Truth and Salvage Co.

My Favorite Pictures

2010-12-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Adam Grace here...I was looking over the thousands of photos taken last year and a few kept creeping back into my head. So I thought I would share them with you. These are from my personal collection and represent some of my very favorite pictures of the band. (Click the picture to enlarge)

I love this shot... taken by Amanda G. at Sun Studios in Memphis. This room was where all the greats recorded... Elvis, Jerry Lee, etc. and here we are filming a TV show and recording songs. Notice the pics of Elvis staring down on Timmy as he focuses so intently. It's hard to take all of it in when your in the moment, but this shot says alot.
This shot was taken by Amanda G. in Little Rock Arkansas. I'm fond of it because you can really grasp what it's like to stand on a stage in front of 10,000 fans. I wish I could remember what song we were playing... but I do remember the feeling when we finished our set. The roar of the crowd... the smiling faces of my band members... it was pretty awesome.
This is a shot I took backstage at the Fillmore in San Fran. Amanda G. is giving me a sly little look... and I know what it means. It was the last night of the Fillmore run with the Black Crowes and the last night of our 50-something dates with them. The entire tour was filled with exhaustion... highs and lows... and the look she's giving me is like, "I'm proud... I'm tired... and I love you." Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
Amanda G. took this shot backstage at the Fillmore as well. I'm not sure what I like about it... because it is OF me. But I do know that I was waiting to take the stage... and a little nervous... and I didn't want to show it.
This shot was taken by one of Amanda G's friends. The whole band, plus Amanda, is onstage at the Ryman in Nashville. We had just finished soundcheck and we were very proud to be standing on that stage. That night we received two standing ovations during our set.
This is one of the earlier shots of Smitty that I took in late 2007. We were recording our Demo, which would lead to the record deal and working with Chris Robinson. We had our entire future to look forward to... and I cracked a joke about Smitty's socks. I caught him mid laugh. I love Smitty's laugh...
I took this in New York city. The thing I love about this photo is that it represents the basic philosophy of Walker Young. If you tell him there's a gig 5000 miles away and three people will be there... he says, "Let's do it!!!!!!" And he's behind the wheel and ready to roll.
In this rare photo, Joe is smiling. Joe always said he didn't take a good picture. I think this is an exception to his rule. We were eating at a pizza joint in New York and had just started the tour. Notice the "you are here" dot on the menu. I miss you Joe.

More to come...

Street Team Launch Today

2010-12-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hi friends and fans,

We are excited to announce the Truth and Salvage Co street team... launching today. We have added a tab on our website at www.truthandsalvageco.com where you can sign up to be on our street team and become a "Truthsayer".

Being a Truthsayer will have some great perks including free tickets to shows as well as free merch and other perks.

What we need are a few dedicated people who want to help spread the word about our upcoming shows in your area. You can choose to do a little or a lot... but any help will be appreciated.

If you want to give us a hand...

Follow this direct link to sign up
or copy and paste this link into your browser
http://truthandsalvageco.com/street_team.html

or

Go to www.truthandsalvageco.com and click on the "street team" tab.

Once you sign up you will receive a confirmation message with instructions.

See ya out there on the road,
T&S Co.

40 hours to memphis with 48 hours to do it, talk radio, mobile wifi, little magic beans

2010-05-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Alright furry friends we made it to Memphis at 3 am on Saturday, slept the sleep of the dream deprived, woke up and beat tracks to the Beale Street Music Festival for a day of humid happenings.

The night before Tennesee was inundated with rain showers and tornadoes, many acts cancelled or were cancelled. But come Sunday the clouds broke and the sun shined. We met up with our good friends Sue Waters and Brent from Truckee, CA, near Tahoe.

I was lucky to take this sub par shot of them.

The grounds were were covered with plywood, or at least backstage was. the general crowd had to endure manure scented mud and most of them wore galoshes, (timmy calls them rubbers, smitty calls them gum boots, how bout you?) Anyway the festival was right on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, and man was she swollen. The stage overlooked the river and the famous Memphis M bridge.

We had a great set, definitely got the crowd moving. I always like afternoon sets, the daylight makes it easy to connect with crowd. A lot of friends came from Los Angeles, like Memphis native here Jesse Cole, songwriting master. Definitely look him up.

We had a good ole time, it's really nice to be back South.

The river made a great backdrop.

We took advantage of the photo op to take some sizzling pics.

The highlight of the night was Band Of Horses who simply tore it up. It was super good to see our friends Bill Reynolds and Tyler Ramsey who play in the band, black cowboy hat and the tall long haired, respectively.

We have a long history with those two, who also hail from Asheville, NC. It was a prideful moment for us to see them setting the crowd a blaze. Hope to see them soon again along the way.

The night ended with legendary Leon Russell. I almost forgot he was playing until I heard "A Song For You" coming from the blues tent. What a treat. He followed with "Delta Lady" which is a total smash, I want to cover it. I was too taken to even think to snap a photo, too bad really because he is one colorful dude for wearing all white.

Currently driving to St Louis MO for a show at the Old Rock tonight. We would like to thank Lokast for supporting this tour with a mobile wifi router. I was streaming Netflix all the way through Oklahoma. Talk soon,

Peace

Adventures with the Avett Brothers in April

2010-05-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Friends far and wide, greetings from I-40 Eastbound, in the beautiful state of Oklahoma! We are in route to Memphis for the Beale St Blues Fest.

The last two weeks proved not for the road weary. As luck would have it we embarked on a ten show run with fellow Carolinians the Avett Brothers, which routed from Oakland to Reno to Boulder, Tuscon, Pheonix, the Stagecoach Festival in Indio CA, back up to Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and finally down to scenic San Diego.

It was a complete honor to support these brothers, as they have been road burning since we met early in the 2000's, and whipping the greater part of the world's music enthusiasts into a frothing frenzy of ultimate fandom. As our good friend Greg Cimino put it "The Avetts are white hot." Sounds hot to me.

We complimented each other well, and I think we made some new friends in the towns we visited. We definitely rekindled friendship with the Avetts, as time had us on quite separate trajectories for a spell.

We had a good ole time at Stagecoach. Golden Voice puts on one fine festival. All the crew was very hospitable and carted us around in golf carts and plied us with noon thirty libations.

Our trailer was right next to legendary country star Little Jimmy Dickens, he spent a long time making the Grand Ole Opry extra special.

Good picture of Adam Grace and Dickens here.

Our show was great. Mid way through the set the power shut off which brought us to an impromptu a Capella set which went over real well with the crowd. All in all it was spectacular.

On the last night of the tour, during our signature last number "Pure Mountain Angel", the Avetts graced the stage with a bombardment of energy and crowd jubilation. They worked us into a frenzy.

Remarkable, remember able times! It was great bonding with the brothers again. We are all still super touched by the experience.

A lot can be said of their purity of purpose.

And the fact that twenty of their songs are stuck in my head.

And twenty different tunes are stuck in Timmy's head.

It was a blast.

Tomorrow Memphis, the lineup: T&Sco, John Hiatt, Band Of Horses, & Alison Krauss. Then the Midwest and then the record drops May 25, celebration at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC!

Peace,

Phil Vassar and the Bull!

2010-04-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Had a lovely evening last night with our new friends Julie and Sissi and their very cool family. We ate tri tip and drank aged tequila and went to see Phil Vassar at the Club Rodeo in San Jose CA. Authentic line dancing country bar. Including an Electric bull! We promised ourselves not to ride the bull.

I do not ride the bull.

Everybody else rode the bull...

<----- Adam

<----- Walker and Adam

<------- Walker and Caroline, Sissi's niece.

<---------- Smitty, rumored to have pulled a hammy.

<--------------Timmy, prognosis currently unclear.

And we are off!

2010-04-15T14:58:00.001-07:00

Currently driving i-99 North to Sacramento, photo taken 2:58pm on April 15, 2010. Due to the power of technology I am writing to you this blog hurling 70 mph through space and time. We have a router on loan to us from Lokast, a new digital platform out there. We used it at a show to broadcast their digital realm. In return they paid for the booze. Was a great arrangement. We need to return it, but it for now it is doing a world of good.

The day is beautiful, Southern California is beautiful. We've had the best Winter and now Spring, due to all the rain. Check out all the flowers. I bet it happens every spring, but things are especially nice because of the bounty of water!

