FROM THE ROAD: STREET WEEK Boca Raton, FL

The week a CD is released to the public is called Street Week. Every CD sold that week counts towards the first week's SoundScan total, reflected on the albums sales chart. A CD's first week chart position is key to getting the attention of the media, retail and radio branches of the Christian music business, promoters and hopefully key to getting more help from all of them in the weeks ahead. He with the most "scans" is number one for that week, called Street Week.

Street Week always begins on a Tuesday and goes to the following Monday. However, there is a loophole, some small print, we took advantage of this time around. Street Week sales actually begin being tabulated at 5:01 PM Monday. Everything sold after 5 Monday is tallied as Tuesday sales. Don't know why. But I like it.

In light of that we played our first Street Week show in Boca Raton (Mouth of the Rat) on Monday the 11th and sold CDs beginning at exactly 5:01. It was a solo show which made it difficult to pull off the new band oriented CD but the people of Boca Raton and the West Palm Beach area didn’t seem to mind. The great thing about playing new music is no one knows when it doesn’t sound like the CD – and no one knows when I flub a lyric – especially if I make a decent one up on the spot, or just anything that rhymes.

Thanks in huge part to West Palm Beach’s WAY-FM, the folks of Florida know my music and come to my shows even on Monday nights. And I don’t take that for granted. So the least I can do is stop by the studio and allow Brandt and Donna, the most attractive people in radio today, to mock me publicly for a couple hours…as long as they provide me with a chicken biscuit from Chic-fil-A and a Dr.Pepper. (notice the shiny aluminum wrapped goodness resting between Donna and me.)

Thanks WAY-FM for being truly entertaining great radio by any standard, Christian or not. And thanks to Donna, Brandt, everyone at Spanish River Church and the folks of Florida for making the first show of White Flag’s Street Week a success. Lots of concert-goers left with CDs in hand and more than 30 children were sponsored through Compassion International.

Got thoughts? Discuss this SHLOG on my message-board