Midwest Tour Wrap-Up

I am back home in the beautiful sunny south, after 10 days in the Midwest. I enjoyed the trip quite a bit. I've written about the first leg of the tour... After the last Chicago gig I went to Keyeser, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison. The difference between downtown Chicago and downtown Keyeser was noticeable :) Here's a couple photos of downtown Keyeser, along with the baseball field, with a little leftover snow. If you know me, you know I'll take the sleepy small town over the big city anyday. I played at a charming little church coffeehouse, and had a great night. The crowd was wonderful, and to add to the night, they had mini-cheesecakes and Dove chocolate candy. At the end of the night, I packed up my stuff, and filled my pockets with what was left of the Dove!



The tour ended on Sunday night in St. Louis, which has always been one of my favorite cities, though it's been almost 10 years since my last gig there. I played at The Focal Point, which is the premier listening room in St. Louis. Many, many thanks go out to Stacy, host of Backroads on KDHX Radio for helping set up the show, and promoting it for me.
I saw lots of wide open spaces and farmland, here's a little shot from out the window on I-57 that pretty well captures the view from my Camry window for most of the trip.
The Midwest is quite a bit like the south, nice folks, welcoming small towns, and great food. It's just a little colder, and a lot harder to find sweet tea. Also, I guess the people talk different.

Kip Kip Hooray!

I had the great pleasure of playing 2 gigs this tour with my friend Kip Rainey. He is the mandolin player from my 'County Line Road' CD. He lived down in Auburn for a couple years, and we played a handful of shows together back in 1999-2000. He moved up to Chicago, where he plays in the band Tangleweed. He learned mandolin parts for many of my new songs, and we had a great time playing the Arts Alive Concert Series last weekend, and Fridays at the Ford this past weekend, both in the Chicago metro area.
After so many years as a solo artist, it is always a thrill to have someone join me on stage, and even more of a thrill when it's a great musician like Kip, who also happens to be one of the nicest people I know.
We will definitely be trying to play some more shows together when I'm back up in the midwest, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks Kip!

The Midwest Regional (Pizza) Final

In the spirit of the NCAA tournament, I decided to have a little tournament of my own while out in the midwest this week. I wanted to find the best pizza, and after narrowing down the possibilities, the regional final came down to Quatro's in Carbondale, IL vs. Giordano's in Chicago. I mentioned Quatro's in the last post, they have some great deep dish pizza. Giordanos is a Chicago classic with the unique stuffed pizza. It was a great classic matchup, and the fact that is was a single elimination tournament played into the outcome... Had it been a best 4 out of 7 series, I think Quatro's may have been able to pull it out, as it is an easier pizza to eat several days in a row. Giordano's is so heavy and hearty, it's not really an every day kind of meal, but when it comes right down to it, Giordano's is the best pizza in the Midwest. Congratulations !

Life is good in Southern Illinois!

I've had a great couple of days in Southern Illinois. Yesterday was one of the greatest food days of all time. It began at lunch with a trip to 17th Street Bar&Grill in Murphysboro. You may recall they were the winner of the Dave Potts 2005 Best Ribs Award. In addition to that prestigious award, they are also the only 3-time winner of the Memphis In May Rib Contest, which many people may actually consider to be a bigger deal than the DP Awards :)
I had a full slab of their delicious baby back ribs. It's also just far enough south that they have swet tea.

That would normally be enough food for one day, but at dinner I got invited to a local pizza joint called Quatro's. You know I am picky about my pizza, let me tell you I was not disappointed.
Their famous deep dish pizza was fantastic. I have a souvenier cup to commemorate my visit! The mischevious looking guy with the cheese dripping from his hat is Quatro's logo. I guess that's Mr. Quatro himself.

Another reason why Southern Illinois is such a great place to be, is because of one of my favorite radio stations, WDBX in Carbondale. They have 3 folk shows that air weekly, and I played live on 2 of them yesterday, Folk Fiasco and Special Folks. It is very hard for an independent, acoustic artist to find radio support, and WDBX goes above and beyond the call of duty.

