Fin
Greetings all!
Well, here it is, the end of 2010. My epic five month tour ended earlier this month in Chicago, and I wanted to give a bit of a summary of the whole thing. I thought the best way to do that would be to present a few statistics from the last several months of travel. So, without too much fanfare, they are as follows:
I played 100 solo shows this year, which was my goal.
I was $64 short of breaking even for the trip.
The most amount money I made at a show was $250
The least amount of money I made at a show was $0
I was on tour for 166 days, or 24 weeks, however you want to think about it.
I played:
32 coffee shops
23 Bars
17 House Shows
11 Restaurants
4 Art Spaces
2 Corporations
2 Farmers Markets
1 Radio Station
1 Beach
1 Gelato Shop
1 Garden Center
1 Record Store
1 Internet Show
1 Museum
1 Skate Park
1 Fabrication Shop
I had 4 near collisions with deer, 2 of which happened after I put deer whistles on the front of my car.
I was pulled over once for running a stop sign in Wisconsin. The officer let me off with a ticket for a seat belt violation.
I heard the song ‘Wagon Wheel’ by The Old Crow Medicine Show covered 27 times by various musicians. It’s pretty much the ‘Free Bird’ of this generation.
I put 25,885 miles on my car, most of which I drove myself. For reference, the circumference of the globe (at the equator), is 24,901 miles.
I changed my oil seven times, and filled up the tank 76 times, spending $2287 on gasoline alone.
The most money I paid for gasoline was 3.05 in Kentucky, with a runner up in Key West, Florida, at 3.04.
The least I spent on gasoline was 2.42 in Lebanon, Missouri.
My car averaged 30 miles per gallon overall. The highest miles per gallon I got was 37, in South Carolina. The lowest I got was 26, almost always in cities.
I spent $743 on food.
I visited 30 states, including every state east of the Mississippi.
I shared the stage with 120 different bands and artists.
I was almost murdered once.
The places I stayed broke down into four categories:
137 nights in a house.
12 nights in the car, at rest stops.
10 nights in a motel.
5 nights in a tent.
I met so many generous people who offered me their home for a night, or several. It was truly an amazing experience all around, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I learned a ton, and considering that I came as close as I did to breaking even, I plan to take the things I learned and apply them to future tours.
I wish to extend a huge thank you to William Blackart, Rob Reid, and Longsleeves, all of whom traveled with me at various points during the tour. It was good to have fellow musicians in the car, to bounce ideas off of, and play shows with. Overall, I think I prefer traveling solo for extended periods of time, but having others around from time to time is really awesome.
Originally, I had made a plan to tour between 8 and 12 months. The more I traveled, the less feasible that idea became. I hadn’t realized how difficult it would be for me to book shows while traveling. The less shows I played, the less money I made, and the less likely it looked for me to do the entire original plan. So I restructured the tour to five months, and just went with the first goal I had set, to play 100 solo shows by the end of 2010. I did manage to accomplish that one, and I feel really good about it. Including band shows I played earlier than July, the number of shows I played this year was 120. Not too shabby. It would have been nice to be able to travel longer, but at the same time, I am really content with the outcome how it stands.
So I must now extend the biggest possible thank you that I can through email. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way to bring this about. It’s something I’ve wanted to do pretty much ever since I started playing music seriously, and to finally have the chance to do it means more than any words I could say about it here. Seriously, thank you. Keep supporting independent music. It’s one of the few completely pure things that are left in this world.
2011 is just a few hours away. I am still developing music goals for this coming year, but I can promise that they will involve a Midwest summer tour, and at least one new recording. I will be hibernating for a few months, restructuring how I want to tour in the future, and writing new material. On Christmas Day, I wrote the best song I have written in two years, so I am excited for the songs to come in the next few months.
Thank you for reading all my long emails this year! And thank you for being awesome!
All the best,
Chris
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chrisdarby.bandcamp.com
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Weeks 12-19
Greetings from Nashville!
