The band: Alec Spiegelman on horns, Paul Dilley on bass, and Matt Meyer on drums
On March 4, 2010 another tour began. This time, we started in Ashland, Virginia. We played at a nice listening room called Ashland Coffee & Tea. The most impressive thing about this venue was the railroad tracks that ran right beside it. Periodically, our sound would be muddled by the sound of a train whistle and wheels whistling over the tracks. These train tracks run right through the middle of town and actually serve as a lane divider on the main street, to the dismay of one drunk redneck who decided to drive his truck straight across the tracks for a u turn. He got the wheels of his truck to straddle the tracks as a train was approaching. Luckily some observant townspeople noticed, ran down the tracks, and managed to stop the train from smashing into the truck. The also managed to convince the guy to get out of the truck. We dedicated “Train Ride to Caroline” to him during our set.
After the show we drove 2 hours to stay with our friend Jeremiah in Harrisonburg, caught the last few songs of a local rock band, passed out, and dreamt of our drive the next day through the mountains of West Virginia.
On our last trip this direction, we realized that our drummer, Matt, should not be allowed to drive through the mountains anymore. Route 33 is not a joke mountain road. 15mph curves are real. When you’re from Secaucus, New Jersey you don’t always understand that. No amount of honking and cursing will save you from driving off a cliff or getting nailed by a rockslide.
The Purple Fiddle is a venue in Thomas, West Virginia, population 404. There’s a brewpub, a breakfast place, an art gallery, trees, and mountains. It’s a magical place filled with backwoods stories, moonshine, and all sorts of mountain grown goodies. Thomas got slammed in the snowstorm this past winter. There were still 3 feet of snow on the ground and it was 14 degrees that night.
Sunday we returned to one of my favorite towns, Knoxville Tennessee. 81 South, alongside the Appalachian Mountains, has got to be one of my favorite highways to drive. Not too many cars, pastures with cows, afternoon sunshine, the prospect of going somewhere warmer…
We played at Barley’s Taproom that night and made our 7th appearance on the WDVX “Blue Plate Special” the next day. After the gigs we had Monday night off. Lucky for us, a bunch of music friends were in town including Pokey Lafarge & The Rum Drum Ramblers from St. Louis, and Ferd, the fiddle player from the Hackensaw Boys. (Yes, that’s his real name and it’s not short for Ferdinand. I asked). Ferd convinced the Hotel St. Oliver that it would be cool to have a jam session in the hotel library. Playing fiddles and banjos amidst priceless antiques!
On Tuesday we returned to JJs Bohemia in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We got into town early enough to get into the Bessie Smith museum. For those who don’t know, Bessie Smith was an influential blues singer from the 20s and 30s. The museum was honestly not worth the $7 we paid to get in, but I did learn that Janis Joplin paid for Bessie’s tombstone. Bessie Smith was righteous. Rumor has it she could fill the room with the sound of her voice, unaided by a microphone. I covered one of her songs on our live album, “Babydoll – I wanna be somebody’s babydoll, get my lovin’ all the time…”
Onward the next day we went to Lexington, Kentucky. We played a large venue called Cosmic Charlie’s. College kids that showed up for pint night eventually drowned out the fans that did come out to see us that night. The venue staff was friendly and they did send us away with some beer and put us up in a nice hotel, but damn that was one of the loudest, most unappreciative crowds we’ve seen in a while. The two drunk girls dancing up front slowly lost interest when we wouldn’t play “Fever” for them. (which, by the way, is one of the most requested jazz songs EVER, along with “Summertime” and possibly “Girl from Ipanema. Note to the public: these songs are also the most overplayed jazz songs. Jazz musicians are not interested in playing them anymore. They are good tunes, but they don’t need to be done anymore. You wanna hear “Fever”? My suggestion is to find the classic version of Peggy Lee singing it. Just play it on repeat on your ipod until you get your fix.)
