Two Solitudes

Saturday, Nov. 13. Grand Forks, ND. The Hub Bar.

2010-11-16T11:50:00.001-08:00

The final show of the tour was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at the Hub Bar with good friends June Panic and his wife Amanda, who calls her band June Panic’s Wife.

It was really good to see these folks!

It also amused me to drive all the way to North Dakota for the final show of the tour. It was my first visit to the state. Happily, Gary joined us again to play the drums with me for this last show of the trip. He came with me the first six weeks, along with some other players, but I played the West Coast leg as a solo act. Good to have everybody back together in the van--which we have put 22,000 miles onto in about two months!

For some reason, I have lots of photos of Gary posing with his food during this trip. Here’s another of him enjoying the classic highway diner dinner salad, a bowl of shredded lettuce.

This was at a café in South Dakota on the way up to Grand Forks.

The kids had a great time playing the drums and tussling the next day.

We went to see an exhibit of work by Lena McGrath Welker at the University art museum. There was a young woman at the gallery dressed up in an elaborate pirate costume, having her picture taken with the art. Senior photos? We checked out the local record shop, Budget Music (or something like that), which has diversified its product to survive in recent times.

Grand Forks is almost to Canada, and it was pretty cold there. Nobody seemed to us to be dressed warmly enough, and nearly everyone we met in the town mentioned that there was a flu or cold going around. But it was to Omaha that the snow came while we were gone.

The show at the Hub Bar was a good time.

June played some of my favorite songs of his. His songs are brilliant. Amanda’s band had a lot of new songs I hadn’t heard before. They rocked. I used to play her music on my radio show back in Lincoln all the time.

Having Gary back on the drums felt great.

Here’s Bryan with one of the Hub's pitcher-sized beer mugs.

So that’s it, the tour’s over. From August 21 to Nov. 13, we drove through nearly the whole country with three our four different versions of the band. We played 63 shows and three live radio spots. Impromptu performances also took place at an artist open studio, a karaoke contest, a handful of open mic nights and a dog groomer's. Philip Gayle joined the tour for the East Coast, and lots of other live collaborations along the way with other artists like Kath Bloom, The Black Twigs, The AMA Trio, The Chiara Quartet, Low Hums. We met about a million people and saw some extremely good music. Quite a trip.

8/21 : Seattle, WA. Cafe Solstice. With AMA.
8/22: Seattle, WA. Garden party at Amy Denio's house. With AMA.
8/27 : Lincoln, NE. Clawfoot House. With Ed Gray, Ron Wax, Jeff Thompson and Angeles Cossio, and Loud Kitchen.
8/28 : Omaha, NE. Noah Sterba's House. With Ed Gray, Simon Joyner, Noah Sterba & the Cocktails.
8/30 : Omaha, NE. Bemis Center for the Arts. With Daniel Higgs, The Chiara String Quartet.
9/1 : Ames, IA. The Ames Progressive. With Ron Wax, Pennyhawk.
9/2 : Iowa City, IA. The Mill. With Ed Gray, Ron Wax.
9/3 : Dubuque, IA. Monk’s Kaffee Pub.
9/4 : Minneapolis, MN. 331 Club. With Andy Elwell, Adam Svec.
9/5 : Madison, WI. The Gates of Heaven. With Meteorade, El-Tin Fun.
9/6 : Milwaukee, WI. The Sugar Maple.
9/7 : Chicago, IL. Uncommon Ground. With Barnfires.
9/8 : Detroit, MI. Burton Theater. With Windy Weber & Hitoko Sakai, Eloine + Gabriel Beam, Black Flea.
9/9 : Columbus, OH. Spore Infoshop. With Time and Temperature, Crawfishes.
9/10 : Bloomington, IN. Bryan Park Tot Lot. With Vollmar, Normanoak, Hanz Bronze, Bobby Bils, Polaroid, Sir Deja Doog.
9/11 : Normal, IL. Never Forget Fest.
9/12 : Urbana, IL. Mike ‘n’ Molly’s. With You & Yourn, Kayla Brown.
9/13 : St. Louis, MO. Pig Slop. With Eloine, Ron Wax, Teaadora, Derrick Hart..
9/14 : Columbia, MO. The Hairhole. With Ron Wax, Heater.
9/15 : Kansas City. The Brick. With The Chiara Quartet.
9/16 : Lawrence, KS. 8th St. Taproom. With CJ Calhoun, Katlyn Conroy, Sam Billen.
9/17 : Omaha, NE. The Slowdown. With The Chiara Quartet, Noah Sterba & the Cocktails.
9/18 : Lincoln, NE. The Zoo Bar. With World History, Zoe Boekbinder.
9/19 : Fairfield, IA. Thug Estates. With Eloine, The Horror the Horror.
9/20 : Louisville, KY. Derby City Espresso. With Eloine, R. Keenan Lawler.
9/21 : Pittsburgh, PA. Helter Shelter. With Eloine, Wife Beater, Critter.
9/22 : New Haven, CT. Cafe Nine. With Kath Bloom.
9/23 : Hudson, NY. The Spotty Dog. With Kath Bloom, Bunnybrains + Eloine.
9/24 : Burlington, VT. The Radio Bean.
9/25 : Portland, ME. Mayo St. Arts. With Dan Knudsen, Jeff Platz Percussion String Trio + Junko Simons.
9/26 : Boston, MA. Whitehaus. With Kath Bloom, Glenn Jones, Jaggery.
9/27 : Brooklyn, NY. Goodbye Blue Monday. With Eloine + Philip Gayle, Mal Madrigal, Guitars.
9/28 : New York, NY. Googie’s Lounge above the Living Room. With P.G. Six, Mal Madrigal.
9/29 : Philadelphia, PA. Castle Gay. With The Snow Caps, Charlotte Littlehales, Kate Ferencz, Buffalo Stance.
9/30 : Baltimore, MD. 2640. With Rosemary Krust, Other Colors, Holy Ghost Party.
10/1 : Washington, DC. Pyramid Atlantic. With Eloine + Gary Rouzer, Rosemary Krust.
10/2 : Blacksburg, Virginia. Gillie’s. With The Black Twigs.
10/3 : Boone, NC. BeansTalk. With Eloine, Arte Povera, Andrew Weathers, Carly Taich.
10/4 : Johnson City, TN. The Acoustic Coffeehouse.
10/5 : Chapel Hill, NC. Nightlight. With Eloine + Slicnaton, Inspector 22.
10/6 : Athens, GA. Flicker Bar. With Emily Armond, Tiny Distance.
10/10 : New Orleans, LA. The Saint.
10/11 : Houston, TX. Notsuoh’s. With The Chiara Quartet, Bell Tran, Papaya.
10/13 : Austin, TX. United States Art Authority. With Christina Carter, Ralph White, Eloine + Josh Ronsen.
10/14 : Wichita, KS. Vertical Violet. With Ghostbeard, Mike Adams.
10/ 17 : Chicago, IL. Schwag City. With Eloine.
10/18 : Chicago, IL. Derp Haus. With Brune-Juice and the Jigsaws.
10/20 : Norman, OK. Opolis. With Eloine, Ex Oblivione.
10/21 : Amarillo, TX. The 806.
10/22 : Phoenix, AZ. The Dressing Room. With Hell-Kite, Michelle Blades.
10/23 : Los Angeles, CA. Human Resources. With Monstruo, Moses Campbell, So Many Wizards.
10/24 : San Francisco, CA. Amnesia.
10/25 : Davis, CA. Robot Residence.
10/26 : Oakland, CA. The Cakebread Castle. With Eloine, Dax Tran-Caffee.
10/27 : San Francisco, CA. Red and White Fleet.
10/28 : Eugene, OR. The Jazz Station. With Eloine + Sabrina Siegel.
10/29 : The Waypost. Portland, OR. With Ohioan, Hearsay and Hyperbole.
10/30 : Olympia, WA. Le Voyeur. With Autococoon, Making Love, Dan Avery.
11/1 : Seattle, WA. The Can-Can. With Low Hums, Bill Patton.
11/2 : Caldwell, ID. Scott's House. With Eloine.
11/3 : Salt Lake City, UT. The Underground. With Eloine, Diandra Ryan-Mas.
11/10 : North Platte, NE. Da Buzz.
11/13. Grand Forks, ND. The Hub. With June Panic.

Wednesday, Nov. 10. North Platte, NE. Da Buzz.

2010-11-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

I played a show in North Platte, Nebraska, at Da Buzz coffee shop. A lot of people came out and it was a good time. Bryan didn’t play this one. There was a write up in the North Platte Telegraph, which resulted in my getting a phone call asking if I’d be a “celebrity judge” for something called Flatrock Idol at the Shooters bar. I figured what the hell, and headed down there after the coffee shop show. That's me on the left, drinking a beer.

It turned out to be a multi-week karaoke contest where the final winner would be flown to an American Idol audition city to try out for that. So that was interesting. And they asked me to play a few of my songs after the singing and judging, so I did.

Mic stand improvisation

Wyoming/Colorado

2010-11-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

We drove through Wyoming. Windmills in the sunset, and then it was so dark that we could only guess about the landscape outside the van. It felt like there could be mountains, or we could just as well be driving on a high road past flat fields, or buttes, or a reservoir. But all we could see was the road, and above it all the stars. Once we drove through a tunnel. When the blackness finally made driving seem too much like playing Pac Man with the dotted center line, we pulled off into the Wagonhound Road rest area sixty miles outside of Laramie. We spent the night in the car. It was freezing and I had dozens of crazy dreams.

Our show in Denver, unfortunately, was canceled, but I did have family in town. We had some more car trouble. And here are photos from a hike in Roxborough State Park.

It was about 75 degrees, in November. Maybe Colorado was making it up to me after all those times I’ve been snowed in during layovers at DIA.

We also went to see my friend John Kite play the piano at the Ship’s Tavern bar in the Brown Palace hotel downtown. He’s been playing the piano there for, I believe, around thirty years.

I also got to meet a few more self-proclaimed “shirttail relatives,” wonderful people.

We met up at a place called the Breakfast King. The upholstery there was very orange. So were these pumpkin fields.

We took a wrong turn and so got to explore two tiny highways on our way back to I-80 as we left Colorado.

Wednesday, Nov. 3. Salt Lake City. The Underground.

2010-11-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

My first time in Salt Lake City. We walked around downtown a bit before heading to the show. Here’s the huge Mormon corporate tower at the center of town.
Salt Lake uses a grid system for the street names where each street is numbered based on how far it is from the LDS temple at the center of the city. This caused some confusion for us until we figured it out.

Our show was in Midvale at a space called the Underground. We didn’t know much about the place ahead of time. It turned out to be a rented space above a sort of garage where a guy named Conrad has a small screen-print shop.

The crowd was mostly kids in their late teens and early twenties who were fans of ska and pop-punk bands. A girl wearing a black-and-white checked scarf in her blue hair told me it’s tough for their scene Salt Lake because a lot of bands break up when band members have to leave for their two-year "mission" for the LDS church at age 19. A singer-songwriter sang a song about how his girlfriend was mad at him when the movie he took her to had too much sex and cussing in it. The people there were obviously a tight-knit group of friends, singing along with the local artists’ songs. There were also three guests at the show who were quite a bit older than everyone else; I think they were relatives of one of the performers. They sat toward the back of the room on the only available seating, a couple of bench seats from a van along one wall.