A veritable carpet of orange,

and yellow!

We rehearse with our sound guy tonight, friday we go line dancing, and Saturday we start our leg of shows with The Avett Brothers! It will be really good to play some shows with them.

Good people they are.

Looking forward to seeing y'all around.

Peace, SK

Signing Poster

2010-04-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

The DumbleDoors

2010-03-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

Shopping with Lissie & Vinnie

2010-03-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

See what they are saying about the album release...

2010-03-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

SIng Along

2010-03-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Beachwood Rockers - March 2010 from tbyrd on Vimeo.

Family Sing- Along

2010-03-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

T&SCo and friends at a recent photo shoot... thanks T Byrd!

Walkers's Birthday

2010-03-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

6 weeks in one paragraph

2009-10-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

mid week nine, my daily shots have unfortunately tapered down. last posting was up in Niagara Falls and that was a long time ago. We've had an incredible run in the South, starting in Oklahoma winding through Tennessee and mississippi and the Carolinas, atlanta, the length of Florida, new Orleans, alabama and Texas. We are in Dallas now, sang the national anthem last night for the nba Mavericks vs the pistons. We had homerun shows in Austin and Houston.

We've seen family along the way, my folks and there friends rented a 15 pass to come see us in myrtle beach. sorry yall its the best shot I got! And we visited Joe's niece in memphis, Lila is her name and she plays a tiny mean fiddle!

we've caught mcdougall working on levitation skills with folding chairs, and here is Joe mid trance after finding a magic feather that wards off the effect of road fatigue, note eyes wide.

We've seen beautiful places, tampa bay was a true gem. Oak trees good food, manatees and rays.

All photos are in random order now, thats a bird on a bench, this is a bridge in Charleston.

Oh yeah we were in Chicago too. And we'll be back there.

This is our one photo in North Carolina that I took. Twas a fun show in Charlotte, and the next day we went to the hometown in Asheville NC and reunited with friends and family for a spell. Lucky for us Facebook is out there and much more competent photographers have been documenting our travels and shows, please check them out and if you are one of the noted snapshooters post them online for us when you get a chance.

And before North Carolina we made some marks in Tennessee. Tennessee was good to us, Here is some street art that caught my eye. I've seen this artists work with the girl before, so I think its cool to find this little piece of art

And you remember the ass shoes? well they have become popular, here are the ass ass shoes, to be worn as a team.

Mustache Competition, Smitty was creamed. this Old timer was at the Oklahoma State Fair, a true rock n roll highlight of our travels so far!

And here are the boys! Drew Consalvo, our stage manager, monitor chief. Randy "Bigguns" Stenson and Doug "red" Redler, guitar techs. Nick on drums but can't really see him.

And here is our good friend Taylor "Chicken George" Davis. We played with him at Keegan Ales in Kingston NY with his band the bloodletters. Not so many microbreweries around anymore, but the northeast was inundated with watering holes. We fell into all of them!

Amorica cassette tape Rochester NY house of guitars. Note the pubic fashion of the era, let's bring it back y'all!

And not to be lost in the ethers Westcott Brewery! A beautiful place, great old stage, super cool young owners in charge of their destiny and lovers of the party!

Walker singing "The Load Out Song" accompanied by Grace on drums. Audio clip of that moment to come.

And like a powerful nightcap the Kingston police came to check on us after hearing our awesome music wail from the belly of the keegan ale brewery at 5 in the morning. They loved it.

Thank you for the awesome times y'all! Hard to believe its only half over. In a couple of days we break off from the Crowes, Luther is having a baby!. We head back to the South to hole up and record some songs bout blue jeans. We'll be seeing them again up in Michigan. Peace yall be safe be happy keep in touch!

Kinnebrew

Huntsville, AL

2009-09-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

Huntsville Alabama was a great night. It's so good to be back in the South. Also on the bill was Tonic and the Black Crowes. The jumbotron was in full effect.

OK city

2009-09-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

Ok City was a blast. Since it was a fair, we saw some pigs and cows and then rocked a show at the arena. Here's some pics.

Radio Interview

2009-09-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

http://files.me.com/jaylo3/e5qdf3.mp3

Radio Interview on Rochester, NY station. We start at the 4:45 mark.

Yes it is now officially a blur

2009-09-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

So much happens in the course of a week, life is taking on an accelerated pace. Yet also safe and consistent within the confines of "the Champion", our escort for this adventure.

Update Saturday September 19th: We are in Pittsburgh, drove throughout the night from Kingston New York. We are heading out of the Northeast now, Have a show in Pittsburgh tonight, and a show tomorrow in Chicago.

I've really come to appreciate the northeast. I mean we have been up here almost a month... small towns around every bend, toll roads, diners that serve scrapple (I don't like scrapple), microbreweries everywhere that try to "beer us in", and sometimes succeed.

We have met some awesome people, photos of them coming. The Westcott Theater, Tommy Keegan from Keegan ales, our Hibachi chef you see here to the right, Brendon and Justin from The Ramble, Mimi and Christine, folks at WDST woodstock. Dave and chris at 97.7 WEXT (?) We are having a great time, and now we head west to head southeast. We reunite with the Crowes In Oklahoma City in a few days, then Alabama. Love y'all, thanks for everything. Up next... photos of the adult size green machine. Oh yeah and the water pics are from Niagara Falls. Peace

Scoot!

Mimi Christine!

WEXT and Saranac

2009-09-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

WEXT 97.7, in Troy New York, offered a opportunity to do an in-studio show. Chris and Dave were great to work with and we did an acoustic version of Jump the Ship, Pure Mountain Angel, and Callback.

It's always fun to do these radio shows... this one should be airing in the next few days. Tune in.

That night we drove to Utica New York to open for the Black Crowes at the Saranac Brewery. This is an old brewery complete with antiques...including PT Barnums original desk, a clock valued at over a million bucks, and more. The building reminds me of something out of a horror movie...lots of hallways and creaky doors.

This was a small show with only 1000 special people...and most of them were there for our set. It rained a lot while we played and the audience didn't let it bother them a bit. Great crowd and great fans! Thanks to everyone who made that night very special.

The Black Crowes kicked ass as usual. We snapped this photo so you could see what they played that night.

As they jammed, Old Man Saranac looked down from his bell tower and condemned us all to one heck of a night.

Morning came early and breakfast was cheap... a perfect combo until we do it all over again.

Top of week four!

2009-09-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends! How do y'all do? Kinnebrew here with a black and bloody eyeball! Great for steering clear of danger! Nobody wants to mess with the bearded and bloody Kinnebrew!

Just played last night at Penns Peak in Pennsylvania, very fun show. Pics for that coming, but for now here comes a recap...

To your left: Mia and Matt from the

Brooklyn Bowl. They came down to the Asbury Park gig and partied with us, we had a blast!

Out of sequence here are the caterers with Smitty in Westbury Long Island. By far the most tasty and healthy of our dining experience on the road. Wendy, chief chef extraordanaire had everything from vegan pot pie to mignon medallions, and to top it peach rhubarb cobbler! "John Denver it was delicious!" (new g rated term we came up with second only to "Mother Of Pearl!", you can use John Denver in place of say when you stub your toe or blacken your eye, John Denver that hurt!!!

We were granted the right to tag Wendys most coveted wall tagging area, pretty sweet!

The Crowes in Westbury, this was the second venue we played where the stage was a circle in the middle of a dome, intimate but super cool.

After Westbury we headed to Asbury Park, had a quality swim, interesting swim. Apparently the beach had crazy riptides that restricted swimmers to very condensed swimming areas. About three hundred swimmers to a 25 foot swath of beach! Oh the humor.

Stone Pony, historic, raging...

The Crowes on the Stony Pony Summerstage, killing it. We are learning so much watching these players every night! What an experience!

And the illustrious and stunning Black Crowes singers, Mona Lisa and Charity, (left right) mother and daughter, we've been hanging a whole bunch. super sweet people!

y conmigo

We are keeping to our 18 sandwiches a week quota, this week... ham, swiss cheese and lettuce.

