Kay Hanley

Miley was the featured performer at the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show last night so the whole lot of us - band, dancers and crew- got together again to put on a show for 74,000 people. Billy Ray joined the band for 2 songs while Hannah changed into Miley and absolutely brought the house down. If you had told me 6 months ago (or ever, for that matter) that I would be two steppin’ and singing backup vocals on Achy Breaky Heart I would have, um… I have no idea what I would have done but it would have seemed unlikely. Now that the absurd scenario has become reality, I will state for the record that it was totally awesome.

Rodeos are kind of weird if you don’t mind my saying so. After our 3 hour sound check (grr…) I took care of what I needed to in a hurry so I could get back and watch the cowboys riding the bulls.We had plum position from our backstage area, which literally put us within spitting distance of the riders and animals. The cowboys were looking sharp with crisp shirts tucked perfectly into brand spankin’ new dungarees. Top that look with a sweet cowboy hat, some well-worn boots and a lasso and I turned into a drooling fan girl. Who knew? Needless to say, I was giddy to see the guys do their thing, which I was guessing would involve riding and then getting thrown off of a very strong and scary beast. Yum! The first guy came out of gate on a turbo charged horse. But hold on a second, he’s chasing a calf who is running for his life to get away. What the…?? Within 20 seconds, the cowboy had lassoed the calf by his neck, an action that jerked the calf’s body violently and slowed him down enough so that the cowboy was able to leap from the speeding horse and wrestle the calf to the ground where he tied the hind legs together and threw his arms into the air to stop the clock. The little calf just laid there helplessly until he was untied and led back to the cattle area. I started bawling. What a buzzkill. I watched this same scene unfold about a half dozen more times before I shuffled back to the dressing room all woebegone. I ended up missing the bucking broncos and stuff. Meh.

The good news? Anyone can be a sexy cowboy with the proper acoutrements! You can buy everything you need right there at a rodeo. One need not wrastle one single calf, either.

vashon, i do declare! 

Our stage was a huge disc that spun like a carousel. Not slow either. The stage would do 3 revolutions in one direction and then stop with a lurch to begin turning the other way. One of the stage hands told me that the clunkiness of the turning experience was due to the fact that the stage was built a long time ago and was operated by a guy using little more than bathtub knobs to control the thing.

Yee haw!  It was great seeing everyone. Can’t wait to do it again real soon.

margaritas are tastier in texas 

xok

I just got home from the Knitting Factory where Michelle and I went to see a band called Haim that we are absolutely in love with. They are 3 sisters in their teens from the Val (holla!), write weird, amazing pop songs and can play their asses off. Mish and I left with a new sense of hope that the next generation of bands might not be lost to the cult of posing and selling out after all. 

After the show, Mish and I stood out on Hollywood Blvd. in front of the club talking shop for about 20 minutes before we finally realized that our kids were asleep for the night and that we could actually stay out if we wanted to. With great vigor and vim, we skipped across the street to the Roosevelt for a drink and somehow managed to avoid the papparazzi who sneakily pretended to not notice us. Hint: if you ever find yourself in that part of Hollywood, don’t be afraid of the Roosevelt. Even though you have every reason in the world to loathe the vapid, disgusting, cultural and moral bottom feeding that the owners have chosen as their “re-branding” mission, you will be pleasantly surprised as long as you avoid the mucky muck. Go directly through the front doors and find Dakota, which is the steakhouse there. It’s really comfortable and chill and the staff happily sidesteps the douchebaggery usually associated with the Roosevelt.    

We started rehearsals today for the Hannah/Miley gig at the Houston Rodeo, which takes place this weekend. Highlight from today’s rehearsal? Singing backup vox on Achy Breaky Heart and I Want My Mullet Back with Billy Ray Cyrus.

My favorite verbal exchange??

candice: “i cant wait! i haven’t been to a rodeo in sooo long!!”

me: “…….” 

I’ll post new pictures and stories as soon as possible, but right now I must sleep.  I will leave you with a picture of me and Angie C (now shaw) whom you Boston people may know from the ‘FNX days. Angie and her sweet little family just moved to LA (redondo beach, actually) but we haven’t been able to coordinate and hang out. That is, until the MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSsTONES SHOW LAST WEEKEND!!!!! We had a blast. I really wanted to see The Streetdogs, but sadly, I missed them. The Bosstones made me and Angie feel like we were at the Rat in 1991 again. Thanks Joe the Kid for the list action and also for being a sweetie.    

last hurrah uh-huh, do it again!!

 xok

I don’t know about you, but for me, Youtube is purely a tool for finding videos of the songs that I loved as a wee one, back when my cruel parents wouldn’t let us watch TV. I usually hear the song in Target or something and then make a mental note to find it later which of course, I remember to do a month later. This was one of my all time favs, but I had never seen the vid until today. Probably a good thing because the sight of the singer thumping away on that EVIL bass made my eyes bleed. Only time will tell whether my ears will forget what I have seen.

