One month after finishing the European leg of the tour, it is time to reconvene for rehearsals before our first show in Austin, TX of the [3rd] U.S. leg of the tour. We will be adding some new songs to the set and dropping some as well. We have learned "Roy Rogers", "Texan Love Song", "Teenage Idol", and "Circle Of Life" and they are in the setlist for Austin's show - time will tell which ones will be kept for the long run. We are also working in our new drummer, Jack Bruno, as Elton and Charlie Morgan have parted ways after 13 years of playing together. I will miss Charlie out here on the road, but am sure to do some other musical projects with him down the road. Jack has been touring with Joe Cocker and Tina Turner for quite a few years, and is a very seasoned and experienced drummer with a very solid feel. I don't envy him having to learn so many songs in such a short time, but he is doing very well so far. One forgets how many small details there are in the music that are done by "feel", and each drummer (or musician for that matter) "feels" things a little differently, so it is also a process of us all getting used to his interpretation of the drum grooves and parts. It is really nice to see everyone again after the month away - the crew, band and of course Elton and his assistants. After shows in Austin, Dallas, Salt Lake City and Sacramento. Davey and I will be doing a special set of the music from our CD Crop Circles (which will be available at the EJ show's merchandise tables) at Acoustic Guitar magazine's festival at Dominican College in San Rafael, CA at 11:00 am on the 15th of August. I will be following that with a solo set of gipsy jazz music at noon on the same day. Then we will head down to Oakland for the evening's show with Elton. That should prove to be a very busy day! We will also have some CDs on hand there at the festival, so come on out and check it out if you are in the bay area. Tomorrow will be the first show, so I will let you all know how that goes. Bye for now.
 

After two long days of rehearsal and a soundcheck in the afternoon, we were ready for the first show of the U.S. Summer leg of the ever-continuing "Big Picture Tour". The set list was a long one, and included more songs than will end up on the final working set. We started the show with "Circle Of Life", complete with a dramatic intro featuring John Mahon on some African percussion sounds, and the rest of us on a chant - I have no idea what the Swahili words we are singing mean! The Austin crowd was excited and received us warmly, and as the curtains went up I was pleasantly suprised to see some familiar faces right in front of me in the 3rd row. It is always nice to know that I have people in the audience on my side from the get go, and I have to say that the crowd right in front of me was one of the nicest and friendliest that I've had in some time, and that fact really increased my enjoyment level of the show. We sailed through the hits with Jack Bruno doing a fine job on his first night. He said it was the most nervous he could remember being onstage in a long time, but I couldn't tell. There were certainly places in the show that I missed interacting with Charlie, as we had our little places where we would do little licks together and jam worked out from playing so many shows together, but that was to be expected I guess. We included a few "new old" songs, much to the delight of the "Regheads" in the audience, and sometimes to the confusion of the average audience member. "Texan Love Song" got big hoots and hollers after the line "We're big and we 're Texan, with necks that are red", and "Roy Rogers" was warmly recieved by all. My favorite of the set additions, however is "Teenage Idol". Guy and I worked out the horn parts, and I found a setting on my Digitech Harmonizer that allows me to sound like I am playing three octaves at once - creating a huge horn section sound with just my tenor sax and Guy's keyboard. I will be suprised though if all these new songs last for too many shows, as Elton has a tendancy to throw out the songs that may not be as familiar to all the audience after awhile. As always, it was really nice to be back to American audiences, who always seem to be not only rowdier, but friendlier and more responsive than anywhere else in the world. Davey and I are also looking forward to our performance coming up in San Rafael, CA on the 15th of August at 11 am as part of the Acoustic Guitar magazine's weeklong festival held at Dominican College. We will play our music from the new CD Crop Circles, and afterwards at noon I will do a solo set of gipsy jazz, accompanied by pianist Jim Cox, who is Aaron Neville's musical director, as well as touring keyboardist for Mark Knopfler. The whole day at the festval is devoted to swing, so that should be a fun day, if not extremely busy, as later in the evening will be an EJ show in Oakland!