After Asbury Park, NJ we drove down to Virginia beach to play The American Music Festival, we played on the beach, water to our side but of course i don't have a photo of that here. Super fun, boats anchored close and listening, not a lot, just a couple, but still. Big stage. My sister and her wife Mira came to the show from Richmond, but of course because I miss great photo ops I don't have a picture of her either!

stage left Virginia beach, foreground, drew stage soundman for the crowes and ourselves! best mixes ever! Having so much working with him, also the front of house sound man Scooby, photo soon.

After Virginia Beach we drove to bridgeport CT for a show at the Klein Auditorium. One thing all over the North east is the WAWA convenient store offering twenty pots of coffee at once.

The Klein, good show over here!

smitty, walker

The Klein building, built in like 47.

crowes!

Bridgeport, C and Bye Bye to Dixon

2009-09-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to Josh Dixon for being our tour manager for the last three weeks. We will see you soon...

This is the stuff rock and roll legends are made of...see the gash above Scotty's left eye? A result of a pool cue upside the head in a brawl gone bad.

Bridgeport was cool little place with a ton of die hard Crowes fans. Again, they gave us a warm reception. Crowes fans are some of the best out there!

Then we got a bag full of Thayers products for the band... thanks Karen!

Been getting emails about what we're playing every night...here's the setlist from Bridgeport.

Peace...see ya soon!

The Beach, The Boss, The ZZZ's

2009-09-07T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots from the show Westbury, NY. What a great audience that night...such a warm reception.

The next day we were off to Asbury Park, NJ...home of Springsteen. They were expecting a few thousand people to crowd the venue that afternoon. Here's a pic before all the action began.

We spent the afternoon at the beach and the weather was splendid!
And the real treat came when Bruce Springsteen showed up to our gig and hung around backstage afterwards.

The next day was a beach show in Virginia Beach, VA. Again the crowd loved us and people were singing along to most of the songs. I took this shot from stage right before we went on.

A little late night trailer hang.

The Black Crowes really brought the masses.

And then off to bed for Timmy. Show business is a tough business you know.

2009-09-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

Adam, Amanda, and Levon Helm! Taken backstage at the Central Park show in NYC.

Brooklyn, New York

2009-09-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

OK so the motto for the week is "conserve energy, or not"! Today is Thursday, this picture you see to your left was taken on Sunday, at the Khyber, fun little show in old town Philly. You may pontificate that there may be several photos taken of us at all these little venues and big venues and why don't I ever post them, well I haven't mastered the photo taking from stage. Josh Dixon has taken some stellar shots, but it is hard to coordinate the downloading and posting. You will see them, I will post them, just out of sync.

wanted to include some Philly photos. Liberty Bell and a lovely moon, Timmy and Adam enjoying a twilight stroll through history, befriending security guards for tidbits of national history, nobody really remembers too much anymore. The Boston Tea party, wasn't that in Philadelphia, back in 73?

Our new home has been the Newark NJ Holiday Inn. five nights of sleep, great bar that plays classic rock and serves mixed nuts. Remember Razor Ramone? There.

A lovely day in Newark. Apparently all summer has been inundated with rain and humidity. WEll the weather has been perfect. Just check out the sky, and the oil spill, and the prison in the background. This is the view from room 639 by the way, come visit!

Played Central Park yesterday, payed homage everybody's hero, so sad still really. People die all the time in every way but it always seems so foreign. Always a tragedy. Take a moment to recall the melody of "imagine", I think you will get my drift. Beautiful soul he was.

Speaking of photos of us playing our good friend and social connector Peter Kusek emailed me these. We played at 5 o clock. It was a great time, hot as all get out but sweet. Crowd liked it, liked us. levon the sweetheart played after us and the crowes crunched the people once more, they are sounding SO !@#$%^&!!! tight!

There lighting guy is pretty bad ass eh, his name is Chris, he works with Phish. All of the Black Crowes crew are super professional and super personable. Every day has been a total learning experience. I will get y'all shots of the crew soon. My hat goes off to Randy, Luther's guitar tech, for saving my ass on two seperate occasions now.

Shot of the city en route to Brooklyn...

Peter Kusek, you know, best friend, social connector, restorer of fine historic buildings, he's got a great sense of direction...

Luckily he was up in the city and ended up spending the days with us. So good to see him, talk about sweetheart...

Tonight will be an epic show at the Brooklyn Bowl. Free show. Best fried chicken north of the Mason Dixon. Bowling, hipster line dancing, apple bobbing... We are pulling out all the stops. no holds barred. Our new friends from Red are coming and the atmosphere is exciting!

Peace Y'all, Long Island tomorrow with the Crowes. Thank you for everything everybody, what an experience...

Philly and Lancaster

2009-08-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Philly is always an exciting venture. Cheese steaks were on our mind and we landed at the only restaurant that offered none.

However, we were at a local favorite called Johnny Brenda's and the food was very good

That night we rocked the Khyber in Philly (Pics of that coming soon)

And it was up early for a 3 hour ride to Lancaster, PA.

From back stage the theater looks awesome. This is going to be a good night in an intimate theater with only 2000 fans.

new hope tea neck

2009-08-30T00:35:00.000-07:00

All right, so here in Newark, NJ, doing little one off gigs from our hotel the Newark Holiday Inn, First gig found us at the TRiumph brewery in New Hope Penn. As of our last blog post we traversed the NorthEast through rain and greenery, turning a five hour drive into nine, luckily we had talk radio Timmy giving the play by play. Got to Triumph brewery met up wit Ezra Furman and

the Harpoons, excellent band that reminded me me of Hedwig crossed with the Violent Femmes. Triumph Brewery was super hospitable, filet mignon and homemade beer, should have photographed the meal...

Travel Plaza Sunoco... New Jersey, note Martha our GPS stuck in the foreground, Martha just about got thrown out of the window, New Jersey doesn't like Martha...

My boots blew out after a two week re-sole, rains a lot here, I'm tough on shoes. Found the Western boot World and found a pair of used lizard skin boots for twenty bucks. Not sure what species of lizard or if lizard needs to be made into boots but twenty bucks?

A well deserved mention goes to Josh Dixon of Atlanta GA who is assisting us on the road during these first couple of weeks. True Story: Walker's best and oldest friend. Made up: Found him first night of The Black Crowes tour selling veggie burritos and Clamato, knew he'd be perfect...

Played Teaneck nJ tonight at Mexicali Live, we embraced the experience and blew the doors off the venue, met some great people! Went back to homebase In NJ, visited the bar, watched a cowboy get messed up at the rodeo on TV, ordered another round and ran into Razor Ramon.

Now Razor was good enough to take a photo with us, but Razor did not like the humor of Timothy Lee Jones, and when Timmy tried to compare The Newark Airport to The Burbank Airport Razor just about snapped.

The Kyhber Pass tomorrow in Philly, hope to see some old friends, and then back with the Crowes in Lancaster, PA... Central Park Sep 2!

2009-08-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

Last night will go down in history as one of our most epic! We had the privelege to share the Bank of America Pavilion stage with both The Black Crowes and Levon Helm!

We pulled into Boston under blue skies and perfect weather, I mean a breeze you just don't feel on the West Coast. The Pavilion is right on the Boston Harbor, we had a great view of the city.

Levon is a complete sweetheart!

He loves "Welcome To LA", (Smitty's claim to fame!)

The entourage he brought with him was staggering and they all sounded incredible!

And The Black Crowes are on fire!!!! Everybody brings there all to the table, and the result is truly unique absolutely emotional rock and roll! Chris is one of a kind, he has such a good time up there, and blows a super mean harmonica when it is called for! Rich and Luther are killingit, swapping solos and sounding like Thin Lizzy!

Steve Gorman and Sven are holding it down, Adam McDougal honestly seems like he is having the most fun out of all of them, )and they are all having a blast!)

Words cannot describe the experience, will post as much as possible!

Peace,

On to New Hope PA and a string of solo Truth & SAlvage Co. shows!

2009-08-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

Wow week one has come and gone, feels like a month has past!
After driving for ever taking turns with sleep we arrived to Asheville NC, where we met up with family and friends and received a homecoming fit for kings.

Friday we drove to Spindale and played live on WNCW, Dennis was an absolute sweetheart, we swapped LA stories and laughs.
It was great to see Laura Blackley again, it had been five years!

