2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #2 (day 8)

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 923
Average Speed - 47 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33

I am typing this entry to you from the location of my first House Concert of the Tour, in Cleveland, Ohio. I'll be doing the first of two House Concerts here in about an hour.

So... we left off after my last show in Cincinnati on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I would visit one of my favorite spots in OH - Night Sky in Troy.

(I guess they really want you to remember that Ohio is part of The United States of America.)

I got there early to eat dinner, and set up the stage area to perform. There was a decent crowd there by the time that I started. But after my second or third song, a table with a big party including small children got up and left. And shortly after they left, it seemed like over half of the restaurant filed out. It was kind of strange. I finished my first set, and waited around to see if any more people might trickle in. A couple, who for some reason decided not to clap after my songs, wound up buying 2 CDs. One of them was a local high school band director. I think I will always be confused by people who like the music enough to buy an album or more, but don't applaud. I just don't get it.

I packed up my gear, and as I was mostly done with that, a few people came in. As it was getting close to closing time, I didn't re-set up anything. But as I continued to pack up my gear, a few employees came by to check out CDs, and I wound up selling 6 CDs there. Not bad, considering the number of people who were there.

One of the employees told me about an open mic that was happening that night at a bar a couple of blocks away. I figured it would only make sense to check it out, since I was right there. It didn't seem very promising at first, but as I waited around, more people arrived at the bar. I decided to play a mini set. It wasn't the most attention-paying crowd, but there were a few people paying attention, one of whom bought a couple CDs after I finished playing. So it was definitely worth stopping by, and that night wound up being much better than I was fearing it would be!

Thursday was mostly a relaxing day. I got up, took a shower, and headed back to Night Sky, where I was invited to grab lunch. I did so, and also had my first chance to use a computer with a keyboard since the tour began. I tried to catch up a bit on some booking, and composed the first blog entry of the tour, as well. I got back to where I was staying, relaxed for about 30 mintues, and then packed the car again, for my drive to Ohio Christian University in Circleville, OH (maybe 40 miles south of Columbus). During this drive, I noticed that the heater in my car didn't seem to be working.

The school was feeding and housing me, and I was told that I needed to get there before 7 if I wanted to grab dinner there. I arrived shortly after 6:30. Oh, I was also told to go to "The Cafe", and that I'd have no trouble finding it, because the campus is small. Well, the campus is pretty small, but I found no such building called "The Cafe". I did find something with cafe in its name, but there was no one inside that room, and it was certainly not set up for dinner. Then I went to a building that looked a bit like a student center to me. Again, not a soul to be found. I walked around, hoping to just find one person to talk to, so that I could go to this Cafe which I was searching for.

My third stop (it was about 6:50 or so at this point) was at the campus welcome center. It seemed like I was about to strike out, when I found an office with a few people in it. One of them called one of the student activities people for me, and I was directed to where I would need to go. It was really close to 7 at this point, and they had locked the doors for the dining area. We were let in, and though food was not being prepared any more, there was some pizza and salad bar food left out still. So that had to suffice for my dinner.

I hung out for a bit after eating, until it was time to start the show. The parameters were really loose - I think they only expected me to play for about an hour, because some of the kids seemed surprised that I had 2 sets worth of material. It was a pretty fun show, and a good number of kids came out. Unfortunately, I only sold one CD, because most of the kids didn't have cash on them. Several of them asked me if I could take credit card payments. Does anybody out there know how much a merchant account would cost me? I have an iPod Touch that should be able to use the app for accepting payments, but I haven't looked into the logistics of accepting credit card payments in a while. Last I checked, the costs of setting up and running an account were a little too high to justify getting one.

It turned out that I would be staying in that same building that I first went inside upon arriving at the campus. It was a really nice apartment that is usually used to house missionary families. The folks at Ohio Christian treated me really well, and it looks like I'll be making some return trips there on a regular basis.