If all that weren't enough, I've also had a couple great night of jamming with other musicians. The host of Red Bud Hill House Concert, where I'm performing tonight, is in a band called the Bone Dry River Band. They were over last night, and i sat in for a few songs (even got to play some bass), and they backed me up on a couple of Chris Knight tunes. There is yet another songwriter in the house, JP Jones, a poet-songwriter from Rhode Island, and we had a song circle Tuesday night.
It's been a great trip, and that's even before tonight's house concert, which I'm very much looking forward to.
Tomorrow I'm headed back to the big city up north where the wind blows cold and the pizza crust is thick. Very, very thick!

Michigan, Chicago and the pizza bowl

I'm writing today from Maquoketa, IA, I'm staying with my friends Scott and Michelle Dalziel. (www.dalziel.net). I came in last night from Chicago, where I played a library concert series in Rolling Meadows. Kip Rainey, who is a great mandolin player from the band Tanglewood, joined me on stage. Kip used to live in Auburn and we played some gigs together many years ago. He also appears on my 'County Line Road' CD. It was a blast to play with him again, and he'll be at my show this coming Friday night as well.
Before the gig, I ate at the Chicago Pizza Company, home of the original Pizza Bowl. It was pretty crazy, it was just what it sounds like, a big bowl of pizza.. The bowl itself was made out of pizza dough, and filled with pizza ingredients, with the cheese on top. On Friday on my way back through Chicago, I plan to find a Giordano's. I'm sure you'll hear about that!

Saturday night, I was at the Trinity House Theater opening for Rachel Davis. It was a great night, I could play that venue every night... Rachel is a GREAT performer, with an amazing voice, if you have a chance to see her, you definitely should. (www.rachelbdavis.com) Here's a picture of the stage at Trinity House.

There is a little snow on the ground here in Iowa, but is melting as we speak, as I continue to hit some nice Midwestern weather.
Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Carbondale/Murphysboro, IL, I'll give you an update from there.

Chris Knight - Trailer Tapes

Many of you probably know I'm a big fan of Chris Knight. He's an alt-country, sort of hard-edged songwriter from Kentucky... If you heard his music, and heard mine, you wouldn't figure he'd be one of my favorites, we're pretty different, but I think the man's a genius..
Anyhow, he just released a CD called 'Trailer Tapes'. It rough demos he made back in 1996,just him and his guitar in his barn in Kentucky. It was before he was signed to a label. It has a couple songs that made it on his first CD, but most the songs are unreleased. Some of those unreleased tunes are just awesome, everything he writes is so real. No pretty, not usually happy, but very, very real.
If I could write a song like him, I don't know if I would, but I know that I wish I could.
'Rita's Only Fault' is the highlight of the CD for me, check it out if you get a chance, www.chrisknight.net. I can't promise you'll like it, but I can promise that it's very, very good.

Back up north...

I'm back up in Michigan. Thank goodness it's about 40 degrees warmer than last month! I got up here this afternoon, and just finished a house concert at my friend Shelley's house, whom I met about 8 years ago at The Java House in Conyers, GA. (notice, I just used the word "whom", and I believe that was gramatically correct). She had never hosted a house concert before, and she and her husband John were great hosts and had a nice crowd. Here's a photo from the show taken by Shelley with me, and some of the backs of the heads of her friends.
Tomorrow night I'll be back at the wonderful Trinity House Theater in Livonia, MI, one of the coolest venues anywhere. I'm opening for Rachel Davis, a fantastic songwriter, she won the Telluride Troubadour Contest back in '03 when I was a finalist.
I'm taking some pictures on this trip to put up here on the blog, but I have one of those very old digital cameras (can digital cameras be old already?) that uses floppy disks, and my laptop doesn't have a floppy drive, so you'll have to wait till I get home to see all the excitement the Midwest has to offer.

I'll be writing again soon, maybe when I get to Chicago Sunday I'll let you know about the pizza!

