Part 4: Rim of the Chasm

(Note: Unfortunately it has been months since I've worked on this tour spiel. I hope I remember some details. I have some stuff written down from the tour, but not much.)

We got to Galion around 11pm and after dropping Mark and Aaron at the Stepro's, Tim and I checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Bucyrus. Despite the knowledge that looking for an alternative to Boone's Farming under the Bucyrus water tower with the town's three homeless guys at 11:30pm is a lost cause, the Horseshoe Bar provided a different yet equally depressing scene. Instead of music playing, the Blue Collar Comedy Show was blasting from the TV that was being ignored by the bartender and his four patrons. The patrons, 1 woman and 3 men, were engaged in an insult barrage that involved the guys ripping on the gal for being a whore. Awful. She claimed to have known the guys for 18 years told and us that "it's alright." If this in fact were true, that she hasn't escaped their abuse is a sign that maybe she now needs them as much as they need her. Sad. Tim had an Easton, I had a Michelob and a shot of Beam and we left after twenty minutes. Back to wifi and cable TV.

This was the portion of the trip where Tim, Aaron and I would be without cell phone service. For whatever reason, there is no AT&T service in Bucyrus. This was really annoying but in the grand scheme of things was fine, really. We had work to do and the more we removed ourselves from society, the better. We agreed to meet at Baker's Pizza at 2pm Monday to start

in earnest. It was very Let It Be/Twickenham in its cold, cinderblocky feel. That first day we got off to a slow start on account of some band having ripped off most of the club's PA gear when they played there a month before. Once they went out and bought new mics, mic stands, cables and speakers, everything worked great. We worked until 11pm and had gotten a substantial amount done. M & A went back to Galion and Tim and I settled for more cable and internet in the room. After our experience at the Horseshoe the night before, neither of us wanted to "go out."

The next day we drove to Galion to pick up the boys, got back to Baker's around 2pm and immediately started rehearsing. There was some great pre-production being done and we all seemed to feel good about the songs and their arrangements. So over the course of the two

days, we arranged and rehearsed all of the to-be-recorded songs and as a trial run for the new material we included them all in the set at Baker's that Tuesday night. In fact, we played two full sets of music at that Baker's gig. Porcupine and the new material makes 20 songs and then all the other stuff we do made probably 30 band tracks plus some Easton solo. There was a pretty good crowd assembled for a Tuesday night. Some strange man from Easton's

past bugged the shit out of everyone at the show and ended up annoying Tim so badly Tim fled the nuisance before we had even broken down our gear. Thinking Tim had left the venue for good, the freak ended up waiting for us in our hotel parking lot to "hang out" after the show. Absolutely no bueno. Aside from his crazy ass, it was a good night.

I must say that the folks at Baker's were very hospitable, generous and wonderful. They provided an invaluable service to our band, giving us the means to be as productive as we could be during the week leading up to our studio sessions. It was exactly what we needed, except for maybe portying with hookers and cocaine in a swank Chicago penthouse for five days, but whatever. These rehearsals allowed us to go into the studio in Nashville and crank shit out! Breck, Petra and everybody else's generosity will be indelibly stamped on the project. Our music is a transmission from the depths of the Buckeye.

The next day was spent casually working our way out of that Mid-Ohio quagmire. We were hauling ass southbound on some state highway until a detour caused us to have to backtrack and take an alternate route to Columbus. While there was quaintness in each small town we passed through, I was about done with quaint. I wanted to be able to use my expensive phone-puter and I wanted a decent meal. We were to play the Rhumba Room that night and we hoped it would be a doozy.

Easton rocked an interview on the Rhumba's back patio after loading into the club. He played a song whose title I can't remember but it's somewhere on film out there. There was a police car siren going off in the area during the end of the performance that was in tune with the song...pretty neat. Matt Hoover and ALT opened the show with solo performances of their songs. There was a crowd in the joint by the time the FB went on and that certainly inspired us to play a great show. It sounded great on stage and the concergoers were into the jams, especially the new ones. I got a little hammy-time and we crashed at Haley's late in the morning after reviewing the evening's events, etc... Much thanks to Haley, Christian, Bob, Angela, Dave and all the party people who came out to see the band. I told you I can play!

