Tent Tour 2010 #14: So Far to end up so close to home

I’m home.  Again.

This time it’s for a few weeks.  My next shows are in Florida at the beginning of November.  One is the Jensen Beach Pineapple Festival where I will open for .38 Special.  I’m looking forward to that one because it’ll be cold up here in NY and it’s a big street festival that gets about 20,000 people.  Always fun to play to a crowd like that and have the big sound system.  I had the privilege of playing the Troy River Fest two years in a row a couple of years ago.  I got to play one year with They Might Be Giants and the first year with World Party.  That was cool for me as I’ve always been a HUGE fan of their music.  I got to hang out with Karl Wallinger and talk to him for a few minutes before they went on stage.  It’s always a cool thing to meet famous people and especially when you are a big fan of their work.  The street festivals are always fun too because there are so many people milling around and you can really get a sense of drawing them into the show.  Usually when you start they have scattered since the band before you has finished and they leave to walk around to all the booths an exhibits that are set up.  Watching the crowd re-form in front of the stage is exciting.  Plus you get to be louder than you ever are in other settings since the sound needs to cover a much bigger area than a club show.  Makes you feel like a true rock star.

I drove home by a different route and most of my time was spent driving from the far southeast corner of NY to home.  I find it funny to realize when it feels like your’re ‘home’ when driving long distances.  When the road feels familiar enough to your area that you suddenly think ‘yeah I’m home.’.  Coming from the west this happened early for me as I approached Syracuse, which is still 3 hours away.  Since I grew up there and my brother still lives there it felt like I was done.

I stopped by his house on the way home.  One reason was for a break from driving.  One was to try to see his new baby, and one was to go to Doug’s Fish Fry.  If you’ve never been to Syracuse, you may not know what I’m talking about, and if you have, you probably do.  Doug’s Fish Fry is simply the BEST fish sandwich you will have.  Ever.  Anywhere.  It’s worth the extra 35 minutes I had to drive to get there.  Trust me on this.  Just go.  My brother’s wife wasn’t home.  She went to her parents with the baby and was running errands to get ready for my sister to visit them this weekend.  So I missed seeing my new niece.  It was cool to see my brother though.  Especially since he had been at my sister’s house two weeks earlier when I started the tour and stopped off on my way to Asheville.  It was a nice little circle to close off this portion of the tour.  Another weird thing that occurred to me.  At that point I had driven 3600 miles and my brother lives one street over from the house I grew up in.  I had gone all that way to end up 200 yards from my first home.  Small world.  Again.

This all made me think of my Mom.  She died in 2004.  My new album, ‘February Sessions’ has the most straight forward songs I’ve ever written about her death.  Her passing also influenced my music in a huge way.  It gave them all the hope and ‘live your life’ aspect that carry through the last 3 records.  I have a Martin Guitar that I bought with some money I got because she died.  I played it on every show of the tour.  She’s a huge reason I do music and follow it with the passion and drive that I do.  Am I selling out shows?  Am I selling 10,000 albums?  Not yet.  But I’m going to keep on going.  Because she would want me to.  Because I want to.  Because I love this more than anything else in this world.  Now I had travelled around from NY to NC for the last 3 weeks.  I played in places I’d never been.  I played in places I’d never heard of.  I sang songs I’d written about home, loss, hope, my mom, finding your place in the world, getting up and going on.  I played my Martin.  Now after all the days away, after all the miles driven, I was truly ‘home’.  Where it all started.  The house where my Grandfather had given me my first guitar.  The house where I learned to play violin.  The house where my Mom and Dad sang along to the record player for hours on end.  That house was barely a block away. Another circle.

It seemed like a very fitting way to come back home, being here.  Even if only for a couple of hours before I finished the drive to Saratoga.  It felt right.

I left and drove the final 180 miles.  I got into Saratoga around 11pm.  As I turned onto Broadway, only 4 blocks from my apartment, I passed a place that has an open mic night.  I stopped.  I went in and saw some friends.  How cool to finish the tour at an open mic night.  Where I had started performing years ago.  Where I lived.  Where I came back to.  My roots so to speak.  Playing at an open mic after being on the road.  Another circle completed.

The past few weeks were filled with excitement, anticipation, and time that went by too slowly at points but overall was over far too quickly.  It was full of music.  It was full of rain and concrete and road signs.  It was full of new faces.  New places.  New views.  Lots of moments alone on the road seeing views that I’ll remember my whole life.  Finding cool new radio stations.  Finding cool places to camp.  Awesome places to eat.  Learning how to find the best coffee in town.  Full of a boredom that was more anticipation for a show than truly being bored.  Motion.  Energy.  Peace.  Solitude.  Most of all the fulfillment of a dream I’ve had for a long long time:  to be on the road playing my songs and being able to have this conversation over and over again- “What do you do?” “I’m a musician and I’m on tour.”

