Toddstock: Sunday 6.22.08

This was a day that will go down in history - Todd's 60th birthday, Todd and Michele's anniversary and the debut of Todd's new CD, Arena.

Chuck had shared with some of the tech crew for the concert that he had camera experience so he was able to act a a runner for the camera guys. He had a great front row seat for the concert. Todd had men move the stage from the hillside to the koi pond (we didn't see any koi in the pond during the concert). It was the most amazing setting in the water directly in front of the open living room/kitchen. LED lights that lined all three walls eventually were used for a special lighting effects during the concert. That band was warming up and Todd appeared around 7 pm. The band consisted of the birthday guy, Jesse Gress on guitar, Prairie Prince on drums, Rachel Haden on bass and Matt Bolton on guitar and keyboards. It was inspiring to see a woman taking her stand among these great musicians. To up Rachel's coolness factor even more, she is the daughter of Charlie Haden, jazz bassist, and the sister-in-law of Jack Black.

The concert debuted the new CD, Arena, and was old school rock 'n roll. Some words were difficult to understand since the sound was difficult to control in Todd's backyard which faces a valley. We loved the words we could understand and Todd is such a great musician who gave us all hope that at 60 you could still continue to take whatever you're passionate about to a whole new level. There was such a great energy every minute of the concert and we truly felt priviledged because we were there for the debut. The tour info for this new CD can be found on trconnection.com.

Chuck had been hoping that more musicians would have brought instruments out to jam during the week. He finally decided to bring out the red digital accordion (which is now autographed by Todd who had heard the story about the accordion riding in first class and asked, "How's your marriage?") People started gathering and we sang every Todd song that we could remember. Pippi led us through most of the songs with her strong energy. Sitting there with people from so many different places and countries singing the song, "One World", will forever be one of my most cherished memories from the week. We may have not been able to communicate with the Japanese women who were very loyal Todd fans but they knew every word to every Todd song so we were all on common ground in song. Just a glimpse of Utopia made us even sadder to think that we were leaving the next day.