2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #8 (end of Tour + 4 days)

Miles Driven - 4393
Average Speed - 45 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33.5

Well, the longest tour of my life is finally in the books. It began unexcitedly, but the middle and end were very good, with some occasional disappointments.

We finished the last entry at the end of my week of shows in PA. I will probably break up the rest of the tour into at least 2 posts, lest we get carried away with a humongously-long entry here. We'll likely settle for two very long ones instead.

So... Sunday morning, I had to get right out of bed when my alarm went off, hit the showers, pack the car, and hit the road ASAP, or risk being late for my start time at a vineyard in northern VA. I was close to being late, and as I was 5 miles away, one of the managers called to make sure that I was on my way. The vineyard was absolutely packed on this day. "Great!", you would think; but you would be wrong. There are several laws that can be applied to many of the shows that I do. One of them is the musicians' Murphy's Law, which states that the biggest, loudest, and most obnoxious party will undoubtedly be seated as close to the musician as possible (I've shared an instance of this law in at least one other post). Another law is much like the Law of Diminishing Returns. In the music world, keeping all things constant (the venue, its size, the performer, the volume of the music, etc.), and just increasing the size of the audience, most people would think this is a good thing. And, to a point, it is. But there is an audience size that is perhaps like the golden mean - a spot between two extremes - an audience size that is ideal for music listening. On this Sunday, that golden mean was grossly surpassed. It was great for the winery, I am sure; but it was horrible for me. A few people let it be known that they were at least trying to listen, and appreciated what they could hear, but it was just too crazy of an environment for a positive music-listening experience. While I was packing up and getting ready for the second show of the day, the same manager who had called me approached me to ask how I made out with CD sales (I think he expected me to have done really well). I informed him that I had not sold a single CD, and had only made $5 in tips. In 4 hours... I got paid decently for my services, but I fear that this location might be relegated to a "final resort" spot on the booking hierarchy. While I was packing up, I made a little more in tips (largely because someone wanted me to sing "Happy Birthday" to a friend before I hit the road again. And a visitor from Europe who also played guitar put ten dollars in the tips jar (doubling the tips from the entire time there). He didn't realize that this was the cost of one of my earliest 2 albums, so I gave him a copy of my second album.

The second show on that Sunday would be a much more relaxing affair, albeit less lucrative. There is a Sunday night songwriter series that takes place each week in our nation's capital. Pay is low, but they feed performers (a $25 food tab, which I transform into a dinner and a lunch for the following day), and the performance time is usually just around 45 minutes. On good nights, the built-in crowd tips decently and picks up some cds. Unfortunately, on this Sunday night there weren't too many people out, but I got to relax just a bit, eat dinner (I ate a little for breakfast that morning, and maybe an apple and a granola bar during the day), and catch local old-school blues artist Jonny Grave. After my set, I packed up and headed to my DC-area hosts' home. Sunday was a long day, especially after a week of sticking to one corner of Pennsylvania.

Monday was Columbus Day, and I had a show in Baltimore, MD. I usually hate driving in the DC area, but had no real issues during this tour. I didn't really think about it, but my host informed me that most of the area's employed are government workers, and would be off work because of Columbus Day. I left their house around a quarter to 4, and the drive could not have been much better. I actually increased my fuel economy during the drive! This is, of course, unheard of during waking hours anywhere near DC.

The show was not as great as the fuel economy news, though. Mondays are usually tough, but I was hoping that Columbus Day might allow for some people to go out to catch some music. I ate dinner at the coffee shop, and played a couple of short sets. I spent a little time talking to the owner and some of the patrons, one of whom was a young British man named Rowan, who was taking a touring vacation through the U.S. You may not believe it, but he had the same phone that I use! If you've been reading, you will recall that, just 4 nights prior, I had met the only other person in the world (to my knowledge) who uses the LG GS170. I have owned this phone for over a year now, so it came as quite a surprise when I saw the CMU student pull the phone out after my show there the previous week. When I saw that Rowan also had this very same phone, I just about lost it. Of course, I got someone to take our picture as evidence.

Rowan asked me how much I paid for the phone. When I told him that it was free (actually, I was paid 15 cents to get it, but that's a long story), he was not too pleased. He picked it up as a "cheap phone" to use in case of emergency while in the states, and apparently got ripped off somewhere. I think he bought it in NY City, though, so that might explain it.

Aside from the very first show of the tour, this was the worst one. At least they fed me here, though.