Nashville has a tough scene to break into. There’s always a bunch of stuff going on around town and everyone there is either a musician or “in the biz”. Similar to nyc, you have to work hard to get people out, and most gigs are for tips. Nonetheless, we got a gig to the Family Wash in East Nashville, managed to bring some fans, and made a whopping $75. One of the highlights of the evening was eating the free sheppard’s pie they give to musicians who play there. Another highlight was playing an impromptu set at the Five Spot after our first show. I rocked the electric guitar and Paul on electric bass. So fun.
Friday night brings on the Flying Monkey in Huntsville, Alabama. We had our friend Rita (a.k.a. Hellen Keller’s Ukulele) open up with us as her backing band. Then Rita had an after party and we made a bonfire in her backyard.
Saturday brings a debut performance in a new city – Birmingham! We came to town, played a gig, and met our host for the evening. While traveling, I always like to follow the mantra “do as the locals do”. This is the only way you get the full experience. That night the locals were going to the Latin dance club. We arrived at 3:30 in the morning, which was fine, because they stay open until 8. I never even dreamed about a place like this. We were in Mexico. There was a mechanical bull. Birmingham, who knew.
Our Sunday gig was in New Orleans. We played at Bank St. Bar in mid city. Mostly in the audience were musician friends from Boston, also en route to sxsw in Austin. Sarah Borges & her Broken Singles made an appearance, as did Avi & Celia. Awesome finding familiar faces on the road.
Even better than our gig was busking in Jackson Square the next day. We got to play with a drunk Tuba Player and somebody named something Wildflower on the washboard. Then we ran into some friends from Gainesville, FL, also touring through town. We crashed their house concert and played a set. After the impromptu show, we went to a bar called Mimi’s and saw an awesome swing band. They had $3 glasses of champagne that night that were so fun they made me leave my wallet on the bar. I didn’t realize until the next day, when I tried to buy a Boudin sausage somewhere in the stix of Louisiana. Good sausage!
The next day we drove to Houston for our first gig ever in Texas. It was a Tuesday night at The Mucky Duck. Great venue and tasty food, but maybe playing the day before St. Patrick’s Day at an Irish Bar wasn’t such a great idea. The staff is stressed out from preparation for the big day, and the bar patrons are resting their livers.
And onto Austin, for South by Southwest 2010. This is the time Austin gets insane. 6th St, filled with clubs, music, clubbers, music enthusiasts, and add people dressed in green for March 17. It was weird. We played our first gig in a grocery store that day. The next day we played in the backyard of a vintage clothing store. Friday we played at Threadgill’s for a lot of people, and then the G&S lounge for 3 people. Saturday we played our favorite gig of the weekend, even though the temperature dropped to 45 degrees and we were playing outside. This was the Brooklyn Country Cookout, hosted by fellow new yorkers, the Difibulators. They rock. We also got to enjoy Lil’ Mo & The Monicats and Shotgun Party. It was a day of barbecue, beer, country bands and, well, us.
That night we drove about an hour south of town to play in San Antonio. This was a good town for us. The club filled up with people eager to see the band. They loved it and bought cds. I wish every new town could be this great. After the gig we made a 2am trip to the Alamo, and then a 3am trip to Denny’s, and then a 4am trip back to Austin because we had to play again at 11am in the morning in more 45-degree weather. We did get some props for rocking out despite the temperature. “Even better than I expected: Miss Tess & The Bon Ton Parade. Although I enjoyed the CD, I was expecting yet another generic nuevo-swing band. Au contraire. Miss Tess and her outfit offered up first rate songs, tight musicianship and an engaging stage presence, even under daunting weather conditions. I can still picture a windswept Tess gamely strumming guitar while her bandmates cradled cups of hot coffee in their frozen hands.” – KSYM Radio
Oh New Mexico! It’s been so long since I’ve visited your dry, crusty, cactus land. We came into Albuquerque and stayed with my cousin Bill. He cooked stuff with green chilies in it, and let us hang out in his sweet hot tub. We had the night off and went to see the movie Crazyheart, a story about a washed up country singer starring Jeff Bridges of the Big Lebowski. We came out of the theater to find one the van windows smashed in, next to a big pile of puke. They took one bag from the van, but luckily left the gps, Matt’s drums, a laptop, and a wad of cash. I lost my bag with a camera and was out $200 for a new window. Bastard idiot drunk. Can people stop smashing windows? It’s really annoying.
