5.8-9.2010
Jun 23, 2010 Uncategorized
After a long drive home.. and a couple of days off, I was at it again. Back to Maryland to play the Suquehanna Arts and Music Festival in Havre de Grace, MD. This is a great little festival that really needs to be found out about.
Check it out here: http://www.susquehannamusicandartsfestival.com/
I met a lot of really talented and very enthusiastic songwriters, and that made my heart happy. I just wish there were more people to sing to! I believe that in part it’s due to the festival being on Mother’s day weekend every year. However, nowadays it’s really hard to find a decent festival weekend date that doesn’t conflict with some other like minded community’s events. It’s damn near impossible I’m finding.
That being said, if you’re in the MD area, you should come on out for it. They have great talent every year, and lots of things going on. And a lot of really great energy to be absorbed. Not to mention the view of the river from the stage area!!
Observations from the road-
-Wind CAN and WILL knock down just about anything. Including tents, mics, among other things. Poor vendors.
5.4.2010
Jun 23, 2010 Uncategorized
When I arrived in Kentucky… early the morning of Sunday, May 2nd, the sun was just peaking out over the mountains, and there was a quiet mist about them. It was one of the most peaceful and serene things I had ever seen.
And these wonderful experiences did not cease throughout my stay in Kentucky. I really had no idea that it was so beautiful. Not only was it an incredible scenic environment, every person that I came in contact with was so hospitable and so wonderful!
I pulled in around 7:30 in the morning, to my friend Tricia’s place. Her husband was waiting on the couch for my arrival. And knew I must have been exhausted having driven 19.5 hours, and taken no breaks. He showed me to the wonderful bedroom I was going to be staying in, and a great bed. AND there was a creek running down the mountain right next to their home that soothed me right to sleep next to the window. I really couldn’t have asked for more.
Sunday night, Greg, of 88.7 WMMT-FM, out of Whitesburg, KY, had me on his Sunday night rock radio show. That was awesome. I love Greg’s taste in music (not just because he had me on his show haha) and we had a great time. He later helped out with running the sound board at the Summit City show, on Monday night. Thanks Greg!!
Check their station out- http://www.wmmtfm.org
Monday, for lunch, I played for the lunch time patrons of the Appalachian Artisan Center in Hindman, KY. This is the cutest explosion of culture in the middle of a quiet and dry, Kentucky, town. The opportunities that this artisan center will give local and regional artists is incredible. There’s artists studio spaces, and internships. And also, they sell the artists products in the artisan center! They also have a cafe!
I think folks should definitely check this place out- http://www.artisancenter.net/
Monday night I played at a bar in Whitesburg, KY, called Summit City. This place was awesome. It looked like it could easily fit in Philadelphia somewhere. I love that most coffee shops in the south, also have full bars, or at least beer and wine. It makes total sense to me. They’re utilizing the space to have something to sell just about any hour of the day. Genius!
I really enjoyed Kentucky… I think it’s one of America’s best kept secrets… I imagine there’s some incredible hiking around there too.
Observations from the road-
-Kentucky has one of the most gorgeous set of hills/mountains that I have ever seen.
-There are not many stores in this area of Kentucky. Rather, there’s a walmart, and a small grocery store, and that’s just about it. Anything else, you have to drive 1-2 hours away to get. Most of the ready-made food places are fast food, and so no wonder the rising obesity levels in rural america. Makes me sad really. People have to go to a town about an hour and a half away to get some international foods to cook, and to find some more interesting healthier foods to cook.
-Everyone carries guns in this part of the state as well. As opposed to guns as I am personally, it seems to be a decent respectable and responsible culture in how they deal with it there. I can respect that. The culture is different, and I’m not about trying to change that if it’s not hurting anyone. The gun crime there, seems to be lower than what you’d find in places that it’s not legal to carry. Interesting thought. I’m NOT saying we all get up in arms now. Not at all. Just saying that it works for them.
-The strip mining… or mountain top removal as others tend to call it (generally the more earth and nature loving-conservationist-tree hugging types). well, it’s truly destroying the beauty of the area. Not only is it removing precious mountain tops, and turning them into strip malls… for more of the same kinds of stores I listed above that exist in this area of Kentucky, but there’s also lots of dust around, and heavy machinery, and ugly mining sections… It’s truly sad. Someone needs to come in here, and make a national park out of this area!!
