From the 12th Floor

It’s time for an explanation as to why I haven’t written about this tour as much as I have during past legs. In going through past journal entries I’m noticing a habit of writing that assumes most regular visitors to this web site are Yanni Fans who know just about everything there is to know about the tour. Even the previous sentence assumes you know what ‘tour’ I’m talking about. This is not my intention.

While I hope Yanni fans always find this site entertaining and read regularly, I’ve been unconsciously allowing a sort of “Yanni fan” filter to constrain me creatively, which has taken some of the fun out of writing. I’m glad I figured it out because what I want this journal to be is simply a place where I log my experiences and what, if anything, I’ve learned from them. I believe honest writing, and honest people for that matter, are the most interesting.

Ok, enough that. It is November 9th and I’m sitting in my room on the 12th floor of a Hotel in Anaheim California with a view of Disneyland off to the left and Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral to the right. Tonight we’ll perform the fourth show in a 26 show (24 cities) tour that is sticking to the western side of North America from as far south as Mexico City to as far north as Edmonton Canada.

The first show of the tour was recorded for a live DVD/CD at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas November 6. That project will probably not be released until sometime next year.

Rehearsals for this tour began one month prior to the opening date at a television studio in West Palm Beach Florida. It was there that we found out one of Yanni’s most popular band members, Karen Briggs, would not be touring with us this time. She’s pursuing her solo career and everyone hopes she has great success. We will of course miss the incredible energy she brought to the stage so consistently. And I have to confess that when I look up from my hammer dulcimer during certain songs I still expect to see Karen in a bright red dress digging into a solo. At management’s request I wasn’t able to write about the fact that Karen wasn’t there or even respond to email so I apologize to those of you who knew what was going on and wrote me with questions. I also wasn’t able to write about our newest member, Sayaka Katsui, or about changes to the new show.

The solos that Karen used to play have been divided up among Samvel Yervinian, Armen Movsessian and Sayaka. It is obvious that they’ve all put in hundreds of hours to learn the new parts and it sounds great.

Sayaka, who is from Japan, speaks very little English, but does speak a little Spanish and is able to communicate with quite a few band members. She is yet another Apple computer user and it has been fun trying to help her out with a few technical issues when everything on the screen of her iBook is in Japanese. She call’s me Mickey, as in Mickey Mouse, because of the large headphones I wore during rehearsals.

One day while riding to rehearsal with Hussain and me in my car, we were able to understand enough of her broken English to gather that she’d never driven a car. We pulled onto a private drive near the studio and put her behind the wheel. We made sure she understood ‘stop’ and ‘go’ and their associated pedals, tightened our seat-belts and let her drive. It was a little tense as she learned the feel of the brakes, but her smile alone was worth the stress as I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a larger grin when we began to roll. As we hit about 30 miles an hour and Hussain, in a very friendly Sri-Lanken accent, said “maybe you should slow down”, she laughed and said “I having fun.” It was a great moment.

Sayaka is a tremendous player and brings a whole new kind of energy to the band. I’m sure you’re in for a treat if you haven’t seen her play yet. One of these days I’ll tell the story about how she came to be a member.

The show is easier for me this year as I’m sitting down to play. I’ve definitely learned that I play with more control and ease if I play sitting. I think from now on I’ll always carry a stool to my gigs, even though it means one more thing to haul.

Angie, my wife, was able to join me for a week in Florida and almost a full week in Las Vegas. I won’t get to see her again until we get to Calgary on the 23rd where I get a day off from the tour and we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary! Woo Hoo! It seems like we just met yesterday.

Angie did not get to see the opening show in Vegas as her flight left to early. But just about an hour after she flew out that Saturday morning my friends Bob and Kathleen McMurray joined me to hang out until the show. Bob is one of the members of our band ‘Hammer On!’ They came to the fan buffet with me Saturday afternoon and Bob even signed a few autographs on the new CD.

The opening show and recording went well and I just wish the DVD would come out more quickly. It’s just that there’s no way it can be edited while we’re on the road and with the exception of a short break in December, we’re touring steadily through the end of February.

We have since played Pheonix, where my friend Dennis Schreiner was able to attend the show, and Tucson.

A quick note that will probably only interest dulcimer players: I, (and unfortunately Yanni) noticed some funky dissonance in one of my solos in Phoenix. A review of the tape found that I wasn’t accidentally hitting wrong notes with the hammers so I had to figure out what it was. It dawned on me that I am scooting my chair in closer for the previous song which is in the key of F and is played high on my D600. I wasn’t remembering to scoot it back before the next song and my position wasn’t correct for playing at the bottom of the instrument where most of the solo occurs. It turns out that my knuckles were lightly scraping some of the notes on the ‘super-bass’ bridge, just enough to make them sing a little bit out of tune. I remembered to check this before the Tucson show and it was perfect, which is of course what is demanded for each and every show. The lesson for me is to be conscious of my body position while playing and anticipate what the song demands.

Tonight we play at the Anaheim ‘Pond’, home of the mighty Ducks. ¶ 2:06 PM