I stayed about 30 minutes south of Baltimore that evening, with some old Pittsburgh friends who had relocated. On Tuesday, I would make the drive out to NY City for my one and only show there on this tour. I often play two shows in NY when I go. I think this is because it is usually such a hassle to get into the city that I feel like I need to play twice to make everything worthwhile. I always forget how long the drive is through New Jersey. At least I got my gas tank filled for a pretty low price. I think it was like $3.19(9) a gallon at the time. It may have been a little less. This tour was one of only three or four (over 8 years) during which gas prices did not go up. The national average dropped a whopping 13 cents between the start and the end of this tour, according to GasBuddy.com

Anyway, NY was fun. I got through the Holland Tunnel in maybe 15 minutes (it often takes me 40 to an hour), and found parking pretty close to the venue. A bunch of friends came out to the show (on a Tuesday, nonetheless! I wish more cities were this reliable.), including a couple girls from Pittsburgh who used to come see me play at a music series at a coffee shop several years ago. It was a fun night. A couple of friends offered to pass the tip jar around for me, which was outstanding and super helpful. I made $95 in tips, and sold a CD as a result. The crowd at this particular venue was probably right near the golden mean. The last time I performed here, the crowd was too large, and had grown too large to be won over. But this time, even though there was a pretty high percentage of people who didn't know me, most of them paid attention, and even came up to me to talk during set breaks or after the show. 'Twas good. Thank you, New York.

The NY visit was very short, and that was kind of strange. I drove through New Jersey, and then things start getting car-heavy when I get close to the NJ/NY border and the Holland Tunnel entrance. Then, once into Manhattan, things are usually crazy, with tons of people and cars everywhere. I parked, walked about a block with my gear to the venue, and set up to play. I performed three sets, between 7 and 10 pm, and got to catch up briefly with some friends and fans. Then I had to pack up again, get in the car, drive back through the Holland Tunnel and just about 15 miles away from Manhattan, where I would be staying in NJ for the evening.

The next morning, I would discover that my netbook keyboard had ceased to function. It may seem like a small thing to you smart-phone, iPad-toting, tech-savvy hipsters, but my communication became a bit inhibited at this point. I still had some shows to set up for the tour, not to mention other emailing for future performance dates, and tour blog entries to post. I would definitely have been closer to finishing recapping this Fall Tour if the netbook was still functioning at this point. The keyboard still does not work on the machine, and I will be re-installing the OS on that little bugger sometime soon. But then I won't need it again until the next tour. Argh.

On Wednesday the 12th, I would perform at a venue I had known about for years, but never got a chance to perform at - Steel City Coffeehouse, just west of Philadelphia. I was running a little late for sound check, but they weren't ready to sound check when I got there anyway, so everything was fine. Some venues request the strangest times for load-in and sound check. This one asked me to be there around 5 for a 7:30 show. I think they just assume that most musicians will be at least an hour late for everything...(?) The other band and I waited around for at least a half hour before doing any checking of the sounds. And I was the opening act, so I check last, which meant I waited another 20 minutes before my checking of the sounds began. But it was a cool venue. Turnout was less than stellar - all the people who told me they would be coming did not come out, but 5 people who I wasn't expecting did come out (one of them was a 3-week old baby, so you parents out there who use children as an excuse to stop going out to things, I'm on to you). The band, which was pretty much a local group, and pretty decent, I might add, unfortunately only brought out 2 people. It wasn't the best show for a Wednesday near Philadelphia, but I sold 2 cds and a shirt, and the management really liked what I did, and want to put together a bill for the future that will yield better results. It was still an enjoyable night.

I gotta go. It looks like it will still take at least two more posts before this Tour is fully recapped, my friends.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #7 (day 33)

Driving Stats (these have not changed, as I have not driven anywhere since the last post):

Miles Driven - 3362
Average Speed - 42 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

On Friday the 7th of October, I had my only 3-show day of the tour. 2 of these shows were on campus at The University of Pittsburgh. The first was at the Hillman Library, where the "Emerging Legends" Series is held during the school year. I find it a little humorous that a music series is held in a library. It's not that uncommon of a thing, though, as many public libraries around the country have regular music series. And people come out to listen to music here, so it's a great atmosphere. Today was no exception, and it was a good show. And it's an hour-long show, which means that I don't have to worry as much about straining my voice with an early show. I just added a radio appearance to the last Saturday of the tour, and though I am only doing 2 songs, I need to pick ones with a lower range, so as not to agitate my voice. But this first show on the 7th started at noon, so it was less of an issue.

