My thumb feels like Hell. I’m not sure if we’ve been playing MORE than normal (thinks about it – last mon played nashville, tues a radio show, wed Pop’s Blue Moon AND Stagger, thurs the Stable, Fri St Charles AND the Shanti, Sat LOTS of the Stagger… Mon the Blue Fugue twice and a radio show, last night we played a healthily long show at Westport Coffeehouse… that seems about right) but I’ve got cuts all over my thumb and my Slap Spot is actually sore and was a little bit bloody last night. Maybe with Rowan I play a little bit harder and I guess I tend to do less finger-picking and I do more of my signature slap-frailing… (frap? I frap the guitar? I most probably don’t slail it. Though there IS appeal to that word I think it needs to have some fiercer consonance to it)… in any case, I’m a little burbly this morning, but I’m trying to contain it.
The Duck Tape Duo Trio Quartet performing at the Stagger Inn in Edwardsville, IL. It was a great show and it was cool to watch them go at it. Killer songs, fun, eclectic sounds. Marcia lends alot with her percussion toys, shakers, vibraslap, kazoos and whatever else she can lay her hands on.
I must admit, it’s rare that I feel I’ve just TALKED TOO MUCH, but last night I feel like I wasn’t good at containing my verbosity. I mean… not for the stage show, I actually think that Rowan and I perform very well together and my stories are not obscenely long and that the pacing of what I’ve got to say on stage has been pretty good… but oh my GOD, staying with Rowan’s friends here in Kansas City has been an excercise in getting words in edge-wise around my never-ending mouth stream.
I think that perhaps today there will be no coffee, no chocolate-covered espresso beans… no Barq’s root beer. It would be better for all involved.
Rowan and I are currently at the most West point of our current tour-leg, Kansas City, a surprisingly beautiful town. I ache to explore it more, but also ache to sit still. If we’d been smart we’d have spent more time here, less time in St Louis. The latter is a land of bars and river traffic. It reminds me of Baltimore with a more linear port-of-call and more beautifully-decorated taverns.
Our new friend Aaron at a Radio Shack somewhere betwixt St Louis and Kansas City. I’m glad to see that geeks and music Lovers cross paths everywhere across the country. He was friendly as Hell and made us feel liked by someone working in retail, which is damned rare as-is.
Staying in Columbia, MO with Firedancer and her gigantic malamutes. That dog there outweighs me by 50 pounds. My God. Huuuge dog.
And there are two of them. That’s about 3 robs worth of seal-hunting dog. A rob IS a standardized unit of dog-measurement, btw.
And I Love them in all their doggie glory. Sleeping there was a bit weird. They were contained in their own room and sort of scratched and pushed at the door… you could tell they were merely asking permission since they could’ve just shouldered the whole door-frame aside. I had dreams of fur in my mouth all night and being eaten by wolves.
Last night we played the Westport Coffeehouse, where Heather and I played returning from SXSW earlier this year. I hadn’t realized it was the same place until the last second and was kind of disappointed to see no-one that I’d known from our last visit. Still, we made new friends – including a guy sitting behind the same model laptop I used to have who was IMming with friends – the conversation apparently started with “I’m at the coffeeshop and there’s this really loud, annoying band. Think I might leave soon.” After about half an hour of no conversation, his online friend asked if he was still there and he responded “Actually, still here. They’re actually really good!”
See, if people just give us a CHANCE!!!