Greetings from southern Missouri! I have spent the last week and some days getting accustomed to a life in a car, and playing music every night. The following is a summary of these adventures.
While the tour technically started last Weekend, with the Songwriter Festival, I have to say something about Stumpjack Coffee Company, where my band played on July 3rd. Stumpjack Coffee is located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and is one of the best places I have ever played music at. It is always a good place for us to play, with no lack of friendly people.
We played that show, to a very receptive audience, and then headed back to Chicago to prepare for the festival, and the tour as a whole. There was much to do. The festival alone required significant preparation. Twenty of my favorite bands and solo musicians in Chicago played over the course of three nights. It was a nice send off for me, and the Saturday night show managed to raise a good amount of money for gas expenses while traveling around. Everyone played wonderfully, and the event helped pinpoint everything I love about the music scene that I have become involved with in Chicago. There really are some amazing things happening in that city.
On Sunday, July 11th, the band headed to DeKalb, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, to play at another of our favorite venues in the Midwest- The House Cafe. The vibe of this place is unmatched anywhere, and again, the work that the venue puts into putting on a show is just impressive. Our friends Facing Winter played this show with us- they were amazing as always.
This also happened to be the last show I would play with Philip for a good long time. Philip and I have been playing music together for most of the last decade, and have developed a great musical relationship because of it. It should have been a sad occasion, but I know that we will play music together again in the future at some point, so it was more just a really fun time with Philip, Julius, and myself, who have been the core of the band since early 2009.
Julius and I continued along after the show to the Quad cities area, with Georgi, who was traveling with us for a couple of days. Julius happened to be doing some field work in the area, and so had a hotel room there already. It was a nice coincidence, and so it meant that he was able to play the noon show with me in Davenport, Iowa the following day.
That show was at a place called Mojo’s, which is an amazing room. They have a music series at noon every day, and we were the features for Monday, July 12th. Despite the music series, there was almost no one there, with the exception of about five folks who had come just for lunch. This is to be expected at noon shows, which I do play sometimes. Often they are good for some tips, and a live practice session. Sometimes they actually turn out better than the evening shows do. My philosophy is that any show is better than none, and enough good has come out of booking really random places at odd times, that I am encouraged to keep booking these sorts of shows from time to time. However, this particular show did not prove to be anything more than a good practice for Julius and myself.
That show would be my last with Julius for a while. Georgi and I dropped him off at his hotel room in Moline, and headed back to Chicago, which was about a four hour drive. In Chicago, I competed in the Uncommon Ground semi-annual Open Mic Finals, which is sort of a big deal in the city for a singer/songwriter. The grand prize is a big pot of money, which could have come in handy for tour. That was the reason I drove back to Chicago from Davenport, instead of just staying there, and continuing on to Peoria, which was the Tuesday night show.
I knew it was a long shot, and did not end up winning the competition. But the experience was a good one, and I was able to say goodbye to a couple of folks who I had not had a chance to say goodbye to before. It was a nice night.
Tuesday was a very busy and stressful day, filled with packing and finishing up all the loose ends for the tour, one of which included acquiring a cell phone. I have never owned one of these before, so the acquisition of it was sort of a monumental occasion for me. It still seems like a really weird thing to own, even though I know that it will come in handy during the next few months of travel. After much hustle and bustle, I was able to leave the city around 2 PM, which normally would have given ample time to get to Peoria in time for a 6 PM show. But I should have taken into account that in Chicago, one should add at least one more hour to any projected travel estimate, just to allow time to get out of the city. This particular time, there was an accident on the freeway, and so I was stuck in stop and go traffic for over an hour. This also meant that I was late to my first solo show on the tour, which was unfortunate.
The place was Copper River Coffee, and despite my being late to the show, everyone was really friendly, and some folks even came out to see me play, which surprised me, being a Tuesday night in a town I had no connections with, and had never even been to. After the show, two people wanted me to accept Jesus so that I could fight for him, and I told them that I wasn’t really into any sort of fighting. It is interesting how people make assumptions without even asking questions first.