Folk Alliance Conference

We just got home from 5 days in Memphis, TN at the North American Folk Alliance Conference. If you're not familiar with Folk Alliance, it is basically a mad house of about 2000 people, most of whom are performing singer/songwriters, competing for the attention of folk music presenters, DJ's, etc. Lara came with me, acting as my manager, she was in charge of running the booth in the exhibit hall, where she handed out CD's to prospective concert promoters, and got them to come see me showcase. I played in 8 showcases over the weekend, including 2 "Official" showcases, sponsored by Folk Alliance.
We made a lot of good contacts which should in time turn into concerts. We met people from all over the country, and quite a few in Canada as well.

In addition to the business of meeting presenters, Folk Alliance is also fun becuase I get to see a lot of my favorite musicians, and catch up with old friends. Some of the acts I got to see included Zane Williams, Jud Caswell, Johnsmith, Storyhill, Amy Speace, Charlotte Kendrick and Joe Jencks.
One of the big thrills of the trip was meeting Christine Lavin, who is one of the legends of the contemporary folk scene. She was so friendly and spent lots of time talking to Lara and I. She's going to play some tracks from $12.99 on her XM Radio show.

Also, it should be noted that the food in Memphis was fantastic. The first afternoon, we found a local legend called Rendezvous BBQ. It was tucked away in an alley in downtown Memphis. When we walked in, they said, "we're not really open right now, but we do have ribs, beans and coleslaw." I'm still not sure what they mean that they weren't open, because they certainly were serving some great ribs!
The rest of the weekend, we ate every meal at a local restaurant called Westy's. It was pretty unbelievable. I'm sure there will be some sort of spot on the DP Best of 2007 Awards for Westy's.

March is going to be a pretty busy touring month, beginning with RadioLive in Pensacola on Thursday night. Later in the month, I'll be in Atlanta, Michigan, Illinios and Wisconsin.
I hope to see y'all soon.

Love the South! Tour Wrap-up.

After 5 straight days of temperatures under 20 degrees, it was wonderful to be back home in Alabama today. Greg and I finished our tour Sunday night in Indianapolis, and drove back to Knoxville at 3am. We really had a great time out on the road, the concerts were a lot of fun, after 10 years of performing as a solo act, having another musician on stage is a blast for me. Greg's music fits very well with mine, and by the end of the week we had quite a few songs worked out well. We ended all the shows on the tour with Pierce Pettis' 'I Will Be Here'. It was a huge hit. Greg is recording a new CD this spring, and it is going to be incredible, I can't wait to hear it. His songs 'Old Radio' and 'The End of You and Me' are instant classics.
I will definitely be planning more shows with Greg in the near future, so stay tuned for that. If you haven't already, go check out his website at www.gregadkinsmusic.com.

Saturday night, we played in Goshen, IN, always one of my favorite tour stops. We had dinner at the South Side Diner, and played at the Electric Brew. Many thanks to all of you who came out to the show. (Jason, no White Sox hat next time, OK?) I feel so at home in Goshen, I look forward to coming back there this fall.
At our Friday night show in Flint, MI, a long time fan who I met in Georgia years ago, showed up with some sweet tea. It really helped ease the pain of the 10 degree weather. Thanks Shelley!

The first couple days of the tour, Greg and I were both trying to eat at least mildly healthy. We looked like a couple of sissies stopping at Applebees and both getting salads. Luckily, we changed that in a hurry... Saturday in Lansing, MI we found a Bennigan's (Greg had never been to Bennigans). He had the Monte Cristo, which if you don't know, is a deep fried ham & cheese sandwich. I was proud of him for taking on those calories. Sunday, we played at a church in Indianapolis, and went to a great barbecue restaurant. I think it was called Parky's Barbecue in Lebanon, IN. I had some pretty impressive ribs. It was no Byron's Smokehouse, but still, it was very good for being that far north. Sunday night, we left out concert with a plate full of cookies, 2 slices of pecan pie, 2 boxes of chocolate covered cherries, and a bag of Valentine's message hearts. I guess it's no wonder we were able to stay up till 3am.

