An entire summer of fests and a Cross-Canadian tour has gone by without an update, my apologies! This upcoming spring tour and festival season will have more regularly relayed antics and photos! Over the holidays, I had the privilege of visiting my hometown in Montana and talking with grades 5-12 at the schools about music, and what it's like to work in the music industry. 

Sitting in the same band rooms I grew up in and getting to relive some of those memories was a blast!

Thank you, John Novotny for inviting me to talk with your amazing students, and for all of your support! 

I hit the road again with TFK in February; we'll be joining RED, Manafest, Nine Lashes, and Kiros on the REDvolution Tour. Check the dates, and come get rowdy!

It's been a nice couple weeks getting to sleep in my own bed since getting off the road and letting the dust settle from the last tour! We had six weeks of arena shows covering most of the country, and played to around 250,000 people.

The first couple weeks were through the southeast in MO, MS, and AL; then we started to climb north through IA and WI.

We played the Resch Center in Green Bay the Friday before the Super Bowl, which gave me a chance to rock a little green & gold and support my team! We continued through the midwest with shows in OH, IL, freezing/snowy ND, and SD, then headed south through KS and MO.

The next week we trekked across TX where we spent time at the ocean, the desert, the border, and a lot of bbq. After playing in CO we went through UT and started the next week of shows in ID. Missoula, MT was the next show and one of my favorite dates on the tour. It was the closest thing to a 'hometown' show I'd played since I moved away to Nashville four years ago. Thank you so much to everyone who made that show special for me!

We took the highway west again and headed for Seattle and Portland; which were two perfect days spent drinking Stumptown and enjoying the feel of the Pacific NW.

We had the next day off in San Francisco, and spent it checkin' out the sea lions, eating seafood on the docks, and touring Alcatraz. The final week of shows in CA went super smooth and were all massive in attendance! Sacramento was filled to the brim with 16,500!

Since getting home I've continued writing and developing new music with some incredible people... Keep your eyes peeled for more updates and music from a new project I'm working on.

Taking a break from writing last week, I went over to Chattanooga to see some friends play and was asked by Head from Korn to step in that night and play "Blind" with him to close out the show!

TFK Update: http://thousandfootkrutch.com/#/news/17

I'm excited to continue working with TFK, and look forward to a lot of great shows ahead. Thank you all for your support, and I'll see you at festivals this summer!

The last few winter weeks off have flown by. I'm getting packed up and about to head out with TFK tonight on a 6 week arena tour across the US, but wanted to get everyone a quick recap on an amazing trip I took to L.A. a couple weeks ago.

I had the privilege of spending a day with Bernie Rico Jr. at his shop in Hesperia, CA. He's a contained, smaller guitar company with immense attention to detail and customer satisfaction. We spent the day going through dozens of tops, body woods, necks, and fingerboards. From an exotic quilted walnut or cocobolo, to more popular types of maple and mahogany, Bernie has any tone-wood you can think of. I couldn't believe my eyes looking through the tops, the quality of the pieces were in another level of beauty and symmetry.

Bernie took me on a trip through the journey of making one of his guitars, explaining how he hand sands the necks, and hand bevels the contours of his guitars. The guy is a master craftsman. We went through all of the custom options imaginable; from custom scale lengths, fretboard radiuses, and electronic configurations, to finishes, tone-woods, and hand-sanded neck thicknesses. We're in the process of working on a custom guitar for me that will be based roughly on a couple of Bernie's already custom designs, but taking it down a brand new path with plenty of Rico flair and some interesting custom specs that are tailored to my playing. I couldn't be more excited for the opportunity to work with Bernie! Keep your eyes peeled for this work of art in the works!

After the day at Bernie's, I headed to the NAMM convention in Anaheim, CA. I'd never been to NAMM before, so I was excited just to see all of the different vendors and have the chance to check out and play on a lot of new gear. Meeting some of the players I grew up listening to was an awesome experience as well!

To finish off the trip I stepped in for a set with The Letter Black at the Slidebar for a benefit show for Deftone's bassist Chi Cheng. Make sure to check out www.oneloveforchi.com for opportunities to be involved with Chi's recovery, and www.theletterblack.com for updates and info on them. See you on the road!

After finishing TFK's headlining tour in October, we headed to the Bahamas the second week of November to play on a cruise ship. It was my first time on a cruise, so I was stoked before we even got to the water.

The ship left from Miami and ported in Nassau, Coco Cay, and Key West. We had a few hours each day to get off the ship and see what each place was like. My favorite stop was Nassau because there were a few cool markets and funky, hippie-esque antique shops that I could have spent all day in.

We played twice during the week on the top deck of the ship, right in front of the pool. It was really different to play shows while the ship was moving, but awesome to see people rockin' out in the pool, and feel the ocean wind.

A few days after we got back from the cruise we played at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. It was another really fun experience for me because I'd never been to a pro hockey game. We were interviewed by Jay Hudson from 89X after the first period, got to watch the game from one of the suites, and had a blast playing at center ice after the game. The interview is a bit hard to hear, but check out clips from the game in the video below!

We've got a few weeks off before things start up again for 2011. I'm already itching to get back out on the road and see some familiar faces, and hopefully a bunch of new ones as well. See you on the road soon!