I’m not sure what the crowd thought of Bryan’s performance, but there was one guy lying on the floor on his back about two feet in front of the “stage,” sending text messages. That was too bad.

I did have the chance to meet another relative for the first time, Kristin and her two kids Shannon and Calvin. Very sweet people who put us up for the night at their place in Farmington.
They are all musicians. Kristin left us some jalapeno jelly she made when she left for work in the morning. The town was surrounded by huge mountains, like the city. I found a trail next to a lagoon and went for a run. All the trees had turned.

We left for Denver, but realized shortly along the way that we were in dire need of new tires. The mesh was actually becoming visible through a long gouge (bottom left corner of this photo).
So we turned back to Salt Lake and got two new tires.

While we were waiting for the new tires to be installed, we decided to see what could be done with the copious amounts of change that has gathered in the ashtray and cup-holders during this lengthy road trip. As it turned out, we had $11.38, enough for us to hit the bowling alley next door to the discount tire place, where we paid for one of us to bowl one game and split a tiny cheese pizza.

Bryan was enthused about the old score-keeping computers.

I bowled a 57. We checked out all the chintzy arcade games and explored the place.

Sometimes your throw goes sour and you’ve got to express your disappointment.

Amazing scenery on the way to Colorado.

Echo Lake

Tuesday, Nov. 2. Caldwell, ID. Scott's House.

2010-11-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

Finished the West Coast leg of the tour yesterday with the Seattle show, and now we’re making our way back. Beautiful drive today through mountains and pine forests, small waterfalls coming out of rock walls along the interstate.

The show tonight was in Caldwell, Idaho, a tiny town a ways north of Boise. I’d never been to Idaho before. I guess it’s a joke with a lot of touring bands that the state doesn’t actually exist. We played at Scott’s house.

Scott

He owns the place, but a bunch of friends and he have been working on remodeling it together. Since March they’ve set up a number of house shows there for touring bands. They’ve put in a parking lot in the front yard and a skate ramp in the enormous back yard.

A guy named Angel has been living in the basement in exchange for doing some granite work: over every available surface in the kitchen, bathroom, and the entryway from the back yard. Scott was an uber-host, got a bunch of his friends to play the show with us and provided all kinds of snacks for the guests, like champagne grapes, popcorn, fried chicken and pizza rolls. Oh and there were two birthdays and a big birthday brownie.

There were somewhere around seven acts playing tonight, as evidenced by this wall of guitars.

This young crowd in Caldwell, ID, was such a nice, attentive audience. They gave us a card that they all signed to say thank you for coming to their town. They were really into Bryan’s set.

We fell asleep in a spare room to the sound of a cheerful jam session that wound late into the night.

Monday, Nov. 1. Seattle, WA. The Can-Can.

2010-11-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Actually Seattle was the first show of the tour, on August 21. Though it was Sept. 1 when we hit the road in my minivan, first I flew out there to do two shows with a wonderful trio my friend Amy Denio plays in, AMA. Though Amy was off on a Tiptons tour this time, we stayed at her house with her roommates. It was interesting to be back in the same house where the trip started after two months on the road. I remembered the Psychic Barber sign from the last time I was in the neighborhood.

On Halloween I had the night off. I went to an open mic with Jim Knodle, a trumpet player and one of Amy's roommates, to hear some (as he termed it) "pick-and-grim." Here is an extremely tall singer-songwriter in a zombie costume. He had a great song about a heartless tow truck driver.

After that Jim and I went to get something to eat at Hattie's Hat Restaurant. I love this picture of him.

There glowing light in the background blur above is a woman with a fantastic umbrella.

On Nov. 1 I discovered that the reason the serpentine belt keeps coming off in my van is that when we replaced the belt tensioner back in Lincoln they most likely didn't put the splash guard back on. That's why this problem only happens when it rains. We're so busy each day until the end, with such long drives, that we probably aren't going to get it replaced, but just hope for dry weather. Here are some photos I took of trees on my walk back from where the van died this time.

I ran into my friend Abel at the C & P, wished I could have spent longer catching up. But I had to make it to a recording session with Bobby. We recorded my song "Sutherland" on the classical guitar I borrowed from my friend Melissa in Portland. I hadn't been to Bobby's studio before. It's a cozy studio, but there is room for this impressive hat collection.

After that it was off to the show, at the Can-Can with Bill Patton and Low Hums. The Can-Can is a bar at Pike's Place with reddish lighting, lots of curtains and a fun dressing room.

Both bands were really wonderful. I sang with Low Hums on their song "First Flower."

Low Hums

Bill Patton

Also I was rescued today. Dave Rabe (of Ron Wax) from Lincoln called up his buddy Doran who lives in Seattle to ask if I could borrow his guitar for the rest of my tour. (Melissa Rochford in Portland loaned me the classical, which I liked, but just for a couple of days). Long Live Doran (and Dave).

The Can-Can show was great, I liked the other bands so much.

There is a sad part of our visit, though, that I didn't want to talk about that at first. Which is that Tabla the dog, belonging to Amy's other roommate, Cindy, passed away while we were there. Tabla was a wonderful large old dog. Seeing her go was heartbreaking. Rest in peace, most dignified beast.

Saturday, Oct. 30. Olympia, WA. Le Voyeur.

2010-10-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

Olympia, Washington is a fitting place to be on Halloween, or the Saturday night right before it. The Westside Arts Walk was on, 17 house shows in one night. My show was downtown instead, at Le Voyeur, but I did play a short set at the Square One house venue, right before the Olympia Free Choir.

We stopped at another of the house shows and viewed The Haunted Hot Dog Zombie Zoo From Hell. Click to enlarge.

Caitlin, with whom I'd perform later that night, took us to Hall of the Woods, an old barn or church (it's unclear) in the forest near Black Lake. At Hall of the Woods they were having a ceremony for the dead involving a beautiful altar made of fallen leaves. We ate vegan soup and hash with the hall's residents and friends in the glowingly warm kitchen.

After that we went down to Le Voyeur for the show.

The performance space is in a madly graffitied back room. The venue takes an unapologetic version of the very hands-off approach to shows I've seen at many quirky dive bars. This was vividly illustrated by the back room's amusing sound board. Actually I didn't see the sound board, as the mixer is padlocked inside a wooden box, with a sign that says the levels are pre-set and that you just need to turn on the power strip below. XLR and quarter-inch cables escape from the box through holes drilled in one side. The bar staff explained that this eliminates the need for a sound man, but still prevents bands from blowing the speakers, as they might were they to have access to the controls.

The back room was draped in dead corn stalks, for the season. I played first.

Caitlin played next; her project is called Autococoon. Her music is friendly/aggressive/strange.

The last band, Making Love, introduced a crazy old regular named Dan Avery to be their pre-show. Dan told a story (true??!?!?) about his father forcing his brother to kill their childhood dog by pouring acid onto the dogs head. Holy shit. Making Love, also, was a trip.

This was a very entertaining evening. To be honest, though, I was still upset about losing my guitar in Eugene. Here I am am attempting to find a quiet moment in a corner of the bar, hiding among all the trippy bric-a-brac of Le Voyeur.

I kept trying to take pictures of all the wild costumes parading down the streets outside, but the pictures all turned out blurry. No Masks In Store.

Oct. 28 & Oct. 29. Eugene, OR: The Jazz Station, and Portland, OR: The Waypost.

2010-10-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

We lost my guitar in Eugene, OR. It seems impossible that such a thing could happen.

The drive to Eugene from San Francisco was beautiful,

and it was long. In the end, it was raining, it was the mountains, one of our (already milky) headlights burnt out, we got pulled over, and the van's serpentine belt slipped off.

The van limped into Eugene and pooped out for real about four blocks from the venue. Actually making it to the show felt like a miracle. We were late, but the small group of guests at the Jazz Station were waiting patiently. They had crackers and wine and a cauldron with apples floating in water, since it's almost Halloween. Bryan did a set with Sabrina Siegel. They'd collaborated through mail before on a recording project, but this is the first time they'd met in person. Sabrina vocalizes and plays the electric guitar with rocks. It was cool to see. I played a good set too. We had made it there.

And it looks like, in the dark and the weariness and the loading of our gear from the venue to the van four blocks away, and in limping the van over to a residential neighborhood so we wouldn't get a ticket, moving our stuff into Sabrina's car and then driving to her house, the guitar disappeared. It's not at the Jazz Station or at Sabrina's. And we didn't realize it was gone until opened the van to load in outside the Waypost in Portland. And now who knows.

On the up side, we have a nifty new tool. Through our serpentine belt adventures (it seems to slip off in wet weather), we discovered that a special wrench is needed for the singular task of installing a serpentine belt, as the opening to reach the belt tensioner is so narrow. Since we'd had so many problems we finally went to Autozone and bought one of these things. Now have our very own Serpentine Belt Tool and the power to fix this problem on our own if we get stuck again.

I don't really have photos from Eugene. Back in Chicago something happened to the display screen in my digital camera, it's all covered in psychedelic colors now but you can't see the image except for a tiny corner of the screen. In Eugene it had an error message of some sort and without seeing the screen we couldn't figure it out. But someone was taking photos at the show, if they send them to me I'll post them here later on. But here are some photos on the road from Eugene to Portland after we got the camera working again.

Borrowed a guitar for the Portland show from Ohioan. The Waypost is a sprawling coffee house/bar in Portland, with bicycle-part art adorning their garden gate.

I played with Ohioan and with Hearsay and Hyperbole, the solo project of Alexis Powell (she's half of the sister-duo Festival). Alexis creates her music with vocal loops; she had a couple of friends join in for the last few songs.

Ohioan is slow psychedelic country with guitar, bass, a couple of drums, saxophone, fiddle, organ and piano; great sound.

Many old friends have migrated to the Portland and came to the show; they were all so good to see.

Not sure what to do about the guitar situation, with two weeks of tour to go. Also lost in that case a really cool strap that Bryan got me for Christmas, a nice Fishman pickup I'd broken down and purchased in Philly after my old pickup crapped out, the tuner I bought (also in Philly) after I lost my nice one in New York, a capo and sundry picks, and all the stickers I'd picked up on the guitar case during this trip. I don't have a backup guitar anymore, as I sold my extras this spring. Trying not to think about it. Show in Olympia, Washington tonight.

Wednesday, Oct. 27. San Francisco, CA. A Boat in the Bay.

2010-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Bryan met up with Cheryl Leonard in San Francisco today to do a recording session. Cheryl played rocks, seashells, penguin bones and brushes of pine needles. Together with Bryan’s homemade instruments, the room was full of amazing things.

We went down to the pier. My Aunt Mysty works for a company in San Francisco that does boat rides around the bay, and she got me a sunset show on one of their boats. This turned out to be a lot of fun.

We had a good time hanging out with Mysty and her husband John and their friends on the boat.

Golden Gate Bridge

Playing on the boat

Bryan playing the flute in the warehouse

This morning we left for Eugene, Oregon. Now we’re driving through mountain forests full of mist. It’s about 45 degrees outside. There was just a road sign for a bear crossing. We can see snow on the rocky peaks above the pines as we pass exits for Dunsmuir and Crag View Drive.

