Friday at Flipnotics and after, Austin

Well, this morning Scott, Kevin and Kayte all flew out of Austin for various destinations. I envy them how quickly they'll be back home. We are looking at 2 days on the road of almost non-stop driving, and they'll be home this afternoon. But, that is the way of things, and it has been awesome having them with me on the tour. Now I am on to the solo shows. Stu took today off work so he can hang out with us all day. We went out to lunch at the Screaming Goat (tasty morsels to be sure!) and explored some guitar shops. Most of them were boring, but we finally found a vintage shop with lots of primo used guitars. I realized why I had wanted to find one after we went inside. I miss Sam Moss's shop. This place was a little bigger than his shop, but it had a similar vibe, with all the old guitars. I realized upon walking in that I hadn't been in a shop like it since he died. I was never close to Sam, but I appreciated his eye for guitars. At the shop in Austin, I saw a real Epiphone Casino, like the Beatles had and the Edge uses (It is the same vintage as my Epiphone Ensign amp, from the 60's before Gibson bought them, moved their production overseas and used them as a budget line for their guitar models). There were vintage Gibson acoustics galore. There were crazy electric banjos, and gypsy guitars. There were Matchless amps, and Les Paul's - oh and we heard that Les Paul passed away this morning. That man single handedly created modern music. Most of you won't know this, but not only did he invent the humbucker guitar pickup, and the carved top solid body electric guitar (the guitar that Slash is holding on the cover of Guitar Hero 3 is a Les Paul), he also invented the multi track tape recorder. This invention changed music forever. It allowed 4 side by side sections of tape to be recorded independently of one another. This ushered in the modern studio era. Now, a musician could record the drums of a song first, then the bass, and then as he listened to both of those, he could play the guitar, and if he messed anything up, he could go back and re-record just what he messed up. Prior to this invention, studio recordings were just live performances with a mic in the room. Now things beyond live could be done. This is what George Martin did with the Beatles that was so revolutionary. They used the four track recorder to it's full potential, and no one had heard anything like it before, and people still listen to it today. Les Paul created a new medium for musical art. Thanks, Les. I hope it sounds good wherever you are. Well, they had so many used pedals at this vintage shop that I wanted to hang out for a few hours trying everything out, but it was getting to be time to go set up for the show.

When we got to Flipnotics, it turned out to be just as cool as my local friend Larry said it was. He suggested I play there. It was brightly colored, and had a vaguely spacey theme. It was positioned at the base of the biggest hill in Austin, and in the back there were several decks connected with little walkways that progressively climbed up the steep hill into the trees. Very cozy atmosphere. One thing about Austin, and Texas in general, is that it is hot. Really hot. It was 105 when we were there. Lots of people ride their bikes around and to work, and everyone sweats, and no one is put out if you smell a little hot, or have gotten a little sweaty. It's just part of living there, and everyone is in the same boat. I like how relaxed people are in Austin. The South is polite, but it is not always an honest polite. It is often a surface politeness that people still use to keep their distance. And the hippies in NC in my experience can tend to have a clique-ish supierority to them. They seem to be open-minded, but really only to their own alternative way of thinking, and not actually to anybody else. I don't know if they mean to, but they can make you feel like a loser if you are not like them. In Austin, I ran into lots of people that look just like the hippies here, and I had my guard up, because I expected them to be kinda judgemental like they can be here, but was completely disarmed by how genuinely nice people are here. Lots of different looking people, and different social subsets, and races, but folks were easy to talk to, interested in what I had to say, eager to listen to our music, and helpful in many ways that they didn't have to be. It was like a culture of kindness. Eric, who was one of the barkeeps at Flipnotics and also the sound guy, was super nice getting me in and helping me get set up. Stu helped out with the van and the trailer, and carrying gear in. We were running a little late, but got the show started on time due to Stu's terrific help. There was a tiny little stage, just big enough for me and my piano and guitar, and I got to playing the show. It felt strange not having the band. It has actually been some time since I did solo shows. So, I navigated the differences, and tried to sing my heart out. Stu and Liz were there, and they said that when I got rolling on an intense song that I was fierce! There is always a divide between stage and crowd that you have to overcome before people are enveloped into your songs. Apparently, I use fierceness to jump across! I think that sounds cool. There were two folks who used to live in New Orleans there, and they listened the to the songs, and really seemed to enjoy it. We had some banter back and forth, and turns out they also used to live in Hattiesburg, MS, where I am headed tomorrow! Small world. They signed the mailing list and bought some CD's before they left. The other folks listening were in the bands that were playing later that night. Owen and Emily, a band which does not contain an Owen or an Emily, were really cool and seemed to like the songs. Jehovah's Fitness was up after them. What a great name!

