Hey folks,

So I wrote one of my usual long winded tour blogs of how the winter tour down to SXSW went and then it got lost in cyberspace. I was so bummed out that I didn’t bother to re-write it. These things get long winded so I think instead of outlining each show I’m do a more general overview.

South tour which took place from about February 28-March 23rd or so…

I started this tour out solo, and I have to make a confession, I got in a minor fender bender before I had even left the Somerville city limits. I was slightly tapped on my rear by a car, well I was rear ended, but it caught me off guard and I went slamming into the car in front of me. It turned out to be a hit and run but three cars stuff around to deal with the damage, in my case my front radiator grill had crumbled, which doesn’t affect the car running but does look ghetto…I thought it must be a sign, that I shouldn’t go on this tour. Considering the amount of back pain I have experienced this fall and winter and my general state of mind towards the music business I seriously considered just turning around and going home. But I had over twenty shows booked and didn’t have the heart to cancel them all. So I put some of the crumbled pieces in my backseat because I didn’t know what else to do with them, and then I drove to New Jersey for my first show…

Needless to say I was pretty shaken up by that experience, I drove in complete silence all the way to the show (a good six odd hours) because I wanted it to sink it that something really weird had happened as the beginning of a tour that would last 3-4 weeks. The first show went OK, a friend of mine sent me some roses and a nice poem that was delivered to the bar. I was quite moved by the gesture as I rarely get things like that, so I tried to look at the flowers as an offset to the fender bender…

What changed things was that after that first show I bought a GPS, which i highly recommend to any people that travel a lot, it helps immensely not to be reading mapquest direction while driving, which is quite frankly dangerous…I had a really good show in DC where my relatives and some friends came out, good turn out, good response, sold cds, it was all going pretty well. The next day I headed to Charlottesville, VA and played at a hookah bar which was pretty interesting. It was quite the cool hippie spot and folks drank beer, smoked hookahs, and ate grape leaves or whatever.

The next day I had a really long drive ahead of me. Like 7 hours. And about three hours into it my car started acting strangely. I wondered if it was because of the fender bender and my radiator acting up. Either way the car practically died when I pulled it off the side of the road. Some locals took a look, they all seemed to be mechanics, I was in rural West Virginia. I got the car back on the road and within an hour it died again. This time I called triple A and waited for the tow truck. I was pissed off and sort of scared to be alone, then and there I vowed not to tour alone anymore, it’s just too unsettling. Luckily I have friends in Charleston, WV who set me up with a garage to fix the car, a place to stay, and made the whole ordeal a lot easier. But I missed my show that night and had to pay for a car repair so it was a set back. I also resolved to get a new car when I got back from tour (which I did…). The tow truck driver was quite the character, he diagnosed that it was my alternator that had died. He also told me about how he had been writing a science fiction novel for the past four years. This came up when he saw my license plate from Maine and asked if I was a Stephen King fan. His novel is about a bug that swims in some sort of genetic weird goo and then injects people with it and possess them. It all takes place in his small WV town, actually sounded quite good…

So at this point in the tour my moral was a bit down. I kept on going. I played shows in Bowling Green KY, Nashville, Knoxville, Chapel Hill, Wilmington, and so on and they all went OK and the car held up but I was a bit bummed out in general. I guess you could say I was finally having some serious second thoughts on having chosen such a turbulent career, and finding life on the road not to be so romantic. I did however see lots of great friends, especially James and May in Nashville, my great friend Mary Alice and her son Tenny and husband Rob in Asheville NC. My friend Vivian up in the hills of Penland. In general I had a good time. I even met new people in Wilmington that took me to play kickball and a beautiful sunny Sunday which was a nice change from being in a car. Then I had my birthday in Charlotte NC with a bunch of strangers, but that was cool, whatever, I’m kind of over the whole birthday thing where you just get older and it’s not like turning 13 or 16 or 21. it’s like just getting and feeling older…