After some Yeah Me Too we hit the road for Louisville. This was a big show for me not only because I have always wanted to go to Louisviulle, but I was playing a show with my guitar hero Peter Buck! I met him backstage and he was really nice, as is everyone in Minus 5. We all discussed the new Beatles remasters and upon hearing Buck's opinion of them, I realized just how old the guy is. He was talking about having purchased some reissue series in the early seventies and comparing them to how the original pressing sounded. As a tremendous Beatles fan, this was beyond even me. There was also discussion of the pros and cons of bands playing yet-to-be-released material at shows and whether or not it is a screw to the audience. This was what we'd be doing with Easton's material that week and I likened it to REM having played their new album at Stubb's during SXSW a couple of years ago. Pete appreciated that.

The Louisville show was a little strange because the show took place in a church

basement/cafeteria and the greenroom was the former rectory. It all went fine I think. No, wait. The opening guy played too long and compromised our set length. Lame. When it was

all over, we tried to find some nightlife. Bardstown Road in Louisville seemed great but we had to wade through one crappy bar choice before we were able to find a good one. Cheap beer and good grub. It was the night Megadeth was on Jimmy Fallon. The metalhead bartender turned off the stereo so we could all listen to their performance, which was good. It was cool to see a metal band on network TV. Easton hustled pool and won a bunch of money off of an ex-bowhead and the frat boy meal ticket she carried around. After the bar, Easton bought us 40s with his pool shark earnings and we drank them in the parking lot of the junior high school where all the dudes from My Morning Jacket met in eighth grade. This left more than enough dough for Easton to put us up for two nights in some swank digs near the airport in Florence, KY. I don't remember the drive back to the hotel from Louisville because I was passed out on the back bench. Apparently, Mark drove us like a badass through a torrential downpour back to our KY palace. Hopefully during my next visit to Louisville I'll have enough time to visit the Will Oldham Birthplace and the quarry where Oldham shot the cover of Spiderland.

The next show was a Friday night in the upstairs lounge room of the Southgate House in Newport, KY. This meant that we had the whole next day to relax at the Hilton. I walked over to Cracker Barrel for a delicious lunch where I wrote some of this here tour spiel. Tim found me there and together we searched drove the streets in search of a coffeeshop and a store where Tim could buy an eyeglass repair kit. After this thoroughly exciting adventure, we went back to palace to chill for the whole afternoon!

During our stop through Columbus, Sam Brown had given us the entire Beatles Mono box set! Thanks, dude! Our suite had an entertainment interface port, so I hooked my computer up to it and we listened to these crisp remasters through the nice speakers on the room's huge flat screen television. We were newly inspired by tracks we had all but forgotten about. Specifically, "Anna" off of Please Please Me. So good. We also spent some time charting out "Nobody Plays Piano In Athens, GA" in preparation for our date in the studio. It is a cool piano based song that Easton says he wrote and recorded on the spot. The demo is good but, oh, what we did to it in the studio! More on that later...

Upon Easton's demand, we ignored the liephone and free-formed it over to Southgate House from the interstate, getting there just fine. Once you stray from the directions, who knows which gasket will blow? Actually, there's a good chance it'll be mine, but I'm working on that. Load-in up a bunch a stairs, soundcheck, dinner across the street near the aquarium, opening set by the Billy Catfish Orchestra (dude with a guitar and a bubble machine). We had a great set and the people that came out were so nice, attentive, and supportive!

We were playing most of the new songs and they all went over really well. I was having a sort of bass drop-out issue which kept my mind half out of the game but I suppose that's how it goes. Back to our KY Palace. The next day was our double header, time-zone changing, move into the studio day. Oh Billy, Billy, Billy. This is a biggie.

