More Tokyo!

Another great show in Tokyo... two more shows to go... one more here and then one in Kobe... where the beef be. Every night Carole says "I think this one is not gonna be great" and then it's great. She's doing some stuff in 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow'... pure channelling. She never does the same thing twice. We did two new songs tonight... one i actually never heard before... I did a quick chart... lucky it was pretty much the same four chords all the way thru. We have a super fan named Jeff who has followed us all over the world and pretty much seen every show we've done in the the last five years... he has become a friend as well. He was over the moon that we played some new stuff. He is one dedicated guy. Got time to hang around till the show tomorrow... I like playing nights in a row at the same venue.

Osaka

Just played two shows in Osaka. The first one was okay... not a full house but they were all smiles and they sang along (I think). I always laugh at how weird it is to be on stage and have every face in the audience looking at a 45% angle... no one is looking at me. They are all staring at Carole. As well it should be. If I wrote "Up On The Roof" I would expect everyone to stare at me too. Tonight we played a 5PM show... I didn't think we would get much of a crowd but apparently it's not as weird to have an early show here as I thought. They were CRAZY excited... biggest ovation at the end that we've had in quite a while. In a couple of days we are going to see The Who at Budakon! Our crew is buddies with all of their crew so they let Pete (Townsend) know and Carole and the gang (That would include me) will be sitting in nice seats to see them not get fooled again. Or squeezing their boxes. Whichever euphemism you would like.

Tokyo!

We just played the second of two shows at Bunkamura Hall in Tokyo and if I must say so myself... we were friggin' great! The first show we all played like we had canned hams taped to the ends of our arms. Jetlag I'm sure. Or we've all had strokes. Let's go with jetlag. But tonight... luckily the night we filmed for Japanese TV... it all fell together. It all sounded so great... when Carole sang "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" she started crying in the last verse she was so moved. "You've Got A Friend" was magic. Our super fan Jeff was in the front row. I have been doing this gig now for over five years and he has been to nearly every show right in the front row. Even New Zealand and Australia and now here. He likes us. It's very weird to play for an audience that probably has no idea what you are saying when you introduce a song. Tonight when we did my song "Nothin' Bout Love Makes Sense" (with Rudy on a mean mandolin) I introduced it by saying that the song has an Oyster and a Jumbo Shrimp in the lyric so basically it's about sushi! I actually heard crickets. Tiny Japanese crickets. Oh well. It's a good joke and it will kill at the Bluebird. It's late here and I am going to bed. Day off tomorrow... then a wacky TV show and a bullet train to somewhere.

Touring through Japan

I guess the tour last fall with Fergie and Mary J. Blige went well because they wanted us back. Here we are again in Tokyo! I tried to put these dates on my website in the summer and got bitch-slapped because they hadn't been announced yet. I guess I can list them now cause here we are ready to do our first show tomorrow night.

The flight over was great. Singapore Air. Nice seat that opens into a bed. Only ten hours and change so it was an Iron Man, a Dark Knight and a Hancock and Boom! We landed.

We haven't seen each other since a corporate gig in NYC last month for Tiffany's so we're going to have an extra long rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. The show will be two 45 minute sets with a break. Haven't seen the running order yet so I don't know if I'll be playing any of my songs... I heard them say something about "Nothing Bout Love Makes Sense"... I told Rudy that if he found a mandolin over here I would play it on that one. It's fun to not really know what we're doing until it's time to do it. Why worry about it? I learned all these songs back when I was 16.

We have two show nights in a row so I'll let you all know how they went in a few days. When I get back my Nashville brothers Mel DiBurPho will be doing a mini-tour... one night at the Bluebird and two nights in Atlanta at The Swallow at the Hollow. We should have T-shirts made up.