Saturday, April 16, 2005

Paying Dues

It's embarrassing that I haven't written a single word since we entered British Columbia. We were gone from KC for over 5 weeks and I barely got us to Tacoma, Washington. That was the FIRST WEEKEND. So many things happened before and after. But I've pretty much dug myself in a hole from which I will never climb out. Much as I want to continue the "We Tried" story, I just can't bring myself to write another word about it. So, until I get over the writer's block, I decided to simply try to get everybody up to speed on our current tour. Thanks to my dad's eagle eyes, we found and purchased a 1997 Ford Econoline conversion van with emergency funds thankfully loaned to us by Big Guy Loans in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Our old friend Leo loaned us a 4x6 trailer to haul all our crap and, with the last minute addition of a trailer hitch and license plates, away we went. So what follows is what's happened since. Those seeking thoughtful prose may just as well give up and go read a good book. But for everybody else, here's the Reader's Digest version...


Thursday, April 7th: Played The Station Inn in Nashville Tennessee for the first time. This is the preeminent bluegrass club in Music City. Opening was our new pal, Julie Lee, who we met last October at IBMA in Louisville. We all jumped in with her on "Stillhouse Road", before doing our own thing in front of a small, but receptive audience. Thunderstorms pounded Nashville for the entire show.

Friday, April 8th: Played The Down Home in Johnson City, Tennessee. A smaller but more enthusiastic crowd (of mostly employees) rocked and rolled with us all night. Everybody told us, "next time you come here, the place will be packed!". Then we squeezed into our new van and drove all night to Atlanta. We arrived at about 6am just before the sun came up. Uhhhgggg.

Saturday, April 9th: Played two shows at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival. Once again, weather kept the crowds away. But we made some new friends and sold some CD's before regrouping for a show with blues-woman, Donna Hopkins at The Mambo Room in downtown Atlanta. The highlight of the show was the opening act, Baby Gramps. I can't possibly try to describe what this guy does. I'll just say that he played a strange form of solo blues that left the entire band gape-mouthed and screaming at the tops of our lungs.

Sunday, April 10th: Played a set at The Red Light Cafe' in Atlanta with our friend Paul Snyder's old band, Whoa Nelly. Not too many people came to this one either but we had fun regardless. After the gig, we repacked the van and drove to a very sketchy Motel 6 by the airport for some much needed rest.

Monday, April 11th: Played a few tunes on a local Atlanta community radio station before heading out on the highway for a short drive to Athens, Georgia. After the Motel 6 the night before, we decided to treat ourselves to a slightly more expensive Best Western just out of downtown. Betse and lucked out but Ike and Nate had to move to three times before settling for a "only slightly stinky" room.

Tuesday, April 12th: Played a set at Tasty World in downtown Athens between a world music fusion group called The Would Be Farmers and local Athens bluegrass heroes The Packway Handle Band. Continuing the trend, there were few people attending but those that were there were very pleased by our performance. Mercifully, the owner of the club gave us $50 for gas money after the show.

Wednesday, April 13th: Left Athens for Knoxville, Tennessee. Drove through Smoky Mountain National Park. Due to weather, not much in the way of Mountains were seen. There was plenty of smoke, however. With tax day looming over us, we checked into a Comfort Inn advertising high speed wireless internet which turned out to be completely fictional due to an electrical storm which affected their connection. Laptops were pulled out and tax software was anguished over for the rest of the night.

Thursday, April 14th: Tax anguish continued the next morning before we suited up and headed to play The Blue Plate Special lunchtime show on WDVX in Knoxville with Tony Furtado. Despite the early show, we turned in a solid performance and (hopefully) made many new fans amongst the listeners of this popular live show. Then it was back to the Comfort Inn for more numbers crunching. Everybody's stomach hurt by bedtime. Moral of this story: self employment taxes are punishing.