Not only did we have to be in Lexington for our performance at an Oktoberfest celebration under a tent at 2 or 3 pm, but we had to get to a radio interview by noon. One of us lost his phone before we even left the hotel so we spent an extra thirty minutes tearing the van apart finding only that we had left Tim's merch at the Southgate House the night before. Sweet. As we bail on the phone and merch and jump on the interstate, the kettle started pressurizing as we began to see steam coming out of a couple Barons's ears. Then it happened. Twenty minutes down the road traffic comes to a standstill. Total standstill with nary an exit in sight. Trapped, late, hungry, tired, having to run off into the woods on the side of the interstate to pee and finding the van locked and your bandmates and the people in the surrounding cars howling with laughter when you come back...

it all came down right there. Sometimes in life and on the road, the moment comes where all of your problems are intensified making it seem like it's all gonna fall apart. Well, I reckon sometimes it does fall apart. Thankfully for the Barons and the rest of the planet, the world didn't end and we made it to Lexington. Yeah, we had to call the radio station and cancel our appearance. Yeah, the world probably did end for the poor soul who was driving that double tractor/trailer that crashed and spread its mangled fusilage all over southbound I-75. Yeah, our bandmate found his phone in his man-purse while we were sitting there idling on the highway. Yeah, we made it to our tented gig in a church parking lot. I tell you what though, Mountain Dew and Bratwurst have never tasted so good together as they did that day. So as to burn up the road towards Nashville, we broke down our gear and loaded the van as Tim finished up the set with some acoustic numbers. Got paid and splitsville.

I drove us to Nashville, listening to the Jicks and enjoying the beautiful state of Kentucky in a lovely afternoon sunshine. Our load-in at the Cannery was early-ish so there was no time to spare and thankfully we didn't run into much traffic. Though at one point when the other guys were asleep, we did come to a dead stop on the Blue Grass Parkway. I was in quiet disbelief that this could happen to us twice in one day but not ten minutes later, we were past the wreckage that had occurred on the other side of the highway. Rubberneck traffic was all.

We made it to Nashville right on time and loaded straight into the club, with some leftover heated tempers from the trying day. Our load-in/soundcheck was compromised by Buddy Miller who was using the stage to rehearse his band full of Nashville session fags. Acting a total stage hog, Miller stopped his crap with enough time before doors to let us set up our gear and realize how uncomfortable the scene was. I used the rented bass rig...some Trace Elliot bullshit that had PGPA written all over it. I felt like a wet cat up there. We soon found out that the monitor engineer was a complete idiot who on what must have been his first day at work, was given control of one of the most powerful sound systems in town. Bad bad bad. If you haven't been to the Cannery, it's a huge building. Really cavernous. And this worried us a little. It only accentuated the fact that we were playing so early that when doors opened, the only thing in the room other than crew members wearing fingerless gloves and Ziljian sweatpants were the restless ghosts of food packing employees from the late 1800's.

Thankfully, by the time we went onstage, a crowd had assembled and the show seemed to go off without a hitch. Maybe there were hitches, I don't remember. I just know that it was not a cut-loose last show of the tour. Before the last band had even finished playing, we were loaded into the studio over in Berryhill where we were going to record one of the best albums I have ever heard. Tim, Fredley (who happened to be in town), and I went by the Basement to see a show but it was packed, the cover was steep, and it had been a long day so Jim headed off to his hotel and Tim and I went back to Club Roar. We found Aaron and Mark absorbing the studio/warehouse vibrations (playing tunes on piano and guitar). For the next day, our first day of tracking, we had planned a twelve hour day. Jump right in. We were ready.

Solo Set at Club DeVille, 1/28/10

Last week I played a solo set of music on the indoor stage at Club Deville. Big thanks to the folks who came out to hear me! Gettin' up there and playing and singing is such a weird deal and I don't quite know how to explain why. I believe it was the fourth time I've gotten on a stage by myself and played my songs for people. From February 18 to March 13 at the Hyde Park Thater, my friend Joey Hood will perform a one-man play entitled The Athiest. I will go see this performance realize that what I do is easy! But I can only assume that as with many things, it gets easier the more you do it. And next week (February 11) at Club Deville, I will be performing another set of (mostly) originals. While last week I opened for Miranda Brown's new duo Basketball, next week I will be opening for a fellow named Collin Herring. We have not played a show together but I think it will be a fun night. I am particularly excited about it because my sister will be in attendance!