After the show, we loaded up and decided to go see the bats and get some food. There was this place with bright green neon that cought my eye on the way to the bat bridge. It was a Texas Bar-B-Q place called the Green Mesquite. More on that in a minute. In Austin, there is a big bridge, I think it's called the Congress Street bridge, that crosses the big river that runs beside downtown. Apparently, over a million bats live under this bridge, and every night at sunset they fly out in a huge cloud that lasts for a long time. There is a big statue of a bat nearby, and a crowd of onlookers gathers every night. By the time I finished the show and we loaded up, it was nearing the end of the bat cloud, but we hurried out there, and still saw quite a few of them circling around, and taking off. You could also see hordes of them on the horizon. I'd stare off at the tree line in the distance, and then my eyes would adjust and I'd see a seemingly endless stream of them cutting through a gap in the trees. It was pretty cool. The afterglow of performing, the river, the bridge, the sunset, a nice evening breeze, the city skyline, the crazy bats, and good friends well met all made for quite a memorable moment. As light faded, it became harder to see the remaining bats, and we were getting hungry, so we took off back to the Green Mesquite. Our waitress was from Asheville, if you can believe it. There was a rather long wait, and we sat there and enjoyed conversation together. I love Stu. It's like you have to be around him for a while for him to open up, but he did over the bats and into dinner. I recognized the Stu that I had taught piano to for a couple of years, and it was cool to see that's still who he is, when there's enough down time to stop worrying about work that has to be done. Nobody on task is relaxed, and he is great helper when there is work to do, that's for sure, but it felt nice to have nothing to do. When we had lessons, I remember how excited he could be about things, like there was light bulb behind his eyes, and that light was on while we were hanging out at the Green Mesquite. Oh, and the food was amazing when it did come. They can cook some cow in Texas. There was a big signed poster from the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives guy saying "You can't beat the meat at the Green Mesquite." In the outside seating area, which we could see from our table, there was a covered permanent stage. It's like everywhere is a venue in this town. I saw built stages at other restaurants too. This is a music loving place. That was a definite change from NC. There are music loving people in NC, but the city itself, and the local businesses are not into it like this. Can you imagine a Hot Topic with a stage? It's like they have gotten used to having music around, and it is just normal for bands to be everywhere. We loved Austin. Go if you get the chance.