Tuesday, Oct. 26. Oakland, CA. The Cakebread Castle.

2010-10-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today we visited the Albany Bulb and the Marin Headlands, and we played a show at The Cakebread Castle.

The Albany Bulb is an interesting piece of land: it was made out of construction refuse that was deposited in the Bay and then covered with clay, for many years.
Non-native pampas grass on the non-native land mass

Three artists known collectively as Sniff filled the place with “murals” and sculptures a few years ago.

Bob and Frida

My friend Amanda works at the Headlands Center for the Arts, so a drive though Sausalito to go visit her was in order. I thought the place was wonderful.

After that went to walk around Rodeo Beach and its accompanying lagoon.

And Bob and Bryan did a recording session back at the house.

Then we went to Oakland for a house show at Dax Tran-Caffee’s fascinating place, The Cakebread Castle.

Dax made eggs and pecan pancakes for all the guests. He was a fantastic host. Bryan and I both performed, Dax did a puppet show, and several other musicians shared a few songs throughout the night.

Dax playing the wine glasses

I got to see Marla, old friend from college, and our friend Justin Rhody was there too. This is me with Vernon Putnam, who gets the cool award for coming to see me play this week twice.

Monday, Oct. 25. Davis, CA. Robot Residence.

2010-10-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

A peaceful morning. Bob, Sandy and I took their dog, Frida, to Point Isabel, where she demonstrated great commitment to her duty in guarding a particular gopher hole.

Bob and Bryan and I drove up that night to Davis to play a house show at Robot Residence. About ten creepy cats stared at us from a neighboring yard as we pulled into the place in the dark.

The show was an open mic, but in a house.

This worked out pretty well. Bob and Bryan did a set together.

Sunday, Oct. 24. San Francisco, CA. Amnesia.

2010-10-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight I played a show at Amnesia in San Francisco, a dark bar on Valencia street full of red lights and curiosities.

We are going to be in the Bay Area for four days, the longest we’ve stayed in one place since August. We’re staying with Bob Marsh and Sandy Yolles in Richmond.

Here is a large spider in a shop window near Amnesia.

Here is the real thing near the agave in Bob and Sandy’s yard. These things are everywhere.

The morning after the Amnesia show, Bob and Sandy took us swimming in the citizen-restored Richmond Municipal Natatorium.

Saturday, Oct. 23. Los Angeles, CA. Human Resources.

2010-10-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

I had a great show in Los Angeles.

On the way there, another dramatic drive.

The show was at Human Resources, a gallery in Chinatown.

The first act, So Many Wizards, and I played out back, under an awning like a beautiful carport.

So Many Wizards

After that the show moved indoors, where Monstruo and then Moses Campbell played inside the empty white gallery.

Monstruo was very, very good. They said they didn't have a recording yet. I hope that changes soon.

Moses Campbell played last. They put this show together as they were curating shows this month for Echo Curio, where the show was supposed to have take place. Unfortunately, Echo Curio was just shut down from having shows. Sad! But, we were glad we got to meet the guys who put on shows at Human Resources, and the show there was wonderful. Eric Kim put us up for the night, great guy.

Moses Campbell was energetic and fun. They roamed through the space as they played. These guys reminded me a bit of Noah Sterba and the Cocktails, whom I played with at the Slowdown in Omaha on this tour.

Now we're driving through the mountains north of LA, and passing vineyards and apricot groves.

Friday, Oct. 22. Phoenix, AZ. The Dressing Room.

2010-10-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

For some reason we had a twelve hour drive today, from Amarillo to Phoenix. A twelve hour drive can be a terrible thing, but the drive through the entire state of New Mexico was breathtaking, good for the imagination, daydreams of becoming a recluse outside the town of Thoreau.

This NM rest area comes with a poll.

We also tried to make a stop at Meteor Crater, but tickets to see the thing were expensive, so we took a little drive instead, down a road marked with a sign that read, “PRIMITIVE ROAD. DRIVE AT YOUR OWN RISK.” I took this photo of a cattle guard before we turned back.

The show in Phoenix was at a great new little gallery called The Dressing Room.

They are just getting started with the space, but have wonderful plans, like recording all the shows to half inch tape. The show was with Hell-Kite, really enjoyed her set.
Michelle Blades played the show as well with her band.

We met an artist from Black Mountain, who put us up at his studio and gave us a cactus flower.
The flower came from this prodigious plant.

Thursday, Oct. 21. Amarillo, TX. The 806.

2010-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

My birth father, Tom, lives in Amarillo, TX. We just met for the first time last year.

We spent some time out at his house and met some new animals that have taken up residence in his yard and barn.

Tom’s a falconer and a master bagpipes player. This is his new peregrine falcon, Phantom.

He also has three Harris hawks.

Tom and I played a show together the day we met last May at a place called The 806 in Amarillo, and that’s where I played tonight. The current art show at the 806 was appropriate for the holiday season.

The show went well, and I got to meet one of Tom’s falconry apprentices, as well as hang out a little with my dad’s best friend, Bruce. Tom and Bruce told us stories about playing the pipes together in Scotland. The 806 had these flowers they were calling “Electric Buttons” and advertising as a psychedelic experience for the mouth.

After the show we went back to Tom’s place and Bruce cooked us a proper Texas supper.

I hope to stay longer next time, and see these falcons in action.

Wednesday, Oct. 20. Norman, OK. Opolis.

2010-10-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma was a long, desolate drive. I turned onto the interstate the wrong way once after getting fuel. We were very lucky that this exit had been built just for some cattle pens so we could turn around.

Norman has wide streets, lots of parking, and reminds me of a bigger version of many small Nebraska towns’ downtowns.

Lauren of Ex Oblivione, the band we played with tonight, runs a music space around the corner from Opolis. We stopped by to check it out.

Andrew and Marian, our hosts for the show at Opolis, were very chill. The place looks nice; took me a while to realize they probably made it out of a former commercial garage.

I shared the bill with Bryan, local band Ex Oblivione, and Patrick Roberts.

Bryan at Opolis

Ex Oblivione were friendly. They had asked me if we could play my song “Houston” together; turned out well. Ex Oblivione had two keyboards, bass, and a couple of guest players. They also had one piece they played on xylophones on the floor, with percussion provided by an amplified paper pinwheel spun by an electric fan.

Oct. 17 & 18. Chicago, IL. Schwag City & Derp Haus.

2010-10-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

We headed out to Chicago for a few days.

We played a trippy show at Schwag City. There was another touring band, from Alaska, and their mic was a phone.

The next day was the inaugural house show for Derp House in Logan Square. We were greeted by intense Halloween decorations and a hand-drawn diagram.

Art and bicycles at Derp Haus

I played in the backyard, with a fire pit and a parking platform that works perfectly as a stage.

S'mores were made.

Woj and Josh opened up the show.

I played next.

Brune-Juice and the Jigsaws finished up the night.

Chicago was a good time. Derp Haus put on an excellent house show.

"Ale" at the used car lot

The display screen on my digital camera is broken now, just a swirl of psychedelic colors. So every photo is a surprise.

Thursday, Oct. 14. Wichita, KS. The Vertical Violet.

2010-10-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

The show tonight was at Vertical Violet, a whimsical old house in Wichita. The backyard even has chickens. We played with Ghostbeard and Mike Adams. Some friends and family came to the show, very good to see everyone. The family who live and put on shows at the Vertical Violet are doing so much for art and music in Wichita. And the place was a kid's paradise. Check out the lego castle in the guest room.

This was the last show of the tour with my drummer, Gary Foster. We will miss him so much as we head west. We'll play together again this winter!

A friend in Austin (RKF) described the tour as a pinwheel. We left Sept. 1 (though there were also some shows in Seattle and Nebraska the week before). I started out with a loop around the Midwest with my Lincoln band. Then Gary and I set out for the East Coast, where we met up with Philip Gayle, who played guitar and mandolin with us for part of that leg of the tour. Bassist Max Johnson also joined us for the New York shows. Then Gary and I played as a duo through the South. And I'll be on my own through the rest of the tour, up the West Coast, down to New Mexico, and up to North Dakota, finishing up in Iowa on Nov. 16. (The whole tour schedule is up at www.emberschrag.com if you are curious). Lots of live collaborations with different musicians throughout the tour, too, with Kath Bloom, The Black Twigs, Ron Wax, Mal Madrigal, Ex Oblivione, and, most frequently, The Chiara String Quartet, who played five shows with me during the trip. And I'm traveling with Bryan Day, who is frequently sharing the bill.

On the road the next day we discovered an enormous antique mall in a truckstop. I bought a pair of weird shoes for $2.50.

Lillian and Gary with antlers

Look magazine 1963 on dangerous youth

We got to see our friends Jay and Wendy in Lincoln. Here’s Jay with his pear tree.

Wednesday, Oct. 13. Austin, TX. The United States Art Authority.

2010-10-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

Loved Austin...

Got to visit Jad and Patti in the country before we dropped Bryan off at a recording session with Josh Ronsen. There was a cloud of monarch butterflies in Josh’s front yard.

Gary and I explored the area around the venue a bit. Antone’s record shop in Austin now carries my CDs.

Mystery boxes at Antone's

Here is a very cute Korean hamburger joint called Burger Tex.

The show in Austin was great. The Church of the Friendly Ghost put on the show for us at the United States Art Authority. Bryan and Josh Ronsen played a collaborative set to start off the show. They worked really well together.

Ralph White played next. He was incredible. He played fretless banjo, thumb piano, and accordion.

We played next, with Jonah Sirota, the violist from the Chiara Quartet sitting in. He played on the songs that he arranged for the Quartet to play with us, and then on several other songs for the first time.

After that was an inspiring set by Christina Carter; she was really amazing.

I had the best donut I’ve ever tasted at Ken’s Donuts, highly recommended.

And here’s a face in a tree.

Monday, Oct. 11. Houston. Notsuoh.

2010-10-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

We drove past more oil refineries on the way to Houston. We had already discovered in Louisiana that these can be quite beautiful at night, lights and towers rambling on and on like enormous Seussian cities. I like the names of these Louisiana towns, Sulphur, and Industries.

Ah, Houston, where all little baby strip malls go to be hatched. The downtown, however, is impressive, imposing square buildings looming over the grid, and a new light rail.

We got to play again tonight with the Chiara String Quartet! They happened to be in Houston at the same time as we were, preparing to play for the Houston Friends of Chamber Music the next night.

I have to say Notsuoh’s is the most eccentric venue I’ve ever played. All the people who work there are incredibly quirky. The place has a thrift store vibe; it’s not unlike Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, but it’s seedier. Hundreds of old shoes sit on tall shelves along one wall, their shoeboxes decaying around them. Bicycles, ballcaps, and snaggles of wood clothes hangers are suspended from the ceiling. The paintings are a bit obscene, a human skeleton peeps out from a tall window to the upstairs, and a headless male mannequin in a suit guards a dark doorway near the bar. A tall plexiglass cube full of mannequin limbs and heads, with an ancient chainsaw on top, sits in front of the stage. A loud punk band, unfortunately, blared from the bar next door through the wall during our performance. Donations for the band were collected in a red colander.