Last week's set was good because I played old Grand Champeen songs, yet to be released Grand Champeen songs, songs from my unreleased solo album and a couple of songs that are homeless. Here's the set:

Paper Rock Scissors (incomplete soundcheck aka I screwed it up)

Paid The Way

Drop Me A Line

Repeat the Answers

Cashing in the Dimes

Sister

Nine Years

I Am The Walrus

Flash In The Pan

On Your Own

Because of You

Haste To Mobilize

Bayonet

I Can't Help You

Color Me Impressed

Mighta Got Caught

Root and Branch

Pining For Verona

I'm gonna change up the set for next week. Play some different Champeen songs, different covers and another homeless tune. The tracks from the upcoming albums by both Grand Champeen and me will remain on the list. I guess I don't want to deliver the exact same performance. That's boring. Anyways, I have enough songs to where I don't need to.

Since my last post, I have started playing in Beaty Wilson's group Excited States which has been fun. I'm playing bass, Beaty's on guitar and Andy is on drums. I always liked his songs in Fivehead and those that I've heard in his projects since Fivehead was a fully functioning band. We've got about 8 songs floating around the practice space and hope to have more soon. I hope that we'll play a set sometime during SXSW.

I have also started playing with John Voskamp of Peglegasus and Ye Olde Castletons notoriety. He came to me with the idea of playing instrumental tunes as a happy hour group with him on guitar and his cousin Nate on an Ace-Tone keyboard. We got together once and it sounded cool. There's some potential there for sure.

I have also been jamming with George Duron. For that rock, we're playing songs I've written that are more on the aggressive side of rock. I want to mix Polvo, Drive Like Jehu, the Sea and Cake and Sonic Youth and I have 20+ songs that fall into that category. More to come in that department.

Hope to see y'all out next Thursday at Club Deville!

Getting Started

I have no idea where I left off and I didn't bother to look.

I do know that it's 7:40am and all I have to do is write, listen to Leatherbag, and drink the wonderful coffee sitting next to me. I purchased some beans roasted by Independence Coffee Co. and I have been quite pleased with them. I had been buying Ruta Maya beans for awhile and have been satisfied with them too, but I noticed they're kinda expensive and started to look for something else to try. So I went for another local brand and I recommend it. Two others I also want to enjoy at home are Cuvee and Owl Tree, both of which I've tasted and enjoyed outside of my control environment (home).

My most recent coffee-related mind melt was when I had a cup of Intelligentsia coffee at Frank. This coffee isn't roasted in Austin but it is incredibly delicious and I've been thinking about it everyday for a week. While extremely impressed with what I tasted, I think I'm onto what Frank's got going on. The quality of the beans, how they're roasted, which village they come from, whether the poor Columbian dude gets paid well or not for his crop, and other related farm-to-market efforts are factors that I believe are important when it comes to a cup of Joe. However, in the past 17 months of working on my album at Jim Fredley's house, I witnessed and executed one of the most important aspects of the cup of coffee: the brewing.

For a long time, I believed that the French press method created a superior cup of coffee. This is after I realized that regular drip coffee, while convenient and often tasty, had limitations to the beauty it can yield. But after dabbling in the world of French pressing, laziness soon led me back to drip and was soon unsatisfied by what I was drinking. When I again accepted that drip coffee has some major flaws, I started ordering the Americano (and still often do) and this turned my world on its ear. I started appreciating the espresso roast in a way I hadn't ever before (lattes, mocha lattes, etc...) and I started to appreciate a single cup versus a bottomless cup of drip. Because of the many variables of a coffeeshop's drip-delivery system, I have my doubts that any of them can deliver a crisper, hotter, tastier cup of drip than they can a cup of Americano.