Thursday at the Kick Butt Cafe, Austin

Wow, where to start? Tonight was an amazing night. We made so many new friends, and almost all of them musicians. For starters there was Brian, whose buddy was a wounded marine. He had been shot in the leg and had his truck blown up by an rpg. He was deaf in one of his ears because of the diesel fuel that flodded into it after the crash. He did not appear wounded at all, and was nice guy, and was awfully young. Brian had a bunch of friends there. But before the open mic even got started, there was David Morgan. He was actually booked to play the hour and a half before the open mic. He was an older guy, with a super sweet Gibson acoustic, and a thin, beautiful voice. We got there just as he was finishing up, and he and I got to talking. Turns out he is part of the Austin Songwriter's Group, which is the the Austin equivalent of the Winston-Salem chapter of the Nashville Songwriter's Association that I am a part of. He had neard of Linne Black, the lady who leads our group. She is connected everywhere it seems! He shared a lot of information about living in Austin as a musician, booking shows, pursuing the music industy, and so on. He is trying to tour some himself, and wants to get over to Asheville and some other spots in NC to play some shows. I offered to help him out when he comes this way. Super nice guy. Next on the list of interesting people we met tonight is Young Gangsta Bone. He's a fan of Kayte and came all the way from Dallas (3 hours) to see her! Young Gangsta Bone, as he calls himself on youtube and in his music, did a cover of Kayte's song "Soaked You In" and posted it on youtube. We had heard he was gonna come to the show, so were all interested to meet him. He also posts his own raps, and "Tinkerbell" was a band favorite. We had no idea what to expect, but turns out the guy is super nice. He's soft spoken, and kind. He came with his dad, and they travel all over the country detailing and repairing and transporting supercars for pro athletes. YGB, as we called him, hung out all night talking to Kayte and Scott and Kevin, and I could tell he was really glad to be there. It was another cool fan moment for Kayte, and for all of us really. He also took video of us and Kayte and has posted it on youtube. Then there was Maggie, the host of the open mic. She had bright red hair, wore a long flowing gown with no shoes, and introduced all the performers. The first guy up was Michael Pearson. He wore a tie, and carried himself like a young Lyle Lovett might've. He sang with a Texas twang about being a cat, and made all kinds of crazy noises with mouth during the song, that you just couldn't believe, made more incredible by the fact that he made all these sounds work in the song! Then we got to play, and the crowd and Maggie really liked us. We played I Miss the Explosions and I'm Gonna Kiss You. Everyone was limited to 2 songs because of a good turnout of people wanting to play, but when we finished, the crowd cheered us and Maggie invited us to play another song. That was pretty cool, and we played Miss Monsoon to more cheers. She did the same thing for Kayte after us. Among the other performers, some real standouts were Milan, who played acoustic bass solo and sang, and it was like this avante garde punk metal. But solo voice and acoustic bass. It was an impressive display, and an ambitious performance, but she pulled it off. She let me play her sweet Tacoma bass for a while afterwards. I sat outside and played Somewhere Else Than Here and wrote another solo bass groove. An artist drew my portrait while I was playing the bass. I think he would've given it to me, but preferred to trade art for art, so I traded him an EP for it. We met this very funny and outgoing, very short girl named Denise. She was so cool! She was not short on voice though, she sang Summertime from Porgy and Bess a capella and it was great. Later on, a woman in African dress got on stage with a big djembe and a tambourine. For her first song, she sang and played tambourine , and for her second song, she sang and lightly played the big djembe. Her voice was the blues. She was soul in person. It was electrifying. Everyone was transfixed. As soon as I could I reached into the bag and got out the video camera and got as much of it as I could recorded. Her name was Onyee. I didn't even get to speak to her, but she was amazing. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand, and then she fed us sorrow and redemption, love and loss, beauty and heartache. I have never heard anyone make so much music with just a tambourine. It was entire drum kit in her hands. It was like she took the little tambourine and coaxed more out of it than you thought possible, then she took the big djembe and played it so gently and quietly, asking of it only what she absolutely needed for the song. Both extremes were quite powerful. Then, our host Maggie got up on stage with her guitar, and she seemed to be friends with everyone there, so they were all cheering her on. She sang in a bright pleasant voice with a lot of sass about how all the guys who dumped her in the past were missing out cause she really was the best thing they ever saw. Her songs were a lighthearted and funny girl power moment in the course of the evening. There was this hippy/eastern guru guy named Julian who wore a brightly colored wrap up cloth, kind of like what Ghandi wore, just not white. He would say things like "I really want to hear what you're saying, but it's hard to pay attention to you when there are German songs playing so loudly in my head." He sat around reading fortunes, and generally being mystical, until it was his turn to perform, and he sang Ave Maria a capella. He was impossible not to notice! Now, on the other end of the
garish spectrum, there was quiet Nate, who was a tall lanky guy with a pony tail. He sat in the back drinking a beer most of the night. When he got on stage, he sang a song about meeting Jesus in a 5 star hotel. He was relaxing, and it turns out that he keeps a loaf and a fish with him in his pockets. When they were done talking, Jesus turned to leave and walked across the pool! It was very funny. We exchanged CD's. There was M.T., a broad shouldered man who looked like he might have been of Native American descent. He was really nice to talk to. He sang tender songs about love as he gently strummed chords on his guitar. I enjoyed his songs, and he seemed to be well-liked by everyone there. There was a humbleness about him on and off stage that struck me.