Smitty met up with Rob Hunt tattoo artist extraordinaire, and
immortalized our logo on his arm, at least for his lifetime, you can see the look of pain, I would imagine that a forearm tattoo would be be painful!

Saturday was our gig at the legendary Grey Eagle, the hype was in the air, the town was a buzz with Truth & Salvage Co. anticipation!
We are super excited to be playing for some of our oldest and best friends!

Mad Tea Party opened, Jason Krekel, Ami Worthen...
Also Gary Jules who is a new Asheville transplant!

And the show was awesome! So much fun! Alissa Whelan snapped these excellent shots, she really caught us in action! We played for an hour and a half, gave them the famous Scrappy Song "Alligator Crawl"!

Afterwards packing up, we found Smitty's underwear under the drum riser, WTF?

A return visit to Raleigh's Pour House on Sunday for an evening show...

And today Tuesday August 25, arrived to the Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA to this site...HERE WE GO!!! WORDS CAN'T EXPLAIN!
Peace
Cape Cod tomorrow, Boston after that, will keep you posted!

Video Shoot - Callback

2009-08-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

We had a blast shooting our first official music video for the song, "Callback". The video was directed/ produced by John Vanover and produced by George Whitman....HUGE THANKS TO JOHN AND GEORGE. We are extremely lucky to have such a talented group of friends that love and support our music.

We were also blessed to have a big crowd of our friends show up to serve as the audience for our video. I think that was the best part...looking out and seeing all of our LA contingency "playing" along so well. There were also a few special guests...(Joe and Hilliary, you know we are talking about you)

The day started early and the crew was already set up in the most amazing little spot about an hour from LA. The place was in Simi Valley in a National Historic Park surrounded by old rusted barns and cotton gins. We shot the majority of the video inside a barn complete with cobwebs and sunshine penetrating the cracks in the walls. The dust was thick and choked our lungs as we performed "Callback" at least a dozen times.

The real heroes were the crew that pulled this shoot together and made it look amazing. We really appreciate all the hard work and dedication that you all put into this project.

.

Straight as the Crowes fly high...

2009-08-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

We are sitting in the hotel in Washington D.C. on the eve of our first show with the Black Crowes.

We'll have some pictures from the last two shows coming very soon... as of now our internet has been shotty at best.

Timmy went to the Pentagon today and to the Jefferson memorial. He also visited the Capital and the White House.

What a great place to kick off the tour being the birthplace of freedom. More to come in a day or so...

We made it to Asheville!

2009-08-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

Family, friends well well well! Fifty hours and five hundred dollars later we made it to the blessed home country of Asheville NC! En route to support the Black Crowes we ran our van "The Champion", nonstop taking turns sleeping.

Hi Sahara Oasis was our first stop out of LA 4$ a gallon gas, here is our trailer tag, perfect.
Our first meal was devoured in Alberquerque at a restaurant I've always held dear to me, the Frontier. Bought two dozen tortillas, the best flour tortillas in the world. Pretty sure I'm getting their logo tattooed on my arm!
Timmy posing in the beautiful Western Sunset! The lighting was perfect, true cowboy action!

Stopped in Santa Rosa for a dip in the blue hole. 61 degrees excellent, clear 81 ft deep, dude named Choosy doing full gainers....

Crazy lightning near Amarillo, TX, lit up the whole sky, I tried to capture award winning shots, this is the best I got...
And the revolution is happening in Oklahoma City too, but they are trying to cover it up! More to be posted! Come to the Grey Eagle August 22!!! Peace...Kinnebrew!

TaSCo

2009-08-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Photo by Henry Diltz

2009-08-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

As you probably already know, we have an upcoming show at the Troubador on August 8th. Here's the commercial we made. In no time this thing has shot around the world and back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0P3BYKb3rs

New Song Release - Callback

2009-07-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Without further waiting...

The first releasefrom the new album has been released for our fans. Yes, this is one of tracks produced by Chris Robinson, of the Black Crowes, and mixed by Paul Stacey.

Naturally, we chose to release a Walker Young song named, "Callback".

Fresh for your ears...

http://www.truthandsalvageco.com/

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Clockwise

2009-07-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

NPR interviews our friend Andy Clockwise.

You can also check out his music. Clockwise will be sharing the stage with us on August 8th at the Troubador in Hollywood.

Yay!!!

Party of the Summer

2009-07-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

To those that were there, no explanation will suffice. To those that missed it... this will have to do.

Sometime last month, the Beachwood Rockers, Johnny Crash, and Truth& Salvage got together and decided to throw one last party before TASCO left for the Black Crowes Tour. This couldn't be any ordinary party. It had to be epic.

Much in the fashion of the B.R.S., a secret location was chosen... a hideout of sorts... a place where a party of this magnitude could be thrown and not attract the attention of police. (A daunting task in Los Angeles)

The location: Johnny Crash's super swanky wood shop. But before the first beer could be consumed, the "Shop", as it is so affectionately called, had to be transformed into a suitable place to throw down.

Enter the brains and brawn of one John E. Crash. Along with his team of misfits and mad scientists, Johnny worked well into the early morning hours of saturday, July 25th.

A stage was assembled, lights were mounted, and the invitations went out.

Over 300 people showed up! Kegs were emptied, jigs were danced and rollies were rolled.

There were epic performances by many of Beachwood's finest including George Stanford. George really put on a helluva show treating us to some of our favorites and a couple of new surprises. Around 11:30pm, Truth and Salvage took the stage and did a short set including a few surprise covers. Finally, Andy Clockwise finished off the night with a gut punching set that set the tone for August 8th...complete with a sing along that found 19 people on stage harnessing the good vibes that Clockwise always delivers.

What happens on August 8th, you ask? Well... we will do it ONE MORE TIME. We are bringing this party to the Troubador in Hollywood for one last show before TaSCO hits the road for four months. The lineup will be George Stanford, Andy Clockwise, and Truth and Salvage Co. Get your tickets now and don't miss another party.

And alas...here are some wonderful pics from the party of the summer.

Jim in Cedartucky

2009-07-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.thisismason.com/day-11-jim-of-cedartucky-talks-truth-and-salvage/

Friend Mason takes a phone call about...us!

Poster

2009-06-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

2009-06-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, family, and future friends! Truth & Salvage Co. has just successfully returned from another California sojourn. The overall sentiment during this trip was that of wonder for the absolute beauty of California. Not to negate the attributes of Los Angeles, but it is easy to

get lost in the madness of this city and its 25 million inhabitants, and to forget that the spirit of the wild truly dominates the west coast. Our routing brought us just North of the state into Ashland OR, then Sebastopol, Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispbo, and Visalia, CA. The roads and small towns and country side connecting these places are the finest. It is a privilege to get to know this great state.

We ate a lot of sandwiches this trip, I prefer mine with extra spinach as clearly documented by this photo. We are on a cost effective and spiritually cleansing sandwich diet, which has helped to inspire the new hit "Eighteen Sandwiches".

With a surplus of condiments and cold cuts stashed between driver and passenger seats we have effectively staved off hunger once again as well as the draw of 99 cent menus.

Please stay tuned for further updates, enjoy the summer season by going barefoot whenever possible, Peace!

-Kinnebrew

The Boys are Back

2009-05-21T01:11:00.000-07:00

The drive was about 14 hours coming back off tour. As we got close to LA we all got excited to be back in town! Luckily, I had the camera running and caught our first music video...

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Eureka, CA and Grants Pass, OR

2009-05-21T00:34:00.000-07:00

The last two shows with Jackie Greene went great. We played to sold out audiences at Theaters in Eureka and Grants Pass. The final show, the band joined Jackie and his band on stage. We played a double encore that turned into a super jam with all of us bringing down the house on "The Weight".

Most of the rest of the time we hung out in the redwoods and took pictures. This is beautiful country.

Chico

2009-05-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is a cool place that makes goooood beer. We did a tour of the place and went back to hotel so Smitty and Tim could get a little rest.

Look at all these huge containers of beer!

The showroom is one of the finest places to see music on the west coast. It's almost like a dinner theater since they serve a full dinner and it's all ages. Jackie Greene is a huge draw in Chico and just like all the other venues, this place was sold out.

We opened to a huge crowd of curious people. By the end of the show we had made a few hundred more T&S Co fans.

