We drove all night from, Buffalo to Scranton and I guess I remember bits and pieces....our friends at Anheuser Busch hooked us up with a half dozen cases of Bud and I know we gave a lot away but we went through a good bit ourselves and it ain’t easy to sleep in that fifth wheel; kind of like a trampoline on the couch and then I woke up at 5am freezing my ass off and there were no blankets so I’m foraging around the RV and I end up sleeping with the welcome mat and a bath towel over me and I’m still cold...I wake up at 10am and I’m starving and we all go get something greasy at Micky D’s and I’m still hungry and I’m still hung over and if I don’t look real rough I sure feel it.

Whatever..this is how it is. The rock-and roll life. The one you and I dreamed about, and it’s all glamor.. Babe...mean it.

So we get to Montage Mt. (Scranton, PA) and it’s very hot outside and we don’t have power for the RV so that means crashing on the couch in the dressing room and with the air conditioning it’s like a meat locker in there and Randy falls asleep first so that means no sleep for ME. We pick on Randy for snoring a lot, I know—it has to be heard to be believed.

Someday it’s got to STOP, Hofgren.

Anyhow....

Our experience so far on this tour is that we don’t see a whole lot of Toby or Trace backstage, and as far as I know they don’t pay attention to us onstage (don’t be miffed on my behalf...I’ve been on the road and had opening bands and we sure as hell don’t listen to them either) But they’ve both been around some this weekend and Trace stuck his head onstage during our soundcheck on Friday and on Saturday Toby was sitting in catering with Rivers Rutherford and Kenny Beaird (two very accomplished songwriters) and I had to approach him to get an autograph for a charity give-away. As I walk up he’s singing Rivers an a’capella version of “A Little Too Gone,” one of my favorites of his and I just stand behind him and let him finish–it’s pretty cool to hear him sing like that, no PA, no mic, and he’s nailing it--- and then he turns around and is like “hey man, y’all are sounding great out there (we’ve just walked in from sound check) and I’m like “thanks so much, sorry to interrupt , but I’ve got this charity thing and I’d really appreciate it if you could sign...” And he’s like “no problem, bubba.” And all I can think about is “WOW he just said we sounded great.” and he’s probably just being nice, but that’s cool either way.

After a long day of trying to get my head right ( I finally decided I’d go for a run in the woods even if it was really HOT outside–and then found out the woods were crawling with rattle snakes..) It gets to be that time and we all get changed and tuned up and make our way on stage or should I say, back-stage. I never feel nervous onstage but I guess I get a lil anxious right before we go on (just a little). Tonight they’ve got DJ’s from the local country station announcing us. This bunch is especially goofy and they start announcing the show and they’re saying how Mica Roberts (Toby’s awesome background and sometime-opening-act singer) is first up. She’s not. I am. Ashley (tour Mgr) is shaking his head,. I’m shaking my head. Murray’s shaking her head....I just want a snag-free knock-it-out-of-the -park performance. That’s ALL I want. This ain’t how it starts. But the DJ’s save themselves and after three minutes of goofiness they get the words “and now please welcome Sean Patrick McGraw” out of their mouths and Jimmy starts in with “Git Yer Cowboy.”.

Well I guess it was about after I introduced “Honky Tonk Life” (second song) saying something like “we’ve spent the last five years playing every shit-hole bar that would have us” to an uproar, that I start noticing people making their way from the back with camera’s. That, and I could see a lot of orange lights beaming at me (camcorders) and a lot of flashes and it’s my belief that if a lot of people are bothering to take your picture it’s cause they think they’re seeing something special and, yeah, for all of us being a little road-worn I feel verrry much on the top of my game and the crowd seems to get louder with every song and we change up the ste list to include a ballad, “What I’d Do,” which is what we’d been running in sound check and we get to that point in the set list and being a ballad WE get quiet (the song pretty much starts with just me) and the audience get real quiet and I’m like “holy shit, they’re not just paying attention, they’re listening to the words,” and we finish the song and the crowd response is kind of overwhelming...and I go right into “Cow Tippin’” and I can see people laughing in all the right places and my timing is just ON (okay..I day-dreamed at the end, Joe...who else would know?) And the crowd response is great and I thank everyone and go into “So Called Life,” and we finish and I take my bows and I’m looking at the crowd and there’s people standing up for us and it’s like I felt when I was on Nashville Star (so I got booted off, so what??) like I’d just hit a walk- off home run. And–don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I allow myself to feel that way very often–I handed off my guitar to Keith (our new one-man-road-crew-of-doom) and walked back to Murray and said “I made THAT one my BITCH.”

And it felt really cool....

and then the band stopped....

And the crowd roar was pretty unbelievable onstage, like, “are we allowed to do an encore?”

We’re not.

And then Kenny Beaird came up and shook my hand and said a lot of nice stuff and that was cool. Very cool...

Like “how much cooler could that have gone?”

I’ll tell you how.

I heard later that Trace and Toby both came out and watched most of our set from the side of the stage.

Holy Shit.

Thanks guys.

Thank YOU Scranton.