Oh, What A Night…

Well we’ve played the Trolley Tour many times before, but none have ever been as, dare I say, profitable as the one we played last night. We were asked to play at Harry’s Detour on South Main last night, and the owner Chuck was gracious enough to compensate us for playing. We actually made a killing on our Merch sales thanks to Karen and Sam. Even though some nights are as great as last night, they also come with a price….

During our last set we were playing our new song, “The Jesus and The Devil”, and this woman comes up to me and just flips me off out of nowhere. Now when that happens I just ignore it or laugh, especially when all I’m doing is playing music. It just means this person is trying to be funny, or they are messed up on methamphetamines, or they are genuinely crazy. We had a similar run in with this problem while playing on Bourbon Street in New Orleans a few weeks ago. Well this particular lady was under the impression that she was a great harmonica player, and she wanted to play on one of our songs. Well it was the Trolley Tour so it’s kind of like an everything goes kind of event. So we humored her and let her play one song. For one, it was horrible. Yet she felt compelled to hang around and keep playing. Well she eventually stopped, and then went on a nonsense drunk tirade, accusing people of things even though she didn’t know them, and being very insulting and derogatory towards us and our friends. Well it eventually came to a boiling point. It first started with the crazy lady insulting our friend Karen for no reason. That made Nick exchange some words with her. Well then she passed out in the grass some 20 feet away and left us alone for sometime. This gave us time to pack up and load up Velma and her 5×8 friend to get ready to ship out. Well Chuck was slammed in the kitchen so we waited for a bit to get our reward for the evening. In the mean time he gave us a few free beers. Well this was a great way to end the night…..

But wait…

Out of the depths of Hell rose up the evil, crazy, heavily intoxicated prostitute (her own words, not ours…) and she was ready for round whatever she was on! Well I about had it. All I wanted to do was drink one beer in peace with my friends and that was tainted and ruined by the virus lady. I went off on her. Cussed her out, told her she was ruining everyone’s time, and that she needed to leave. You think that stopped her? Hell no! It made it worse. She was loving the attention she was getting. Even though it was negative attention from us because we couldn’t get rid of her. So Josh and Karen came up with a brilliant idea. They struck up a random conversation about Back To The Future movies, and got everyone involved in it. Well we all just ignored her and talked over here while she was trying to talk. She didn’t like not being heard. The louder she went on, the louder we went on. No one payed her any attention. It was just like in Back To The Future, when Marty’s plan started to go wrong and his hand started disappearing at the dance. Well this eventually happened with the virus. She got so upset and mad when no one was listening to her that she eventually started stomping her feet like a brat and yelling, “Someone listen to me!” So we wiped out the human version of the Swine Flu with our own anti-virus, and she stomped her way back down to Hell where she came from. Now that was a job well done. It just sucks that even when you have such a good night like this particular night, you run the risk of it being ruined by other entities. But when you triumph over that situation, just makes the day even better. So here’s to you Josh, Nick, Karen, Jimmy , Kevin, and Sam, for all of us having a great time, and triumphing over evil at all costs. Until next time, swirl on…

