The past few months have been a whirlwind of excitement for us. Avatar sessions, John Mayer and Sting Side Show dates, Rockwood Music Hall and The Living Room in NYC, St.Barth Summer Sessions, I went home to Vancouver (hey, everyone needs a summer holiday), and now back to New York for the fall, the release of the EP, more shows and more fun.

There is lots to do now, lots to coordinate, lots to make happen. In between all that I’ll try to find time to get the sand out of my guitar case.

I am sun burnt and mosquito bitten, and it doesn’t matter because I am in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. St Barth really is spectacular, and the band and I, as well as everyone we are playing alongside, is having a fantastic time so far at this festival, the St Barth Summer Sessions.

There have been 4 nights of music so far, each night something different. We have played a few different sets: an acoustic covers set, a full band originals set, etc., and we’ve met some really great people. We have been hitting the beaches by day and rehearsing at the villa, and then heading down to La Plage, a beautiful club on the beach, where we are playing every night. Can’t ask for a much better schedule!

Instead of blathering on for ages, I will put up a few photos to show you what our time has been like so far. You can also get full photos every day by adding St Barth Summer Sessions on facebook.

We drove out there (some of us took the train), and arrived nice and early to set up. We got hear JM sound checking to the empty theater, with the water and sky as a backdrop and the sun shining, which was really cool to see.  We could do this because we had the luxury (I think our first time, or one of the only few times) of having a sound man set up our stuff (granted on a much smaller stage), which he did very well. His name was Steve. He was awesome and made us sound good. Thanks Steve!

Doors opened at 6:30 and we proceeded to rock, trying to attract as many of the 15,000 passersby to stay in front of our stage as possible before filing into the main amphitheater. We did pretty well, and met lots of fantastic people. Thanks for sticking around, those of you that were there!

We had a lot of fun playing, and afterward we got to see Train and John Mayer play. Both were fantastic. It was a wonderful day at the beach. It was pretty cool that our first time at Jones Beach, we were ”playing” Jones Beach, even though we weren’t actually “playing” Jones Beach. One day perhaps. But playing in the concourse before the show kinda counts right?

Regardless, we had fun. It was a real honor and we look forward to doing it again next week! Here are some photos, good and bad, of us and of the wonderful evening. Enjoy.

I’ve played a couple sweet gigs the last week or so. Last Friday night we played at our beloved Rockwood Music Hall in NYC to a good crowd. It was our first official trio gig (I think), and it went off pretty smooth, even without all the glittery additions that come with extra players.

My good friend Jonothan and I stood on the street corners for a few hours each day passing out CD’s and fliers, harassing anyone who might listen. I think one or two of them showed up….500 fliers for 1 person is a bad conversion rate. But hell, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I went up to Boston the following Saturday morning at 6 am, on last minute notice, to open for Kina Grannis at The Red Room at Cafe 939. It’s a great venue, the second time I’ve played there. There were 200+ people (for those of you that weren’t there) and everyone rocked, and I did my best to rock too. With an acoustic guitar. Kina rocked as well, and it was good to meet her and play before her.

We are rehearsing this week for the show Sunday night in the Hamptons at the Stephen Talkhouse, and we are really looking forward to it.

See you there!

Tom