I still need to figure out something to do for Valentine's Day. Many of you have probably heard me rant about how ridiculous Valentine's Day is, as it is not in any way a real holiday. It is simply absurd! That being said, I do love my wife, so I will get her something. But it won't be roses and chocolate (that I could buy for half the price any other week of the year).
She's a pretty good sport about my anti-Valentine's feelings, mostly because I am such an incredibly romantic guy the other 364 days of the year.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, and having it updated much more frequently than the old journal, please let me know, and I'll keep it going. I'm going to try and take more pictures on my tours and get those posted, so this should become probably the most visited website in the history of the world. Or at least in the history of Dave Potts blogs. Whichever comes first.

House Concert Food Challenge is on!

The 2007 "best dessert spread at a house concert" challenge has officially begun. Greg and I did a house concert in Dayton, OH, and host Jeff Stands made one of the most impressive display of snacks and desserts I have seen... The cheesecake was the big hit for me, as you know that's my favorite, but he also made Black and White AngelFood Cake, Espresso Panna Cotta, Double Chocolate Pound Cake, cranberry orange bread with strawberry spread, and dark chocolate raspberry swirl cookies....
So, for the rest of you hosting house concert this year, you have your work cut out for you to win this years food award. Start cooking!

The concert was a lot of fun, Greg had only played one house concert before, and he is a natural house concert performer. You may have heard me cover Greg's song "The End of You and Me" It's a really beautiful, and quite frankly, brilliant song, and he opened with that, and had a couple people crying... Crying in a good way, it's great to see music really move people, that's what it's all about.

It's probably about time to be getting to bed, but we are staying down in the basement, which happens to be where the XBox is, so we are going to be up for ahwile playing football!
We're off to Flint, MI in the morning.
-DP

It is FREEZING!

Hey y'all -
I'm in Greenwood, Indiana, on my way to Dayton, OH tonight for the 2nd night of a 5-night tour with Greg Adkins. We had a great first show last night, but I will tell you it is absolutely freezing up here!!! I'm not used to this weather, and somehow my sweatshirt is not quite doing the job... I can barely move my toes.
Here is a picture of me with a couple layers of sweatshirts, as we're loading Greg's car Thursday morning.

Greg and I spent the first day of the road trip going through his I-Pod. He's got about 5500 more songs than I do on mine... He's got some great stuff, like Nich Lachey and other legends :)

Well, we're off to Dayton, I'll post another blog later on the tour.
-Dave

MUSIC ON THE SQUARE 2/3/07

Last night, I played at a new venue in La Fayette, GA called Music On The Square. It is a music store with a cafe attached. It's a wonderful little acoustic venue tucked away in a small town in scenic Northwest Georgia.. Mark opened the store and cafe just last August, and already they are having weekly concerts on Saturday nights. About 20 folks came out on a freezing cold night, and were a very appreciative audience.
It was my first concert back after my 6 week vacation, so I was a little rusty, but overall the performance went well.
There was a video made of the show by a local company, and they are going to do some post production work, and in a few weeks, the DVD will be available for sale. I will let you know when that's ready.
Many thanks to Martha Ann Brooks who opened the show for me last night!

I am going to be back at Music on the Square later this year, I'll keep you posted.

Just finished watching the Super Bowl... I suppose I'm happy for Peyton Manning, and I'm definitely happy for Tony Dungy, who has always come across as a very nice guy. If you were wondering, Rex Grossman is a pretty bad quarterback. OK, maybe pretty bad is a mild term for it!

Talk to you later this week, when I'm out on the road with Greg Adkins for our Midwest tour,
DP

Back to work!

Back to work! I've had a very relaxing start to 2007, we took a family vacation to Disney World. The kids had such a great time, it was one of my favorite times of my life seeing their faces when Mickey Mouse and friends showed up. Here's a few pictures from the trip.

I'm excited to get rolling with the 2007 touring season, starting next week. The year kicks off for me with a Midwest tour with my friend Greg Adkins. We'll be hitting Indiana, Ohio and Michigan next week. (come on, good weather!) As you know, I don't really own a jacket, so Michigan in February is not always the best idea, but we'll give it a shot.