5.1.2010
Jun 10, 2010 Uncategorized
May has come and gone as a blur on the sidelines… however, I will take some time now to reflect on some of the noteable, blogworthy, portions of the May section of the tour.
First of all, if you haven’t heard, Tennessee flooded. You’ll hear a lot about Nashville, and how much tragic damage that was done throughout the city, and how people are starting to recover. There was also damage to much of the historical areas of the city as well. Yet, what I have found, is a good amound of ‘Middle’ Tennessee was completely under water as well. You may wonder how I might know this… Well, I drove through most of it.
The trip from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Hazard, Kentucky, should be clocked at about 10 hours. That includes stopping for a bite, and a bathroom break. Instead it took me a total of 19.5 hours of driving nearly straight, without stopping for much food, or bathroom breaks. ‘Driving nearly straight’ is relative of course, since much of the time I was stopped in my tracks on I-40, which was closed in two major places.
They would heard us off the highway for a couple of hours, and then we’d drive through detours, to be funneled back to the highway, only to find out that it was closed again a couple of miles up.
At times, I drove through a foot or so of water. I also paid close attention to the local radio stations, as throughout my drive, I drove through 2 tornado warnings. One of which, I saw the tracks from while slowly driving through Centerville, TN. It was calm when I drove through, which made me nervous, but I could clearly see parts where a tornado had most obviously pushed it’s way through the trees, and across the road.
Unsettling for sure.
I am not from an area that’s known for too many natural disasters, and have little experience with any of the more tragic ones in general. And have no experience what to do in the event of a tornado. And those things, I’ve found, are scary.. and unpredictable it seems. When the locals becomes scared of tornadoes, you know, that’s for good reason.
I drove through two towns in TN where, I coasted over a bridge, and the street below me appeared to be the main intersection for a local town. Where the stoplight at the intersection was hanging about 5 feet above water. The entire main street of many of these towns were completely submersed. It was really hard to get through, and also really emotionally difficult to watch. I have no idea how to deal with floods, and wouldn’t know where to start with recovering.
I was happy that I was able to make it through without getting stuck, that’s for sure.
My heart goes out to the people of Tennessee and Kentucky that were affected by the storms. Hopefully in the past month there has been a bounce back of any of the damage, or issues that rose up or occured from the roads, and cities being in such states.
I wasn’t able to take many photos of the actual situations because the entire time I was trying to see where I was, and stay very alert. However, I did take a couple that I will post.
Observations from the road-
-From what I can tell, and what I have heard, many of the people within Tennessee and Nashville had a great deal of help from everyone that lived there. I have heard remarkable stories of people just rising out of their homes, and going around to see who needed help, and did everything they could and were able for the good of the community. Pretty inspiring.
-In this specific disaster, the road work folks, and all of the authorities did an excellent job of helping people understand and navigate. So simply, that a person unfamiliar with the area, like myself, could easily keep going.
4.30.2010
Apr 30, 2010 Uncategorized
I am now in Little Rock, Arkansas!! Visiting some good friends, relaxing, updating my stuff, and booking mostly. I got a last minute gig at a coffee shop in Little Rock, and it was the cutest place ever. Not to mention, the owner, Hans Oliver, of Guillermo’s Gourmet Coffee, is the sweetest guy ever. If you’re in Little Rock, check this place out. http://www.g3coffee.com/
I’ve been working on some writing… which has been nice. And! If you check out the live shows page, you’ll noticed that I’ve also gotten a lot of booking done. If you continue to have any suggestions, send them my way. I would love them!!
The next few months are shaping up to look like it’s going to be a LOT of fun. I am very excited. Tomorrow, I head off to Kentucky!!!
Here’s some pictures…
Observations from the road…
-Arkansas is not much different than most of any American suburbia that I’ve found. Though the accent is much different than the ones I know from Jersey.
4.25.2010
Apr 28, 2010 Uncategorized
From Nashville, I trecked straight through to Memphis. Wanted to see where it all seemed to begin… This was a cool city. Memphis was easier to get around, and they had an awesome welcome center that helped me understand where to go, where to park, and what I should want to see. Yay! Something that could think for me. I needed that right about now..