Papaya

The night after our concert at Notsuoh’s, we got to go see the quartet perform for the Houston Friends of Chamber Music series at Stude Concert Hall at Rice University. The Chiara Quartet have a motto, “Chamber music in any chamber.” I’d wager that these two nights in Houston were the consecutive shows that most proved their commitment to this promise. This performance was a world premiere of “Milagros” by Gabriela Lena Frank. They also played string quartets by Beethoven and Brahms. Their performance was fantastic. We got to meet Frank, the composer, after the concert; I loved the new piece. We were so happy to be there and so proud of our friends.

In Houston, I got to meet another long-lost aunt. In Houston, my birth father’s sister Kim put us up for two nights and filled me in on a fascinating dose of family history.

I also happen to have a song called “Houston” that I recorded for Office Park, a collaborative project with Bryan. You can listen to this early version on Soundcloud.

And I should show you this silly menu from a Houston Thai restaurant.

Ember and Bryan recommend Broccoli is a Push not Bush.

Sunday, Oct. 10. New Orleans, LA. The Saint.

2010-10-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

We had a fun night off in New Orleans. Gary took me to Palm Court, where I got to drink a Sazerac and watch a jazz band. The way the everyone generally humored this drunk, old crazy lady amused me. Gary said she was at the place the last time he came to town.

Some photos of the French Quarter at night:

Some photos of the French Quarter the next day:

The Saint, where we played that night, is like the bar at the end of the world. The place was like the outpost saloon on a distant planet in a space cowboy movie, the neighborhood silent, many people each arriving with a large dog in tow, and the ceiling so very near to falling in. All of this added up to a surreal effect that we enjoyed.

However, BOTH local acts didn’t show. This was probably related to a bad loss by the Saints a few hours before the show, but come on, seriously. Had a good time playing anyway, and we got to meet Jean and Eddie’s son, a photographer who is on the film crew of Survivor.

A friend of the Brauwns’ put us up that night in the city. Everyone was so hospitable. There was “country water” in the kitchen and sweet tea in the fridge.

A Day in Donaldsonville.

2010-10-12T12:31:00.001-07:00

Donaldsonville sugarcane

It seems that the weather always sucks when I'm at the Denver International Airport. My layover there in late March of this year was no exception; there was a massive blizzard that shut down the entire airport, stranding thousands of travelers. I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a hotel room. I gave the tip about which hotel I’d scored a room at to a friendly-looking couple who were hitting the phones near the airport entrance. About an hour and a half later, I saw the same couple outside in the melee. We were in the same boat: we had a hotel room, but no way to get there. The "blue van" service the hotel clerk told us to take wasn’t running, the shuttles didn’t go that far, and the taxi companies’ telephone lines were clogged. “Come with me,” I said to the couple. “We’ll get somebody to let us into their taxi.” We pushed through the whirling snow to a distant lane of the terminal, where we saw a row of white SUVs we hadn’t noticed before. Kindu the driver spotted us and said we could get in with him, the family of 6 he was waiting for hadn’t showed. The going was slow on the roads, but Kindu was valiant, and three hours later we made it to the hotel—who told us the only room they had left, actually, was a two bedroom suite. After a three hour blizzard drive together, the couple from the airport and I had become fast friends. We shared the two bedroom suite for two more days until we could get a flights out from the beleaguered DIA, and it ended up being a really fun time despite all the inconvenience because we got along so well. The couple’s names are Jean and Eddie Brauwn, and they live outside of New Orleans.

So of course we had to visit those guys when we came to town on this tour. The Brauwns put us up swimmingly at their house outside of Donaldsonville, LA. Their Victorian home and jungle-like garden are wonderful.

Eddie took us out for Cajun food at The Cabin, where we had alligator, crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya.

Redwinged blackbird in the Cabin restroom

Huge gator carved from cypress log

Lane in Donaldsonville

Eddie also showed us the True Friends Hall, where many famous jazz musicians once performed. Sadly the historic building is now rotting away and no one is rescuing it.

Eddie is full of fascinating facts and tales. He told us these lilies are called “Naked Ladies” and taught us a new word, “lagniappe.”

Country Pride Buffet, Alabama.

2010-10-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in Alabama, on our way to New Orleans, we stopped at Bridges Travel Plaza and Western Wear, a monolithic truckstop containing the most over-the-top collection of evangelical kitsch conceivable.

The large gift shop is packed solid with Bible Bookstore goods as far-ranging as this Bible Man superhero costume.

The length of the eaves is covered with tacked-up fading autographed glossies of Christian Cowboy bands, and this Christian wrestler. The photos alternate along the boards with cowboy hats and rattail caps.

Every surface in the building is covered with Christian bumper stickers, including the bathrooms, and this display case for a local sports team.

There were several cowboy statues keeping watch throughout the establishment. There was even a poster of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat hanging on the wall next to the TV (tuned to FOX News).

The most intense part of the travel center, however, was the enormous Southern buffet, Country Pride. The rhetorical impact of the food-related Bible verses and Christian stickers posted all around the buffet added up to one message: God has a plan for you, and that plan is for you to be really fat.

Off to the side of the buffet's main dining room was a huge meeting room with more life size figurines lurking in all corners.

There were also two gigantic glass display cases full of photos and memorabilia from the life of one man, DuWayne Bridges. There were pictures of him as a child and at many stages throughout his life, pictures of his family, photos of DuWayne as the pastor of a church with the words Revival Center in the title, as Trucker of the year, and now, as a member of the State of Alabama House of Representatives. Looks like Mr. Bridges as a politician gets an "A" rating from the NRA, and also introduced an anti-gay health care bill to cut off funding to any state university that provides employees with domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. Oh, and he abstained from voting on some measure that would require elementary school students to take PE.

As we left, I saw somebody filling up a large fountain-drink cup with softserve. What a surreal afternoon.

Tuesday, Oct. 6. Athens, GA. The Flicker Bar.

2010-10-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

The van made it to Athens. This felt miraculous; we had been fully expecting the engine to fall out somewhere in South Carolina. We were so happy when we arrived at The Flicker Bar that I started my set off with the most upbeat songs.

Bryan's cousin Kelly Girtz helped us find this show. The Flicker Bar is a fun club; they have curtains, popcorn, a big projector screen and a taxiderm-ied beaver.

We played with Tiny Distance and Emily Armond. Gary met a crazy guy at a record shop. He also met an old dear friend, who used to work with him at a record shop, at the show, a nice surprise.

Tiny Distance

Emily Armond

We had fun with Kelly and were extremely comfy at his house.

Kelly's cats

Athens was 80 degrees in October the next day. With extreme disappointment, we canceled our Gainesville shows on the 7th and 8th to address the van situation. We had been really looking forward to playing at this amazing gallery down there, The Church of Holy Colors, and to seeing our friend Hal McGee. I guess that's just the way it goes.

Monday, Oct. 5. Chapel Hill, NC. Nightlight.

2010-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Yet another beautiful mountain drive: though our car started messing up today, very scary. We're all a bit anxious about that. But we did make it to Chapel Hill for a show at Nightlight, a club that books experimental music and dance parties. I liked the place.

We played with a Danish singer-songwriter and his band, The Migrant, and Inspector 22, the solo project of prolific recording artist Todd Emmert. And Bryan and his friend Nick played as Eloine + Slicnaton.

Eloine + Slicnaton

The Migrant

Inspector 22

We spent the rest of the evening trying not to think about the car. Here is a huge apartment dog at the place we stayed.

Sunday, Oct. 4. Johnson City, TN. The Acoustic Coffeehouse.

2010-10-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Johnson City, Tennessee, was an intense experience. Our explorations led us to a head shop where the owner was listening to Glenn Beck, a coffee shop where the owner was born in Vienna, a well-painted record shop where the guy working had an improv release on the same Dictaphonia series as Bryan, and to one very earnest hot dog restaurant.

Chupacabra!

We also got into a minor fender bender with a man with a hook for a hand and few teeth, discovered a Johnson City-made soda called Dr. Enuf, ate Cheerwine cake, drove down an incredibly sketchy road called Lovers Lane, ate country ham at a Waffle House, and watched some out-there local religious television (quote from TV preacher urging congregants to “vote the Bible”: “The loss of our freedom is slow, like the boilin’ of a frog.”) We played a show at a place called The Acoustic Coffee House.

Like Derby City Espresso, the place reminded me of the coffee shop I where I first started performing when I was 17, The Magic Bean in Springfield, MO. The people there were very nice, and after our show some guys appeared and started to play some old timey music, and everybody started dancing.

Saturday, Oct. 3. Boone, NC. BeansTalk.

2010-10-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

We played a show in Boone, NC, a foggy mountain town that is home to Appalachian State University. The show was at a quaint coffee shop called BeansTalk. We crammed so many college students into the small upstairs. The show was with Carli Taich, Andrew Weathers and Arte Povera. Bryan played this one, too.

Our host, Jordan of Arte Povera, has a lot of school spirit. We stayed on campus and checked out the statue of their mascot, Touchdown Yosef.

Jordan showed us around Boone. We discovered Cheerwine and ate at a place called Cookout, where we were confused by the menu and had a Cheerwine float. We also discovered a secret arcade through the "Restrooms" door at a breakfast place where we stopped to have oatmeal on the way out of town.

Saturday, Oct. 2. Blacksburg, VA. Gillie's (and Christine's Backyard).

2010-10-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

We’ve been talking about how we want to check out some caves sometime on the tour, so when we saw the sign for Nellie’s Cave Park on the way into Blacksburg, VA, we naturally stopped to check it out. As it turned out, Nellie’s Cave was nowhere to be found, and these completely unreadable plaques located around the park ensure that its story remains a mystery.

Anita Bevins, a complete jewel of a music promoter, contacted us about an impromptu backyard concert before our official Blacksburg show at Gillie’s with the Black Twigs. Several area artists were having open studios around town from 10-5, and after that they all gathered in the backyard of ceramic artist Christine Kosiba to hear us play. They were a pleasure to have as an audience, and they made us apple cobbler.

Bryan tests the tire swing

Gillie’s is a beautiful restaurant at the center of Blacksburg.

Gary and I played for the dinner crowd and got to play some with the Black Twigs.

The Black Twigs closed out the night. Doing a show with those guys was a joy.

We all went to have a drink after the show. Mike from the Twigs told us all about how he moved to Blacksburg for the old time music years ago. He also told us about weekly square dances in Floyd, Virginia, that sometimes have as many as 500 dancers (of all ages).

We stayed at Anita’s very cool house outside of Newport. It was very dark when we arrived. In fact, Gary's GPS told us to turn into an empty bank, and we struggled to find the place. At one point, we pulled into a dark driveway. We drove past a Christmas tree farm and ended up outside a house with a bunch of trailers outside, about six pickup trucks, and a huge cageful of huge, barking dogs. (It was about 1:30 in the morning at this point.) We decided that probably wasn't Anita's place and backed down the drive. When we did find Anita's place, it turned out to be a unique old house with a wood stove, white pine-paneled walls, lots of windows and neat old furniture. When we woke up this morning we got to see the view of forested hills.

Now we’re on our way to Boone, North Carolina, driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Gary found this wooly bear.

Friday, Oct. 1. Washington, D.C. The Pyramid Atlantic.

2010-10-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived in DC with just enough time to take a short walk near the Washington Monument and get something to eat before the show. Rosemary Krust rode down with us to play a second show together, and we had a great time hanging out with those guys.

