After a follow up appointment with my surgeon yesterday, I regret to announce that the safest thing to do is to reschedule our appearance at Ram’s Head Live next month. Due to a complication and side effect from some unrelated prescriptions, my vocal cords have continued to be irritated and swollen over the past two weeks. This is in no way a setback to a full recovery, but it does interfere with the planned timeline of my return to singing. While there was a chance I would still be prepared by 2/11, myself, my doctor, and the staff of Rams Head Live agree that it’s in everyone’s best interest to play it safe and reschedule for the soonest available replacement date.

In an unrelated (non voice) development, House of Blues Orlando has had to open our 2/24 date for another national act. As a result, our first performance will now be February 25th, 2012 at Freebird Live in Jacksonville FL.

This was a difficult decision, but the most important thing for Frontiers is to be able to hit the ground running when we return to the road. The last thing I would want to do is have to cancel the show the week before, or take a chance without being 100% ready to sing the Journey catalog for 2 hours straight, and jeopardize future performances.

Personally I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and positive thoughts in the 4 weeks since my surgery. Aside from this prescription drug side effect, my therapy has been making great progress, and my recovery team has been very pleased with the results so far. This is merely a bump in the road, and I’m excited about what 2012 has in store for us.
Best,
Jeremey

We continue to add dates to our tenth anniversary tour starting in February. Tonight we’re happy to announce our return to some markets we haven’t visited in a while, with a performance on Friday March 2nd at The Handlebar in Greenville SC, and a return to Pittsburgh PA at Hard Rock Cafe on Friday March 23rd. Looking forward to getting back to both venues, we’re going to have a blast!

We are excited to announce that original guitarist for Frontiers, Dave Thomas, will be returning to the road with us full time in 2012.

Some of you old timers may remember that Dave Thomas was an original member of the band in 2002 as we first began to establish ourselves in the region. In 2003, Dave relocated to Florida to pursue some work opportunities. We couldn’t be happier that to coincide with our tenth year anniversary, Dave will be coming back in a full time capacity. We all know what Dave brought to the table in 2002, and we’re happy to find out that Dave’s only gotten better over time, LOL.

Dave’s first performance with the band will be during our return to the road February 11, 2012 at Rams Head Live in Baltimore MD. Please welcome a familiar face to the Frontiers family and don’t miss the “new old guy” when we come back to your town over the next few months!

As we are gearing up for 2012, I’m happy to release the first few tour dates of the new year, including the rescheduling of the House of Blues Myrtle Beach and Orlando from last month. Please visit the TOUR page for a complete update!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thank you to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers as I’ve prepared to undergo surgery this past week to remove a polyp and repair scar tissue on my vocal cords. The great news is that the surgery was a success, and I am expected to make a full recovery.

Dates have already been confirmed through February and March, and we are continuing to book into 2012. Within the next week, I’m looking forward to releasing the first confirmed dates for next year. I’m also eager to share with everyone our newest member of the band, who will be replacing departing guitarist Stephen Chesney. Moving into our tenth year, Frontiers is stronger than ever, and we will be touring a year long celebration of the music of Journey, revisiting old tunes we haven’t played in years, and bringing out a few familiar faces now and then as well. Stay tuned here for more information coming soon!!

I just want to thank everyone for the positive thoughts over the past few weeks. It has not been an easy decision to cancel and reschedule shows, and I apologize for all of the inconvenience.

I have confirmed today that my surgery to remove a vocal polyp from my vocal cords is scheduled for Tuesday, December 13th. I will be on voice rest and unable to sing for at least 6-8 weeks.

We WILL be performing at Rhythm & Brews in Chattanooga on Friday December 9th, as planned. Unfortunately, my voice cannot recover from a show with enough strength to perform the following day in Pensacola FL, and we will reschedule that show for after my surgery and recovery.

All shows that have been affected will be rescheduled after mid-February, and we have already begun working on that schedule. My doctors and I expect that I will make a full recovery, and be back to performing at 100%, which is something I haven’t been able to do since late spring of this year at least.

Beginning in 2012, I expect that we will be performing a reduced schedule. This does not mean that we will not be traveling and performing in the same areas and venues that we have in the past. However, I do not expect that we will be performing 3-4 shows a week, with 1-2 shows being at small bar-type venues and a couple of shows at larger theatres. My expectation that our schedule will include 5-8 shows monthly, at larger venues that will be more sensibly routed. In the past, we frequently traveled 8-10 hours between shows – after performing into the late night and waking up a few hours later to drive – for days at a time. In June of this year alone, we performed 16 shows in 30 days, from Florida, to Chicago, to Pittsburgh, to Dallas, TX, to Charlotte NC. We didn’t get on a bus or a plane, we all took turns driving for hours on end, to arrive at a venue and perform for another few hours.

The overhead of fuel, hotels, and general wear and tear and business expense made it necessary to perform on any down time we had. The stress of being on the road combined with inadequate time for my voice to rest between performances took its toll on my voice, and the July 3rd incident in Toledo with the fog machine caused my voice to basically shut down. Since then, I haven’t allowed myself the time to heal, and the polyp on my vocal cord has gotten to the point where rest will not longer fix the problem, and the only solution is this surgery.

I’m looking forward more than anything else right now to recuperating from this surgery and putting this year in the past. The past 8 months or so have been more stressful than any other time in my life, and I want nothing more than to face the next year with a healthy voice, and a business plan and schedule that will allow myself and Frontiers to be at the top of our game every single time we walk out on stage.

My expectation is that our first show after surgery will be in mid February, probably at House of Blues Cleveland. We have already confirmed a return to Charleston SC at Music Farm on Friday March 16th, and the following day in Charlotte NC at Amos’ Southend (St Patty’s Day).

Again, my sincere apologies to everyone for all of the inconvenience, and my heartfelt thanks to those of you that have supported myself and the band this year and expressed your well wishes. We are all looking forward to a great 2012, and anticipate using our down time to rework our setlist and show to keep things interesting for the next year’s shows.

Best,

Jeremey

If you are missing your JOURNEY fix, fear not, as this Saturday Frontiers returns to the State Theatre in Falls Church VA! Been a while, and looking forward to getting back up to the northern VA market!

Also, next Wednesday marks our annual Pre-Thanksgiving Bash at Awful Arthurs Towers! Tickets are $15 at the door – The amazing Sideshow starts the evening at 9:30 and Frontiers takes the stage at 11PM! See you there Roanoke!

Finally, on Saturday 11/26 we finally return to House of Blues Myrtle Beach! See you there, MB!

The House of Blues show scheduled later this month in Orlando has been rescheduled for January 13th, 2012. Hope to see you all there!!

Sorry for the recent downtime on our website, due to an expired credit card on file with our hosting agent, LOL. We are back up now and looking forward to our shows this weekend at The Tangier in Akron Ohio and The Bluebird in Bloomington In!

15,000 Journey Fans & Frontiers

Thank you Ohio for an amazing kickoff to this summer’s tour! We had capacity crowds in Cuyahoga Falls and Warren this weekend, performing for about 20,000 amazing Journey fans. Thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend a stunning success, and thanks to April Gajoch for the amazing photos (see above).

Northeast Ohio, we will see you at House of Blues Cleveland on September 30th!!