Into the Deep End - and a New 'Old' Song for you

We’ve had a great first two weeks out with our new drummer.  Those of you who have been to a show and seen him have made him feel welcome out here on the road, and have seemed pleased so far with his fit into the group.  Since the whole ‘road experience’ is new to him, I really appreciate the positive response you have given him thus far.  It has definitely helped to get him oriented to this huge change in his life, and I hope he continues to receive support and welcome from our fan base around the country. 

Picking up from where we left off at the end of the last entry:

We finished up the weekend at Jackpot Junction in Morton, MN and only had one day off before our next show.  We had five shows scheduled after that one day off, so I must say I was pretty nervous about my voice holding out throughout the entire week.  We spent the one day off traveling from Morton up to Bismarck, ND and then had shows the next three nights straight at the Lonesome Dove in Mandan, ND.  The Dove is a special place for me because it was the very first venue I ever played when we started touring all those years ago.  I still remember it well.  We were scheduled there for two weeks straight, playing six nights a week.  I was terrified.  The first week there was also PBR week in Bismarck, and that weekend was insane.  Kevin and I sang the national anthem at the Bull Riding Event on that Thursday night, and then Thurs – Sat we performed outside of the Club on the Cooper Tires Stage (that was the first of many times we’ve been on that stage over the years).  I was so used to just playing on weekends before we started touring; doing six nights in a row was a lot for me then.  I was not prepared.  Back home when we’d just play on Friday and Saturday nights, I didn’t have to worry about blowing my voice out.  I didn’t know how to have vocal control to get myself through so many shows.  I was so unprepared for how difficult a task that is that on Saturday night of that first week at the Dove I lost my voice halfway through the show.  It was just gone.  Kevin and Aaron had to sing for the rest of the night.  Plus we had another show on Sunday of that week, then only one day off before six more nights in a row.  Somehow I did recover enough to make it through that second week, but how I’ll never know.  I’ve learned a lot since then about making my voice last through several shows in a row without rest days in between, but there are still times when it is difficult to maintain without many rest days.  Which I guess brings me back to this current run.   We had eight shows to do in nine days, plus two full days of rehearsal before those shows.  Again, I was pretty worried about my voice holding out throughout these first two weeks.  Anyway, where was I???

Oh, we had three shows at the Dove.  It is always nice to go back there because we’ve had a fan base going there since the beginning.  It was also a nice place to take our new guy to early on in his touring experience.  He got to meet some of our earliest fans, and we were able to be at the same place for a few days in a row, so he didn’t have to set up and tear down every day.  We don’t play a ton of multiple nights at the same venue anymore like we did in the early days.  Most of the time it is set up, play, tear down, travel to the next town.  He’ll get plenty of experience with that soon enough.   

We did have to tear down right after the show on Thursday night though, because we had to travel down to Iowa for Friday night’s show.  I keep saying this isn’t as glamourous of a lifestyle as people seem to think.  Here is another great example of what I mean: we played the show Thursday night, tore down right after the show, got to bed about 3am, left at 6am to start driving to our next show, spent 11 hours in the van to get down to Iowa, and immediately had to set up for that show.  Once we got there and set up we didn’t even have enough time to go to the hotel (which was in a different town about 20 minutes away) to shower or relax at all before the show.  Luckily for us, the owner of the venue lived about two minutes away, and allowed us to take some quick showers at his place.  We made it back just in time to start the show.  So after about 2 hours of sleep, 11 hours in the van, plus setting up quickly, we got up on stage and went to work. 

That was a tough show for me to get through.  Not that I was having any trouble singing, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the first half of the performance.  I kept catching myself with my eyes closed and having to force them back open, and then keep reminding myself to keep them open.  I’d be willing to bet it was not our most energetic show.  But we made it through, and somehow made a good enough impression on the owner of the venue and the patrons there that night.  Oh, and after that extremely long day of traveling with minimal sleep and setting up and performing, we had to tear down right after the show so we could travel again the next day to the next town.  

