Shining like gold...

Just burnt a copy of the new Jason Isbell album, gonna take a listen to it while I'm driving around today. I'm back home at my folks' house in Greene County, Mississippi for a day or two to hang out before I trek back up to Starkville.

I've got a little linkage for you to check out. It's a band I found on Digg (I'm an obsessive digger) called Pomplamoose. They make really cool music, but the videos that accompany their songs are great because they're not lip-synced. What shows up on the screen is exactly what you're hearing. It's sort of a neat introspective into recording and the songs are fun. Anyway, here's a link to one of their videos. 

Yesterday was a long day of driving. Although our trip through North Alabama on backroads was pleasant and a short (to us) drive back to Starkville. We had the proper soundtrack for a Sunday drive in N. Alabama with the Drive-By Truckers providing the tunes. I stuck my head out the window to get some fresh air while driving through Detroit, Alabama and my hat blew off. I was turning around and this dog came running out of a nearby yard and was heading for my favorite ball cap so I had to beat him to what he thought was going to be a snack. I got my good old John Deere cap back so all is right with the world.

It's great spending a morning back at home and rest up after a stretch out on the road. I'm drinking coffee out of my favorite mug and watching the frost burn off the pastures around the house. I don't even have any grass around my apartment in Starkville, strange for a country boy. 

We played with a local band from Huntsville Saturday night, their name sort of escapes me at this point—they were nice enough good ol' boys though. Still, I witnessed something I never thought I'd ever see in my life watching these guys play. First, they dedicated their set in honor of Lynyrd Skynyrd's piano player Billy Powell, who recently passed away. Their opening song was a Skynyrd tune, so was their second and third. Actually, their entire set was Skynyrd covers, all 45 minutes of it. The guys as a band were tight, but talk about a lack of originality points. Despite this, they did exercise some restraint and didn't play "Free Bird," but I think that's offset by the fact they played nearly every popular song that Skynyrd had. Only in Alabama ...

Oh, there was a black male erotice review taking place in the building next door to where our gig was. The entire night large groups of black ladies walked into the building we were playing in by mistake. I wonder if they thought our band was some sort of stripper gimmick and we'd start playing "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and start getting down to our skivvies. They would pause and hang out for a second to make sure no male strippers popped out before realizing they were in the wrong building. You can't make this up.

I've had the Isbell album playing while I was working on the blog. At first listen, I highly recommend it. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — "Seven Mile Island"

Well, it will be a slow week this week, just hanging around trying to stay busy before we head to the Mississippi Delta for some gigs there this weekend. I love playing in the Delta ... the drive over there itself gets me amped up to play. It's the birthplace of American music and it does a Mississippi boy/musician good to put his boots on that Delta soil. If you were a painter you'd want to visit the Louvre, being a Mississippian and musician and dropping down off those Loess Hills into that flatland full off cotton, soybeans and rice is soul filling. It's either that or indigestion from the truck stop corndog that you bought in Winona at the intersection of Interstate 55 and Highway 82.

An unlikely Saturday morning...

We had a great show last night in Madison, Al. at The Station. The place was already packed when we began loading our gear in and it was filled to the rafters by the end of the night. It was unavoidable that we had to play covers last night since we were playing three 45-minute sets, but our first set was full of heavy-hitting, crowd pleasing covers and we definitely gained the attention of the crowd. The crowd even liked our original material. The owner liked us as well and wants to have us back...mission complete. That's another thing about being a working musician — just because you get a first gig somewhere does not guarantee you will have a second. Some bands just don't work in some places, but this time it did and we've had one of the best crowds we've played in front of lately. Albeit there was the usual request for "Free Bird." Just to clue you "non-musicians" in,  nearly EVERY  southern musician knows "Free Bird," "Sweet Child of Mine," "Sweet Home Alabama" and a lot more really overplayed/over-covered songs. We, as musicians, don't play them because everyone else does. 

However, our bellies don't come before our principles, and we will play them for the right amount of cash. Like any service industry, tips are greatly appreciated. Always keep that in mind when you're watching a band. They probably know your favorite song and if you slip them a sawbuck (ten dollars) or so they'll probably be happy to play it for you. 

Oh, another thing. There is an etiquette to requesting a song. Wait until at least the middle of the night, don't come to request a song (like has happened to me before) in the middle of the first song of the night. Don't come stand in front of the stage and try to request a band to play a song while they are currently playing. Keep your patience. Second, there's about ten million watts of blow your brains out amplification equipment bands are standing in front of ... our hearing is not the best in the world, so say your request LOUD. Third, ask the lead singer, not the bass player or the guitar player. Even though they may know the music, if the singer doesn't know the words it's pointless. Lastly, if your request is met with some resistance, there's nothing like a twenty to change a band's mind.