Then Jackie took the stage and did his magic.

Smitty gave one of our youngest fans a drumstick complete with autograph.

Jackie played all of his fan favorites and a few surprises...

At the end of the show we took some shots with our new fans and signed some shirts etc...

The next few days found us in Monterey, Visalia, and Santa Cruz performing at some of our regular places. As usual, the shows were great and we want to thank everyone that showed us love on the road.

Days Off

2009-05-20T23:10:00.001-07:00

The next two days we had off, relaxing in Ashland OR, much like our old stomping grounds of Asheville, but ending in land. We had an excellent host, and our accommodations sat on seventy acres of land.

We woke

up bright and early today Sunday the 3rd to drive down to Chico for another show with Jackie Greene. We had a pretty good glimpse of Mt Shasta, which is funny because driving up a few days ago we thought all these small mountains were Shasta and they were all put to shame by the real deal.

We stopped in Weed, CA, seems like a quiet special place...

-Kinnebrew

Portland

2009-05-20T23:06:00.001-07:00

Day Two had us passing through Olympia, don't know why I neglected to photograph that as I lived there for four years. The experience was surreal.

We played that night in Portland, in an awesome theatre named the Aladdin which we didn't photograph either. The show was excellent, the crowd was very responsive. Jackie's fans consist of a lot of true music fans, the setting of the show and the crowd and the music definitely had a timeless sense to it. It was great. We stayed at the Jupiter Hotel in Portland which has chalk board doors which we utilized by drawing and consequently writing a new hit.

We woke up and had breakfast at one of the coolest places in the world... Mother's. The food was very tasty and I see why it's Portland's most famous little joint. Thanks to everyone at Mother's for treating us so very good.

Smitty had a brief chat with a very stiff lady and we were off to the next town...
-Kinnebrew

Northwest Tour April 29-May 3 with Jackie Greene (Seattle)

2009-05-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings! T & S Co had exactly one week of rest after the Iraqi adventure before we were again called to duty! This time for a string a shows starting in Seattle and then hitting several spots up and down the coast.

Day one had us driving to Seattle to play at the Crocodile. I need to confess now that our photojournalism is lacking this tour compared to Iraq. We will do our best to improve... so anyway the crocodile was a blast, We met Jackie and crew for the first time... super nice folks, super talented. Some of us saw old friends and the weather was perfect. The show was sold out and our response was overwhelming!

Camel Spiders

2009-04-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.camelspiders.net/

Iraq Trip - Day Eleven

2009-04-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

The next morning we boarded another C-17 and flew back to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Then, we drove to the airport and spent half the day trying to get through security with all the gear. Finally, we stepped on board our Delta flight back to the USA.

As we flew over Kuwait, all you could see was sand in every direction.

Twenty hours later we landed in Los Angeles. All we could see as we decended from the clouds were green trees.

It was good feeling to be back in the US. There's no doubt that we have the greatest country in the world. We also have the greatest people who make up this country... men and women who sacrifice thier lives to keep us safe. Our Military is big in might... but it also has a lot of heart. Getting to see that first hand was an experience we will never forget.

We want to thank all of the Armed Forces for your overwhelming support and sacrifice.

Still no Camel Spiders!!!!

(Back at the Gower at the end of a long journey.)

Iraq Trip - Day Ten

2009-04-23T16:18:00.001-07:00

The next morning we awoke to the dog barking. The storm had passed during the night and the Blackhawks were on their way.

You don't get to say that very often!

We loaded up and headed back to the palace for showers. We had two shows to do today and believe me... we needed showers.

Once again the Blackhawk ride over Baghdad was amazing.

Here you can see our accomidations for the night. The palace, one of many on the property, is a hotel for the Armed Forces.

Saddam built many palaces. One for his daughter, two for his sons, one for his mother in law, one for a wedding, pretty much any reason.

They were built and tons of water were brought in to give Saddam lakes and fountains...meanwhile the Iraqi people were dying of thirst.

We jumped on another Blackhawk and flew to another small base called Dolby.

We played to a small crowd. When we finished we were told that they had set up the shooting range for us to shoot some weapons.

It only took us 10 minutes to pack up!

They let us drive an M-1 Abrams tank. Then we shot various guns including and M-4, M-16, 9mm, SAW machine gun, and the big boy... the 240 Bravo.

The troops were having a blast watching us fire these weapons. Some said it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. I don't have any pics but we do have some video which we will post later.

The Blackhawks showed up and we were a little bummed since we would have loved to shoot more weapons.

And we are off to our second and last show of the tour.

This was a highlight for us and a wave of emotions filled us all as we said goodnight. These were good guys, giving up their freedom and comfort, to protect the freedom of every American.

We took our final Blackhawk ride back to the palace and slept in Saddam's bedroom, converted to bunk beds.

I go t a few shots of the inside of the palace.

The furniture looks like gold but it's all fake gold paint and plastic.

This is the actual chair that Saddam sat in when he conducted the 2003 interview with Dan Rather.

And Saddam's throne...

The palace was very big with a lot of fake stuff: Plastic Vases, gold paint, fake marble covering, and of course...

The table at which Saddam used to eat.

This night had to come to an end because we had to be up really early to catch a flight back to the good old US of A.

Iraq Trip - Day Nine

2009-04-22T20:25:00.001-07:00

Today we got the all clear to fly to Baghdad. In the waiting room we met our first Full Bird Colonels. We found out that we would be getting on a new plane called a C-130. Both of these high ranking guys kinda chuckled when they heard what plane we would ride. Come to find out, a C-130 is like a mix between a roller coaster and a puke machine.

There's one little window on this plane and you are strapped to the wall. During landing the plane did a "combat landing". The plane suddenly dropped about 5000 feet and turned on its side. Our arms were dangling in front of us and the G Forces were so intense. Then, the plane swerves a bit and hits the runway with no warning!

Lunch anyone?

Things got better real quick as we were hustled to our accommodations for the next two nights: Saddam's Palace! More on this later.

Next, we were put onto our first Blackhawk Helicopter. Our equipment went in one and we went in another. You can tell by these pictures that we were beaming from ear to ear.

We strapped in...

The gunner climbed behind his weapon...

And we were off to do a show at this tiny base called Camp AQ.

They had a stage set up for us(a flatbed truck of some type) and they were extremely excited to see some American music. We were the first band that had ventured out to this base since troops were stationed there. The response was amazing!

Then a massive sand storm rolled in during our set. Sand was everywhere but we kept on playing and they kept on dancing.

Then a couple of soldiers joined us on stage for an encore. These guys could really play! The crowd went nuts!!!

One of the Iraq special forces was having the best time of his life. He said his name was "John Rambo" and all he kept repeating was, "I love America... I love you!"

The sand storm got worse and we packed our equipment thinking we would Blackhawk back to our palace for an evening of fun...

NOT!

We were there for the night.

This base only had about 150 guys there and they did their best to make us comfy.

This included dinner...

And our own tent complete with army issue cots...

I shot a few pictures before bed. Can you say Platoon?

Iraq Trip - Day Eight

2009-04-22T19:56:00.001-07:00

This was supposed to be a free day for us to relax. But, somehow Tim got confused and used the wrong shower. The Military Police arrested him and we spent most of the day getting him out of the brig.

Iraq Trip - Day Seven

2009-04-22T19:04:00.001-07:00

Today we were supposed to travel to Camp Apache but a nasty sandstorm came in and grounded all flights. Instead we went on a mission with some of the troops. It is very unlikely that a civilian gets to go on an actual mission... then again this whole thing is kind of crazy.

We put on our IBA's and got into these vehicles called MRAPS. These things are pretty bad ass. They are meant to survive attacks by roadside bombs and have saved many lives in the armed forces. We headed outside the gates of the base and drove the perimeter looking for insurgents or any proof that IED's had been placed by the road. We stopped when some Iraqi women approached the vehicles. She was just looking for some food so we gave her a cliff bar which she fed to her camel. I was confused...

Then, there was a suspicious part of the road so we stopped and lowered this infrared robot to check it out...false alarm.

Still no Camel Spiders...

