Atlantis

The Bahamas trip was a nonstop party. The day before I left, I received the verdict that Noah would be coming to live with me, so despite the fact that I was on the island for a job, I decided to enjoy every second, and celebrate for the entirety of the trip, starting by appreciating the gorgeous view from the plane:

If you squint, through those clouds, you can see the coast down on the ground. And that coast was jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

My friend Ben flew out to bask in all the touristy glory of the resort on the man-made island. We spent our time reveling in the crystal-clear water, riding the big Mayan temple water slides:

Enjoying our crazy awesome view:

And just generally becoming beach bums. My favorite attraction in Atlantis was the Lazy River, which is an inner tube ride that loops all the way around the island. Most of it is slow and relaxing, and then you hit a series of rapids that buffets you out of your tranquility. Then back to the calm part. It was sort of like my divorce.

Oh yeah, we played a show. That's why we were there. It was rockin' and the audience was great.

Then more partying. More swimming. More eating. And home.

So You Think You Can Dance

I'm so excited to announce that my song, Wave Goodbye, will be featured on the June 3rd episode (tomorrow night!) of So You Think You Can Dance on FOX. It's Vegas callbacks night. Maybe somebody will get sent home to my tune. Or maybe they'll just dance gorgeously to it. Who knows? Set those Tivos!

Spoon Day

Cause I said so. That's why.

Enjoy.

Noah's General Order of Things

Go somewhere with and laugh hysterically:


Look at cool things till I get tired:


Pass out on Daddy:


Stay passed out in car:

(additional option): wake up magically in bed at home.

Animals & Instruments

Last week, we played the little piano:


the big banjo:


visited the puppies at the pound:


and fed some bunnies:

This Song Sounds Familiar...

Swine flu scare. Where have I heard that one before?

Idol Hands

Some footage from the American Idol soundcheck:

American Idol

We pretaped this one two weeks before it aired. You may have noticed the copious amounts of fog during the song, that disappeared instantly when the song ended. The rest of the show was filmed live.

As with all these kinds of shows, the room was much smaller than it looks on TV.


I got to play a real piano for a change!

Rabbi McSchmid

The hat I wore for rehearsal was provided by Dahlia, our wardrobe lady, who decided that I looked too Jewish, and not "rock" enough. So I wore a different one for the show.

See the Idol logo reflected on the piano? And speaking of the Idol logo, I noticed that it looks suspiciously like the logo of the show's sponsor, Ford. This is definitely not a coincidence:

Subliminal Messages

Outside the dressing trailer with Brandi Cyrus

During rehearsal, we sussed out where the cameras were, and pretended we were on TV, accepting our Grammy.

(L.to R.) Sara, Miley, me

This was clearly a waste of time, as we were just about to be on TV anyway.

All Eyes on Sheryl

Just received this pic of the Country Music Hall of Fame show. Here we are playing "If It Makes You Happy" with Sheryl Crow and Miley:

(L. to R.) Sheryl, Jaco, me, Miley

Tonight Show w Billy Ray

Only two weeks after doing the Tonight Show with Miley, we were back with Billy Ray. Felt like we never left.


This time we were indoors, which was much warmer.


The night's guests:

I had a nice conversation with Kristin after the show. What a sweet gal.

Jaco IS Neil Young

This was the last Tonight Show with Jay Leno we'll ever do, as Jay is done in June. But maybe someday we'll be on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien... I can only hope!

Cider Farm II: The Chickening

During my last visit to Washington, Noah and I returned to the cider farm. Only, this time, he knew the names of all the animals, instead of calling them all "puppy."



"More bunnies! Hi bunnies!"

Fun with Camera

Sometimes it's more fun to have a conversation through the lens of a camera.

Elevator Game

Noah really loved working the elevator at the hotel. He would say, "uh-gate-uh," and we would run down the hall, push the button, get in and go somewhere.

Except this time was different.

The Post-Premiere Nashville Bash

A couple hundred lucky superfans won tickets to the Nashville premiere of the Hannah Montana movie, and afterwards, they were bussed out to the Country Music Hall of Fame, where we put on a surprise concert of surprising awesomeness.

Here's the setlist:

You may have noticed some special guests. In addition to Billy Ray and Miley, we were joined by Sheryl Crow, Jeffrey Steel and Ed King.

Sheryl did a duet version of "Real Gone" (which she wrote) with Billy Ray, and we played her hit, "If It Makes You Happy", which was a total blast. Total pro, that one. Then we all rushed her for pictures:

L to R: Me, Sheryl, niece Ava

Sara, Sheryl, Carmel

Those are our new background singers, by the way.

We played Sweet Home Alabama with Ed King, the dude that wrote it. And after hearing countless awful bar bands play it, it was pretty mindblowing to hear his authentic version.

Jeffrey Steele has co-written several of Miley's tunes, including "Simple Song", which we played with him, and then we jammed on his song, "Hollywood Girl", which has been a favorite of Miley's since she was very little.

A lot of this stuff was put together at the last minute, so the band spent most of our day at the hotel, learning all these new songs. I actually kinda like it when they throw that kind of stuff at us.

After the show, I hung out with Mai, one of Miley's makeup people. I always love when Mai shows up. What a sweetheart.

Then we hopped on a plane and came home.

Pillow Hide & Seek

Boogie Morning

Dances with Goldfish

Noah's new thing on this visit was his obsession with the camera. He loved watching himself on the monitor, and I rarely got much footage before he started pointing at the camera and saying "Noah! Noah! I want to watch it!"

Here he is dancing and trying to grab the camera:

Noah's 1st Guitar Lesson

I finally had some time to edit the Noah videos from my last trip to Washington. Here is Noah's first guitar lesson:

Good Morning America

We were taping at the Hard Rock in Times Square. I think this was the first time we've ever played in a restaurant. Also, the first time I've ever been in a Hard Rock at 7am. Hopefully the last.

Soundcheck went very smoothly; no major disasters.

And suddenly the place filled up with Billy Ray and Miley fans.






What time again?

What in the world was Diane Sawyer saying at the beginning? "A huge hit off the tack?"



And Schmid Island got more camera time than ever.





Then we busted out a new track.

AOL Sessions

You can see video of the Billy Ray/Miley AOL Sessions show HERE.

Setlist:
The Climb
Full Circle
Butterfly
Back to Tennessee