MayDay! 2000:

So listen, the Vai tours are now done and let me talk about some things that I feel like talking about. Actually, though, first of all -- hi! I'm back! I missed you! I'm REALLY GLAD to be back! The Vai tours were tremendous fun. I got a bunch of genuinely nourishing soul stuff from the experience, and spending another few months playing Vai material has sharpened my finger bones and reflexes and confidence. The Keneally Moment during the Vai shows was often fun, sometimes a struggle, and never anything close to getting everything I needed to express out of my system, so I am dangerously jazzed to be back home surrounded by my band, rehearsing outrageous amounts of new music, and preparing an album for you. But I must express my deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone in Vai world - to everyone in the band, the crew, the management, Eric Sardinas and his band, the staffs of all the venues, the wonderful people I saw at the shows, and Steve -- thank you all. It was a blast.

And now it's Beer For Dolphins time. Today is the third day of three twelve-hour days of rehearsals here at Chatfield Manor. I threw so much material at these people -- I wrote a whole lot on the road. Documentation of this rehearsal phase is very much happening. The jacuzzi is on. Everything's good. The band just sounds so beautiful. It's the full, new eight-piece BFD. And they are quick - over the last three days we've gone through fifteen brand new songs and every single one has got me grinning ear to ear.

You'll get a chance to hear a lot of this stuff when I do a (primarily) solo performance at the Baked Potato on May 26. "Primarily" because I am going to need some help on some of these tunes, but it's going to be a very naked evening, a most revealing unveiling of the new stuff. We're going to be recording the evening for the second disc of the limited 2-CD edition of the new album, so I trust that you appreciate why we're asking that attendees not bring their recording equipment on this evening. And I thank you sincerely for understanding.

I'm going to head southward because I haven't seen much of Jesse lately -- tomorrow's her birthday! -- and I feel like picking her up and giving her a shoulder ride. I'll be in touch with you again soon. I am grateful beyond words for your patience during the Vai touring and I promise that this new phase of BFD is going to be something well beyond words. This is it, it's happening.

Thank you for everything!

Love,
Mike