Welcome, Wilkommen, Bienvenue

Well, I was supposed to start this blog about a month ago at the beginning of my last tour with the illustrious, indefatigable guitar and harmonica impresario, one Mr. Jack Klatt, however 'twas not to be for various and sundry reasons into which I will not delve at present.

Here is the (extremely) abbreviated version of the tour:

Ames, IA: fun, small town, fun, small crowd, cheap beer!

Des Moines, IA: midterms precluded anyone from actually listening to us, but we got some sandwiches for free, also Jack and I were mistaken for gay hustlers as we tried to find a place to camp down by the river. Iowa has free wifi at all of their rest stops. We also met Smokestack and the Foothill Fury who was a swell fellow.

Davenport, IA: another small coffee shop, nobody there except for my ol' pal Meg and her husband, we played much Wii at their house, Mariokart!

Dubuque, IA: got into town late, our friend Sabyre made the trek from Minneapolis to meet us there and it was good. I had been informed by the booker at the venue that the bar tender played "weird independent movies" on Sunday nights and that we would be playing after the film. Well the film turned out to be "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" which is decidedly not a weird independent movie. And the crowd we inherited turned out to be two people who actually showed up for the music, Sabyre, and the bartender who was very nice. Then they bought us a pizza. It was good pizza. We then went camping and hung out in Dubuque for about a week.

(Interim: the Twins lost to the White Sox, I was sad, we played lots of pool and read books in diners.)

Dubuque, IA pt II: One place we went to read books was a coffeeshop called Monk's Kaffee Pub which is owned by a supremely kick-ass dude named Rick who invited us to come play. Long story short a bunch of people showed up, Rick gave us some good beer and let us stay at his house for a couple of days. He has a dog named Monk who is named after Thelonious and is one of the greatest dogs I, personally, have ever had the good fortune to meet.

Jack, Sabyre and I went hiking and camping for a few days and I lost my phone. I also contributed the voice to the magical cricket who lives in Jack's hat and dispenses wisdom whilst playing the fiddle and smoking a cigar. Dubuque is a beautiful little town and I shall write more about it later.

Peoria, IL: Sabyre departed back to Minneapolis and Jack and I continued on to Peoria, IL to Eamon Patrick's which is owned and operated by the magnificent and magnanimous Fahey family. We played with a band called the Creek Road Ramblers who were very good and much more talented than we and we stayed up far past our bedtimes.

Part Two of the Tour Diary will ensue tomorrow.


As for right now, we are in Austin, Texas which is a pretty amazing place, lots of very nice people and good music. We have been making our daily bread busking out on the street and people seem to like us so far. Right now we are at Sacred Acres which is a sustainable living/yoga house on the outskirts of Austin. Last night we had a feast replete with spring rolls and red wine. Jack and I played some songs for the crowd amassed which evolved into a drum jam going from "Old Dan Tucker" to "Hallelujah! I'm a Bum" to a blues song comprised entirely of quotes from "The Big Lebowski". I slept under the stars and awoke to a rooster crow this morning.

I also have been reading Ryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim which is freaking fantastic and probably even moreso to a huge music nerd such as myself, although probably still readily accessible to the masses a la the film "High Fidelity" or Kieron Gillen and Jaime McKelvie's Phonogram.

More later, sleep now.


Today's Essential Listens:
Air - Moon Safari
Neil Young - Harvest
Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly - Folkways
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs