Today was amazing…what a stunning place to play. We played right after Sheila E’s father, Pete Escovedo. I had the pleasure of meeting him after his show...what a great performer and musician! And...What an amazing day of music and fun. It was the coolest to see everyone watching while in your canoes and kayaks! It was great to be up in Northern California for a day…soak in some beautiful scenery, people and some great music!

We arrived here at the Mohegan Sun in the middle of the night after our show in New York. What a great oasis in the middle of Connecticut, and what a great place to end our mini East Coast tour. We lounged around during the day…I ate everything in sight at the Summer Shack there in the casino, and we had a great show tonight. Thanks to everyone for coming down! You were even standing in line already when I arrived for soundcheck around 3:30. That’s love. Thank you! Thanks for a great show!

Tonight was a lot of fun. The IMAC is such a magical place to play…so intimate and fun. We love coming here year after year. I feel like Michael and Kathie who run the place are good friends that I’m just visiting!! I should say thanks to Linda Russo from my fanclub Mindiworld for the amazing cookies she brought us, and the cool black rocker tshirt with stars on it and matching earrings! WOW! She had no idea that I was running out of clothes towards the end of the long tour…that shirt will come in handy…and it’s cool too!

A little road story for you….We’ve had a friend Gregory Manning playing keyboards with us this whole tour. We went to school together at Berklee, and we’ve played together ever since all over the world…with my band and other artists. My usual keyboard player, Rodney Lee, is expecting a baby in the next few weeks, and couldn’t risk being thousands of miles away when the baby came! So we had to break Greg in a bit, since he’s not usually with us on the road…call it an initiation. He came out on the road with a big pink suitcase …obviously a “borrowed” item from his wife. So we’ve been calling him Greg “Pinky” Manning on stage now all week. We took it a step farther this week and wheeled his suitcase out on stage right before his featured solo of the night. I figured the crowd here in New York would appreciate knowing how he got his “Pinky” nickname! Don’t worry Greg…you’ll be back to your normal job of composing for “Samantha Who” on ABC and being the musical director of “Swiss Idol” soon. We just needed to show you our love for hitting the road with us for a few weeks!

As we boarded the plane for Boston, one of my bandmembers noticed that XM radio was playing throughout the plane. There are little windows on the armrests that tell what station it’s on, what artist is playing, and the song title. Watercolors was on, and that’s the station that we just played a live concert for 2 days ago! So we emailed a hello from the plane (we were still on the ground) to Lynette White, the on-air DJ and all around cool girl! We took off, and we all listened to Watercolors on the flight. You know, Lynette gave us a big “shout out” on the air and played a few songs of mine, “Smile” and “New Shoes”. She was live when she got our email, and it was incredible to be in the air and hear her talking to us in real time on the plane. We were all hitting each other and pointing at the armrests and headphones. You’re the coolest, Lynette.

Now, on to the show in Boston…..It’s always great to come back to Boston. I went to Berklee School of Music, and Boston is the place where I really started to find myself musically. One of the current guitar teachers at Berklee came to our show and even hooked Jay, my guitarist, up with a cool Marshall amp and some great gear for the show. Thanks for the hookup, Scott! It’s good to have friends in high places!

The Ramshead has completely renovated since I was here in December. The new room is incredible…bigger…and better! Thanks for a great sold out night! And thanks to Mary for bringing us the most amazing brownies and cookies backstage. You made our tour!!

It’s so great to be on the East Coast again! Me and Jay Gore (my guitarist) dropped into XM Radio to do a little “live” concert for them to air at a later date. We got the big tour of all the stations…pretty fun. They have a station called “The Joint” …which we thought was cool…because I have a song called “The Joint” off my “Life Less Ordinary” CD. So…we took a picture in front of it! Our show at the Birchmere was incredible. We even brought up a young future tenor sax player, Joey, to dance with me on “Flirt”. You were a great audience. We’ll see you soon!

Tonight was a really special night for me. I had 23 family members in the audience! My father’s side of the family lives about an hour from here, and my husband’s family lives right in Michigan City. So it was the perfect opportunity to get everyone together! I had the cheering section of a lifetime! Even my 94 year old grandpa-in-law came down for the festivities! Thanks to everyone who came down to the show…what an overwhelming turnout! Thanks to Joy and Bernie Scott for putting on such a great evening. Nick Colionne was great...happy birthday Nick! We had a blast. Thanks Joy and Bernie for this great shot of me and my husband Jason on stage!