8/11/98 ~ Dallas, TX

The next morning after the Austin show, we caught a short flight over to Dallas for the next show. Elton and Davey had discussed some setlist changes requiring a soundcheck/rehearsal, as we would be adding "Tiny Dancer" which Jack hadn't yet played with us. We dropped "Texan Love Song" and were planning to add back "Take Me To The Pilot" as well. We spent the afternoon running over these songs and polishing up some others, too. The venue in Dallas is what we refer to as a shed - a covered stage with partially covered seating, with no side or back walls and open-air lawn seating. Fortunately, the record-breaking heat wave had subsided somewhat, but it was still quite humid and there was another aspect to deal with - bugs! While we played we were dive-bombed by crickets, and lots of beetles were running around onstage as well. At one point, Dennis McManus, our stage manager had to brush them off Elton's back. The combination of the heat, humidity and bugs made Elton pretty uncomfortable onstage, and towards the end of the set he skipped a few songs to shorten the nearly 3-hour length of the previous night's set. Of course we have no problem in following Elton's lead if he decides to call out songs in different order than the setlist, but sometimes we might have the wrong instument ready, and our techs have to scramble to get the proper instrument or setup to us before the song gets counted off or started. The audience again was a good one, rushing the stage almost immediately after we started. I had some friends in the audience from the midwest, and they got a big kick out of another friend who had made his way down to the stage in front of Elton, when he was caught by the cameras and put up on the big screen, dramatically singing along with Elton! We teased him that it was a little like the audience-cam on David Letterman's show. After this show we have a couple days off before the next show in Salt Lake City, and the band will scatter, some going back to their homes, and some staying out to rest up in the hotels. The next week should be pretty intense with the added solo and duo performances in San Rafael, but I am looking forward to getting back to the west coast for awhile.
 
 

After a couple days working on things at home, we all reconvened in Salt Lake City for the show there. Davey and I used the afternoon to rehearse for our upcoming performance at the Acoustic Guitar festival, and I for one really needed the practice! The vibe of our duo music is so important, and it took us awhile to get into it. Maybe the sound of the drums and bass being soundchecked at a deafening volume made creating the vibe a little difficult. In any event, we went through all the songs and refreshed our collective memory. We didn't need to soundcheck, as there were no setlist changes, so after rehearsing we just had a light dinner and changed for the show. The Delta Center had a feeling inside not unlike Madison Square Garden in NYC. The audience felt really close, as the slope up for the side seating was very steep, making it feel as though everyone was a little closer. The audience was certainly ready for the show, and was showing us with each loud cheer. My favorite audience member of the night was an elderly lady, who was in the 3rd row in front of me. She was on her feet, and later in the show rushed the stage and was jammimg out for the remainder of the show! It is really fun to see someone in their mid 70's having such a great time at a rock concert. We followed the set list pretty closely, but didn't end up doing the first encore of "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding". We went straight to the second set of encores on the setlist, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "Great Balls Of Fire". The crowd certainly didn't mind, and we will remember this show as one of the better ones so far this tour. The next day I again had the chance to go home for a day, and this time I rehearsed for my solo gipsy jazz set at the Acoustic Guitar festival. Jim Cox, a brilliant pianist will accompany me. He is Aaron Neville's musical director, and has toured with Dire Straits, among others. It was just my luck that later in the evening I was able to catch a "Tribute to Stephane Grapelly" show at the Hollywood Bowl featuring Mark O'Connor and an excellent gipsy jazz trio from the Netherlands, the Rosenberg Trio. They played really well, and the weather was just beautiful for listening under the stars. After the show I had a chance to meet the Rosenbergs and visit a bit. Their English was quite good and they were just as nice personally as they were good musically. All in all a busy but a good day!
 
