Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, bricks and chicks we're the winners of Next Big Hit's Click To Pick . Why? Because you voted for us. Thank you for your support and for believing in us and the music we make. It's such a humbling thing, knowing how much you all enjoy the songs we play. We received more votes than any other previous winner (including American Idol's Jasmine Trias) and got 60% of the vote. Special props to our "college" fans. You know who your are. Well, this means that A Talent For Loving will get another spin on this coming week's installment of the Next Big Hit (Nov. 1). And get this, NBH is coming to LA. That's right, NBH in conjunction with Suite 108 (you know them: the Monday Show & Indie Airplay) will be having a meet and greet at the Karma Coffeehouse on Wednesday, Nov. 2. The "meet" will be from 6-8 pm. Following that, there will be acoustic performances and the audio will be streamed by Suite 108. Bryan and I will be attending (

Hey Soul Mates, it's been a while since I just chimed in with a big opinion on something and wrote about it. Well, I've got something I want to say. Le Freak, C'est Chic! Put CHIC in the Rock Hall. Recently, the list of nominees for the 2006 class for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was announced. There were some deserving hold-overs from last year (Grandmaster Flash, John Mellencamp), some no-brainers (Blondie, Dave Clark Five) and some head scratchers (Miles Davis, Sir Douglas Quintet). But one name popped off the page and gave me goosebumps: Chic. Most people only know Chic for one thing. "One. Two. Aaaaaaaaaahhhwwwwww, Freak Out!" and if that was all I was known for I'd jump for joy. Chic was nominated once before in 2002, when they first hit the 25 year mark. This is a well deserving group that represents an underappreciated and underrated genre. Disco. Or dance music. Whatever offends least. Plus, there is a direct link between Chic and

Hey Soul Mates, It's after noon and I'm just now getting around to writing. Time flies. The show last night was a success. After some initial issues with the sound at the Good Hurt, RHS started rocking. We began the show with a dedication to Rosa Parks, without whom (and countless civil rights activists) our band might not exist. Our opening song was, appropriately, Love Someone . We hadn't played that song in a while. The set included Majestic Rejection , a 50's style waltz-time ballad, which had also been absent. Rush Hour Soul was decked out! Doug sported a tie for the first few numbers; Bry had his black on black suit working; and yours truly was in bright orange and black. Happy Halloween! Oh, I did my strip tease to Isaac Hayes' Walk On By . Doug supplied the beat, I supplied the fuzz guitar vocal. We had a nice crowd for a Tuesday night. I think that's the latest start time we've had for ages. Thanks to everyone who attended. You did a marvelous job o

Hey Soul Mates, at Midnight tonight EST or 9 pm PST (Monday Oct. 24) "A Talent For Loving" will be featured in the latest installment of the Next Big Hit .You can download the podcast and listen in. Better yet, on NBH, you can vote for RHS to be the NEXT BIG HIT. Check it out! They have a weekly contest for listeners to pick their favorite song in the show. The winner gets played again next week, and is eligible again. Voting ends Sunday evening, October 30th, and the winner is revealed in the following podcast that Tuesday. That means we could stay in their countdown for weeks on end. Time to vote everyone! Just go to Next Big Hit and select the volume 17 podcast or you can subscribe at iTunes . Anyone can listen on their computer or any portable player that plays mp3 files. We hope you are all safe and have a great week. We've got our show tomorrow at the Good Hurt, but our thoughts and prayers are with are friends and family in Florida. Love, Power, Peace p.s. Shout o

Hey Soul Mates, the photos are finished from our CD Release Show at BB King's . There are 40 pictures in all on two pages. So be sure to visit each page to see all the pageantry. Several of the Soul Mates made the photo-spread. In action, no less: looking good. It takes a while to prepare the photos for the internet. This time, I tried something new to save myself a bit of the headache of loading and creating a page for each individual pic. Thus, the thumbnails are attached to the pics only, not a designated page with other information on it. This should make it easier for your computer to load the snaps. It's the beginning of the weekend. Last night, Bryan and I went to the Mint to catch a short set by Rich Mahan . He's quite a good guitarist and writer. Bryan and I also discussed the feasibility and possibility of doing a mini-tour of the East Coast in early '06. Would our fans in WPB & DC like that? Details to follow. Tonight, I'm going to my friend Micah'