Anyway, things changed when I picked up Steve from the airport in Atlanta, GA. He had gotten a sort of last minute showcase through his label and I went and picked him up to keep me company for the long ride down to Texas. And he was good company, with the exception that he can’t drive stick shift and was absolutely no help with driving. But he did spin the ipod and do all those things you do in shotgun. I played a show in Atlanta and one in Athens, both a lot of fun. And then we woke up early and hauled ass all the way down to New Orleans, walked around the French Quarter for an hour or so, and then played a gig that was completely not worth it, but we justified the trip because it is more or less on the way to Austin and the French Quarter and New Orleans are just beautiful and it was a nice stop on a 15 hour drive from Atlanta to Austin. We drove into the night after the gig down the long straight highway 10 that takes you down the coast of MS, LA, and into Texas where we got a hotel and crashed. The next morning we awoke early again to head to Austin where I had an afternoon show. We got there and it was sticky and hot. The show was at an anarchist bookstore and was supposed to have 4 bands, all of which had canceled, most of them realizing that hauling ass all the way to Austin for one show is not worth while, SXSW or not, so we played to a small crowd and then went to some weird bookstore and saw some weird back with a dude from Dinasaur Jr. in it, but there was free beer, and weird greeser 80’s hipsters, and then we went into town. I think that was a Thursday and SXSW was just getting into full swing. That night we met up with some friends. Saw the dudes from “Frank Smith” and ended up drinking beers outside their house later. Also saw Dana Colley and AKACOD folks and other random people that had made the long ass haul to Texas. The weather was sizzling the whole time. I sweat up a storm while I was down there. My fondest memory was of eating some really good mexican food at some little trailor place where you order it from a window and they make it behind them on a propane grill or whatever. There was a “drive thru” liquor store right next to the trailors of mexican food so we had a cold beer whilst eating an awesome taco or two. It was a lovely Texas experience.

The rest of SXSW was a blur and kind of crazy and overwhelming and all that, just like last year…I played 4 shows total, all of which were OK, nothing special, but kind of fun, I had one A&R guy actually take the time to listen to two of my songs. That was about all the excitement from my end. Let me just say this people: do not go to SXSW unless you have some good shows, because it’s a long drive, gas is expensive, and there is so much going on there turn outs are really sparse. But I at least did a tour around it. I saw a few bands that only did one show with no one there and I felt pretty bad for them. Steve and I went to see “Drug Rug” who had one show and got stuck with the last slot of a showcase and all the other bands played way too long so by the time it was their turn they only had time for 4 songs. Can you imagine driving over 30+ hours from Boston to Texas (one way) to play 4 songs and not get paid? It happens to a lot of bands there. Steve of course had a great show with Hydrahead and got paid and did well and lots of people and everything that makes a show worthwhile…

OK beyond the cynical stuff we went to the Vice Magazine party where all the LA and NYC hipsters were present turning Texas into it’s own Brooklyn. We went to a show where Elijah Wood was standing right next to us practically because apparently he has his own record label and was watching one of his bands…who knew…I saw some really crappy bands, a bunch of mediocre bands, and maybe a few good ones, it was overwhelming and annoying mostly. Oh yeah, and when I took a walk to get some fresh air on 6th street some army kids started harassing me and tried to get me to have a beer with them. They were really drunk and had recently gotten back from Iraq. The wouldn’t really leave me alone and were like “common’ get a beer with us, what are you too good for us?” and then one of them puiked all over the sidewalk and I finally had an exit plan. Run from the puik. Gross.

We got out of there on Sunday (I should mention that hydrahead got us a hotel 2 or the 3 nights we were there THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!) and drove as far as we could back towards Atlanta. We drove through Waco, Houston, Shrevesport, and ended up at a Motel 6 in Monroe LA which is a totally sketchy town. We wanted to take a walk but it was so ghetto looking we ended up going to a giant Wall Mart so we could walk around indoors with AC. Strange place.

