Now that the Listening Booth Tour is winding down, i wanted to take one more opportunity to thank everyone who came out to the shows and to share a few thoughts and highlights.

See my previous blog about Bonnie Raitt joining us in San Francisco on her birthday. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate with my friend and a thrill to sing again with one of the best that's ever been.

Just a few days later @ The El Rey in L.A., David Crosby and Graham Nash generously accepted my invitation to come down and "do a little number."  It was the fourth show in a row that week. You can either feel fried at that point, or so well oiled (cognac notwithstanding) that you might as well have scheduled ten shows in a row. In this case, it was the later.

Before i tell you about C and N, I just want to say, at the risk of sounding immodest, that I think the fall shows were some of the best shows the band and I have ever played. Regardless of chart positions and units sold, I can tell you there's nothing more gratifying than the sense that you're getting better at what you do. Someone that posted a short review on facebook a few weeks ago mentioned something about how well the band played with silence. To my mind, this was one of the greatest complements we could have gotten. Miles Davis said something years ago about the notes you don't play being more important than the ones you do. The older i get and the more shows i play... the more i understand what he meant.

Playing Healing Hands with this band is a good example i think. It's a pretty straight ahead ballad, but lately, the more we've settled into it, the deeper it's become. The tempo is slower than the record for sure, but it still grooves. The song BREATHES more now...feels suspended in space somehow...because of everything we're NOT playing. On a good night, when that song works...for a minute or two... i even feel good about getting older!

 Back to Crosby and Nash. Ever since I met Crosby at the Grammy's in '92,  he and Graham have been amazingly generous and supportive friends and mentors. They've invited me to open for CSN, they've sung on my records and recorded my songs. Aside from the shows where i opened for them though, they've never sung at one of MY shows...until the El Rey. I brought them out for the first set of encores and as you'd expect, the place erupted. This was the first time we've ever performed She's Becoming Gold together live. It remains one of my best recordings i think, largely because of the unmistakable C and N harmonies, so it was thrilling to be able to finally recreate it for an audience after all these years. It didn't hurt that they nailed it!!

Then David's son, James Raymond, a wonderful keyboard player, came onstage and played piano with the band while Graham sang I Surrender, a song of mine that C and N recorded a few years ago. I took a seat on the drum riser and just listened to one of my favorite singers interpret a song of mine. I felt like Tom Sawyer (or was it Huck?) watching his own funeral. It was surreal. Another amazing night for the band and me...and the audience too i hope.

Another highlight was the Cohn Family Reunion in Kent, Ohio. All three of my brothers arrived at the show from all corners of the country to celebrate our oldest brother Allen's 70th Birthday...on and off stage.  We brought out a cake at the end of the show and the crowd sang happy birthday to Al. Those of you in the audience that night should know that he's still talking about it!!

The day before the Kent show, j i got to spend the day with my oldest boy Max...who came out to see me and to have his first decent meal since I took him to College in August.  What an amazing young man and what a great feeling to have him come hang out w me on the road.

My old man used to say that the best parts of a long journey were leaving and coming home. Not sure i totally agree with that, but the hugs i got from my two youngest boys and my daughter when i finally unpacked my suitcase for the remainder of 2010...were wonderful. There's no place like home.

Happy Holidays to you and yours. See you somewhere in 2011 I hope.

-marc