It’s a cold night in Missouri. The first frost has fallen outside, sugar-coating the Saturn and the grass and windows outside. I Love the cold and I’m glad to have winter gripping me. I fear that Rowan is woefully unprepared but years of traveling through different climes has given me the foresight to pack my winter coat.
A monolith to people unable to wait to get home to listen to their music outside of a Best Buy in Belleville, IL.
The Troubadours of Divine Bliss playing at the Shanti in St Louis, MO. They are like a friendly, eclectic second-coming of the Indigo Girls and I Love them. And their hats…
And with the cold comes the glory of coming in out of it. After a long night, first playing the Blue Fugue in downtown Columbia and then moving up the street to play Jeff Wheeler’s radio program till 2 in the morning, the exquisite thawing that’s coming within Firedancer’s tiny, warm home is sublime. I can feel it working the edges of me into mush already, a welcome fatigue that might even signal sleep for a change.
Rowan and I rocking out at the Saint Charles Coffeehouse. Someone watching the webcast later reported that all throughout the show, Elvis was looking at my bum. Yup. Elvis is a bum-looker. (Photo by Jeff Wheeler)
Rowan and I performing at the Shanti in between Bliss sets. We’re from Hell, and that’s okay. Photo by Jeff Wheeler.
And their boots. Renee’s flaming boots don’t truly hold a candle to mine (pun intended), but it’s okay, it was a brand I looked at once… she’s got some learning to do and that’s fine, we all do…
And with the cold comes the glory of coming in out of it. After a long night, first playing the Blue Fugue in downtown Columbia and then moving up the street to play Jeff Wheeler’s radio program till 2 in the morning, the exquisite thawing that’s coming within Firedancer’s tiny, warm home is sublime. I can feel it working the edges of me into mush already, a welcome fatigue that might even signal sleep for a change.
I don’t know though – the Hooten Hollers still have me kind of riled. They were the reason I wanted to stay out late. Hell, they make me want to get up to all SORTS of things that aren’t good for me. I was blown away when I first met them over a year ago on a night when they hadn’t even settled on a name… now they’re practiced and well-oiled and still every bit as raw, passionate, the ferocity that pours off of them is like nothing i’ve ever seen. They remind me a bit of White Hassle’s instrumentation with the wild-eyed frenzy of Gordon from the Violent Femmes, fired from a cannon and through the mid-section of a drunken rockabilly band and right into the Sex Pistols in the midst of a cocaine binge.
Quite simply, one of the best things out there. Period.