Hey Soul Mates, today is Steve Cropper's birthday. Happy Birthday to Soul Man #3. Mr. Cropper was the guitar genius behind most of the major hits on Stax, working with Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and Booker T. & the MGs. That's him that Sam Moore refers to when Sam shouts "play it Steve!" on Soul Man . Of course, Cropper also joined the Blues Brothers' Band and John Belushi got the honor of saying that line on SNL. Steve Cropper's style is minimalist, but assertive. It's dirty and full of grit. Perfect for those Stax sides. He's also an accomplished composer (he co-wrote the massive hits Soul Man , (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay , Knock On Wood ) and an inductee of the Rock Hall. Yes! A true music pioneer, who just by playing helped integrate pop music. Alright, you have this weekend to decide what you are going to wear for our show on Tuesday. The band is wearing orange and black. Which we actually picked before we realized how close we we

Hey Soul Mates, if you're reading this right now, you're home on a Saturday night. Or maybe Sunday morning. I've spent my evening editing my appearance on Pop Garden Radio into the Reader's Digest version. It took a while. Had to cut out the music that DJ Adam Waltemire spun, including ours, for legal reasons and to condense it from 2 hours to 19 minutes. Listening to it back, it's kind of revealing... and every bit as informal as our Monday Show appearance. I hope you will enjoy it. Just click NOW or on the title above and you can stream the track from our website. It will be available for a limited time. It's only 4 MB so it shouldn't take fast carriers too long to access. The compression makes it sound like how it would through AM radio (which it was broadcast on last week); but I do have a supremely clean version. If you want to hear the sweet digital version, e-mail me and I'll arrange it for you. Remember, this is streaming audio, please be pati

Hey Soul Mates, just a quick, jet-lagged blog. After all, I woke up at 4 a.m. PST to go swimming in the Atlantic to watch the sunrise. We had a great family weekend in Vero Beach, Fla. Grandma really enjoyed the 5 day celebration of her 90th birthday. I spent a lot of time in the ocean with my uncles and cousins. Also got my butt kicked by a couple of waves. Especially, yesterday at low tide, the Atlantic was relentless. By this a.m. I had my sea legs back. It was great to see the extended family. The weather really cooperated, too. Hardly a cloud and only a few drops of rain this morning. Happy Birthday (which is today), Gmom. The interview for Pop Garden Radio on Saturday night went well. I was on with DJ/host Adam Waltemire on WMEL for most of the 2 hour show. He played all 4 tracks from our new EP. We chatted on air, and off, about the LA music scene in particular. Adam is a big fan of several of the local pop bands that are friends of mine. I will try to edit a little of the broad

Hey Soul Mates, the new evite for the Oct. 25 show will be going out tonight. Hope to see as many of you there as possible. It's crunch time for Rush Hour Soul. We are reaching critical mass, the tipping point... Our name, faces and music are getting out there and we are poised to take over! This weekend our music will make its debut on Pop Garden Radio airing Midnight EST on Saturday night. Believe it or not, yours truly happens to be flying to central Florida tomorrow. Then, what do we get in our myspace inbox? A request for music from PGR, which airs live from (drumroll...) central Florida, exactly where I'm flying. The occasion is actually my grandmother's 90th birthday. Happy B-day, Gmom. But this also presents an opportunity to expand our audience. Should be fun. So tune in if you can, via stream, etc. Just check their site linked above. Gotta get back to the evite and finish packing. Everyone have a great weekend. Thanks for keeping RHS close to your hearts. Love, P

Hey Soul Mates, I'm just back from a weekend in Washington DC for a wedding. DC is such a beautiful town. All those green trees. What a break from the dry, brown hills around LA this fall. I hadn't been back in almost a decade. Got to hang out with my posse from school. Took in a few of the monuments and a favorite Smithsonian museum on the national mall. Had lunch at the Tombs. Although I barely had time to visit old haunts, it was a successful and trip. Myself and old roomie Christo on the rooftop of Village A In the latest, we have posted high-quality streaming snips of our number 1 singles on MySpace. There's also a snip of the acoustic version of Everyone's Ingenue from our iRadio interview with Sara Routh . You can hear the entire song in the interview. We are also adding lots of new friends to our MySpace page, so let me officially welcome you. If you aren't connected to us yet on MySpace this is a great time to do it. We have a different major label intere