May .... already?

This past Saturday evening I had the distinct honor and pleasure to perform at a Songwriters Circle in Nashville TN along with (from l to r) Bill Lloyd, Tom Hambridge, Jason Scheff and George Teren.
Tom has been a good friend of mine for some time. A few years ago he relocated from Boston to Nashville where he has become a fixture on the music scene. Managing to make his mark in an extremely competitive town when it comes to songwriting, producing and performing.
Each year he's asked by the owners of a legendary club in Nashville, The Bluebird Cafe to host a songwriters night. When his schedule permits, he accepts, calls a few of his buddy's and for a little over 2 hours on a Saturday night plays MC to some wonderfully diverse and eclectic music.
For the uninitiated, a Songwriters Circle works in the following way;
2 or more (in this case 4) songwriters sit in a circle on a stage and take turns playing a song each. Sometimes explaining what motivated them to write a particular song or how the song came to be written. Each person gets to play four or five songs in a couple hours (we each wound up playing 7 on Saturday). The format is loose, genial and respectful.
I've only done one of this kind of show before in Pittsburgh a few years ago. At this one, I was surrounded by guys that had written multiple hits for some very popular Country and Blues artists. People like Trisha Yearwood, Carrie Underwood, Trace Atkins and a slew of others.
So .... Tom Hambridge called me last month and asked me if I'd be interested in joining him and the others. I wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to play solo in Nashville let alone perform at The Bluebird.
Booked a flight, rented a car, called Randy Flowers to tell him to have his maid make a bed in one of the spare rooms of his newly built mansion and got my butt to Nashvegas Saturday afternoon.
I was slightly nervous given the company I was in but I can't remember having a better time listening to other peoples songs and playing my own as well.
I was especially impressed with George Teren. His lyrics were heartfelt and touching. Simple yet deep. The perfect mix for a good song.
Of course Tom was great and the highlight of the night for me was playing 'Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing' which we co-wrote. Since it has a somewhat Country / Rockabilly feel to it, it went over well with the mainly southern crowd.
I was told by Tom to expect to do 4 or 5 songs at most. Maybe 6. I mulled over which ones I was going to play but because I'm currently working on new material, didn't really sit down to go over my selections till the night before. Being the person I am, I thought to myself "I'll be lucky to get four songs in ... if I have to do one more than that I'll wing it."
After I did my fourth song I thought, hmmm what next? We went around the circle again and I pulled 'Sometimes Love...' out. Whew... made it throught that one with flying colors since I hadn't played it in sometime. Then .... again it came around to me..... un oh ..... OK OK I know, I'll do 'There Goes My Inspiration' .... luckily there were some Utopia fans in the crowd and that one was well recieved .... AGAIN the round comes to me .... Christ! What do I do now? OK OK OK .... 'Before She Was Gone' ... unfortunately, I hadn't played that song in a LONG time and I had forgotten some of the chords and dropped the "F" bomb (quite loudly) in the middle of screwing up the same chord twice .... I sweated through that one but ..... God Damnit AGAIN? The circle came around to me AGAIN? I was forced to play one more song and relied on (and screeched my way through) 'Don't Hold Me Back'.
Thankfully that was the last time I had to play. Only because I would have had to curse again to make it through another song I hadn't rehearsed (apparently the propritors don't appreciate cussin') I think I got away with it because I'm a New Yorker and didn't appologize.
Al in all it was a great night. Tom brought up a buddy of his, Jason Scheff who plays with Chicago to do a song. What a lovely and extremely talented guy he is.
So, there you have it, my Nashville experience. Unfortunately Randy Flowers didn't attend the show ... he was busy making sure his Butler knew exactly what I needed when I arrived back at his Estate.
The pictures above were taken and given to me by The Bill Graham Of 2009,
Doug (Concert Promoter Extrodinare) Ford.
I have his permission to use them here and here alone.
Any unauthorized use of said photos will result in a madatory appearance on Radio Rundgren.
Enough said .....

Tampa Solo Show

Just a quick note to thank everyone who attended the Tampa gig last night.
I had a wonderful time.... lots of good company, laughs and a Horseshoe Crab Orgy at the waters edge.

Seriously, it was a great night.

See you in Chicago on March 12th at the Abbey Pub!

The One Sure Thing - LIVE IN ATLANTA

Finally ..... SHOWS!

It wouldn't be a year if I didn't miss a month here.
So I forgot January .... shoot me. What went on in January anyway? I had a short trip to L.A. for the NAMM Convention (too inside to comment on).
Met Jon 'Strawberry' Fields ... big-time record producer who as it turns out, is a HUGE TR and Utopia fan.
We all saw a glimmer of hope in a new President...
The economy tanked (I'm still trying to figure out how much of the 1.5 Trillion Dollar bail out I'm responsible for) and I continued to question why I still live in the Northeast US. At this point I'm starting to question living in this country at all. Basically, January was a bust so, there was no sense in belaboring 31 days of snow, freezing rain and a mere 9 hours of sunlight (on a good day).