It’s Sunday evening now.  I’ve been home for 2 full days.  Still not quite settled down and into home mode yet.  It still feels weird to be still.  I know that I’m going to get right back into booking shows.  This has been too much fun.  I don’t want to be done yet.  I want to fill in all the blank space on the calendar in front of me.  I want to play more places.  I want to play for more people.  I want to go to more new cities.  I want to meet more people.  I want to see more great bands and musicians.  I want to be back in the van.  I want to play.  I want to go so I can come back home.  I want to leave so I can be at home:  on stage, on the road, with a song to sing.

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Tent Tour 2010 #13: Pittsburgh part 3 Howler’s Coyote Cafe

Howler’s Coyote Cafe is split into two parts.  One side is a bar and the other is a music room.  The stage is against the windows and you can load in right from the street which is nice.  Parking is a bitch though since it’s street parking and there are a lot of one way streets around the venue.  A sign in the window says ’6 packs to go’.  Nice.

I was playing the night with another band.  I looked them up on the internet the night before.  They are from Burlington, VT.  Small world yet again.  Here I was 500 miles from home sharing a show with a band from a town only 3 hours away.  And it’s really closer than that.   There are just no highways to get there and you wind through the mountains and up the east side of Lake Champlain to get there otherwise it’d only be about an hour and a half away.  When they arrived I began talking to the guys and one of them grew up in Chittenango NY.  This is about 5 miles from Fayettville which is where I lived before I moved to Saratoga.  Small world indeed.

The Joshua Panda Band play folk-country songs with 3 or 4 harmonies.  They were really good.  I loved the close harmonies, and they could all play their instruments really well.  Upright bass, acoustic guitar, telecaster and pedal steel.  Great sound.  I got a copy of their CD and didn’t get a chance to listen to it yet, but based on what I heard live, it’s probably pretty good.  Check them out here

Jo runs the place and bought us all pizza before we played.  It’s always a nice thing to get a meal on the road.  Eating can be a big expense.

I played first since I was solo.  A small but enthusiastic crowd was there.  I loved this show.  The sound guy was great, the sound was great and my voice felt better all the way through the night than it had up to this point.  I guess that should be the way it is since I’d been singing and playing a lot leading up to it and my voice was in shape again.  I recorded the show and I’m going through it to post up to youtube in the next couple of days.  I think there will be at least 3 songs from this show going up.

I just want to tip my hat to Jo.  She was very nice and compassionate and worried about the musicians.  She kept apologizing to me about the turn out.  I kept telling her not to worry. I’ll be back in the Spring.

Back to the hotel and leave in the morning.  This time I’m going to follow the directions I’m given and not take any adventures off into toothless backwater land.  It’s still raining.  Chilly.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 75 and sunny.  Should be a good day for a drive.

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Tent Tour 2010 #12 Pittsburgh part 2

Woke up at 9:30.  I never even do that at home.  Went back to sleep till 11.  Nice.  rested.  My hotel room is nearly the size of my living room at home.  Just opened the curtains and it’s still raining out.  Boo.  I want to go look around Pittsburgh, but I may not if it keeps raining.  I just got back from breakfast at a place called ‘Toms Diner’.  It was really good.  One of my biggest complaints about where I live is that there are no good breakfast places and no diners.  I grew up in Syracuse and we had a ton there.  I always miss having them so finding a good one always makes me happy.

It was all red and white checked inside.  It smelled like a diner.  You know the smell of an old grill that has made eggs and bacon and onions and burgers for years smell?  That.  One really interesting thing about this tour has been seeing how different certain things are in different parts of the country.  I picked up the Pittsburgh paper to read and opened up to the sports section.  MLB playoffs were starting and I wanted to read about the matchups.  Nothing.  It was funny.  The pirates had an atrocious year, but still, the Phillies were doing well and I figured there would at least be some coverage since it was the playoffs.  There was a small blurb about some guy from the Texas Rangers who I gathered had played in Pittsburgh or was from there or something.  That was it.  They had a 15 page pull out section on the hockey team though.  I guess they really hate the Phillies to not even run a story at all.  Ironic that the guy threw a no-hitter today.

So back to the hotel.  It’s really crappy out.  About 45 and raining.  Think I’ll enjoy my hotel room for a while.

