Is it live or is it DP in a studio?

I had a talk with Rob Seals last week, and we chatted a little about what the next DP project might be (in between the baseball trade deadline talks).... I have been thinking about doing something a little different. I have done 7 studio CD's in my career, 4 of which are still in print, and am thinking it may be fun to do a live CD. I would love to hear your thoughts on live vs. studio CD. If I did a live CD, it would include some new songs, some old favorites, probably a couple cover songs. There would likely be a mix of solo acoustic, stuff with limited backup musicians, and a couple of full band songs...
If I did a studio CD, it would be a similar feel to '$12.99', with mostly new DP songs, along with a couple of cover songs.
If you have any opinions, thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment, or send me an e-mail. I'd love to have my devoted fans (you are devoted, aren't you?) involved in the planning stages of this next project.
There is still no timeline for this, but at least the thinking stages have begun.

Have you seen Batman yet?

When something's this good, gotta talk about it

Wow, Batman 'The Dark Knight' is an amazing movie. I don't care if you don't like superhero/comic book movies, I don't care if you like action movies or not, I don't care if you don't even like movies at all, you must go see this movie! It is a stunning film on so many different levels... Big budget Hollywood blockbusters are not supposed to have this much depth. But this is art, pure and simple. Fantastic.

Note : Do not take your children to see this movie. It is violent and disturbing, and probably should be rated R instead of PG-13.

To CD or not to CD?

That is the question... I am starting to think about the possibility of doing some recording in 2009, and am wondering if the CD is starting to reach the end of it's useful time? Digital music is becoming much more popular every year, and at some point, will take over for Cd's entirely. I remember in 1999 when I put out my 'County Line Road' CD, I also made cassettes. Before that point, it had been necessary to have cassettes, but soon after, cassettes were totally obsolete, and I still have a box of 'County Line Road' cassettes.
I don't want to end up with a box of thousands of a new CD while everyone is busy downloading my music, and using my old CD's as frisbees, coasters, etc.
There are becoming more ways to distribute music digitally, ITunes being the most popular. There are also download cards, which I can sell at shows. And, of course, you can download songs or full albums straight off the homepage of my website.
But, on the other hand, some people still do enjoy having an actual CD, and there are still people who haven't joined the current century, and don't know how to download music, much less put it on an mp3 player.
If you have thoughts on the 'to CD or not to CD' question, please do share!

it's all art to me

I may be really reaching for a topic here, but this is what I've been thinking about. It started when I was at the NBA Finals in Boston last weekend....
Quite often, I hear artsy people complaining about how much everyone loves sports, and why can't people understand that music, art, etc. is more important and a better way to spend their time and money... Being a musician, I think it would be great if more people spent more of their money going out to hear obscure folk musicians rather than going to football games, but the thought that somehow art is more valid or important than sports is a pretty silly concept.
When I hear people complain about the insane amounts of money that atheletes get paid, I usually nod my head and agree for a minute, but then if I stop and think about it, that is a ridiculous thing to be upset about. Last weekend, I saw 20,000 in Boston who had payed an average of a couple hundred bucks to go to the NBA finals, and thousands more outside hoping they could find a ticket to buy. The night before, I played a concert in Connecticut, and about 30 people came, willing to pay $12 to see some darn fine folk music (if I do say so myself). Well, of course Kevin Garnett should get paid more than I do! Now, the idea that one form of entertainment is "better" than another is not something that is even worth arguing about. Some people like live music, some people like art galleries or theater. But, even more people like sports, and you know what? It seems to me that they are all serving the exact same purpose, for people to be entertained, and to have some sort of an escape from their everyday lives.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment if you want. Am I off my rocker, or are sports and art basically the same thing?

Two fun weekends.

