Austin to Phoenix

Austin was a great city and I'd love to go back and spend more time there. The hills and trees reminded me of Chattanooga and that was quite a surprise.

The show went well and the highlight of the night was Ramon's trumpet solo on Dance With a Stranger. By now I've heard this song played at least a hundred times if you count all the work we did in rehearsals. But Ramon took it to another level that night. Several times during his solo I had chills run up my spine and I was literally in tears after the song ended. I can't tell you what or why, but there was something about his playing that caught me off guard emotionally. If you look at music is a language then you could say that Ramon had something very important to say.

Another inspiring ongoing story has been watching Ric play bass. You may have read in my journal last month about Ric's tearing a muscle in his chest while working out in a hotel fitness center. Without being too graphic, suffice it to say that there was a colorful display on his chest and shoulder that left no doubt that something had gone seriously wrong. An MRI indicated that surgery was necessary but could possibly wait until the end of the tour. Ric had another MRI during our break last week and the decision was made to operate immediately.

It is amazing that he was able to continue with the tour after the surgery. His arm is in a sling that he only takes off for the show. We all watched in amazement the first couple of nights after the tour resumed as he strapped on his bass and gave it 100 percent. The pain he was enduring during the first two shows prompted some creative thinking and the crew built a stand to hold the bass so Ric can just reach around it and play. He used it last night and said it helped. They are making some minor modifications to the stand and Ric will probably have to use it for the rest of the tour. He is such a pro, and I am inspired by his determination and talent.

We have another show at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix tonight. This is the only theatre we are playing and it was great to hear a quiet room. I heard nuances in the music that get lost in the big arenas.

After the show we signed quite a few autographs as fans waited near the shuttle bus outside the arena. Hopefully I'll get to see some of you there tonight.

I have several new pictures to post but I'll wait and do that tomorrow. The weather is wonderful here and I'm going out to soak up some Arizona sunshine. ¶ 5:55 PM

Bossier to Austin

We boarded the buses after a successful Bossier City show for the six and a half hour overnight trip to Austin. I failed to mention in my last post that David's wife and daughter were with us for the Houston show and they're still in the process of flying back to Australia as of today (Sunday).

David's 10 year old daughter, Jedess, was a big hit. She was constantly upstaging her dad by mimicking his facial expressions with exacting perfection and had everyone in stitches. Here's a photo from dinner - seated left to right are: Wendell, Ramon, Erika, Cindy (David's wife), Jim, Walter, Jedess (David and Cindy's daughter) and April. We all hated to see Jadess go. She was more fun than a puppy.

We arrived in Austin around 6am this morning and Wendell, Kristen, Walter, David and I were the only ones who made it down to breakfast when the hotel restaurant opened at 7am. After breakfast, David and I took a walking tour of the downtown area and beyond. We explored for a couple of hours and saw the capitol building, a downtown river walk that was full of spawning brim, the arena where we'll play tonight and a movie crew setting up to work on the film "Alamo." The weather was perfect with clear blue skies and the temperature rising through the 70's.

We returned to the hotel in time to hear an alarm go off and watch a group of people get trapped in a glass elevator 15 floors up. Faces of startled sleepers appeared at many of the hotel rooms we could see from the atrium. The alarm did not quit ringing for at least 20 minutes and only stopped when the fire department showed up correct the situation.

We get to return to the hotel tonight and will fly by private charter to Phoenix tomorrow where we'll have whatever is left of the day off after we land. ¶ 6:05 PM

Houston, TX

It was good to get back together with the band and play some music last night. The show felt and sounded fresh and all the solos seemed brand new. Houston heard our best and they responded with great energy. I met with several fans after the show. Here's a picture with Omar and Mike.

Here's a message from a fan:

Dear Mr. Landrum,

The Houston concert was just absolutely amazing. During the concert, the rush of emotions was so great, I just didn't know how to handle them. That concert was my first time at a Yanni concert, and I was really really WOWed. My friends all know me as a person who sometimes has unrealistically high expectations, but I never in my dreams thought the concert was going to be so wonderful. It was magic! Your lightning fast hands amazed all my friends and family who were there. My mom loves the sound of the Chinese Yang Chin, which is very closely related to the dulcimer (I think). She was very impressed by your solos. Everyone was great! All the solos were so moving and unforgettable. And when augmented by lights, the concert became three hours of pure heaven.