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Tent Tour 2010 #11: Pittsburgh part 1

I now love Travelocity.

The rain never let up and the drive here was miserable.  For two reasons:  The rain never stopped and my windshield wiper broke, and two, I tried to outsmart the google directions and took a route that appeared to be more direct.  I ended up on Rte 22 between Altoona and Pittsburgh.  This is the kind of road the movie ‘Deliverance’ could be made on today without changing the story at all.  There is nothing.  You are driving through the hills where the fog gathers, there are no rest stops and barely any towns.  When you do see a ‘town’ its simply a series of gas stations and truck stops.  I stopped for gas finally, and it was one of the most desolate places I’ve ever seen.  I still have the creeps from it.  Needless to say, don’t second guess the maps.  ooogy.

I got to Pittsburgh around 8:30.  So I made terrible time with my self picked route.  I learned something I never knew about the city.  Its surrounded by tunnels and bridges.  The cityscape looked really cool at night and I hope that the weather breaks so I can look around tomorrow.  But back to why I love Travelocity

I saw that the rain wasn’t going to stop while I was here, so once again my tenting plans were foiled.  I ended up staying in a cheap hotel at the end of the first leg of dates and let me tell you that when you get a $45/night hotel room, well, you get what you pay for.  I’m still not sure what that smell really was.  So, not wanting to break the bank, and not wanting to contract some kind of disease, I started looking for hotels.  This is a pain in the ass when you are not familiar with a city.  You look up the hotel, find a good rate, search the address and find out how far away you are from the show the next day.  This takes a lot of time.  Suddenly I had about 15 windows open on my computer, each to a different hotel in similar price ranges.  I kept forgetting which one was my first choice, which were cheaper, which were closest to where I was playing.

Then I saw the ‘top secret hotel room’ button.  Basically you book a room with no prior knowledge of what or where you’ll end up in until you finish paying.  I though about it for about 20 minutes but kept thinking, ‘what do I have to lose?’.  I ended up with a Crown Plaza Hotel room that was exactly  miles away from where I was playing.  Pretty much on the same road.  SCORE!  And the room was amazing.  It was nearly a suite.  And I didn’t really pay much more than I did  for my $45 room which scared me in Asheville.  Ahh.  Comfort. convenience.  Clean!   I think I’ll sleep well tonight!

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Tent Tour 2010 #10- Home Briefly

I’m home.  Not for long, just about 3 days, but I’m home.  It’s great and weird at the same time.  Part of me is happy to be home, part of me is antsy and energized about going back out, part of me is feeling really accomplished about what I’ve just completed and part of me is freaked out that most of the tour is over because I know how long it took to set up and now I have to start that over again.

I drove straight through the night after my last gig to get home.  I got home around 6:15 am and the sun was just starting to come up.  I was really tired but had a hard time falling asleep.  I thought I’d crash for about 10 hours but woke up after 4.  I was wide awake.  That’s one of the cool things about touring, you get into a kind of ‘action’ mode.  There is always something to do everyday.  Well, most days and your mind and body get into a ‘get stuff done’ frame of mind.  Now that I’m home, it’s a little strange to not have 300 miles to drive or a show to play.  There’s still plenty to get done, and I have a lot of things to get through, but it’s different.  I feel a little anxious to get going again.  I have one more day before I leave for Pittsburgh.  Back on the road.

I’ve always read about touring bands and one thing I remember hearing over and over is that once you come home, especially after a long tour, there is an adjustment period of up to a month to settle back into ‘normal’ life.  I see what they meant now.  I’ve done touring before, but it was almost always a day drive.  Shows within 2-4 hours of my home.  I would go out alone or with the band and return the same day.  This is the first time I was gone for this long and this far away.  While there is a kind of run down feeling you get being away from home; driving to strange places, being alone in the sense that you don’t know where to go, what to do or have anyone to meet up with, you also get really energized.  You’re on TOUR man!  There’s an excitement that lifts you up and gets you going.  No matter how tired you are at night or in the morning when you wake up, your body kicks into gear fairly quickly and you’re off and running again.

I got to see some cool places.  I’ve had some really nice experiences and met some interesting people.  ‘Old Soul Dave’ from Asheville.  We got talking at my show and he went to college in New Paltz which is only about an hour and a half from where I live.  He had his dog at the show.  He’s hiked the Appalachian Trail.  An old friend of mine, Jimmy Landry, came out to see me play.  I played a song on top of Mt Mitchell in the rain and sold a CD there.  I got to drive through NC and being the college basketball freak I am, couldn’t believe how many towns had teams I knew about.  I wish I had my camera ready for the sign that said “Chapel Hill/Duke University.”  I’ve driven through  8 different states.  I’ve been in or past Asheville, DC, Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, Roanoke, Bristol, Charlottesville, Scranton and Albany.

