IN THIS ISSUE:

* Spain Tour
* Canadian Idol
* Solo Acoustic Gig
* Mile High Fan

Dear Chronics:

Greetings.  It's been about a month and a half since the last issue.
Sorry for the delay, but trust me, I haven't been loafing!

If you'd like to pass this newsletter on to friends, please do.
Anyone can join the P. Hux Chronicles group by simply writing to
Huxm...@aol.com and requesting to join.

***
SPAIN: It rocked.

The Orchestra's tour of Spain was great.  Four sold-out shows and
some extra time in Barcelona to visit the sites of my favorite
architect in the world, Antonio Gaudi.  He's the guy who made the
wiggly buildings.  Over a hundred years ago, Gaudi was two hundred
years ahead of his time.  His apartments, cathedral, public
parks...they all make me giddy.  You can't help but smile and feel
inspired in some crazy divine way when you enter his world.  If you
visit Barcelona, you should try to see everything he built.  Here's a
link to his Casa Mila.

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Casa_Mila.html

When we weren't gawking at architecture, me 'n' the boys were
blasting away to sold out houses in Valencia, Castelon, Madrid and
Barcelona.  The Madrid and Barcelona shows were in large rock clubs,
not theaters, and the crowd was packed in tight, right up to the front
of the stage.  WE LOVE THAT.  It's so much more fun for everyone when
there's no separation between band and audience.  It reminded me of
the old days back at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC.  Everybody
hot and sweaty, the music loud and in your face...it makes for an
exciting show.

We love playing in Spain and hope to get back soon.

CANADIAN IDOL: Old friend, new friend, new songs

I've spent three of the last five weeks writing songs with Kalan
Porter and Stevie Salas.  Kalan, 20, won Canadian Idol two years ago
and Stevie is an old friend of mine from LA who's producing Kalan's
new album.  (Stevie's a pretty well known guitar player whose credits
include stints with Rod Stewart, Mick Jagger, Terence Trent D'Arby
and many others.  In the late eighties I co-wrote a bunch of songs on
his album Stevie Salas Colorcode on Island Records.)

Kalan has a great voice.  It's powerful, but also kind of smoky and
seductive.  He's a really good live performer and also kicks ass on
violin, which he's played since he was a young kid.  After he won
Idol, Kalan's first album was written and produced by the Idol
production team and released within a few short months.  Although a big
hit north of the border (triple platinum), Kalan wanted more freedom to
write his own material for the second record, which he hopes will be
promoted worldwide.

Enter Stevie Salas.  Stevie has spent the last nine months working
closely with Kalan to hone a sound for him.  It's not easy for a
20-year-old to be thrust into the role of professional songwriter with
such high expectations as an Idol winner.  Stevie's done a good job
getting Kalan into the process.  They've worked with a bunch of other
writers, but about six weeks ago Stevie contacted me and asked me to
come aboard to help finish the writing for the album.  Cool!

We jumped right into it.  Kalan and Stevie came down to DC to work for
a week; I then went to Toronto for a week; finally Stevie and Kalan
came back to DC for another week of writing.  In the three weeks of
working together, we've earned each other's trust, learned each
other's tendencies, and figured out what works and what doesn't.
Kalan and Stevie had very specific ideas about the kinds of songs and
lyrics they were looking for.  The result: I think we've written six
or seven really great songs.

Stevie and Kalan will present the new songs to Sony BMG in the next few
days.  Hopefully the label will be as excited as we are.

SOLO ACOUSTIC SHOW AT JAMMIN' JAVA:  first DC gig

Before Kalan and Stevie left town, they came to see me play my first
solo show in DC.  My friends The Kennedys invited me to perform with
them on St. Patrick's Day at Jammin' Java, a nice performance room
in Vienna, VA.  Pete and Maura Kennedy have been really helpful in
introducing me to musicians in the DC area, where they were based
before relocating to Manhattan.  I had a great time, and the audience
was incredibly responsive.  It didn't hurt to have lots of friends
and family show up!  Here's the set:

Jewel & Johnny
Best Is Yet To Come
Bazooka Joe
I Loved Everything
Rubble
Bones
Happy Heavy Metal Boy
Come Clean
David Bowie Crys For No One
Out of My Head (with Kalan Porter on vocals)
Simple Things

Much to his chagrin, I got Kalan to come onstage and sing one of the
songs we'd written during the last few weeks, Out of My Head.  It
sounded great and he went over gangbusters.

MILE HIGH FAN: release date pushed back.

Mile High Fan, my collection of 15 songs from the late 80's and early
90's, will be released May 16.  The release date has been pushed back
by Not Lame Records to accomodate my insane schedule, which has
precluded me from taking care of some pre-release marketing duties.
I'm back on the case as we speak.

If you pre-order the album from Not Lame, you'll be eligible for lots
of cool little extra goodies.  The pre-release promotion will be up and
running soon.  We also plan to do something special for fans who order
from www.parthenonhuxley.com.  More soon.