Here is a clever sign from a parking garage.

We also got to see some old friends, Alex Clark and Sarah Beringer, really good to see them again.

We dropped Bryan off in Silver Spring first so he could do a recording session with bassists Gary Rouzer and Dan Barbiero. We all met up at the venue, an art gallery called The Pyramid Atlantic, for the show.

The Pyramid Atlantic also has classes in printmaking and bookmaking as well as hosting shows, mostly for improvised music. Our event was a Sonic Circuits event. The guys who put on the show brought lots of things to drink, recorded the music and took photos. Rosemary Krust played first.

Then Bryan and Gary Rouzer did a collaborative set. I thought they worked really well together.

My drummer, Gary, and I played last. The following photos were all taken by Chester Hawkins, check out more nice photos from the show at his page.

Thursday, Sept. 30. Baltimore, MD. 2640.

2010-10-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

The venue in Baltimore was incredible, a huge old church hall with arches and crumbling plaster. There was a thunderstorm, a flood warning and a tornado warning, but we still managed to have a lovely night.

The show was with Rosemary Krust, Other Colors and Holy Ghost Party. The audience sat on old couches, drank tea and looked pale in the spooky light under the vaulted sanctuary ceiling.

Rosemary Krust are from another planet, and we love them. We're all playing together in DC tomorrow, too. It's going to be great. Buy their stuff.

Other Colors played noisy space pop with over-driven organ and lots of harmonies. I enjoyed their set.

Holy Ghost Party was a reverbed-out singer with a bass player and drum track, the singer in a blue poncho, jerkily dancing in a goofy manner. They were very entertaining.

This show marked the end of the first month of the tour. We ended up getting the second hotel room of the trip, where we drank a bottle of wine, watched nature documentaries and had odd dreams.

Wednesday, Sept. 29. Philadelphia, PA. Castle Gay.

2010-09-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

We were all tired out when we got to Philly, but we perked up after we got to eat some spicy noodle soup. Castle Gay puts on a good house show.

We played with The Snow Caps, Charlotte Littlehales, Kate Ferencz and Buffalo Stance. We met Andrew and Yianni from The Snow Caps when they played with their other band, Hermit Thrushes, in Nebraska once. It was good to see them again, and they were very cheerful and hospitable house show hosts. The Snow Caps are a slightly mathy folk band, Charlotte’s a singer songwriter, Kate is a bouncy junk-pop artist with enormous eyes, and Buffalo Stance is the quirky piano project of my friend Jamey Robinson.

Jamey actually carried a small piano down into Castle Gay’s basement for the show, amazing. A ton of people came out to the show. Afterwards Yianni captured a katydid.

Next morning breakfast with beansprouts and kale,

then off to Baltimore!

Before leaving town we visited a very spiritual district of South Philly, home to an Episcopal church advertising bring-your-pet-to-church day, an occult goods store that’s been open since 1917, and this imposing sign.

Tuesday, Sept. 28. New York City, NY. The Living Room.

2010-09-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

A taxi backed into us on our way back from the show last night, and this morning there was a guy outside on the street screaming, “You’re fucking ridiculous!” at the top of his lungs into a cell phone, so we’re having a proper visit. :) I love it here.

One major pain in the ass: a piece of the blanket we use to cover up our stuff in the back of the van got caught in latch and now we can’t open the back door to unload our stuff. It sucks.

Today I went down to perform at an elementary school near Coney Island called the Brooklyn School of Inquiry. I played a short set for a bunch of cool kindergartners and first and second graders.

Bryan and I found some pizza after that, it was really weird though, exactly like a chicken Caesar salad on a pizza crust. Then we made our way back and went to play the show at Googie’s Lounge above The Living Room. Bryan had to ride in the back so he could hand the gear out over the seat until we could figure out a better way to pack everything.

We played with Steve Bartolomei again and with P.G. Six. I sang a song with Steve. Pat sounded wonderful. We got to play with Max again, which was great fun. Philip used the strings of the white piano to make some sounds.

After the show, Gary and I had some drinks at the Living Room while Bryan, Philip and our friend David went to watch this Italian band we met the night before play at the Cake Shop. We got lost on the way back to Philip’s. The next day we ate at a diner, spent a bunch of time moving the van, met a nice guy at a music store, got stuck in traffic, and generally walked around. Our two days in New York City were great.

Monday, Sept. 27. Brooklyn, NY. Goodbye Blue Monday.

2010-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

We started off our time in New York with a fulfilling mountain of bitter greens (with beets at the bottom) at a panini place near Philip's in Astoria. Philip with his panini, and cupcakes:

As often happens, we were too busy to see a whole lot of the city this day, but Bryan and I did manage about a ten minute walk through a tiny corner of Central Park.

The show this night was at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, with Mal Madrigal and Guitars. Bryan and Philip did an improv set. I'd say they were Eloine + Philip Gayle but they did come up with a name for their collaboration, BraynPhlip. How serious they were about this name is unclear.

Goodbye Blue Monday is wholly encrusted with all manners of curiosities. They also sell records; Gary was pleased.

Guitars from Brooklyn played first, as a duo, with lots of space and slow harmonies. They looked great on this stage.

Mal Madrigal is Stephen Bartolomei, an old friend from Omaha who lives in Manhattan now, very good to see him again. He has a wonderful voice.

We had the pleasure of playing with upright bassist Max Johnson, who jumped on for both of our New York shows. We all loved playing with him.

The night ended up with Bryan and Philip's collaborative set. Philip made use of the many objects within reach of the stage, including dolls of Ernie, Bert and a small tyrannosaur. This was appropriate as Philip just told us that Sesame Street used to be filmed not far from where he lives now, and that the first Sesame Street episode aired the day he was born. Small world.

Sunday, Sept. 26. Jamaica Plain, MA. Whitehaus.

2010-09-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

We got to play a wonderful show at Whitehaus with Glenn Jones, Kath Bloom, and Jaggery. Whitehaus is a big old house in Jamaica Plain, MA, where many people live and put on shows. How many people exactly? I was going to ask, and then I saw this toothbrush holder and decided the answer was "many."

We have old friends at Whitehaus in Jamaica Plain, though this was our first time there: one of the house bands, Peace, Loving played at our old place, Clawfoot House, in Nebraska. It was good to see Kate again. And Whitehaus has a similar energy to those Clawfoot House shows; we felt at home. Someone made butternut squash soup. I liked the magpie-nest chandeliers.

The show got started and everyone piled into the parlor. Glenn Jones played first, gorgeous instrumental pieces for 12-string guitar and banjo. He is amazing.

This was our third show with Kath Bloom, who played next. She was sublime. It was a fitting kind of room for her music, and her band sounded so good.

Gary, Philip and I jumped on for a couple of Kath's songs and everyone had a good time. Kath and Tom played violin and recorder and sang with us for "Your Words" and "Houston" during our set, too. Their harmonies lent the songs an emotional spookiness. The audience was very cool.

Jaggery played last, keyboard, upright bass and violin. Mali's vocal-range gymnastics were impressive.

And someone wrote a live review of the show, with video of Glenn. Our time in Boston was just great. Gary let off a smoke bomb to celebrate.

Saturday, Sept. 25. Portland, Maine. Mayo St. Arts.

2010-09-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

More photos from another beautiful drive, from Vermont to Portland, Maine.

We played at Mayo St. Arts. It is an old church turned into an art space, with a performance space upstairs and artist studios downstairs. The performance space is beautiful and full of art.

We got to experience the brilliance of Dan Knudsen, who opened for us and the Jeff Platz Percussion String Trio featuring Junko Simons.

Dan is the best thing ever, I’m so glad I got to play with him.

Jeff Platz, Junko and co. played post-free-jazz improvised music. They were really good.

Boats!

Breakfast with Philip's friends Hiroya and Michelle!

Transformers motorcycle!

Friday, Sept. 24. Burlington, VT. Radio Bean.

2010-09-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

We all liked Hudson. The people we stayed with said they got an apartment with an attic just so they could host bands coming through town. Looks like Hudson has great shows these days. Before leaving town, we ate fish tacos tacos at a fancy taco truck called Tortillaville.

We also visited Musica, a big music store full of wonderful things, where we picked up a real slide for Philip.

The drive from Hudson, NY to Burlington, VT was incredible. I managed to take a few photos from the car.

They're building a new bridge into Vermont, so we had to ride a ferry instead, in the sunset.

We all liked Hudson. The people we stayed with said they got an apartment with an attic just so they could host bands coming through town. Looks like Hudson has great shows. Before leaving town, we had fish tacos tacos at a fancy taco truck called Tortillaville. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_R-DP00IqKaY/TKDSYUf_lGI/AAAAAAAAAdA/8e6ba1l4Ya0/s1600/DSCN4089.JPG"></a>We also visited <a href="http://www.goodmusica.com/">Musica</a>, a big music store full of wonderful things, where we picked up a slide for Philip.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_R-DP00IqKaY/TKDSZwLmQAI/AAAAAAAAAdI/uCKbZB4iTUc/s1600/DSCN4096.JPG"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_R-DP00IqKaY/TKDSbfhr8lI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/PpwByehqIbo/s1600/DSCN4098.JPG"></a>The drive from Hudson, NY to Burlington, VT was incredible. I managed to take a few blurry photos from the car.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_R-DP00IqKaY/TKDSb6Ps55I/AAAAAAAAAdY/wIfgSxJmY5s/s1600/DSCN4103.JPG"></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_R-DP00IqKaY/TKDSch6uZKI/AAAAAAAAAdg/erIk7ae_a3k/s1600/DSCN4110.JPG"></a>They're building a new bridge into Vermont, so we had to ride a ferry instead. That was fun. In Burlington we played at a bar/restaurant called the Radio Bean. It was a pretty place, very black and red, with a bed springs hanging on the wall for a wine rack.The fun thing about the Burlington show was that I got to meet yet another long-lost relative for the first time (see the <a href="http://emberschrag.blogspot.com/2010/09/sunday-sept-12-champaign-il-mike-n.html">Sept. 12 entry</a>). This time it was my (second?) cousin (once-removed?), a relative of my birth father's, Robin Lee Hall. She was the coolest. We took a long walk around Burlington after the show, got some pizza, and stayed up late.

In Burlington we played at a bar/restaurant called the Radio Bean. It was a pretty place, very black and red, with a bed springs hanging on the wall for a wine rack.

The fun thing about the Burlington show was that I got to meet yet another long-lost relative for the first time (see the Sept. 12 entry). This time it was my (second?) cousin (once-removed?), a relative of my birth father's, Robin.

She was a doll. We took a long walk around Burlington after the show, got some pizza, and stayed up late.

Thursday, Sept. 23. Hudson, NY. The Spotty Dog.

2010-09-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

We stayed with Kath and Stan at their house in Litchfield, CT. Stan made us delicious omelets with portabella mushrooms and peppers, tomatoes, basil and oregano from their garden, and homemade bread.

Bryan, Gary and I went with Kath to take her dogs for a beautiful walk in the woods.

Philip slept all day, it was funny. When we got back, Kath and I sang some songs in the backyard while Stan worked on the all-wood antique canoe he’s restoring.

The drive from Litchfield to Hudson was beautiful, winding roads, sun on fall colors and old stone walls.

