Grand Rapids, MI

My wife joined me in Grand Rapids for our day off yesterday and she'll travel to Chicago with us on the tour bus after the show tonight. The bus is going to be really crowded as Charlie, Walter, and Victor will also have their wives with them tonight. I think all the spouses fly out of Chicago and most of us won't see our families again until our Easter break.

It has been wonderful having Angie by my side and I wish she could travel with me all the time - maybe someday. We're going to visit the Gerald Ford museum today, which is just across the Grand River from our hotel. We will get to see the travelling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

Having Angie here gave us a chance to catch up on business as well. One of the subjects we talked about was my CD sales, which quite frankly are down, since I've been on the Yanni tour.

Prior to accepting this tour our primary source of income was CD sales. One of my regular gigs was playing outdoors at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, where on a daily basis people buying CDs would tell me that my music reminded them of Yanni. I didn't know if that was a compliment or not because, as I've mentioned before, I was unacquainted with Yanni's music prior to this opportunity. When I got the call to come audition I quickly familiarized my myself with Yanni's work, and then I knew what they were talking about.

It is fairly tough to make a living in the music business these days and the optimistic entrepreneur in me had visions of selling truckloads of CDs at Yanni's concerts. It turns out that Yanni's management doesn't allow the individual musicians to sell their CDs at his venues, but they did tell us they would help send people to our web sites, where we could promote our association with Yanni and market our CDs to our hearts content.

I've always been a little uncomfortable pushing my own product but I also know that people like to be asked - so I'm asking. Would you like to buy one or both of my CDs? If you'll click on the music link to the left you can hear some samples and purchase with a credit card or if you're uncomfortable using a credit card over the net, just email me and I'll we'll talk about other options. I'll can also take it out of the shrink wrap and sign it before we ship it - all you have to do is ask. Another option for those attending Yanni concerts would be to order one of my CDs, bring it with you, and I'll sign it there. We can make arrangements via email to meet after the show. Lastly, if you enjoy my music, by all means tell others about it! Now, on with the journal so I can get out and spend a few hours with my wife before the show.

Speaking of wives . . .. Ming (keyboards) and a few other musicians were sitting at the Friday's bar in Moline when Ramon (trumpet) started looking at and touching Ming's long hair. Ming threw Ramon a puzzled glance and said, "Hey man, do you miss your wife?" Ramon, paused and then responded, "No man, I miss my hair!" We're all still laughing.

The Moline show was apparently a big hit as Yanni once again had to 'shoo' the audience home after our 3 hour performance. I continue to hear story after story of people who come to the show as apprehensive guests of others, expecting to maybe even catch up on a little sleep in uncomfortable arena seating. They leave amazed and with a new opinion of Yanni's music. After 16 shows I'm still amazed at the talent and creativity of the solo work each night. Each show is different in the aspect that the solos are constantly changing, and if I've learned anything on this tour, it is the degree to which the audience is 'into it' is directly reflected in how much the soloists get 'into it.' Get ready Grand Rapids, here we come!

I have a few more pictures ready that I should be able to get posted tommorrow. ¶ 4:49 PM