Our final show of this long run was about 4 hours away in River Falls, WI at a club called Maverick’s Corner Saloon.  Both the previous night’s show and this one were at new venues, which you know I always enjoy.  There’s just something exciting about not knowing the place you’ll be playing that night; not knowing the people in the crowd, etc. A big part of why we travel is to perform in new towns and in new venues in front of new people, so I get excited every time we get to perform at a new place.  This club wasn’t huge, but was set up really well for live music.  Sometimes I really like smaller venues like that; if there are a lot of people, it turns into almost a concert atmosphere, at least on a small scale.  Putting a lot of people into a small space in front of the stage gets me going.  I feed off of that kind of energy; I thrive in that kind of environment.  Anyway, River Falls is a college town, so we expected a younger audience that night.  I was surprised by how many people we knew there that night, especially at a new venue in a new town.  I guess I have to thank Garth Brooks for a few of them: he was playing in Minneapolis that weekend, and a couple of our fans saw how close we were to Minneapolis and made the trip over to our show after they left his show.  We knew a couple people there that happened to live about 10 miles away and had seen us play at other venues in the past.  But the biggest surprise for me was this: I was standing on stage at the beginning of our first break with my back to the audience when I heard someone say my last name.  Two things here: it is very uncommon for me to just hear my last name in the first place, and also most people just don’t know my last name (most of you just know me as Michael D.).  So when I heard someone calling me by my last name, I was definitely startled and a little confused.  I turned around to see a friend of mine from college standing there.  We played football together in college, but I haven’t seen or heard from him in a very long time.  I was not expecting that at all.  It turns out that he coaches football now at the University there in River Falls. He heard that I was playing in town and came out to say hi.  I had no idea he even lived there.  I must say I love surprises like this: seeing someone unexpectedly after many years.  Traveling the way we do and with a schedule as brutal as ours, I have lost touch with so many people throughout the years.  I try to keep up with what is going on in people’s lives, but it is extremely difficult for me to keep in contact with people the way I’d like to.  So to unexpectedly see an old friend was really nice.  Even if we only had a few minutes to catch up before I had to get back on stage, it was so nice to see him after all these years. 

After that show we had three much needed days off before our next one.  I should say ‘have’ instead of ‘had’ there, since I’m writing this during one of those nights off.  So we have three much needed days off.  We spent one of those days traveling (like so many of our days off).  We decided to get back up to Bismarck for those days off.  Two reasons for this: one, because our next show is on Wednesday in the southwestern part of this state, and two, because we heard there was a snow storm coming in on Sunday night and we were hoping to not have to travel through it any other day. 

Fortunately I made it through those 8 shows in 9 days without any major vocal issues.  It is definitely not the longest string of shows with the least amount of rest days, but it was still a long one none the less.  I think the longest stretch of consecutive days in a row of shows is 13.  And I think one time we did something like 19 shows in 21 days one time, or something like that; I don’t remember exactly.  But those were all way back in the day when I had Kevin, Aaron and Brent all singing throughout the night to help out when needed.  Actually, they were able to cover an entire show vocally without me if needed. They did so on a couple of occasions; they played a couple of shows without me even there.  But now I take on much more of the lead vocal responsibility throughout the show, and do a lot of harmony singing as well, so it would be tough to get through those stretches now.  It would probably be doable with a lot of self-control, but I don’t have any desire to attempt it. 

I’ve been meaning to do it for a long time, but a few days ago we finally released a video for our song “Friends Like These”.  This song is really special for me because it is kind of my ‘thank you’ to everyone out there who has supported us over the years.  I’ve discussed several times throughout my writing how sentimental I am about having such a dedicated fan base and how much it means to me that so many people enjoy what we do.  So we had wanted to do a video for that song to reflect that somehow.  We decided to do a picture collage video of us with our fans throughout the country.  This is not as easy as I thought.  For one thing, there are tons of pictures out there to sift through; and those are just the ones I either have or know about.  There are probably thousands more pictures of us with people at our shows that I have no idea about.  Then there was the issue of trying to get a good representative sample of pictures from different areas of the country and over the span of our touring experience, plus throw in a few from the early days of this band back when we were just playing regionally.  Narrowing down all those pictures was daunting.  Plus, there was no way to include everyone that should have been included; I know I left out so many pictures of some of our really solid fans. While I know there was no possible way to include everyone (that would have been a much longer video), it still troubled me that there would be people left out that have been so supportive over the years.  Maybe I’m just overthinking it and people don’t really care one way or the other, who knows.  But anyway, I finally compiled a group of photos that I thought was a good representative sample of our fan base, and we assembled them to go with the song.  While I realize that there was no video creativity in this one (and Josh and I do really enjoy being creative when putting together a video), I am very pleased with it.  The only other issue I had was this: while the ‘friends’ I’m referring to in the song are the people who come see us and support our music, I could have also been referring to all those musicians I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a stage with over the years.  We could have just as easily made a second video of just stage shots (and off stage shots I guess too) of me and various members of the band from over the years.  There are definitely several musicians that have made this whole experience worthwhile for me as well.  But in the end, I really wanted to focus on our fan base for this one, which is what we did.  In case you haven’t seen the video yet, here it is:

