Gentle Reader(s)—hold onto your hair—today is your lucky day! Why is today your lucky day? Today is your lucky day because YOU have stumbled onto Part Nine of the Road Crew saga! Place a bet on the ponies, buy a lottery ticket, acquire some risky stock, forget about getting hit by a meteorite, cuz YOU are on a roll. This chapter is a real thriller, let me tell you: The band ventures ever deeper into the heartland, hits the stage in support of the high-flying Tom Kindler Band, risks life and limb in their valiant quest for the Big Time, and comes face-to-face with their fandom. Spoiler alert: No vintage Stratocasters were harmed and everybody gets to go home happy... at least for the moment. So, there you go. I will sound one note of alarm, however, and that note is that this is likely to be the second-to-last episode of The Road Crew to be posted in these pages. I have encouraged you (and by 'you' I mean YOU) to get off yer duff and let me know if The Road Crew has been of interest to you... or not. That's what the Contact page is for. As of yet, it has been crickets. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Therefore, as of Part Ten I shall be pulling the plug on this little experiment. Unless you convince me otherwise. I'm not holding my breath, but I done tole ya. But forget about that for the moment and enjoy Part Nine of The Road Crew.

When I walked in the door last night my first thought was that they were having me on. Katia and Wolf were sitting there at the end of the bar grinning at me and, other than the two of them, the Place. Was. Empty. It wasn't my birthday or anything so it didn't make any sense that everyone would be hiding in the back to spring a surprise party on me—there simply weren't no one there.