Infants at Concerts

We have had quite a few mothers with their infants at our shows and while we are not as loud as a rock band, I do worry about the infants’ sensitive ears. I could be wrong, but since their little ears can hear all the way up to about 20,000 Hertz, while people over 30 can probably only hear up to 14,000 Hertz, I would imagine one needs to take special care of the little ears. Anyway, I would like to offer the mothers hearing protection for their children, but today we have nothing that would fit those little ears.

Town Hall and Sponge Bath

We didn’t sell merchandise and CDs at Town Hall in New York City because the venue insisted on taking 40% of the sales. When we said we thought that amount was too high we were told we could simply raise the prices on the merch which of course we refused. So we ended up not selling at all. We will put photos of all of our merchandise on our web site sometime in November, I hope , and you will be able to fax us your orders. We have also found old merchandise, mainly T-shirts dating as far back as 1991, which we will sell at the end of this year. So, if you want a Borrasca shirt from 1991 or an XL shirt from 1997, you will be able to get it at the end of this year.

I woke up Saturday morning to find myself in Pittsburgh at the Rosebud Club instead of Polombo Theater. Yes, I know, that venue change was never published on our web site…….I promise we will improve our web site publishing!!!

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is that down the street from the Rosebud is a Halloween Costume store. I was told that our fearless tourmanager saw that one of the store employees was wearing a nurse’s uniform and talked her into coming to the crew bus and waking up our lighting designer. She went on the bus, openened the curtain of his bunk, and told him to wake up and that it was time for his sponge bath. Where is the camera when you need it!

The music you hear playing before our show on this tour is by my friend Eric Schermerhorn. It’s from a new album which he is still working on and which will be released next year. I love his music, helped him produce it, and played on several of his songs. Eric also played the flat top and slide guitars on INNAMORARE and being a New Yorker performed 3 songs with us at our Town Hall show. He also performed with us for the PBS show ‘Sessions at West 54th Street’ on December 1st. We’ll let you know the air date of our performance, which should be sometime early Spring.

Water Bottles in Saxophones

The band celebrated Ron’s birthday in Montreal by playing ‘Happy Birthday’ in a marching band style. I wasn’t there when the band arranged the song and was as surprised as Ron when the guys started. It sounded great!!

I don’t remember whether I told you this story before: When we played in Ojai/California this Summer, Kanoa stuck a water bottle into the bell of his saxophone because it was easier to carry both across the lawn….then he forgot that he had the plastic bottle in his horn and kept complaining about the sound during soundcheck….. when Mark pointed out that he had a water bottle in his saxophone he thought Mark was kidding……after minutes he was finally convinced and while we are all laughing he finds ‘his sound’ by removing the bottle……

Kanoa is sounding great on this Fall tour as well, and I truly enjoy listening to him solo on ‘Girl from Ipanema’. Every night he plays something different and every night it’s a pleasure to hear…..

Boston

Enjoyed my day off in Boston yesterday! Walked through the lovely park and marvelled at the huge trees…..no huge trees in Santa Fe……walked up and down Newbury Street and had a good time remembering when I used to live here…

930 Club

If it’s Tuesday this must be Washington, DC. We are playing at the 930 Club. Not the right choice for our fans, I believe. No seating at all. Add to that a neighborhood that seems less than welcoming. I like the Linser Hall better.

The Town Hall show in NYC last night was different from the rest of our shows because the stage at Town Hall is so small and narrow that our lighting designer couldn’t hang any of our lights. The New York audience was lovely though and it was fun to play for them.

Tomorow….our first day off in a week in Boston….