Mmm. Good Day.

That was a killer 24 hours. The madness of running up to Friday afternoon with a critical mass of adulting, the drive up and back to New Jersey to pick up the CDs, the non-stop hurtle that started two months ago with certain mom-stuffs and the completion RUSH to finish the new album all came to fruition on Friday, but there’s no real feel of SATISFACTION at that moment because it’s just … paper and boxes and piles and heading off to the next step.

Saturday Heather came over and we started the process of DELIVERY. We signed discs, made lists, double-checked credits and started emailing digital albums out to our 150 or so supporters. It’s a lot of drudgery, it’s a lot of cut and paste, it’s a lot of literal cutting, folding and packing. And then it was finally time to go just PLAY.

(that’s where the killer 24 hours starts)

The heavy weather on the east coast isn’t really a reason to not come to a show or to worry about turnout, but the press is blowing the Nor’Easter out of proportion for those of us who don’t literally Live on the coast. People called Dark Horse to see if we were still playing. Friends called from out-of-state worried about us. Clickbait articles showing pictures of flooding and coastal collapse have nothing to do with where WE’RE playing.

Friday things started to pick up. I got up, signed two last papers for my mother’s house (how are we STILL FORGETTING PAPERS?) drove to New Jersey and picked up the new album. It looks AMAZING and listening to it on the way home, it SOUNDS amazing too. For a little while. Then I realize I’m NOT ready to listen to ME again and I pull the discs and listen to Wil Wheaton read Ready Player Two instead. It’s a long drive, and I don’t generally DO the long drives anymore. Heather does. I sit and work, or look out the window, or read. Keeping my focus, especially with all that’s going on in my Life and in the world, is hard. I get the call that the buyer has signed the final papers and my mom’s house has sold – but honestly – I won’t believe it till the money hits the account. For once I’m grateful to be driving an automatic rather than a stick shift in the stop and go horrorshow that is I-95 on a Friday. I leave Disc Makers at around 1pm and make it home just after 4pm… and five minutes later the sale of the house shows in my mother’s bank account. Holy shit. It’s done.

We want to have the CDs available for Sunday’s Takoma Park Folk Festival, and we want to have our signed copies going out the following morning. Keola comes over and we get to work. Kristen organizing, Prince draft-excluding, me cutting, Keola signing since we won’t be able to get him at any of the shows this weekend.

It was a slow start. I had a little more difficulty with the sound than I ought to. But once we dove into the night, the riotous JOY that is Dark Horse, certainly amplified by inebriation, was what I needed. Just rage and play and release. Our friend AJ was the very first friend to get his CD. We stormed till midnight, and incidentally closed with Hands and I shoved a bit of Thunderstorm into that, too. We got home by 1.30am and to bed by 3…

Six hours later it was time to be up and at it again. Packing for the Takoma Park Folk Festival and driving in the driving rain. NOW the weather’s a little bit more serious but still nothing to fear. The TPFF has backup stages for everything and can simply move indoors. Our stage was the only one still outside, but the festival’s upgraded that tent and it’s absolutely solid even in the wind and the wet with space for the stage AND the audience.

At Dark Horse Saturday night in Annapolis, MD, AJ Finn gets the very first copy of “Let Us Show You How To End It”. He’s been one of our biggest supporters and a good friend over the past couple of years. We ALMOST share the same birthday, and crazily our Dads share EXACTLY the same birthday. He’s a force of chaos and I’m grateful for him.

Sunday the Takoma Park Folk Festival: My poor band has to get there early after a late night gig at Dark Horse because Rowan and Joey have to sign 150 CDs and I’ve been asked to MC the sole outdoor stage. It is cold and it is wet, but the music is incredible. Above – Strangers That Clique are sort of like our own local version of Brass Against, but with a focus on ORIGINAL songs, and they … are… epic.

The music is still great. I feel like I HAVE managed to leave the festival in good hands. But financially, this kind of rain is a little worst-case scenario. I spent plenty of time stepping in and making announcements in between bands and I mentioned how the rain cuts attendance, cuts the number of people giving donations, and yet almost doubles the cost of the rental of the school where the festival takes place as the school charges for each of the rooms separately. I no longer remember who it was but I remember after a gig YEARS ago someone coming up and saying “you spend a lot of your time begging, don’t you”. I don’t really know how she meant it. It didn’t feel good at the time. But it’s not wrong.

The festival is awesome, but things aren’t smooth. The first band put a hole in the house kick drum at “my” stage. The next band had their kick with them so we got THAT on stage and I took their set to tape the Living shit out of the head.

Smack dab betwixt Ammonite (who we met on this stage two years ago) and Little Red and the Renegades (who I met on IMT’s stage a year ago) ilyAIMy played hard and beautifully, sold a bunch of the new discs and generally cavorted. Special shout out to Dan Skeen who was running sound and who kinda waxed poetic about us afterward. I’ve got to send that guy a thank you note.

Man – Takoma Park WANTS to give money to thier musicians. Takoma Park Folk Festival hasn’t figured out how to do that yet. But if you’re smart, you can TOTALLY make the festival-goers pay you, you just have to have something to sell! The people who bitch about this being a free-to-all all-volunteer festival can shut the Hell up and go make their own event. This one remains a good one.

We headed home exhausted and wet.

So very wet.

Yeah, a good 24 hours.