Now, I wish this next bit didn't sound as critical as it is going to, but I feel like I need to tell about this guy because he was part of our experience. I guess an open mic night wouldn't be complete without one cocky guy who is not aware that he can't play, write or sing, but who believes deeply that since he experienced an emotion, he must be the next Bob Dylan. It was just unfortunate that said emotional noisemaker used only cliched lyric after cliched lyric. Cliches are what people use when they want to hide themselves and keep a distance from who they are talking too, rather than tell of their feelings and reactions honestly. It was such an accepting wonderful atmosphere, and the overall quality of the night was so high, he would've been embraced, I think, if he had been honest in his lyrics, even if he sang and played badly. But alas, even though there were a lot of words he managed to actually express nothing. Beyond pomposity. At projecting that he was actually quite skilled. Let's just leave it at that. After everyone who signed the list had gotten to play, there was a free-for-all till the Cafe closed. Whoever got to the stage with their insturment in hand got to play again. We played I Love The Way You Smell, and Kayte played another song, both to more cheers. As the night concluded, we just didn't want to leave. We hung out till past closing. There was a little community outside all night long, with the smokers, and the artist doing portraits. He did Kayte's and Maggie's too. Julian was reading fortunes, with less than acurate results acording to Denise! We loaded up, but were in no hurry to leave. Then, a little bit of adventure, Maggie's car wouldn't start, and there was a flurry of activity to help her. I didn't have any jumper cables, so I couldn't do anything. We just hung around talking more with our new friends. The Kick Butt Cafe has a martial arts theme and is owned by Master Gohring, who also has a martial arts academy. They sold rubber throwing stars and padded nunchucks at the counter, so I got a star. Kevin informed that they actually hurt, as it bounced off of him in the parking lot. :-) They finally got Maggie's car started, and it just made perfect sense that Milan, the hard-edged avante garde punk metal solo acoustic bassist drove a big beat up truck and had jumper cables handy. Amazing night, really.

Wednesday House Party at Stu Baker's, Austin

Stu threw a great house party! We had a keg of a terrific local beer called Lone Star, the official beer of Texas (no joke). Stu set us up in his practice space, which was off of the living room, and appeared to have once been a garage, but was a finished space now. It was very cool. We set up and Kayte and Kevin did their thing. Kayte sounded great, as always, I mean I've never heard her have a bad day. Kevin played with uncharacteristic intensity, and by that I mean he is always intense when he plays for Kayte, and that seems uncharacteristic of him, since he is so laid back most of the time. It is fun to watch them and enjoy the music that comes out of them both, each built up by the other. Then Joe Next Door played, and we had a good time. Kevin challenged me to change verb tenses on I Love The Way You Smell to I Am Loving The Way You Are Smelling. Stu jumped in on drums for I Miss The Explosions, and Kevin played bass so Scott could play his lead guitar part. In spite of the smallness of the room, we had people in the room dancing and listening for the whole show, sometimes as many as 8 additional people to the band! And, we met some awesome folks. In addition to Stu's roommates, Clifford the special needs school teacher and Dave the aspiring filmmaker, there was "Boosh" (his name was actually Will, bu he was so called because he kept saying boosh to highlight points, and end sentences, and there seemed to be a direct ration of beer consumed to booshes). Turns out Boosh was from Burlington, and had been to the very Denny's I talked about during our set! What a cool coincidence to run into a local all the way out there. He was just out for a visit too. Boosh led the dancing, and was mostly dancing with one of two girls, but at one point he was actually dancing with Scott, but I don't think Scott was really into it... Then there was Tim the awesome bassist, who studied math and music at Carolina, just like our very own bassist Scotty P is considering. Another nifty coincidence. And we mustn't forget the excellent Daniel of the band Legs Vs. Arms, who was super cool, and a very good musician. One funny misunderstanding we had was that right after our show he quickly grabbed my acoustic guitar and disappeared. I saw him take it but didn't know what had happened, and then he was no where to be found. A frantic search ensued as Stu and the others assured me he was cool, and it turns out that he was off serenading a girl, and had thought the guitar was Stu's. Drama! I got my guitar back of course, but I never heard how the girl liked the song... After our show, we had a jam session and played some weird blues. I played drums, and Tim played bass and Stu played guitar. Then a big white guy with an even bigger afro came in and started making the loudest sound ever heard by human ears. Turns out he had a tiny little pen shaped kazoo in his pocket at all times, and he got very close to the mic and played it loud. It was so impossibly loud that I actually covered my ears with my hands while playing the drums with my feet, and only occasionally let go of an ear to hit the snare! But we rocked, needless to say. The last jam session was with Daniel on drums, and me on bass, and a guy whose name I can't remember on guitar. He played really cool guitar parts, but perhaps his most distinguishing feature was how often and how elaborately he apologized for himself. He would start saying something and 2 or 3 sentences later you would realize that he had just been setting up to say something derogatory about his playing, his music or himself. He has a band, and his music was awesome. And like with all things, you don't get good at them unless you practice. He was definitely a virtuoso self criticizer. His insults against himself were complex, subtle, artful, and continuous. Someone must've really hurt his feelings a long time ago to make him so keen to be sure everyone knows that he's not trying to rise above his station. But as with all low self-esteem, it is not real. He didn't actually suck at all. He obviously practiced his guitar plenty, and wrote cool music, and didn't need to apologize for anything. I hope he feels confident one day. He was a nice guy. Wish I remembered his name. While all this jamming was going on, Jamie was in the living room playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. She totally killed it! She almost beat the entire game in one sitting, and she had a crowd of fans all her own as she jumped, flew, bounced, bleeped, and otherwise taught those wicked little turtles who was boss. She was bouncing off their heads like Mario's butt was a turtle magnet. That's what I said, butt was a turtle magnet. It was pretty impressive.