Anyway, what I learned at Fredley's was a more labor intensive method of brewing yet one that yields a damn fine cup of joe. And like much of the finer things in life, Rome wasn't built in a day. So I went to Frank and they brew their coffee the same way we had been doing it at Jim's for over a year. And when I tasted that coffee, I knew that I had the answer. So now I have to go find the correct tools so I can make such wonder cups at home. I'm not gonna describe the simple process... you're gonna have to go to Frank and check it out for yourself. And grab some great food while you're there.

Part 3: Back East

Because of all the window business, we were totally going to miss our 2pm soundcheck at the Mercury. Really? 2pm soundcheck? Dumb. NYC can be dumb. We were gonna go by Dirty Bird ToGo on the way to the Merc but by the time we got to town we didn't even have time for that. We loaded in about an hour and a half before our set. The place was packed for AA Bondy (whoever that is) who had the slot right before The Freeland Barons. Though the room cleared out a bit while he and his backing band took way too long to break down their gear (not cool, douchebags), the Barons were back together and we delivered. Thanks to John and Amber for coming out. See you both soon!

Later that night in Park Slope, Tim and I were up until 3:30 getting our windowless van a spot at a nearby garage. I sat there and watched as it took the attendant nearly thirty minutes rearrange the cars to accommodate our huge van. The guy was a master and somehow made it all work. Fortunately, we had JP's sensory deprivation chamber to sleep in and we got a great sleep. However, Tim did have to get up and take the van to the shop but they had the thing finished by 1pm! Not only did it cost less than half of the other quotes but they had it done in no time! So after lunch, JP, Tim and I took the train over to Red Hook to get the van from the rascist mofo who owned the shop. On the way back to JP's we stopped by a music store that was next to some real-life mafia hangout. You know, the kind where the fat Paulies sit in chairs out front and talk about stupid/dangerous/illegal shit all day. Fascinated with the goombah life and aching to catch a glimpse, Tim stood outside as if he was admiring the architecture or waiting for a ride to try and hear their conversations. He caught one bit about how it's "better to do a down man than an even man." We each had our own opinion of what that meant.

It started to rain as we were packing the van before heading to Union Hall. Great, right? I must say the club was pretty swanky. The ground floor of the bar has a pseudo-library feel to it...what actually to me seems like a gentleman's club in Britain in the twenties or thirties. Hard-bound books on dark-stained shelves surrounding plush lounge furniture and an indoor Bocci court. Posh. While this is all fine and good, I was most impressed with the availability of Modelo Especial in a can for $3. The first band had finished their set and before we realized it, our set time was up. However, there was some discrepancy between our tour book, when the soundguy said we were supposed to start, and when we actually were up to go on. Since there were only a few people there, we went with the majority opinion and pushed the set back twenty minutes. This sent everyone into a tizzy (rightly so except for the sound guy, whose original set times we were obeying) and it seemed to piss off the Death Vessel, the show's headliner. Although the sound on stage sucked for me, I powered through and we did a good job. Aaron's amp was pointed right at me, blowing my head off, and I was using the backline amp was on stage and was being used for stand-up bass. For those of you who don't know, one must treat an amplifier differently for a stand-up bass than one would for an electric bass. Hell, there are a huge spectrum of variables for people that only play electric bass. Anyway, it was good. We were loud and probably played too long but we sounded good. Bartow and I got outta there pretty soon after we played because we wanted to meet up with Nurkin who was playing with the Birds Of Avalon at the Cake Shop that night.

