It's surreal. It blows my mind that we're playing a gig on the same stage where I've seen Sting, or Hall and Oates. Instead, it's us on stage, and I can look out in the audience and see my parents out there singing along.
The guests for this year were Matthew Wilder, Robbie Dupree, and Johnny Townsend and Ed Sanford (Sanford Townsend Band). Gary Wright was originally on as well, but he fell ill earlier in the week and had to cancel. We played Dreamweaver without him (even using his backing track!).
I especially enjoyed playing Sanford Townsend's Smoke From a Distant Fire, which is a song we used to watch on video back when we were just starting out. Here's my chart.
Their other song for this show was I Keep Forgettin' (a hit for Michael MacDonald), which was cowritten by Ed. In order to fit it in Johnny's vocal range, we had to drop the key by a fourth! Hello transpose button!
Here's my outro solo on Biggest Part of Me. Going up a quarter strength on tenor reeds has been a big improvement.
