Stats, and a Request. . .

Blogger has a new feature, where you can look up the stats of your blog. Now, for a long time, thanks to my tech friend Adam Hewgill, I've been using google analytics to chart all your wonderful visits to this humble site. So, I had a pretty good idea (I thought) of the general traffic trends.

Now, google and blogger disagree as to the visitation patterns of y'all. By an order of magnitude.

We either have a very nice select number of visitors from Canada, mostly Ontario. Or, we have multitudes finding their way here from the US and UK (and a few from Canada). Now, I'll guess which one is more likely.

The real puzzle, of course, is that google owns and runs blogger.

I'll tell you what, if you're from the US or UK, please leave a comment and be counted!

Today I am 31. And Jimi Hendrix would've been 68.

Somehow I spent 31 years without realizing that I share my birthday with Jimi Hendrix. Of course, I spent 15 without hearing, really hearing, his music.

I remember the first time I heard Hey Joe. It was on a tape that my friend and then band-mate Tony Addario had made for me (Tony had the eq on his stereo set up so when he made a mix tape, it was like he was remastering it, and no matter where you played it, it sounded like his stereo), and I was in grade 11, walking down the hall on the science floor of my high school. I remember being immersed by the haunting voices of the back-up singers milking extra syllables, and the guitar solo after Hendrix sings "I gave her the gun, and I shot her!" That song is everything I love about music. It's a simple heartfelt lyric; it's fantastic guitar playing; but it's not at all showy or overdone, and it's catchy as hell. I remember waiting in front of my locker for the song to finish before getting my books.

I spent the morning with my boy Echo. He is getting more interesting. He can walk, carry a basketball, and eats like a starving horse. He dances to good music and ignores bad music.

Thanks everyone who sent along their best wishes today, I had a very typical day, which is exactly how I wanted it.

A little while ago I did some guitar work on an album by a friend of mine, Wendy Luella Perkins. The album, "Lucky Life", is out now. It was recorded in the amazing North of Princess Studios. You can check out her website here.

Post Show. . .

The Peat Brothers show came after a stretch of about 72 hrs in which I got about 4 hrs sleep. So, I was grading my performance on a bit of a curve. . . But it was great fun, and the brothers themselves put on a great show. I got to play through a huge ampeg SVT bass head and an 8x10 cab -- memories of former radical dudez / barn flyz / and current Stanford bass player Nick Kaars. . . The amp was super punchy; huge thanks to the bass player from Dinosaur Bones for sharing his rig.

The show was at Clark Hall Pub, which, faithful readers will remember, was the site of the very first Jay and the Barn Flyz show, as well as about 300 Radical Dudez shows. It's a campus bar, so it was a good chance to feel wicked old, but the kind staff turned it all around:

"Hey guys, can I see some identification?"

"Uh, sure. . . " (thinking, "what year is the latest year to be 19. . . 1991?" oooh, just squeeked in by two decades. . .)

Great crowd, great songs. I'm playing again with the Peat Brothers at the Mansion on December 2nd -- come check them out, you'll be very impressed.

Jay.

Vomit, Ankles, and a Gig

I am home with a vomiting 6 year old, a 11 month old that hasn't slept more than 65 minutes in a row in 3 weeks, and a sprained ankle. Rock and roll.

I made it back to basketball this week, but the ankle is feeling pretty rough since, so I think I'll wait it out.

I'm playing a gig this Thursday with the Peat Brothers. I'm rockin' some bass. We've had a few rehearsals, and depending how many people are vomiting by Thursday, we might get one more in. The show is at Clark Hall Pub, which apparently reopened somewhere along the way. Back in the day, I play many a show there with the Radical Dudez, and the first ever live Jay and the Barn Flyz show was there.

Sienna is back at the hospital, helping keep the bank at bay. How long is 12 hours? Oh my.

Hope you enjoyed your extra hour.

Jay.