I had my first two-show day yesterday (Friday the 23rd). The first of these was in the small town of Berlin, OH. The owner had indicated that they have a great lunch crowd in the late afternoon. I started about 10 minutes late, because of some driving delays on one lane country roads that I should have been able to go 55 mph on, but got stuck at about 40 mph for good portions of. I set up my PA in record time. I noticed on my way in, and after walking around the place, that no fliers had been posted for the show, though they had been emailed out twice. That is often a bad sign, because it indicates that the venue doesn't really care about having live music. The baristas didn't seem to be aware that I was going to be playing that afternoon, and when I asked about the lack of fliers, I was told that the owner doesn't always inform them of things. Great. In addition to this, there was no built-in lunch crowd. For my first set, I played to maybe 7 or 8 people, all of whom weren't there to sit and stay or eat. I made a dollar in tips, and one of the employees picked up a CD as she left when her shift was over. I took a break to eat lunch (I hadn't eaten, since I had arrived later than I wanted to), and somewhat reluctantly got back up to play another once I noticed several people walk in the front door. A woman and three kids sat right in front of me, which was interesting, because this place was rather large, and there were tons of open seats. They were the only people who really seemed interested in the music, and the woman bought a CD before they left. Once they left, I played another song or two, and got ready for another drive for my second show.

This drive was relatively short, but longer than I expected it to be, because of a road closure and because I had to drive through Extreme Amish Country. It was insane. I have always known Lancaster, PA to be the Amish capital of the world, but this area destroyed Lancaster (I've driven through Lancaster several times). There were Amish people everywhere; at points, I'm pretty sure there were more Amish people than non-Amish, or "English", as I think they refer to us. There were Amish people on foot, Amish people on bicycles, Amish people on horseback, and Amish people on horse-drawn buggies on 55 mph roads. There were buggies to the left.

There were buggies to the right.

At points, there were even buggies on both sides. Sorry, no picture; you'll have to take my word for it.

I made it to Sonnets in Wadsworth, OH (a small town outside of Akron) a little later than I anticipated, but this time with enough time to eat dinner before performing. But, as with the first show, there were no fliers posted. I asked someone about it, and he said he was sure he saw the fliers somewhere, and that he thought they had been posted. What can you do? This show was a little better than the other one, and a few people even came out early, in ancticipation of the show. I wound up selling 4 CDs at that show, 2 of them to a family that included a mom with a brain tumor. My wife and I had recently watched a movie about the importance that music plays in our brain functioning (The Music Never Stopped), and this woman connected with the music in much the same way that it was portrayed in the movie. It was pretty neat to be a part of that, and an honor to get to meet that family. They told me that I was the best musician to play on the stage there, and that they've been coming out at least once a week for a while now.

There was a photographer on hand for the show, as well as a curious high school couple - they had a handheld video recorder, and recorded about 2/3 of one of my songs, and then got up and left. I don't know if it will be up on YouTube, or what their story was. Curious, I tell you.

The first House Concert is about to start. Gotta go!

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #1 (day 5)

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 638
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33.5


Well.... unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to share about the tour so far. The first few days have been somewhat uneventful. The tour began on Saturday the 17th in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a venue that I have known about for several years now. This show was a late addition to the tour, and increased the number of days on the tour by 3 or 4. The bill for Saturday's show included 2 OH performers, one of them a Cincinnatian. So I was hopeful that there would be a good crowd, and was told to expect one. When the local performer didn't even arrive until after the first act went on, and I learned that the venue had failed to post fliers that were sent to them, I started having my doubts.

When all was said and done, we had 2 paying audience members, one of whom I had met during my summer shows in the Outer Banks and would be staying with for the first two nights of the tour. Neither of the OH acts brought any people out for the show. It was a definite disappointment. But my host bought a couple of CDs (even though I tried to give them to him), so I guess things could have gone a little worse.

The venue didn't have meal food, so by the end of the show at about 11 pm, I still hadn't had dinner. My host noticed that there wasn't food at the venue, and asked if I had eaten dinner. He then insisted on taking me out to grab a bite to eat. He hadn't had much to eat for dinner either, and we stopped into a Steak & Shake outside of Cincinnati, on the way to his place in Dayton. This worked out well, because I had coupons! If I wasn't allowed to pay for my dinner, I would at least save my host some money. I guess it's not technically fast food, but I would consider this my first fast food meal of the tour. I try not to have fast food more than a couple times while I'm on tour (and usually go to Taco Bell if I do - a guilty pleasure of mine). Anyway, we stayed up talking music and a variety of other topics before calling it a night.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit, and we headed to a local diner for brunch. I meant to take a picture or two, but I didn't. The diner was an old school one, with old ads and table-top jukeboxes and other nostalgic things within its walls. It was called The Hasty Tasty, and there apparently used to be 9 locations in and around Dayton back in the day. I don't know if there are more than just this one location now, but I think there are. Any Dayton readers care to comment?

