Chicago, Illinois

Walked around downtown and Lake Michigan for a couple of hours this afternoon, a beautifully clear, sunny, warm day, low humidity, 80 degrees...perfect. Chicago's a great city that makes me feel good to be in...all the best of N.Y. but less intense. It's also the town where I was born so I might be a little biased.

Tonight's venue was The Chicago Theatre. It was called the "Wonder Theatre of the World" when it opened in 1921 and cost a whopping $4 million to build. The theatre is 7 stories high, a half city block wide and long, of French Baroque and one of the best sounding and gorgeous theatres we've played. A sold-out capacity crowd of 3,600 enthusiastic, energetic, open Chicagoans. A great gig, the perfect convergence of venue, show and audience and we can't wait to come back to Chicago, a terrific city we all love.

We had a couple of guests come to town to see the show, our pal the great guitarist-singer Sonny Landreth as well as country singing star LeeAnn Womack and her husband Frank Liddell who is a successful music publisher and record producer in Nashville. After the gig, rather than meeting up at the hotel bar we decided to go round the corner to a tavern named Pippin's. Nothing fancy, just a good old neighbourhood vibe with good beer. It was great fun visiting with our friends there in Pippin's and a perfect way to wrap the night and our stay in the windy city. Tomorrow we leave for a day off in Nashville then our show at The Ryman. It's not a day off however for Glenn and I who will immediately go from the airport to RCA Studio B for a double session! I don't know, it sounded like a good idea when we said yes a few weeks ago.

So long,

Richard