The mission took a couple of hours and we came back to base ready to rock. Since we were grounded in Tellil we decided to do another show that night. This time we would bring the full electric set.
It didn't take long until word had spread on the base that we were going to rock that night at 20:00 hours.

The show was great and by the end a huge crowd was there. We gave out CD's and signed autographs and took pics with many people. Again, everyone was super thankful that we were there.

Right after the show, a man approached me and asked if we wanted to go to a bon fire on base. This man was Daniel and he's a bad ass jujitsu expert who was a Marine Sniper. Of course we said yes and boy are we glad we did.

Turns out, this was a party for the State Department guys (not regular Army). Everyone of these guys were special forces and now work in the private sector protecting our Senetors and President.

Being at this party was like being at an A list Hollywood party...everyone was either from Delta Force, Marine Force Recon, Green Beret, Navy SEAL, Army Rangers, or Marine Snipers.

Here's Daniel who could kill me at any moment...notice that his bicept is as large as my head.

We hung out to the wee hours of the night and had a blast. Thanks to all you guys for a great night in the desert.

Iraq Trip - Day Six

2009-04-22T15:30:00.001-07:00

You can see the CHU in this picture. It is small but compared to some other accommodations it is very nice.

They line dozens of them up in a row... 2 people per room, four rooms per trailer.

Then, they surround them with blast walls made of concrete to protect from mortar attacks.

We got to sleep in a bit and take a short tour of the base. There are tons of these armored vehicles sitting around. Eventually we would get to ride in one of them but that's much later...

First, we have half a day to tour the Ziggurat. This is a big honor for us being that this place is 4000 + years old. It also happens to be the home of Abraham (Yep, the one from the Bible) Since the entire thing is encompassed by a fence and temporarily "owned" by the United States, we are some of the only people who get to visit this sacred place.

It is only a short drive from base (10 min) and this great arch greats you when you drive up the road.

One of our awesome army guides tells us to stay put while she talks to the man who lives on the property. He is often scared by random vans pulling up with a bunch of males getting out.

He agrees to give us a tour.

I don't remember his name but I do remember that he spoke English pretty well. Apparently he learned English from a dictionary. He also learned Japanese, French, and Spanish all from Dictionaries. He claims that someone from his family has lived on this property all the way back 4000 years to Abraham. He loves Americans and here's why...
Before the American occupation of this area, this man had no electricity, no running water, no way to make money. The USA gave him all of these things and provides him with a job giving tours to US Soldiers. Anyway, back to the Ziggurat.

Here stands one of the temples that the Mesopotamians used for worship of the moon God. It is the oldest known standing archway in the world.

Crazy thing is... if you add a little water, you can still see the original writings in cuniform, carved into the walls of the temple.

We find out that only 5% of this entire city has been excavated. That leaves 95% of it untouched.

We are led into the burial temple where the kings of the Mesopotamians were found. Our Iraqi guide never lets people into the tombs...but you would be amazed at what a twenty dollar bill will do in Iraq.

Down we go...

This leads down into a corridor that once contained the bodies of the kings and queens of this land. It is very dark and dusty down there.

Still no Camel Spiders...

We stopped for a band photo on the steps and moved to the other tomb.

This room was just like the other one.

As I was coming out I snapped this heavenly photo of Walker, standing at the entrance to the tomb.

Another band photo and we climbed out of there. Still much more to see...

And here it is... the Ziggurat. This thing is HUGE! Imagine that 4000 years ago, this was the most sacred place around.

Many steps lead to the top.

And from there you can see just how much has been dug up. Not much. Under the rest of this sand lies a vast city that was once the center of Mesopotamia.

You can see that this place is crumbling slowly. Someone should build a giant bubble around the place to protect it.

You can't help but feel awestruck at this place.

The wind was really blowing hard and Smitty climbed right up on the ledge. One wrong step and he would fall 100 feet to the ground.

(Looking down from the top of the Ziggurat)

And yet another temple that is almost destroyed.

Next we go to Abraham's house. His house is pretty big and one can only assume that his family had some money. There was once a second floor and a roof on this place but over the years the bottom floor is all that remains.

The house is like a maze with a kitchen and family rooms.

Then, we broke out in dance on top of Abraham's house. That lasted for about 10 minutes while we sang "Father Abraham had many sons..."

Here's the band plus Franky Perez and Adam Haney. It was time to go back to base and play a show.

There was scheduling problem due to the weather and our show got canceled. Very much in the tradition of Truth and Salvage, we did a show anyway.

We grabbed acoustic instruments and did an "unplugged" version of our show for a small but thankful crowd.

Then it was off to bed because we had an early flight in the morning to take us to Base Apache, a small base that hardly ever gets entertainment.

Iraq Trip - Day Five

2009-04-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our 1:45am call time came early and most of us got NO sleep since we didn't get back to our rooms until midnight. We had to catch a flight that morning at 6am so we drove back to Camp Virginia and sat in a large room with hundreds of soldiers.

Everyone was confined to this huge room where they played old movies on a large screen. There were about 200 black leather chairs and couches and we chilled just waiting for role call.

Around 5am, still no sleep, we lined up with the soldiers and were herded onto a bus. We were wearing our body armor and carrying our bags. The bus pulled up on the flight line and when we got out we saw this huge monstrosity of a plane called a C-17. It is this plane that you always see in the movies... the thing can transport several tanks or a bunch of soldiers. More on this later.

Just when we were about to load on to the C-17, we were told that plans had changed and we were escorted back to the holding area. So close!!!!

Again we find ourselves chilling on the black chairs and being told that we may catch a flight at 10am. More waiting. More waiting. More waiting.

Then we are told, around 9am, that there would be no more flights till that evening at 8pm. Sam, who was just as tired as us, led us to another area where we waited to see if we could get rooms at Camp Virginia.

We hung out on wooden benches outside for the next two hours...we were approaching thirty hours with NO SLEEP. Luckily, everything seems funnier when you are sleep deprived and we all had developed the giggles. The troops who passed by us probably thought we were insane or drunk.

Finally, around noon, Sam managed to get us a tent that we could crash inside.

Here we are, exhausted and happy to have a place to sleep.

Man! That was some good sleep!

Sam woke us up at 7pm and we were hustled back to the waiting room. Same thing all over again.

Single file. Body armor. Role call. Bus ride. Finally, we got on the C-17.

Here are the only pics I got off before being told to put the camera away.

Just to give you an idea...

We were strapped onto the walls in a giant plane with no windows.

The plane took off... a beast of a machine lifted into the air, and the whole thing was very surreal. Thirty minutes later we landed in Tallil, Iraq.

We were picked up by our new escorts and driven to our CHU (Compartment Housing Unit) These were tiny trailers with no bathroom and two beds inside one little room.

Most of us went right back to sleep since we were still tired from the day before. In the middle of the night we were awakened by what we thought was the Mortar Alarm... turned out it was just two Camel Spiders fighting outside out our CHU.

Iraq Trip - Day Four

2009-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Early the next morning our guide and head of security, Sam, took us to obtain our IBA's. (Body Armour) Sam is a badass. Being an 8th degree black belt in karate and an ex-Navy SEAL, we always felt safe with him.

The reason we needed this body armour was obvious: Sometimes insurgents shoot at us! They also like to launch mortars at our vehicles and at the base in general.

Once everyone was fitted, we were off for a top secret briefing by the Col. Jones.

After much debate we decided that Col. Jones, the man in the middle of this picture, is NOT related to Tim Jones.

The top secret briefing was intense. They explained what their base, Arifjan, was responsible for in Kuwait. They also explained how important it was that we were performing for the troops.

We also were briefed on Area 51, the Kennedy assasination, and what happened to Atlantis. I wish I could explain more but we were sworn to secrecy!

We were then awarded a certificate of apreciation for efforts and headed out to do a show at Camp Virginia.

The drive was uneventful and the landscape is pretty much either desert...

Or desert with houses.

Once we arrived at Camp Virginia, we were given another certificate of appreciation and were off to set up for our first show.

Alot of the troops who are at this base are from Hawaii.

Here's the stage we performed upon. It was a great stage with plenty of seating for the audience. We were pretty excited to finally get to jam. You can see Franky and Tim doing the victory dance in this picture.

But then, a sand storm rolled in in a matter of minutes. When that happens, the wind picks up and blows sand everywhere. You can go from clean to filthy in a matter of seconds. You can see in this picture how the air changed to orange.