I'm back from 2nd straight weekend tour of gigs with Jud Caswell (www.judcaswell.com). We spent one weekend in Maryland and this past weekend in New England. There were some great shows, and it was fun spending some time with Jud, and hearing his music. I'll give you the basic rundown of the past 2 weeks, then in upcoming posts I'll go into some details about specific parts that were quite fun.
On May 29th, I started my tour in Stafford, VA, after flying into DC, and getting a vert cool rental car, a Ford Mustang. Nothing says Mustang like Dave Potts! On May 30th, I met up with Jud for a house concert in Baltimore. We spent Saturday walking around downtown Baltimore, then Saturday night, we had a house concert in Rockville, MD, with Moore Music, some of my favorite people in the folk scene.
I flew home to Alabama on Sunday, and spent a few days drinking sweet tea before flying up to Boston Thursday night. I got into Boston at midnight, and drove a couple hours north to Brunswick, Maine, to Jud's house. I slept until noon, which I hadn't done in quite a while, it was great! Friday night, after a fantastic dinner at Beale Street Barbecue in Bath, ME (more about that bbq later), Jud and I played a show at The Chocolate Church Arts Center, which is a very cool venue.
After another morning of sleeping in (only till 11 this time), Jud and I headed down to the Vanilla Bean Cafe in Pomfret, CT which has long been one of my favorite venues. It was a wonderful show, after 4 shows together, Jud and I finally had our act together and really put on a good show if I do say so myself. We made a late night jaunt back to Maine, with plans to play an open mic feature in Boston Sunday night. But, other plans came around, as 2 friends of mine from high school were going to be at Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Boston. Shane called me and asked what time my gig was, and if I'd like to try and get a ticket to the game. Open mic feature or Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals? tough call... You probably know what I chose, Game 2 of the NBA Finals was fantastic!! I'll be writing some more about that soon...
Just wanted to give you the rundown since I haven't written in a while, I'll be posting interesting details from the trips over the next couple days, and maybe even a sound clip or two from one of the concerts, so check back soon.

Great house concert!

I had a wonderful house concert last weekend to end my Michigan/Indiana tour. I was in Bloomfield Hills, MI at 'Music In The Burbs'. There was a VERY full house, and a great enthusiastic audience. It was definitely one of the best shows of the year so far, there's nothing like a house concert, as you've heard me say before. The hosts, Jay and Renee, were very hospitable, and did a great job of managing a very large crowd in the living room. My old friend Shelley, who lives in Clarkston, MI, brought me a very refreshing mason jar of sweet tea, to make the night even better. I also got to meet a very talented singer/songwriter, Jill Jack, who was a member of the audience. All in all, it was just a great night.

I also wanted to mention a new singer/songwriter I "discovered" the night before. I played an in-the-round (www.jamminround.com) in DeWitt, MI, and had the privilege of playing with Chris Castle, who was a really great artist. Do yourself a favor and go listen to a couple of his songs at www.myspace.com/chriscastlepage

Next weekend, I've got a couple shows with Jud Caswell (www.judcaswell.com) in the DC area, and then in New England the following weekend, I'll let you know how they go.

The magnolia's are in full bloom here in beautiful Auburn, and baseball season is in full swing (no pun intended) Life is good!

Goshen, IN and the South Side Diner

Back out on the road this weekend, I flew into Detroit early this morning, and unfortunately forgot to pack my parka and mittens. It is ridiculously cold for May up here. I drove down to one of my favorite towns, Goshen, IN, home of the South Side Diner. As always, a great pre-show meal, I had the Philly Steak Hoagie today (Nick, the owner, is from Philly, and knows how to do it). Closed the meal with a great key lime pie. I was excited to find out that the diner has been fetaured on the Food Network, they're show will be airing one more time, on Fri. May 16th at 12:00est.

I performed at The Electric Brew, one of my old favorites. I have been playing at The Electric Brew about once a year since they opened in 1996. I was sad that the original owners have sold the Brew, and moved out west, but the place is still up and running just as it was, and still a great place to be.
There will be some videos from the concert up on YouTube within a couple days, so check them out.

Tomorrow I'm off to Lansing, MI. Will report from there.

David Wilcox is Back!!

Those of you that know me well, know that David Wilcox, along with John Denver, are my biggest musical influences. It was his album 'How Did You Find Me Here' that really got me into writing contemporary folk music, and is to this day, my favorite album of all-time. He has made many, many CD's over the past couple decades, all of them very good, but I've sort of slipped away from my appreciation of him. Well, not that he ever really left, but he is definitely back. He has put out a record called 'Airstream', that is all just him and his guitar, recorded in his Airstream trailor. (clever name, heh?) There are not many people that can pull off an all solo acoustic record, but he really can.

