Did I mention the heat? Today we rehearsed earlyish with Salim and the band, so Sarah dropped me off at the studio whilst Olivia went with her to the airport to pick up the van for the trip to San Antonio tomorrow. The gigs are in support of the new album that I co-produced and play on, there is an exclusive interview and premiere of the new album.

Salim Nourallah – A Nuclear Winter is available on the Magnet Magazine website.

The Texas dates are:

June 22nd – San Antonio – The Lonesome Rose
June 23rd – Austin – The Parish
June 24th – Dallas – Sons of Hermann Hall

The rain came down hard this afternoon, thunder and lightning, it was so hard that it felt like the concrete would crack. John ran out into it because he had to go and pick up his daughter, and luckily he drove his car away from under the tree at the end of the driveway, 15 minutes later a substantial branch snapped off the tree and fell where his car had just been. Lucky for him, it would have been the second time this week that a tree branch had fallen on his car.

After rehearsals, the band got on their way and Sarah, Olivia, and I went out for some food before returning to go through the new pedal board and the amps with Sarah, I was trying to find a sound to fit into this band, it will be better when we get to San Antonio to rehearse in the afternoon with Joe who is the main guitarist. I play the role of electric 12-string in some ways as I did with James Griffin & The Subterraneans in the eighties when the late Peter Coutanche was the main guitarist, I just add the fairy dust.

We have to leave early in the morning, so we went to Trader Joe’s and bought some sandwiches for tomorrow’s lunch. It’s a five-hour drive, so we have to leave at 8.30 AM to get to a rehearsal soundcheck with Joe, the first time the whole band will be together. Dinner was at Denny’s, our favourite cheap and cheerful diner. It was a strange day because everything was so fractured, rehearsals, rain, packing gear, it’s always like this the day before shows, the anticipation and the lists in your head as you contemplate packing, and what you are destined to forget.

Music today has been John Martyn’s Solid Air (1973), late-night jazzy folk in support of the solid air in Texas at the moment.

Music Of The Daze