After the show, I drove around Peoria a bit, and then headed to a rest stop to sleep for the night. I was really tired, as the preparations from the week preceding that day had caused me to only get 4-6 hours of sleep a night. I slept, but not enough, as the hot sun arrived around 7 am. Wednesday night I played in Charleston, which is just a couple hours from Peoria. This meant that I had an entire day to relax, in a matter of speaking. It was nice to have a day of relative leisure. I read a bit from the book I am currently reading- ‘Slapstick’, by Kurt Vonnegut. I love Vonnegut so much, and he has not let me down yet. Everything he wrote seems to be amazing. The rest of the day included a stop in Champaign to use their amazing Library for wifi access. The challenge for the tour will be continuing to book shows from the road. This week, that seemed to be a more significant challenge than I had previously anticipated. I will figure something out, I’m sure.
The Charleston show was at a place called Jackson Avenue. That also happens to be the name of the street it is located on. This turned out to be the best show of the entire week. The owner was super nice, and many people came to the show- people who appreciated folk music, and appreciated what I was doing. I had played that place before with the band, many years prior, and because of those experiences, was not expecting this to be a great show. But the place has a new owner now, and the atmosphere has really turned around. Usually they only have music on Saturday nights, but they made an exception for my show, and despite the off night, there was a good, receptive audience. Jackson Ave has been upgraded into one of my new favorite venues to play!
I slept in a rest stop on Wednesday night as well, but this time, I covered the dashboard and a couple of windows, so the sun was not quite so bright in the morning. I slept better, but still woke up early.
On Thursday, I had two shows. One was in Springfield, Illinois, and the other was in Champaign. Neither show was really much more than a live practice session, with a bit of money made from tips. In Springfield, I wandered around the downtown a bit, and happened upon the Lincoln Home, which is a few blocks of houses that have been restored to look the same way that they would have looked in the time of Abraham Lincoln. I didn’t go in any of the houses- it was great just to walk around the dirt streets and imagine how life would have been at that time. One of the houses was the house that Lincoln lived in, which was really quite a huge house.
My friend Ryan put me up in Champaign. It was nice to have a bed and shower, along with good conversation. These things always are amazing things when traveling, and when not traveling. Just amazing things in general.
On Friday night, I played in St. Louis, Missouri, at a place called Pops Blue Moon. The crowd was light, but the fellow I played with, Casey Reeves, was really great. I recommend checking him out. Before the show, I was playing some guitar in a nearby park, when a man approached me to say hello. (side note: if you ever want strangers to just come up and talk to you, play a guitar in a park. i don’t think i have ever done this and not had someone come up and say hi).
The man was just getting off work, and we talked for awhile. At one point, he asked where I lived, and i responded by saying that at present, I live in my car. He got really solemn, and said he was sorry. I responded by saying that it was completely ok, that it was by choice, because of the tour, etc. He didn’t really understand, and I think he sort of thought I was a bit strange for wanting such a thing.
After the St. Louis show, I headed south, down I-44, to my parents house, near Lebanon Missouri. It is always good to visit them, and often times feels like a retreat of sorts- staying on a farm, away from everything. It’s nice.
On Saturday night, I headed to Springfield to play a show at a place called ‘The Magic Bean’. I wasn’t expecting much, but there was a good crowd, and this happened to be the strangest show of the week, and possibly the strangest show I have ever played. If you took away the very few adults in the room, the average age of the audience was probably somewhere between 12 and 14. The reason for this was that performers I got paired with were also very young, and the size of the crowd was due to one of them having just signed a deal with a major label, and was about to head out on a tour of the United States. I think she had also done some work for the Disney Channel. Even though everyone was quiet, I don’t think they quite knew what to make of me. A few folks liked it though, and some cds were sold, etc.
So that is the scoop from the last week and some days. It was sort of an odd week, because of the Festival, which was a thing in and of its own. Also, I have several items that I am storing in Missouri, which were taking up space in my car until now. So in some ways, I sort of feel like everything up until now has been preparations for the tour. Now that I have streamlined everything, the tour can begin, in my mind :)
Next week will be several shows in Arkansas. I am in Missouri until Wednesday, when I will head south. As always, I continue to look for shows for October and beyond. If you can help out on the east coast, or know anyone who lives there who might be able to help, please don’t hesitate to let me know! All offers will be seriously considered!
Until next time,
Chris Darby
www.facebook.com/chrisdarbymusic
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