Howdy Cats and Kittens from the land of cheese, I was trying to remember the last time we played in Madison. It's been a while, but, we're glad to be back. Last night we had a good gig at The Bottleneck in Lawrence. Actually, it was a really great gig. That was one our first stops back when we tried to tour America's Midwest for the first time. The crowd last night kept requesting slow songs. That's unusual. They kept yelling for "Loaded Gun" and "In Your Wildest Dreams." I think that shows some depth of the people in Lawrence. But, it has always been a great music town. Anyway, we played two slow songs back to back last night and it worked. In case you fine fans don't know this, putting two slow songs back to back in the set can be a show killer. So, thanks to our fun-fans in Lawrence. Thanks for the gig. This slow song idea is something that reminds me of how, before we got on Time Bomb, our record labels would be so bold as to make decisions about "which song is going to work best" without talking to me. Jimbo, Scott, and I are up there playing these songs every night, and, believe me, when a song is or is not working, we know it. We know which ones are going to have to be sneaked into the set. We know which ones are kicking butt. We know that new songs, as a rule, don't get quite the amount of applause as they do once they're more familiar to our fans. But, honestly, label guys don't usually care about any of that stuff. They've got their computerized, lip-synching, made for TV boy-bands. They've got their teen-girl singers who they can mold and shape into the superstar divas of the next...well, summer. All it takes is one song. The title of the label guys who have the power to sign artists is A&R. For example, someone may say, "Who's your A&R guy?" It stands for artists and repertoire. Repertoire means song list in the music biz. But, none of these guys really care about any artist's repertoire of songs. They just care about one song. They hear one song that they know that they can force-feed to radio via label ads they place with the stations. When the song is a hit, then the artist has some power to renegotiate their deal. So, they renegotiate the deal for their second album. But, they forget that the A&R guys are looking for one song, not an album. So, they release their new album and it stiffs because the label guy has already found his one song from that artist and the label doesn't want to risk the ad money this time. Since the label is not making as much on this deal as they would on a sweeter deal with some teen-age girl fresh out of Junior High School, it just makes more business sense to continue to find "that one song." It rips off the public because they rarely get to hear artists who actually have a repertoire. Repertoire used to be an important evaluation when signing artists. It no longer seems to be with the big labels. They just need one song. They should change the title of that job to A&S for "artist and song." I've got to change topics before I make myself sick. All of our shows are going great on this trip, but, I'm looking forward to tomorrow night in Chicago. I heard that Lounge Axe is closing their current location. That was our first gig in Chicago. I've got faith that they'll be able to get it going somewhere even better. Thanks for the gig. This time in Chi-town, we're playing Cabaret' Metro. We always have fun there. Well, I've got to go for now. Thanks to our fans, you are so happenin'! Jim "Rev. Horton" Heath