I was so excited when I saw the UPS truck coming up the street as I was cleaning up our garage/rehearsal space. The UPS man looked nothing like Santa but it sure seemed like Christmas to me. Boxes and boxes of stuff were carted up my driveway - it’s our new cd “The Golden State”! After fighting the urge to give the UPS man a hug, I quickly tore open a box to check out the album. Wow, I was really impressed how well (the amazing) Brian Clarke’s artwork came out. I’ll give Disk Makers props for doing a great job on the printing. The whole package looked better than I expected.
I’m glad that I choose to feature Bob Waller’s“California surf culture-inspired” Woody longboards in the artwork to aid the theme of the album. His handcrafted skateboards are beautiful. I felt bad when I rode mine for the first time and immediately ruined the clean white wheels! Evidently a lot of purchasers of his boards just put them up on the wall as art. One can see why. 
The audio files were transferred nicely and I really appreciate the mastering job Ken Lee performed. It’s not the “in your face” “brick wall” limiting so many albums have that cause ear fatigue and make them sound distorted. It’s sits in the middle of the volume spectrum for most cds and has nice dynamics. If you want it louder…turn it up!
It was satisfying to have our first gig with our new cd in tow be another acoustic performance at Children’s Hospital Oakland. The children's hospital shows always put us in a "golden state". DJ and I try to keep it upbeat and fun which the staff and parents really appreciate. As a paramedic I have no problem teasing the kids and treating them normal. The staff kept asking us to stay longer and we did. We were just about out the door when were asked us to serenade a child who could hear us performing in the playroom from his room and felt he was missing out in the fun. Because isolation precautions were being taken we had to perform from out in the hall where he could still see us. I made some comment about how we were honored and “feeling the love” so we performed “Valentine” which seemed a perfect way to end our visit.
Now comes the task of sending out copies of the cd to radio stations, music reviewers, friends and family and try and get some feedback. If you’re one of those people…tell us what you like! Hopefully, you can make it to a show and pick up a cd. Otherwise, it’ll be available online on August 2nd, 2011 from Amazon, CDBaby and other internet retailers.
