Well, it’s been a long few months of relative quiet from Hydrovibe… but we’ve been busy little bees getting our album finished and manufactured.  In fact, those babies will be delivered to our doorstep very, very soon.  Now, the guys and I are working with our incredible team (Orleans Street Records, New Level Graphics, Corporate Punishment, Fat Dot, and TKO) to get all the pieces of the puzzle in place for the album release.

And I’m calling on each and every one of you in our Hydrovibe Alliance to help us out.  Spread the word about Hydrovibe and our album “Nothing Left To Lose” …. Get your friends to register on this site or subscribe to our monthly newsletter …. Pre-order the album in August or buy some merch … Donate to our online tip jar … Call your radio station to request Hydrovibe …. and be sure to come to our shows when we tour this Fall!!  Because like I say onstage time and time again – Bands are nothing without their fans! And Hydrovibe has the best fans ever!!!

Last month Heather fell ill with a serious sinus infection that was treated with some very strong antibiotics, which would have been fine except that the antibiotics created a much worse problem.  Strong antibiotics kill all the good bacteria in our systems, which in Heather’s case allowed for a killer bacterial infection to set in and create a badly bleeding ulcer.  Unaware of the heavy internal bleeding, Heather didn’t go to the hospital until she was in great pain and delusional from the blood loss.  She was rushed into the E.R. where doctors treated the infection, gave her Morphine and Dilaudid for her extreme pain, and frantically tried to get the bleeding under control.

When the bleeding didn’t stop for 4 days, the doctors decided that they would need to do immediate blood transfusions to her alive.  Miraculously, though, as they were preparing to do the transfusions Heather’s health took a quick turn for the better. The blood loss ceased and they decided that the transfusion was no longer necessary.  After another day of recovery in the hospital, she was released to her mother’s care.  For the following weeks, she was so weakened by the extreme blood loss, she mostly slept and was basically just out of it in general.  The doctors later told us that she was only about a day or so away from death due to blood loss had a neighbor not taken her in to the ER! Scary!  However, she is on the road to recovery, gaining strength daily.

The good news is that she WILL be making a 100% recovery and will have no long-term problems, the bad news is that the doctors say that she will not be fully able to tour again until July.  She is badly anemic from the blood loss and even with the Iron supplements she’s taking, it takes some time to regain full strength.  We had hoped for a late Spring or very early Summer album release, and Heather’s much-needed recovery time will inevitably push release plans back just a little bit.  Now, depending on tour possibilities, we are looking at  more of a mid-Summer album release. Of course, we’ll be giving you details as soon as we know anything.  Until then, STAY HEALTHY and thank you very much for your continued support of our band!  We’ll see you this summer.

I fell in love with this app this past month when I needed to send audio files from the upcoming album to Mat, Phil and Eliot.  Because of the size, email wasn’t an option… and Mat was in Canada!!  So I used Dropbox.  It’s quick and painless.

After the first few nights, the guys in both Hydrovibe and Bobaflex (the band we were touring with) started commenting on how strong my voice sounded.   We started this tour off with 6 shows in a row before our first day off… and by that time I was convinced these warm-ups really were making a difference.  My voice was never even really hoarse!  And I have The Zen of Screaming to thank for it.

Since he sings about as much as I do, Mat started joining me on the warm-ups.  Well, it wasn’t long after this that Bobaflex’s singers Shawn and Marty McCoy were in our van warming up too!  All four of our voices stayed strong despite all the different climates we were in during the month.  We were sold.

Often after the shows, other singers approached me for tips or tricks I use to keep my voice strong night after night… Without fail, I say, “Get this DVD and use the vocal exercises whether you scream or not.  Because IT WORKS!”

You can buy this DVD for $22.49 at Amazon.com.  Other tools in my Vocalist Arsenal that are also available at Amazon.com:

• NeilMed Sinus Rinse Kit – I do this daily… twice a day if I’m suffering from allergies
• Saline Packet Refills – This is a must if you’re on a tour to stay on top of your sinus rinses. Plus, you can use them in very warm water as a gargle for sore throats!
• Mucinex – 2 ENT doctors have recommended these to me; they moisturize the vocal chords and keep phlegm thin.

With the great camaraderie of the two bands, the excellent routing and booking of the tour (thank you Jenny McPhee and Dan Devita at TKO, and our manager Demetri Benoist), having an awesome front-of-house sound guy (thank you DAVE!!!), having a fantastic tour manager (thank you Chucky Love), and the fact that the gas prices went back down (thank you to whoever made that happen – Chucky, did you make that happen too???);   we can easily say that this was the best and most fun tour we’ve done to date.  Thank you to all the promoters, venues, our wonderful road friends/family, our brothers in Bobaflex, brother Dave, brother Chucky, all the cool local support bands we shared the stage with, and all who attended the shows… We can’t wait to do it again soon!  Now, back to the mixing studio where the Hydrovibe album is about 70% completed… time to stick a fork in this one!

The shows have been wonderful – lots of new places and some familiar faces too.  And touring with Bobaflex is always lots of fun.  The Majestic Theater in Madison, Wisconsin was amazing… such a beautiful place and full of really cool people.  Michigan and Ohio was like a homecoming for Hydrovibe; thank you all who came out to see us one more time in ‘08!  We stopped off in High Point, North Carolina for a Halloween party… It was a great break for us, and we made some great friends.

Now, we’re headed to Florida for a run of shows.  This Wednesday’s show has no cover charge, so if you’re in the area be sure to come out!  We’ve added a few surprises to the setlist.  If you want to see some live footage, visit YouTube; our fans have uploaded some great videos!  I’m hoping to see more in the coming weeks, so be sure to bring your cameras to the shows!

We’ve also uploaded some new photos to the site.  Check out the Planet Rock album for some amazing shots!

There’s new merch for sale at the shows, so our New Level Graphics design team is hard at work getting the online store up and running.  Be on the lookout for that soon!

We’d like also to know what y’all think of our new site design, so be sure to add comments!  Before the end of the year, we’re going to choose a random commentor to win Hydrovibe goodies… so be sure to register and comment!

Hopefully, we’ll sleep well before show #1 later tonight.