That's some good Schmit !

photo by Chris Farmer

I was fortunate to spend several hours in a relaxed,
warm and friendly rehearsal environment with Eagles
bass player Timothy B. Schmit, just last week. Our
friend and TLR family member Chris Farmer, who
sometimes fills in for Jim, is working with Timothy
as keyboardist, bassist and back-up vocalist on the
tour for his brand new solo album "Expando".

Timothy was immediately gracious, welcoming and glad
to have a few friendly folks in the room to watch and
listen as he prepared for the upcoming string of shows.
After that day's rehearsal hang, which included such
humble icons as Dewey Bunnell & Gerry Beckley of America,
a few of us attended the kick-off show here in Los Angeles
the next night. It was unique to hear Timothy sing a
couple of his signature songs, like I Can't Tell You Why
and Love Will Keep Us Alive, in this intimate setting.
But it's even more satisfying to be part of the unveiling
of some of his new and very personal material.

Seeing the Eagles in concert is a bigger-than-life kind
of experience. But being with any Eagles member in a
much smaller room (or theatre) as he shares his music
reminds me of just how tightly stitched the community
of musicians can be and that, at the end of the day,
it's still about telling a story.

(Pictured in the background is Herman Matthews,
a really nice cat and drummer who's worked I've
admired for years)

Oklahoma is OK!

photo by Gary Grantham

Hey everyone, it's Gig.
Pictured above is the stage at the Oklahoma State Fair.
When we got to the site at about 10 AM on show day the
pro touring crew was all set up and commencing their line check.

By contrast, and as Chris said (in the Hermosillo post), it was pretty
novel to arrive at the site (in Mexico) to find an impressive show rig
being built over a stage that was still just a large piece of dirt.
But, when we returned a couple of hours later a nice stage, 8 feet off
the ground awaited us. It was loaded with a full lighting package,
smoke machines, video projection and even pyrotechnics.
And to be fair, that stage was erected specifically for our show while
the Oklahoma rig had already enjoyed 9 days worth of entertainment.
The sound in Hermosillo was big and bombastic and we were able to
open the show with our intro video, something only a handful of you
have seen at select venues.

The excellent people of Hermosillo

Our excursion to the Mexican state of Sonora was a blast!

The stage you see above was literally dirt just hours before we started our set in Hermosillo, Mexico on Friday. It was amazing how fast the crew built this up. I took the picture of the incredibly enthusiastic crowd while we played Seven Bridges Road. This isn't a tourist town, so it was entirely locals, who seemed to especially enjoy the ballads and acoustic tunes. A cover band from the area called Drakor played with us and were a lot of fun. They were extremely generous to lend us some of their equipment as well! All in all, we had a great time and met so many quality people that we would happily do it again.

Getting up early for the plane was not easy, but we got back Saturday and rested for our Agoura Hills show Sunday. Next up: Vegas!