Thank you for such a wonderful time,

Derek Zhao

Thank you for the kind words Derek. Tell your mom that the Yang Chin and the hammer dulcimer are very close relatives. It is great to hear you enjoyed the show.

Bossier City, LA - here we come! See you tonight. ¶ 6:06 PM

Houston Walkabout

David Hudson and I were guests at the Booker Lowe Gallery, 4623 Feagan Street, Houston, TX., this morning. Booker Lowe is one only a few galleries in the United States that specializes in Aboriginal fine art of Australia. This ancient art is rapidly gaining in popularity as is evident in this article that appeared yesterday's New York Times.

The highlight of the day for everyone in the gallery was an impromptu performance on a didgeridoo that was given to Nana Booker by John Reed. John received the didge as a gift from the mayor of Sydney in the 1960's. It sat silently in the corner of the gallery until David picked it up and made it sing.

Thanks to Karen Rezai for taking these pictures, and we look forward to seeing everyone from the Booker Lowe Gallery at the Compaq Center for tonight's show. ¶ 6:07 PM

On The Road Again

Just a quick update to let you know we've all arrived safely in Houston. Everyone I've spoken with seems rested and ready to roll. I enjoyed an equal number of naps and bike rides while I was home and although it was really tough to leave my family, I'm ready play some music.

As expected, I didn't really to anything to the web site during our time off. I did post a bunch of new pictures to my pictures page while on the flight today. Check them out by clicking the pictures link on the left and stay tuned for more news from the road. ¶ 6:08 PM

Return to Chattanooga

I'm writing this update while sitting in a cramped jet seat on my way home to Chattanooga. I feel like I should have something profound to write here at the end of the first leg of our North American tour. The truth is, I feel like I just stepped out of the movie Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again. I'm profoundly looking forward to being home again and I don't expect to be very productive during my five days away from the tour, not from a work standpoint anyway.

I plan to visit with my son who'll be home from college this weekend, attend my daughter's soccer game and maybe even coach third base at her softball game, and at some point, fall asleep on the couch with my dog in my lap and my head on my wife's shoulder while she watches Trading Spaces. It doesn't get much better than that.

David and I had a great time singing and playing guitar and lap dulcimer on the two hour bus trip to Madison Square Gardens yesterday. Click the picture for a page full of photo's from New York. The show went well with the exception of one very inebriated lady who couldn't stop yelling gibberish sprinkled with an occasional "you rock," and "I love you Yanni!" It finally took an equally loud "knock it off" delivered from someone else in the audience with a heavy Brooklyn accent to quiet her down. I heard she was escorted out of the building but I didn't see it.

I don't know if I'll update this web site again until we're back on the road again next Thursday.

If you haven't done so yet, take a few minutes and check out some of my music samples by using the buttons to the left - better yet, order a couple of CD's. Here's a message from a reader who bought Turning Point this week:

I received the Turning Point cd today and I love it! I love the sound of the Hammer Dulcimer, it has such a crisp clean sound to it. I will be playing this one over and over. I will check into your other cd and will possibly be ordering that one too. I will let you know. The music has a lot of energy to it!!!

Hope you and all the musicians have a very restful week off. I bet you are really looking forward to it!!!

Thank again!!

The Cd is WONDERFUL!! ¶ 6:09 PM

Wilkes Barre, PA

We played the First Union Arena in Wilkes Barre last night. It was Yanni's first time to perform here and the audience was great. If my memory serves me correctly they were on their feet earlier in Niki Nana than any other audience. From where I stood it looked like everyone was having fun, which of course makes it fun for us.

We normally hop on the busses and head for the next town after the show but since we're only a couple of hours from New York, we stayed in Wilkes Barre overnight. It was great to get a night of uninterrupted sleep. We'll drive straight to Madison Square Gardens in New York City this afternoon.

Did I mention Madison Square Garden, I mean THE Madison Square Garden?!?! I'm bouncing off the walls this morning in anticipation of tonight's show and then getting to go home tomorrow, both of which I consider to be milestones in my life.

