After reading Bill Simmons blog on espn.com this morning, and Erin Freeman's email recounting the adventures of this weekend, I have suddenly felt as though my journal updates are lacking in character, humor, and overall enjoyability.

Well, here goes nothing.

It was quite a weekend. Let's start with Friday. I hit the road after work to go play an acoustic set for happy hour at the River Road Icehouse, and to chat with Martin and Mel about booking some shows there this, as it stands we have two back to back in April. They were as generous at the Icehouse as they have ever been, even though I hadn't set foot in there for at least a year and a half. New Braunfuls is about to be seeing a lot more of me and the boys. I met up with the Dino there and we proceeded back to Austin and on to ....

....George's.

Now for some reason, I suppose the buzz about the new CD had something to do with it, we had people driving in from all over the state for this show. The turn out was great, and we had an awesome time. Thanks to all who made the trip. I really think the only two things George's could do to enhance everyone's time is to stay open later and build a stage for the bands. The big-O deck is huge but when the band is on the floor it is hard for anyone past the first twenty people to see anything. Nonetheless we got a great picture of us and the crowd, I'll have it posted soon.

As usual for me the show and events immediately surrounding are fairly predictable; set up, play, sell CD's, hang out with fans. I have found that it is once you get two and three hours past the encore that things can really begin to get interesting. The Waco/George's experience proved to be no different.

As always, we proceeded from George's (early closers) to Scruffy Murphy's, Waco's only Irish Bar, to do what we do. There the less predictable, more interesting events began to unfold. E had apparently been jumped by the sharpie gang who instead of mugging or beating her just chose to write all over her with their markers. It isn't everyday you see someone with so many temporary, hand drawn tattoos and phrases of love and inspiration. The Dino seemed to be wearing down a bit, but after I reminded him that sleeping in a bar is illegal he perked back up. Men began wearing women's sunglasses, pictures were being taken. All in all things were getting out of control. I was glad to hear last call and see the nightly process of herding drunks out of Scruffy's begin.

After what seemed to be hours of shouting and planning (much of the shouting was done by Derrick and I in favor of getting to Taco C) we found ourselves at the Super 8. After conceding to our designated driver (she understandably did not want to take all of us to Taco C at 2:30 am) I was ready to get some super sleep...Yeah right.

As luck would have it Saturday nights are popular there at the Super 8. They had one room and one room only. I even saw a lady of the night and her patron get denied a room. So there we found ourselves--one room with two beds...and only 9 of us. As you might have imagined this new circumstance brought about a new opportunity for shouting and planning, our neighbor even got in on the action by not so pleasantly reminding us of the time and that our noise level was unacceptable to him. In the clear head space that morning brings, I can't really blame him.

By the time the sun rose I had come to the following conclusions. Nine people in one hotel room is too many, Carhart jackets make lousy pillows (but excellent administrators of neck pain), I don't want to know what might have been on the hotel bed spread I covered up with that night, and being awakened by Derrick Pearcy rolling out of bed and on to you is one of the rudest awakenings I've had. Oddly enough three of the nine people in that hotel room were named Josh, it seems that it was quite a popular name between '78 and '82. To all who were in that room--Josh, Josh, Josh, Matt, Derrick, David, Kim, Erin, and Sarah--sorry I snored so loudly and hopefully we can all be friends again soon.

We got up ate some Bush's and headed out, we had one more show to make a weekend of it. Tavern in the Gruene, New Braunfuls is a great place to see, or put on a show. When we got there the band out numbered patrons 4 to 3 but with the help of the Dino and his crew, Stumpf and some of his work buddies, and a few lovely ladies we had a great time and will be back down there soon.

All in all it was a great weekend. Sorry it took a while to get this up. We have some great photos from all the shows and hope to institute a fan of the week picture, we have a couple of prime candidates from this weekend. Thanks to everyone who came out in support. Sign the guestbook and buy CD's we'll see you on the road soon.