Wow. Only 4 days left on the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds tour. Has it really been 4 months? 15 tour buses, 16 semis, 121 band, dancers and crew, most of which I now know by name. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it and to have made so many excellent new friends.

anywhere, usa

chicago

corey & ashlee

the ladies love jack

the zoemabel dream teaparty

my dream teaparty

me, elizabeth & mike on long island

the newest dire warning from pyro.

a very cyrus soundcheck

vashon is always pro

red sox fans are dedicated

We are having our tour wrap party tonight after the show here in Orlando so I suppose I should motivate and get to the mall. I have no clean clothes left. How appropriate. To be continued….

xok

After the Newark show on Saturday night, the band hopped on the bus and headed to NY to check into the Mansfield. We were hoping to get there fast because it was Michael’s 40th birthday and I booked a 9:30 table at Tailor in SoHo for the occasion. As it turned out, we had exactly 15 minutes to check in to the hotel and get dressed for dinner. Gaahhhh!!!!! Stacy, his wife Jade, Jamie, Candice and I managed to pull it together and arrive pretty much on time. The restaurant was incredible and all 15 of us had a blast toasting to the anniversary of the birth of my favorite guy.

jade, candice, justine, jamie and me.

Our friend Mark Quigley took some shots:

the birthday boy gets his wish

jamie, me and candice

casey and quigley courtesy of the fung wah

Here’s a question: Why are Quigs’ pictures so much better than mine? Is it because he uses Flickr and I export directly from my iPhoto? I suck. Grrr…

the gang

yum!

Food was great, the company was even better. Now USA Mike gets to go back to LA for the west coast leg of his birthday party tour at Hungry Cat. I’m jealous, but still so grateful that we were able to assemble such a fantastic crew in NY. Make sure you take loads of pix next weekend, LA people!

The next day, Michael went back to Nana’s in Jersey to pack up the kids and head back to LA. My bandmates and I had to go play another show in Newark. The highlight was our trip back from the show because a) we got to leave Newark forever and b) we had a high speed police escort, complete with 3 squad cars and flashing sirens, that blasted our 2 Miley vans back to the Lincoln tunnel. Sweet!

Candice and I made a deal with our new favorite hair guy, Scott Dowers and his lovely wife Angel. We gave him one of our rooms for 2 nights over New Years while he & Angel cut, colored, curled and made us up for our various festivities. I don’t know what I’ll do when I have to go back home and use normal people for these kinds of things. I love them.

They had done our hair and makeup for the show, so when we got back to Mid-town, we were pretty much ready to go. I had plans with my friend Mario to meet up that night so Candice, Jason and I grabbed some dinner and headed to Mario’s hotel room. It was just supposed to be a chill night with a few cocktails and laughs but as soon as we got to his room he had a change of heart. Okay! Let’s go watch the trangendered entertainer Candace Kayne at a packed and insanely loud gay bar! Truth be told, Candace is as fabulous as they come so it was a good time.

mario & candace sittin’ in a tree…

Mario had to be up early the next morning so we highjacked his friend Mike to see if we could find some fun stuff to do in NY. We succeeded, of course. One of the strangest things I encountered was this bizzare painting at an Irish pub, which would not have required more than a glance before the Miley tour. Billy Ray Cyrus is prominently featured.

why??

I woke up on New Year’s Eve morning not feeling so hot, but after a massive infusion of coffee, advil and a gallon of water I was on the comeback trail. Angel and Scott came to my and Candice’s cozy room for glam squad duty.

scott does his thing

angel does hers…

Miley and the band went and performed on Dick Clark’s NYE thing in Times Square so the rest of us took advantage of the night off. I don’t understand how I ended up with practically no pictures from our crazy evening but sadly, it’s true. We had a great time ringing in the New Year and I hope you did too. Here’s to 2008..

xok

The Oakland show was pretty cool. Miley’s Dad, Billy Ray Cyrus showed up to perform a duet with Miley and the band called “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”. Miley’s big sister Brandi sat in on acoustic guitar. Billy Ray reminds me so much of Johnny Damon, it’s kind of spooky.

We rolled out of Oakland and got to LA at around 5am. There are really no words to describe just how awesome it was to walk Zoe Mabel to school, listen to the final mixes of my record with Michael and check out Henry’s new Legos. The pièce de résistance of the day was sushi together at Katsu-ya.

henry and michael

zoemay and me

Then we went to our neighbors’ house for a playdate. The nature of an evening playdate at the Pisarik’s is best summed up like this:

Lots of wine and lots of kiddos. Zoemay read Simone her bedtime story while Courtney, Michael, Michael and I polished off a bottle of Chassagne Montrachet.

It was a perfect day off. Back to work for me.

xok