I went back to my folks' house to grab a late lunch - around 3, actually. The second show of the day was at a nearby coffee shop. And though it was nearby (maybe 15 miles away), it took me about 45 minutes to get there through South Hills Pittsburgh traffic. Doh. I started that show a few minutes late, but everything went well, and a good little crowd came out for the show, including some old high school friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It's always great to see old friends at shows, especially when it's people I haven't seen in a long time. The owner of the coffee shop was kind enough to let me eat dinner after the show (and after their closing time), since I had eaten lunch so late in the day.

After this early evening show, I had some time to kill before heading back to Pitt's campus, for my "showcase" appearance at Friday Nite Improvs, the area's only audience-participation comedy show. I ate a banana and called my wife before starting the car up again. I got to Pitt rather early, which is kind of nice, because I usually arrive there later than I want to, because I am always coming from another show to perform at this one. Attendance was good, and again, I got to see some old friends. The Showcase is just a 3-song performance towards the end of the show. I had been asked to do something Halloween-y for the show, and had been working on figuring out "Thriller" over the past few days. But I really didn't have enough time to memorize all the words, or get the music to where I wanted it. So, it being a comedy show, I decided to do something that I thought would be pretty funny: I interchanged lyrics from each of the three verses to make one verse. Consequently, the lines no longer rhymed with each other, and the words didn't make sense most of the time. But it wasn't as funny as I was hoping it would be. I still think the idea was pretty funny. But the way the lyrics mashed up, it didn't result in anything weird enough to be really funny. But I had a guy come up and dance during the song, and he also did the spoken word part at the end of the song rather well.

Then I played a couple of my songs. I'm always a little nervous about how things will be received here, or rather, how and whether it will translate into CD sales, especially since most of the audience is college students. But it went well, and I sold 5 cds after the showcase (not bad for only playing 3 songs), and 14 on the day.

By the way, the CD sales number is up to 108 at this point in the tour. With 5 show dates left (6, counting the radio show), the total number will be close to the all-time high reached this spring. But this tour also has 13 more days than that one, so the comparison would not be fair.

On Saturday, I would play my final western PA show of the tour, at a restaurant where I performed in May. There were a good number of people who came out, and the venue was happy with the turnout. I finally sold the first t-shirt of the tour at this show. T-shirt sales have been unusually low; maybe it's because of the unusually-high temperatures this fall in the eastern U.S.

It was, again, a great week in western PA. Thank you, Pennsylvania! I love you.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #6 (day 32)

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 3362
Average Speed - 42 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

We left off in the middle of my western PA portion of the tour, after an unusually nice Tuesday. Any touring performers out there know that Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays (and sometimes Wednesdays) can be particularly tricky days to book with good shows. This is no secret. I have lost count of the number of times that venue staff people have said to me (after apologizing for turnout on an off night) that I need to come play on a Friday or a Saturday. If only every day of the week was Friday or Saturday, this would be a simple thing to work out. As it is, there are seven days in each week, and because I do shows for a living, I need to be playing more than 2 shows a week. I also don't think that most of my hosts would appreciate me being in their home for an entire week! That being said, Tuesday was a wonderful exception, and the challenge for me is to find genuine music-centered events to schedule on the weekdays that I am on the road.

Wednesday was not as exceptional as Tuesday. I had two shows in Pittsburgh, both of which were more or less background music gigs. The first was at a bar/restaurant that hosts music several nights a week, and I have actually had some decent nights there, when I've gotten a core of fans out for the show. But that wasn't the case on this particular night. However, after finishing my first set, I was called over by a couple sitting fairly close to the stage area. One of these people, it turned out, works for an entertainment booking company in Pittsburgh, and I was asked about doing shows in the future when I was in town. It also turned out that this same person is the mom of a good high school friend of mine, which was pretty cool. They also bought a couple of CDs, and that...was...pretty...cool.

After my second set, I sat down to eat some dinner. If you've known me for a while, you probably know that I have a soft spot for Taco Bell. I usually eat pretty healthily, but I usually also indulge myself this guilty pleasure at least one time per tour. I did not go to Taco Bell for dinner after my set; however, the place I played had nachos on the menu, and I had a hankering, so I ordered them. They were easily the worst nachos I have ever had. The chips tasted bad, and the cheese (if, indeed, it should be called that) poured on them was ballpark cheese. No sour cream, no salsa, no guacamole, no tomato. I was sad.

