Good morning!
I don't usually send out emails on Monday mornings but since the local show I'm playing is tomorrow and I'm on the radio today - I figured a little more notice is always better.
First things first:
Monday, June 29, 2026
KOCI Radio interview with Michaela Compton
6:30 P.M. PST - can tune in from anywhere!
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Campus Jax Singer-Songwriter Showcase
6:30-8 P.M.
Costa Mesa, CA
Over the weekend I played a really unique show at T.H.E. Show.* Being asked to be part of an event in a hotel conference room is usually…eh? You go into the thing knowing that the only people that wander in are just looking for a place to sit down or trying to get away from other things - whatever, right? And this event is for super-duper HIGH end audio stuff. My buddy Matt Moran was in charge of bringing in the musical acts and he was like “I'll introduce you around to the folks with the fancy speakers.”
He brings me down stairs and I meet Gabe from Supreme Acoustic Systems. Really nice dude in a cowboy hat with a room all tricked out with $20,000 speakers and an $8,000 record player and I don't even know the rest but it sounds incredible. I don't see a CD player anywhere around here.
He takes my record and puts it on.
The lighting helps with the sound. This is the Supreme Acoustics room.
Now, I've mixed my albums. I have decent studio monitors and I've heard my music and albums easily more than anyone else just from me being the one working on them. I don't tend to listen to my own stuff all that much after it's done but this? This was like hearing it for the first time. Oh my god. Hearing music like this is on a different level. I love it.
When Not Lost finishes playing, Gabe asks what instrument that was and when I tell him it's just pedal steel and acoustic guitar, he asks me if he can buy my record to show off his sound system. I'm chuffed. A feeling of “my album sounds pretty damn good” comes over me. It's not like I don't think my albums sound good but I also know I'm not Daniel Lanois or Bob Clearmountain.
Then I go back upstairs and perform and have a great set with a fully attentive audience. The folks dig it and the guy who made the speakers I'm playing through comes up to me after to tell me the lyrics in Around Here made him cry. Books and records sell. Only one CD though. Interesting.
I forget who makes these speakers but they sounded incredible.
It's not enough of a cross section of the population to make proclamations about vinyl vs CD sales but it was interesting that all the stereo equipment that I saw - no one had a CD player. Then there was some good conversation about how the thing that AI cannot replace is the connection at a live performance. With all the ways we can digitally connect, we still need to be in the room where it happens.**
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Ok, recent bookstuffs:
The first draft of Too Many Miles translated into German was completed yesterday. It's now going through the second phase of smoothing it out and making sure it reads right and all that. I'm super excited that my cousin Natalie is working with me on this. I knew the translation was going to make it longer but I did not expect it to jump in page length from 456 to 538.
I'm happy to report that I've sold over 400 copies of Too Many Miles in the past three months and I'm sending another 10 out today by USPS. I'm amused every time I'm at the post office and they ask “Sending anything hazardous?” I enjoy saying “Just ideas.”
Books ready to be mailed.
And I just found this review that I somehow missed a few weeks ago. If you've read my book and feel like sharing your thoughts on it, I'm putting together a page on my website for reader testimonials. I would love it if you felt like sharing your thoughts - just send them here to me. Or if you want to be more official about it - Amazon and Goodreads have places for you to submit your own reviews as well. These are all greatly appreciated!
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Later on this week I will be performing around noontime at the Anaheim Farmer's Market on Thursday, July 2, and The Fallen Stars will be doing a 4th of July event in Long Beach, CA. Further out will be a songwriter event at The Artists Village Cafe in Santa Ana on Sunday, July 12, Jug Band Coffee in Long Beach on Saturday, July 18 and I'm finalizing the schedule for Bobbo's Backyard Benefit Concert on Sunday, July 19. This is our annual benefit show for the OC Foodbank.
Ok, that's a lot going on.
As always, thanks for hanging out with me, see you soon.
xo
~Bobbo
BobboByrnes.com
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*The acroynm is for something like The Hi-Fi Event Show or something. Kind of a terrible acroynm if you're trying to google it.
**Yeah, I went Hamilton on you.
***In English the word count is 141,792 and in German the word count is 138,925. So fewer words but apparently longer words and I guess that makes sense. When you say “sorry” in German it is "Entschuldigung" or “Es tut mir sehr leid.”