Tuesday at Bohemeo's, Houston

We braved the crazy roads of Houston once more and arrived at Bohemeo's, in a historic district of Houston. It is in what I think was called the Old East Side, a blue collar neighborhood where the workers who basically built Houston over the last 100 years lived. It is just outside downtown. Houston is a vast city. It takes an hour in any direction to get out of it. I have never seen roads in worse shape, and I have never seen such complex highway routing. There are stoplights on interstate "on ramps," and 2 lanes suprise merging into 1 in a curve so you can't see it coming on an elevated highway at interstate speed. If you wreck there you fall off the interstate into traffic below. It's totally crazy, people.
Bohemeo's is such a cool club! Lupe Olivarez, the owner, and a musician himself, was great. He has a great sounding room, very live, and a hip-hop ready PA, so it had subwoofers, and was running in stereo (2 things Zoo likes muchly). Lupe ran sound for us, and it just sounded great. Kayte played another awesome show, I sound like a broken record singing her praises, but she is really is a terrific performer. Kevin, too. They get a lot of energy of pretty small instrumentation. We did a full band arrangement of Uncomplicated, and Scott played bass and I played drums! It was fun. That's a groovy song. Then I added melodica again to "Hallelujah." Scott's been sitting in on hand drums some with them too. After her great set, we jumped up on stage and proceeded to give maybe our best show of the tour. The sound has such a big impact on the quality of the show. We could hear everything, and it was big when it needed to be. That's the thing, the PA needs to be loud enough so that when you lean on your instruments, you get the volume back that you need to create intensity. If the PA is too weak, you are trying to emote but it isn't translating. Lupe's club was the exact opposite! We would dig into our instruments, and all the sound and volume would be there, and we had some really intense moments during the set. Candy Shelter really went well. I started it out more expressively than I usually do, inspired by the good sounding PA, and the boys had a new beat behind it that sounded awesome. Ghosts did the same thing. The Plybons suyrprised me with a part they had worked out for the chorus that was really big sounding. I started singing "When I feel dead inside you make me live again" and they started pounding behind me on the way into the chorus. We had just come out of a quite delicate sounding verse, so it was very intense, and super successful! I went with it and their idea made the song work really well. The Tuesday crowd was not very big, but we made friends with the folks there, including a cool guy from France named Chaz. He had an interesting insight about America and Houston in general. I asked him if he liked it here. He said that he did not like the city, but that he liked what happened to him here. I interpreted that to mean that he liked the opportunities that the American way of life gave him economically, and that he liked the people he had a chance to meet and be involved with. He just didn't like the reality of being on the ground in Houston. Hot. Humid. Crazy roads. I liked Chaz. He was a street performer in France. He and Kayte hit it off, and he talked to her about giving yourself over to the emotion of the music. He also listened to us very intently, and was smiling at the end of songs, and clapping before the last sound was finished. He was a great audience. I enjoyed performing for someone paying attention that closely.
Time to get moving towards Austin. We are gonna be playing at a house party at the Bakers tonight, and there's still packing to do. We didn't do much of yet because Kayte made french toast for breakfast at Aunt Willie's this morning (probably in honor of Chaz!).
Being on the road is great!
We haven't had car trouble yet, so keep us in your prayers.
Zoo

