I’d forgotten what a cool town Columbia, MO was. And unfortunately, we don’t have the time to thoroughly remind ourselves this time around. We played a show, caught a show, got breakfast and raced on, much to my chagrin. But tis how things work out sometimes.
Rowan’s in town too – and it’s sort of strange to think that the LAST time we were in this town together we dressed up as the Blues Brothers and played a general store (alas, this time around I didn’t get a response from Rocheport and though our audience paid a higher ticket price, I don’t think it was much bigger this time around while Rowan played to quite easily a hundred times the number of people we last played to last time). We played at Lydaco Concerts at Unity Church of Columbia, MO to a GREAT audience – some wigglers, some writers, some dancers – all very supportive. We’re in danger of being completely out of merch at this point and the night ALMOST finished us off (Mara’s mailed us more CDs, probably destined to hook up with us tomorrow in Belleville, IL). We were opening for a local artist named Noah Earle who Susan has long extolled the virtues of. He’s been the soundtrack of many a late-night drive back from a Saint Louis gig – seeing him in person was totally different : a laid back, charming persona, tales of his new “beautiful” donkey, Life on his farm and Life as a past-tense ruffian. Songs about his family and made up tales of different Lives – I really, really liked Noah. He reminded me strongly of a friend-of-a-friend named Chris Whitley, with strong, rhythmic guitar-picking and a beautifully facile, soulful, HONEST voice.
OUR stage – setting up at the Unity Church in Columbia, MO for our show with Noah Earle! Warming up for the show by torturing the cellist.
After the show we loaded up and made our way downtown to where Rowan and the Carolina Chocolate Drops were performing at the Blue Note, a big, beautiful cross betwixt theatre and bar just made for the kind of energy the CCDs exude. With the addition of Rowan’s energy they’ve become one Hell of a dance band, throwing tradition down on top of throbbing bass grooves. We stuck around through to the last song before heading back to our hotel. As with my last experience with the Chocolate Drops it’s bittersweet – I’m SO proud of Rowan and he really shines with them. He’s more in his element with the musical styles and he has opportunities far beyond anything we’re EVER going to be able to give him. But I’m a little bit jealous. Maybe a LOT jealous. The huge crowd, the energy, the freedom that comes with being able to devote ALL your time to your craft. Seeing how much the band has grown since we saw them a couple of months ago at the 9.30 Club and knowing that that’s what can come when you can just FOCUS is combining with the Love of the West and this tour to make me want a change…
This morning we got up in our venue-provided hotel rooms and joined Susan for breakfast. Not an easy task in downtown Sunday-morning Columbia, MO – but we actually NEEDED the additional table time as in between conversations we nailed bookings, dealt with DOUBLE bookings (cause sometimes you’re booked but nobody tells you), rescheduled sound checks and signed up people on the mailing list. If bookings ever worked with everyone on the same page my head would simply explode, I’m sure. As it is, today’s show in Defiance, once planned to be the only show in Missouri, is now probably overkill. Still, a show out on someone’s deck in the sunshine, playing with friends, it can never be a bad thing, right? Except I just KNOW we’ve been diluting our advertisements, spreading thin our message… I feel really alive when I’m multi-tasking, but yeah, I might be a little spread thin right now.
Also – had high hopes of introducing Rowan to the City Museum tomorrow – but have just found out that now they’re closed on Monday and Tuesdays and we won’t be able to do that – disappointment is not TOO strong a word.
I feel that mentally, I generally do pretty well on the road. I adapt well to the time zones, I like meeting people, I survive pretty well sans a lot of alone time – I LOVE traveling – and I’m relatively organized. But this morning was ROUGH. I woke up and totally had no idea where I was. The hotel provided by the venue last night was pretty dark and there were NO clues in my environment. In addition, for once we all separate beds (Heather had a whole other room) and as I came to I had the absolutely adrenaline rushing panic of having positively no idea of where I was. I think it took me a good minute to orient myself and much to my chagrin, by then my heart was pounding.
Ugh. I’m assuming this is a fluke brought on by specific circumstances – I’d hate to think I was getting NOT good at this…