 

I also mentioned last week that since having another Mike in the band can be confusing I started calling him ‘Other Mike’.  Since then we have already come up with a couple different nicknames for him; none of which I think he likes very well.  But I’ll mention them all here and maybe we’ll figure this out eventually.  I have been calling him ‘Other Mike’.  Kevin started calling him ‘New Mike’, which turned into ‘N-mike’, which then somehow turned into ‘Newman’.  I think ‘Newman’ is pretty damn funny: both because of the Seinfeld reference and because he is the New Man.  I’m not sure if it is going to stick though like Josh’s nickname ‘Jorge’.  Someone also suggested ‘Whiskey Mike’ as a nickname, but I don’t think he’s really a whiskey drinker, so I’m not sure where that one came from.  It may have been b/c he was wearing a hat with the word whiskey on it.  Anyway, if anyone has any good suggestions, let us know so we can get this whole two Mike thing sorted out.  Until then I think I’ll stick with ‘Other Mike’.  Oh, if any of his friends from back home are reading this, maybe they could help us out with this problem.  If there are some old nicknames that would work better, EMAIL me and let me know: michaeldband@gmail.com. 

Lastly, for the next two weeks we are doing something we haven’t done in a long time with merch: shipping it.  Lately we have discontinued a few items, and we still have some of our old maroon shirts in stock.  So from now through November 23^st, we are taking orders for those shirts and will be shipping them out to you during the week of Thanksgiving.  If you are interested in purchasing one (or several), email me at: michaeldbandmerch@gmail.com and I will send you instructions on how to place an order.  We will take all orders throughout these next two weeks or until we run out of stock.  Don’t miss this last opportunity to get a soon to be vintage MDB shirt.

  

Oh, I almost forgot.  I had also recently talked about putting some of my old music on I-TUNES for you all to have access to.  Earlier this week I sent a single to be released.  It just became available this morning. The direct link is below.  I am excited for you to hear some of my early stuff.  I hope you’ll be as giving with your feedback as you all were about the songs on our latest album.  If this first single does well, I have two more singles from my early days that I have set to release as well.  So we’ll see how it goes.

Below is the link to the new song:

http://itunes.apple.com/album/id940292259

  

That’s all I have for this entry.  As always, take a few moments to check us out at the following online locations:

www.themichaeldband.com

FACEBOOK
TWITTER

I-TUNES

EMAIL

Be safe out there.  We hope to see you at a show soon. 

Making A Change

Today just feels like a good writing day.  So I guess I’ll just dive in and try to catch you up on what’s been going on the past few weeks.  It has been a lot.  I might be here a while writing.  Right now it is Sunday afternoon about 1pm. We have a show at 6, so hopefully I can get this done and sent out before then; we shall see. 

I think last time I wrote was on my birthday.  Let’s pick up from there.