The first thing I went to was the National Civils Rights Museum. I will warn you, if you get easily upset at how humans can really badly unfairly treat each other.. this museum will well you up inside. It was a lot of history, and it’s still hard to believe sometimes that a lot of this crap still exists. We’ve come so far, but we have further yet to go. I would not be surprised if one day we have a huge museum about human rights dealing with every diversity under the sun. Color, sexuality, religion… something large scale, and on the mall in DC maybe. Maybe a Smithsonian even. I can see it. I hope to see it. It’s a journey we’re all on as humans, and also here as Americans. We should be proud how far we have come, and yet ashamed to ever have had such a past to begin with.
So, yeah… this was a pretty powerful visit for me. The National Civil Rights museum is also at the Loraine Motel, which is where MLK was assasinated. They actually allow you to go (as part of the museum ticket) into the building across the street to see from the point of view of the shooter, and where he was staying. This gave me big bad chills and made me feel ill. But yes, nonetheless, still very powerful.
From there, I headed to Sun Studios, which was closing, but this is where Johnny Cash, B. B. King, and of course Elvis started.. among others.
I then parked my truck, and got out and walked down Beale. It was an ok day, though it started to storm midway through my walk. Again, there was live music in every bar down the strip. This time, it wasn’t country. It was nearly all Blues… B.B. King’s restaurant was on the corner.. and music was blairing from every window, as I passed. There were lots of drunk college kids out and about, and that seemed the majority of the populous of the moment. Then it started to storm, and I headed out.
The storm got really bad I could barely SEE the gates to Graceland when I got there. It was closed, and so I wasn’t able to take a picture either. Bummer, but at least I got to pass it?
Photo time!!!
Observations from the road…
-Memphis has a soul to it, that I’ve not felt with any other city that I’ve encountered.. besides Philly. It’s hard to explain. Maybe it’s the true blue collar, hard working mentality… and perhaps a strong sense of pride, that many other cities just do not have.
-I heard about 10 Johnny Cash covers while there. Maybe that’s because… no one dares… to try to be B.B. King.
4.23.2010
Apr 28, 2010 Uncategorized
From Knoxville I drove to Nashville. Had to get a good glimpse of ‘music city’ in my travels….
I spent a few days in Nashville. Needed to try to catch up on some work, and some rest, and all the other stuff. So I tried my best to relax. I did hit the town, and get to see a decent amount of live music. EVERY bar has country music, just about all the time, in downtown. It actually surprised me a lot. This is a neat city, but it’s a lot like a country version of Philadelphia. Things are fairly spread out, and all the really good and ‘fun’ stuff is all in one place, within like 10 city blocks of each other. I tried to head to music valley, but it seemed mostly like camp site (read: RV sites) and people just staying in Nashville for one reason or another. There seemed to be a few cool dance halls, but I wasn’t really versed in my line dancing to feel confident enough to check those out.
I did get to visit the final resting place of Johnny Cash and June Carter. This made me really happy, because they are buried in a cemetary in Hendersonville, and it was just so pleasantly quiet. There were no bells and whistles to the site, and It was just simple and classy. I bet how Mr. Cash would have wanted it to be. It made me really happy, and it really mostly made my heart happy. It just really seemed peaceful there.
Other than that I didn’t see a whole lot else. It was a pretty cool town though… for what it was worth.
Here’s some photos!
Observations from the road…
-Nashville only seems to have country music. That’s it. Probably why I didn’t have a show there. Ha. I only do one Country cover, and it’s not that great. (though I can do a few Johnny Cash tunes…)
-I was kind of hoping that the sushi bar I went to, had a country band playing. They didn’t…. but their sushi was AMAZING. The place was called Ichaban, I believe.
-People down in Nashville, well at least within the downtown area, are very friendly, and have no problems answering questions.
-Everything in Nashville is ‘Middle Tennessee’, not central. But Middle. However, if you see a sign here on the road, for a driveway that’s hard to see… it says. ‘hidden driveway’. In Nashville, it says ‘concealed driveway’. I think it’s interesting that they didn’t use sophisticated language when talking about general geographics.. however, when explaining something that probably needs a relatively fast reaction time.. they made it quite classy.
4.21.2010
Apr 28, 2010 Uncategorized
From Johnson City, I ventured into Knoxville. This is where I got to stay with a good buddy, and tour the town. Amybeth brought me on quite a few adventures. We saw a jazz band at one of the local bars… and then we toured through Gatlingburg, TN, and Pigeon Forge!!!
I got to see the Smoky Mountains, visit DollyWood, even though it was closed because it was raining. Gatlinburg was a really neat town. It reminded me of a southern version of Niagra Falls, Canada.