The first two days home were a whirlwind of unpacking, story telling, catching up on dog cuddles and absorbing the whole experience.  Then today, it hit me.  I’m wasted.  I took a 3 hour nap and I’d only been up for 3 hours.  Tired.  Tired tired.  I have to leave tomorrow so I hope I caught up on some rest.  The rain followed me home as well.  It’s grey and rainy.  Maybe that’s contributing to my tiredness.  And its the first time I’ve noticed how early it’s getting dark.  I left for the tour and it was 85.  It was Sept 20.  Now it’s Oct 4 and rainy, cold and dark.  Where’d the summer go?  Hell, where’d fall go?  This is too quick of a transition for me.  I hope the rain stops for the drive.

As much as I’ve talked about the rush of energy I’ve had on the tour, being lazy last night and today has put me into a sluggish mode.  I kind of don’t want to drive.  Not the way I feel right now.  I just got used to being home.  Sleeping in my own bed.  Going to my favorite coffee place.  Hanging out with the dogs.  I know it’ll be fun.  I’m just a little behind on sleep since it was tough to come down the last couple of days.

I’m playing at Howler’s Coyote Cafe in Pittsburgh on Wed.  I just did an interview with a girl from the Pitt News for the show.  I’m looking forward to it.

Time to repack, tune the guitars, sleep and hit the road.

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Tent Tour 2010 #9 Driving Driving Driving

Six shows in 10 days, a failed mountain climb and torrential rains.  It’s been a fun 10 days so far.  I’ve met a ton of cool people, seen some places I’ve never been before, fell in love with Asheville, NC, slept in my tent, stayed in cheap bad hotel rooms, spent a day in a town that felt like the end of the world had happened and driven.  A lot.  I’ve gone 2300 something miles already and I still have to go to Pittsburgh on this leg of the tour dates.

I’m actually really enjoying the driving.  A note about my Dad here.  For years and years he has embarked on huge drives.  He doesn’t stop.  Syracuse to Florida?  He’ll get you there in 23 hours.  He’s nuts.  We all make fun of him.  BUT- I must have some gene I’ve inherited from him.  I haven’t done 23 hours straight yet, but I have a couple of days off before I go to Pittsburgh.  The original plan was to head back up to my sister’s house near DC for a day or two since it’s only 4 hours from the last gig I did and only 3 hours from Pittsburgh.  I left my last show and drove straight home.  580 miles.  Got home at 6:15 am.  AND I only slept for 4 hours the next day because I was still wired from the tour.  I thought I’d drive about half way home and sleep somewhere and then finish the drive in the morning.  Once I hit Baltimore, I said, well, Delaware isn’t too far I’ll stop then.  But Delaware takes about 30 minutes to cross and then you’re in NJ.  Practically home.  I’ll stop then.  Man I’m almost to NY, only 3 more hours to go.  Why not push through?  Haha.  So thanks Dad for in-graining that in me, although I would still rather stop next time we do a Sarasota-Syracuse run.

Some observations about driving, touring and being away from home:

1     Driving tires you out more than you think.  Especially when it’s rainy/foggy

2     Eat enough food

3     Eat good food- crappy food makes you tired.

4     Have good directions

5     Give yourself enough time for all the construction sites you may cross.  Especially in PA

6     Cruise control is your best friend.

7     Get enough sleep.

8     Drink enough water

9     Do some kind of vocal warm up/cool down as you drive to/from your show

10   If you ask, people will give you cool places to go in their town

11    You never sleep as good as you think when you’re in strange beds

12    People truly appreciate a good performance and good music.

13    Being on tour gives you a weird ‘tired yet amped up’ feeling.  Use it to your advantage while travelling and performing, and learn how to turn it off when its downtime

14    The first few days home are weird because there is no show, interview, driving, to do and you realize how much you want to keep going.

15    America is HUGE.  I haven’t really left the top half of the north-east and I’ve driven 2800 miles

16    Find something to do on off days.  Mindless sitting around saps your energy and makes you tired

17    There are cool places to play in the strangest locations.

18    Don’t judge the gig by the neighborhood the venue is in or its appearance:  always be ready to be pleasantly surprised.

