Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Hey everyone,
I'm writing you from a bullet train between Nagoya and Osaka Japan. I've been here for about 3 weeks now. I was here in early February with my Mr. Big brothers promoting our tour starting this June. I went home for 8 days, picked up my wife and kids and came back to Japan to begin promoting my latest solo album, Mr. Vocalist #2. I'm exhausted but lucky to call this work.

Since I've been here, I've done a million interviews, TV shows, radio spots, photo shoots, rehearsals and shows! I had a CD release/DVD filming show on 3/4 and it was fantastic. The band here in Japan was spot on. They are all Sony's top session players and played on both of my latest releases. I had a very special guest star, Ayaka Lida, sing "I believe" with me. She is a very young, talented, famous J-Pop singer in Japan and since she covered "To be with you" I thought I would cover her song "I believe!" We did a duet of the song and the crowd was very surprised. She's so full of soul and I can't wait to sing with her again. It was great to see my sons raising the roof in the balcony; well one of them (Dylan), Jake fell asleep after the first song. What am I a lullaby singer now?! After the show, Sony exec's came backstage to raise a toast to my album entering the charts at #1, just above U2 and Coldplay. I looked like a deer in the headlights I was so shocked. I knew it was a good record but thought people would have to hear it before deciding that. Never in my life did I expect it to debut at #1. Thank you Japan! I hope you all enjoy this album as much as I did making it. 

So I'm here for another few days, home long enough to make "Dad's night" at my kids school and then off to LA to do some Mr. Big business. On that note, the hype here is amazing. Fans, press, etc can't wait for this tour (either can I). I love making records, promoting them, etc. but there's nothing like sharing the stage with talent like Pat, Billy and Paul and making live music. Our tour is selling out fast. Budokan sold out in minutes and another show was added the next day at the Yokohama Arena. If you plan on going, I believe this is one of the only shows with tickets left.. 

Several fans have asked me about Mr. Big coming to their city. Yes we are trying to visit as many cities as we can. There are several offers on the table and at this point it's just a matter of scheduling since we all have solo projects we've been working hard on and we do not want to just drop them. It's important for us to maintain a bit of both. Please keep checking my "tour dates" section to see what's been added. I'll try to keep everyone in the loop as well. 

For now, here are my tour dates. I'm doing some solo shows in the US and the Japan dates are all with Mr. Big. Check out the Muir Beach BBQ on 5/24. This is the event that I do every year with my best friends and songwriting partner, Andre Pessis. We raise money for the Muir Beach Fire Department. It's a fun gig of our favorite covers. My wife Denise is going to play drums with us this year so that will add to the good times. Mark Holley and I will join forces to do the Marinwood Music in the Park on 7/24 and back to Philly for the always fun Township Park event. Hope to see you at one of these shows. 


May 24 
Muir Beach BBQ Muir Beach, California

Jun 5 
Zepp Sapporo Sapporo

Jun 7 
Zepp Sendai Sendai

Jun 9 
Kouseinenkin Hall Ishikawa North Sendai

Jun 10 
Zepp Nagoya Nagoya

Jun 12 
Zepp Hukuoka Hukuoka

Jun 15 
Grand Cube Osaka Osaka

Jun 17 
Hiroshima ALSOK Hall Hiroshima

Jun 18 
Osaka Kouseinenkin Hall Osaka

Jun 20 
Budokan- SOLD OUT Tokyo

Jun 21 
Yokohama Arena Yokohama

Jul 24
Marinwood in the park music series San Rafael, California

Aug 2 
Township Park King of Prussia

~E~