Later in February I'll be spending a weekend at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis, where I'll be playing all kinds of showcases. Lara is coming with me to help me come across as a friendly guy. When people just meet me, they think "what's his problem". But, when they meet me and Lara, they remember "those Potts folks sure were friendly." In all seriuosness, I couldn't do this without all of her help and support, I'm a lucky guy!

March and April will be bringing more Midwest shows, and a Northeast-MidAtlantic tour.
I'm very excited about the next few months of shows, and I'm hoping to see all of you soon. I hope that 2007 is treating you well so far, and we'll talk soon, DP

The blog is back, for the first time, sort of

Hey y'all -
I'm going to give this blog another shot. Several people have been asking me to post more journal entries on the website, or more blogs on my myspace page, so I'm going to try it here (again, for the first time) and see what happens.
I'm going to update this blog at least weekly with info on the latest gigs, songs, etc.
Please let me know what you'd like to see here, or if you're actually alive, and reading this!
Thanks,
DP

DP Best of 2006 Awards

Ladies and gentlemen, with no further addieu (addoo? aidooo?), I present the DP Best of 2006 Awards!
Top 5 Gigs of 2006;
5) Moonlight Music Café - Birmingham, AL 4/15 - Opening for Lucy Kaplansky. This was both a great gig, as well as my last time playing at this wonderful venue in B'Ham. Keith H. put his heart and soul into this venue, and made one of the best listening rooms in the Southeast. He had to close his doors this fall, and I will greatly miss him and the Moonlight.
4) O'Susanna Concerts - Blytheville, AR 11/18 - Something about the setting, on a cold winter night in a small town in Arkansas. A small locally-owned bookstore with a wood stove and wooden folding chairs signed by 15 years worth of authors and musicians. David and Susie have done a great job of establishing a concert series in a place you would least expect it.
3) Vanilla Bean Café - Pomfret, CT 9/16 - Opening for Pierce Pettis. Pierce is one of my all-time favorites, so it was quite a thrill to open for him at this charming venue in Connecticut.
2) Acoustic View House Concert - Byron, MN 4/28 - Mike and Stacy started their house concert series after seeing me at Acoustic Ave. House Concert in 2005 (see best of '05) They did a great job in only their 2nd house concert, and had a full living room of about 30 folks.
1) Canyon House Concerts - Phoenix, AZ 12/1 - Absolutely wonderful house concert series in the Sonora Desert of Arizona. A sold-out crowd of 70 packed in, and what a great, receptive audience! Many thanks to Jeanne and John for all their work in putting on the show.

Honorable Mention; Cousin Andy's - Carbondale, IL, Preacher's House Concert - Auburndale, WI (a 2005 Top 5), Prairie Grapevine Folklore Society - Springfield, IL, Mozaic Room - Avon, MA opening for Kate Campbell, Hattiesburg Public Library - Hattiesburg, MS, Daily Grind - Murphy, NC, split gig with Greg Adkins, Cherry Creek Arts Festival - Denver, CO.

Best Tour of 2006; April Midwest Tour - Started out in Hannibal, MO (hometown of Mark Twain), then headed up for a weekend in Appleton, WI for a conference at Calvary Chapel Appleton. I stayed that weekend with the Vanderloops, who make the list of 10 nicest people of 2006. From there, I played at Preacher's House Concerts in Auburndale, which after a great gig there in 2005, I wrote an all-time classic song, 'Punctual in Auburndale', noting how everyone was very on time for my concert. After a fun in-the-round show with Madison Songwriters, I headed off to Minnesota. There I played at Acoustic View House Concert (see Top 5 gigs), another very fun show in Cambridge, MN, where I was treated to a birthday 'Blue Ribbon Brownie' at Applebee's after the gig, and also performed at Book & Bean Café in St. Cloud.

Sideman of the Year - As you know, Rob Seals is my sideman, greatest sideman there is. But with Rob living in LA, we don't get the chance to play together much. This years award is a split-decision. The 2 winners are Rob Slocumb, of the duo, Martha's Trouble, and singer/songwriter Greg Adkins from Knoxville, TN. Rob sat in as part of the "Dave Potts Band" at this year's Summer Swing gig in Opelika and did a great job on backing guitar. Greg and I did 2 shows together this summer, and he learned piano parts to a couple of my tunes, which sounded great. We also did a in-the-round gig where we played together all night, and he jumped in and played on all kinds of tunes he'd never heard before. Greg and I will be doing a Midwest tour together this February.