19    Keep your luggage/van organized even after you’ve packed and unpacked a few times.

20    Sight see.

21     Play each show like it’s sold out at Madison Square Garden

22    Keep your ego in check.  There are tons and tons of amazing musicians.  You may be playing a show with them.  They may kick your ass with greatness.

23    Be on time

24    Be gracious

25    Say thank you

26    Remember no matter how grinding it gets, you are playing a show somewhere far from home.  This is an amazing thing to be doing.

27    No one said this was easy

28   Keep going

29   Talk to the people who come to your shows.  You never know who you will meet

30    Have fun!

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Tent Tour 2010 #8 Ashland Coffee and Tea

Ahh so I spent the whole day sitting out on the patio at Starbucks, in a mall parking lot, waiting to play at the songwriter night I was invited to at Ashland Coffee and Tea.  At least it wasn’t raining.  The rain started on Saturday and didn’t let up until today (Tuesday).  My ‘tent tour’ has been washed out for the last few days.  I was perfectly willing to camp out in the rain if need be, but when the flood warnings began, it was time to seek shelter.

I am still shocked at Ashland.  It’s a very strange little place.  One of the only cool things here is the fact that the railroad tracks go right through the center of ‘town’.  I was excited to come here because Ashland Coffee and Tea is such a renowned venue, I figured that there would be a cool funky artsy town around it.  When I pulled in last night and saw the signs for ‘historic downtown’ I felt confident in my assessment.  WRONG!  I even asked around for a park to sit in to wait out the day.  Nothing.  The girl at Starbucks laughed as she told me the news.  Not even a park?  I was baffled.   So thank you Starbuck for at least having outdoor seating.

Enough of that though.  I was here to play at the songwriter night.  I was saddened to find upon my arrival that the coffee-house was actually open all day long and I could have spent my time here instead of looking out at a string of chain restaurants and parking lots.  I had driven by it earlier in the day to find out where it was and try to find something to do in town.  I just hadn’t noticed it was open.  Live and learn.  Anyway, it’s a cool place.  The front is a coffee shop and eatery, there’s a big deck on the side and this opens up into the stage.  It holds about 125 people from my guess.  The stage is large enough for a band, but not too big for a solo act.  There are tables throughout the space and tons and tons of photos of people who have performed here before.  It’s quite an  impressive listing.

I arrived early and got to meet Kay Landry who handles all the booking as well as the sound.  We talked about music, performing, touring, venue running and she said something that really struck me.  In learning how she came to be the ‘sound guy’ she told me that she initially was hesitant to learn how to run the sound because it was ‘technical’ listening and she didn’t want to forever hear music that way.  She took her hand and put it over her heart and said ‘I always want to listen to music from here.’  There are a lot of booking agents/venue owners who are so ‘business first’ about everything that it was refreshing and encouraging to hear that.  Someone who is a true music lover doing the booking.

The night began and it’s actually a competition.  You play 2 songs along with everyone else and then the judges vote for who moves on.  After another semi final round they pick a winner.  All the winners get to come back at the end of the year for a big group show, at which time I assume they pick an overall champion.  One of the coolest things about touring is meeting/seeing other musicians and both measuring your self up against them and appreciating how many great people there are out there doing this music thing.  The other performers this night were no exception.  They were all great.  I made it past the first round and heard my name called for the semi-finals, which pared it down to the final 3.  Now everyone got 1 song each.  It made me realize how much easier it is in a way to have a whole set or night to play.  You can ease into it or warm up more, find your groove, however you want to put it.  It’s very challenging to get up and only have a song or two to put your best foot forward.  I was more nervous than I’ve been in a long time going back up for my final song.

I didn’t win, the guy who did is really good.  One of the judges came over and told me that I did a really really nice job.  Always good to hear.  If I have the time next time I’m through the area I’ll definitely try again.  Especially now that I know I don’t have to hang at Starbucks all day.

The whole night was fun and a great experience.  The place itself reminds me a lot of Caffe Lena in my hometown of Saratoga Springs.  It’s a little bigger, the stage is larger, but the vibe is similar.  It’s a true listening room/performance space.  I hope to have my own show there soon.

So once again thanks to Kay for inviting me out, thanks to all the other players that night, it was great meeting all of you and hearing you share your talent!  Good luck and hopefully we’ll all see each other soon.

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Tent Tour #7 Bye Asheville, Hello, um, Ashland?

