Gregory Alan Isakov and I had the same fashion sense the night The Weatherman was released.
After the show Gregory Alan Isakov and I strike a pose in front of the “Congrats” balloons I got him for The Weatherman. July 9, 2013 @ The Old Rock House, St. Louis, MO.
July 9th, 2026. A very Happy 13th Birthday to Gregory Alan Isakov’s album The Weatherman.
OTD in history...Gregory and his band played St. Louis' Old Rock House on the day it was released, July 9th, 2013. St. Louis is my first hometown.
The original show flyer — Gregory Alan Isakov’s The Weatherman record release show at The Old Rock House, with me as the opener.
I'd had the great fortune to open for them a few times by this point when they'd come through St. Louis. I'm grateful to the universe (Weatherman pun alert) for lifting me onto all those bills. For me - his and their music was a seismic, life-affirming avalanche and I'll always have love for them, their management, and team.
What can I remember about this show? It’s story time!
Well I was excited to surprise them with a "congratulations on the release" ensemble of some sort. I went to the local party store and landed on some big ol’ balloons. But now I'm running late! So there's me darting across town wearing my show outfit with zero visibility out of the back because the entire backseat of my Civic was covered in massive balloons and I was just fingers crossed none of them would touch a hot surface and explode. Got to the venue and entered through the underground sneaky way hoping to keep the surprise going and to my relief saw no one around so I dropped off the goodies unseen.
Steve Varney, Jeb Bows, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Philip Parker sound check at The Old Rock House.
Eventually of course I ran into the gang and I remember Greg having a laugh because we were both going through a "robin egg blue collared shirt under a black vest" kind of show outfit phase and "neither of us got the memo" that this might be unfashionable or odd. Greg's got fashion jokes.
I don't recall how I played so much as how proud I was to play songs from my newly-recorded Follow The Voices record. The amusing thing I noticed was during my set there were A LOT of people there early but zero of them wanted to be up close to the stage by me. So I sang my sad songs over the dance floor chasm to these polite early birds.
The view from my side of the “dance floor chasm” — a room full of polite early birds whose social distancing skills were years ahead of their time.
Playing songs from Follow The Voices at Old Rock House. Opening the show for Gregory Alan Isakov.
One thing I remember about Greg and the band's set is being in awe of hearing so many Weatherman songs for the first time and in real-time realizing how stunning and brilliant they were. First listen. That doesn't usually happen for me, often I study a thing and the genius shows later. Nope. These Weatherman songs were phenom right out of the gate. I specifically remember asking Phil (cellist extraordinaire) what his favorite part of the set was and his answer was "Amsterdam." It was probably at this show, but definitely in this era of shows with them, I remember Greg introducing and playing "Feed Your Horses" a song which appears on his 2023 record Appaloosa Bones.
My Top 3 favs from The Weatherman as of this writing: "Living Proof," "The Universe," "She Always Takes It Black." How bout yours?
So a warm hello to fond memories of a fun night and a Happy 13th Birthday to an excellent record!
Gregory Alan Isakov warming up backstage, surrounded by the “Congrats” balloons which managed to not explode getting there.