Hudson was full of people from all over because the Prometheus Project and the cool citizens of the town are having a virtual “Barnraising” for a new community radio station this weekend. It would have been nice to stay in town just to hang out with those folks for longer. Dan Seward from Bunnybrains set up the show with us at the Spotty Dog, an extremely chill and attractive bookstore and bar.

We got to eat pizza with sweet potatoes, parsnips and fennel on it and had the chance to explore the quaint main drag a bit before the show.

Dan is a record dealer, like Gary, and they geeked out together for a while before the show.

My favorite part of setting up this tour myself is all the eclectic bills. Tonight it was Kath Bloom and Bunnybrains, seriously. And it was great.

Kath and I sang a bunch of songs together.

During our set, Philip impulsively started playing slide mandolin with a half-full beer glass. It worked so well that he's going to play slide mandolin all the time now. At the end Bryan performed with Bunnybrains. I thought it was a successful collaboration. Bunnybrains acoustic set!

Wednesday, Sept. 23. New Haven, Ct. Cafe Nine.

2010-09-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

We met up with our new guitar, mandolin and waterphone player, Philip Gayle today! He lives in New York City. Philip’s great; he usually plays experimental improvised music, but after we got in touch he said he’d really like to play together sometime, and he ended up joining up with us for the east coast leg of the tour. He rode up to New Haven, where he went to eat at the place that invented the hamburger, which was across from the place that invented the pizza, or something like that.

Getting ready for the show

Café Nine was the first of three shows we’re playing with Kath Bloom. She brought her band down from Litchfield, CT, where she lives, for the show. Seeing her play was so great.
We all ended up jamming together on some songs. Gary played drums with them for a while and Philip played mandolin. I sang backup vocals on “Such a Tease.” Kath played recorder and sang on “Jephthah’s Daughter” and “Your Words” and played the blues harp on “Iowa.” Her fiddle player, Tom, played with us, too.

There was a thunderstorm going on outside, lots of bright lightning. The guys who ran the place were really kind.

Tuesday, Sept. 21. Pittsburgh, PA. Helter Shelter.

2010-09-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

On the way to Pittsburgh, we stopped at a gas station somewhere in eastern Ohio, where we met Bill, who had a pumpkin stand in the parking lot.

We ate some “Amish tomatoes” on the spot and checked out wallets, roses and pumpkins made of duct tape.

Bill’s daughter is the duct tape artist. I gave Bill a sticker; he said he’d put it on the back of his trailer. Gary gave him a roman candle. The gas station had deer heads mounted on the walls inside.

We liked Pittsburgh.

Here’s Bryan on a patio with rainbow umbrellas at an Italian place we stopped at for coffee and cheese pizza.

Before we could go to Helter Shelter, the house where we’d be playing, we had to find the guys who ran the place. We found them having a Miller High Life on a huge cistern on the Allegheny River.

After that we went to Helter Shelter.

We played with two members of a band called Critter

and a chipper junkgrass band called Wife Beater.

The guy who ran the place, Cody, was hospitable and down-to-earth. The Helter Shelter neighborhood is called Lawrenceville. “Lawrenceville,” he said. “The town of dishonorable discharges and disability mutants.” Bryan played this show, too. Nice people. I got a shirt from one of the bands. We might make a tape version of Jephthah’s Daughter.

Monday, Sept. 20. Louisville, KY. Derby City Espresso.

2010-09-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Derby City Espresso in Louisville is an eccentrically cluttered, narrow coffee shop/bar with live parrots near the front door and a patio out the back, also a fish tank, a scooter and a risqué pinball machine. Cool place.

We had the pleasure of playing with R. Keenan Lawler. He plays drony, minimalist improvisations on bowed and plucked resonator guitar with some effects. His performance was wonderful.

Gary and I had a good set and got to watch Bryan play after that.

The tapewarp is about my favorite thing.

After the show we ended up driving for a few hours and got a cheap hotel room outside of Xenia, Ohio. I couldn’t get the hot water to work in the shower. The owner of the place was really rude about kicking us out of the room right at checkout time, and he and Gary had a spat. It was amusing.

We’re driving now, and there are finally some trees lining the road, a nice change after driving past bare fields for days. Tonight it’s a show at Helter Shelter in Pittsburgh, tomorrow New Haven, CT. Don’t know much about what kind of place it is in Pittsburgh, but we’ll find out soon. I’m about to experiment with cooking some Indian food from a packet in a rice cooker plugged into the cigarette lighter. We’ll see how it goes.

Sunday, Sept. 19. Fairfield, IA. Thug Estates.

2010-09-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

During the drive today we stopped at an enormous fireworks place off the interstate. It was over-the-top.

We were feeling beat when we arrived at Thug Estates (our friend Dom’s house), but perked up after showers and a meal Dom and his friends cooked for everyone.

This was the first show Gary and I played together as a duo. It worked really well. He’s a great jazz drummer.

The second band was The Horror The Horror from Asheville, North Carolina. One of their members was in Br’er, who played at Clawfoot House. It was great to see him again. All of the bands on the Edible Onion label out of Philadelphia are swell. The Horror The Horror were very enjoyable, electric guitar and fiddle with percussion, keyboard and harmonium, strange lyrics and interesting vocals. Their last song had a bit of a Velvet Underground vibe going on, nice.

After that Bryan performed as Eloine. Tonight all the sounds changed from one type of sound to another with dramatic speed.

Fairfield is the home of the Maharishi University. I called my friend Daniel Seward from Bunnybrains in the morning to talk a few details about the show we’ll be playing together in Hudson, NY in a few days. When he found out I was in Fairfield he said, “Ah, the home of flying yoga.” I guess he had a friend from Fairfield whose parents who went to that school and were “levitating yogi masters.” It definitely seems like a fun town. The small town breakfast diner is called the Istanbul Grill. We’ve eaten at many similar diners on this loop around the Midwest, but this is the first one that had Turkish coffee.

Saturday, Sept. 18. Lincoln, NE. The Zoo Bar.

2010-09-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I spent the day screen printing band shirts with Ron. Lillian is a pro. After one print, she did a little dance of joy and screamed, “Let’s do that again!” Ron said that should be the motto of all print-making.

I now have child-size shirts for sale with the crawdad Ron designed.

We played that night at the good old Zoo Bar with Zoe Boekbinder, and her friend Dakota, from Oakland, and World History from Seattle. Dakota sings comedic songs and plays the ukulele. Zoe deftly uses a loop pedal and guitar; she’s got a cool voice.

I met those ladies at a show they set up out in Oakland, a benefit to buy music equipment for a music program in a prison where Zoe performs sometimes. World History has a really pretty sound. They are on permanent tour. I bought a 7” of theirs, an edition of 25 on clear vinyl of a choir they directed singing a couple of their songs. Their band stickers say “Don’t Talk to Cops.”

It was great to play again with Joe Salvati on pedal steel and dobro.

Here's Lillian hiding in the drums!

Friday, Sept. 17. Omaha, NE. The Slowdown.

2010-09-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

This was a fantastic show. We played with The Chiara Quartet again, and also with Noah Sterba and the Cocktails, an eleven-piece joyful junk-pop band. The quartet sounded incredible with the Slowdown’s cadillac sound system. Gary joined in on drums and percussion when I played those two songs with the quartet. I felt so chill after seeing the quartet perform. The room was full of people and they were into us. It went great.

Noah Sterba and the Cocktails all dress up when they play. The quartet and most of their crowd were dressed up too, and in the Slowdown with its shiny black tile walls, everyone was looking fancy.

The first time I saw Noah Sterba and the Cocktails was at a house show we played together about a month ago in Omaha with Ed Gray and Simon Joyner. Ed and I were confused at first that night because everyone who came into the house was wearing a white shirt and a tie. Ed said he figured they must all work restaurant jobs. I said I’d heard the band was dressing up, but that it couldn’t be true because there were way too many of them, that it must be some kind of party theme we didn’t know about. Nope, there are just a lot of Cocktails. They made me smile at the house, and they did at the Slowdown, too, where they opted not to use the sound system at all, but played in front of the stage on the floor with just one vocal mic for Noah. All the players howl the choruses together, and there were countless tambourines. I love the songs “Insomnia” and “The Riot Must Go On.”

Thursday, Sept. 16. Lawrence, KS. The 8th Street Taproom.

2010-09-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

The women’s bathroom at the 8^th Street Taproom in Lawrence, Kansas, has paintings of snake handlers, dancing ladies, and Ray Charles(?) with a goat-woman on the walls. It’s the craziest thing.

Wednesday, Sept. 15. Kansas City, MO. The Brick.

2010-09-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

It was a wet, dark evening in Kansas City. We played with the Chiara Quartet at a bar called the Brick.

My band played first. Then the quartet and I performed the two songs of mine that Jonah, their violist, arranged for us to play together, “La Maria” and “Jephthah’s Daughter.”

After that we got to sit and have a few drinks and watch the Chiara Quartet play two sets. Those people are amazing.

Two sweet twenty-year-old boys came up to talk to me between sets. I know how old they were because one of them told me it was his birthday. Then they tried to evangelize me. They said they liked my music and wanted to know where I get the inspiration for my songs. I said something vague, and one of them asked me if I ever have dreams, nightmares, or “angelic encounters.” What a weird question. He launched into some intense statements about what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. After coming up to me, they sort of fled. I did think they were sweet in a way, you know, very heartfelt—but come on, weren’t they listening? I said I’m not a prophet. Have I ever had angelic encounters? Sure: I just saw the Chiara Quartet play. New rule: anyone who tries to evangelize me has to at least buy my CD first. The show was great, but I’m ready to get out of the Midwest for a while.

Tuesday, Sept. 14. Columbia, MO. The Hairhole.

2010-09-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Long Live The Hairhole.

These guys do it right. From the basement stage, Ron declared these guys and their venue to be “true punk-rock,” his greatest compliment. I agree: Columbia rocks.

I played first, with Chris on bass. They loved us, oh man, what a great crowd.

Ron Wax was next. This was their best set of the tour. It was funny because Ron always writes his set list on his arm, but at this place he couldn’t read it because the list was in red sharpie and the only light during their set came from a red light bulb. The writing was completely invisible. The greatest part of the show was when Ron started shocking himself because his amp isn’t grounded, there were holes in his shoes, and his socks were still wet from his “sailor-dive” into the Mississippi earlier in the day. He has a pair of white shoes of some mysterious significance that ride around inside his amp, guess they’ve been there for years, waiting for the perfect moment or something. After continued attempts to play guitar and several shocks, Ron started cracking up on stage and said it was time to put his white shoes back on. He changed his shoes right there and declared that he was now a different person. Dave kept banging his mallets on the low ceiling. It was so dark Dave almost hit several people in the face when he tossed his homemade egg shakers into the crowd. Chris played with those guys, too, giving it his all for two sets. They played the Clawfoot song and I kept grinning while I jammed out from the crowd with my tambourine. Ron Wax rocked tonight.

Heater played next, they were great! Like a really good punk band with a psychedelic bent. I got one of their records, looks really cool. When I get home someday I’ll listen to it.

There was a really gross-looking art piece sticking out of the wall in the bathroom; wish I’d gotten a picture. I did get a picture of this weird thing leaned against the wall.

