Good meeting all around, discussed band shit then publicity when Suzanne got there. All around very positive. Still behind in sending Trinidad some sample pics from Friday night. Also behind in getting my presskit together to send to DR Strings, and finish posting ETB tour pics to ETB FB page. Wanted to have all that done by tomorrow, but here we are on Sunday night. Shit shit shit