We left the following day and headed toward Duluth, MN.  We had been home for ten days prior to leaving, so I had gotten used to sleeping in my own bed again.  I say that to say this: the first night of a tour is always the worst night’s sleep for me.  I just about get used to sleeping in my own bed for a couple nights, then we head back out and I’m in another shitty hotel bed again; with a different pillow too.  Every time we leave for another tour, I can’t sleep that first night.  I think I was up until past 5am, just tossing and turning and trying to force my brain to shut down.  I have that problem anyway: getting my brain to shut off at the end of the night.  It’s bad enough after a show trying to calm my body down enough to get to sleep; but there are also times when I can’t shut my brain down.  It’s worse when I have a lot of stuff that needs to be done the next day.  But the worst of all is that first night back on the road.  So there it is: if you’re looking at our schedule and see that we’re back on the road after being home for several days, you can just assume that if it is late night I’ll be up and pissed off that I can’t fall asleep.

So we made it up to Duluth and played the shows that weekend.  It was a fun club.  Friday night was packed and just an insane party.  I love those kind of nights; like I’ve said before, those are the easy nights.  A packed house is the easiest one for me to entertain. 

But anyway, we played there Friday and Saturday nights.  As we were loading out on Saturday night after the show two things happened that just made me want to shake my head.  Let me set up the first one here: the club is downtown with only street parking.  So as we loaded out, we just have our van pulled up on the curb out in front of the club.  At some point as I walked out with some of our gear to load it in the van, I noticed a guy standing in front of our van, urinating.  Remember, this is downtown and he’s standing in the street, just concealed by the front of our van.  Really??? He couldn’t find a better place to relieve himself?  It had to be right there in front of our van?  I would have loved for a police officer to drive by at that moment.  And at least he didn’t pee ON the van.  Then we would have been forced to do something about it.  It just makes you wonder what people are thinking though.  The door to the club was still open, he could have taken the five extra seconds to go back inside and find the men’s room.  But no, he had to whip it out right in front of our van instead.  Thanks pal. 

The second thing that happened at the end of the night I thought was even more ridiculous though.  As we got in the van after we loaded out to go back to the hotel, we noticed a guy walking down the sidewalk by himself.  I say walking, but what I mean is stumbling and barely able to stand up.  Yes, that messed up.  You know how it looks when a guy is swaying back and forth and it looks like they’re going to fall but never do?  It was just like that.  And then he would drop his cell phone.  Picking it up was the biggest chore for him.  It was actually kind of funny for a minute.  And then he stumbled out into the street and just stood in the middle of the road for a while.  We couldn’t in good faith just leave him standing in the street, so we tried to convince him to get back on the sidewalk.  None of us actually went over to help walk him back over though; I don’t think any of us wanted to get too close to him.  He eventually did finally get back onto the sidewalk and we were able to safely get on our way without running the extremely drunk guy over.  I guess my question is this: who let him get that messed up?  I would hope that he wasn’t continuing to be served drinks in that condition throughout the night.  I would like to think people are more responsible than that.  Maybe it was a combination of booze and drugs, who knows.  But then again, where are his friends who should be looking after him and not letting it get to that point?  It was just sad to see someone that messed up and all alone.  I hope he made it home safely that night and didn’t get run over.  Or more importantly, I hope he didn’t get behind the wheel and try to drive.  He wouldn’t have made it one block. 

Anyway, that was the end of our weekend in Duluth: a guy urinating in front of our van, and another guy so messed up he could barely stand. 

From there we went to Fargo for a show Sunday night at a club called the Windbreak.  I really enjoy this club, and we got some really good feedback from the management that night, so we are hoping to make that one of our regular stops as we traverse back and forth across the country in the future.  After that night we had a few days off before our next show.  I was both nervous and excited about the next show though, because it involved something I hardly ever get to do anymore: play an acoustic set. 

