June 25th, 2017.

*Before heading out from Belleville, IL on June 21st, 2017 we stopped for breakfast at The Abbey – good food – fun art!*

*Kristen setting up for our house concert in Columbia, MO, watched by the locals…*

We haven’t had much spare time on this trip – it’s definitely felt more like a “tour” than some of our other journeys – though nothing compared to the way the Chocolate Drops drove Rowan or the 15 hour hops that our friends the Novelists perpetrate, I’m very aware of only getting to stay one night in each town, play the gig, move on – not enough time for hanging out (or it comes at the expense of that most precious of commodities : sleep) , not enough time to explore, not enough time to write, to maintain, to shift.

Heather’s schedule really compressed us on both ends of this trip and so we really had to push things together to make it work and make the most of the seven days she was available, and our schedule lightens a bit after that – but not for long. I’m horribly aware of everything sort of smearing together and though we’ll probably get home before July 4th, we’ll be leaving again on the 6th for a short run out to Erie, PA and back. In addition my guitar is back to hating A-strings (which has me worried that it’s warping the bridge off again) and I’ve JUST come up with a new pack for the car that seems to give me an extra couple of inches of space AND increase stability back here, so less stuff falls on me during hard turns.

Ah, stuff. I think after this trip Heather will be retiring her djembe as it’s been mostly dead weight since Joey flew home, and she won an additional guitar at Telluride so we’ve got a whole additional instrument riding with us. It’s actually a really charming little Martin traveler (not a Backpacker, which is what I’d been assuming) but it doesn’t have a pickup in it (yet) so it’s pretty useless as backup instrument. Fortunately today’s show is at our friend Samuel Barker’s place and he’s got a pit of GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) so there will be plenty of spares for today.

*Aimee Marie McGovern kicking off a truly wonderful evening of music in her backyard in Columbia, MO on June 21st, 2017.*

The last couple of days have been late nights (not in the grand scheme of things, but still not getting to bed till well after 2am) and early starts (not, again, in the GRAND scheme of things but 8am alarms) and that, coupled with my typical insomnia means I’ve probably only been getting about 4 or 5 hours of sleep for the last week or so. I’ll be okay, but I’m a little blurry, a little moody. I try to counter for it by at least being conscious (haha) of it, but there are definitely moments where my attention simply SLIPS or my mental filter doesn’t engage quite right…. Foot in mouth disease has struck a couple of times over the past couple of days.

*The next morning, doing battle with the cat so in Columbia, MO.*

Still – the gigs themselves have been mostly good! There are three real chapters to this run – with maybe an epilogue to boot… Chapter One was the One with the Joey – leaving Maryland with our absolutely-puppy-eager tour virgin Joey Jenkins. One of his other bands had TECHNICALLY just popped his tour cherry the weekend before (ugh, see what I mean about the mental filter shit? I’m a terrible rob!) but it was really just one show up in New York City, he lost money and in general it sounded more weekend warrior than touring band to me… and so I vote that WE truly brought him his first tour as we departed Baltimore at noon on the fifteenth of June!

It always makes me nervous playing out without Heather, but Joey did a great job on percussion, even though he was stuck playing a slightly unfamiliar instrument (though we’d worked on it a bit, his first instrument is definitely kit, with cajon coming in second – the djembe was definitely a little unwieldy). He filled in with singer/songwriter duties as well, getting short sets to himself in both Toledo and Findlay. It was a joy to have him on the road, though it was decidedly different. A combination of bar gigs and coffeehouse gigs and a house show to boot – we kept him on his toes, but he went back richer than he came out, he definitely gained experience points, and he even spent time world-building based on our roadside sign games.

Our opening act at Nathan P Murphy’s in Springfield, MO, Laura Ashley! This was a mixed bag kind of night. Absolutely dead – I mean we played to the owner, the staff, the opening act and the opening acts’ parents. No money was made. But the venue was beautiful and the owner was simply one of the kindest people. I must admit, I’d had a couple of options for this slot on the calendar, but none of them had guarantees, and none were in known places – so I picked the place where I liked chatting with the owner, who was also promising a home cooked meal. Though we MIGHT’VE been better-served hitting up an open mic for the night, we WERE well-served by that home-cooked meal! Mashed potatoes and fried chicken and green beans with bacon. True comfort food. It was delicious.

Chapter One and Chapter Two kind of merged – you know, one ended and the other began mid-sentence as Joey hooked up with a couple of old, old friends and we suddenly changed the plot to allow him to nab his stuff and go home with them in Saint Louis while we went back to Belleville and crashed with our friends Dave and Virginia – who’d just made it back from catching Heather out at Telluride. Chapter Two then firmed up with Heather and shows in Missouri and Arkansas and last night and today in Texas.

Chapter Three starts tomorrow as Heather flies out of Hobby and Kristen and I repack the car into two-man-config and head East. Meanwhile, my allergies are killing me and lack of sleep is killing us all and whatever that leaves twitching the Buc-Ees truckstop back in Madisonville, TX really tried to finish off.

So – I’ve fallen behind on my writing – and I don’t want to think about how many times I write that particular sentence – but in any case… above! June 23rd, 2017 finds me confidently replacing a headlight! But it turns into a bigger job than I’d hoped. After dismantling much of the passenger-side front of Kristen’s car, pulling out the water resevoir cause it’s in the way and then discovering there’s a MUCH easier way of pulling it all apart that involves popping the front corner of the car off… I find that Autozone has sold us the wrong bulb. Looks like an easy enough mistake – they looked up the part and apparenrly didn’t read / transcribe / grasp that last little letter on the code… but it was a horizontal part and I needed a vertical part so I had to put the whole thing back together to drive BACK to Autozone, swap the part, come back, dismantle it again (much easier the second time) put in the new headlight, test it, put it back together and we’re good to go! PS. Now the foglight’s out.

Seriously – unaware teenagers driving brand new Mustangs who sit in the gas lane checking their peroxided hair rather than moving their fucking cars ought to have their toys taken away.

This little guy kept visiting me as I was working on the car. Apparently he’d done SOMETHING to piss off the crows at the neighbouring school and he meowed plaintively at me in the hopes that my opposable thumbs and upright stance might be able to fix his problems. My opposable thumbs and upright stance were stooped under a car and I sort of assumed that he, being a cat, had probably earned his troubles so I did not stop to do anything than take a photograph of the beleagured animal.

Looking forward to the show. This Chapter NEEDED some conflict to round it out, but I have high hopes that it’s going to end on a high note. Or at least on a note that we play really fast that only ends once we all jump up and down.

Below – a massive photo dump from The World’s Largest Toy Museum!!!