Friday, April 15th: Woke up early to finish printing tax forms. Then it was back to downtown Knoxville for banking and mailing. The stress seemed to melt away as each envelope slid through the wall.

Now we are back on the road en-route to Boone, N.C. We have a show there tonight and another tomorrow in Asheville, N.C. In the wise words of our friend Seamus McGreevy, "It's a hard life, but it's a good life too."







Postscript:
As yet, the van is still unnamed. So, for the rest of this tour we will entertain your thoughts on the subject. The person who submits the van name we like the best will win an assortment of live Wilders recordings from the western "We Tried" tour.

8 comments:

  1. Well, I'm away from a few weeks and things just go crazy.

    And here I was thinking MY life stank to high heaven.

    Hope everyone is well. I think you should keep saying GROOPER, V, because I thought you were doing it on purpose, and am willing to keep pretending I never knew any different.

    And as for a van name, in honor of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galxay" being made into what seems like a sad sad screen adaptation, either "Heart of Gold" or "Marvin".

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  2. Name clues:
    The van is a champagne metallic brown.
    The van's conversion package is "Holiday Coach".
    It was owned by a major quilter who,tragically, recently died .
    It is impossible to sleep in.
    It IS reliable, so far...

    good luck.

    by the way, I only suggested "groupers" because of the species of fish. I guess groopers is more appropriate because it rhymes with troopers- which is what you folks must be to put so many comments on such a boring post.

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  3. First: Sorry BroP, I didn't realize you'd suggested "groupers" in the first place. I keep trying to get out of my toe-stepping-on-shoes, but to no avail.

    Second, some brainstorming (meaning I will not guarantee the quality of these ideas):

    Loosey "Going for the two 'o's, and a female name.

    Also in this vein: Soosie, Swoozie, Looloo, Jool (which touches on one of my favorite t.v. shows), Soo, Joon.

    Along the lines of the color: Champ, Copper (or whatever crayloa color comes closest), Brownie, Koko Chanel, Coacoa Channel, Kookoo Chinook, and Googoo Gachoo. The last two could stem from a tiredness in the author.

    Oo! As long as I'm thinking sci-fi (Jool, remember?), how about Tardis (which would be cooler if it seemed bigger on the inside than on the out... which is sorta not the case, it would seem), The Decade Pigeon, and Hal on Wheels?

    Okay, back to the clues: Holiday Coach makes me think of the theme song from the movie "Vacation". I'm drawing a blank beyond that. I guess... Eve? Because of, you know, holidays having Eves, and Eve beeing a girl's name... and for the double "o" in it.

    I can't remember any of the charcters names in "Quilters" (if they have names), but one of those could work.

    Uncomfortable to sleep in: ShooBox, Canoo, and SoopCan.

    Reliable: Old Faithful, Young Faithful, The Young and the Faithful, The Young and the Rest Stop.

    Well, thankfully I started with a disclaimer.

    I hope this finds everyone well. Sorry I didn't get to hear/see/smell the show tonight. I forgot it was tonight... if it was tonight. Whatever night it was. Hope to see the band live soon.

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  4. Get it a paint job so it can be the chartreuse Papoose Caboose!

    (And props to all my teachers for my being able to spell that correctly on my first try! And props to Merriam-Webster Online for confirming it for me!)

    Okay, wait... it just came to me: The Wilders' van should be named LAURA. Duh! Or did somebody suggest that already?

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  5. Props to Timmer for making me laugh out loud!

    How about "Little House on the Big Roads"?

    And my apologies for not seeing those earlier incarnations of LH references!

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  6. Mr. Edwards first name was Isaiah

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  7. "Half-pint" can be masculine or feminine too....more open-ended. "Half-pint" (Laura) was creatvie, curious, and a trooper.

    Speaking of Little House on the Prairie, Sat. night TV has been a remake of this program (more like an extended movie format) by Disney I think. Too bad someone didn't tape the series for Betse. Although the books surely must be her favorite.

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