Monday at Khon's, Houston

Khon Lu is a cool guy. He has a little wine bar where they serve only high quality local wines and beer, and his family is always around, and they play darts in the back, and poker Texas Hold 'Em in the front on Mondays. He was passionate about the small company wines and beer from the area, and his passion reminded me a lot of Chad's passion about good tea. In the vacant store adjoining Khon's, which they have access to, Khon has created a performance space for musicians. The walls have curves and are painted cool artsy colors, there are really high ceilings, and gels on the lights, so the vibe is awesome. We set up there and had so much room to move around, and it felt really comfortable. The acoustics in that place were fantastic. I could tell when we were setting up that it was going to sound great. There was a sweet natural reverb in that room. It always lifts my singing up a notch when there is good room sound to sing into. It feels likes leaning on a wall made of trampoline, you just lean into it as far as you want and it molds to your shape and gently supports you. I love good room reverb! Anyway, one of Kayte Grace's fans from youtube came out, and it was her 16th birthday! Needless to say, she had a cool birthday. Kayte played an amazing opening set, really singing well, and sounding good. Scott added hand drums to a couple of songs, and I played piano on "Soaked You In" like we did at her EP release party in DC a couple months back. Anyway, in all of the excitement about the youtube fans and the afterglow of a great performance, Kayte and Kevin kinda forgot to mention that we were playing next, and most of the crowd left! Oops! But Joe Next Door played anyway, because the acoustics were just too good to pass up. Khon's wife Ashley, and their kids hung out and danced while we played. One of their little girls thought we were there to celebrate her recent birthday, and we were happy to oblige that role. They could hear us through the wall in the wine bar, and outside the wine bar smoking, and they told us many times how much they loved it. We got audio and video of the whole show, trying to take advantage of the special room, and we hope to be able to edit it and post some highlights when we get back. I was told by the band that I have never sung my solo song "I'd Be Close to You" better. Stay tuned for mp3's and vids next week sometime, after we get back and have time to work on them.

The streets in Houston are the worst I've ever seen, full of potholes, bumps and broken pavement. Where the pavement is not broken it's wavy and weird. There's lots of detours and road construction and blocked off areas. Whew it was a time navigating our little tour bus through it all. We get to do it again tonight on the way to Bohemeo's.

Sunday at Serda's, Mobile

Well, downtown Mobile is really cool. It is a port city, so it reminded me of Wilmington, my hometown. There were big ships, and lost of water. There's like 5 rivers all converging at Mobile Bay. There is a long long twin bridge that goes over all 5 bodies of water that you ride on to get into Mobile. It is several miles long, I mean it is a long bridge! Then it culminates with a big bridge hill and a twin dark red suspension arcs. It was like a piece of music, except it was a bridge. The show at Serda's went OK. We had some sound difficulties that meant I had spend extra setup time working on EQ-ing the speakers, which meant I didn't have time for a guitar sound check (Translate that as Zoo starts Bruises and Cuts and has to scramble around trying to fix the sound while the band keep playing the intro for like 2 minutes!) Then, because of the rush during setup, I forgot to finish connecting the piano. Translate that as Zoo counts off Useless Ears and then hits the piano riff and no sound comes out! Aside from the technical difficulties, the band was playing in a room at the back, separated from the people by a hallway. There was a camera though, pointing at us and projecting our images onto a big screen TV mounted out front. It was weird being separated from the crowd. But we sold some merchandise, and the house liked us and gave us some gas money. He also gave us pointers for some other venues, and for a good local seafood restaurant so we could have a birthday dinner for Scott. I had "fresh catch" grouper, and Jamie had fresh gulf shrimp (they're big and delicious!). Both were freaking fantastic!











