Last day.....

Early morning on a Kansas highway, the sun just rising ahead of us as we head back to Little Portion. Last night's concert in Manhattan, Kansas was a great conclusion to the Monk Rock/Beautiful City/JMT & friends Tour. The church was packed wall to wall & the choir terrific. All in all a wonderful night except perhaps for the absence of Tom Booth who we've missed these past few shows.
Now it's back home for everyone, each to our own place. JMT & Viola back to life at the monastery. John Michael to finish work on his 50th album; a traditional JMT work it should be released sometime in 2007. Terry returns home to Fresno for some much deserved rest. He's been along with us not only for this tour with the band but for the previous few tour legs with JMT as well. Tom Booth continues on with his own work as an artist, producer, and A&R rep for Spirt & Song. Word has it that Tom will touring solo in 2007. Joe Hand is busy as ever. After returning home to Nashville he's expecting to head right back out to New Orleans to comlete recordings for one of his clients. John Martin heads back to San Diego and his band Cerro Negro. The most musically diverse of our little gang you can expect to find John playing or listening just about anywhere. He's even found a new interest in polka! My assistant, Stephen Bowman, returns home to his family in LA. Don't be surprised to hear that Stephen's been the on set photographer on your next favorite motion picture.
And me....after we unload at Little Portion I'm heading home to Buffalo to help look after my Mom & work on our house. In the next few months I'll be doing some planning and prep for the next JMT tour which departs in February. We'll be scaling back for the solo tour, I have to be able to fit everything in the bus once again. I've amassed quite a library of recordings, photos & video on tour with JMT. Hopefully I'll find some time to sift through it all for a gem or two that management can put on the official website. If you need a production guy don't forget to check out my site, Frugal Audio. In any event the blog will continue. Take a moment to pray for us and don't forget to come see John Michael in concert in 2007.

Greetings from Minnesota

We played last night at Transfiguration Church in Oakdale, Minnesota. Thanks to Fr. Bob Hart and everyone in the parish for helping us do a great concert. Special thanks to our setup crew of eight graders from Transfiguration School: Cortney Vanderhoff, Danny Grant, Alee Conners, Ben Schroeder, Kacey Meis, & Austin Belde.


The future stagehands of Transfiguration School

A brief update...

Well the sad yet glorious news....
Tom Booth left the tour before Sunday's concert to make his way home to be with his ailing father & family. Tom's dad, George, passed away late Monday evening after a protracted illness. We'll all be praying for him & Tom's family. Please join us.
JTC

Here we go again....

I've been home just about two weeks from the last tour leg. We got pretty busy there for awhile and I apologise to anyone who came here looking for the inside skinny on the tour and found none. We did a great string of concerts throughout California, Oregon, Washington & Idaho. Among the highlights were an outdoor performance at "The Grotto" in Portland and JMT presenting Dan O'Neill with the Mother Teresa Award in Sammamish.
We leave again in just a week for the last leg of the year. It will be bittersweet in some ways as it will be our last tour leg with this band. While some of John Michael's fan's may welcome the return to his quieter solo concerts, and while it may be simpler to execute for us, I'll still miss having all the guys with us. This really has been one of the best groups I've spent time with on the road. I'll also miss the sense of accomplishment that comes from putting on a more complicated show, with a shoestring budget.

A look at the Grotto Sanctuary from above

Me tryin' to get everything put together

Dan O'Neill receiving the the Mother Teresa Award from JMT