The last time I wrote you, I was somewhere in New England. I think that was over a month ago. It’s been awhile, yes, but I needed to collect my thoughts, so to speak, play a very few shows, and just explore the East and South. Much has happened since, and so this has the makings of a long email.I suppose you must be used to that from me by now.
In Massachusetts, James and I parted ways with Rob. He was with us for about a week. We headed back to New Hampshire, for some more hiking in the White Mountains. There was one spot that I particularly wanted to see again. The place is called Franconia Ridge, and it was one of my absolute favorite spots on the entire Appalachian Trail when I hiked in 2007. It was partially covered in clouds then, but this year, it was absolutely glorious, with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was also noticeably colder, being October instead of August, but the hike up was quite strenuous, and really something of a workout. Harder than I remembered it being three years ago, but I was also in much better shape then.
We stayed at a free campsite nearby. We recorded some songs by the campfire, and roasted veggie dogs. It was an amazing campsite, and completely secluded. A bit eerie to see a makeshift cross in the clearing nearby, as if something had been recently buried, but all in all, a nice spot to camp.
The morning of the hike, we were at a trailhead, trying to find some information on trails, and where the closest one was to the summit we were looking for. Not finding anything, I approached a fellow by a jeep, to see if he knew anything. He didn’t seem to know much, and then asked if we could give him a ride to a different trailhead, so he could walk back to the one we were currently at. He said he was a trail maintainer, working for the Appalachian Mountain Club and just needed to check some things out. He had a dog named Cocoa with him. Figuring that he just wanted a ride so he wouldn’t have to walk the distance twice, I said no problem, and asked James to sit in the backseat. Once the fellow (never did get a name) saw that he would be sitting in the front seat, he suddenly decided he didn’t want a ride after all, and simple said “follow me” and headed to his jeep. Confused, I followed him for a bit, until he turned down some old dirt road. It all seemed too much like the setup to a horror film, and upon remembering the unused bow saw, and machete that he had pulled out of his jeep and stashed behind some random car in the parking lot, I decided the best course of action was to turn around, as soon as he was out of sight, and head the opposite direction. Nothing about the scenario made sense, and really, if he had needed a ride somewhere, why was he driving there? Very odd. We were understandably uneasy about the situation, and during the hike, devised wild stories about how he would be waiting for us at our campsite, which we had left our tents set up at, and demand to know why we left him in dire straits. Nothing happened, of course, but sleep was not restful, and thinking about that nearby cross just made it all the more creepy.
At 2:30 AM, the wind picked up, and tore the rain cloth off of James’ tent. I was instantly awake, and upon sensing a rainstorm approaching, asked James if he might just want to pack up and head to New York at that moment. He complied, and we packed up quickly, and took off. About 40 minutes later, the rain came, a trickle at first, and then in great sheets. We drove through the rain pretty much the entire day. We had a show in Brooklyn that night, and it was 8 or 9 hours between the two places. So it was good to get the very early start. We stopped in Providence, RI for breakfast, and Hartford, CT for lunch. As far as I can tell, there is nothing of any value in Hartford. Perhaps someone could tell me otherwise.
We arrived in Brooklyn that evening, played a lackluster show, which was James’ last show of the tour. We stayed in New York for three days, which was enough time to tell me that I was not made for that sort of city life. It’s nice for a bit, but got really overwhelming, really fast.
The drive to Philadelphia cost us $20 in tolls, which I found to be a bit steep. But the comparative calmness of Philadelphia was a nice respite from the intensity of New York. My friends Bill and Zhenya put me up for a whole week, which was amazingly nice of them. James took a flight out of Philadelphia, back to San Diego, and I was on my own again, which seemed a bit strange at first, after having his company for six weeks. But, I got into the rhythm of it again soon enough.
