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

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

SK

Adventures with the Avett Brothers in April

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,

SK

Phil Vassar and the Bull!

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!

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

The DumbleDoors

Shopping with Lissie & Vinnie