june15 - Pensacola, FL

We opened here at the Pensacola Civic Center last night. We usually arrive into a town on Monday evenings or Tuesday mornings. We closed in Lafayette this past Sunday and train heads out after load out. The TRAIN RUN takes about a day. Weird, huh? Why so long? Well trains don't travel 75 miles an hour - usually about 55, maybe 50 and they don't take the same roads that cars do so on one hand it take a bit longer, but on the other hand we get get to see some parts of the states that one doesn't usually get to see.

The Band

Allow me to introduce the guys in the band.
Shawn Elsbernd is our drummer and he's from Cincinnati, Ohio. This guy is INCREDIBLE and he'll be the first one to tell you he's not.One of the nicest guys you'll meet.

Wages Argott is our trumpet player from Alabama and he'll let you know that any chance he gets. He's a great player and even toured with a Motown revue. Check his page. He's a wealth of sports and Alabama knowledge. "Alabama beaches - best beaches in the world!"
Jonathon Blazer is a guitarist from the D.C. area. Fairfax, VA to be exact. He's quite the kooky character and most easily identified by his sizable head of hair.
Michael Mullan is our sax guy from New Jersey - great jazz chops and one half of our twin towers along with Wages - they're both 6'4'' which leavesme feeling even shorter than usual. Ryan States is the other keyboard player - yup, there's two of us - it's a synth heavy score. He's the veteran of the band, not including the director. He keeps to himself mostly - he's got a podcast and just realeased a CD on CDBaby.com

John Fulkerson is the baby of the group. He just came on in Lafayette last week and is the trombone chair. He's fresh out of New England Conservatory and learning the ropes along with most of us.
Mike Brown is the bass chair and he's quite the veteran. He's played festivals all over and has even studied with Victor Wooten

And, of course, there's our director, Tim Eaton. He plays trumpet and directs us through all shows countless tags and cues. He's been with the show for awhile, so he knows his stuff; and he's been real welcoming with us new guys. Blazer, John F, Shawn and myself are all realatively new. Shawn's been here about 6 months, Blaze - about 3-4 I think. This is my second and John got here, like I said, last week.

So, that's it, that's the band and charcters in my future stories.