march 15th and 16th.

15th was a drive day. We got up earlyish, ate good a good breakfast, took photos with our hosts and took to the road. The entire house show experience was a blast, it was like being welcomed into a the house of a favorite aunt and uncle, they take care of your every need, thirty of their friends show up, we spend the next many hours jamming, performing and partying, all the while utterly appreciated. We had enlightening conversations, ate delicious food and were adored by a group of people, simply for following our passions and being willing to share it. In the van we appreciated the wild differences in our style, never settling on any particular style or directions, always shifting, through songs and stories. It was all driving on Monday, map quest it, cape girardeau missouri all the way to Dallas Tx. We stopped at a massive fireworks retailer called boomland, saw some chickens packed in cages on the back of a semi and from a distance we saw the few tall buildings which make up Little Rock, the biggest city in Arkansas. Tara bought a coloring book themed of the David story of the old testament, which she changed to old testicles. I went through editing captions and adding speech bubbles that added to the general theme. Besides that, we stopped at a rest stop and I slept a whole bunch. Texarcana took an awful long time to get through, we were looking for a sign for the borer into Texas, but it never came.

Eventually we pulled into the a hiatt and our crew grew to seven. NLX’s friends from Minneapolis and boyfriend from Toronto extended the party into two rooms. I took the opportunity to go for a long walk on my first warm night of spring. The hotel is in newish complex of fancy high rises and hotels, across the highway from run down looking houses. I walked through a manicured park around a pond/lake, and the air was lovely. I got out my trusty hacky sack and attempted to revive my midschool talent for keeping that bag in the air. While exercising in the hotel fitness room, a family came came in and their three year old girl started at me while I did sit ups. In the parking lot I practiced the hacky sack and then went to bed. It was nice having my own queen size bed, although I think I’m still partial to two yoga mats on a hard floor. Something strange happened at 3am, I suddenly felt wild stomach cramps and then was sick, I think felt fine, went back to bed and felt fine in the morning.

16th

It was my first sleep in of the tour, but I haven’t minded waking up early, because it’s always been the amazing Amanda Rheaume waking me up. Tara was furiously typing away in a little nook next to my bed under the window, that’s where the electrical outlet was and she needed to keep her iphone plugged in. I started working on some new recordings, sent out some emails and went out for mexican food with Amanda. The grub was grand and inexpensive, we had some good chats. We were examining our music careers and the art that’s been produced. We’ve had similar arches of all out rock music, moving towards acoustic songwriting. I got some supplies at the business depot, and got some disks ready for the evening gig.

Back attempting to record, I ended up reworking and extending a lullaby that I wrote in March of last year. Finger picking a melody is a tricky but rewarding thing to do. The gang all left, some to a restaurant and some to check out the cafe we were to play in. After dropping off gear, we went around the corner and had the pleasure of hearing a band called the joys at Bill’s record shop. The joys are a woman fronted rock/country/pop band from London ont. Sarah Smith is a wild talent, with powerful voice and presents. Mike Mckyes plays mean country licks while Ken and Kevin hold things down with flair. Their set made me fall in love with rock again and I expressed that love through some b boying. A band named, the bears of blue river were playing afterwords and showed up for most of the Joys set. They sure were dressed cool, it was Amish with tattoos and pink dress shirts. They were from Chicago and had been on the road for two months, god speed fellahs! I just check out they myspace, and it’s really beautiful music, they describe it as folk/soul/healing & easy listening. Dang, it’s really good, I urge you to click the following link, http://www.myspace.com/thebearsofblueriver I like Betty Homemaker . A small crowd eventually came trickling into Bills and the joys rocked out like wild.

We went back across the road to Opening Bell Cafe, the host sounded great and it was high caliber music all night. What’s to say about another incredible gig. We all captivated the audience, sounded fantastic and shared the stage with awesome musicians. There was a young fellow named Matt who was highly nervous about playing, but sang like an angel. NLX, Amanda and myself play two songs each, then Tara went up, being the featured artist of the evening, her set blew everybody away. We all got lot’s of praise and love the audience and from individuals, and I started selling CDs. The joys came out to see us and we had lots of laughs. I found out that pot is more expensive here, 20$ for a gram, 50$ for an eighth, I ain’t in kansas anymore.

Dallas has been fairly unremarkable as a city so far, no great sight lines or vistas. However, at night the city looks pretty cool, one huge building has green lights going up all the corners. Also, there’s a big glowing orb. http://www.visit-dallas.com/Dallas-Texas-Skyline.jpg

We’re back at the hotel now, it’s after midnight, tomorrow we go to Austin.

Best,

M