Happy New Year! 
Although I'm not a huge fan of looking back, I guess it's my responsibility

to do a little 2017 year in review before I deliver plans for the new year…

2017 was a hard workin' and hard rockin' year for Skinny Molly!

Without going over every detail, the year saw us playing some of

the biggest shows ever in the career of the band. We worked harder

than ever, that's for sure. Here's a quick snapshot example of the kind

of running around the world we do: Fly in to London, England and meet

Tour Manager Martin Lewis for a two day drive to   the south of France

near Bordeaux. Play the gig, ("Showbike Aquatine" one of our favorite

gigs ever) and leave directly after loading up for a 13 hour drive to Milan,

Italy for the "Southern Rock Festival" where we arrived just in time for

soundcheck. After rocking Italy for the first time ever we left right after

the show for a quick shower at the hotel and then hauled it to the Milan

airport to catch a couple of planes to Hamburg, Germany to play

"Hamburg Harley Days". After arriving in Germany on no sleep and

the plane's luggage held up for an hour, we were picked up by the

promoter, drove around Hamburg's closed roads and absolutely

inhumane road construction just in time to walk onstage with two

minutes to spare.  Despite road fatigue beyond belief, the gigs all

went great. I'm really proud to be in a band where the guys love to play

enough to keep up near impossible schedules that would absolutely

vaporize most bands, the above being just one example. 

 

The year wasn't all great news, however. Not long after the aforementioned

Summer run in Europe, Kurt informed the rest of us that he wouldn't be

able to continue on for the rest of the year, which included our 6 week

annual Fall tour which was about 6 weeks out… It was a big shock, as

2017 was his 13th year with the band that he and I founded. As hard as

it was, I understood as he has a family with school age children that need

him around more than he can be with our touring schedule. The good

news is, as we have been brothers for so long, nobody was angry and

Kurt will still play shows with the band in the States until we get somebody

to take what isn't an easy job in this band. I want to thank Kurt for his loyal

service these past 13 years and wish him the best of luck with any and all

that he does musically and personally. 

 

Once the initial shock wore off after speaking to Kurt, I called Christoph Ulllman,

who I've known since '05 and Jay had played with in Blackfoot for a year.

Christoph agreed to go out with us and came in and did a killer job on a tour

with the usual grueling schedule. I can't thank him enough for taking the bull

by the horns and knocking it out. I'm sure he and I drove the rest of the guys

nuts with HOURS of conversation about cars and vans (about which we are

both crazy) and saying "hi" to each other every 5 minutes as if we hadn't seen

each other in years. Yep, the road can make you do things that would make

"normal" people question your sanity, though that's something you rarely do

yourself.   

 

Back last Spring, I had started working on songs to record for a new Skinny

Molly CD. Although some voice problems in the late Spring early Summer

(Thanks, allergies) stopped me from completing it. Some of you know another

CD is something I swore I would never do again after we completed Haywire

Riot. (I was proven a fibber when we started work on 2014's "Here for a

Good Time")

It's not that I don't love writing/recording/producing. I do. If I didn't I certainly

wouldn't have been doing it for the last 30 odd years. The thing is, after all

this time, I feel that I'm pretty well versed in what sucks, what is OK, what's

good and what is great in our style of music. And for this band to put out new

music that remotely approaches great requires my constant attention to

detail for at least year. Sixteen plus hour days seven days a week for

weeks and months on end. It's hard work, and that's what it takes. At

least it does me, anyway. I can't and won't put out anything that's under

the bar that we feel we've set as a band, especially song-wise. To do

the quality work we are and have been committed to requires major

effort, and we have to be mentally and physically prepared for it.

So after the Fall tour I came home and did basically nothing from

Thanksgiving to Christmas, save for some business I had to deal

with and swatting at re working the CD. Most of the songs are there

and it's time to record them for real. So, for 2018 there's gonna be a

new CD from this band, and I'm excited about doing it.

Thanks for supporting us and keeping us working into our 14th year as a

band! We appreciate you more than you could ever know!

See you on the road! 
Mikee