The next night was st. paddy’s day and we had the night off with some friends and went to an irish pub. The next day we drove up to North Carolina where I thought I had a gig in Greensboro. Turned out it was Greenville…but we didn’t realize this until we were practically in Greensboro but the GPS couldn’t find it. We called the venue and found out it was another 3 hours away! But we went anyway. It ended up being a fun show and we played with this band “Ra Ra Riot” who have some buzz and were fun. The venue was cool too. The next day we bought Steve a new t-shirt that had an eagle and said “untamed spirit” because his other t-shirts stunk to high heaven. Then we drove to Charlotte NC again and played a show with a bunch of other touring bands all headed home from SXSW which turned out to be a complete waste of time. Then we went to stay with my friend Vivian up in Penland, a beautiful crafts school in the mountains, we took walks and ate good food, it was a great couple days. We played in Johnson City TN which was actually a great show. From there we headed to Louisville, Charleston, and back to MD where my mother now lives in Frederick, the last couple shows kind of sucked and I was ready to be done. It was easter and I had a nice dinner with my family who I hadn’t seen in a while. That is when I started to write the book that I’m now in the middle of…yes…a book. But I won’t say much about it, if you are really curious you can write me and I’ll tell you more. But that is about that for that tour….I drove home ,played at Smith College on the way, and got back and tried to chill out for a while, I had about three weeks before yet another tour…

Midwest tour in Spring April 16-May 4th

A few days before this tour a got a new car, or a new to me ar, it’s a Subaru Forester and I do like it. It’s a lot bigger and more comfortable than my old car. the gas milage isn’t great but i figure the space is worth it. I wanted to get a honda civic so I could get 40 mpg but i have a lot of stuff to haul around.

The tour started off annoying driving 10 hours to Cleveland, my first two shows were in Dayton and went really well, the first one especially where people really seemed to like what i was doing and buy cds and ask me to come back. Then I went up to Indiana and played a record store during “national record store day” I played right before a hardcore band, it was pretty hillarious, when the cops came because of the noise I got in my car and drove towards Chicago to go stay with my friend Marget. It was the foggiest night ever and the weather was pea soup outside of chicago. I got lost even with my GPS because of road construction. When I finally got into the city and found my friend’s place it was like entering a totally different world. She was having a dinner party with a bunch of her friends who were all business, lawyers, stock brokers, and such. I was definitely the odd duckling but held my own. It was a shabbat dinner but there were only like 2 jewish people there.

Anyway, the next day I drove up to Madison, WI with my friend Martha and we played a show at Cafe Momo, a cool venue. My friend Sarah came and it was cool to see her. We had a good time in general. Unfortunately the next morning we had to wake up early to get back to Chicago because Martha had to work but on the way out of the driveway I drove right into a telephone pole that was in my blind spot and quite literally in Sarah’s very narrow driveway. I cracked my tail light and was kind of pissed off about it but there isn’t much you can do. We got back to chicago and I took the car in for that and another issue i was having with a tire. Damn cars…even a new one…Then I played two shows there both of which were great. One was at a bar I play at every year that’s always fun and one was at a house show which was great. Then I drove out to Rock Island and played a crazy college club and stayed at a hotel across the border in Iowa. The next morning I went to the Salvation Army and bought a cool t-shirt and listened to Christian music on their radio, they were talking about this new thing where they “pray at the pump” because the gas prices are getting so high…i couldn’t believe that one…

Then I played a house show in Bloomington with some really nice people and then at the University of Illinois at Urbana which was cool and nice to see some old friends and make some new ones. From there I headed up to Michigan which is where I met up with Dave Lamb from “Brown Bird” and we toured together for a week back to the east coast. Playing shows in Ypsi, Lansing, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Kingston PA, Syracuse, Albany, and Montague MA. Of all those shows I’d say the highlight was Syracuse where we met some really great people who were really nice and treated us really well. It was a very fun time. Also enjoyed going to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in Cleveland. The shadow Lounge is always cool in pittsburgh. And Valentines was fun in Albany with some cool bands and a great breakfast the next day…

Montague Bookmill was the last stop. One of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in Mass. you must go. It’s a beautiful bookstore, resteraunt, bar, gallery, in Western Mass near Northampton and all those places. The show was sparse but the place was incredible and right on this river flowing by loudly, just gorgeous.

I got home late sunday night and have been back less than a week. I’m just chilling out for the month of May before heading up to Maine for the better part of the summer. I hope to see some of you before then and thanks for reading.

audrey