Josh

Good evening friends. Life in a band is a whirlwind. I want to say thanks to everyone out this past weekend. Saxon friends, Poodie's, and all the boys in College Station. We had a great time and thanks to everyone who bought merch, that's what pays the gas. It's looking like George's is going to be a big time this weekend. We'll have CDs and T-shirts ready to go.

I can finally offically tell you that South of the Border (Mexico) is going to be our first single out on Texas radio in mid Feb. We are so excited and have waited so long for an opportunity like this. If you hear it please call in and request it. I want that song at the top of the Texas Country charts. We cannot do it without you. I'll let you know more about it soon.

I don't think Philly can do it against the Pats. They are just too good. I like to listen to ESPN radio and so far the only people I have heard taking the Eagles are Philly sportswriters and a friend of mine named Pete. I love football, and can't wait until the Chicago Bears reassert their dominance as the Monsters of the Midway. No matter what they say, Brian Urlacher is my non-musical hero.

I am going to make a concerted effort to keep this thing up better than I have been. Hopefully it will give you a reason to keep checking. Gigs are coming slow but steady, I have a great feeling for this year and I think things might actually start going my/our way just a bit. Hopefully we'll see you at George's this weekend.

Josh Grider

Holy emergency show Batman! I just got a call to play the Saxon Pub here in Austin, TX. We really need support on this one folks. If you are in the Austin area we need to see you guys out on Wednesday night. Saxon is not an easy place to get into and we need to have a good show of support that night...and then we need you to do it again for the Poodie's show the next night. You've been asking when we were going to play, and the answer is now twice...this week. You got what you asked for now hold up your end of the deal, see you out and about.

Oh, and I have a guest list so get ahold of me early and I might be able to get you in for free.

That was shameless, I know.

Josh Grider

I am having serious blog issues. I just typed a long and detailed account of our gig last week, the people we met, the week ahead, and many other truly inspiring tales. However, in my attempt to spell check it, I lost it. Due to this unfortunate even, a short version will now replace the lost, long version.

New Braunfuls was great. Good people, sold some CDs (newlyweds, DC folks, etc).

We're playing Poodie's (www.poodieshilltop.com far west Austin) and Uglie's Pub (College Station) this weekend. Please come out and show your support.

Weekend was good. My brothers were both in town and Pearcy and I entered into the perilous world of mountain biking.

Have a good week and come see a show.

Josh Grider

It's hump day, the week is moving right along. Personally, I enjoyed seeing Oklahoma get it handed to them last night. It is nice to see a bully get bullied sometimes. Of course I graduated from Baylor and I just enjoy seeing anyone who consistently embarasses us get embarassed. I'm not sure but I think I might have, in the same sentance, mentioned I graduated from Baylor and misspelled two to three words. I should figure out the spell checker, this is only my third blog. Spell checkers and cell phones; amazing technology that only make us lazier and dumber. I haven't memorized a phone number in years and you only have to know about half the letters in the word you are typing before spell checker will fix it for you. I digress.

I booked two shows yesterday and sold my first two CDs online--thank you Kyle Herring and Carrie Schultz. If you guys have any good pictures send them in, I think we only have six up right now. It looks like early February for the release of a single, sorry I'm so vague about it right now. Too many times I have built things up to be way greater than they ever pan out to be, so I am trying not to say too much about the radio thing other than I am very excited. Check the new gig dates, they should be up today.

Until I'm so famous I hire someone to type my blog for me,

Josh

Happy New Year! I hope you guys dig the new website. I am really proud of it, thanks Will. I have really high hopes for this year. For those of you have ordered or bought a new album, thanks a ton and if you haven't...do it. Christmas was great. Santa brought me a digital camera so there should be a lot more pics showing up soon. I'm working on a CD release party in Austin later this month, stay tuned. I plan to update this portion of the site at least once a week. It looks like we'll have single released statewide soon, I'll let you know more when I do. Anyway, take care and thanks for reading this. I make no promises for what you'll read, but I'll try to keep it interesting. Stay classy San Diego, I'm Josh Grider.