Can ya believe it? June 20th is Mystery Roads FINAL SHOW! We’ll be at The Cave in Chapel Hill to bid everyone Fare Thee Well from Mystery Road. It’s going to be a HUGE celebration and I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to it. While I know it’ll be considered a “sad” affair to many, I’m ecstatic about this show. I think it’ll be fun and the reason I’m not sad is because I’m not saying good-bye. Good bye is forever and trust me, I plan on seeing ya’ll again… probably many times. Maybe more times than you’d care to see me… 
It’s hard to believe that we are heading back to where it all pretty much began. Back in 1999, my Lady L. and I packed up and moved to Concord, NC for what was supposed to be a one year thing. It ended up being the start of a 10 year life in the state of North Carolina. After being in Concord for nearly 4 years, Lady L. started taking classes online from UNC Chapel Hill and in 2003 we relocated to Chapel Hill for her to attend Grad School. In this time, we had many discussions about just what this meant and what the future might hold for us.
in 2005, we bought our first home in Durham and life continued to move forward. In our 10 years here, I feel that I experienced so much artistic growth. I learned a lot about myself both as a person and an artist. My life as a musician/songwriter/singer all changed in 2003 after meeting Bert Wray in Charlotte, NC. He was an inspiration, a positive influence and someone that would pretty much shape me as a live performer. He really taught me to come out of my shell and that it was ok to not be perfectly in key and note for note. It was all about the song and making sure people could feel the song and become part of it. I also learned the gift of “banter” from Bert and how important it was to make your audience part of the show. That was a HUGE lesson for me to learn and has done well for me for well over 6 years now.
My time in NC was like going to school. I learned a lot about what I like, don’t like, and what I can tolerate and not tolerate. I have had my successes and I’ve had my failures and in all honesty, I would change them for the world because if not for those failures and mistakes, I would’ve never got to where I’m at now. I made some waves as a solo act, I worked VERY hard at it and I had a very successful run with Mystery Road. I found 3 of the greatest musicians I have ever met and I cannot express what a treat it was to be in a band with them. While I had to jam with few frogs to get the perfect Mystery Road line-up, we found each other and sparked a friendship both personally and musically that lasted and persevered.
I will always look back on my time here as a REALLY magical time. I met some great friends/musicians, played some great shows and made two albums that are VERY close to me. I feel that this is sort of a life graduation for me of sorts. Now it’s time to make my way to the big city and share with them just what I learned in my time here. I’m extremely lucky to have the support of a loving partner who supports me and loves me more than anyone I know (I hope so!). It’s because of her that I will be able to pursue things in life that I only used to be able to dream about. If that’s not the greatest love and support of all, I don’t know what is. What can I say? I’m a lucky son of a bitch!
This isn’t good-bye by the way… just c-ya later!