The second gig of the night was at a bowling alley. This is almost always a really low-stress gig. I know people are bowling, after all, so I don't expect much. I'm asked to do two 30-minute sets during the evening, and I get half of the cover charge after the first 4 paying customers come through the door. So it's actually a pretty sweet gig. I say it's "almost always a really low-stress gig" because every time that I've played there, it's been smooth sailing, except for this time. People generally aren't paying attention, so they also don't heckle or ask for covers. But on this night... between two songs, someone came up and asked me if I knew "Werewolves of London", which is a song that I have an extreme dislike for. I said that I did not know it, and I think the girl asked me some other songs, and I told her that I do mostly original material, and that I probably wouldn't know most of the stuff that she asked me. She seemed okay with that. But after my first set was done, another girl came up and asked me if I knew any Bret Michaels songs. I laughed a little bit, and asked here if she meant the guy from Poison. I laughed for a couple of reasons: 1) I had never been asked to do a Bret Michaels or Poison song before, and 2) I thought it was kind of unusual from someone to request Bret Michaels (as opposed to Poison). Either way, this apparently offended the girl, and she began to interrogate me. She asked me what songs I knew, and I explained again that I do mostly original material, and not necessarily much Top 40 stuff. She then said, "Oh, so you don't do rock music?" I didn't know why she asked that at this point, or how to reply, so I asked her if she was listening during the first set (the night is called "Rock 'n Bowl", so I play my most rock-ish songs when I perform here). I told her that she would have to decide for herself if it was rock or not. Anyway, I wasn't trying to be confrontational, just matter-of-fact - I found her question to be strange, and I meant literally that if she was listening, then that should answer her question. But she took it as an insult. The situation was extremely awkward and uncomfortable. The "right" thing to do, I suppose, would have been to explain that I realize that I am playing at a bowling alley, and that most people aren't really paying attention to the music. With that introduction, and with that fact in mind, maybe I could have asked her if she was able to pay attention to any of the songs. But I feel like anything I said would have come across as an attack of some sort. I always try to be as short and to-the-point to avoid this very thing. When people ask if they can request a song, I tell them that if I know it, I will play it, but that I do mostly original music. Usually, people understand and maybe ask about 2 or 3 songs (or ask what artists I cover). If things go badly (and usually it involves alcohol consumption on the part of the request-asker), then I am bombarded with songs from a genre or genres that I don't have a liking for, and am basically told that I need to know certain songs. Anyway, I tried to apologize for the situation with this girl whose musical tastes were insulted, but she wouldn't have it, and proceeded to go over to her friends and tell them how big of a jerk I was. I was a little concerned that some of them would start heckling me during the second set, but fortunately that didn't happen. I got the feeling that her friends felt like she was overreacting. But it certainly made that gig an awkward, bad experience.

Anyway, here is the view from lane 13:

Thursday was a great day. I would return to The Underground on campus at Carnegie Mellon University. But before that, I would find out the gender of my expected child, via Skype! Crazy stuff, this technology. My wife and I are officially expecting a boy. And I refuse to say "baby boy" or "little boy", because that is silly and obvious. During this process of getting Skype set up and communicating with her, I also was on the phone with someone from a Charlottesville radio station about getting promo set up for a show coming up there this Friday. It turns out that the person I was trying to contact was only in on Thursdays, for tow hours, so if I missed him this day, it would basically be too late to be worth trying the following week. Long story short, things went well on the phone with the radio station, and nothing was interrupted with the ultrasound (I'm thinking of some witty uses for "ultrasound" in relation to my music, but I'll spare you). So it's apparently going to be a boy, and not a train or an alien.

I got on the road to CMU a little later than I planned to, but still in time to get set up and start on time. The crowd was better than during my first visit, and the whole show felt very good... it was one of the best shows of the tour, for sure. You should have been there. There were a couple of highlights. I played at my high school alma mater during my Spring Tour in March, and one of the students who saw me there is a freshman at CMU. He saw a poster for the show earlier that same day, and came out and sat right in the front row. He was excited, and I was excited that he was excited about the show. It was exciting. I should have gotten a picture with him.

Instead, I got this picture:

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This is Josh, a student at CMU, who came late to the show, as I was eating a late dinner and talking to the booking person and a fan who made an hour drive out for the show (which was pretty awesome). We have the same phone. I had hitherto not met anyone else who uses this impressive machine. He was probably kind of confused when I got really excited at seeing his phone. Anyway, Thursday was a pretty good day.

On Friday, I had three shows. Three of them! But you will have to tune in (tomorrow?) to read about the only 3-show day of the Fall Tour, because I am about to go out to dinner with my Blacksburg, VA hosts.