The Start Of Many

As of lately we just finished a 3 day tour down by the gulf, with many laughs, interesting people and situations, and love. We set out on our journey friday morning for the wonderful city of New Orleans, LA. We were lucky enough to acquire lodging from a musician that Josh met who was playing on the streets a year ago. Even though she only met Josh for about 5 minutes, they kept in contact seldom throughout the year and as the time arrived for us to come down, she would let us stay at her place. The great and crazy thing is was that she was out of town for a few weeks, so she left us a key to stay at her home. Even though she didn’t know me or Nick, and had only met Josh in person for 5 minutes. Some people are so gracious and trusting in this world that it’s amazing. Her name is Tanya Huang. Anywho as we got settled we decided to head over to the Neutral Ground where we were to play that evening. Of course we arrived too early. And haven’t eaten anything pretty much that day and the heat outside, we needed sanctuary. We confided in Cantonese Jennifer, our GPS, and she told us about a place called Friar Tucks. It was around the corner so we decided it was safe enough. It was your basic run of the mill hole in the wall bar. Unfortunately the food wasn’t up to par so we had to leave still hungry. We did our best to walk around the neighborhood, meeting people, playing music, and promoting the show. Well the venue was real cool, unfortunately there wasn’t many people. there. I did learn later that there was a Saints game going on, which could have contributed to peoples absence. We left the venue with some cash in hand and headed to a cigar bar with my father and some of my family, who just happened to be down for the weekend. We smoked Nicaraguan cigars and drank Grand Manier brandy while talking with a judge, yes, a real judge. We decided to go busking down and around the quarter to have fun and meet new people. The infamous Bourbon Street was insane. Nick put it best. He said it is like the pirate city Tortuga in Pirates of the Caribbean. Alcohol reigns king down there. People celebrate Mardi Gras 24/7 down there. So anyways we played that night around, bringing people out onto balconies, people stopping on there way to who knows where, and giving them a piece of Memphis, and a piece of our hearts. We actually made like 40 or so bucks doing that. The next day we had coffee and beignets in the French Quarter, then headed to Mobile, AL. We first had to stop at a beach, so we made it into Fairhope, AL, and walked the pier and the sand playing music for about an hour or so. We made it to The Blind Mule, which had the cool scary vibe of the killer in the movie Seven. I mean that in a good way. We played the streets for a minute, then stopped shortly after due partially to a white supremecist who came up to us drunk and dancing while flailing his beer. The gig in Mobile was a lot better than the one the previous night. We played with 2 gentlemen by the names of Adam Taylor and Jeremy Copeland. They helped bring a good crowd in. Thanks also to Jimmy the sound guy for making it happen. After that show we went to go stay with a guy by the name of Allen, at his house. The night was full of Whiskey, giant spiders, good conversations, and a dog with a foot fetish. His name was Taft. We set out again on sunday in search for a certain health food store that carried this drink that supposedly could cure every disease and hangover ailment known to man. The drink was called Kombucha, which is basically ground up, fermented mushrooms and vinegar. Nick made the mistake of chugging basically the whole thing, sending his body into a whirlwind of trouble. We got to Jackson without any incidence, and met up with our close friend and band artist, Karen Mulford, her awesome brother Jimmy, and his girlfriend Morgan. These 3 people are such great people and fully support us. We played at a place called Cups, which is this little, busy coffee shop close to campus. This particular night was out best night yet. people came and went, most stayed, and they absolutely loved us. We sold more than the usual amount of cds, and met some real great people. We had an interview with Anna Kline for a magazine down there, and had her play some songs during our set break. We met a guy named Cody, who was the barista there, and he really enjoyed our music. We can’t wait to come back to Cups next month to kick off the tour. So unfortunately we were done and had to make the trek back home, guided by Tom Waits and Johnny Cash. Just in 3 days it felt like we accomplished something great. For ourselves and for others. None of this would never had been possible without the guidance and hard work of our close friend/producer/engineer/guru Curry Weber. He called us everyday to make sure we were still alive. Needless to say we don’t know what to expect for the month of September. It will be documented pretty much the entire time by our friend, videographer, and tour manager for this run Ryan Munson. So stay tuned, check in whenever you feel like it, and hopefully you didn’t fall asleep or click off this page due to such a long post. Also we send our love and hearts to the Dickinson family for the tragic loss of legendary producer, Jim Dickinson. We found out about it saturday and we dedicated our show at Cups to him. A great Memphis staple and friend and mentor to so many of the musicians we look up to. We love you all, and after this past weekend, we hope to continue to due this for many times to come. There is such a great feeling being on the road. A great sense of freedom, meeting new people, and making new friends and hopefully fans. We love you guys and we will keep you posted on our up coming tour. Until then, swirl on…

Swanks

We played a place called swankys taco shop. But before hand we played the streets and sidewalks to lure listeners in and get this as we we’re playing outside a store this lady swings the door open and motions us to come in. Its a dance practice hall, and we start playing halleluyah around these two woman ballroom dancing and everyone cheers.It was definitely one of those rare  moments when people who have never met are open enough to have a bond, which at this moment was music. Then we walked back to swankys and played a beautiful show one of my personal favorites as far as vocals go. –Josh