Here’s a photo Bryan took of the (strangely fuzzy) sign at the front door. It reads “No High-Fives to Bullshit.”

A few more photos from around Columbia.

Light fixtures at Mediterranean coffee shop with yum Turkish coffee

more Mediterranean coffee shop

tiger tail in mural at Mexican restaurant

bizarre and awesome yard art

This guy was across the street

Monday, Sept. 13. St. Louis, MO. Pig Slop.

2010-09-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Trying to concentrate, but it’s really hard because we’re listening to The Anthology of American Song-Poems in the car.

St. Louis and Columbia were shows three and four with Ron Wax. Teaadora drove down from Bloomington, IL to play the show. We all met up before the show to do an in-studio at KWUR. Friendly kids, lots of graffiti. Each of the bands played a set; it went great. I think you’ll be able to download the whole thing under Stacks Sessions on their website sometime in the next couple of weeks.

My friend Zak from the great band Water Bears set up this show for us at this new space, Pig Slop. A bunch of artists are moving into this neighborhood on Cherokee Street. Pig Slop is the second floor of a big warehouse. Somebody processes alpaca wool downstairs. There are three new venues on the block.

The show was a fun time. Chris was excited to discover a new cheap-ass beer he’d never heard of, Stag.

First Teaadora’s friend Derrick Hart played a few songs. Derrick’s got a beautiful voice, and his songs are hilarious. Chorus I remember: “Television evangelists of the world unite / we are going to paint the town with heathen blood tonight.”

Teaadora played next, semi-improvised looped electronics/keyboard/electric guitar and vocals, ending in a passionate scream.

Chris and I played next (Gary will be back with us to play drums in Kansas City). One of the artists who lives at Pig Slop, Jonathan, drew a picture of us playing. I have a blurry photo of the drawing.

Then it was Ron Wax. Ron Wax gave it their all and broke some of their shit. Dave went right through a drum head. Chris was playing too, and Derrick and Teaadora. I played along on Teaadora’s keyboard, train whistle and shakers. Little metal beads kept flying out of every shaker I tried.

Bryan played a dynamic set as Eloine, with Teaadora jumping on at the end.

This guy Chad was filming the whole show on several tiny cameras he kept repositioning around the stage. He showed us the film afterward: fuzzy, black and white and straight to VHS tape. The footage of Bryan playing looked amazing, the images from all the cameras spookily superimposed.

The next day Bryan, Chris, Dave, Ron and I set off to do a little exploring in St. Louis. We ate at a historic diner in a dilapidated neighborhood. The diner has been there since 1913.

Then it was off to the stately downtown to check out the Arch.

Ron did a “sailor dive” into the Mississippi a few feet from the shore. He said he’d been waiting all summer for a “river christening.” I took a hilarious video. I promise I’ll post some videos soon.

Ron after sailor dive

Ember vs. mighty Mississippi

Bryan with Lewis & Clark

Bryan, Chris, Dave and I climbed out onto a big log and Ron drew our picture.

Ron doesn’t seem to sleep or eat, just wanders around smoking, drinking coffee and getting each city down into his tiny notebook of drawings. He uses some of the drawings for prints later, and some of them to remember shit or prove he was around. He always wakes up hours before the rest of us and disappears.

We (finally) found a music store to replace the broken drum head, then we took off for the Columbia show at The Hairhole.

Sunday, Sept. 12. Champaign, IL. Mike 'n' Molly's.

2010-09-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Idyllic day in Champaign-Urbana. This was a day spent on patios. First we had breakfast fajitas on the patio belonging to our friends Nic and Heather Dillon, who play in the band You & Yourn. The fajitas, and the French toast casserole the Dillons’ friend Gillian brought over, were delicious. The Dillons’ patio is huge and has a hammock.

Then our friend Morgan Orion had us over for dinner, which his dad cooked, vegetable soup and cornbread with sesame seeds. We ate on their patio. There was a rain barrel by the porch, sesame seeds in the cornbread, a bumblebee in the zinnias, and Sriracha for Obama.

After that I went to play the show, at Mike ‘n’ Molly’s with You & Yourn and Kayla Brown. It was an outdoor show, again on a patio. I don’t have any pictures though, except of the ivy and this blurry one of You & Yourn.

Their new songs are beautiful. After the show, more patio-sitting with Nic and Heather, with ice cream, tea and bug candles.

At the show I met a relative for the first time. I was going to say a “long lost” relative, but I guess I’m the long-lost one in these meetings: I was adopted. I've found my birth parents now, so this kind of meeting actually happens fairly regularly with my birth parents’ extended family, especially when I’m traveling. I was surprised at first when a nice woman with long silver hair came up to me and introduced herself by saying, “Your mama married my little brother,” but I quickly figured out what she was talking about. My birth mother’s first husband was her brother. The woman’s name was Carol. She and her husband just moved to Urbana. Her children are artists and scientists; she is very proud of them. She had us over for breakfast the next day, and we got to meet her cute grandson, Otto. The house they live in is amazing.

Our stay in Urbana was really pleasant. We went running twice and went to Morgan’s twice. He played a brand new song for us and gave us some apples. The only other thing I have to say about the day is that Nic and Heather’s dog is my favorite dog. This is Sadie.

Saturday, Sept. 11. Normal, IL. Never Forget Fest.

2010-09-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

Normal, IL has a definite Everytown, USA feel. And on a tiny road called Cypress, two guys who are both named Kyle live across the street from each other and host house shows. Tonight was the second annual Never Forget Fest. Zero disrespect to 9/11 victims intended, this event was a mockery of blind & bloodthirsty nationalism. One Kyle’s house was dubbed North Tour and the other South Tower. The poster for the event had a flag and a skull and the facebook invitation just listed the band schedule and mentioned that this show is a fundraiser for the local fire department…and that guests should “Wear American! Or get waterboarded until you stop being a terrorist.” Jamie and Mary Kate were scared into taking it a step beyond the flag pin.

There were twenty or so bands playing from the afternoon until late in the two garages. My set was at 5 pm and I played in the driveway. What a great crowd.
Spent some time hanging out with Teaadora, who got me on the show. We’ll play together in a few days in St. Louis. Saw lots of bands play in the crowded garages. This is the band the two Kyles play in together; it’s called Hastas.

The cops drove by a few times but didn’t stop. Fitting: this was a benefit for their buddies in the fire department, after all.

Friday, Sept. 10. The Bryan Park Tot Lot.

2010-09-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

I knew this was going to be one of my favorite shows! We arrived in Bloomington just before the show at 5 pm and took a stroll around Bryan Park. The Tot Lot was occupied by tots and their picnicking guardians. On the hill above the Tot Lot resides a collection of creepy abstract brown structures called the FitCore, and that’s where we settled down for the show. This particular lot seems to be intended for exercise, not play. Posted signs instruct in how to utilize the FitCore.

Kray brought some fruit and snacks, which we ate together while we waited for the bands and guests to arrive. The full bill was Ember Schrag, Normanoak, Vollmar, Bobby Bils, Polaroid, Hanz Bronze and Sir Deja Doog.

Sir Deja Doog played first, six songs from his recent recording An Impossible Darkness. The songs were all about hell, punctuated by terrifying imagery and wails of inhuman suffering. I thought he was great.

Next was Hanz Bronze, playing much more cheerful material, including one song that was a character study of PacMan.

Polaroid’s music was dark, primitive and socially conscious.

Bobby Bils performed “acoustic comedy” from a tree. His performance kept the audience guessing as he played clips from green speakers tied to various branches. He kept changing his clothes and quietly jumping around in the tree. The set ended when Bobby donned a blue dress and descended from the tree, then smashed his face into a paper plate full of whipped topping.

Vollmar’s songs were performed very quietly and were and very, very good. My favorite was a stark and sad breakup song that started with the line “Please move out of here.”

I played next, and then as the sun set, Normanoak closed out the show. He plays a classical guitar with skilled gusto and sings wordy, brilliant and amusing songs. He stood in the light from street lamp and danced around as he played.

Thanks to Kray for setting up awesome shows! Seems like a fun scene, great people. They used to meet weekly in that same park for a songwriter in the round group called Minstrel Cycle, and then every Thursday for a Public Drone.

After the show the city was hosting a movie night on the adjacent hill. They were showing Labyrinth. We later wished we had stayed for the movie, but we were starving and so we headed downtown. After a fruitless search for the Darko Taco truck we’d been told about, we ended up at Greek’s Pizza. Here’s Bryan at the restaurant; it was empty except for us.

Some more photos:

Iconography at Kray's

Tour poster up on a pole downtown

FitCore at dusk

Thursday, Sept. 9. Columbus, OH. The Spore Infoshop.

2010-09-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

We stayed with Gabe Beam in Toledo. He runs a series at his place, The Robinwood Concert House, that booked a lot of the same people we did for the Experimental Issue series at Clawfoot House. Gabe’s house is in a beautiful historic district. We rode bicycles around the neighborhood. Saw this house, which I learned was built by a man who owned an elevator company.

Yard signs.

More cool houses.

We ended up at the Toledo Art Museum, where we saw some beautiful sculptures, this amazing building designed by Frank Gehry, an exhibit of psychedelic rock posters from the sixties, and the most enormous tire swing ever.

We visited the Toledo Glass Museum—what a cool place!

Bryan and Gabe did a short recording session

and then we were off to Columbus, where we were scheduled to play at a place called the Spore Print Infoshop.

We ended up combining our show with a Defiance Ohio show at a nearby warehouse instead. The acoustic aftershow was with Crawfishes, Time and Temperature and me. Crawfishes were really fun. And Time and Temperature blew me away, Val Glenn, she is amazing!

Wednesday, Sept. 8. Detroit, MI. Burton Theater.

2010-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

This was an awesome show. We pulled into Detroit and made our way to the Burton Theatre, which is an art cinema house these cool people set up in an abandoned inner city school. The halls were full of weird installations and beautiful posters.

Each of the bands played with the backdrop of an experimental film on the big screen. The first band, Black Flea, played with a film of some red and white images of a dog running.

Bryan played as Eloine, collaborating with Gabriel Beam, who drove up from Toledo for the show. They used a film called Holes Holes Holes Holes Holes by Angeles Cossio. Windy Weber and Hitoko Sakai played a drone set next. They were amazing. I have a short video that I’ll put here sometime soon. I performed with a film my friend Jay Schleidt made just for this performance. Everyone was so nice, and I got to see my sister Lauren, who came to the show. This guy Nick at the show took a video of me playing with Jay's film.

Tuesday, Sept. 7. Chicago, IL. Uncommon Ground

2010-09-08T10:01:00.000-07:00

Nice to wake up in Monee, where we stayed at my birth mother’s place. She’s got a farmhouse there, south of Chicago. Gary went for a jog and I was going to go too, but my cool Aunt Debbi pulled up in her mini-van and scooped me up instead. Debbi loves my song “Iowa” and I guess her friend Lisa is a fan, too. Debbi wanted me to come over to the Bark ‘n’ Bath, the dog grooming business Lisa owns, to play a little smoke-break-length set for Lisa at the tables out back. Debbi also wanted to show me her old cockatoo Bubba. Bubba was too loud to keep at Debbi’s house, always making a fuss, but he’s a real character. Debbie gave the bird to Lisa since the Bark ‘n’ Bath is a really loud place all the time anyway, dogs barking, water whooshing, dryers blowing. There were about twenty happy dogs hanging out inside.

I played “Iowa” and “La Maria” for Debbi and Lisa outside. Lisa ended up booking me as the music for her Oktoberfest party to take place in the same backyard on 10/16. I figured adding a show at a dog grooming place sounds like fun, as we’ll already be playing lots of houses, a playground, a print shop, and a handful of thrift stores on the tour.

The show that night was at Uncommon Ground on Clark, a handsome restaurant. This was my second show there. The sound was really good and it was cool that my family came to the show. We played with this duo, Barnfires.

Monday, Sept. 6. Milwaukee, WI. The Sugar Maple.

2010-09-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

After another nice breakfast and a little early morning classical guitar serenade by Luke, then we headed to Milwaukee. On the drive out of town we saw a place called The Mainstream Boutique right across the street from a florist’s shop called Avant Garden. Funny. Bryan played an early show as Eloine at the Borg Ward with Bryce Beverlyn II, Peter J. Woods and some other folks. The Borg Ward looked great.

I couldn’t stay for the show, though, because I got an in-studio at WMSE.

Gary, Chris and I went to the wrong building first but made it to the studio eventually. What a cool station. The DJ’s name was Andre and he was so cool. His DJ name is Andre the Alien and he plays music about paranormal stuff. I told him to check out Lucia Pamela. He kept saying my songs were “tasty.” I think the session is archived on their website.

The show was at the Sugar Maple, which is one of the prettier bars I’ve seen. About a million beers on tap.

Dave from Ron Wax texted me demanding a review of the beer and sausage, which was pretty funny, seeing as he’s a vegetarian who doesn’t drink. Well, we didn’t end up eating any sausage because we went to a place called Café Lulu, which served no sausage, but we had amazing sandwiches there and the best piece of blueberry pie I’ve ever tasted. The café had lots of cool show posters on the walls.

I did try the Milwaukee Brewing Co. Baltic Porter at the Sugar Maple. It was delicious and smooth and the hops (or something) seemed to keep bursting on my tongue for a long time after each sip. I’m not a beer nerd so not sure what to say! But it was really good.

The show went all right, took place in a gorgeous small listening room at the back of the bar. The Sugar Maple is owned by Bruno and his wife Adrienne. We commented on the good design of the place and Bruno, who is a big guy, gave all the credit for that to his artist wife, stating a couple of times that his job is to “sell beer and scare kids.” I thought he was kind and that his bar was classy. If it weren’t for another late night drive we wound have had time to try many more of those beers. We listened to Henry Rollins' Black Flag tour diaries on the way to Chicago.

Saturday, Sept. 5. Madison, WI. The Gates of Heaven.

2010-09-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

We didn’t get to do any exploring in Minneapolis since the Madison date was an early show, at a synagogue called The Gates of Heaven with local bands Meteorade and El-Tin. The Gates of Heaven is a small, beautiful synagogue in a park right next to Lake Mendota.

There was some kind of Taste of Madison festival going on in the streets; we got some lemonade. The show was great. I played a bunch of songs solo while Bryan and the guys from the other bands worked on a fix for a buzzing PA. El-Tin fun did a junky surf rock thing with drums and guitar and lots of harmonies. Meteorade was a good rock band.

The singer in El-Tin Fun, Jason, seems to run a cool tape label or something, or at least puts out his own stuff with fun hand-made packaging. I showed him the chapbook I just published of some of my drawings and poems. He had a similar zine of his own drawings and song lyrics. His drawings were great.

Jason’s stuff:

Our friend Luke Polipnick put us up for the night, and cooked us an amazing pot of Vietnamese soup. We felt pretty spoiled by all the nice food.

Friday, Sept. 4. Minneapolis, MN. 331 Club.

2010-09-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Morning in Decorah, another episode of quaintsville, Iowa. Bryan found an old tin suitcase in his dad’s garage and cleaned it up to use for merch.

Gary and I went for a run. We stopped in at a pet store called the Fish Garden in the lower level of an old Victorian house. They had a few rows of aquariums, as well as a cage-ful of baby hamsters, all sleeping together in a mound. I was pointing at something and I knocked over a betta. Jar, water, and betta all went sailing. We had to find the fish on the floor behind some pole things that were leaned up in the corner. I think the fish was ok. I still felt like a jerk.

We drove to Minneapolis to play at the 331 Club. It was a show in a big bar with a tin-pressed ceiling. They had a drunken spelling bee before the show.

We ate some pizza and drank gin and tonics. The sound guy was really nice. The sound was good and a decent corridor of people in the middle of the room stopped talking to check us out. Mike and Cindy Elder, our friends from Lincoln, were in town on vacation and came to the show. Cool.

Our friends Marshall and Nona put us up for the night. We almost killed our bassist, Chris, by giving him tea made of Douglas Fir. I guess he is allergic to pine. Luckily we discussed the tea’s ingredients right before he actually took his first drink. You’d think pine would be easy to avoid, but no: when it’s not pesto or Christmas, it’s fancy tea. Too bad, Chris. The tea was delicious. So was breakfast, wow. What great people. Here’s a shrine that’s in Nona’s house and a picture of Gary by Marshall’s sunflowers.

Friday, Sept. 3. Dubuque, IA. Monk's Kaffee Pub.

2010-09-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Dubuque, Iowa, is beautiful, we had no idea!

Three or four music friends had recommended this venue, Monk’s Kaffee Pub, in town, so we decided to spend an extra day in Iowa to check it out. We took a ride in the elevator cable car—the steepest in the world!The cable car station has an elf exit (we didn’t ask).

The town is full of beautiful brick buildings. We visited a chocolate shop and a funny duplex that was home to a gift shop and an antique shop, each half run by an elderly woman, at least one of whom was cranky (she yelled at me for taking photos). But her antique shop had a fascinating obsession with the alphabet! I got a dozen photos anyway, and a video of a funny “fountain” that I’ll post here once I have a minute to edit videos.

The town was having some kind of street festival called “All That Jazz,” though everything sounded like blues rock to us. We guerilla-flyered all the porta-potties and split back to the kaffee pub. The venue was a two-level affair with beautiful furnishings, including this comfortable-looking platform in a secluded corner.

Here's Bryan by this weird free-standing door that's behind the stage, in a hat he found behind the door.

The performance space was downstairs. We didn’t discover that our set was being broadcast live to televisions watched by the upstairs patrons until after our sound-check, when we were all goofing off in a big way. Oops. The show was fun. Two ladies were watching the set and drinking Irish coffees. One of them showed me a nifty t-shirt-folding trick.

We had a late-night drive to sleep at Bryan’s parents’ house in Decorah. So dark out, soaring bluffs and bright stars.

Thursday, Sept. 2. Iowa City, IA. The Mill.

2010-09-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning we all had breakfast together at a diner in Ames. Ron told intensely entertaining stories and Dave wore his sunglasses. Gary, who sells rare vinyl for a living, went and found a record store called Vinyl Cafe, where we met up later and I bought a tape called Generic Cowboy Poetry by Baxter Black. That place was cool, good coffee and a little listening booth for checking out the records.

Gary and Chris took off for Iowa City to hit up some more record stores and Ron, Dave, Bryan and I spent the day in Des Moines. The architecture in Des Moines is really beautiful. I spent the afternoon in a sci-fi looking library with coppery windows. Ron and Dave took a long walk in the sculpture garden, Dave taking photos of the sculptures under the dark cloudy sky while Ron made sketches in his little spiral notebook. Bryan was hoping to meet up with Chuck Hoffman to do some recording, but we stayed in Ames too long…next time.

Lots of coffee and some juice and then off to Iowa City, where we played at the Mill with one of my favorite musicians, Ed Gray. It was good to see Sam Locke Ward again, too. We had some good pizza and I was wishing I could sing along to Ed’s dark songs. Catchy melodies—when he’s not improvising feedback with his souped-up classical guitar—with cheerful lyrics such as my favorite line from the night, “The dogs that you feed scraps to are used to eating shit, and the sadness on their faces is only in your head.”

Great time that night and the next morning with our gracious host Jay Schleidt. We went to the Hamburg Inn for breakfast and bummed around on Jay's porch.

Dave Rabe of Ron Wax, and my band, Chris Bowling, me, and Gary Foster.

Me with Ron Albertson.

Everybody: Ron Albertson, Bryan Day, Ember Schrag, Dave Rabe, Gary Foster, Chris Bowling.

Wed, Sept. 1. Ames, IA. The Ames Progressive.

2010-09-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

This was the first day of the tour! It turned cool right as we left. The Ames Progressive is a rented office space in Ames, IA, thirty minutes north of Des Moines. The place is run by Nate Logsdon and his girlfriend, Kate Kennedy. Nate and Kate have been good friends of ours for a long time. Nate’s band, Mumford’s, an energetic rock band backing up Nate’s intricate, dark and creepy songs (with a horn section!), just got back from their own US tour with Utopia Park, and we hosted the first date of their tour at Clawfoot House just a month before. Our show on Wednesday was with Kate’s band Pennyhawk. Kate’s such a great songwriter, also pretty quirky stuff, with simple arrangements for her new band on guitar, drums, trumpet, clarinet, keyboard and one large metal sheet. The new song she played last was a riot.

Kate Kennedy

One of my favorite Lincoln bands, Ron Wax, played this and the Iowa City show the next night with us. They’ll join us in St. Louis and Columbia as well. Ron Wax is Ron Albertson, who started the band Liars in Brooklyn and plays drums in Mercy Rule, and Lincoln artist “2-Finger” Dave Rabe on drums. It’s a minimal punk/swamp blues duo, but they always try to get the whole audience to join in somehow. Ron Wax played that Mumford’s/Utopia Park tour kickoff show at Clawfoot House on July 30. Ron played his song “Clawfoot” for the first time that night, and all 11 or so of the hyper Mumford’s and Utopia Park guys joined in the music until the punk rock house show was broiling. That Clawfoot House show was, as Ron would say, fucking rock and roll, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to follow it in Ames a month later. At the Ames show, at first, I wasn’t sure anyone was even going to stand up to hear the band; the audience was shyly nestled into the couches far back along the walls. But before I knew it, Dave was unzipping his roller suitcase full of percussion, tossing tambourines at people and rolling plastic egg shakers held together with electrical tape along the floor to rest at the audience’s feet. After a minute I was playing the old upright piano, someone was playing the organ, Gary joined on as a second drummer and my bassist Chris Bowling jumped in, too. The Mumford’s guys produced horns. After the music was in full swing, when I turned around from the piano bench to look, they were playing their horns and rolling on their backs on the floor like the croquet flamingos in Alice and Wonderland. I was playing the piano so hard that Chris’s keys, a pack of cigarettes and a few other items that someone had set on top of the piano would periodically fall down onto the piano in front of me. At the time, though, I just thought someone liked what I was playing and was throwing me gifts! I actually couldn’t hear a thing I was doing on the piano since I was right behind Dave, who plays two drums hard with a mallet in each hand, until his remaining fingers blister. And Ron who sings and plays guitar: that guy. You’ve just got to see Ron Wax.

Ron is also an amazing printmaker. He made the tour posters and the t shirt design, check it out.