Thank you, as always, for following along. I hope you are enjoying the ride.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #5 (day 29)

Driving Stats (approximate):

Miles Driven - 2950
Average Speed - 41 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

So I wasn't able to post as soon as I expected, because my netbook crapped out on me early this week. The keyboard decided to stop working (or perhaps more accurately, most of the keys don't do what they used to do, and it's impossible to type with it). Anyone with knowledge of the Linux Ubuntu OS is welcome to comment here to help me out. :) I may just have to reinstall the OS once I get home if I can't find another solution before then. It's been kind of frustrating being computerless, though. I am typing this entry from the home of the 4th House Concert of this tour, near Annapolis, MD.

We left off in Buffalo, NY, after my 5th and final (I think) open mic appearance of the tour. On Saturday the 1st of October, I would return to the North East campus of Mercyhurst College. This time, I knew exactly where to go, and, being in a different venue, I didn't have to maneuver my equipment through verious hallways or onto any elevators. Also, this venue being a theatre, it had its own sound system (and lighting system) which I was able to figure out how to work. It was a nice room, great for an intimate show. Unfortunately, the show was much more intimate than what we were hoping for. Throughout the evening, only 4 people came out. I think I mentioned this earlier, but I was the first musical artist they've had come do a show, so I guess they are working out the kinks, and figuring out the best way to get the word out to students. One of the 4 people was the new student activities assistant, and he said that the students there just aren't used to having events on campus, and need to get exposed to it more. I still managed to sell 3 CDs, which makes for a good CD to audience member ratio. And one of the listeners drove 75 miles to come out to the show, which was cool.

Here I am with Kate:

She happens to work at another PA college, and I might be making a visit there sometime next year.

I stayed in Erie, PA that evening. The next afternoon, I would perform at my favorite PA bar: North Country Brewing Company in Slippery Rock, PA. I went there early, to grab lunch while watching the Steelers lose to the Houston Texans. Ah well. I promised to perform better than the Steelers did during the first half of that game. I always see familiar faces at North Country, and have gotten to know a lot of music-lovers out that way. Kate even came out again, and brought a couple of friends out. I drove to my parents' house after the show, and ate a rather late dinner.

Over the next three days, I would have 6 shows. On Monday morning, my dad backed into my car again. He had originally done so back in May. I think he might have straightened out one of the dents from the previous incident this time. At any rate, I really didn't care, because nothing performance-related was affected. I headed out to my lunchtime show at a community college campus that morning. I have commented on community college gigs before. They are a great option to have, especially when I am staying in the same area for several days, because they give me the opportunity to make some more money and still do a night show on the same day. But the crowds are usually less than ideal from a performer's perspective: it's lunch time at a school, so students are often occupied with eating or schoolwork, and don't really pay much attention. And, though I hate to perpetuate the stereotype, community college students just seem to care less than students at other schools. This first community college lunch show had the least resposive audience of the entire tour. I think one staff person clapped his hands together 3 or 4 times at the very end of my performance, after I had played for over an hour and a half. Two students came up to me to ask me about what I did (with the looping), and one said she would come out to another show during the week, but she didn't. Eh.

On Monday night, I had the honor of hosting Pittsburgh's best-supported open stage, at the city's premier singer/songwriter venue, Club Cafe. It was a pretty interesting evening. I have hosted an open mic before, but not one where so many people are clamoring for a chance to play. I met a lot of people, got to hear some great music (if you're in Pittsburgh and are looking for a chance to hear a lot of different songwriters in one night, you can't go wrong there), and played a little bit myself. It was more stressful than I expected, though. All the artists who get there late still want to be able to play somehow, and you need to figure out how to make things work out. I arrived at Club Cafe around 6:15, and didn't leave until after 11 that night.

And I had to wake up again for another lunchtime community college show on Tuesday. This campus is set up a little better. It has a stage and sound system, so I have less gear lugging to do, and set up is much quicker. However, the shows here are often received in similar fashion. But Tuesday's show was a much-welcomed exception. I think people clapped after every song. I sold three CDs, and had numerous people come up to comment on the music. And one of the people at the open stage the previous night was on staff at the college, and took his lunch break by the stage to hear me play. It was a good show.

