February 6, 2003 - Teton Village, Wyoming

Sorry it's been a couple of days since the last posting. I lost cell phone service right after we left Jackson, Wyoming, and where my wife was, there was no cell service either. When I stepped off the bus in Jackson all I could think of was, WOW! This has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The mountains were so tall and people were skiing down from the very top of them. There were helicopters landing by our bus and I later found out that they were taking people to the top of the mountain where the ski lift wouldn't go so they could snow board down. I asked somebody what are the chances that I could get a helicopter ride up to the top of the mountain so I could check out the view and was told that those people were paying $1000 a day for helicopter service!

It was still only 8:30AM so we had time to go to the hotel room before the load in which was at 11:00. I went to the room and showered, then I walked the short distance to the venue/restaurant, the Mangy Moose, and had a very good vegetarian omelet. Then I killed a little time walking around Teton Village. We loaded in at 11:00 - and we had to take gear up a long flight of stairs. Between the stairs and the 6000 foot elevation I thought my lungs were going to explode. The stage was very small and we had to share it with an opening act. I knew that was a disaster waiting to happen. After we set up, we had some time before sound check, so Victor and I took a walk through the village. The X Games competitions were the following day in that city and they were practicing that day. We were told that some snow boarders were going to be dropped from a 50 foot crane on to a half-pipe full of snow. Youngn's these days are crazy!

We found a little coffee shop and we got some Chai tea. The girl that worked at the counter is from Suffolk, VA which is close to where Victor grew up. So they talked and he put her and her boyfriend on the guest list. We went back to the venue and did a quick sound check. Then we had about 7 or 8 hours to kill before gig time. Somebody pointed out to us a snow covered mountain top in the distance that was in the shape of and Indian lying on his back. I tried to find a post card of that image, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I caught a Transit bus into the city where all the stores and shops were and I considered going to a movie, but I was very tired and I was falling asleep on the bus. I didn't quite know what to think of all the people I saw. It seemed like most of the tourists were wealthy, but it seemed like along with their wealth they brought their "sense of entitlement." So I just decided to stay on the bus and make the round trip back to the village and get some rest.

Fortunately the locals were very cool. When I got off the Transit bus I got on to the tour bus and slept for a couple of hours. Later I got up and went to some of the shops in the village and I met 2 real live "cowgirls". They were sisters, Dakota and Penny Reynolds. They own the Snake River Trading Company. I must have talked to Penny for about an hour. She showed me pictures of her son and gave me a CD of Native American Indian music. I ordered some Native American jewelry for my wife from the store. It was made at a Native American reservation not to far from Jackson.

Penny also gave me a lot of really good advice on marriage. I talked to her a lot about my wife and I told her how physically different we were. She said to me, "There are no boundaries to love." Hearing that at that moment had a great impact on me. She couldn't come to the show because she had to get home to her son, but her sister came with a real live cowboy named Rick. The fact that his name was Rick was a slight letdown. I was expecting either Wyatt or Cody. But he was authentic enough for me. He wasn't like a cowboy from a glamour ad, he was like a rough cowboy from a Clint Eastwood movie.

I also met a woman named Allie Smith who worked at the restaurant. She was probably the most pleasant waitress I ever met in my whole life. She said she had just graduated from college in Athens, GA. She came out to Jackson for a year to enjoy life and ski before moving back to Georgia and starting her career. A lot of the younger people I met seem to have that same game plan. Seems like a very good idea - graduate from college, move to a resort town and get a service job for a year and enjoy the skiing - then move back to where you're from and join the real world. Then I met a woman named Connie Johnson who was selling merchandise for us. She was also very pleasant and she put a lot of hours in selling for us. She's studying to be a nurse practitioner. Good luck, Connie!

The opening band was an artist named Matt Flinner. He was a mandolin player and he looked like a mandolin player. If you had to imagine what a mandolin player looked like in your mind, I'm sure his face would come up. The only way I can think of to describe his sound would be hip-bluegrass. I talked to their bass player, Sam Bevin for a bit after our show. He had some very kind things to say about my playing. I took a very nice solo (I think that might have been the best one I took the whole tour). Victor was standing slightly behind me and Sam said that Victor was really into my solo. Because I always play with my eyes closed, I never really notice what he's doing while I'm soloing - except for the times when he tries to make me laugh. So it was cool to hear from Sam that Victor seemed to be impressed with what I was doing.

During Victor's solo spot, the power to the bass rig went out and about the same time the power to the PA system went out. But the rest of the guys in the band kept playing while Zach & I worked to fix the problem. When we finally corrected the problem the band went into an early 80's funk set to get the people in a party mood again. They played songs by Prince, Cameo, Rick James, M.C. Hammer, The Commodores and Stevie Wonder. The crowd just loved it. They played a lot of songs that my band 'His Boy Elroy' plays. It was good to hear how differently they do the songs than we do.

On this particular night the band members were getting a lot of "google eyes" from the women in the audience. It's a good thing that we weren't staying the night considering the "Mac Daddys" that we are.

(Huh? Who's he talkin' about?! )

You can imagine the load out was terrible because it was extremely cold at 3:00AM and we had to deal with that same flight of stairs. Now I understand why bears hibernate in the winter. I might have to start doing that. As soon as we left Jackson I lost cell phone service and didn't get it back until we got to Colorado. Right now it's the morning of the 8th and today is the last day of the tour. We're riding on the bus to Boulder and running parallel to the mountains. It's a beautiful scene right out of a Coor's Light commercial. We will do an entry for last night's show in Ft. Collins very soon. We're a day behind.

peace & blessings,

anthony