10,000
i just booked sort of a last minute acoustic show in columbus saturday nov 25th.
i am sipping on a glass of wine. celebrating a pretty good three day run of shows. this wine is made with the tempranillo grape, one of my favorites. normally the grapes are grown in Spain, but these grapes were locally grown here in lexington kentucky jean farris winery. and it’s fricking amazing. big and fruity. someday i will tell you all about my very personal love affair with kentucky wines. in case you’re concernred i just took a quick snob test
http://www.queendom.com/tests/minitests/fx/snob.html
which concluded that i don’t “have a snobby bone” in my body. hey science never lies. i do drive a piece of shit car. with pride.
in reverse order: tonight’s show was in lexington kentucky, my current place of residence, for a friend of mine kyle m. lake who was celebrating a pilot/trailer for an independent film he is directing (http://foreveryesterdayfilm.com).

(this was a movie character themed party. kyle is an aviator i stole his glasses.)

thanks for the invite! i had a blast and made a few fans. great turnout. i met a lot of nice people from lexington. the blue line is a very nice new club. the vibe was good. i have to get me a pair of those welding goggles. er i mean aviators. and then an airplane. thanks matt b and tony and everyone else who came. thanks brittany for this picture:

life is blurry.
thursday we played the clique lounge in covington, ky. clique was recently voted one of the tops bars in the cincy area. i have to agree. super cool lights and decor and music and pretty people. this place is almost too cool for us. i mean at heart we’re all midwest farm boys, we’ve just absorbed some of the metro sensibilities and interests that come with being in a band or trying to do anything in art music or entertainment. so yeah, it’s a little more like new york city’s Flute than cheers, but we’re adaptable and we dig eclectic people and night life wherever we can find it. wanna feel super-cool? clique is the place.

getting our levels set in the dim red glow. thanks to niles for the photo!
normally they have DJ’s spinning motown, funk and jazz. so we had planned to play everything a little more upbeat. but inevitably our set drifted into hyper ballad territory, which is what i think we’re becoming the best at, at least in the acoustic sets. it was cool though–the vaulted ceilings gave everything a soaring quality and enough people that showed up to see us to make the place seem like a party. we are considering making a regular thing of clique.
wednesday we did coopers (which is a already regular thing every other wednesday). coopers is always a blast. we are super comfortable there. if clique is flute coopers is cheers. i think the acoustic format has really made us all better musicians. we are incubating all over again. it forces you to focus more on your playing and your pitch and the lyrics and the musicality of the experience, instead of just being loud and crazy. plus doing some piano version of JFK songs and new songs is helping me to be a better piano player and making me think about the chord progressions.

dan setting up a drum time elapsed.

sex
i would like to work more on our improvisational playing. maybe in the coming weeks. T has been really working the classical cello. he plays a few bach pieces at every acoustic show. it’s amazing and he’s getting better and better. i am trying to talk him into letting me record and release an EP of him playing bach cello concertos. would you buy it?
i think i am getting better about controlling my voice, although this can be hard being in bars around cigarettes and alcohol. for the record, i did quit smoking a couple years ago, but i’ll have one or two occasionaly if i have a drink. so maybe i didn’t quit. whatever. now a pack lasts me a couple months instead of a day…so with that in perspective i’m doing alright.
now for the internet news.
i put up a help out page: www.joehedges.com/helpout. there you can give us a dollar or learn about how to make us myspace friends and new fans.
and speaking of helping out, this q102 poll is just mind-blowing (see previous post). that 10,000 + mouse clicks went through as votes for me is astounding. if it’s not an actual endorsement that i may be one of the best singers of a local band in cincinnati, it at least speaks loudly about your determination and support for my music. the poll ends at midnight on friday Nov. 17th. so we shall see the victor in a week. but regardless of how it plays out THANKS for voting 10 thousand times. i can’t count that high.
humbly yours,
joe