No post yesterday as I was driving.  In the rain.  Once it started it kept going.  The first 15-30 miles out of Asheville on 40 east was foggy, curvy and slow going.  In a way I’m happy that it rained so much.  If it had only rained on Sunday and ruined my hiking plans I would have been pissed.  And now that I know I can drive into the clouds, I’d kick them in the face.  I left Asheville reluctantly, I’ll miss you.  But the tour goes on.  Driving east through North Carolina is like entering a sort of ACC basketball travel plan.  Every city you pass nearly, has a team.  I didn’t have my camera ready for the sign on 85 that said ‘Chapel Hill/Duke University’ on it.  I wish I had. The further east I went, the flatter the land got.  It made me think of land.  The land doesn’t know it’s in a different state.  It just is.  Kinda weird.  Some places you go and the terrain and trees and plant life are very different from where you’re from.  When you take a plane the differences are real and shocking since there’s no real transition.  But when you drive, it’s more subtle.  I’m sure there are differences between here and New York, but I’m not noticing them as much.  The way the highways are kept is a bit different.  The signs look weird.  There’s a lot of left merging traffic.  Otherwise I could be near my house.  Strange.

I got to Ashland Va in pretty good time.  Let me take a minute to tell you how much I love my minivan.  I had a Jeep Wrangler for many many years.  One day when I was teaching a guitar lesson, I watched it roll backwards down the driveway and smash into a tree.  Sad.  I could have gotten it fixed, but there was around $4000 in damage and since it was 11 years old, I figured I’d see what else there was to get.  I had a regular band together at the time and we were playing dates throughout the northeast.  A minivan seemed like a sensible solution to get everyone there with all the equipment.  I got the van.  A beige Pontiac.  I was immediately depressed.  For about three weeks I’d drive around town hoping no one would see me in it.  It took me awhile to accept that this was now my life.  I owned a minivan.

It’s now been 3+years and on this trip in particular, I love the thing.  Whether I’m going hiking, riding with the  dogs, grocery shopping or taking a road trip, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  It’s extremely comfy.  And on this trip, on the highway, it gets about 550 miles to a tank of gas.  Which is nice.  I’m a proud minivan owning dork.

It was still raining pretty hard when I got to town, another tent night ruined.  So I got a hotel room.  I passed by Richmond on the way here and finished the last 20 or so miles to Ashland figuring I’d get up in the morning and do some exploring, find a funky place to eat breakfast and sit down in a coffee place and do some computer work.  I left the hotel and drove.  You go about a mile into what is called the center of town.  Then you go a half mile in any direction and there is…nothing.  Literally nothing.  I tried all four directions out-of-town.  Even Rte 1 south which heads back towards Richmond has nothing to do.  Lots of car places, laundries, gas stations, churches and a civil war shop.  Near the hotel is just about every chain restaurant or fast food joint you’ve ever heard of.  And a Starbucks which is where I am right now.  With 4 hours to go until the songwriter night I’m attending starts.  Nothing.

In a way it’s weird because it has everything every other place in America has.  Is this what we’ve become?  A series of McDonald’s, BK, Taco Bells, Ruby Tuesdays, malls and Wal marts?  That’s all there is here.  there’s not even a park to go sit in.  This is strange to me because I had it different in my head.  Ashland Coffee and Tea where I’m playing tonight is one of the best performance rooms on the east coast.  I figured it would be surrounded by a cool artsy little town.  Note to self-when I play here again, stay in Richmond.

There’s a roller skating rink.  I forgot to mention that.  It’s right next to 95.  Easy highway access is key to a thriving town.  There is one really cool thing:  The railroad tracks go right through town.  It’s even called Railroad Ave.  There is one of the nicest Amtrack stations I’ve ever seen.  And it’s right next to where I’m playing.

I’m sure that if I had more time and wanted to drive 10 miles or so south toward Richmond, there would be plenty to do.  But I’ve done a lot of driving and am content to just sit here and relax.  That’s one of the drawbacks of touring to an area for the first time- you don’t really know what you’re getting into and if you don’t have a day off, there’s no time to poke around and check it out.  Next time I will.

I posted a couple of videos yesterday.  One is from my show at Acoustic Coffeehouse in TN and one is from the summit of Mt Mitchell.  Check em out here

At least the rain stopped.  The sun is out even though there are a lot of clouds.  And I still have 3 hours and 40 minutes to go.  Hey, I’m out on the patio with a view of the road to 95.  Could be worse.  It could be raining.