Click here to see some new pictures. I'm often asked: why don't you post any photos of Yanni? The answer is that as a member of his band I am contractually obligated to not take unauthorized pictures, so I'm just playing by the rules.

Here's an email from a friend with whom I went on an incredible scuba trip last year:

Comments: Hi Dan,
Hank, my husband, and I drove 120 miles from Lynchburg, Va. to Richmond to see you in concert, with that other guy, what's his name.
The concert was great. Hank was overwhelmed at all that talent and it was wonderful to see you in action in front of an audience. Of course I remember the "concerts" on the Coral Reef II off Bimini last Oct. We really enjoyed ourselves. Love your web site. Was great to read about your concert for the gang and see all their names. Your really made a BIG impression on us both. Love to you and family. Betty

Thanks Betty. I'm honored to impress you because meeting you, and seeing your zest for life and adventure, certainly inspired me. ¶ 6:12 PM

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

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

Washington, DC

Last night's show was incredible. Everything, from the opening note to the closing cymbal crash, felt good. Yanni talked to us at soundcheck about the importance of the upcoming week of shows. Counting last night's show, we're doing 7 shows in 8 days and they're all big:

Friday, April 11 - Washington DC - MCI Center
Saturday, April 12 - Philadelphia - First Union Center
Sunday, April 13 - Uniondale - Nassau Coliseum
Tuesday, April 15 - Richmond - Richmond Coliseum
Wednesday, April 16 - Wilkes Barre PA - First Union Arena
Thursday, April 17 - New York - Madison Square Garden

On Friday, April 18, we all travel home for a week off. I can't imagine anyone is looking forward to this more than me!

I have several friends who are going to be in the audience tonight. One of them, Phillip Luckey, will be taking a didgeridoo back home to Chattanooga for me. It was designed, built and signed by David Hudson and I was a little concerned about flying home with it next week. Now I just have to explain to my wife, Angie, why it was so important for me to buy a hollow wooden tube.

One more show has been added to the tour. It is June 4, Miami - American Airlines Arena - 8:00. Tickets go on sale Saturday (tommorrow) at noon and are available at Ticketmaster.com. Rumors are flying around on the Yanni message board that this show could become the next live DVD and album.

Hmmmmmm. ¶ 1:30 PM

East Rutherford, NJ

I'm sitting here looking out my hotel room window next to the Meadowlands Sports Complex and for the first time in at least a week it is not raining, snowing, miserably cold or some combination of the three. I'm looking down on the Continental Airlines Arena where we'll play tonight, and to the east I can see New York City.

Our bus ride was a short two hours after Tuesday night's Albany concert and the late night talk was of visiting New York city on our day off Wednesday. In reality, yesterday's wind and rain kept the majority of us in the hotel.

We generally stay in rather upscale hotels which means there's good food and nice places to hang out, but I've discovered that the nicer the digs, the less likely they are to have a place to do laundry. Some road warriors just do their laundry in the sink, crank the heat up in their rooms, spread everything out to dry and leave for a few hours. I haven't been brave enough to try that yet. I am aware that I could just put my clothes in the laundry bag in the hotel closet and let housekeeping do it for me. Just for fun I used their numbers to calculate what it would cost, and decided that $180.00+ was just a bit too much.

I went to lunch with Bradley who told me he was also out of clothes so we decided to brave the weather and check out some nearby economy hotels for a coin operated laundry. We weren't sure the hotels would welcome us to their facilities so our plan was to zip past the reception desk and have a look around. We stuck pay dirt on our first try.

We went back to our hotel, gathered about a ton of laundry each, and carried it in through a back door of the second hotel. All the sneaking around made me feel like a criminal but putting warm, clean clothes back on and saving $175.00 dollars eased my conscience.