That show was in Proctor, MN.  I used to do acoustic shows a lot more often early in my career, and at the time felt very comfortable on stage by myself.  But after touring for the past several years and being on stage only in the company of a full band, I find myself intimidated when I am on stage alone with just a guitar.  In some aspects it is really fun for me and I have the opportunity to play a lot of music I normally do not get to play otherwise.  On the flip side of that, I am so used to having my guys on stage with me that it is nerve racking to be up there by myself.  It can be very lonely when all the lights and everyone’s eyes are on you and there is no one else on stage to help take some of that focus.  It also leaves me feeling very exposed; both as a singer and guitar player.  With mine being the only instrument on stage, it is up to me to make it sound good.  And let me be pretty honest here, I’m not a very good guitar player.  With other musicians on stage, I can hide that fact and make up for it with being more of a showman.  But when it is just me and my guitar, all those flaws and shortcomings come to the forefront.  There’s no hiding poor guitar playing when I’m the only one playing an instrument.  That makes me very self-conscious.  But for all the insecurities I have about being up there by myself, it is still fun to just be on stage singing and playing.  And like I said, it is always fun to get to play songs I don’t normally get to do.  Being an Indiana boy, it is nice to be able to throw in some old John Cougar every once in a while.  I think I even played a Pearl Jam song that night (who you know from reading past entries is my favorite band).  I also was able to try out a new song I had written on that crowd.  It seemed to go over pretty well, so maybe it will end up on the next album.  Overall it was a fun experience, and I hope to start to get to play some acoustic shows a little more often. 

You know, if I’m being completely open and honest here, which I always try to be when writing, the one disappointing thing for me was that the rest of the band didn’t come out and watch the acoustic show and support what I was doing.  I get it, they wanted to just relax at the hotel before the show and all that, but it would have been nice to have them there too. 

After my two hour acoustic show, we then had a three hour show as a full band.  So total for the night was five hours of stage time for me; which turned out to not be so bad.  But then, at the end of our show, the crowd there was still dancing and partying and not ready to leave, so the manager asked if we’d keep playing for an extra hour.  By this point I was exhausted (both physically and vocally), but was feeling good enough and getting a great vibe from the crowd, so I was open to the idea.  Except that we also had an 11 hour drive to the next night’s show.  So because I had already been on stage for 5 hours, and we had such a long drive the next day and had to get up so early, we decided not to play extra that night.  That is the first time I’ve ever refused to keep playing when asked.  We could have kept going, and part of me wanted to.  But it was just too much with such a long drive the next day.  Sometimes sleep has to be factored in as well so we can put on our best show the next night too.  As much as I like to live in the moment like that, I also have to think about the shows ahead of us and the crowds in those towns too.  It wouldn’t have been fair to the two more shows we had coming up the next couple days to burn ourselves out that night and not get enough sleep before such a long day of traveling.  I hated that I said no to performing for another hour.  I hope the manager understood why we wouldn’t do it.  But more importantly I hope the audience understood why we couldn’t.    

On Saturday night we found ourselves in a similar situation: the crowd was still there and having a great time and the owner of the club asked us to keep playing.  The difference this time was that we didn’t have another show to be at the next day.  This time we had a 24 hour drive home the next day.  But, I just couldn’t refuse to play more music two nights in the same week, so we agreed to play an extra 45 minutes at the show on Saturday night.  It hurt pretty badly the next morning when we woke up early to head home, but it was worth it to make both the owner and the audience happy.  I’m glad we all wanted to play extra that night.  That night was also our last show with Steve as our drummer, so I guess now is the time to discuss that.  I have received tons of emails and questions about what happened, et cetera, so I’ll use this forum and do my best to explain. 

Let me start by saying this: I like Steve a lot.  He added some great things to our band.  He is an incredible singer, a great drummer, and has more road and main stage experience than most people.  When he joined our band a year and a half ago, he instantly made us a better band.  We were tighter on stage, and our vocal ability went through the roof with both he and Kevin backing me up.  All that being said, we had some internal issues that couldn’t be resolved any other way, so in the end we had to make the difficult decision to let Steve go.  We didn’t want to; like I said, he was definitely a huge asset to this band.  Ultimately, there comes a time when you have to do what you feel is right for the music, the fans, and this band overall.  Those are the reasons: we had to make a choice for what we ultimately felt was the best solution for us as a group; for our fan base who have been (and continue to be) so loyal and supportive of what we’re trying to do; and for the music.  So that is what we felt was the best for all those things. 

Steve is great.  He will thrive in whatever he does.  We already have plans to work with him in some other capacities as we all move forward. 

And while I choose not to discuss the specifics of our reasons or decisions regarding Steve, I hope that as a fan base you are confident that I will always do whatever I feel is right to put out the best product that I can; to always do what’s best for our music and our followers. 