Because of the rain, we went back to Bartow's hood and waited on Scott with some Lone Star beer (!) at SuperFine. We shot pool for awhile and wanted to hang there until closing but they closed the place down early on account of it being slow. Bartow and I got some beer and waited for Scott back at his house. He showed up and we stayed up to 5 or 6 drinking beer and scotch and broin' down. It's great to hang out with your old pals even if for less than ten hours. We ate at the Bridge Restaurant for breakfast and parted ways as the F train took them to Manhattan and took me to Park Slope. Back at JP's I tried to soothe my vicious headache with a barefoot and short-panted consumption of coffee and water. In a matter of fortunate timing, just before Mark and JP headed off in the van to some market in Red Hook, I looked at our pile of gear stashed behind JP's couch and noticed that my bass wasn't there. So I ask Mark the whereabouts of my bass. He doesn't know. I go out to the van and it's not in the back. "Where's my fucking bass!!??"

Realizing the guys left it at the club the night before, the three of us got in the van and went to Union Hall. Needless to say, I was furious that they had neglected to get my instrument. I understand not recognizing the case because we don't really know each others' gear. That being said, anyone who's had enough road experience in a band knows that when you pack the van at the end of the night, you make sure everything's there. Idiot check inside and back of the van checklist. When I knocked on the door at Union Hall that morning, I was greeted by a non-english speaking cleaning crew which only heightened my anxiety. The explanation of my situation fell on deaf ears but they finally wised up and fetched one of the club's gringo employees who led me downstairs to the venue. Praise be to the heavens, my lonely bass was leaning there against the wall just where I left it. I assumed that my Ric was in good hands when I left early with Bartow the night before but I guess I was wrong. Trust is a difficult thing to come by and on the road it's even more precious. It's not an "each man for himself" situation. While each new city and venue presents a new give-and-take scenario for band members' duties/roles, a general blanket of responsibility stays over the band: Cover your brother's ass. Bass was there. Total freak-out narrowly avoided.

I spent the rest of the day blogging or some crap. We were playing World Cafe in Philly that night so we weren't in a big hurry. It was raining that night (lame) just like it was the last time we went down to Philly from NYC. We were the second band of the evening...two show evening. Some blues dude from Austin played the early show and we were scheduled to go on around 9:30 0r 10, I don't remember. There were a handful of fans there and we played a pretty solid set. They had some good quality half-priced grub which was nice. I had managed to get through NYC without spending a ton of money and my luck was continuing. We drove over to Wilmington, DE to stay for free at Aaron's folks' house. It was the longest I'd ever been in Delaware, every other "visit" having been for ten minutes on an interstate drive-by. The evening rain produced a damp morning that made the trees and grass all seem lush and inviting. Too bad, because I got behind the wheel and hauled our asses up to New London, CT for the I Am Festival.

Tim didn't want to cross the Bronx and he was right for thinking so. The traffic sucked and held us back at least 45 minutes. By the time I was starving and had to urinate (read: done driving), we were in beautiful Connecticut, about an hour away from New London. That was a three to four hour drive that shouldn't have been more than three. Oh well. That's how it goes on I-95. When we got to the harbor about an hour before our set, we rolled our gear out to the end of the pier where our stage was. Pretty cool. Some funk-rock band was playing when we got there and as painful as it was, they were soon to stop. The scenery was awesome and the weather was perfect, all overcast and mild. We had a short set but it was good and the PA was loud. Free High Life backstage. The Drums and Free Energy played after us and both sucked. Both "bands" were pathetic and in my opinion, a waste of time. As usual, the kids love that crap and continue to surprise me with the willingness and ease with which the wool is pulled over their eyes.

It was up in the air as to whether or not we were going to stay in New London and party down with the locals or start the drive for Ohio. After a good time hanging out with some townies and a rad set by Deerhoof, we hit the road for Bucyrus. Thankfully I had

already driven that day because I was more in favor of partying and not in favor of getting behind the wheel. Our destination was the Delaware Water Gap, a picturesque stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. We got rooms and crashed hard at some place that served its purpose. We stopped for lunch in the nearby town of Stroudsburg, PA (photo left) where at a lovely restaurant called Mollie's, I had the best corned beef hash I've ever had. Truism. After some lolly-gagging around town it was back on I-80 for the long boring drive back to boring central Ohio. Back to the land of no AT&T coverage. Bucyrus, "Bratwurst Capital of America," Ohio.