 

Thursday morning I caught a flight up to Sacramento for the evening's performance. As we would be driving down to San Francisco after the performance that night, I didn't have a hotel room, so I just went up to DC's room and practiced on the guitar for the weekend's sets at the Acoustic Guitar Festival until it was time to go over to the venue. Sacramento is a very charming city, and I was sorry that I didn't have the chance to see more of it. The capitol building is beautiful, but much smaller than I imagined it to be. When we got to the venue, I had a chance to spend some time with my Dupont gipsy-style guitar, trying different mic and pickup combinations to get the best amplified sound. Elton showed up early, and hearing Bob and Jack soundchecking for Clive, he came onstage and we went through a few numbers. He was in a great mood, and was joking around backstage with us before the show. The backstage antics and jam/soundcheck really set the mood for the show. We were all in an "up" mood, and the audience response just pushed the whole thing even higher. It was easily the most responsive crowd in a long time, and Elton changed the set order some ending with "Bennie.." as the last encore. When he hit the first note of the song, the place went ballistic! One girl even tried to repeat the time when a fan got onstage and jammed out with Elton during "Great Balls Of Fire", but was thwarted by security! I felt bad for her, but there is always a risk in doing something out of the ordinary - sometimes it works out okay, and sometimes it doesn't!After the show, Davey, Guy, Bob and Jack left with Elton to fly down to L.A. for a recording session the next day for the "South Park" TV show. John M., Billy and I were not needed for the session, so we stayed behind to drive down to San Francisco. It felt very strange for the normally crowded dressing room to be nearly empty and quiet after the show... kind of like we were the last kids left at Summer Camp!
 
 
 

Friday was planned to be a restful day, as I was going to just hang around the hotel room and go over some more parts for the next day's sets, but it was anything but restful. Actually, it was more fun than I had experienced in a long time. I found out that a friend from France, gipsy jazz guitarist Romane was in San Francisco with his wife on vacation. They had been visiting and jamming with jazz guitarist Jim Nichols and his wife Morning, a singer. We had all met in Samois, France when they performed together at the Django Reinhart festival there. Mike Marshall, an amazing musician and chef had already invited me over to his house for an afternoon meal and "hang". He was glad to invite Romane, his wife Laura, Jim and Morning over too, and it was the most delightful afternoon of food (the baked figs with bleu cheese was the hit of the meal) and visiting, and after lunch the instruments were broken out and the jamming started. Mike played mandolin while Romane, Jim and I played guitar and Morning sang. Soon we were joined by violinist Darol Anger, who had stopped by not even knowing anything was going on! The weather was perfect, and we just ended up sitting out on the patio all afternoon jamming, eating and talking! As luck would have it, the Brian Setzer Orchestra was playing at the Warfield Theater, just a short walk from the hotel, and DC scored tickets for himself, me, Romane and Laura. I've known Brian and his music for many years, being in a rockabilly band at the time when the Stray Cats were big, and was expecting his show to be good. Well, it exceeded my expectations at least three-fold! Brian played guitar better than I've ever heard him before, sang like a bird, looked like a million bucks and was backed by a smokin' band with killer arrangements. The band was really into it, and had all of their moves down as well as blasting out some great swing music. Combined with great lighting, sound and the classic, elegant-but-fun atmosphere of the Warfield Theater, the show made for a very entertaining evening. My only regret was that I forgot my camera! The next day was easily the busiest day I've had in years - maybe in my whole life. Davey and I were picked up by Hellecaster's manager Jim Cowan in the morning to go up north to San Rafael, where our ll:00 am performance would take place at Dominican College. Fergy and Rick Salazar were already there with our guitars and amps, getting things ready for a short soundcheck. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we had to reschedule the performance originally planned for the day before, not too many people knew of the new time, and the audience was slightly small. We played well though, and the folks that were there quite enjoyed the show. We again did the whole CD of Crop Circles in order, and rocked pretty hard if I don't say so myself. After our set I was introduced to guitarist Alex Degrassi, who had quite enjoyed our show. Jim Cox flew up from LA to accompany me on my solo gipsy jazz set, and Takamine/Ovation artist relations manager David Vincent had offered to pick him up at the airport and bring him up the the festival. Romane also offered to play with us, so we spent a little time backstage going over a few of the songs for the set. Fortunately another act switched places with me so I didn't have to play two sets back to back, and it turned out I really needed the hour between sets to clear my mind and get prepared. After getting the two SWR amps onstage and the grand piano wheeled out, we were introduced by guitarist Paul Mehling for our set. I started out with a couple songs with just myself and Jim, and then brought out Romane for the remainder of the set. I was really happy with my tone, and both Jim and Romane played brilliantly, delighting the audience with their improvisations. I played a number of my own compositions, and was quite pleased with how they were recieved. Soon the set was over, and to my suprise we got a standing ovation! The audience demanded one more, and we gladly obliged, getting yet another standing ovation! All in all a very enjoyable experience. The Takamine guitar company had a display room set up at the festival, and had brought prototype models of my new signature model 6 and 12 string acoustics for me to try out, so after the perfoming was done I went to check them out. I was really knocked out by both the looks and the tone of the guitars, and they have an amazing on-board preamp that includes a tuner, equalizer and digital reverb all on the guitar itself! As some inlay work still needed to be done I couldn't take them now, but I will be anxiously awaiting the opportunity to really give them a work out onstage next time Davey and I do a show together. I had a brief time to look through all the exhibitors booths, and saw a lot of amazing acoustic instruments. I was even presented with a "Papoose", a high-tuned, small-bodied acoustic guitar made by the Takoma company in Washington. It is a very unique sounding instrument, and I will look forward to using it. Soon it was time to head down to Oakland for the evening's show with Elton. Jim Cowan dropped me off at the New Arena on his way back down south, and I had time to try a new sax mic that Fergy had gotten, as well as get a haircut from Paul before the show! We had a Captain Fantastic pinball machine in our dressing room for amusement thanks to the promoter who collects rock memorabilia. The show was similar in feel to the Sacramento show - great crowd, good pacing and lots of fun. I think I went through a record number of picks during the show - I had Fergy scrambling to look for more as the show went on! Elton again did his encore in shorts a'la Angus Young (of the band, AC/DC), and as the last note of the show rung through the venue, I breathed a big sigh of relief! A long, busy day successfully completed.
 