My host showed me around town a little, and then we headed back to his house, where we would watch the Pittsburgh Steelers handily defeat the Seattle Seahawks in a game of American Footy-Ball. Here is a still of one of the plays from that very game:

I had no shows on the schedule for this second day of the tour - a first for any Fall Tour that I've ever done - so I had checked out some open mics, and we went out to one around dinner time. We went to a venue that I had tried to book shows at in the past, and it was a pretty cool room in an apparently music-supporting small town called Yellow Springs. My host brought out a couple of people, and I played a few songs. I sold a CD there, maintaining my fragile consecutive-days with CDs sold record. We hung around a little bit after I played, and I asked about their booking process, with little solution offered (only one person does the booking, and she isn't easy to get a hold of).

We headed back to the house and hung out a bit, and I retreated to the guest bedroom for the night. I perused my host's Netflix lists, and watched a movie that wouldn't keep me up too late. It was not very good. I was a bit surprised, because it was the first Adrien Brody film that I've seen that I didn't like. The movie was...

The acting was fine, and I still think that Brody is a great actor, but the movie just wasn't that good. I don't recommend it.

On Monday, I would head back to Cincinnati for another show. This one was at a non-profit coffee shop, and the owner told me not to expect a huge crowd. Mondays are probably the most difficult days for finding shows with good crowds, so I was appreciative of his honesty, and approached the show accordingly. It was, in fact, very low on the attendance side, with only about 5 people there, and maybe 2 on a consistent basis. I decided to only play one set. I still managed to sell 2 CDs, which was about 1.7 more than I expected to sell. And the friendly barista there offered me a lot of info on the music scene in the area, and potential venues and areas to look into for future visits.

That night, I stayed with a friend who I originally knew from his days in Nashville, and his family. I watched another movie that night, before hitting the hay.

This one was much better.

On Tuesday night, I would again head to Cincinnati for another coffee shop show. It was starting to feel like

This time, though, there was finally a crowd, and our first good show of the tour. Thank God. There are inevitably going to be some bad dates on any tour, but after three unusual days in a row, this was an extremely-welcomed change. The owner and other worker were very nice. The owner did her best to spread the word about the show, and it was apparent. For a Tuesday night, it was a good number of people, and at least a few of them came out just to hear the music. I wound up selling 8 CDs by the end of the show.

I had eaten lunch earlier in the day with my host, at an Indian buffet. We stuffed our faces, so I was in no condition to eat dinner before the show. So they made me an order to go, and sent me on my way, asking me to come back for shows in the near future. It's nice to have a good potential musical base venue in Cincinnati now; that city has been an enigma to me over the past few years.

I watched yet another movie to accompany my late night dinner eating.

This one was just okay. I wouldn't recommend it. But it did contain some good acting again, and Christian Bale really made his body suffer in order to play his part in this movie.

Well, I shall bid you adieu here, on a good note for the tour. I'm currently writing from the town of Troy, OH as I sit at one of my favorite places (and the location of last night's show) - Night Sky.

Thanks for following along - please spread the word about this tour's shows, and come back soon for the continuing tale of this year's Fall East Coast Tour.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - begins tomorrow!

I'll be hitting the road tomorrow, for the first stop of the tour - Rohs Street Cafe in Cincinnati, OH!

I didn't have time to work on a fancy map this year, so Google was there to save me. Here's the approximate route of this year's tour. It's not as accurate and doesn't contain all the stops (and isn't as fancy), but it's very close to the path that I will be traversing over the next 5 weeks and 2 days.

For all of the show details, please check out www.JeffMillerOnline.com

This year's route looks a bit like Pikachu: