here now

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Day 27: Coeur D' Alene, ID

Early mornings and long hours of driving every day. It's hard to ever
feel rested although doing better now. Monday was brutal. I was so
tired and had to be on for so long, I think I lost my mind a little.

Today is Matt's birthday. I have tomorrow off - very, very happy about
that.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Day 26: Billings, MT

Rocky Mountain College. We played at a coffee shop, sponsored and paid for by the school. They took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant afterwards.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Day 25: Sioux Falls, SD

Left Madison at 1:30am and drove all the way to Sioux Falls, 7 hours. Now at the hotel with three hours downtime before heading to the college. The school has hired a professional video crew to film our performance and hopefully create a live DVD item we can sell. Not a good idea to not have good sleep before being filmed but oh well! We just have to make the best of it. We're beyond exhausted.

The show in Madison was my best of the three shows with Willy, because I finally got to a point of feeling really confident about what I was playing. Confident enough to take a sitar solo during Willy's song "Mystery." When he threw it to me, I shook my head no, and then I did it anyway and it was great. I was hesitant because the song is in a key that's a half step higher than how my sitar is tuned, and I just don't know where all the notes are that would work. I had a few though, and decided to just go for it. And afterwards there were tons of complements. That was a breakthrough for me because I struggle with feeling musically incompetent. It was really really good to finish the mini tour this way. I wish we had more shows together so I could continue to be pushed and continue growing. The band, all nine of us, achieved a perfect balance of knowing the music and knowing what to do but also being open to improvised moments, and a certain amount of looseness that made it all very live. It's like, more rehearsals would have killed the excitement.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Day 24: Madison, WI

Tonight our last show with Willy. Sad times, the band is so good together. We're at the Majestic Theater, a half a block from the state capitol building. Tonight Jason's playing at a huge arena in town, about three miles away. At one point our show was going to be cancelled because a local promoter was worried about the two shows competing. We're on at the same time but planning to meet up with J and Tricia after. Everything we're doing with Willy - touring and being his backup band, and recording our voices, cello an sitar on his record - is originally what Jason said he wanted to do with us. They both had a similar vision of collaborating with us, and while we did do a lot of songwriting with Jason (which we haven't done with Willy yet), it's all happening with Willy.

Friday, May 1, 2009

First time on TV

Today we played a morning show in Milwaukee, "Morning Blend." It was our first time on TV! We played backup band for Willy on two of his songs, in between segments about cat adoption and gardening. Real cats! Very fun. We've done radio appearances for the past two days, first the local public radio station and then a rock station. I've gotten used to early mornings!

Tonight we play the Pabst Theater, one of the best venues around. Have I mentioned that too much yet? We open with a 45-minute set and then we join Willy on his set. It's going to be a long day and a long, glorious night.