I'm really looking forward to tonight's show. In all honesty I have to say the Albany show was not our best. There were a couple of technical glitches that threw the musicians off. I felt like we struggled to get it back together. Here's an edited excerpt from an email message I received from a fan who's attended several shows and was at the Albany show as well:

. . .we thought there was something wrong at the Albany show. It was off. Yanni seemed rushed, like he just wanted the show over. The changes in the script were okay, and it seemed he wanted more audience interaction (like in Manchester), but something was different. There appeared (and this only to a some of us who have been to a few shows) a lack of joy in the performance. Walter, Charlie, and you were making a great effort to stay the course, but there was little smiling from the others. Was something wrong? Did someone get bad news? I don't mean to pry, and honestly I know it's none of my business, it was just a feeling we got, especially from [some of the musicians.] . .Yanni sounded short of breath when he spoke, no cold started,I hope . . . The people I spoke to in Albany who were experiencing their first concert were thoroughly enjoying themselves, so it wasn't obvious to everyone.

This was all very astute observation, but there really was no single thing happening that affected the performance. I could show you twenty more emails from people who were blown away by the Albany concert. This tour is a work in progress and I especially look forward to getting email like this. We always judge our individual performances and it is very interesting to read the perspective of people watching the show.

Speaking of email. I'm giving up on my attempt to answer everyone who writes. I just can't keep up anymore so I'm going to focus more on answering your questions in this journal. That doesn't mean I won't write back if you email me, just that I might not be able to because of the sheer volume. There were nearly 10 thousand hits on this site yesterday alone and the number is growing daily. I'm not complaining though, I love it! Here is today's question from a fan in Haiti:

I want to congratulate you on being on tour with Yanni. I think you play really great I was never
introduced to the dulcimer before and I think it's really a great addition to Yanni's music and your own music is beautiful. I want you thank you also for coming out and meeting people after shows and for sharing so much information with us through your site.

I always wanted to know What is it like to play with Yanni. Obviously he is a perfectionist. How hard is it because you guys in the band make it look so easy.

You are correct. Yanni is a perfectionist which can make for very long and sometimes tedious rehearsals. Anyone unwilling to take his music very seriously would have a difficult time surviving the ten hour and longer rehearsals core members of the band endured during the month of January. During that month we had only three days off.

Secondly, since you guys in the band don't use music sheets how do you learn the stuff you just study it from the CDs or Yanni tells you guys what you have to play and you have to remember it and play by heart.

It is actually a combination of both. Yanni sent me a stack of CDs with a note that said learn these cuts. I was unsure as to what that actually meant so I just set about doing what it said. I listened a lot, learned the melodies on my instrument, tried to find out where he might already be using a sound similar to the hammer dulcimer, and made crude charts for each song. I had no idea what I would end up playing.

One of the funnier things that happened due to my indirection was that I learned the introduction to Acroyali/Standing In Motion. It made perfect sense to me because what Yanni is playing is a sampled hammer dulcimer on his keyboard. I thought cool, a solo! I'll never forget the first day he said we were going to work on that song and I launched into the intro. Everyone laughed except Yanni who simply raised one eyebrow and firmly said "No". It didn't take me long to learn that this is one of his signature pieces and he really enjoys playing it.

Lastly regarding your solos guys are they preconceive by Yanni or they are your complete solo works he gives you total control on what you play in solos.

Our solos are up to us. Yanni gives us direction as to the mood, or style he is looking for but the composition is up to us and the content sometimes changes. ¶ 6:19 PM

Albany, NY

Yesterday's day off was yet another snowy northeastern adventure, which means those who didn't have visiting family either hung out at the hotel or caught a shuttle to the mall. I think I've had enough mall visits to last a lifetime on this tour, so I chose to hang out in my room, do a little housekeeping on my web site, and talk to friends back home on the the phone.

Charlie and I went out to the lobby after the Manchester show and it worked really well. We had a great time and were actually able to meet more people than we were down front. The show was high energy with a large and loud audience that got totally into it although I heard a few complaints that it was too loud. I know that during sound check there were issues with getting a clean sound in the arena. Some arena's just sound better than others and unfortunately, one of the solutions is to overpower the problem with volume.

Yanni was back in blue in Manchester. The blue was more of a royal blue though, and less opalescent.

David will join Charlie and me out in the lobby after tonight's Albany show. We're going to try and talk more of the musicians into doing the same. I can understand why some choose to not come out though. It is exhausting to do a three hour show, and we are supposed to be changed and ready to leave on the buses in just 30 minutes. You should have seen me and Charlie scrambling to get changed and get to the bus after we left the Manchester lobby! Our first mistake was staying in the lobby longer than we should have. By the time we got back to the dressing room, wardrobe had packed my street clothes thinking I must have forgotten them. I had to find the road case and dig my clothes out. When we say we have to run, we're not kidding! Even with the hassle, meeting people is the best part of my night.