There were quite a few things to see in Pigeon Forge as well. We stopped by the Titanic museum, but didn’t go in. (I think it was a bit pricey). But we took pictures outside, which was awesome. The whole building looks like the ship, and they were playing the Titanic song in the parking lot. Haha. Which made me laugh.
All in all, this was an excellent trip. I was well taken care of (thanks Amybeth!!) and we even got to go into her local bar, Toot’s Honky Tonk, and have a few beers and play darts. This bar will be featured on the season finale of The Biggest Loser. I haven’t really seen too much of that show, but I still thinks that’s awesome. The woman that owns the bar, Bonnie is incredibly sweet. So, if you’re ever in Knoxville, you might want to check it out. You can find them on facebook too!
Here’s some photos from our adventures…
Observations from the road….
-If a bar is fairly wide across… It’s probably meant to be danced on.
-Shrimp and grits, is amazing.. with a little kick. Grits are corn based. Just in case you didn’t know. I did some research.
-They serve amazing beer in the south. Just about everywhere you go.
-In the south, they don’t really leave tips on the bar.. they have tip jars throughout the length of the bar, where tips can be appropriately left.
4.18.2010.
Apr 26, 2010 Uncategorized
At this point in the trip, I drove from Carrboro, North Carolina, to Johnson City, Tennessee. It was one of the most beautiful drives I had ever encountered. Particularly when entering the mountains, crossing over the state line. Breathtaking. Of course, I have no pictures of it, because I was driving. I should have pulled over and snapped a couple of shots, but I was just anxious to get to the gig and be in Tennessee for the first time.
I played at Acoustic Coffee shop in Johnson City. This place is awesome. It jumps out of nowhere in a seemingly (by looks) industrial town. It surprised me to have plopped down in front of me with the Johnson City back drop. There were a bunch of people. And thanks to the guy that played before me, and helped me figure out the confusing sound board. But, I forgot his name.
Thank you Acoustic Coffee for serving Yeungling Bock on tap. My favorite beer. Once, this show was over, I took the long treck to Knoxville to stay with a friend.
Observations from the road:
-The first gas station I walked into had a huge cooler as you walked in with huge cans of beer for $2. Wow. They were not good beer.
-Every ‘coffee’ shop seems to have nearly a full bar as well, or at least wine and beer. Amazing.
-There’s some serene about driving through huge mountains and losing your cell phone signal just long enough to be able to clear your head.
4.17.2010.
Apr 26, 2010 Uncategorized
Played at the Open Eye Cafe, in North Carolina’s beautiful little town called Carrboro… Here’s their website. http://www.openeyecafe.com/
It’s a cute little coffee shop in the heart of Carrboro. It was a quiet show with lots of students working on homework at 9/10 pm on a Saturday. But it was a lot of fun.
Afterwards, I went with some friends back to The Cave to see a live band play. They were AWESOME. Twilighter. Check them out. http://www.myspace.com/49245060
Here’s some pictures from the evenings events…
Observations from the road:
-There are NO postcards in that entire area of North Carolina that doesn’t have a Tar Heel of some kind on it.
-It’s extremely common to walk into a building and lose complete cell phone reception.
-So far, one of my favorite beers is from a brewing company called Sweetwater, based in Atlanta. The actual brew is their Pale Ale.
4.15.2010
Apr 26, 2010 Uncategorized
Tax Day!!!!
I played the Cave. Such a great freaking bar. Check them out, if you’re ever in Chapel Hill… http://www.caverntavern.com/
It’s run by a really great group of guys. They have a dark bar, with fun lights, and games and toys in the back. They have good beer, and decent prices. Live music all the time (duh!) and just a great atmosphere. It reminded me of Sugar Mom’s if you’ve ever been there in Philadelphia. Love that bar… miss it.
Here’s some photos.
Observations from the road… (about traveling):
-Why is the welcome center for Virginia in Fredericksburg? How did Virginia want me to the feel the first 55 miles driving in?
-If you have Target fruit snacks, and you warn the box on your dash, they are no longer chewy. They are no just heavenly.
-When you encounter a dollar bill that the vending machine won’t take at a rest stop.. maybe not immediately assuming it’s counterfeit is a good idea… I assumed it was, and got pissed. Turns out, it’s a rare silver paper dollar thingie from 1957. Cool!!