Now February ... THAT'S another story. Not much better just yet. But don't we all have to stay positive? You know, look on the bright side?
Here's one small bright spot .... I have Solo Shows coming up! Yes folk's that's right .... SOLO SHOWS. 3.5 to be exact. PLUS .... PLUS.... A TV SHOW!
Here's the skinny, this weekend I'll be in TAMPA, FL. At the Rusty Pelican. Nice little dinner theater where I'll be playing for my closest, dearest, most loyal supportive followers. There are a few seats left and if you can get away for a day, I'd love to see YOU there.
Just in case you can't make that show, on March 6th I'll be in WEST CHESTER, PA. That's the .5 show because I'll be performing with a bevy of my peer's for a benefit concert to support St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
Now, if you don't find yourself in the Pennsylvania area just wait a few day's and meet me in CHICAGO, IL. Once again, I'm at The ABBEY PUB on March 12th.
Ok, suppose you're not in Florida, Pennsylvania OR Illinois ... How about OHIO?
On March 15th I'll be wrapping up this 3.5 show tour at the BEACHLAND BALLROOM.
I did mention a TV Show didn't I?
Yes, I did ... On March 11th I'll be appearing on the GOOD MORNING show in Cleveland. Channel 3 I believe (that's what The Deli Bitch told me) It's on at 10AM.
Now, I WILL be documenting this whole journey. I'll be driving for the most part and I'm sure there will be some ..... what the hell am I doing ..... moments.
All the finer details of the above appearances can be found on my website(s). You know, MySpace, Facebook, blah blah blah... I'll also send out some mail to the list on addresses, showtime's, ticket prices and gift suggestions.
I really hope you can make one or more ....
If not, I'll come to your house and ask why you weren't there.

Kasim

Wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who was kind enough to send me a Happy Birthday wish.
I did my best to answer each and every one of you but if you didn't get an email from me, please consider this your personal thank you from me.
Yeah, another year in the history book. Why is it they years just seem to be going faster and I keep wanting things to slow down? Never enough minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a year to get as much done as I'd like.
God forbid I leave my cell phone home, or I don't have constant access to the Internet .... I feel like I'm missing something. When in fact, I probably wouldn't miss much.
The trick is to use the above items as tools instead of 'attachments'.

The few Meat Loaf shows I had last week went well. It was great to see all the fans from overseas at the NYC gig. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating and it was bitterly cold in NY and NJ but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
It was a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone, Band and Crew at the last show if only because it looks like it's going to be a while (compared to the last few years) before we get to see each other again.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming TR shows next week that go through to Jan 1. And for everyone who can't make it to one of these shows, there's the David Letterman performance on Dec. 22.
The DVD is at the manufacturers as I write this and I'm very pleased with how it looks and sounds. GG should be shipping out orders as soon as they arrive from the pressing plant. I would imagine about a week to 10 days from now.

Many thanks to Gary 'Goat' Govia and his wife Sheila for giving my daughter Kasandra and her boyfriend his extra second row seats at the NYC ML show... that was really kind. He also took the picture that heads up this entry.

If I don't make another post before the end of the month, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and the happiest New Year.

Kasim

Whew .... been a long three weeks. Started in Manchester, through Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Italy, ended back in London. Pretty much only one day off not counting travel days.
After having done the October shows, I was able to relax a little more on this run and have more fun on stage because I was more comfortable in the 'utility' position.
The best indicator for me is that the show pretty much fly's by. No sooner do I walk on stage and the next thing I know we're 2/3rd's of the way through the set list.
I was more than a little surprised at the amount of fan's coming up to me outside the venues telling me that the last time they saw TR or myself was in ....... ahem ...... 1977 - 78?
I don't feel 30 years older. At least not today.
The picture above is from Milan.... The Domo. It was my first time in Italy. Somehow, in all the years of touring, I never managed to get there. Happy to say I finally did and even though my hotel room was the size of a postage stamp (I broke the window when I put my key in the door), I didn't mind at all because I was IN ITALY! Now... I've grown up on Pizza but let me tell you, I had a Pizza in Milan that was by far the best Pizza I've ever had.
And Paris? The last time I was in Paris had to be 10 years ago .... I didn't think much about it then but this time was somehow different. It was so cool being there. My only regret was not having more time in those two places. Maybe it's time to think about relocating.
I'm not sure when the next time I'm going to be over this way but I'd love it if it was sooner rather than later.
Thanks to all the Fans who came to the shows. It was good to see all of you again. ML up next.

The Bunny Did It

I'm sure by now most of you have seen a picture or two of me in a Bunny suit taken on stage at the Meat Loaf show this past Friday night - Halloween. I'm pretty sure the last time I put on a costume for Halloween was more years ago than I care to remember. I always thought it wasn't cool to dress up as someone (or something) other than myself.
Well, talk about not cool ... inside that silly Bunny costume was akin to an August day in Iraq. I could barely keep it on for a whole song and had to run over to Charlie to have him strip me of it while in the middle of Rock & Roll Dreams.
I have to admit, it was fun and sharing the stage with The Joker (Randy), Joe The Plumber (Dave), Gene Simmons (Patty), Paul Stanley (CC), Barney Rubble (Paul) and Elvis (Meat) was an experience.
So, Meat shows finished for the time being, I'm off to Manchester tomorrow for the start of the next leg of the Todd / Arena tour.
There will be no dressing up on this one but there WILL be new backstage pass episodes. I have my trusty little camera packed, battery charged and I plan on taking as much footage as I can before people start running away from me because I'm going Scorcese on them.
First gig isn't till the 6th and I'll be cooling my jets for a couple days waiting for the rest of the guys to arrive.
I got a call this afternoon (Sunday) from the Musicians Union reminding me to vote and urging me to vote Democratic.
I got extremely insulted. After all, it was Sunday, and the Musicians Union is a joke anyway .... they take your money and give you nothing in return, and indeed, what right do they have to suggest whom I should be voting for.
However .... it IS important.
I'm sure you've been hammered over the head in the past few weeks here in the US to vote and I'm going to remind you one more time .... it's your right and duty to go in and pull the lever for whomever you believe to be the best choice.
Nothing is going to get fixed anytime soon but the only way we can start to make things better is by being heard.