John and his incredible band scheduled a Christmas Show in Vienna, Virginia, so we jumped at our first chance to film them, and work with the fine folks at Jammin' Java again. What started off as an innocent Music Fog filming session turned into a whirlwind of craziness just before and after the cameras rolled. The house audio engineer, Anthony, did a great job of getting the band comfy on-stage during soundcheck, and preparing everything for both our performance, and the evening's show for the public. But moments later both of us were knee deep into the back of two mixing consoles, trying to get digital and analog worlds to collide. The band is ready. The crowd behind the ropes, waiting for their show, is getting larger---many of them eye-balling their potential course through the sea of chairs to gain the optimum front row seat. The mob is getting restless. It's go time. A couple of patch switches, cable runs, and confirmation nods later we're up and running, and the band is simply tearing it up on stage! Afterwards, though, like a scene from Beatle-mania, the mob dashes in and dumps one of our lights in a rush for the stage. Mind you, these were 40 and 50 year olds at a Christmas show! That is the craziness of John Cowan. The man can play, and sing, like there's no tomorrow.
Here's one from his new Christmas project Comfort & Joy, which is out now. We'll also bring you some wicked non-Christmas videos from the band in the weeks to come. There are just five more east coast dates for this tour, then the band will spend some time with their families. Here's to hoping that you'll be home for Christmas, too.
-Aaron