Some of the other musicians have been working on their web sites as well, so take a moment and check out these sites. I've also added them to my links page. ¶ 6:21 PM

Manchester, NH

The sun is shining this afternoon here in Manchester. Yesterday was a different story as we arrived around 7:30am with an air temp in the upper 20's and light snow falling. Here's picture of David exiting the bus.

Everyone was exhausted from the long night which had been interrupted by a border crossing. One by one the disheveled looking travelers discovered that those wonderful little wheels on suitcases are useless in fresh snow and dragged their belongings behind them in search of warm beds and rest.



I awoke mid afternoon, made a few phone calls and learned there is not a laundromat in or near our hotel, bundled up and headed out to meet Karen, Jennifer and Alfreda for some low budget shopping in a nearby strip mall. The snow's intensity increased as it grew warmer and by the time we were through shopping it was a rain, snow, and sleet mix. I took this picture of Bowen Creek which runs behind our hotel, then headed to my room to stay warm and read - a pretty good way to spend a wet winter evening if you ask me.

The Montreal show was fantastic with over 12 thousand people present. Tonight's audience will be significantly smaller but I've heard from many fans who attended the Mohegan Sun concert who are coming back to see tonight's show.

Our Easter break is now less than two weeks away and I am so looking forward to seeing my family and sleeping in my own bed. I'll even admit that I'm home sick to see our dogs and cat. The next couple of weeks should be easier as the upcoming shows are less geographically dispersed so the bus rides will be more tolerable.

It was goodbye superman blue and back to basic black for Yanni's shirt in Montreal. This kind of stuff shouldn't matter but I know it does to some of you so I'll keep you posted.

It has become common knowledge that Charlie, David and I usually come out front to meet fans immediately following the shows, but due to safety concerns we're going to have to stop meeting people in front of the stage. The crews are busy trying to take down equipment and the crowds are being put in danger. So please spread the word about our new plan: As of tonight's show, Charlie, David and I are going to make a beeline to the lobby as soon as the show is over. If you see us in the arena and we don't stop and you'd like a chance to talk then follow us to the lobby. This is our first night to try this so we'll have to see how it works.

Thanks for reading - Dan ¶ 6:22 PM

Montreal, Canada

It is really cold here. I thought my ears were going to freeze off on my afternoon walk today! There is a massive winter storm approaching and they are predicting up to 27 inches of snow in some areas. It will probably be another long travel night tonight due to the weather conditions.

I have nearly 50 email replies waiting to go out when I get back to a reliable internet connection on Saturday. I also have a few more pictures ready to post but it is just taking too long from my connection here in the hotel.

One show note: Yanni tried a different color shirt last night. It was a brilliant blue, rather than the black he's been wearing. I'd be interested in hearing what those of you who were at the Boston concert thought about the new look. I'll let you know if he keeps it tonight in Montreal. ¶ 6:24 PM

Canadian Border

We're sitting here at the border waiting our turn with customs. This is our second stop at the border in the long trip from Boston. The first border crossing at which we stopped was closed so we had to drive an extra hour to get here. It is 25 degrees. We will have about another hour to drive after we cross the border and head to Montreal.

Thanks Boston! The show was great fun! ¶ 6:24 PM

Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT

I'm still shorting you guys on journal content as I try and catch up on other work. The good news is I'm making progress.

The Mohegan Sun show was strong and the audience was rowdy, in a good sort of way. The hotel at the casino was the nicest we've stayed in so far. If you're into gambling, which I'm not, this is an aesthically cool place to lose your money.

I'm sitting in the dressing room now in Boston trying to get a quick journal update posted. I've also moved last months journals to an archive file. ¶ 6:25 PM

Rochester, NY

It will be another quick update today. I've been spending time with my son, and also stole a couple of hours of freetime this morning to practice which is something I've not had time to do for over a week. The journals will become more content rich again once we hit the road. But for now its family first. Here a some pictures from Monday taken on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. ¶ 6:27 PM