2010
09/28
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Tent Tour 2010
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Tent Tour 2010 #6: Mt Mitchell ‘Top of the World’ (almost)

I left home on Tuesday.  It was 80ish and sunny.  I got to Asheville for my shows Wed.  It was 90 ish and sunny.  Had my show in Tennessee on Friday.  It was 90 and sunny.  Sunday had been my target date for my climb of Mt. Mitchell.  There’s a 80% chance of rain with over 1/2 inch forecast and they have flood warnings for the mountain.  Plan foiled.

I decided to drive up there on Saturday instead.  I figured that if I couldn’t climb it, at least I could get up there and see it, take some photos and enjoy the view.  After some lunch in Asheville, I headed east to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Another shockingly beautiful road to drive.  It climbs up on a northeasterly direction along side the edge of the mountains.  These are the Black Mountains which contain somewhere around 15 peaks over 6,ooo feet.  Mt Mitchell is the king at 6,684 feet.  About a mile away is the 2nd highest peak of the east, Mt Craig at 6,647.

The road is windy and is going up the whole time, but unlike other mountain roads I’ve driven, it doesn’t really feel too steep.  There are many points to stop and take in the views which are beautiful.  I’ve been trying to explain to people what Asheville reminds me of, and at one of these rest stops, there were about 15 guys on motorcycles stopped with me.  I got talking to one of them and he was from Colorado.  He mentioned Boulder and I wondered why it didn’t hit me before.   Asheville IS a lot like Boulder.  It’s different in that the Rockies are higher and more jagged, but this particular clump of mountains is just as majestic in a different way.  I remember learning that the Appalachians were higher than the Rockies are when they were in their prime.  So take THAT.

I pulled off to stop at about 5 of these viewpoints.  Each time it was about 10 degrees cooler.  I was getting higher, obviously, but like I said, the road didn’t make you feel like you were climbing too much.  At one of the last ones, the sign post said the elevation was somewhere around 5200 feet.  Now I live near the Adirondacks, and have completed 24 of the 46 ‘high peaks’.  The highest one is Mt Marcy at 5343 feet.  The highest one I’ve completed is Algonquin at 5115.  One thing that struck me was the fact that these mountains, while higher, didn’t look as ‘mountain like’ as the Adirondacks.  They appeared rounder.  Less jagged.

As I continued up the parkway, I kept noticing bikers.  Road bikes not motorcycles.  I saw them all the way to the summit.  Crazy.  I do a bit of road biking and I know how hard inclines are just near my house, let alone riding up a mountain.  Then I found out that there is a race every year.  ORAMM or, Off road Assault of Mount Mitchell.  I think I may need to do p90x a few more times before this but here ya go if you want to check it out ORAMM.

There are also a couple of tunnels that are cut into the side of the mountains.  I love coming out of tunnels and it’s particularly cool when the view is as spectacular as it was on the road up.

Soon enough, I could see the bottom of the clouds begin to scrape the road.  Suddenly, headlights and flood lights were on and you couldn’t see more than 20-30 feet.  My chance of having a great photo session were dimming by the minute.  Once again the temperature dropped.  I stopped at another viewpoint and put on a fleece and jeans.  As with all higher elevations, there were only conifer trees growing.

I reached the entrance to Mt Mitchell State Park and turned in.  Suddenly the road WAS steep feeling.  The van was going a bit slower.  It didn’t really matter because the road was so steep and curvy that the 25 mph limit almost seemed excessive.  Sprinkles of rain began hitting my windshield.  I made it to the parking lot on top.  Now, normally I’m against this whole ‘let’s go drive up a mountain on a road thing’ because I do so much hiking.  The only high peak that has a road in the Adirondacks is Whiteface Mt.  I remember the day I climbed it.  It was very challenging and when I got to the top there was a group of fat women from New Jersey who had taken the elevator to the summit from the parking lot 200 feet below.  ’oh look, he did a little hike’ they said.  ’Why didn’t  he take the elevator up’ one asked.  I could have killed them.  This time, though, I was happy because it let me get to the top and ‘sort of’ complete my goal of seeing the top of Mt Mitchell on this trip.

I quickly formulated the plan to bring my video camera and guitar to the top with me and record a song.  Up the final 300 yards on the path to the top, it started raining in small little bursts that lasted about 2-3 seconds each.  I’ll be fine, I thought.  It won’t rain on me. Looping to the right I finished the climb up and saw the sign marking the summit.  I set up the video camera, tuned my guitar and pressed the record button.  I played about three chords and the rain became steady and harder.  I’m on top of the tallest mountain on the east coast, in the rain, singing into my video camera.  How great is touring?  I sang my song ‘Top of the World’ because, well, it was, almost, at least for this part of the world.

