Days off by the side of the highway:

For some reason, nothing can really prepare you for a day off somewhere like Cornelius, NC. We played a festival called the Merge festival for charity in Charlotte, NC yesterday, and for some reason we wound up about thirty miles away for our day off. Now, I'm sure there might be some nice things about Cornelius, but NYC it is not.

You know those exits on the highway that have five hotel signs, four gas station signs and six fast food signs? That's where we are for our day off today. Not to complain of course, I'm relieved there was a movie theater within walking distance. I spent the whole day at the movies. Bert (our guitar tech) and I wandered over (past the KFC, Subway, McDonald's and Shoney's and caught "the Peacemaker" and "Kiss the Girls". They were both fine. None of the movies I was really excited to see ("the Locusts", "U-Turn") were playing, but it was a fine way to waste the day.

We're heading through the South East now and then heading into Texas for a few days. We head out to the West Coast in about a week to film a video for "last letter home". Mark Neale will be shooting the video. As you may or may not know, he also directed "everything falls apart". It'll be nice to work with Mark again.

I'm excited to head out on the road with the Counting Crows again. We hook up with them on the 16th of October or so. We're doing a couple of weeks with them and then we'll most likely take a few weeks off.

I'm right in the midst of reading "midnight in the garden of good and evil", which is terrific.

David Poe has been out on the road with us for a little over a week now and he's been terrific. He's doing a duo show at the moment with drummer Bill Dobrow. They've been doing wonderful shows and they've been terrific to spend time with. If you haven't checked out David's record yet, go grab it - it's really good. Bob Dylan's new record is also really wonderful. On the first few listens I'm pretty blown away, and I think it'll grow on me too.

I got to spend some time in LA with the boys from Matchbox 20 and they were really great. We met at our show at the Troubadour and spent the rest of the night trading songs back and forth and talking. They were just about to head off to Australia -- I guess they'll be back any day now.

I'd write more to y'all now, but Bert and I can't figure out anything exciting that's gone on in the past few weeks. Maybe next time there will be something more exciting. What do you want to hear about anyway??

If you've got any thoughts about "last letter home", let us know about them. The record company is thinking about using your thoughts for an advertising campaign.

Well, that's it for now. Hope all's well.

Take care

Peter