Having said all that, it is time to formally introduce the newest member of the band, Mike Carson from Indianapolis, IN.  I’ve already dubbed him ‘Other Mike’ so we don’t get confused with two Mikes in the band; but I don’t think he likes that name very much.  I’ll work on it, but right now it is just fun for me to call him that.  Mike actually reminds me somewhat of Josh (at least in the respect of when he first joined the band): he has a lot of experience playing locally and regionally around Indiana, but has never been in a full on touring band situation like this before.  He has a lot of excitement about what we’re doing and is full of anticipation to get acclimated into the band and life on the road.  He also has an overwhelming passion for music, and the desire to be successful.  All of these remind me so much of Josh’s first few weeks in the band.  Also, for such short notice, Mike came into the band very prepared.  He worked hard to make sure he was comfortable with the songs we were playing, and has even learned some of our original material as well (which you know makes me very happy).  Btw, so far he says he likes ‘Rowdy’ and ‘Show a Little Skin’ the best out of our collection.  For live shows, I agree with him.  Anyway, after we get all the bugs worked out and get comfortable playing together, I think Mike will be a great addition to our group.  He already brings this palpable energy to the stage by the way he plays drums that I know our fans will notice at the shows. 

So for all of you out there, when we come to your town again soon, I hope that you will come up and introduce yourself to him and welcome into the MDB family.  I also hope that you’ll agree that we made the right choice in hiring him. 

 

              (MIKE CARSON)

By the way, it is tough and nerve racking to come into a band like this on such short notice; but then to have your first show on Halloween too, where we are expected to dress up on stage had to be even worse.  Mike handled it like a champ though and played along.  I don’t like dressing up for Halloween; it is just not my thing.  We all did this year though, and I really appreciated that he was a good sport about it since it was his first every show with us.  

(HALLOWEEN COSTUMES)

Quick side note that I want to share: last night there were some people at our show who have been coming to see us play for the past 5 years whenever we’re around.  We aren’t in the area often, but whenever we are they show up without fail.  Here’s the cool thing and what I want to share: I didn’t email them or send any kind of message to let them know we were playing here this weekend; they told me they knew because they follow our schedule.  After all this time, they still continue to look at our schedule to see when we’ll be close enough for them to make a show.  For me that is really special.  They have so much fun at our shows that they seek us out and stay on top of our schedule to know when we’re going to be close enough.  That really makes me feel like we’re at least on the right path with what we’re trying to do with this band and the music.  As long as we can continue to gain fans like that that get excited for us to be back in town, then I know we’ll eventually get to where we are trying to go with this thing.   

A few more things and then I’ll wrap this up. 

First: we have new T-shirts available at our shows now.  We have added a different color to our ‘logo’ unisex shirts, and have also added a female cut ‘logo’ shirt to replace the ‘Rowdy’ shirts that we recently discontinued.  Make sure you pick up a new T-shirt at the next show!

 

 

Second: at the end of the last ‘journal entry’ I discussed an old song that a fan had asked me about called “Somewhere North Of Tennessee”.  I went back and actually found the recording of it, as well as some other songs I had recorded several years ago before we started touring.  I think I’ll put a few of them on I-TUNES soon so that you all have access to some of my older music as well.  I was listening to them this morning, and was surprised by how much I still enjoyed listening to some of those early songs of mine.  So stay tuned, and in a few weeks I’ll put one up on I-TUNES and see what you all think about it.  If we get enough downloads from the first one, maybe the next month I’ll add a second and third song as well.  Since it is my earlier writing, it will be interesting for you to see how my song writing has evolved from then until now.  I can already say this: back then I was writing much more personal material; I did not think so much about the commercial aspect of my music back then.  So anyway, look for that coming up in a few weeks. 

I guess that’s about it for me for this entry.  Like always, here is my self-promotion:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

I-TUNES

EMAIL

Again, if you already ‘Like’ our Facebook fan page and already ‘Follow’ us on Twitter, take a few minutes to share us with your friends.  It only takes a few minutes, and helps us more than you know.  You really do make a difference that way. 

Also, if you haven’t already, go to the top of this page right now and sign up to receive automatic email updates when I post a new entry. 

That’s all for now.  I hope to see you at a show soon.  Be safe out there.