Alcatraz, The Cubbies and a Cow Palace

Hello friends!
So we are winding down our time here in the great state of California. It's been HOT, fun, and frankly quite a pleasant trip. I'm sad to leave the civilization that we seem to have found out here, but am really excited to be heading to a NEW state, after being here since July. SO, we've been planted here in Oakland for two weeks as we play the Cow Palace in San Francisco. What an interesting place and crowds the Palace offered us. I use the word interesting loosely. Took some shots.








Check out that fog!! Crazy stuff. Around 5 pm that business would roll in at FAST speeds and just start covering all the hills surrounding the venue.

So, a big highlight for me this city was being able to go to San Fran's ballpark and catch my Cubbies playing some baseball. We lost, but had amazing seats to see the beating occur.






















That last one is my attempt at getting a little artsy fartsy. Kinda in my mind the Boys of Summer kind of feel.

TODAY! A few of us got on the BART and headed to....dunh dunh dunnnhhhhh....ALCATRAZ!!!

Such a cool experience to see this historic prison up close and in person. Will let the pictures speak for themselves. Some great shots of the Golden Gate bridge as well from our ferry and from inside the prison walls. Had to suck sitting in that prison and seeing all the land around you and no way to get to it.



































Hope you have enjoyed this series of shots. Don't forget to go listen to ,y Soundcloud page and check out some of the other guys I'm following as well, some very good musicians including Bleu, who has all of his work on there.

Until next time!
J

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So, I made some noise

Hey Kids!
I've been debating this whole idea for a while, but then I figured, what the hell.

I have signed up for what is known as a SoundCloud account. It is a place that I can share my music, and you all can listen to it, comment, and share it with the general world. I've gotten to a point where I want to get heard. Not in a famous way, just in a way so you all know what I've been working on for the past couple of years.

To access the soundcloud account click HERE:


That will get you access to the three projects that I have up there.

Project 1: Icarus
This was the album that I was going to put out in 2008 or so. Things got complicated in my life and the money that I had saved up to get it pressed and released went away. So here it is, in all it's glory once again. It was once up on this site to download, but now you can just hop over there and get your fix.

Project 2: Seasons EP Demo
I wrote a song called Summer's Coming and I thought how neat it would be to have an entire EP of songs about the seasons. So here it is. These are still demos, songs that need a little tweaking, some tuning and what not. The B side to this EP will be 4 cover songs, I'm still looking into how SoundCloud handles people putting Covers up, once I know the covers should start making their way on there as well.

Project 3: Secret Songs
Those of you who know me well will know exactly what these songs are being used for. That project seems to have been halted in some magical limbo land and I can't seem to get any more progress information out of the other party. SO, what I've done is put up two tracks. The first, I've stripped out the vocals, as to not give too much info away, so what you're left with is my music. Just as pure as it can be. I'm very proud of all this material which is why I've decided to start sharing it. It's a moody piece that rocks some ballz at the end! The second track is a rock song one off that I wrote for the project. Basically we needed a rock tune. Didn't matter what it was, so here it is. This one the lyrics are mine and it doesn't really relate to the project all that much, so I figured, shit, it's mine, so you can hear it all you want. I really dig this tune, if I could write like this all the time, I would! PS, that is ME playing that guitar solo (after about 57 takes.)

So I hope ya'll go and listen, maybe leave a comment so I knows you were there. And I really hope you enjoy the tunes. I may come back in here and comment more about the Seasons EP, as I had done previously with Icarus.

http://soundcloud.com/jamesonboyce

That's all for now!
J

Quick Note

So, I purchased a Clear 4g mobile hotspot!! I now have wifi on the train. I'll be able to add updates here a lot more. And hopefully soon, I will be uploading some tunes and such to download. Probably my "Icarus" album to start with.