I ate lunch at the college after I performed, and decided to head out to the location of my next show, as I would have only had about an hour of downtime at my parents' house before needing to leave (not to mention wasting gas), had I driven back there. That evening's show was a regular Tuesday series, run by a local church, at a coffee shop in the small town of Blairsville, PA. From what I understood, I'd be playing for dinner, tips, and merch sales, which was okay, since Tuesdays are difficult to book, and I figured that a regular series would have a good chance of bringing out some regular music listeners. The show wound up being very well-attended. However, about 8 of the people there were from a church youth group, and they walked in carrying board games. Unfortunately, they proceded to be kind of loud, removing the possibility of maintaining the listening environment of the room. The other people still paid attention, though, and I wound up selling 6 CDs (including one to the leader of the youth group, who I think bought one to basically say "sorry", which was a nice gesture. I hope he liked the album, though). But 6 cds on a Tuesday is great in my book, and it was still an enjoyable show. I hope to return there soon. And, much to my surprise, the wife of the pastor of the church that sponsors the series handed me a check at the end of the night as a payment for the evening's show. I was pretty shocked, and told them that I really wasn't expecting it, but the pastor just said, "That's what we do." It was a great Tuesday.

Well, I've got to finish doing laundry, and am running a little late for dinner before another house concert, so I must end here. Who knows when I'll get to post again, what with the whole non-operating keyboard and all.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #4 (day 24)

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 2382
Average Speed - 39 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 31.5

Man, it's been a good while since the last post. That's because I was way too busy with shows to get around to it. The past week has been very good; thank you for asking. However, I think this Tour has earned the subtitle "Sleep Deprivation Tour". Whether from doing multiple shows in a day, doing earlier lunchtime shows, doing shows that have caused me to get up early to drive long-ish distances, or staying with families that have young children, this tour has been the most exhausting one I can remember. I may cut this post short in order to rest before I hit the road for Baltimore (a nice, short drive from where I am staying now).

We left off almost two full weeks ago - after I played an open mic in Rochester, to advertise for the show I would be doing that Wednesday. After performing, I headed to the home of my brother-in-law and his wife, where I would be staying the next couple of days. I ate a very late half dinner and hung out with them a bit before it was time to retire for the night.

The following morning, I helped my in-lawed brother's father-in-law construct a workbench in their garage, and helped move shelving materials to their shed in the back yard. I really can't remember much else about this day, other than the evening's show. I think I did some booking work online, and tried to spread the word about a newly added Philadelphia area show (this Wednesday! Steel City in Phoenixville!).

I returned to the venue of the previous evening's open mic for that night's show. As I mentioned, it was a pretty cool room. But again, it was unfortunately a pretty noisy environment again. At least I was sort of expecting this after the open mic. The tip jar was passed around the room, and I at least did okay with that, thanks to a couple of tables that dropped twenties into the jar. They should have bought CDs... ah well. The staff seemed really into it, and they said they'd try to put me on some bigger bills in the future, so I guess it was a decent first visit, all things considered. Unfortunately, I developed a little tickle in my throat that has lasted in some fashion all the way until now.

On Thursday, I went out to lunch with my brother-in-law, who had most of the day off. We went to a nearby Pizzeria Uno. That place has changed a lot. They used to be all about pizza. Now they have at least 4 different soups every day, salads, sandwiches, and who knows what else. We managed to get some pizza somehow, though, and it was pretty good. There was some left over for my lunch, the next day. So that was a double bonus. After lunch we took my car over to a mechanic, for them to try to figure out what was up with my heater. I was afraid of a costly repair, and a decision as to whether I would even want to have it done if it cost too much.

- I had to save the post here, and head out to Baltimore for the show on the 10th. I got a chance to add to the post from south of Baltimore, before heading out to NY City. We continue...-


Thankfully, though, the part was just a little motor that turns a door that determines the mixture of cold and hot air via the temperature dial on the control panel. On top of that, they only charged me for an hour of labor, though they spent more than 2 hours looking at and taking apart my car to get to where the part was.

***Picture to be added later***

As soon as I picked up my car from the mechanic, I was headed back to Buffalo for a coffee shop show at SPoT Coffee. I played there twice during my May tour. When I got there, they had no advertisement of the show displayed anywhere (the previous time, they had failed to post the fliers that were sent, but at least made a prominent sandwich board display). I was given the name of two managers who were supposedly privy to the details of the evening's show, but neither of them were in the building that night. The manager I spoke to said she didn't realize that there was going to be music that night... as you can imagine, it's a pretty big downer to play a place where they don't even know you're coming. From Nashville. Anyway, it was a weird show - this coffee shop is huge, and most people don't seem to pay attention, but it's hard to tell. I sold a few cds by the end of the night, and a friend brought out about 5 people to catch the music, so I at least knew that I had a handful of people on my side. At the end of the night, I went back to the manager to get paid before hitting the road. She told me that they don't pay musicians, and that they never had. Remember, I played here twice in May, and was paid for each of those performances. I showed her the details that I was given for the event, and she did wind up paying me, but it was an unfortunately awkward situation. I don't understand how absolutely nothing about the show was communicated to anyone who was going to be on staff that night.

