4 States…4 Days

First off, I apologize for the lack of show recap entries as of late.  Things have been moving so fast that I’ve hardly had a chance to keep up with the blog like I’d like to.  The good news is we’ll be hitting the road this week and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of hotel time with which to type away.

This week has marked yet another milestone in the hopefully long and successful history of our first release.  “Down the Hatch” has finally eeked its way into the Top Ten of the Americana Music Association’s National Chart at Number 9.  When we started our Americana radio promotion, we knew it was going to be a tough market to make waves in due to its size and the sheer amount of talent that lives within it.  If you take a gander at some of the names around us, you start to get a sense of just how big a deal this is as a brand new band as far as the rest of the country is concerned.  Some of our heroes and influences are on this chart and we couldn’t be happier with the way things are moving.  We’ve also seen some substantial increases in the various Texas charts and we’ve made it to the final round in the Texas Regional Radio Awards.  As the Reverend Luke Mullenix would certainly say…”That doesn’t suck”.

We’re leaving tomorrow morning to start our “4 states in 4 days” run that’s going to take us to Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri over the course of the rest of the week.  We’re kicking off the run with a few headline shows, the first at Last Chance Saloon in Manhattan, Kansas on Wednesday night, then heading up to Minneapolis to Lee’s Liquor Lounge to party with the Minnesotans.  I’ve gotten more Twitter activity about the Lee’s show than any other gig on this particular trek and we’re really looking forward to hanging out up there.  Troopers those Minnesotans.

Friday night we’re off to the Windy City itself to play the infamous Joe’s Bar on Weed Street to open up for the Josh Abbott Band.  It’ll be our first time to play Chicago and we can’t wait to experience it, not to mention we’ll get to hang with some of our fellow Okies that have transplanted themselves up north.  Then we’re following Josh and the boys down to Columbia, Missouri to open for them at the Blue Note.  We’ve been looking forward to these two shows in particular and we can’t wait for the chance to make some new fans and friends along the way.

Keep an eye out for some upcoming blog posts and keep an eye on the twitter feed if you want to see what it’s like in the van.  If you follow @thedamnquails then you can select lists and get access to each individual members twitter feed.  We’re kind of nuts…see you at the show!

–Bryon