It was a time for Sound Traveler to come together with old and new friends to celebrate a tough job that had a wonderful outcome. It was a night full of world premieres of much-loved songs, reprises of old favorites, laughter, hugs, barbecue, autographs, and banana pudding. We celebrated a birthday, included one faraway friend through the wonders of cell phone technology, and invited an old friend onstage to perform with us once again. And along the way, we even managed to sell a few CDs!

Yes, it was our long-awaited CD release party, held last night in the same place where we met, playing on the same stage that we shared on Carolina BBQ’s open mic night six summers ago. When we were planning the event, it just seemed like the right thing to do, and it was.

It was hard work to actually learn all of the songs that we included on the CD. For our non-music-recording friends, something should be explained. Recording individual music tracks one at a time, using cheat sheets and having the luxury (or the curse) of being able to re-record time and time again, is one thing. Having to put everything together and being able to perform that same music live, doing as many things as 4 at a time and only getting one shot at it, is something completely different. Yes, it took a lot of preparation, but it was worth it, and in large part this is because of the appreciative audience.

It was a full house, and they were a listening crowd. At the end of the night, they even gave us a standing ovation! All throughout the night, the applause was warm and genuine. And to make it all complete, we even got to see Sound Traveler’s name in lights outside the restaurant.

Although it would be hard to thank everyone by name, we’d like to especially thank Naomi & Anna, the CD project’s photographers, who staffed the CD sales table; Sheri and Darlene, who chose to have Sheri’s birthday celebration with us; Ellie, who joined us onstage to sing with us; Patty’s parents, Larry & Nancy, who support us in everything we do with gusto; Don, Linda, & Gina, dear friends who introduced us to new fans Evelyn & Gavin; Heather, who joined us via cell phone; and many other friends who enjoyed the evening with us such as Andrea & Bob, Doug & Jo, Skip, Lisa, & Forrest, John & Sharon, Brian & Joy, Lani, Justin, Pat, Mike, and anyone else we may have forgotten. A special thanks to Dave Calvert and his crew at Carolina Barbecue who offered the venue to us for free. Thanks to all for making the event so memorable for us!

And for those of you who couldn’t be in Newland, NC last night: you’ll have another chance in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where we’ll do it all again in a couple of months. Hope to see you there! In the meantime, you can go to CDBaby.com and search Sound Traveler for your CD fix. Thanks again for your continued support of our music! – Patty Kunze Tatum