Having a great tour out here on the East Coast. Played the Big Bull Falls blues festival in Wausau, Wisconsin (try saying that ten times fast) with Marcia ball, Guitar Shorty and Joe Bonamassa. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful crowd of fun, wild people who love the blues. Played a great show in Kansas City with the Rockabilly band, the Rumblejetts and had a fabulous female singer, Little Rachel sit in. I will be playing with her again in November at the Rhythm Riot in Camber, UK. She's hot and fiery and a fine singer in the growling and crooning style of Janis Martin or Wanda Jackson. Also,had a wild show in Navarre, Minnesota right outside Minneapolis. The people know how to party up there. The Northfield Roadhouse near Ann Arbor was another fun show and some of myspace buddies showed up! HOORAY. Today I did a radio show here in Rochester, NY at 96.5 WCMF.FM with the Weaze. He's a legendary DJ up in these parts and used to be a friend of Sam Kinison whom I also met and partied with once upon a time. I sang "Whole Lotta Love" on the air at 8 in the morning!!! accompanied by guitar powerhouse Alex Skolnick, an amazingly gorgeous guitarist from the band Testament. It was a lot of fun. I might go sit in tonight if I can ever get offline.

Here's a few topics I have been talking to people about...

day jobs

I get asked frequently whether I play music full time or whether I still have supplemental income like Tupperware. I am currently not doing Tupperware parties as I have been on the road so much of late, but they were a lot of fun. I'd take out my vintage apron collection and show people how to keep unconventional items fresh with pastel colored plastic ware. Tupperware aside, I have often worked extra jobs in the winter months when its hard to drive across the ice and snow in the Midwest and Europe. After being stranded in blizzards in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lillehammer, Norway and Oklahoma city, I mostly stay in the northwest for January, February and March. I have worked as a secretary and a typist, switchboard operator, waitress, cashier at Savons, service cashier at auto dealerships, and of course, stripper in between gigs. I would take anything for just a few weeks before Christmas, Chanukah or my sons' birthday's. I felt guilty sometimes taking a job, only to have to leave it when the summer came back and I could resume touring, but that's survival. That's what all parents have to do. Lots of musicians get spoiled and find it hard to dress down or take orders. They don't realize that real people have to deal with office politics and bullshit every day. That's what makes it so remarkable when working people find the time to volunteer for ...

blues societies

I am always amazed at the dedication, hard work and genuine love for this music from the volunteers; people who have families and jobs and still choose to support the blues scene. They make flyers, they fetch food, they empty trash cans, help out the lost, drive the golf carts and are generally cheerful and competent. And sometimes I have been amazed at how the festival or show becomes all about them and their in-fighting and less about the actual artists who are playing there. I have played festivals where there are two blues society tents because they have split off from each other. I always think that is very sad because there are only a few of us in this small blues community and we have to support each other. If we splinter off from like minded people, we will never be as strong. There is strength in numbers. When people spend all their time squabbling, nothing gets done properly. The group is rendered ineffective I wonder if blues societies could adopt a sort of by laws that keeps their objectives clear and concise. I mean obviously in any group, there will always be dissention. It happens in bands, in political groups, in families. We all have our preferences and prejudices. We all love different types of blues and different things about different artists. It's human nature to disagree.

I try to join all the blues societies in the towns I play, even when they don't support my show. Even in my own home town of San Diego where I have won best blues band five years in a row, I have NEVER been invited to play a show that was hosted by the blues society to my knowledge, (except a benefit once in awhile). Even so, I still join the society because I believe in what they are doing in the community. So, I get NOTHING for joining really but the newsletter and the feeling that I am helping out a little. I am a card carrying member of nine different blues societies in nine different states. I always had to seek them out and sign up. No one ever came to me and said "Hi, How about joining up? "I'll bet they would get a lot of artists to sign up for the society if they just asked! I just played the Hudson River blues fest in NYC and never saw a blues society sign up sheet. The festival was incredible though with a stunning view of the empire state building on pier 54 in the city. It is totally free so it was packed with a beautiful diverse crowd of smiling faces. Black, white, old, young, gay straight, it was awesome. The sun came out just as my set started. I played with Hubert Sumlin from the original Muddy Waters band (incredible grooves as always), Corey Harris, (what a fox) Guitar Shorty (love him and his great band and he's mentioned in the Bob Dylan book Chronicle) and

Kenny Neal.

Kenny's home is in Baton Rouge and he was going to L.A. to stay for awhile during the hurricane. He has had some really bad luck lately. His dad just died of bone cancer and he lost his brother and his sister was murdered by her lover, all in one month. If you know him, or are a fan, please reach out to this sweet guy and tell him you're thinking of him. He just got married so I know he is loved but I really sensed his pain when he told me what was happening in his life. We have only met once so I really think he was hurting to share his personal grief with me. (kennyneal.net) I told him that bad things happen to good people. Look at the horrors that occur worldwide to innocent people. it has nothing to do with

God.

There is an excellent book by the same title "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Harold Kushner. I suggest this book to anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one. Kushner lost his nine year old son to cancer, I think. His book points out that when a plane goes down, everyone equally and passionately prays to be saved. When there are survivors, it doesn't mean that God heard their prayers and not the ones of the people that perished. Yet, people always say "Thank God I lived." I think this is extremely selfish for the people who have lost someone in the same tragedy. What were all their prayers? Chopped liver? God invented the sky not the airplanes that fly in them. God invented humanity not the guns we carry. Things happen at random. Things happen in nature. Things happen that we cannot explain or understand.

God, if she does exist, doesn't pick and choose or answer prayers like a short order cook. If she did she would save the city of New Orleans and the people who perished in the Tsunami and the World Trade Center victims. God is inside each one of us. We are the only ones who can change things, one person at a time.

That's my opinion.

Candye Kane with a day off, finally in Rochester,NY.

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