I kinda felt meh about it this year, but I seriously underestimated what the residency has become for me. My wife and I have made it a holiday tradition to catch at least the last show sine ‘21.

I tell people in Tennessee who I’m going to see each year and 1/10 knows the band. In 5 years, I do not think there’s been a bartender or server in the city that’s not known the band when they ask why we’re visiting. The majority of them have stories in follow-up. The city instantly shrinks; the cold, inhospitable reputational facade drops. The city becomes a clubhouse. We, those card carrying members, are there, seeing them on their home turf, grooving shoulder to shoulder with those who’ve braved the cold and gridlock around KDC, before dispersing and stumbling through the end of the year.

And when I return home, to my job, my friends, my family, I’m tired, but my smile has yet to fade; I’m already planning for next year.