Three days ago in Minneapolis I played my first show as a headliner at the Dakota.  Actually, I played my first two nights there.  I asked the audience at the first show for breakfast recommendations, and left that night with this list scribbled with a sharpie on the back of a flyer (please forgive any misspellings):

French Meadow
Grand Cafe
Crepe Place
Victor 1954
Uptown Bar
Bryant Lake Bowl
The Chatter Box
The Taste of Scandinavia

Tempted as I was to journey out to Bryant Lake Bowl or Victor 1954, I just couldn’t bring myself to get in an other cab, so I walked with Sean down to the Crepe place where I had a savory egg crepe breakfast.  yum.

The weather could not have been more pleasant, and I was glad to have a chance to be at one hotel - the Ivy (awesome) - for a few nights and get some work done. Everyone at the hotel was super accommodating, and, get this, if you stay there and asked for a wake-up call, they asked if you’d like complimentary coffee or tea delivered to my room then as well.

Talk about luxury!

Yesterday we flew into Chicago and drove down to a springing suburb called Naperville to play The Union.  Its a cool little room I played earlier this year while sitting in with my brother’s band Fiction Family (fictionfamily.com) and, on the day of that show, the temperature was -10 degrees. The band van froze.

Despite the cold, I remembered the FF show had a really fun audience, and they lived up to that memory for me last night! The kids were full
of life, excited and interactive.  It was awesome.  We played for a long time!