Despite being stuck in North Alabama I did bring a little bit of South Mississippi with me. I had some Mardi Gras beads and since I won't be able to make to any of those oh-so-fun Mardi Gras parades this year I threw beads to the crowd. Yeehaw.

So, Dave and I are crashing at a friend's house who has a fifteen year old son and we've been like a couple of teenagers playing Call Of Duty with him this morning. At least we're not at Motel 6 or somewhere with the housekeeping people beating on our door three hours after we went to bed. Best of all, I didn't have to sleep in the same room as Dave and John who have this unique "call and answer" snoring that they do. It is abhorred. Imagine a grizzly bear hibernating that has an upper respiratory infection, maybe that is somewhat akin to the type of snoring we're talking about. When we're staying in motels I literally sleep with ear plugs. 

Anyway, tonight we're just down the road in Huntsville at The Benchwarmer, which is sort of home turf for this band since we have a lot of friends.

We're about to grab some late lunch and hang out for the rest of the day...

Drifting through the south

Well, after about two months of conversations with various friends, I've decided to start a blog to let everyone know exactly what's going on with me. First, I play bass for a touring band full time. I'm writing this right now in Huntsville, Al. at a house we're crashing at. Also, hopefully this will keep my writing chops up as I take somewhat of a break from journalism. I also hope to give some insight into what being an indie musician these days is like.

So, life on the road so far has been interesting. We began with a whirlwind trip to Chicago immediately after the new year. We had a blast, even though the 12 hour trip up to Chicago with six guys crammed into a small van was pretty not cool. Since then, we've played about 30 something shows in 2009. We've been playing everywhere from our hometown of Starkville to Nashville, Kansas City, Little Rock and the list goes on and on.

We're an indie band, we are not part of a record label and have no promotion. We book our own shows, do our own promotion and even recorded our own album. We travel in minivans, make sandwiches on the road to save money, buy two-for-one cigarettes and pretty much stretch every dollar to its absolute minute. We all pay our bills and make our living this way. 

I'll introduce you to the cast of characters I'll probably be referring to a lot in this blog. First, there's me Dave. The band calls me Trailerpark Dave, it's just something that stuck. Then there's Big Dave, lead singer and guitar player. John is our other guitar player and backup vocals and his brother, Sim, plays the drums. We're a happy little four piece. Then, on big trips we have our road manager Jason who lives in Nashville.

So, for the first official blog post I'll give you a clue about life on the open road. First, we don't have a tour bus — we have vans. Second, we're lucky to get a hotel room that we don't have to pay for and if we do get a room it's usually one for all five of us. Basically, when we go out on the road there is no certainty as to whether when and where we'll shower, eat or sleep. We try and find crash houses, people nice enough to open their homes and fridges to us, but normally wherever we stay it's usually close quarters. Before this last run that we're on we found a frozen turkey on sale, we bought it, cooked it and have been eating turkey sandwiches for the past week. We made some pork sanwiches for the drive to Nashville earlier this week. Pretty much we try to get as much as we can with as little money as possible, that's the life we live.

Ok, so since I've knocked a little bit of glamour off the rock and roll road life, we do have a good time. We play every weekend and bars most of the time give us free beers, and if we're lucky they feed us. There's nothing better though than free beer to go along with the best job in the world. 

We load our own gear in and out of the places we play — no roadies here. That is one downfall of this job. Achieving a good beer buzz after a few hours of playing is grossly offset by the fact that when you finishing tearing down your gear it's like 2 a.m., you're tired and you have to get up at nine or ten the next morning and drive five hours. As a professional musician, I am becoming very appreciative of light gear.

I also have become a not so big fan of motel checkout times. Usually we get to chill at the motel a couple hours before we play, and then drag in in the wee hours of the morning. Getting to bed at three and having to leave by ten sucks especially when three or four guys need to shower. 

Anyway, well we're enjoying a rarity on the road tonight. We're crashing at a very domesticated household and our wonderful hosts are going to be gracious enough to fire up their barbeque grill and cook us a real supper. Normally, when bars are feeding us it's typical bar fare — Burgers, chicken wings and the like. Homecooked food, for us, is bad ass. I'm about to get my grub on. Keep on rockin.