If you are a fan of music, or Airstream trailors, you will like this.

Great new music

I've just found some amazing new music that I want to share with you... There's a songwriter named Andy Gullahorn that just put out an incredible CD called 'Reinventing The Wheel'. I have is previous CD's, that are great, but this is even better... I highly recommend checking it out, www.andygullahorn.com. The whole CD is amazing, but if you only have time to listen to one song, check out 'That Guy', a daring song to write with an amazing message.

Also, my good friend Erik Balkey, who stopped touring full-time last year to focus more on songwriting, has really hit a new level with his writing, which was more than fantastic to begin with. Go to his myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/familyalbumbyerik, and listen to the song 'My Daddy Is My Spiderman'.

You will be glad you took the time to listen to these writers.

The Birchmere!

Playing at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA was an incredible experience. The famed venue is definitely all that is cracked up to be. It was a thrill to open for legendary singer/songwriter Christine Lavin, who has been so very kind to me. She goes out of her way to help up and coming singer/songwriters like myself, and it is much appreciated!There was a crowd over over 300 people, and certainly one of the best crowds I've ever performed in front of.

The day of the concert, Feb. 23rd, was my daugther Emma Lynn's 5th birthday. It was very, very hard to be gone on her birthday, so I called her from the stage at the Birchmere and 300 people say Happy Birthday to her, and then I played her favorite song, 'In My Backyard'.

I certainly hope that I will have the opportunity to play the Birchmere again.

I also want to really thank my friends Sam and Erin Hensley for great accomodations as well as fantastic local dining experiences over the weekend. Sam is a wonderful singer/songwriter (http://www.samhensley.com/), and he set up 2 additional concerts for me in the DC area, helping to make the weekend trip even better. He also opened both shows, and it is quite a treat to hear him sing. I wish I could say he has equal skills at NCAA football on the Sony Playstation, but it only seems right to mention that I did win the weekend series 6-4, as Auburn was quite unstoppable.

Somehow, I got the smaller font size on the street side billboard. Come on, I played first, shouldn't I be mentioned first? And, I am taller than Christine.

It's cold here!

I am writing tonight from the cozy house of my friend Sam Hensley in Washington, DC. I just got finished a thrilling victory in Playstation NCAA Football, as my Auburn Tigers handed the Oklahoma State Cowboys an overtime defeat.
They are predicting snow and freezing rain for tonight and tomorrow, how very nice that will be. I'm hoping not to have a repeat of my February 2006 tour to Massachusetts, where I got snowed in for 2 days!

To catch you up on recent happenings, I had a wonderful time in Daphne, AL last weekend, where some very fine folks hosted their first ever house concert. It was an absolutely fantastic crowd, for mostly first time house concert attendees, with first time house concert hosts, I was thrilled with the turnout and response. Unfortunately, I was getting over a cold, and coughed my way through the second set, but the energy from the audience helped pull me through. So many of my favortite shows over the past couple years have been house concerts, and often hosted by folks just like you who have never tried it before. If you have any interest in hosting you own house concert, please get in touch with me and let's schedule one! I've got a page with hosting info at my website (www.davepotts.com/hosting.html).

The night before the house concert, I ran sound for Johnsmith at our local Sundilla Concert Series. Johnsmith is absolutely one of the very top singer/songwriters performing today, and it's always a treat to hear him. If for some reason you're not familiar with his music, visit www.johnsmithmusic.com

I've got 3 shows in the DC area this weekend, highlighted by the show at the Birchmere with Christine Lavin, I am also doing 2 shows with Sam Hensley at local churches in DC.

Have a warm night!
-DP

In-N-Out West!