What an incredible day of music. I arrived early and just enjoyed the show with the thousands of other fans. It looked like the audience went on forever…this was a huge crowd this year!! Thanks for all your love! I had such a great time. I even got to hang out a bit with Kirk Whalum backstage! It was a good day! Thanks to Kay Tolliver for these fun pics of Kirk and me goofing off!

It’s been so long since we played Yoshi’s. It’s absolutely one of my favorite places to play, and I’m so glad we’re back. Great food, a great intimate setting…what more do you need? We played two nights, and the afternoon of the 2nd day the whole band came in early to do a live broadcast on KKSF and their contest winners. We played 2 songs live on the air, “Smile” and “Lucy’s”. It was a cool little private party for us, but the whole city got to be a part of it! Love that. Thanks to Michele Witten from Smoothjazznotes.com for this picture from the show. There are more on her website, www.SmoothJazzNotes.com/abair0808.html

I always love coming to Seattle. This was an especially cool visit because Tower of Power performed right after us. We stood on the side of the stage and just rocked out with them for their set. What an incredible band. They were such a huge influence on all of us as musicians growing up. It was great to not only be on the bill with them, but get to listen and watch from such a great vantage point!

It’s great to be so close to home tonight. We all live in and around Los Angeles, so this was such a nice evening to bring family and friends down to. We had a serious dance floor going by the end of the night. I love it!!

Thanks for such a fun night in Carlsbad! What a beautiful setting to play. Mark Roberts sent me this photo he took. The moon was almost this big in the back, but this was a light to the side of the stage that ended up looking just like the moon in this shot! Thanks for a perfect night!

Detroit is such a great music town...you can't just come in and not rock out! So that's just what we did. Sound check was running a bit late, so I walked into the fairgrounds and my guitarist Jay bought me a caramel apple. It was ON from there! Thanks for a fun night at the fair...we rocked Detroit!

It's so great to be back in Pennsylvania...and back at the cool club that we first played as my first CD was coming out...we kind of opened up the Berks Jazz Fest in there so many years ago. It was a great night...thanks to Jane LeVan and her brother David, who came down with some friends. She and I were best friends in high school...it's so cool to come back and hang!!

I’ve always thought Ellis Hall was the best kept secret in the music business. I played in his band for many years before I went solo myself! So tonight it was fun to put our music together for a great set in Salt Lake City. What an incredible talent and spirit Ellis Hall is! Thanks for a great night in Utah! Thanks to Zone VII Photography for this photo!

Tonight was such perfect weather here in Temecula. It’s usually blazing hot, but tonight it was cool and just perfect! It’s great to see all the familiar faces here at Thornton. Here’s a great picture sent to me by Lee Levenson!

Today was a very special show. We played on the water right at the shore of Lake Michigan, and it was on the grounds of the zoo! So, after soundcheck we saw a lion, a tiger and a bunch of monkeys! It was a blast! Even the fireflies came out for the show! Thanks for a great night!

Ahhh…we played V98.7’s festival two years ago and it was great, but tonight was even better! I got to watch Take 6 perform before us, and The Ohio Players play after us! What a great lineup! Very inspiring! V98.7 presented me with an amazing bottle of Moet & Chandon “White Star” champagne right before my show to honor my new CD “Stars”. They had seen that I'd been posting photos of various stars in my diary. So here's their star champagne to add to the collection! Thanks for the champagne…and a great day in Detroit. See you soon for the State Fair!

Today it rained constantly! I really didn’t think the show was going to happen! But…you came out with your rain coat parkas on, and you weathered the storm with us! It stopped raining about 2 minutes before we went onstage, and it was amazing….the first break from rain all day! Ha! They knew we wanted to play! I told Rick Braun, who went on with Richard Elliot after us, that the rain was his fault! He came out with a CD years ago called “Kisses in the Rain”. But the rain stopped…so no blame is necessary! Thanks for a soggy but fun night!

Tonight was so fun. It’s been so long since I’ve played with my band in Phoenix. And the Celebrity Theater…what can I say? Where else in the country can you spin while you play?! It’s so cool to play in a theater in the round…and the Celebrity has such a great history too. You can feel it when you’re on stage. It’s awesome! Thanks for such a fun night sharing the stage with the Rippingtons. They put on a great show as usual!