Comfy beds in the Northeast

I finally made it to Boston again – an epic 2500 mile drive. Two weeks straight of performing music almost every night has been incredible and tiring. Luckily I love the nomadic lifestyle – It’s great waking up in a different city each day. You’d be amazed at how different the vibes of culture and people are in each US city. Now, I’m hanging at my brothers pad (he moved to Boston after the last Austin-to-Boston tour) and we’ll be jamming with the saxophone again.

On another note, it’s truly unbelievable to sleep in your own bed (in my case… in Mahopac, NY)…especially when it’s a queen bed with tons of blankets and pillows (sadly I write this after sleeping on a lumpy couch and air mattress in Boston…such is the road). I slept for about 11 hrs straight the day I got back home.

City/show updates below:

Pawling, NY – Towne Crier Cafe

One of the first open mics I used to attend was the legendary Towne Crier Cafe in Westchester, NY (it’s also the first place I performed my song “Soldier” live with Jon Dorme on violin and Joe Marrone on guitar). It’s an honor to be able to perform there and open for great musicians. I opened up for the awesome Kenny White, who will be playing the main stage at Kerrville Folk Festival next year. His piano playing was phenomenal – my jaw was hanging to the table during his solos. Definitely check him out if you get the chance.

NYC, NY – Caffe Vivaldi

(watch me roar in this pic)

Caffe Vivaldi takes the cake for one of my favorite venues to play in NYC. It’s a very cool, old-themed bar with an excellent vibe and it’s a really great listening room. An awesome crowd of friends, fans and family came out and it was dead silent throughout the whole set. I’m hoping to keep playing at CV for my next shows (update: just confirmed my tour comeback show on Thurs, Jan 13!). Getting back to Googie’s in January will be awesome as well. I’m seriously debating moving to Brooklyn or at least spending half the year in Austin and half in NYC. The New York vibe is something I could never live without. I love fast people, fast cars, loud noises and go-getter attitudes. But, I also love relaxation, enjoying life, the outdoors, and very chill people. I think a balance between NY and Austin would be perfect.

Bridgeport & Hartford, CT

I haven’t spent much time in Connecticut besides shopping at the Danbury Mall. Now that I’ve hung around for a couple days, I can honestly say that I really like the towns – very green and nice looking like a lot of the northeast. The show at The Acoustic Cafe in Bridgeport was great – small crowd, but a very, very cool place. Funky art all over the walls, a great stage, an awesome set by Tokyo Rosenthal, and most importantly, perfect sound from the sound engineer Darius.

The next day in Hartford involved an awesome coffee shop show at La Paloma Sabanera, and a night out in the town. I’m definitely not a fan of University of Hartford nightlife – it was a wierd mix of Jersey Shore and…something else. That definitely made me miss Austin and all of it’s good-hearted people. But, the people I met at the local Hartford Courant music tweetup (yes…tweet up, it’s where people from twitter meet in real life) were great. Looks like they’re really trying to bump-up the live music in this little Connecticut city.

It was great to hit up a bunch of cities I’ve already visited and a bunch of new ones as well. Now…it’s time for some turkey and relaxation. Next update will talk about Boston and my hometown Mahopac. Catch you then. Stay classy.

Brett