I had a nice trip out west last week, I played in Vegas and Salt Lake City, and got to see my good friends Ryan Brown and Rob Seals in LA.
The trip started out in Las Vegas with a show at Garage-Ma-Hall. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a concert in somebody's garage, but it was actually a rather fantastic venue. It wasn't quite your typical two-car garage, it was actually a permanent stage in a very, very large garage, with the audience comfortably seated in couches and easy chairs. Richard and Betty have a wonderful venue, and I hope to get back there again sometime. Speaking of Vegas, it is pretty easy to lose a lot of money really fast there, not that I would know anything about that.
I drove to Los Angeles to watch the Super Bowl with Ryan Brown, my friend and drummer of the last 15 years. It was a shcoker to see the Giants upset the undefeated Pats (sorry Jud!). What a great game to watch. Of course, now that the Super Bowl is over, it is officially baseball season. Pitchers and catchers report!

What is the best thing about going on a trip out west? It very well could be In-N-Out Burger! We don't have In-N-Out down South, but then they don't have Zaxby's or sweet tea on the west coast, I guess we'll call it even!


An early candidate for concert of the year was Magpie House Concerts in Salt Lake City, UT. I met Grant, who runs the series, at last years Folk Alliance Conference. I am so glad we were able to work out a date. There was a very full crowd of 40 people jammed into a living room, it was about as full as a room can get. As I'm sure you've heard me mention before, it's not the size of a crowd in numbers as much as their interest level and how full the room is. It was really a great show, and I can't wait to get back to Utah.

Next weekend is the big show at the Birchmere opening for Christine Lavin, I will be sure to let you know how it goes,
DP

South Florida Folk Festival

Just returned home from a great weekend in South Florida, attending the South Florida Folk Festival. We took the kids to Disney World for a couple days on the way down, and had a fantastic time. I highly recommend 'Expedition Everest" roller coaster at Animal Kingdon Park for you thrill-seekers!
I had a great house concert on Friday night before the festival, hosted by my friends the Humphrey's. They had a wonderful crowd of about 30 people, plus 3 cheesecakes! I stayed up late after the show to play Sony Playstation with their son Tim. It turns out I am a dominating force at NCAA Football, you can't stop my running game, can't stop it!

Saturday at the South Florida Folk Festival I finally found out how it feels to win one of these songwriting contests that have been my nemesis for so many years. I was very honored to be chosen as one of the 3 winners along with my good friend Jud Caswell, and Friction Farm, a great duo from the Atlanta area. My winning songs were '$12.99' and 'If I Broke The Record'. It's nice to get a pat on the back sometimes, even though I know judging songwriting is a crapshoot at best, and several of the other finalists certainly could have been chosen as the winners instead.
I got to perform 4 different times at the festival, including an in-the-round with Jud and Friction Farm at the winners concert, and an in-the-round with one of my all-time favorite groups, Storyhill. I even had the honor of having Chris and Johnny of Storyhill sing 3-part harmony with me on 'This Old Guitar', my favorite John Denver tune. It was a thrill to sing with them. If you aren't familiar with Storyhill, be sure to check them out at www.storyhill.com.
Jud Caswell and I also sang a duet on stage, covering 'Houses In The Fields' by John Gorka. Jud and I are playing several shows together this spring along the east coast, and that is going to be a very fun time!

There was also a vendor at the festival selling half-pound cookies. Yeah, that's right, Half-Pound Cookies! They were pretty unbelievable.

Thanks to Matthew Taylor (mtaylorphotos.com) for sending me these pictures from the South Florida Folk Festival. This is me performing at the winner's concert on the festival mainstage on a cold Sunday afternoon.

DP Best of 2007 Awards

Happy New Year! It is one of my favorite yearly traditions, the making of the DP "Best Of The Year" Awards. I know you enjoy them almost as much as me, and without further addooooo, here we go;

Top 5 Gigs of 2007
5) Rick’s Music, Raynham, MA. 4/20. A music store/café with very nice folks. The concert was also a fundraiser for Homes For Our Troops, a great organiztion that builds homes for injured soldiers.

4) Sweet Grass Café, Oscoda, MI. 9/14. A lovely, quaint café in a small town on the shores of Lake Huron. A cool early autumn night, with homemade apple pie, and the Paul Bunyan Festival going on across the street.

3) Electric Brew, Goshen, IN with Greg Adkins. 2/10. The Electric Brew has always been one of my favorite venues, it was great to have Greg Adkins share the stage with me, playing for a full house. As usual, the pregame meal was at the South Side Diner!

