Sunshine, blue skies, and open road! We are currently traveling from St. Louis back on home to Wisconsin. We've had a good few days in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. We left Thursday, an early spring morning, light grey. A four hour drive took us to Rock Island, IL, where Daytrotter Sessions are recorded. If you aren't familiar with Daytrotter, click HERE. Recording there was pretty exciting- there's been a lot of talented people in there, and it's also a good warm up session for recording our next album in a couple of weeks. The recording went well. We did four songs and are excited for its release sometime in the next couple of weeks.
From Rock Island we drove up to Dubuque. It's such a beautiful city! Right on the Mississippi River, historic and sweet. The skies still grey and blue, the land finally just becoming uncovered from its white winter blanket. The world was looking especially different to me yesterday.
We arrived in Dubuque and checked out the venue we would be playing. We had the pleasure of sharing the night with Rebekah Rego and the Trainmen. This was our first show in Dubuque and the people there seemed really friendly.
I woke up Friday morning and walked around downtown Dubuque for a while myself. The streets were quiet and the skies were still grey blue. From Dubuque we headed on to Urbana, IL, sort of a twin city of Champagne. We played at a bar called "The Rose Bowl," naming itself as the home of country music. It was a fun show and we met some crazy cool people who let us crash at their place for the night. Lots of jamming was done into the night and in the morning they fed us with eggs, biscuits and gravy. I don't think that the realization of strangers' kindness and compassion will every grow stale. Seeing it, living it, and even somewhat relying on it is one of the best things about what we do.
Here we are in front of the Rose Bowl Tavern:
After hanging out in Urbana, we drove down to St. Louis. Saturday the skies were still grey- miles and miles of relatively flat land.. crossing the Mississippi. I have seen the arch before and I think it's astounding.
Our last show of the weekend was right in St. Louis at a venue called the Cherokee Performing Arts Center. We played with River Kittens and Scrambled . We arrived earlier in the day and there was an art show going on upstairs involving Harley Davidsons. Later in the day when we were getting ready for the show, hanging out outside, I had one of those great perspective moments when everything shifts and you sort of become aware of what you're doing and where you are from a slightly more subjective perspective. Many times when I have these moments I will say something like, "Here we are.. doing this right now, seeing this." We happened to be standing in St. Louis watching a group of bikers take off on their Harleys.
I'm aware that when we take trips like this, playing every day for several days in a row and spending a lot of time together in the van on the road, seeing and experiencing things together... our sets start changing. We become a little gutsier, a little more confident, a little tighter, and we all know that the set is the meat and potato to our day. Everyone stretches out just a little more.
Yesterday we also talked to Stephen Barncard who's going to be producing our next album. We fly out a week from tomorrow! There's been so much thought and feeling regarding making this album that I was relieved when I realized that in less than a month it'll be complete. Talking with Stephen set our minds at ease- I think he's going to be a good guide and it's going to be quite the honor to work with him in Heid Street Studio.
As a last minute fundraiser for our trip to California we are going to be playing a San Francisco send-off party at Deb's Spare Time here in Oshkosh on Friday. We sincerely hope to see you all there and jar up all your love and good vibes to take with us to California the following Monday. Show will start at 9 PM!
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