11:00PM

the people in the boats behind the venue are digging the show--they're dancing and singing along. it's surprising how well you can hear out there and the water probably just amplifies the sound. some may say those are the best seats in the house, especially with the blanket of stars that's out tonight.

sarah's smokin' through her set, looking cool and calm as usual. quite a few people were gathered side of stage to watch her set, including amy from the indigo girls. one thing we've noticed is that the new songs get much better reactions now than they did before the album was released. people are even singing along.

10:00PM CDT

Amy and Emily rocked the house in Cincinatti tonight. The audience stood through the entire set and sang along to all the songs. Michelle Malone guested on harmonica on one song. Sarah McLachlan and Emmylou Harris contributed heavenly vocals on the lovely "The River Runs Deep". For the last song, "Closer To Fine", Amy and Emily were joined by Jewel, Emmylou, Sarah, Lisa Loeb, Michelle, and Emmylou Harris's drummer Barclay. With the stage full of people everyone was having a great time. Even the audience got their turn in the spotlight as they loudly and beautifully sang the chorus.

6:30PM

good thing someone told us about the time zone change before the press conference, or we'd have been an hour late! we were wondering why sarah was sound checking so early...!

after we got that sorted out, things have been fine. no more technical glitches either. couldn't say that about the sound at the b-stage for madeleine peyroux and then at the borders stage for beth orton. nope, they were having troubles during their sets. things were fixed quite quickly for madeleine, but the trouble at beth's set was a mystery.

despite the problems, both artists put on great sets and the audience patiently stayed and watched. both drew quite a crowd to their respective stages.

3:00PM

We had to run to follow Lisa Loeb from the press conference over to the Borders stage. She was the surprise artist at 3:35 and the press conference was running a little long. Lisa got to take a golf cart and we had to hike it up the hill. In fact Lisa just drove by in the golf cart again. She likes to drive. And she is very good.

1:00PM CDT

so far today we've been plagued with technical difficulties here on the bus. just little things like spending an hour to get the scanner working, a half hour to get our uploading computer to work, 15 minutes here and there to figure out why the modem's not working, etc. etc. argh!

this venue's in a beautiful location: the river is right behind the catering tent, and it's nice to sit there and watch it or the boats travelling on it. right nearby is an amusement park (coney island) on one side and a horse track on the other. maybe they'll be running some races today. but we'll be sure to keep brian minato away from the water slides at the park. no more water slides for band members!

lisa loeb's gonna play the borders stage today at 3:35. maybe she'll be wearing some of the body glitter and funky makeup that jewel's friend, kelly, was distributing to various artists and crew earlier today. is she a glitter girl or not? we'll find out.

we're joined today by one new artist: madeleine peyroux. she'll join kelly and mary black on the b-stage. we've only heard her on cd, so we're curious to see her live.