This brings us to the second Friday of the tour... another open date (and I think the only open Friday during a tour that I have ever had in over 7 years of touring). So this meant looking for open mics again. I went to my 5th open mic in just 14 days. As I think I mentioned before, this is the most open mic appearances I've made in such a short span of time. At least this time, there were a handful of people who wanted to listen. I managed to sell a couple cds, and the venue might be worthy of consideration for future tours.

Thus ends the western NY portion of the tour. I am actually about to hit the road for New York City in about 30 minutes, so I need to get ready and get the car packed again.

I should be able to post again fairly soon, when I shall revisit the western PA shows of last week, when I did 13 shows in 8 days.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #3 (day 15)

Driving Stats (The speed and fuel economy numbers are estimates, because of some issues with figuring out what was wrong with my car heater):

Miles Driven - 1440
Average Speed - 44 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32


We left off in Cleveland, OH on Saturday the 24th, where I made my first visit in over 5 years. I performed two house concerts there - an afternoon one for families (read: little kids), and a night time one that was for adults only. We spent much of the late morning / early afternoon getting the house ready to host the concerts. The afternoon show went rather well, though I wasn't expecting that many people. But about 4 families were in attendance - about 20 people in all. It was pretty crazy, though. Kids were running around everywhere, though a few actually paid attention, and at least one of them danced in one spot for the majority of the concert. I was protected by a baby barricade, so that I wouldn't get any milk bottles thrown at me. It came close at one point, though.

The night show, on the other hand, went worse than I had expected. I had two people who had previously RSVPed decide not to come at the last minute. And a third person, who had made no mention of coming, sent me a message that day to let me know that she wouldn't be there. I guess the thought was nice, but it was kind of adding insult to injury. I realize that people commit to all sorts of things online that they don't actually intend to do. I realize it; I don't understand why people do it, but I realize that it is common. My readers probably don't fit into this category, but if you do, I have a request / plea:

Stop it.

Most people say that they RSVP "Yes" to concerts online because they think it helps; because it makes the show look like it's going to be well attended, and therefore more attractive... like their RSVP will magically make people who were previously uninterested want to come to the show. This is not the case. The only thing it does is make things harder on the artists and the venues/hosts of these events. Venues ask performers how many people to expect for shows, and if many people back out after saying they are coming to a show, it makes the artists look like fools. Venues then don't trust artists when they tell them how many to expect, or just don't ever want the artist back. In the case of house concerts, the hosts use the RSVP numbers to decide how much food to buy and prepare (almost always out of their own pockets), or to decide whether to run the show as a pot luck style thing.

If you are the type to reply "Yes" to everything that comes your way, my hope is that you would change that policy to replying "No" to everything, or just disabling event invites on facebook. Even no response would be more helpful than a "Yes", if you don't intend on attending. I guess my request would be to reply as though an important person were asking you face to face.

I realize that there are times when unpredictable events of a grave or urgent manner will arise, and that, of course, is understandable. I'm not trying to request that you hold your commitments at all costs.

I hope that all made sense.

Back to the tales of the Tour. On Sunday, I unfortunately had another day off - and this one remained completely as a day off, because the only open mics I could find didn't start until late, and I needed to be up around 7:00 am on Monday, to drive out to North East (near Erie), PA, to set up for my second college show of the tour. I went to church with my hosts. I usually don't get to go to church while I'm on tour, because I am driving somewhere, or circumstances make it too difficult to get up early enough and still have energy throughout the day. My hosts have two young children - 1 and 3-year-olds. They behaved in a much more subdued manner at church than they do at home. The family had a birthday party to attend on Sunday afternoon. They invited me, but I declined, in favor of some peace. I got to catch some football that afternoon, and generally took it easy during the day. I asked if I could pick up a pizza for the family for dinner, and they said that Sunday dinner was usually pizza, so that would be perfect. I did my best to time things for us to be able to eat between 5:30 and 6:00, but a round trip to a Papa John's that was only about 8 miles away took more than 50 minutes. We didn't sit down to eat until closer to 6:30. I did my best, but the numerous Cleveland traffic lights coupled with an inefficient ordering scheme at Papa John's messed up my well-laid plans. I think everything worked out okay, though. During my time in the car, though, I would be reminded that my heater still wasn't working. The nights had been a little chilly in OH that first week of the Tour, but nothing unbearable. I did resolve to look into the issue, though. I had checked my antifreeze level, and that was fine.

