Well it seems like the trip to Austin just happened and in a few weeks I'll be packing things into my car again and heading east. This time I'll be traveling through the southwest, the midwest, north, and to the south - and then back home again. I'm always ready for a road trip and I'm so glad that things have come together the way they have - and hopefully I'll have a couple more things to add to the schedule.
Austin and SXSW were pretty amazing - so many things to see and do and also play the three shows we had lined up. We left LA Tuesday night and got there Wednesday night and met up with my partner from Nashville, Lauren Austin, and caught up over beers. The next day we rehearsed for a while and got ready for the first one out at Sam's Town Point out at the county line. It's a pretty cool and funky place and we had people there listening and it went well overall. Later that evening my friend Mikaela and I wandered around the downtown streets, enjoying some good Korean BBQ tacos and met up with several friends - a good night in Austin.
The next day we had an early show at the M&S Management show at Freebirds. We played out on the patio and thankfully the weather was nice. There was a good group of people there listening and eating and drinking and was glad, like I was for all the shows, that we got on the bill. After that we stopped by the very packed Bloodshot Records party in hopes of seeing Justin Townes Earle but the crowd was too much and we had to slip out of there. We escaped to the Sin City party over at Maria's Tacos X-press and the found the scene more to our liking. We met up with Todd Kivi, who had a table and we had the good luck to sit down and enjoy the bands. Soon our table was full of bottles of Shiner Bock as the sounds of the Mother Truckers and Mike Stinson took us into the evening. Later that night I saw a truly amazing show - Smokey Robinson at the Austin Music Hall. His voice was wonderful, the band was awesome, - a great storyteller and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand, I went away being very happy that I was able to see that show.
Early Saturday morning a storm came through that brought with it rain and cold wind and the temperature went from a pleasant 70 degrees down to around 38. I received word that our show at Uncorked, which was supposed to be outdoors, was thankfully moved inside. We played a good set in the warm atmosphere of the wine bar and we got a good response from everyone there - which is always a good thing. Afterwards we headed off to our 2nd Annual Feast at Matt's El Rancho on S. Lamar and feasted on some great Mexican food with margaritas. A little bit later we headed back to Uncorked to catch Austin Collins who had helped us get on the bill at Freebirds the previous day. Earlier there I saw a band called Annie and the Beekeepers who were pretty awesome - I bought a CD in fact. Austin Collins and the Rainbirds played a good set and I finally met him afterwards, after just being friends online - just like Mark Gonzales from M&S Management the day before. It was another good day in Austin and we ended it back at the house where we were staying, enjoying beers and talking about our time in town. The next day we all had to head back to our towns, LA for me, and Nashville for Lauren, Mikaela, Shane, and Nando.
The drive back starting on Sunday wasn't too bad really - I think it sounds worse than it actually was - 26 hours - ten of those in Texas - I left at 11:00 am and got home at 11:00 am. In El Paso I rested and had some BBQ which was awesome. Throughout the whole trip back I had a whole lot of coffee - so much so that I haven't had any since with the exception of one cup later that Monday night at the Cinema Bar just so I could stay awake and make it through my set - which seemed to be a better idea when I booked it weeks before than when I was there - but I made it through all right.
The only thing that was a bummer about the trip was hearing that Alex Chilton died on the opening day when there was already a huge buzz about the Big Star show that Saturday night. It ended up being a memorial tribute show with other singers coming up to sing songs and I really wanted to be there in the audience. Alex Chilton and Big Star were big influences on me and just about two weeks before I was listening to a lot of Big Star - (in the words of Paul Westerberg and The Replacements, "I never travel far, without a little Big Star"). I also loved his production work with The Cramps, which is where I first saw his name - that raw, garagey, noisy sound just knocked me out. His influence definitely lives on.
So - at the end of the month I'll be hitting the road again.
Here are the dates so far:
April 29th - The Cinema Bar, Culver City, CA
April 30th - The 51 North Grill, Phoenix, AZ (still to be confirmed)
May 1st - Gallup, NM (still to be confirmed)
May 4th - Oklahoma
May 5th - Magoons with Tracy Huffman and the Motors, St. Joseph, MO
May 7th - Pop's Blue Moon, St. Louis, MO
May 8th - BBQ house party, St. Louis, MO
May 9th - Uncommon Grounds on Clark St. with Arthi Meera, Chicago, IL
May 11th - The Basement - New Faces Night, Nashville, TN
May 13th - Norm's River Road House, Nashville, TN
May 14th - Foam beer and coffee bar, St. Louis, MO
May 15th - House Concert with Austin Collins, Austin, TX
I'm looking for some more shows on the way back from Texas or in the Oklahoma area on the way out.
I will also have my new Under Your Spell CD to sell which will also soon be available online through Itunes and Amazon.
so come on out if you can to a show
thanks,
yours truly,
Jeremiah