With my jeans soaked, shoulders dripping, guitar thoroughly assaulted by the rain, I turned off the camera and noticed that 3 people were watching me.  I started talking to the guy (I’m terrible with names, forgive me guy on the mountain).  He told me he really liked the song and we talked on the way down to the parking lot.  He used to be in a cover band and travelled around the south.  Now he teaches gym.  He bought a CD!!  I sold a CD on top of a mountain.  How cool is that?  Seriously?  How cool?

Back in the car and down the road about 3 miles, the sun came out.  I looked back toward the summit of Mt Mitchell, still shrouded in rain clouds which cascaded down like a waterfall as mist that disappeared into the sunny world below.  The part of me that was let down by not being able to hike up it disappeared.  I thought about how life works out.  I didn’t get to actually climb it, but I got one of the coolest memories of my life.

2010
09/26
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Tent Tour 2010
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Tent Tour 2010 #5 – Acoustic Coffeehouse and O’Mello Cello

Driving back towards Johnson City is almost as pretty as driving to Asheville down 26.  It was perfect weather out and the views were amazing again.  Then I got into Johnson City.  Acoustic Coffeehouse is right near East Tennessee State University.  The road it’s on is very, um, industrial.  And the venue is right next to a laundry.

I started setting up for the show and the sound guy starts talking to me about how he used to work with Reverend Horton Heat.  I forget his name.  He had a lot of stories though and it was cool to chat with him.  The coffeehouse has a big front patio and a back patio.  Next door is another music place owned by the same guy.  The sound man was telling me that it didn’t do as well as the coffeehouse, but I took a peek and the stage was nice and the sound system is great.  It holds about 120 people.

Inside the coffeehouse are a ton of posters, pictures, album covers, all music themed.  I sat on a stool with a church pew behind me that held a huge picture of the Beatles.  You look out into some tables and to the left is the bar.  They serve beer, food and coffee etc.  All the staff were very friendly.  And the coffee was good too. Oh yeah—DOGS.  Max is gonna be pissed when he realizes that two gigs in a row were dog friendly.

I was the first act of the night with O Mello Cello Tree after me.  Their special guest was Alexa Woodward.  I met them before I started and they were gracious enough to take a bunch of photos of me playing.  About half way through my set I asked Sara, who played cello, to come up and sit in with me on my song ‘The Sea’.  We obviously never practiced it since we just met, and I think it was great.  I have video and my only fear is that she won’t be loud enough since she didn’t plug-in and I was coming through the main speakers.

There was this tall thin man who danced through my whole set.  A weird kind of noodle spring glide karate yoga dance.  It was fun to watch him twirl, even though there were a few near misses with the monitor speakers and a tragic falling tripping incident.

When I finished I met a group of college students who were all very nice.  Thanks to everyone who hung out and who I got to meet at the show.  I’ll be back soon!

O Mello Cello Tree is two girls with acoustic guitar, cello and vocals.  I got to see about 30 minutes of their set before I drove back to Asheville.  I dig them.  It’s folky, funky, great harmonies, bouncy music.  They told me before my set that they were doing a Canadian tour, I think this fall.  I didn’t get a website for them, but they mentioned that they were on Facebook, so look up O Mello Cello Tree on Facebook.  I also filmed their first song so check for that soon as well.  Thanks again to Sara for sitting in on my song and for taking some pics for me.  I know you got a lot of dancing man.

There is still lots of rain in the forecast for Sunday.  I’m very upset.  Kinda cool:  I posted to twitter last night about hoping the weather would hold so I could climb Mt Mitchell, and Mt Mitchell, apparently the mountain tweets, responded to me.  Technology.  Even the mountains are in on it.

When I started there were a bunch of people sitting outside and a few inside.  They have speakers so people who used the patios can hear the acts performing inside.  The tip jar started getting full and by the time I finished the inside was nearly full.  It’s been one of the best parts of the tour; finding these hidden little gems tucked away in towns I’ve never been to before or that give you one impression from the initial site of them and turn out to be so much better than you imagined.  I will definitely be back to Acoustic Coffeehouse!

One thing I forgot to mention about the Rootbar show, not only can you have dogs, the have ROOTBALL.  I didn’t get to play, but there’s a huge area out back with sand and three courts.  Think of horseshoes and bacci ball.  One person tosses a hoop at the stake, the other throws a ball.  You try to hit the stake or hoop or both with the ball to score.  Ring the stake and get the ball to stop inside the hoop and you automatically win.  Looks fun.

More soon

2010
09/25
CATEGORY
Tent Tour 2010
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