Hello fellow songwriters, music lovers, philanthropists and kind folks everywhere…Rod Kim of The Commuter Tour here and I’m currently waiting at Philadelphia International Airport for my tour mate, Kevin Masch, to arrive from Nashville, TN.  I’m so excited to announce that Vision4Music and The Commuter Tour have partnered up to bring you our crazy stories from the road, songwriting contests, interviews and more!  Kevin and I have been on tour throughout the last year and have a full calendar planned for 2010!  As for the remainder of this year, we have a month long tour starting tomorrow.  For those of you who are new to The Commuter Tour family, here’s a bit of a catch up:

In October of 2008, The Commuter Tour planned a kick-off show with all 8 artists near St. Louis.  A week before the show, and long after all the days off work were requested and flights were booked) the venue pulled out and we were left with shattered plans.  Kevin and I were close friends in college but had lost touch until recently.  My flight was already booked and I was heading out to St. Louis anyway and Kevin was determined to play some shows.  It all started with a short instant message, “Hey man, you mind if I go on the road with you?” And so I flew into St. Louis where Masch drove from Nashville to pick me up and we drove through the midwest playing shows wherever anyone would take us.  We had a couple gigs booked, some radio interviews and some impromptu gigs.  1700 miles later, we had the time of our lives and had played more music in a few days than some do in a few years.  That was the beginning of everything.  Check out my blog for the whole story on that.

It was at that point we had realized our love for songwriting and playing live gigs.  Several text messages exchanged between us and we went right into planning our next tour.  In the meantime, I went on a short stint through the UK to play some gigs and had a GREAT time.  I can’t communicate how much I love Scotland and the kind people there.

I was honored with the opportunity to play World Cafe Live’s Beta HiFi New Songs For The New Year w/ the Songwriter’s Circle of New York.  I was the winner of week two and met many great friends there.  World Cafe Live is my most favorite venue ever, I see shows there all the time and have played many open mics there, but it was great to actually be on the schedule.  The audiences at WCL are the best.

Kevin played through Nashville and surrounding areas and I gigged more around the Philly area until March, when Masch flew out east to meet me where we embarked on our second tour.  That tour took us through Boston, Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut.  It was an amazing time and we met many great friends along the way.  I have a blog entry for that too.

In April, I was invited to play at Dewey Beach Popfest and had a great time with many of my music friends.  I spent years on the technical end of music but rarely told my friends.  This was one of the first times many of my friends in music and otherwise saw me play and found out I wrote songs.  My good friend, Bonnie VonDuyke, accompanied me on violin.  Getting to this gig was far more crazy – on the way down, we stopped to get some food at a nearby mall and when we pulled out of the parking lot to drive to Dewey, I saw route 1 and headed south.  My GPS kept yelling at me to U-turn, but I ignored assuming it was avoiding tolls and HOV lanes.  What I learned that day (via and old fashioned road atlas) was that two route 1’s pass through my area and while one goes to Dewey, the other goes through Virginia.  We were on the one headed to Virginia.  I got back on track and we pulled into the Rusty Rudder the minute I was supposed to start, had no soundcheck and just threw up the keyboard and mics and started playing.

In May, I flew out to Nashville so Masch and I could meet producer Eddie Gore.  Eddie is probably one of the most talented yet funny and honest producers in the industry.  We hung out in his studio for a while and laughed it up while sharing our joys and griefs of the music industry.  Later, we headed to Indianapolis to play a house show and a packed out gig at the Red Eye Cafe with our good friend Polly Waddell.

In June, Masch and I set out on another tour on the East Coast.  We started out at the incredible World Cafe Live in Philly for an extremely memorable show and then moved on to Aroma’s Coffee House in Williamsburg, VA and Ragged Edge Coffee House in Gettysburg, PA.  We also played an impromptu show at the Garryowen Pub in Gettysburg where Kevin had a new (inebriated) fan…an older British fellow who rewrote one of Kevin’s songs and was singing it at him during his set.  YouTube video here.  We highly recommend Aroma’s, Ragged Edge and Garryowen to anyone going to those cities…they are some of the greatest people you’ll meet.  If you don’t mind reading through my trip to see my brother’s graduation and friend’s wedding, I have a blog post about everything from Indy to the East Coast here.

When July rolled around, Masch and I hit up stops from NYC to Asbury Park and southern Jersey.  As the summer ended, Kevin hit up more stops around Nashville and in Alabama and my gigs ranged from World Cafe Live’s Beta HiFi Music Festival to an amazing gig with Joel & Beth Gragg, Sarah Jahn and Jan Krist in Ft. Wayne, In to Philly’s famous Tin Angel.  Nate Rylan and I even had a power-pop evening at the Blinkin’ Lincoln.  I spoke and performed at my old high school in Greentown, IN and finished recording a new single (By Now – Radio Version) with power producer Richie Rubini.  Check out a clip of that song here.  That single debuted on 93.7 WSTW Hometown Heroes.  Kevin’s song “I’ll Be” was picked up by the new novel “Reversal Of Beauty” by Cay Templeton and used in promotional spots for the new book.

And that brings us to now, a year later.  I’m sitting here, awaiting for my best friend and tour mate to start another adventure as performing songwriters.  We’ll have more stories to come, all brought to you by Vision4Music and The Commuter Tour.  Thanks for supporting us and be sure to keep checking back for crazy stories and hear about songs we’re working on and keep up with our studio projects.  We’re two singer/songwriters trying to make it in this brutal music industry and cruel economic climate, but we love music too much to do anything else and are ecstatic to share our journey with you.  Until later, keep the music alive.

-Rod