I played a couple of shows with Emily White, a singer/songwriter from Chicago, who happened to be traveling through the East Coast at the same time that I was. One was in Deleware, a state I have never been to before, and the other was a nice little house show in Philadelphia that Bill set up with a friend of his. Bill also plays music, under the name Bile Greene, and played guitar with my band for a bit when living in Chicago.
I visited Washington D.C. for the first time, a place that I have seen referenced a million times over. It felt epic, in a way, to be walking in these most famous monuments in the country, as if inside some giant postcard that encompassed the entirety on a city. It was a beautiful fall day, and instead of bothering with any of the museums, I decided to just spend the entire day walking around the city, which turned out to be the best choice. That is the most beautiful city to walk around in. I will have to return one day to see the many good museums, and other indoor stuff.
From Washington DC, I continued south, to South Carolina, another state I had not been to before. I caught up with a my friend Angie, who I worked with at a summer camp in 1998, but had not seen since. It was nice to say hello again, after so many years. South Carolina struck me as being the friendliest state I have been to, with so many strangers just saying hello to me on the street. It was interesting.
From South Carolina I headed to Florida, yet another place I’ve never been to. This section of the trip seemed to be less about the shows, and more about exploring places I had not explored before.
Florida is an amazing state. I had no idea I would like it as much as I did. I played a show in Jacksonville, and spent some time on the beach there. Then I checked out the fort at St. Augustine. That is an impressive place. I highly recommend it, if you are in the area.
A couple I met while hiking the trail set up a show for me on the beach where they live- Cocoa Beach, on the eastern side of the state. That was probably the best setting for a show I ever did play against. With the rising harvest moon behind me, on a beach, in perfect weather, with great company….it just doesn’t get much better than that, in my opinion. It was the sort of thing one might see in a movie, but in this case, the scene in the movie was a scene from my life.
Matt and Jodi, the couple who set up the show, also took me kayaking for the first time. They had kayaked around the entire state of Florida the year prior, and so were quite experienced in it. While out, we spotted several dolphins, and even a manatee!
I played a show in Miami, but didn’t find a place I liked too much there. I drove down to Key West early the next morning, before sunset, and happened upon on of the most ferocious storms I have ever been in. The sun was rising in the east, and I could see the colors forming in patches on the clouds and above the quickening storm. And beyond that, only blackness and stars. It was like something from a cheesy airbrushed dreamscape, but again, just another scene from life……..and then the storm hit, and was incredible in its ferocity. After crossing the 7 mile bridge that connects Key West, I found a wayside, and slept there while the storm passed.
Key West was touristy, but neat to be at the southernmost spot in the entire United States. From there, I headed to St. Petersburg, through the Everglades, with a quick stop at the smallest operating post office in the country. It was raining when I went through, so I didn’t get much of a chance to see the landscape from anywhere but the road. I was hoping to see an alligator, but no luck. I did see several pelicans though, so that made up for it.
The show in St. Petersburg was rather lovely. It was at a little bar called Caseys Pub, and being just a couple of nights before Halloween, there was also a costume party happening. Everyone was really friendly, and enjoyed the show.
From there, I didn’t have any other engagements until November 13th, so I decided to head to Missouri and visit with my family for several days. It would also allow me to vote, since I’m registered there, and hadn’t had the presence of mind to request an absentee ballot. In addition, I had some concerns about the car, and I knew a good mechanic who could check things out without gouging me with the price. It turned out not to be too severe, and the car runs as good as ever. At this point, I have put about 20,000 miles on my odometer since June, so I was getting a bit concerned that a minor problem might be quickly escalating to a bigger one. But my fears were quickly abated.
On the drive between Florida and Missouri, I stopped one day just north of Tallahassee to visit with a friend I hadn’t seen since college. It’s always interesting to catch up with people who you haven’t seen in 10 or more years- to see what changes, and what stays the same.
The day following that, I made an epic 21 hour solo drive the rest of the way, which included stops at Florida’s high point (345 feet above sea level), and New Orleans, both for no more than a half hour break. That is the longest I have ever driven in one stretch, and as I pulled in to the farm at 7:30 AM on the Monday, all I wanted to do was sleep, something which happened quickly after I arrived, and for a good many hours. At that point, I had been awake for over 24 hours, doing nothing but driving for most of that time.
On the drive, somewhere in Florida, or maybe Alabama, I stopped at a rest area to use the facilities. I found a cigarette tin, and thought that it seemed like a sturdy tin, and maybe could be used for some future storage, or project. When I looked inside however, I discovered that instead of containing tobacco, or being empty, that it actually was someones cocaine container! It was quite a shocking thing to discover. I trashed the drugs, and left something far more valuable in their place. Enclosed is a photo of what I put in its place. I felt a little bit better about the world after doing this.
And now, I am heading back to the South, to Atlanta to be specific. The remainder of the shows in November are listed in this email. I’ll write a couple more times before the end of the year. I have grown weary of travel, many times over the last few weeks, and I do look forward to seeing Chicago again. But the adventures are as good as ever, and despite the weariness, I am ecstatic to be a part of it all.
If you happen to live in the vicinity of where I am playing, and see an empty date, and want to throw a house show, or something informal, just let me know- it would be good to visit with you!
Saturday, November 13th
WonderRoot
Atlanta, GA
9 PM
Monday, November 15th
Eddies Attic
Decatur, GA
8 PM
Friday, November 19th
House Show
Boone, NC
8 PM
Saturday, November 20th
Black Bear Burritos
Morgantown, WV
7 PM
(w/ Eric Nassau)
Sunday, November 21st
The Purple Fiddle
Thomas, WV
1 PM
(w/ Eric Nassau)
Tuesday, November 23rd
The Acoustic Coffeehouse
Johnson City, TN
8 PM
Wednesday, November 24th
WDVX Blue Plate Special
Knoxville, TN
12 PM EST
(stream it live here- http://www.wdvx.com/)
Saturday, November 27th
Flying Monkey Arts Center
Huntsville, AL
8 PM
Tuesday, November 30th
The Basement
Nashville, TN
9 PM
(then back to Chicago, to start my Uncommon Ground Wednesday Residency, on the 1st of December, followed by more a few more Midwest shows before the end of the year!)
All the best!!!!!
chris darby
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Week Eleven
Hello again!
It seems that I just wrote you. And, upon checking my last email, it is confirmed that it was a mere five days ago that I sent the tenth email update out. I am writing today, however, because the completion of the last few shows marks a significant break in the tour for me. The last three months have been super busy, with the playing of shows. Over the last three months, I have played 70 shows. In the next three months, I will play about 30. So I go from playing a show almost every day, to only playing 1-3 every week. If I could do more, I would, but booking on the east coast and south has proven next to impossible for me. So I have taken it as a sign that I need to network more in those areas, and will be filling in my gaps with a lot of open mics. Open mics are one of the best ways to meet local musicians in any given city. Not a great way to cover gas costs, but thankfully, over the last three months, I have made enough money to cover whatever I might end up losing over the next few weeks.
And so, onward with this note. On Wednesday, Rob, James, and I, met up with my friend Xar, and climbed a mountain in the Whites called Mt. Chocorua. James and Rob dubbed the mountain Mt. Chocula, and were hoping for a bowl of cereal on the top. I’m not sure if they found what they were looking for. I hadn’t encountered this peak during my hike of the Appalachian Trail, but it was just as wonderful as anything else I saw in that range. Wednesday also happened to be the most beautiful day that week. Every other day was a massive downpour of rain. I am not too fond of rain, from my years dealing with it as a bike messenger, and so it made the week a difficult one for me.
After getting off the mountain, we headed back to Conway, to play an open mic at the Conway Cafe, and with a neat little scene of local musicians, who were thrilled to see traveling folks. It was a really great experience, playing there.
