....I realized that the A&W Root Beer I had grabbed from the cooler of drinks was NOT a Coca-Cola product. Now, the most Important Night of your Professional Life - the night that determines whether you win the first annual COCA-COLA new music award, the night that determines whether you proceed two days later to play in front of 100 million people world wide, the night you happen to brush past Dick Clark at the same event and later 'pal around' with backstage - is not the time to be seen by the good folk at Coca-Cola swigging from a Frosty Mug. For sure.  
 
"But the caterer brought it. I was only drinking what was available…I…."  
 
BZZZZZZZZ. Thank you for playing. That was a test…..you failed. Thank you Carbon Leaf, please pack up your gear…the van is waiting to take you back to the hotel.  
 
So, with glistening brow and twitching cheek I look up and , like The Fly, flit my eyes about the room to see if anyone has seen me and no they haven't and , now, with a Coke dangling from my left fingers, I tickle the brass railing with my right as I glide down the stairs to mingle a bit on the ballroom floor as the people shuffle in. Cool Breeze Privett…. man with a plan…. Coke in hand…  
 
I felt like George Clooney in Ocean's 11.  
 
Later that evening there's more food. It's Baja Fresh. We would later, at the AMAs, be given each a pass to come in tp the restaurant any time and eat as much as we wanted whenever we wanted - and bring up to 9 people each visit - for an entire year for free. Not bad. Unfortunately, there are no Baja Fresh's in VA that I know of, so we will have to tour on the West Coast this year….sorry hometowners…. Anyway….now, this is GOOD food, HEALTHY food, but alas, MEXICAN food. There is an unwritten rule that bands don't eat Mexican before a show. Katie bar the door.  
 
And we did, but nothing bad happened, that I'm aware of. Situation averted.  
 
It's showtime and the energy is all over the room. Good crowd, and atmosphere, and anticipation for Dick Clark to come up and make some hellos and announcements. Before we know it, he's up there. This is the point when we say, "Yeah, I guess this is really happening then." 
 
Mr. Clark gave his hellos and then we did some photo ops with all the bands before the actual show so Everyone would be All Smiles. We came up and met Mr. Clark and he fired off some jokes that were funny and we laughed and even if they weren't funny we still laughed through clenched teeth and bug-eyes like a frustrated housewife suffering an anxiety attack.  
 
After the photos the show got under way. We watched Yo Flaco give their all and we watched Live Honey give their all up until their second song until we had our "The Doctor Will See You Now" moment when we realized it was time to go back stage and warm up. This was a good thing, because our adams apples felt like they'd been hit with tennis balls. It was time to limber up. We started in on the Ralph Stanley a cappella Gloryland that we harmonize to warm up, which just made us think of dying and going to the after life. Not the best warm up song, so we did some other trivial CL songs that just talked about hangin' out and stuff.  
 
Well Live Honey is done. And the boys are on stage setting up. Me? I'm upstairs drinking water. MMM. Good old water…can't get enough of this stuff today for some reason. Is it dry in here? Are you hot? I think that food dried me out. I'm not used to this weather… I don't know, it's weird….blah blah….  
 
But then suddenly we're ready. And then suddenly we're READY. We feel ready and confident and this is what we do and we have a captive audience….the best kind. So we go to work after Jeff gives us the introduction and everything is smooth sailing from there. Oh, it's loud and who KNOWS if we're singing on key, but we feel like it's working so we don't stop or anything stupid and have quite a lovely show. I pause for a thanks before our final song (The Boxer, Wandrin' Around, Shine) and find myself without wit. Witless. Heeeere wit wit wit. Screw it. I pull something out of the hat and we're off and running into Shine. Thanks Goodnight!  
 
From here, we grab CDs and just start working the floor, giving stuff out. Anything is better than sitting around thinking. Work, work, work. Finally Dick Clark hops up on stage and the room becomes a vacuum of silence.  
 
"The contest was close…oh so close…you don't KNOW how close…"  
 
So of course, every band at once is thinking, "oh great….".  
 
"We really did have a tough time with this one…."  
 
Please hurry, we'd like to either pee or throw up.  
 
"And the first annual Coca-Cola New Music Award goes to….. Carbon…….LEAF"  
 
There really was that pause between the Carbon and Leaf, with the LEAF accented…at least that's what I think. Not really sure. All I heard was 'Carbon' and I felt pretty sure the rest would follow and it would be us. 
 
So wow. There it is. Everyone is hootin' and hollerin. And we're kind of standing there on the floor. And Dick Clark is standing up there on the stage. And we're kind of smiling and he's kind of looking around. And then we get mildly yelled at to 'get up there' by Jeff the MC, as if to say, "You're kind of making Dick Clark look pretty bad at this point."  
 
So we hop up and hug and all that good stuff that you go on to tell your grandchildren one day and he congratulates us and gives us praise and we're eating it up. "Oh stop….."  
 
The rest of the night was fine. Hung out with the people behind the scenes with dcc, coke, cmj, weber shandwick , clear channel etc. Went to Jone's Restaurant with said crowd plus family and friends, had some drinks and were in bed around 2 or 3am.  
 
Thank God no one died.  
 
Tomorrow would be another day. A crucial one. A day that would haunt every band member. Each of us was asking this one question. The question that was on the back of everyone's mind, and had been for at least two months prior. Tomorrow it would be answered, we knew, whether we were ready or not. With or without us. 
 
And that question was: (to be continued…..)