Two Tons of Steel: Fresh News! Read all about it!

Hey friends!

I'm back and I'm much happier than I was in my last dispatch. We've spent the last couple of weekends in North Texas and have had too much fun. Two weekends ago found us once again at Hank's Texas Grill in McKinney. Is it possible to have more fun than we do at Hank's? Due to the snowfall on the Wednesday night before, we had to reschedule our show in Denton on the next day (Thursday), but it provided for an incredible amount of fun when Kevin challenged everybody to snowball fight after the show at Hank's! We seem to like to pick fights - especially with our fans! That Saturday turned into a party too when our close pal and all around nice guy Tom Gillam opened the show with a spirited set at Riley's Tavern in Hunter, just north of New Braunfels. Riley's is a great old bar whose claim to fame is that they applied for and received the first liquor license in Texas after prohibition was repealed. Between Tom joining us onstage and us joining Tom onstage, I think everybody had a great time watching the adventures of Two Tons!

Shredding it to pieces at Hank's.

Last week we played on Monday at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio and that place just gets better and better. Eric and Jen do such a fine job and the improvements help to continue to make it somewhere artists will want to continue coming back to. Great crowd, great fun!

A week ago on Thursday night we played the Granada Theatre in Dallas opening the show for Kinky Friedman. He's a helluva nice guy and playing the Granada is always something we look forward to doing. The sound, the lights, the stage, the crew, the food, the fans and all the fun that goes along with that gig make it one of our favorite places in Texas to play. Bill Ellison is the house photographer and Does an amazing job of capturing moments in time every time we're there! Check him out online at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/billellisonphotographer

Campaigning with my pal Kinky Friedman outside The Granada Theatre in Dallas.

Of course it wouldn't be a night out with Two Tons if we didn't stay out all night and it couldn't be a Granada Theatre show without a party! We didn't stay out late as much as we did go to bed early after our show with Kinky -- early the next morning that is. After hanging with the opening band at a little Irish pub down the street and finding an afterparty at a fan's home and firing his bow and arrow all night long with only a few hours sleep, we were then off to Ft. Worth to play Lola's Saloon. In a word? Fun! Once again, throwing out a blistering 90 minute set with a room full of great fans who are always so excited we're in town. Thanks to Tim and Amy for their support -- our fans are the BEST! Lola's was a great night and cause for me to replace all the heads on my drumkit. By the end of "Not Fade Away", I had torn my bass drum head completely in half - from East to West all the way across the drum. Crazy! I've never done that before but it just goes to show what an absolute badass I am. (Ha!)

What the?! Is that possible? I play 1/4 notes!

We woke up Saturday and made our way back to Dallas for some replacement drumheads and to meet our close pal Guy Reynolds. Guy is another amazing photographer and all around nice guy who travelled with us 3 or 4 years ago for a weekend to document our lives on the road for an article that ran in the Dallas Morning News. We hit it off well and have stayed in touch ever since. He and his wife and young son hosted us for the afternoon and we had a great time with a homecooked meal, fresh margaritas, and lots o' laughs! At some point during or trip, I misread the directions on my phone and mentioned we needed to take the "Hall/St. Lemmon Ave" exit. As it turns out, it was the "Hall STREET/Lemmon Ave" exit. Nobody in the van seemed to remember there being a "Saint Lemmon", but we decided that "Blind" Saint Lemmon must surely be the patron saint of all blues artists - we were down near the House of Blues anyway. But I digress...

Super cool sign found on a Federal building near Guy's home.

We played to an incredible crowd in Austin at the Broken Spoke last weekend and had a great time. Seems we have our very own bar staff now that appears from time to time and they always keep us well "watered". Thanks to Jay and Joe for all the laughs and all the backdoor "bartending" -- if you know what I mean! Saturday night we made a guerilla appearance at the Cash Bash going on at the Continental Club in Houston and played a couple of tunes in front of an eager crowd and I caught up with some old friends as well that I hadn't seen in close to 15 years. Saturday night also found the "4 Ladies of the Apocalypse" in the crowd, taking in the music and soaking up the vibe in the room. Thanks to John Wynne for having us drop in and crash the Cash Bash! Then from there we made a bee-line over to the Armadillo Palace and played a marathon 2 1/2 hr set for a raging rodeo crowd. Good Times. We left there around 2:15 and were brought to a complete stop in traffic on the highway at 4:22am. Let me remind you that at 4:22am -- there is NO traffic on IH-10 between San Antonio and Houston! We were stopped there until around 6:40am when we finally drove through what appeared to have been an 18 wheeler that must have driven over the side of the bridge and taken out about 50 yards of guardrail. We're not talking mangled guardrail -- we're talking guardrail completely gone from the bridge on the highway. Bad news on the radio. We see some crazy stuff on our late night drives home from the various parts of this great state we traverse every weekend.

Can you see it? My drumkit used as wallpaper on a fan's phone - how cool is that?

This week will find us once again in North Texas at the Glass Cactus on Thursday with our pals The Derailers, then on Friday we'll make a stop in Bandera at the Longhorn Saloon, and Saturday we'll be burning down the House of Rock in Corpus Christi. Stay tuned to www.twotons.com for all of our upcoming dates and everybody be pulling for us as we head up through the Midwest again at the end of the month for a 10 day road trip. Call your families, call your friends -- Two Tons may be coming to a town near you!