Part 2: Sucks, Drags, and Smash and Grab

Our motel in Niagara Falls wasn't close to the falls which was a slight bummer for the guys. I, on the other hand, didn't care much having been there two or three times already. Both sides, at that. Our two rooms were next to each other in an otherwise vacant motor court. For our motel rehearsal of new material, we set up a stripped down version of our gear in the older brothers' room. "Maid of the Mist," "Dirty Windshield," "Until It Kills You," and "What Do You Live For?" were a few of the numbers. Mark took copious notes on structure and dynamics that would no doubt come in handy down the line. We had a lovely Italian dinner at Michael's on Pine Avenue. Any time you're in the Niagara Falls area, I recommend eating anything with red sauce at Michael's. Alpha Dog was on the tube later on. Scary film about idiot kids in California. Man, that place seems f'ed up, I'm glad I didn't follow the desire I had to move there back in 1994. Who knows, though? Might have been fun.

We left ALT at the motel (because he didn't have his passport) and headed for the border as a three-piece. Our crossing was painless and we made it to The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto by 5:30. After a slight miscommunication with Brian the Front of House Knob Twister, we sound-checked and all was smoothed out. The first two acts on the bill were ok, the second of the two being the only other band on the bill I liked. Aside form "Daily Life," our set was mainly Porcupine, much like the ones we played at SXSW. At the end of the set, we decided to load straight into the van from the stage. Only problem was that some crackhead motherfucker broke into our van by smashing the huge window next to the first bench.

Thankfully, the club owner caught the asshole in the act which prevented him from totally cleaning us out. As it stood, the theft of his satchel with passport, phone, ipod, the previous night's charts, and other personal belongings left Mark the primary victim. The alleys and streets of the neighborhood behind the bar were combed with hopes that the thief gave the bag a quick rifling through and ditched it in the bushes. Our search was unfruitful and after patching the window with cardboard, loading the gear, using all of our drink tickets and hanging out with the friends and family who had come to see us (great to see you Tyler and Megan!), we headed back to the border. With a U.S. driver's license in his wallet and a tattoo of the Ohio state burgee on his forearm, we had confidence that the patrols would let Mark back in. Correct in our beliefs, we soon had the merciful guards behind us and were back with our estranged bandmate at the Roadway Inn. A damn sucky experience that ruined a great show. The gear was loaded into the rooms and with that Christmas Eve anxiousness, it took awhile for the kids to fall asleep once they went to bed.

The next morning (four hours later), Tim Got up at 8am and started calling auto glass replacement services. In Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Albany, we couldn't find glass and labor for less than $550. Ouch. Tim called JP down in Brooklyn who started the search for glass while we were hightailin' it to the Mercury. The long drive across the state of New York wasn't nearly as bad with a cardboard window as I thought. And I am always impressed with how beautiful a state it is.

Part 1: All The Pretty Girls Turn 40

Sitting inside WalMart is not awesome. However, knowing that the van has had an oil change is awesome. This stop also allowed us to get supplies like CD-Rs and legal pads. Once we gas up, we're heading off to Niagara Falls, NY for a two night stint at a lovely motel where we're gonna set up camp and work on arrangements for new songs. But let me back up...

Saturday night was quite interesting. My plane landed in Columbus @ 5:30 and I promptly took a cab to the house where Tim was going to play a private gig. The hostess and party throwers were very nice and hospitable, considering I didn't know them from Adam. They had built a stage in the backyard and set out hay bales for for theater style seating. A great crowd assembled for Mona's 40th and for them, Tim played two hefty sets. Actually, the first one was 30-40 minutes long but the 2nd was behemoth. Cuz was pulling out all sorts of tunes, specifically J.P. Olsen numbers from way back. This only encouraged him further that we should record "Crazy" in a couple of weeks. The revelers wanted me to play with Tim but by the end of the first set, I was in no shape to do that. I enjoyed myself thanks to the lovely Columbus evening provided me by Mother Nature and the extraordinary hostess Haley. They had an air mattress for me when I crashed at 3+am.