2) Messages Concert Series, St. Augustine, FL 7/28. TheDP 2006 DJ of the Year, Stu Weaver of WFCF in St. Augustine started a new concert series at Flagler College, and I was the first concert of the series, quite an honor. A wonderful crowd in an old historic building on a beautiful summer night.

1) Swallow Hill, Denver, CO. 5/19. Probably the #1 gig of all-time. I got my start as a performer back in high school at Swallow Hill open mics. I also took numerous lessons and workshops at Swallow Hill, and always dreamed of performing there. To be a headliner was really an honor, made even better because the incomparable Rob Seals flew out from LA to accompany me on stage. It was a near sell-out, playing to an enthusiastic crowd filled with old friends. Perfect!

Best Tour of 2007 - February Midwest Tour with Greg Adkins – I almost always travel and perform solo, but travelling and sharing 5 gigs with Greg was a wonderful experience. We played in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, which in retrospect, are not the best places to be in February! The gigs were great, and it was fun swapping songs with Greg, and learning his songs. Depsite being a Tennessee fan, he is still an OK guy.

Best Tour of 2007 (family version) - October tour in Ohio with my baby girl, Emma Lynn. You can read all the details of the tour complete with pictures in my blog post from October, but it was a wonderful experience having my sweet baby (she's 4 now, but she'll still be my baby even when she's 20) on the road with me.

Best New Artist of 2007 – Brad Yoder. It is true that Brad Yoder is not a “new” artist. He’s not even really new to me, as I met him in 2006, but at this year’s Northeast Folk Alliance Conference, he really caught my ear, and I became a huge fan. I now own all of his CD’s, and can’t get enough. It also turns out, he used to work at the South Side Diner in Goshen, IN. Small, wonderful world! www.bradyoder.com

Best Concert of 2007 – A brief 20-minute showcase by Lowen & Navarro at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis is this year’s best concert. Lowen & Navarro is one of my favorite acts, and Eric Lowen is suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was an extremely inspirational moment to see Eric, barely able to lift his hands, but still playing his heart out, even to a small crowd in a hotel room in Memphis. Magical.

Best CD of 2007 – Going to put 2 CD's on this list.
Brad Yoder - Someday Or Never. This record features some fantastic songwriting, and such solid production, that it works for me even though it is pretty far away from my normal listening range. I got this CD on November 11th, and despite only having it for 6 weeks of 2007, I know I listened to it more than any other CD I got this year. 'School Together' is my favorite song of the year, and is just one of many gems on this great project.
Greg Adkins – Chase The Western Sky. The harmony vocals on this CD are so amazing, they alone make the purchase worthwhile. (J) Seriously though, my cameo aside, this is a great, great record. Greg worked with producer Chris Rosser in Asheville, and put together a great collection of songs. www.gregadkinsmusic.com

Vacation of the Year – Taking the kids to Disney World for the first time was a wonderful time. Disney World is really a great experience for the kids, and to see the joy on their faces was priceless. I kind of liked the rides too!

Musicians Day Off Day Of The Year – As if going to Disney World wasn’t enough for one year, in October, I went to Disneyland with two of my best friends and musical compatriotes. (I have no idea if that is a word). I joined Rob Seals , producer/sideman extraordinaire (and his wife the Ashbear) and Ryan Brown, long time friend and drummer for a great day of roller coasters and spinny things. If you ever go to Disneyland, you need to go with Ryan Brown, he could write the Disneyland handbook.

Sweep of the Year - The Cleveland Browns take both games from the Baltimore Suckens, I mean Ravens. The 2nd game, an overtime victory in Baltimore was sweet, with a last second, game tying field goal from Phil Dawson, that hit the upright, bounced in and out and in, and left Baltimore fans sick to their stomachs, which is how they deserve to be!

Have I Seen This Before? Football Game of the Year – Auburn defeats Florida for the second year in a row! Florida may be last year’s defending champ, and a football powerhouse, but my boy Tommy Tuberville absolutely owns Urban Meyer.

Have I Seen This 6 times Before? Football Game of the Year – Auburn beats rival Alabama for the 6th straight year. Auburn is undefeated in the Iron Bowl since the birth of Christopher Potts in 2001.

