Last night, I played a show with Gregg Ostrom, my longtime buddy and guitar player.  I'm still on a high from all the great energy in the room.  Thanks to those of you who showed up and helped to make the night so incredible.  You warmed my heart.

Gregg and I ended our first set with a song called "Behind The Lights."  It's a tune about how hard it is to get to know anything--particularly humans--without looking beyond the surface.  People surprise me all the time. There's more to everybody than what meets the eye.  The woman working the register at my local Kinkos is a tremendous painter and fine artist.   And I recently found out my old doctor plays jug band music.  My dental hygienist breeds horses.  My friend is a CFO at a big-time company, and he spends his nights painting small action figures.  

Bottom line? People are eclectic.  Nobody is what they seem, and nobody should be chocked up to how they appear.

Take the 13 year-old boy in the front row of the show last night.  I could see him and his father tapping their feet during our set.  At intermission, they came up to Gregg and me.  The boy's name is Chris Ruckman.  He shook our hands and asked a few questions about Gregg's equipment.  Chris' father told us his son was a prodigy.  He gave me his card and told me to look him up on-line.  I didn't think much of it at the time.  But just before I sat down to blog tonight, I looked up Chris...  

HOLY.  SMOKES.  Kid's got chops.  I have a feeling I'll be begging him to let me open for him someday.

Reader, it's an angsty world out there these days.  Let's keep on getting to know each other better.  We all really are amazing, and that includes you.  Dig in, and believe everybody has something about them that will astound you.  With that, I'm off to let myself be astounded again by Chris Ruckman. See you next Sunday. -Em