On the Road and Over the Pond

Greetings from Italia!

We have been very busy traveling for a little over two weeks now, having left for Ireland on January 25th. It is hard to believe that it has been almost a month since our release party at FitzGerald's. Now we have taken the new album, Ghosts of the River Folk, overseas with about 40 of our closest friends on tour! Our first group of fans joined us for our trip to Ireland. Thankfully, the weather was much kinder than early January, when there was snow and downright bone-chilling weather that would have made any hockey player happy. Italy is a bit warmer than Ireland as we have had the pleasure of playing and touring along the Amalfi coast. We will have some photos on the website to share with you as well as some exciting footage shot here in Italy.

Our release party was a wonderful success and we want to thank everyone who came in for the show. For weeks Jim Hines, Gina Leslie, Ellis Clark, Paul Russell, Brian and I would head over to Jim's house, unload our equipment, and set up in his basement for rehearsal. We would rehearse the album and drink herbal tea that Jim would bring down from upstairs. We had only one rehearsal at FitzGerald's to get the feel for the stage and had a brief run prior to the show. I was button-busting proud of our band who put on a great performance. Look for our full band playing other shows soon! I was also very proud of our fans, who came in from everywhere to make FitzGerald's a standing-room only sort of show. One fan, Liz Harvey, drove all the way to Chicago from Salina, Kansas. It was a wonderful surprise to see Liz there at the show, as she had told me on the phone that she was wishing she could attend but couldn't. She certainly set us all up! Other folks ventured in from Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana. In addition, it was really neat that we had a strong following who enjoyed the release party on the Internet. It streamed live that night and we had people viewing from Hawaii to Germany. One fan in New York wrote that she enjoyed "being at the party" in her pajamas! We especially salute our dedicated German fans, who were up way past 3 a.m. to catch the show. Hopefully in October, they will have a chance to see us live and at a decent time! You can still view the release party by visiting the links on our website.

Another guest came to the party and stayed. That is our new van. "New" is a relative word in that the van has 75,000 miles on it. Denise Dooley, our booking agent, brought it in from Des Moines where we bought it from her sister and brother-in-law's auto business. The new van was put to work right away and picked up Liz Harvey, Diane Vance, and other Switchback fans heading east to the show. Later after the show, it brought a whole passel of Switchback fans over to the fan club president's place for an after-show gathering. That's WayGood for you! Your fans and staff get to drive the van before the band even does! Unlike the late, great Green Hornet, it is in great condition, being a relatively young vehicle by Switchback standards. The van runs great and we were busy putting St. Bridget back, along with all the other accouterments necessary for safe driving. We haven't come up with a name yet for the vehicle, but I am sure we will as the miles click upwards on her odometer.

We drove the new van to Menomonie, Wisconsin for our show at the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts. This is a wonderful theater, built in the late 1800's and ornately decorated. According to the sound man Trevor the theater was built on the plans from Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. The theater once staged a re-enactment of the fateful night that Lincoln took in "Our American Cousin," complete with John Wilkes Booth leaping to the stage after the evil deed was committed. Luckily for us, no one took a leap from the boxes that night. There was a wonderful accompaniment for our music which was created by the light man, Jake. Fans told us how exciting it was to hear and see us play while there were all these swirling, dancing lights. So more than one artist was at work that night! We made a lot of new fans and another theater stole our hearts. The next day, we drove through fog and freezing rain to the Quad Cities where we played for the Scottish Society for their Burns night dinner. For you non-Scots, Burns night celebrates the birth of Robbie Burns. He was the poet laureate of Scotland, having written many poems and songs, of which the most famous is Auld Lang Syne. It was a great time with the Scottish Society. Sheila Craig even asked me to join in the "Grand March" in which couples paraded through the room to the trill of the bagpipes. The president of the Switchback Team, Jan Hoag, was on hand to help us celebrate both concerts. A lot of little kids who were at the Burns night dinner stopped by to talk to Jan while she was busy at our merchandise table. As the evening wore down, I looked over to see one little girl curled up in a ball on Jan's lap. It was truly a happy, family sort of evening.

It's hard to believe that after Italy we are heading to the Folk Alliance in a matter of days and then onwards to Texas where we will be playing several venues, including Casbeers in San Antonio. We also plan to work with our producer, Lloyd Maines, on the next album while we are down there. We hope that you will come join us for our shows as we head toward the high holy month of March!

See you on the road,

Marty and Brian