Scott got some free fried strawberry cheesecake for desert, since it was his birthday. There was a little chemistry between Scott and our waitress, but alas, we were on the road all too soon for anything to blossom. The best part about mobile was meeting Matt and his wife. They came to the show, and then they opened their home to us. They even got a place for themselves and their kids so we'd have room in their house. It was immeasurably kind. We had comfortable accommodations, and showers on a night when I thought we'd sleeping in our own stink. Matt is a musician too, and plays guitar for his church. We now have a friend in Mobile Alabama! As I'm writing this we are on the way to Houston, currently traveling through Mississippi. We are on the way to Khon's, where we will be playing from 8-10, and where they will be having Texas Hold 'Em night! Promises to be fun...
Also, Kayte, Kevin, Scott and I played together on one of Kayte's songs yesterday. We are planning to do more of that tonight. Being on the road has been fun so far! We basically ran out of gas in Atlanta, but I brought my lawn mower gas can with about a gallon in it, and that got us to the gas station. The trip to Houston today is the longest haul yet, and I expect we'll be tired tonight. Jamie has been helping drive yesterday and today, and that has been a big relief. Driving with the trailer requires full time awareness, and just being able to stop thinking about it as a passenger is like resting. The rest of the week will be more relaxed though, since we are playing 2 days in Houston, and 3 in Austin, which is only 3 hours away. Jamie and I will be doing a long haul on our own next weekend, but that's then, and this is now, and there's no time now to worry about then.
More soon loyal friends and fans,
Zoo, over and over and over and over and out.

Saturday at Java Monkey, Decatur GA

Amazing night, amazing venue, amazing food! Kayte and Kevin joined us tonight, and for the next 5 shows. They were awesome! My mom also came to visit, down from Cornelia. She doesn't like to drive long trips these days, so it was great to see her. And man, the Java Monkey in Decatur GA is a place worth stopping by if you can. We will definitely be coming back. The music space is a covered stage area that is outside. There is a lot of foot traffic in this area. It has a cool downtown vibe, kinda like Trade Street, back home. We were in downtown Atlanta last night, and that feels metropolitan, with sky scrapers and lights, but this part of Atlanta was much further south, and felt like another town. We played to a receptive crowd, sold some merch, and got some terrific food. I mean like melted brie and apples, pita bread with hummus to die for, chef salad full of lots of beautifully colored baby greens, mozzarella/tomato sandwiches, amaretto butter cream cake, and mango black tea. Yeah.
It was awesome. A guy came by as we were packing up, and he went crazy for the green guitar. He was a little drunk, but he was appreciating all the right things about it. He had an eye that picked up a lot of the unique craftsmanship of the instrument. He requested to hear a song, so we pulled out an acoustic and did an impromptu version of "I love the way you smell" with Scott playing dumbek, and Kevin beating on suitcases. It was cool. He signed the email list, and then shoved some money in my hand since we had already packed the tip jar. All in all, a great night! Getting up wicked early for a trip to Mobile, though. G'night friends!
Zoo, on the road.

Friday at The Urban Grind, Atlanta

Well, the first show of the tour was good. Scott & I played duo arrangements of the set for a small but attentive crowd who listened throught the whole thing. At various points through the set I saw each of them reacting to songs. That was cool. They were all Devin McLaughlin's friends, who came out for his opening set, and then stayed for us. He was a nice guy who played acoustic and sang a nice mix of covers and originals with his friend playing saxophone along with him. It was cool. He had a nice voice. I'm glad he brought his friends. We didn't sell anything, but we got most of them on the mailing list. Also the venue liked us and said we could play again the next time we come through. One down, 8 to go!