Best concert I saw this year - Alison Krauss and Union Station at Columbus Civic Center in Columbus, GA. 1/19. Many kudos to my wife for surpising me with tickets for our anniversary.

Favorite new artist or group - I had a great year in meeting and hearing some great new artists. The winner of this award goes to Zane Williams. I met him at Kerrville, and was offended that he didn't win the New Folk Contest. Honorable mention for favorite new artist this year is Jud Caswell, who I also met at Kerrville. Luckily he was one of the winners of the New Folk Contest, so the judges were spared.

Best post-gig lodging - After a very nice, although laryngitis-plagued gig at Sounds of Grace Concert Series in Berryville, VA, I stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast on the banks of the Shenendoah River.

Best radio station/DJ - Probably at this point should give a lifetime acheivment award to WDBX in Carbondale, IL - They won this award last year, so instead of going 2 in a row, we'll give them the LAA. And, the 2006 award goes more to the show 'Messages', hosted by Stu Weaver on WFCF, 88.5FM, St. Augustine, FL. He played the new CD nearly every week on his show after it came out in August, Thanks Stu!

Airline of the Year - And once again, the winner is AirTran! I took my guitar on 5 round trip flights, and was able to carry it on every time!

Best family event of the year - It's a 2-way tie; Barnum and Bailey's Circus, Feb. 15 in Atlanta, and the Alabama National Fair in Montgomery, Oct. 10.

Best half-family event of the Year - Christopher came with me to a gig in Fort Walton Beach, FL, and we spent a day together at the beach, and the swimming pool at the Marriott. About 2 seconds after he woke up, he said "where do you get breakfast around here?"

Best comment made after making a wish from breaking a Scandinavian cookie into 3 pieces (a highly sought after award) - Christopher Allan Potts on his second attempt at breaking the 'wishing cookie' into 3 pieces said, "Dinosaurs have just come alive" Dec. 21, 2006.

Dessert of the Year - It's ashame that I have never given this award before, and if I had I would be giving the Lifetime Achievment Award, as it would be the 3rd straight year for my wife's amazing Candy Bar Cheesecake!

Total Geek Day of the Year Award - I'm awarding myself with the geek day of the year for my first ever live fantasy baseball auction draft, held in Atlanta, April 2, 2006. Come on, Ryan Howard for $16? That's a steal!

Storm of the Year - Feb. 11th, I got snowed into Boston, after flying up to play at Mozaic Room Coffeehouse, I got stuck in one of the largest blizzards in the Northeast in the past 20 years. Luckily I had a wonderful place to stay, and spent a full day watching the Olympics and compiling stats to make fantasy baseball rankings. (speaking of geeks)

College Football Play of the Year - Auburn's blocking a punt, and Tre Smith diving into the endzone touchdown to defeat otherwise unbeaten Florida. Our house is about 2 miles from Jordan-Hare Stadium, and we could hear and feel the stands rocking from here.

NFL Play of the Year - Well, you know, the Browns pretty much sucked again this year, so I'm giving the 2006 NFL play of the Year to the 1989 Cleveland Browns, since I watched their highlight video this year, we'll go with Bernie Kosar's 97-yard touchdown pass to Webster Slaughter against the Bears on Monday Night Football, Oct. 23, 1989.

TV Show of the Year - The Office. It just keeps getting better and better. Incidentally, my booble-head of the year award goes to my Dwight Shrute bobble-head.

Movie of the Year - I apologize for this in advance. But, you know, I've got to be honest here. Millions of people are counting on me for my expertise and my thorough evaluations. As much as you might not want to admit it, you know it's true, the movie of the year was 'Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'. Come on, you know it was. This year's runner-up, perhaps a bit more legitimate is, 'Inside Man'.

Thanks for tuning in, Happy New Year, and I look forward to seeing y'all in '07. -Dave