 
 

After Saturday night's show in Oakland, most of the band flew to Phoenix for a day off. Billy Trudell and I flew down to LA for our day off to spend time with our families. On Monday morning we flew over to Phoenix for the evening's show, and it was very hot there. Since Fenderts corporate offices are located nearby in Scottdale, I was happy to welcome as my guests to the show Joe Carducci (who coordinated the making of both of my signature Fender guitars) and his family, and Mark Molnau who is the export manager. Joe especially has done alot to help out in the few years that I have been with the Fender company, and it was nice to be able to do something special in return. Davey had as his guest Alice Cooper and his family, who also live in this area. Davey had played with Alice in the 80's, and has remained a friend and co-writing partner since then. As a teenager I loved the Alice Cooper album "Killer", and it was nice to meet Alice and find him to be a very affable person. Davey had always told me that Alice was a really nice guy, and that was proved by his gracious and easy going personality backstage at the show. While visiting with all the guests in the catering room, President Clinton's address came on TV. We all stopped talking and watched the President masterfully squirm his way out of the sex-scandal mess, although there were a few hoots and chuckles sounding throughout the room. The show went very well, although Elton felt the crowd took a long time to get going. I think the heat possibly zapped some energy out of them, as it was a very hot day. From my perspective, the crowd was really great, and just got better as the show went on. We have fallen into a groove with the setlist now, and it seems to have solidified for the rest of the tour. We are still doing "Teenage Idol" and "Roy Rogers" and are saving "Bennie.." for the very last encore, leaving the crowd in a really "up" mood after the show. Elton had a great new suit on made of shiny grey "sharkskin" material, but as he has asked me not to post pictures of him on the internet anymore (due to the access that tabloids will then have to the photos) you will just have to use your imaginations!