While at the cafe, I received an email from someone I had hiked part of the Appalachian Trail with. He went by the trail name ‘Dirt’, and was visiting another fellow hiker, ‘Ping’, who happened to live just an hour north of where we were at. So they invited us over, and we happily obliged. We had been wondering what to do for lodging that night, and camping was not looking very appealing, with the threat of a massive rainstorm, which did end up manifesting itself in the morning. It is so amazing how so many things just fall into place while traveling.
It was really nice to see Dirt and Ping. The last time I saw either of them was somewhere on the trail, back in 2007. We have kept in touch via Facebook and email, and finally were able to make a connection in person. Really great.
Thursday, we headed to Manchester, NH. We took the scenic route, but it was raining so hard that we hardly could see anything anyway. But the trees are really nice this time of year, and even in a downpour, that beauty still resonates.
In Manchester, we had two shows. An outdoor farmers market, at 3 PM, and a show at Starbucks, in the evening. The farmers market was great, and there was enough of a gap in the rain that we were able to play without getting too wet. We had a tent to play under, but in a rainstorm, sometimes a tent doesn’t help that much.
The Starbucks show was ok. I have never been in a Starbucks before, so it was also a new experience for me. It’s pretty amazing that this one has a live music evening every week. I have never heard of a Starbucks that offered live music before. Really good of the manager to set that up.
On Friday night, we played at a Borders bookstore, in Concord, NH. Rob once lived in this town, and showed us around a bit- the best pizza he has ever had, and a beachside graveyard at night were some of the highlights. Concord is a neat little town.
Between Portsmouth, and Concord, we happened upon a vegan restaurant, tucked away in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the road. They were called ‘Susty’s Cafe’, and they had some of the best food I have eaten anywhere.
We stayed with Rob’s sister again in Boston on Friday night, then hung out in Boston and the neighboring area on Saturday. I didn’t used to understand what people didn’t like about that city, but I never tried to drive through it before. Driving through Boston and trying to figure out where you are going requires firsthand knowledge of every intersection. Even with three people in the car, it still took us a ridiculous amount of time trying to find places. I think I like Boston a little less after this recent experience with it.
So we left that city fairly early, and headed to Middleboro. On the way, we saw signs for Plymouth, and James suggested that we go check out the rock. So we did that, and were thoroughly underwhelmed. If you ever think about planning a vacation around that trip, I would advise against it. There is a cool church, and really old graveyard there, which makes it somewhat worthwhile. But overall, not worth the cost of gas to get there.
The Middleboro show was at a place called the Flat Iron Cafe. The venue was basically a restaurant, but we were treated extremely well, and had a great time all around. My friend Christy, who I worked with at summer camp in Kentucky 10 years ago came out to see us play. I had not seen her in probably 10 years, so it was really nice to catch up.
We stayed with Rob’s parents Saturday night. In the morning, his Dad took us out in their boat. They live really close to the ocean. I have never been in a boat on the ocean before, so it was really exciting for me to do that! The trip was short, because the weather was not ideal, but I still had a blast.
In the afternoon, we visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which was pretty amazing. They have several whale skeletons hanging from the ceiling in there, and it turns out that whales are actually pretty huge! If you ever find yourself in New Bedford, I suggest seeing this museum.
So yes, that brings us to today. Rob leaves us tomorrow, for a return flight to Chicago, and James is still with me until Philadelphia. Today we will head back to the White Mountains, and hike Franconia Ridge on Tuesday. Then we head to New York City for a show on Wednesday, and hang out in the city for a few days. I’ve never spent any real time in that city, so this will be really nice for me.
With a sparser list of shows, I believe the updates will be written bi-weekly, for the next 6 weeks, until musical happenings start picking back up again, around mid-November.
For this week, I have only one show:
Wednesday, October 6th
Goodbye Blue Monday
Brooklyn, NY
9 PM
Hope to see some folks there!
All the best!!!!
Chris
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