Ok, I know it's been a while since my last post. Let me try to recap for you:

Ok, I know it's been a while since my last post.  Let me try to recap for you:

Friday, March 13th

8:47 AM.  We arrive in Knoxville.   Thank goodness!   It's family time!   We all scatter to our designated domains and prepare for an ever so hectic hometown show.
Shows in Knoxville are incredibly stressful but equally amazing at the same time.   The reason for the stress is that the second we step foot on home soil, our E-mail, cell phones, home phones, and any other device created for communication all begin to, for lack of a better phrase, go ape shit.   Old friends who we have not spoken to since 7th grade, ex-girlfriend's third cousin twice removed, someone who says they know you and used to be your good friend but in reality, you met them in passing once.......all of these are examples of the people who somehow got our phone numbers and are asking for VIP tickets and access to the tour bus.
Another reason for hometown show stress is that our real friends and family will be there and we always want to play well and impress them.

We got word about half-way through the day that the show was officially sold out.  This is a big deal to us because this would be the first time we have sold out this venue and would also be our biggest hometown crowd.   We can't thank the people of Knoxville enough for coming out and making it such an amazing night!

Unfortunately, we had to leave Knoxville that night after the show to get to Columbia, SC for a St. Patty's festival.  This day would turn out to be pretty interesting.

Saturday, March 14th

I wake up the morning after the Knoxville show and right away can tell that something is not right.   I was hungry but food sounded pretty disgusting.   I was hot, no, wait....i was cold....uh oh.
It was an exceptionally cold and rainy day in Columbia and the stage was outside in the elements.
There was an early curfew at this festival, the music had to be done at 6:00 PM so we played from 5:00-6:00.
I was feeling really weird and nauseated after trying to eat a banana early in the day, so I pretty much just took it easy until show time.
This show was a tough one for me to get through.   I was on the verge of spewing my guts up the entire time.  The guys played well though.   Jesse let a couple of f-bombs slip, which we all thought was pretty funny considering our tour manager's last words to him as we were about to walk on stage were "Jesse, no cussing, it's a family event."

Anyway, after the show I went directly into my bunk and fell asleep.   I awoke around 8:30 PM in a pool of sweat.  Long story short;  I spent pretty much the whole night in the ER of the Palmetto Baptist Hospital in Columbia, SC where I basically sat in a waiting room for a few hours while my fever began to break on its own.   I never really understood the ER.   It's a place that even has the word EMERGENCY in the name, yet, I get faster service at a Cracker Barrel during the Sunday church rush.

Sunday, March 15th

Fresh out of the ER in Columbia, I basically just slept all day until our show in Atlanta.   We had a great show in Atlanta.   The venue was really cool, the crowd was amazing and luckily I was feeling better so I had a great time on stage.

Tuesday, March 17th

I am feeling A LOT better today and everyone is in good spirits.   We are in Jackson, Mississippi getting ready for a show at Fire.
Anyway, sorry for the crazy long blog this time!   I had to make up for the past few days I missed!

Here is a video (thanks again to Chris (Nibbs) Harris for the awesome footage) of part of "So Long, Good-bye" in Knoxville......listen to you guys singing!   What a beautiful sound that is!

BV