I thought I would say a word or two about my recent return to performing out in public. Frankly I had been hoping for some sort of return to the Absolute Zero core group. It became apparent to me that such a reunion wasn’t going to happen after no less than two sincere attempts in the past 2 years to get some sort of acoustic revolution of AZ back together. This or that always seemed to pop up in our way. Mainly I think it was just a mutual realization that that group had already accomplished it’s peak. We all moved on and suffice to say that when it came right down to it, no one was willing to sacrifice the time required to put it all back together and hope the old fire still existed.

Todd and Bush were happy playing in their cover band, Area 52. It felt a little like Todd was rubbing that in my face at times. He did invite me to play at a barbecue some of his friends were throwing back in the early part of the summer. We practiced a few times over several weeks and went to play the show. Nothing had really changed. The issues I had with my co players drinking or fiddling with the sound setup so long it alienated the crowd were still firmly in place just like back in the AZ days. Beer consumed prior to playing can really mess most musicians up. Then when they forget arrangements or lyrics somehow it’s never the fault of the drinking. I’ll be 40 this year and have a lot of projects on my plate. I just do not have the time to waste on people who want to deny alcohol issues or lack the discipline to really show up and accomplish.

My ambition is to perform my songs to a crowd at a high level of performance. Thankfully, I’ve finally found another musician with the focus to accomplish this sort of lofty goal. Hey, guess what? It takes weekly practice. So, we are on that. We’ve played out as a 2 man acoustical group 4 or 5 times now and it’s been going pretty well. In fact we already have a recurring gig at the Keq & Cue on South Tryon in Charlotte. You can catch Brad and I there on the second Friday of each month and at various other times in support of our buds in Thank You Spaceman.

It feels like we get tighter and more polished at every show and that feels good. The crowds have been very appreciative so far and for the first time in a long time I feel like playing out, sharing my songs with strangers and friends is once again worth the trouble. That’s a good place to be after so many years of either stagnant band relationships or not playing at all. Let’s hope this run lasts a while and is better than even Absolute Zero in it’s prime.

I’ll be posting various performances here as I try to video each performance when possible.