On Monday, I woke up early (early for me in general, but very early when it comes to my Tour sleeping schedule), got a shower and packed the car again, and headed off to Mercyhurst College's North East, PA campus. I got there at what I thought was a perfect time. But it turned out that I would have to navigate through a series of hallways and take an elevator before reaching the room where I would be performing. Keep in mind that I had to use my own sound system and gear for this show. So I had to make a couple trips with a cart to pull all of my stuff through the hallways. And I couldn't even roll the cart into the room, because it was down a half flight of stairs. Okay, so I finally got everything moved into the right room, but no one had told me where I could park (usually colleges block of a nearby space and have me park there). So I had to call and ask where I should park - the closest lot was completely full, so I had to leave the area I was in, go across a street, and park in another lot. The weather decided to heat up on this day - the warmest day of the tour so far - so I was sweating before I even got the PA set up. I did get ready by the designated start time, though. However, it didn't matter much, as there were very few students in attendance. I was told that this room was where students come to eat lunch, but it turned out that there was a dedicated cafeteria nearby, and as would be expected anywhere, that's where most of the students were eating. There were maybe 15 people in the room where I played for the entire two hours. I managed to sell a few cds. One of the people who was interested asked me why I didn't set up in the cafeteria... If I go back for a lunchtime show at some point, I think I will push very strongly for a change of venue.

After taking all the gear up the half flight of steps, reloading the cart twice, navigating back through the hallways and down the elevator again, I hit the road again. I try to bring coupons with me when I go on tour, for buying food when I am unable to get food from a grocery store to prepare. I had some buy one, get one coupons for Subway, and made my first Subway trip off the Tour on Monday. I didn't have time to eat breakfast before hitting the road in Cleveland (I think I ate a banana in the car), and I didn't get to Subway until around 3 pm. I was super hungry, and easily downed a footlong sub. I got a "free" 6-inch sub to take with me, to have for lunch on Tuesday. On my way to Buffalo, NY (where I would be staying that night), I stopped into a Wal-Mart to buy some bananas and apples.

I had no show again on Monday night, so I looked up open mics in the Buffalo area. I have never played so many open mics in such a short time. It turned out that a well-known venue called Nietzsche's has an open mic every Monday. I figured it would be a good idea to check it out, since I was in the area with nothing going on. We had tried to get me in as the featured performer - an artist, usually touring or a semi-pro local, who plays a longer set - but were told that the feature was already scheduled. It turned out that this feature backed out at the last minute, and they asked some girl to fill his spot. I was pretty surprised. She had a good voice, but she had been playing guitar for less than a year, and my guess is that she was just a recent regular at this particular open mic. She got there late, so the rest of the open mic was pushed back in time. And she didn't even stick around for long after she played. And to top it off, they passed a tip jar around during her set, so I ended up paying to do the open mic. Sometimes this job is very humbling. These first two weeks of this current tour have been a reminder of that.

Long story short, Nietzsche's open mic was very underwhelming. They had TVs on, playing a Yankees game, the people who came to play didn't even seem to pay much attention to the other performers, and it was one of the loudest open mics I've ever been to. Usually, long-running open mics are in a decent listening environment, but this was worse than most of the bar gigs that I've done.

On Tuesday, I had yet another empty day on the schedule. The place I would be performing at (in Rochester) on Wednesday happened to have an open mic that evening, so I decided to go there to advertise for the show. Before hitting the road for Rochester, I decided to check out the spark plugs in my car (this caused my speed and fuel economy numbers to reset, which is why my tour driving stats won't necessarily be correct), to make sure that none of them were causing the heater not to work. It turns out that my car has 3 different spark plug boxes, and that 2 different boxes contain spark plugs that relate to the heating / cooling system. I only had time to check one box before it was time to get headed to Rochester. The place was pretty nice, but it was unfortunately much like (but not quite as bad as) Nietzsche's. It's really hard to get people interested in the music you perform when it's difficult for them to hear it. I played my two songs, and talked to some of the staff to be sure that they knew that I would be performing the next night.

I was intending to retell the events of the entire second week of the Tour, but this entry is getting pretty long.

Thanks for following along with some of the harsh realities of life on the road. I promise it will get better very soon.