We had an early van call and ended up leaving Columbus around 12:30pm. We had to pick up the Crate combo amp Parker so generously loaned to me/us. We also had to get our tour vessel from Sam. Our fart box is the Sun's old van, a grey E-350 not unlike the 'peen van.

We barely managed to iphone it to Galion to pick up the rest of the band, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Mark Stepro. We were on a tight schedule but made it to Nelsen Ledges State Park despite the absurd AT&T blackout in Mid-Ohio. Tim claimed he could get a signal in the Middle Of Nowhere, Alaska which makes one wonder why it's impossible to get a signal north of Columbus. Midwest dark ages with a side of sauerkraut.

The benefit we played was for National Autism Awareness. That's a great cause, I think, because of the complex issues austistic people and their loved ones/care givers face everyday. What I don't support is the jams the band before us was dishing out. Jam bands. Blargh. The stage, setting and PA were all very nice and allowed us to have a great first gig as The Freeland Barons. We rocked out the majority of Porcupine and got sonic on a couple of songs. The Daily Life sounded good on its maiden voyage. Get What I Got worked ok for being so complicated. Joy was fun.

Dr. Ralph Stanley played after us and it was quite nice. He just stood there and sang some songs while his band of Christians did all the work. Ralph sang "Oh Death" acapella which was touching until he forgot the words. Oh well, the guy is 82 and deserves as much slack as he wants. After waiting and inordinate amount of time waiting for Donna the Buffalo to play, we got bored and took off down the road towards Buffalo. The decision was made to find rooms in Erie, PA so we headed downtown to see where the action was. Turns out there wasn't much action in plain sight so we headed into The Docksider Bar for a brief respite. Bad idea, for it was Karaoke Sunday the The Docksider and the singing was atrocious. So we had a couple First Night of Tour beverages and found a room at the Tallyho-Tel on the interstate. No luck in finding The Wonders' Memorial Practice Space. Maybe next time. The next morning, it was off to Niagara Falls, NY.

Music Month

Yesterday I worked my last bartending shift for nearly a month and happy about that I truly am. Not because my job sucks but because I am going on tour with Tim Easton again. Also at the end of the tour, we are recording in Nashville for five days. Yes hell! I'll be playing my first gig out of the country (Canada) and will play my first gigs in Brooklyn and Louisville. We'll be playing on World Cafe which will hopefully be more lively than Mountain Stage. One of our shows is with Ralph Stanley and another is with the Minus Five (Pete Buck!). Our gig in Nashville on the 19th is for the Americana Music Association conference which should be fun. I already know that a couple great friends of mine will also be in town that week. Recording and partying will be the M.O. It'll be like making Van Halen II or Rumours or something. Partytimes!

We will be playing in Georgia on the 25th, driving my ass back to Nashville to fly home on the 26th. That night I will practice with Grand Champeen in preparation for our gig the following evening with Birds of Avalon and three days later with Prescott Curlywolf. Then that Friday, a 3/4 Freeland Barons will play at the Scoot Inn. The Freeland Barons is the name of the outfit that is about to tour with Easton, including Easton. So between September 1(today) and October 2 (Scoot Inn), I am playing music and traveling. Jealous much?

Right now, I am at Pocketchange Studios with Jim, working on the mix to "Nine Years." After listening to last week's mix of the song, we decided the drums and bv's needed a little attention. Last week saw the 99% completion of "On Your Own" which by the way, sounds incredible. I think we are both psyched about OYO turned out. So much so, that it will be hard to have to wait at least a couple of months before we can resume mixing in earnest. I think today we're gonna try to get to a couple other tracks done so we have a few to solicit in the interim period of no-mixing.

My gig at Flipnotics last week went well. I played twenty songs and feel good about all of them except "Cheap Therapy" because I forgot its words. I thought my cover of "Gardenia" was good and the impromptu version of "Angels' Share" worked out. I'd like to thank all of the folks who came out to Flip's on that rainy night. I think I'd like to do it again sometime soon.