The next day we had two gigs. The first one was in the afternoon at a center for developmentally challenged adults. Talk about uninhibited. I’ve never seen such enthusiastic dance moves.
The last thing I remember about Santa Fe was getting my wrists tattooed. 5 circles on each wrist. Then I remembered the hostel where I once stayed. I thought it would be fun to have the band stay there. It might not have been the best choice. The staff was the most uptight hostel staff I’ve ever encountered in my traveling days. They seemed really stressed out. Isn’t a hostel supposed to be a welcoming bohemian traveler’s paradise? Not this one. The rooms were dirty and cold. Luckily our gig that night was smokin’ at The Cowgirl BBQ. Yeehaw.
Thursday was Denver, Colorado. This was an awesome day because I finally reconnected with my wallet, which had been chasing me around the country all the way from New Orleans. First it was mailed to Austin, but got there a day late. Then shipped again to Denver. Credit cards in tact but missing $150. That’s the last time I drink champagne at a bar. The gig was mediocre. We made $42.
Friday we got the luxury treatment in Salida. You know you’re in a hippie Colorado town when you can convince someone in a coffee shop to give the band post-show back massages. This was awesome. We played at The Salida Café and stayed with the booking agent. We found our second hot tub of the tour and vegged out underneath the Colorado sky. Life is really hard at this point.
We got up in the morning and drove on to Colorado Springs. These towns are so pretty, all set with a backdrop of snow capped mountains. Tap the rockies. We played the Front Range BBQ. Good eatin’ there. We found someone to put us up at the gig. His name was Andy and lives on a dead end street at the edge of a national park called “The Garden of the Gods”. We watched horses ride by his house on the way into the park, and went on a short hike ourselves. Beautiful.
Driving, driving, driving to Kansas City. So much driving I got a $150 Kansas speeding ticket. Tell me, how are you supposed to get across that goddamn state without speeding? It’s flat, it’s straight, it takes forever to get across, and racing trucks is one of the only forms of entertainment.
Late Sunday night we landed in Kansas City, which strangely enough, is in Missouri. We stayed with some of Paul’s friends in their amazing artist house. There was a life-size functional Operation (the game) table in their living room. This couple not only housed the band, but put together a kickass show for us at the Czar Bar, found a local band to share the bill (Alacartoona – KC Cabaret!), made awesome promo posters (check out Hector’s artwork www.hectorcasanova.net), and brought our all their friends our for support.
On Tuesday we drove to St. Louis. We played at BB’s Blues, Jazz, and Soups. Story is there used to be a hotel called Phil’s attached to the bar. It used to house a lot of drunks and druggies who would spend their days being barflies at BBs. The bar manager thought if they were gonna sit around and drink all day, they might as well eat something too, so they made big pots of soups and stuff, and served it to their clientelle for $1 per bowl.
We spent the night in the city of the big arch, then drove to Farmington, MO, referred to by some as the meth capital of Missouri. I have to say, we had a great show here. Our friend Tim, who runs a printing company called Unique Ink, sponsored the show and brought a great crowd. They also get credit for not only making the first sign for our band that was made of actual gold. Look at the picture, I’m not making this shit up.
Nothing like rounding off a month-long trip with a 1,000 mile drive back to Brooklyn to make our show that Friday. We rocked out at the Calamity Janes’ cd release party at the Jalopy Theater, back in our hometown. It’s very nice to get out the van for a spell.
Until next time…
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- Our golden sign made by Unique Ink in Farmington, Missouri
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- Bon Ton’s Cafe
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- Bon Ton’s Cafe?
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- The roadside bird
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- The Union Pacific
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- Colorado
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- New Mexico!
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- Broken Window
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- Dead on the horse
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- The mighty Alamo
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- Matty’s dream comes true
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- No peeing
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- Cheap thrills in Austin
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- Texas!
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- Boudin sausage
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- Nola!
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- Hmmm…
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- Somebody save us
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- Chattanooga
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- Out the window
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- Tourists
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- More touristing
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- Picture time