Talk real soon!
J


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Location:Randolph St,Commerce,United States

Out West

California here I......am? We arrived in Fresno CA this week to begin our 11 weeks of California circus rock! It's been a great trip out west so far. Once we hit Colorado Springs I felt like we are finally making our way from the East coast.
Colorado was beautiful, a few of us went and spent the night on a mountain and climbed to the top the following morning. That was a sight to see, especially when some fellow bikers climbed to the top and proceeded to jump off right in front of us! Don't worry, they had hang gliders.
After Colorado was Sin City!! Which I think everyone on the tour was looking forward to. We had some big winners on our show, some people leaving with a few thousand dollars, while a lot more left with a few thousand less. I ended up even after 5 straight days of gambling.....slot machines are the devil.
All I can say about Arizona was.....there was never a day lower than 110 degrees. I got to see Krista, which was the highlight of the time spent in AZ.
Now I'm sitting in a sushi cafe in Fresno CA updating my phone and Ipad just enjoying the day. It's hot here as well, and we are getting into a heck of a schedule, but that just shows me that America loves the circus.

Hope you all are well! I will be back in Florida in 5 months!! Can you believe ive already been gone for 6 months?? Crazy.

Next blog will have some pics, most likely of the Staples Center, where I'm sure I'm going to have a rock and roll hissy fit!!!

J


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A few months in....

So! We have come to our first week break in our touring schedule. I thought now would be a great time to put down my thoughts on my new life.

I've been on the rails for about 4 months to the day now. Taking my pretty cushy life in Florida and packing it all up and cramming it into an 8 by 8 state room on a mile long train. It definitely took some getting used to, but have now found my stride and my sanity. My conductor told me a very important piece of advice before I came out on the road, "Bring something that will keep your sanity." Those who know me know that it's two things, video games and being able to write my own music. After a few weeks of trial and error I now have both of those things and feel like I am able to satisfy both of those needs! I am able to keep working on my "Torment" soundtrack, and have recently been inspired to update some of the older tunes for the film that have been sitting for almost 2 years now. Still waiting for the day I can share these songs with everyone.

The show is a great show to play, it's amazing that after some 100+ performances already, I can't say that any two performances have been exactly the same musically. This is something that definitely keeps you on your toes as a musician. It's great to see my skills on the piano coming back to me. I'm taking this amazing opportunity to up my playing game, seeing myself now playing parts in the show that I was having to leave out or comp, now playing fully, it's a great feeling. I'm very excited to see how my career proceeds inside this company. I am really looking forward to this upcoming stretch on the road. We hit Hershey PA as our last northeast date, then we start heading out west! We will be in Vegas in about 5 weeks, which I am stoked to play there. Julie should be visiting then as well, which will be wonderful.

For now I am heading back to see my beautiful Julie for her 24th birthday. We are heading off to the wonderful world of Cancun for a very well deserved 6 days of sun and rest! I've spent enough time in New Jersey this year to deserve that, right?

PS I am working on new original tunes as well. Have a few in the works, there is a great sense of unity in them. I'll try to find an easy way for you all to hear them when they are ready.


Hope you all are well and thanks for stopping by and reading. And yes, I love it here.

- J


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Location:10,000 feet in the air

Midloathian and Richmond VA

So as some of you may know or not know when I was a very little kid I lived in Midoloathian VA in probably one of my favorite neighborhoods of my childhood. When we were traveling on the the train this past week I noticed we were going to go right through the heart of my childhood town. I grabbed my camera and snapped this great picture.



This intersection is where my elementary school was, and I remembered as we were going that there used to be a train Caboose in front of Robious Elementary. Wonder if it's still there?

Our train yard is right by the James River and there is a great nature trail running right next to it. Tuesday was a gorgeous day here, so I grabbed my camera and grabbed a ton of shots. Here are a few of my favorites.





























This was right after the bad storms that the East coast dealt with. The river was raging!


























The last few shots are from a power plant that was on the island. Very creepy, and I can only imagine what them teenagers do in there at night.

We make our final north east trek next week, hitting Rhode Island, Connecticut and Jersey (again, eep!)

Thanks for taking a look!
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Norfolk VA Venue

Here are some pictures grabbed of the venue in Norfolk. Was a very cool design to the building.
















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