We sound checked.

Backstage, we made the setlist. We were pumped!!!

Right before the show, Joe tuned his bass, and we stepped out on the stage to a very packed house.

AFter the show, we gave out CD's and signed autographs. The troops were super excited and there was a great feeling in the air. The sand storm had passed.

We want to give a BIG thanks to everyone at Camp Virginia.

We packed up our gear and drove back to Camp Arifjan. We were really tired from the day. Our sleep was cut short by a 1:45am call time to catch a flight to Iraq. That's when we got stuck in purgatory....

Iraq Trip - Day Three

2009-04-21T19:50:00.001-07:00

Early the next morning we left Minneapolis for a 17 hour journey by Delta to take us into Kuwait.

The flight was great and as we were coming into Kuwait I saw the most amazing thing: An asteroid entered the atmosphere and burned through the air with a bright flash of blue light. Our plane took a sharp left turn to avoid the incoming "thing".

As we got closer to landing, we could see the oil fields in Kuwait.
There were fires blazing on top of the oil rigs...many of them.

Here's a picture from the airport in Kuwait. As you can see, they have a McDonald's.

It was amazing to see the cultural differences right away. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of women there. Since women are the possessions of men, we could get in trouble for talking to, snapping pictures of, or staring at the women.

We were intercepted by our security immediately and loaded the trucks with our equipment. Then, we were off to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. It was about an hour drive.

Once there we were given rooms on base and allowed to get some much needed rest.

Water was everywhere.

This is our rooms at Camp Arifjan. Believe me when I tell you that these are the finest they have to offer. The troops were staying in large rooms with dozens of beds pushed together while we had private "suites".

I was jet lagged and couldn't sleep so I walked around base and ran into a troop who was in charge of an attack dog. He showed me some of the dog, Gypsy's, moves. This dog could have torn me up! Gypsy sniffs out bombs and explosives and chases down bad guys.

Cool trip so far...

Iraq Trip - Day Two (continued)

2009-04-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

The party continued into the night and Tim made some new friends/fans for the band.

And some more friends...

And some more friends...

And some more friends...

Until finally we snapped this picture which looks like it came straight from a New Kids on the Block music video.

Overall, this trip was shaping up nicely...until...

Tim didn't like the way Scotty was standing so...

He cold cocked him in the jaw!

It was only Scotty's fast reflexes that saved the day with this "super boot roundhouse" that left Tim with a sore jaw.

Time for bed... we have to be up in 4 hours...

Iraq Trip - Day Two

2009-04-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

The next morning started in a regular way...coffee, newspaper, and simple talk. But looming in the background is the heaviness of the trip we are about to take. This morning would be the last "normal" morning we would have for a while.

We did a bit of sight seeing in the Twin Cities and headed back to the studio to work out the final details and pack all the equipment. It was crazy to travel with all that luggage, amps, mixers, mics, etc. You know how the airline gives you a strict "2 bags per person under 50 lbs"? Well, we had military orders that stated that we could have 10 bags PER PERSON up to 100 lbs PER BAG. Take that Delta!!!

That night we went out with our new friends Christian and Zach. In the morning we would be getting up very early so we thought it best to live it up a little.

Anyway, it's always nice to meet new people!

Iraq Trip - Day One

2009-04-21T17:03:00.001-07:00

This picture of Walker Young sums up the first day on our journey...tired.

An adventure awaited and we were all excited to get started. This was a day of laughter and chatter. Walking through the airport in Atlanta we turned many heads.

One person in particular caught my attention: A soldier just returning from Iraq. Tim, Joe, and I struck up a conversation with the soldier. He told us how appreciative he was that we were sacrificing to perform for the troops. Appreciative of us?? He is the one who is risking his life to keep our freedom and he is thanking us? This sentiment continued throughout the whole trip. Every soldier thanked us.
He gave me a patch and we said goodbye.

On the plane, Tim constructed and exact replica of Smitty and his mustache...from peanuts.

We arrived in Minnesota and started our pre production. We had to learn to use PODS since no amps were coming with us. (PODS are these little pedal boards that duplicate amps of various models. You just plug right into them.)

We also met our guide and new friend Adam from Minneapolis who would be a life savor over in Iraq.

It had been a long day of travel so we turned in early.

In the Red

2009-04-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

It is 5:00pm here on Thurs. We are still in Talil, Iraq. The weather here has not been fit to fly in so we are staying another day in Talil. When the weather is bad and you can't fly they refer to it as "red". We did put on an acoustic show last night in Memorial Hall for about 30 people. all of us just setting in a circle and passing the guitar around. A lot of fun and the folks were very responsive. There has not been any lack of excitement by any means. They take really good care of us here. Yesterday we got to go on a tour of the Ziggerat in Ur. A temple that was built around 2000b.c. made to worship the moon god amongst others and it was here were people started to worship the "One God". The one that most religions worship today. A pretty amazing place. Christianity, Judaism, Islam amongst other religions derived from this sacred plot of land in Iraq. We saw the house where Abraham was born. That was powerful. I'm not talkin about Lincoln either. The structure of the temple was made from brick and mortared together by tar and mud. Surrounding the temple were burial plots of the king and his workers. In some of the bricks you can see Sanskrit, really cool. Coming soon will be pictures and videos of these adventures. We just aren't capable of down loading them right now onto the military computers. It is really ironic to be walking around such a sacred place in the middle of a war zone(not active fortunately) Why is it a place of worship always turns into a place of battle. I was always taught that God is love and peace. Not war. Sorry got a little deep. You know me. The wheel was invented in Ziggerat. No shit. God, the wheel, oil, Kinda like Wal-mart. Sorry, sorry. Ok...

Today we got to take a tour around the whole camp in a cool armored vehicle that is totally escaping me right now. Can't remember the name....there are so many military code words that it is hard to keep them straight. Tonight we put on a live show here at Talill and we are all chomping at the bit to play. It will be our 2nd full show. 2 have gotten cancelled already. Tomorrow we are supposed to fly to Bagdad and finish the rest of our trip up there. The plan is to base out of the city and they will fly us to little satellite camp from there to perform. We are supposed to stay a mansion that Sadam built for his daughter. Crazy! Although with this weather you never know. Well off to get some chow. Again:) Much love.

Greetings from Talil, Iraq!

2009-04-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

10;30 am, April 15, 2009 finds me at the MWR computer room, (Morale,Wellness, Recreation). We arrived last night aboard a c-17 jet from Ali All Salem Air Base in Kuwait. Should have gotten here the day before but all schedules are subject to change around it seems. Leading up to now. . . played our first show two days ago already at Camp Virginia, Kuwait, a camp designated for troops returning from duty in Iraq. We had a total blast, everyone was super excited and grateful that we had come to play,(grateful is definitely the general sentiment here, which is quite a humbling feeling. We signed autographs and shook hands and I talked to a guy named Duane about how deer in North Carloina are so much smaller than the deer in Missouri for about thirty minutes, (we also talked about fishing for catfish in the Mississippi and how one snapped 65 lb test on him). Super nice guy!
After the show we packed, drove an hour back to another base to grab our gear and then drove back almost to Camp Virginia to the air base to catch our 3:30 am flight for Iraq, which after checking in and bussing out to the air strip we were bumped from our flight and rescheduled for 8:30 that evening. We spent the next hours as transients, engaged in an eating competition and laughed delirously until Sam our logistics man got us a tent to crash in where we slept all day.

The future brings us to the house of Abraham (seriously) called the Ziggurat; we will be some of the last Americans to visit because it is being returned to Iraqi control next week. And tonight just a stone's throw from Iran to a FOB, forward operating base, which some kids built from scratch four months ago and have yet to have visitors; I think they might be ready to rock.
Black Hawked over. Crazy. My mood for this whole trip has been grateful, I'm perpetually amazed by all I witness. Peace Y'all.

The Day before Iraq...

