New York City, N.Y.

I had lunch with my dear friends Rocky and Alisa Schnaars here at the hotel this afternoon.  Alisa is a book buyer for Barnes and Noble in Manhattan and Rocky coordinates and oversees big home renovations and additions for a well know architect in the city.  In his former life when Rocky lived in Nashville, he was one of the busiest recording engineers going.  I used him for most of the projects I was producing at that time and we became very good friends.  They moved to the city about four years ago when Alisa was offered the job at B and N.  It's always great being with them and my wife and I miss them like crazy.

Tonight's show was at The United Palace Theatre, an old vaudeville and movie house I'm guessing from the 1920's.  Incredibly ornate plaster walls with gold leaf and stenciling.  In it's later life, it was the home of Reverend Ike and his ministry still uses it as a place of worship.  About three years ago they began having concerts there as well.  Mark still sitting, but seems to be getting better and in less pain, that's good.  The show itself was grand and always seems to evolve a little differently every night catching us all up in the event as it progresses.

More great friends were in attendene tonight, David Conrad from Nashville, Dick Boak of Martin Guitars from Nazareth, PA., the great Rudy Pensa and legendary luthier John Monteleone for whom the song was written.  We've been playing that song in our sound checks for weeks and debuted it live tonight for John.  I suspect they're all waiting down at the bar right now, so I'm off.

So long,

Richard​