Fantasy Baseball Performance Of The Year - 'Thome's Tigers', managed by Dave Potts. This fantasy baseball team finished #5 out of 11,000 teams on sportingnews.com.

Book of the Year – Yeah, right, we’ll just pretend like I read so many books, I could never pick just one:)

Movie Of The Year – I took a lot of heat for last years choice of Talladega Nights as movie of the year. That made me very tempted to go with Blades of Glory for this years movie of the year, but I’ll refrain, and go with ‘Dan In Real Life’. Great acting by Steve Carrel, as my favorite character from another show (The Office), he did a great job of creating a new, believable character, that I never confused with Michael Scott.

All I want for Christmas is a new CD

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving. It's shopping season now, so I've decided to help you out with yours. Below is a list of some of my favorite independent songwriters, who's CD's would make great gifts for your friends and family. Check them out;
-Greg Adkins, Chase The Western Sky. www.gregadkinsmusic.com
-Zane Williams, Hurry Home, www.zanewilliams.info
-Jud Caswell, Blackberry Time, www.judcaswell.com
-Berkeley Hart, Wreck 'N Sow, www.berkeleyhart.com
-Charlotte Kendrick, North Of New York, www.charlottekendrick.com

Start with those, and if you want more suggestions, let me know.

NERFA review

I spent the weekend at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance Conference in Monticello, NY. For those of you unfamiliar with Folk Alliance Conferences, it is a few hundred songwriters getting together with concert presenters, DJ's and other folk music industry people, and spending 3 days sharing songs and coffee. The idea of attending these conferences is usually to try and get gigs, increase name recognition in the scene, and generally hope to enhance your career.
However, for me this weekend turned into getting much needed inspiration from fellow songwriters. I did have several showcases, and hopefully will get some work out of that, but really I felt more like an audience member than anything else.
Here are my highlights from the weekend;
The trio 'We're About 9' was probably my favorite act at the conference. I have known of them for years, but have only heard them play one or two songs, and didn't realize how much I liked their music. Great harmonies and energy, but the quirky, inventive songwriting is what really stood out to me. Check them out at www.wereaboutnine.com

My best single moment of the conference was hearing Joe Crookston play his song 'Freddy The Falcon' at a small late-night showcase. I heard the song last year when he had just written it, and the chorus was stuck in my head for the whole year, and I would occassionally find myself humming it. Usually when I remember a song that fondly from the past, it often ends up disappointing me when I hear it again, but this song was even better than I remember it. I got that wonderful chill in the spine feeling that can't really be properly described. That song is going to be on his upcoming CD, but in the meantime you should check out his last CD, 'Fall Down As The Rain' at www.joecrookston.com

Another gem that I somehow overlooked last year, and didn't even fully appreciate until listening to his CD's on the way home is Brad Yoder. He is not your typical folk singer/songwriter. He's a little more pop than most folkies, and he's got more funny songs and quirky songs than I usually like, but upon honest evaluation, I think I'd proabably have to put 3-4 of his songs in my Top 10 of the conference. It's pretty hard for me to describe his writing, except to say I listened to his CD's for 2 hours driving home from the airport, and when I got home, I immediately put them on and listened again because I just had to hear them more than once. He's got several free mp3's on his website, www.bradyoder. Do yourself a favor, and go download 'Local Band', 'Excellent Trouble' and 'Everybody's Got A Record'. Then, send him a couple bucks because this music is too good to be free.

There were other old friends who I always love to hear, including Jud Caswell, Joe Jencks, Amy Speace, Marc Douglas Berardo, Anthony Da Costa and Karen Mal. They are all worth checking out. Jud and I will be touring together in the Northeast in 2008.
There were also some new faces that I was unfamiliar with, that I am glad to have found out about, including Laura Bullock who's song 'The Net Below' was one of my favorites of the weekend. I was also pleasantly surprised to see my old friend Jenny Goodspeed, who has just released a new CD. Jenny is the harmony vocalist from my 'South Side Diner' CD. She joined me on 'One Mississippi' for old-time's sake, even though we hadn't rehearsed it since 1997, it sounded great.