2009-04-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

We are in Minneapolis about 12 hours before the biggest tour of our lives. We have rehearsed the songs, dialed in the equipment, talked about what to expect, what this tour means to us and what it means to our Country. I can honestly say that there has never been a gig so prestigious and important in our career. We are feeling so blessed and excited to take this journey. Our families will tell you that we live a life of "rock and roll". Sacrificing relationships, family, money and sanity all for the love of music. Then I think about what our soldiers sacrifice everyday; risking their lives, their families, wondering when they get to see a green field again or a snow covered mountain top. Instead they are stuck in a litter box. Wondering when the next bullet will buzz by their head or bomb blow up in their face. Doing all of this so we as Americans can be whatever we want to be. So people from other countries can move here and chase the dreams that they see on the TV. The soldiers are the true "rock and and rollers". Risking their sanity and lives so I can sit here in this hotel room, drink a Heinekin and write what I am feeling. The land of the FREE.

As artistic Americans we tend to question our government, wanting peace and not war. Why are we fighting? We don't know why...or do we. We sing about it, write about it, bitch about it, but never get the chance to really SEE why freedom is worth fighting for. We know why it is worth it of course, but it is not something we have had to fight for, but something that we are luckily born into. We have become spoiled with a golden way of life that others in the world fight for their whole existence to feel and experience. Now we get a chance to say thank you. To be true Americans and see WHY freedom is worth fighting for. Thank you to the men and women who risk their lives everyday fighting for the freedom that we often times take for granted. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to live a life of traveling, playing music, sharing what we think, feel and strive to be. We live in this bubble of a society that tells us what it means to be an American, but in reality we have no freaking idea what that really means. Going to play and share with the Troops in Iraq is going to bring us one step closer to understanding what freedom truly means.

This is what I am thinking the day before we head to Iraq.

Leaving tomorrow! Writing from my iPhone and it won't let me write too much so this is my title blog! I hear we might be able to visit the ziggurat!

2009-04-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

Off to Iraq...

2009-04-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

As you know, we leave tomorrow for Iraq to perform for the troops. We will try to update you with photos/videos from the trip as we go. Of course that depends on how much internet we have over there.

Keep us in your minds and hearts...

Comedy for a Cure

2009-04-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

It was a real pleasure to be invited to perform at the annual Comedy for a Cure benefit. This is an amazing cause (Tuberous Sclerosis) and we were thrilled to play for such a giving group of people.

Here's the rundown:

Our "Limo" arrived at 5pm and we walked the red carpet. We posed for a few paparazzi shots and were hustled into the party for cocktail hour. They were having a silent auction so a few of us put in bids on some things. (No one won anything)

We were escorted in to our table where our emcee for the evening, Shaun Robinson (From Access Hollywood) welcomed everyone.

We ate, drank, and had a merry time while watching a couple of comedians... First was Pat Hazell (Writer on Seinfeld) and next was Jeffrey Ross (The Roastmaster General... the meanest man in comedy).

Then Truth and Salvage Co. took the stage after a grand introduction by Teri Hatcher. We rocked the folks hard... had the whole place dancing up a storm.

A bunch of money was raised for the great cause and a good time was had by all.

Hotel Cafe - March 28

2009-04-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

And the last show of the week was at the Hotel Cafe. For the people that were there, I don't have to tell you how much fun it was. For those of you that got turned away at the door... I'm so sorry. It seems that you really can't fit 300 people in a room intended for 200. We tried though...

Thanks to everyone that submitted photos from the evening. I've included a few here.

Notice the "orbs of light" in the photo. The spirits were present that night. It almost looks like we turned on a bubble machine!

Thanks to all our friends and crew who put this night together.

Til next time...

West Coast Tour...Part 2

2009-04-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Luckily the "tour bus" brought us into Monterey at 4:30 am...so some of got to sleep in the next morning. Monterey has a host of things to do and the weather is great.

Walker was up early and off to surf all day long. A few guys from our crew and the band went to Cannery Row. (From the Steinbeck novel of the same name.) Scotty is standing in front of one of the old sardine canning factories.

We got bikes and rode along the waterfront. Here's a shot of Tim on his bike giving the all clear. Again the weather is stunning up in NoCal and Monterey gets the award for coolest little place in Cali. That is mostly because the people are so down to Earth here.

There is an strange feeling staying at the Hotel Monterey...which is reportedly haunted. We discussed the ghost situation with a bellboy who had worked there for several years and were told about a little girl who has been seen roaming the hallway on the 3rd floor. We didn't see any little girls BUT...we did have a strange encounter. More on this in a minute.

We sound checked at Monterey Live and prepared for the show that night. Here's a candid shot of me in the green room right before the show. The energy was buzzing down in the show room and the place was getting pretty full. Suddenly we heard sirens and firetrucks and a bunch of commotion. We ran outside and Scotty snapped a picture of a firetruck sending several firemen to the roof of the joint across the street.

False alarm I guess... we didn't see any flames.

The show went great that night. We want to thank all the folks from Monterey/Paradigm for your support. Especially JL...lunch was yummy.

Now...about the ghosts.

When Tim and I got back to our room after the show, a heavy mirror had been moved from the wall, across the room, and onto my bed. A little freaky! Being a skeptic, I replaced the mirror and we wrote it off to a prank. But here's the thing...

No one else had a key to the room. We both left the room together and locked the door. We both came back together and the door was still locked. No one could have gotten inside besides the maid/manager.

Here's the best part. After finding the mirror on the bed and replacing it, we both left the room again at approx 3:00 am to go down to Inman's room. We were gone for five minutes. On the way back up to our room we were taunting the ghost a little bit. Not good!

We opened the door to the room and... the freakin mirror was back on the bed!!!!

We were both a little bit scared...I'll admit. Didn't sleep so good that night.

The next morning we were off to Visalia. A pretty long driven awaited us and we killed the time listening to Jackie Green.

Visalia is another on a short list of places to retire. It's a beautiful city... a music loving city. There was some buzz in the streets about our show that night. The venue, The Cellar Door, treated us like royalty. We'll play there again.

The show was packed again and there was a great response to our music. Like I said...music loving city!

We headed out after the show and made the drive back to LA. We still had one more show to go: Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. More on this later...

West Coast Tour...Part 1

2009-04-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

We are fresh off the road and I thought it would be fun to give you a little re-cap of last weeks events. First off, thanks to all of our peeps who traveled up the West Coast to see multiple shows. It was great to look out and see friends from LA giving us support.

The drive was absolutely stunning. For those of you who haven't taken the journey up the coast... you should put that on your list of things to do before you die. Certain parts of the landscape look like Scotland with the rolling green hills and psychedelic trees.

We arrived in San Luis Obisbo with plenty of time to look around. This place feels like the Wizard of Oz... someone took a North Carolina college town, uprooted it, and plopped it down in Northern Cali. We were surrounded by cool little coffee shops, super hip people, and the air was very clean.

Check out the picture of "Gum Alley". That is an entire alley made of gum. For many years people have been sticking their gum to the walls...spelling out names and drawing pictures. The city of SLO cleaned the entire alley and painted the walls... only to find the gum mysteriously coming back. Within a few months it was right back to normal.

The show was a ton of fun that night. We want to thank all the people that showed up in support.

The next day we off to San Fran... Scotty snapped this shot of Joe. Again the drive was beautiful and we soaked up some sun. San Fran was just a hop skip and jump away. We parked the "tour bus" and headed down to Chinatown for some dim sum. Who doesn't love dim sum? Here's a pic of Smitty in Chinatown.

That night we played the legendary Hotel Utah. It was so packed inside that it was hard to get around. Saw a lot of familiar faces inside... I'm so thrilled by the people that made the drive up from LA. We definitely made some new friends that night! By the end of it all we were pretty tired and had to make the late night drive to Monterey.

More to come soon...

The Salvage...

2009-03-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

The story of this photo is steeped in rumor and mystery. It all started on a sunny day in June....

Around Beachwood Canyon, Truth and Salvage Co is known as much for our music as we are for our impromptu parties. This day was no exception. The people gathered and a secret location was given. By 3pm the party had developed into a T&S Co sing-along with as many as twenty voices ringing over the park.

By some sheer cosmic blessing, T Byrd had his camera. Right at the end of a roaring rendition of "She Really Does It For Me", he snapped ONE photo. In that single moment everything that is pure and good came through.

There is some debate over the giant plume of smoke billowing from Scotty's mouth. Some say that there is clearly something visible between his lips. Others say that it is just an illusion.

You be the judge...