Ben Smith: Calendar

We practiced up and put on a good, tight show as a band, a good group of friends and fans showed up. Chris White, and his friends Ryan and Chelsea, TOmmy Back and Tayben, Mat Jackson, Brandon Glazners SHOWED up... hadn't seen him since HS. a great time was had by all here at the CD Release Party. Considering the torrential rain, swine flu scare, and the fact that Kenny Chesney, Dave Mathews, and Hank Jr were all in town, Tony Avezzano at Hat Tricks and I were both really happy with the night, and I can't wait to play Hat Tricks again. Since the rain still put a damper on who could make it out to the CD Release Party, we will be having ANOTHER one at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton on Thursday June 18th! So Mark your calendars!

We got out gear loaded into a tent at The Cottonwood Arts Festival around 2 pm and Fred Allen, the stage manager, was there to greet us and help get us set up. That's when it began to rain a little. We started our set and there was still a good number of rain or shine partiers that were ready to get down in the mud... us included! Haha! Or I was at least! My guitarist, Tom, with his broken leg was looking over his shoulder with fear and a puddle of water rolled closer and closer to his power strip!

Anyway, four songs into our set we got word that we had to shut it down and that The City of Richardson had called the Festival off due to rain. We were officially rained out... and THAT'S when THE BIG ONE blew in!

As the crowd scattered, Fred jumped onstage and it was a mad rush for all of us to get all the gear piled in the center of the stage and get the wall flaps closed up as GOBS of rain just pelted everything and the creeks rose!

We were huddled under the cover of the stage for about 30 minutes when we received word that The Dallas Cowboys Training Facility had been destroyed by the storm! So there we sat stranded in our little Tent/Stage with ALL of our prized gear inside thinking, "Oh Shit. Are we gonna die?"

Luckily no, the storm passed and we were unscathed, and though the show was bust, we still got paid, Fred told us he wanted us back in October, and we got to go have our fill at the food tent after we had loaded all our gear out! Luckily I had my pair of Keens out in my truck... kind of a river shoe I use for kayaking and hiking. I put those on and rolled my pants up a little. That was a good thing because between us and the food tent was a GIANT puddle/lake that USED to be the fair grounds! So Tom, with his crutches and a big cast on his leg was like "Shit man... umm?"

Cory and Justin were finding creative ways to hop around and through the lake/puddle, which was about a foot deep in spots. But Tom was out of luck getting to the food on his own, so we raided the food tent wounded soldier style. I put Tom on my back, crutches and all and trudged through the lake/puddle in my Keens! And we feasted at the table of glory!

While we were eating, my friend David DiMuzio called. He is the guy I cowrote Country Summer Days with and he lives in Nashville. He was calling to say that he was driving down 21st Avenue and right next to him was Kieth Urban driving down 21st Avenue as well! Haha, a fun side note to our day.

Anyway the fun wasn't over. We still had our CD Release Party at Hat Tricks in Lewisville that night! So we planned to rendezvous at Hat Tricks around 9 pm. Justin and Tom both went home for a while, while Cory and I went up to my house in Denton to catch a little rest.

We were chilling in the house watching the news when I looked out and saw a CREEK running through our side yard! It was POURING! Behind my house there are some trials that meander through the woods and by Lake Sharron. I run on them a lot. When Lake Sharron gets high, it overflows into what is the headwaters of Hickory Creek. When it rains at all, that little creek rushes so hard it resembles a Colorado snow melt... only the water is green instead of clear.

So I told Cory about it and said I bet it was probably a raging mess back there and might be cool to see. Cory is always down for an adventure and siad "That actually sounds like a lot of fun." So we made panchos out of trashbags and set out through the woods, in the rain. It was about dusk. We could HEAR the spillway long before we actually got to it, and when we did, it was like all hell had broken loose! The Lake was about 6 feet above the spillway and a raging river about 50 feet wide was just PLOWING through the woods and around trees! It was crazy. The ground was so soupy we had to be careful to not sink in it! We got a good look at the river before we decided to head back. We were going to take a different road that runs along the bank of Lake Sharron but found that lake Sharron was so high, it had flooded the road! We tried to wade through it, but when it got thigh high on my 6'5" ass, I got the heeby jeebies and so did Cory. So we took to the woods and found a trail on higher ground. Once we did, we looked at the clock and were like, "Crap! we gotta get to Hat Tricks! So there we were running on a trail through the woods in a torrential downpour, in the dark! It was AWESOME! We got to the house, put on some dry clothes and got to Hat Tricks just in time to meet Justin and Tom and set up for the show... and that's another story! (See CD Release Party at Hat Tricks)