Philadelphia, PA

Washington was great! The show started out with a bang, literally. Just before I hammered the first note of our opening song there was a cacophonous crack that sounded like lightning striking. The audience jumped. The musicians jumped. The sky did not however fall nor did the earth open up and swallow us so we plowed forth into "On Sacred Ground" as normal.

The show flowed like a river from then on. Here's a musicians level photo taken from stage left. (use the photographs link, all pictures have been removed from the archives to conserve space).

It felt great to have several good friends in the audience last night. Here are some after show pictures with Philip, Emily, and Trish.

Philip is taking my new didgeridoo back to Chattanooga for me so I don't have to fly home with it next week. Here's me, David and the new didg.

It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Philadelphia and I went out for a nice long walk this morning. The sun is shining and the temperature is in the 50's. I'm a fan of early American history and this town is rich with it. As soon as I finish this journal I'm hitting the streets in search of anything associated with Ben Franklin, one of my heroes. The Ben Franklin hot dog stand I saw while walking this morning does not count. I just stuck my head out of the hotel room window and took the above picture of City Hall.

In my last journal update I mentioned that Yanni considers this week to be filled with big shows. Someone wrote and asked why Yanni would consider these shows bigger than any others. I think he was referring to the size of the audiences based on ticket pre-sales, and the fact that we've been on the road for a long time and everyone will have to dig a little deeper to keep the energy level up. Generally the bigger the audience, the easier that is to do. ¶ 2:30 PM