I started a couple new songs this weekend, and hopefully the spark of inspiration will get me several new songs for you to hear.

If I Broke The Record!

We went to Chuck E Cheese on Saturday, and I put to rest any doubts about folksingers and their athletic prowess. I obliterated the old record of 59 points on the Chuck E Cheese basketball game, putting up a solid 70-point performance! It is true that most of the people who play the games at Chuck E Cheese are under 12 years old, but hey, a win is a win!
And by the way, I was immediately tested for performance enhancing drugs, and they found me to be within the legal limits of pizza and Coke.

I broke the record, and I did it clean.

On Tour in Ohio with my baby girl!

This past weekend was my first time taking my 4-year old daughter Emma Lynn on tour with me. I had a couple house concerts in Ohio, and we had a wonderful time on the road together. We left Thursday afternoon, and drove halfway, stopping at a motel in Kentucky, with an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. My kids love swimming. I've also taught Emma Lynn to be a baseball fan, so we watched World Series Game 2 as we drifted off to sleep.

Friday morning, we headed towards Ohio, and I did a house concert in Johnstown, OH. The Duick's host house concerts on a pretty regular basis, and they have hosted some of my good friends and favorite artists in the past. They were great hosts, and they had 2 kids and 2 dogs for Emma Lynn to play with. It was a very nice intimate crowd, and a fun show. Saturday morning, Theresa even painted Emma Lynn's face for our Saturday adventure to the Columbus Zoo.

As we were driving to the zoo Saturday, the brakes in my Camry (250,000 miles and running strong) began to grind in a very ferocious manner. I had a house concert that night in Dayton, OH, with my old friends Jeff and Wendy Stands, and so we found a Big O Tires store near their house. It was nearly 4:00 when we got there, and the store closed at 6:00. They checked my front tires and brakes, and they were in bad shape, the callipers (I didn't know what those were either) had frozen, and the brake pads had worn so thin, the front rotors were getting mashed, causing the grinding noise. Long story short, that is all bad news, and we would not have made it back to Alabama in that condition. I told the manager Mark about my plight, and that we were planning to drive back home Sunday morning. He drove 45 minutes down to Cincinnati to get the needed parts, and kept the shop open an hour late to get my car fixed Sat night. Needless to say, I really appreciate what he did, and I officially recommend Big O Tires!

The Sat. night house concert was much more enjoyable with the car situation fixed, and even more enjoyable because of Jeff's famous cheesecake. Some of you may recall, Greg Adkins and I did a house concert at the Stands back in February and were raving about the food. They did not disappoint this time, along with the fantastic cheesecake, Jeff also made an apple pie along with several other desserts. Cheesecake and apple pie may sound like a lot, so I only had 2-3 pieces of each.

We had a small crowd for the concert, but they were very enjoyable to play for, and it was very nice to see old friends again, including Wendy's parents, who were like a second family to me back in Colorado in my elementary school days. Emma Lynn made a new best friend as well, their dog 'Tigger'.

It was wonderful to be able to take Emma Lynn on the road with me, and I look forward to more trips with my kids in the near future.

By the way, the leave a comment, win a prize contest is still going on.

Great results so far, and new use for DP music

So far, the response to the "make a comment" for a free mp3 post has been amazing. I would have never guessed so many people would jump on this opportunity, wow!

I sold a CD the other day to someone who heard my songs at the dentist office. She said she hated going to the dentist, but after listening to my music while there, well, she still hates the dentist. But, nonetheless, I still feel comfortable recommending that you all take a Dave Potts CD to your next dentist appointment (you know, in 2011), and see if it helps.

leave a comment, win a prize

So, here's a little game to play to make this blog even more exciting. I know, you're wondering how this blog could possibly be any more exciting, right?
Here's what we'll do, leave a comment to this post, and tell us something intersting about anything. Is that broad enough for you? Tell us your favorite song, favorite band, favorite football team, favorite chinese dish, least favorite type of tree, anything...
Then, send me an e-mail at dave@davepotts.com, and I will send you a FREE mp3 of your choosing of any song off any of my CD's.
Wow, this is maybe the most exciting promotion of all time.