COLLEGE STATION, TX 9.9.05

I was born in Lawton, OK but smelled the fajitas wafting across the border when I was two and made a break for it. I spent the next 22 years in Texas. My body adapted quickly and soon could only run most efficiently on Tex Food cuisine. So today, while the wether and scenery are nicer in Tennessee, my body and, well, my spirit too, putter along on the cheap fuel of Taco Bell. I'm forced then to schedule frequent stops in the land of Pappasitos as a matter of survival. This was one such life saving journey.

We arrived by plane in Houston where a man was allowed to set up a protest table outside the baggage claim - claiming that Bush was the antiChrist, Cheney was an UNnatural disaster, and other such nonsense. I had to marvel at how evenly God has distributed the wackos between the two parties in this country. It's only fair.

We quickly made our way to Pappasito's - #2 on my list of great purveyors of Tex-Mex. (#1 is Uncle Julio's). There, Brian and I gorged ourselves on hot sauce made from grilled ingredients and queso full of chopped onion and green peppers before diving into our entrees. Mmmm. God bless Mr. Pappa. He completes me.

Then it was on to Central Baptist Church where I played a show with Paul Colman. Paul goes to my church here in Franklin, TN but we've never really made time to get to know each other before this show. We sat, restringing our guitars in the choir room, and talked about music business and family, how he got started, whether country music is good or demonic, and lots of other stuff. He's a driven driven man with more charisma and ideas swimming around in his pinky finger than I've got in my body. Of course it could just be the accent. Anything Australians say sounds worth listening to. It's just not fair.

At the last minute we decided to play one large set together instead of two separate smaller sets. I took the stage and asked the crowd if that was OK with them and to cheers I invited Paul up to join me. Unrehearsed, we pulled off - but just barely - duets of each other's songs, me limping through harmonies (not my gift) and stumbling through my lyrics (I think my songs have twice as many words than his so it's to be expected.) In the end it was a great night, a change of pace for us both, and a chance to relax and cut up a little more than usual in concert. We were both forced out of any routine that may have found its way into our sets lately and were made to improvise and trust someone else for a change. Scary when you don't know where the other guy is going next.