Richmond, VA

Greetings from Richmond where we'll be performing tonight. The weather here has been absolutely perfect with sunshine and high's approaching 80.

Our Sunday night performance on Long Island went well. Here's a note from a fan:


The concert last night was absolutely AWESOME! Your solos were EXCELLENT! I especially loved "World Dance". My only regret was that I wasn't able to meet you and have you sign your CD. At the end of the show I was near the stage and I over heard you say that you wouldn't be able to stay and sign autographs. What a disappointment, but I understand.

Congratulations for such a wonderful show! I can't stop smiling!


I hope you do make a Christmas CD. I'll be first in line to buy it!

Thank you very much for the compliment. I'm also sorry I wasn't able to come out and meet people. We were asked to get to the buses immediately because of the long bus ride expected to Columbus. It turns out that not everyone took the memo seriously and I could've gone out after all. I sat on the bus for 1 hour waiting for our quick departure.

In regards to the Christmas CD, it is the first project on which I'm working when the tour is over so it should be done by this fall.

The bus ride from Long Island to Columbus was long and bumpy. I seem to be sleeping better on the bus now because someone had to wake me when we reached our hotel. I was in the middle of a very vivid dream in which I was on a tour bus with my family and we were following a long line of similar buses. The driver was angry, and we were traveling much too fast on a twisty mountain two lane road. I was trying to keep my family calm as we watched the other buses careen one by one off the highway. Come to think of it I might have been not so much dreaming as hallucinating!

We arrived at the hotel around 6:30am and just about everyone chose to go to breakfast together. Afterwards, I slept like a baby until around noon. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing my hammer dulcimer outside in the shade of a small park. One of the highlights of the day was when a group of young boys, one of them with a perfectly maintained spike mohawk, hopped off their skate boards and stopped by to listen for a while. One of them produced a harmonica and we jammed together on 12 bar blues. It reminded my why I still enjoy street performing over big shows. I'll probably never see those kids again but it was one of those experiences that no one present will soon forget.

The day ended with Yanni's manager, Danny O'Donovan, hosting a party celebrating the end of the first leg of the tour. Everyone had a great time dancing to a salsa band. I'm just sorry I forgot to take my camera. ¶ 6:15 PM