Bands, Solo, Community and In From The Cold

I have done a lot of traveling over the years, most of it solo. That makes sense since I am a solo artist.

I started out in 1988 traveling in a band and did that for 3 years. Weeks on the road; just the four of us in a 15 passenger van that we had outfitted to carry us and our gear; sleeping on couches; arguments, laughs, concerts and camps, shared experiences… Like bands do, we crashed and burned and at the time I thought it meant that I hated doing music. Then I changed my mind and thought it meant I hated being in a band. So, I went solo.

I started traveling alone in 1991 and have done that ever since. During these years, any time I was tempted to complain about life on the road I would remember how I ridiculed all those classic rock songs like ‘Turning the Page’ – I mean, these guys chose this life, it was what they wanted and they were rich and famous… and they were complaining?? Yet, life on the road is a hard thing. And what I was finding out was that life on the road solo, was even harder.

Why do it then, you may ask? Several reasons… economics for instance. It is easier to make a living wage solo than it is in a band. Costs go up exponentially the more folks you involve. Control is another thing. After being the youngest and weakest (in influence) member of an established group, it was great to get to chart my own course and have the final say. But the downsides are obvious, you are always alone. That brings risks in terms of ethics, accountability, road safety, etc. But, you get used to it and you stop questioning it, and you deal with it; after all, no career is without its down sides. You deal with it, that is, until something brings it to your attention again.

I have heard it said that things come in three’s, I don’t know if that is true or not but it is applicable here. 1) 3 weeks on the road this Winter in which I drove through continuous snow/ice storms, slamming home the fact that I was dangerously alone on the road. Not alone in a spiritual sense, of course, but alone in the fact that I was responsible for all the driving, having to make the call on whether or not to continue through a serious weather situation to make the next gig, no one to share the driving with… 2) In March, all of my gigs were band gigs (now I know that I said I am a solo artist, but the last 4 years I have had my mates Danny and Paul, who will come with if a venue wants a full band). So, there we were, 3 band boys on the road, facing some of those same weather decisions, getting stuck in the mud, but as a team, a community. 3) The rediscovery of an old classic spy novel – The Spy Who Came In From The Cold – the recurring question of the book being “Are you ready to come in from the cold?”

What does this all mean? Well, one thing it means is that I am ready to say it – at the risk of being ridiculed by young upstart musicians (like I was) who think I should just deal… I am tired of being on the road alone. It is much more fun and life-giving to be on the road with my family. It is much more fun and life-giving to be out with the band. It is much more fun and life-giving to be in community. It is simply much more to not be solo…

Behind the Snowplow

I recently returned from possibly the worst three weeks on the road of my entire career… not the concerts, mind you, they were great! The folks I played for in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas couldn’t have been nicer and more welcoming. It was the WEATHER. One of the reasons I typically tour southward in the winter is to get out of the snow, but not this year! It was snow and ice all the way down and back.

During the whiteout driving moments (and there were several), I would flip on my blinkers and slow down… sometimes I would slow wayyyy down. And a few times, I just pulled in behind a snowplow and followed it.

Driving in a whiteout provides lots of reasons to be nervous. The danger… the pressure to speed up because the guy behind you is right on your tail… the Fed Ex van honking at you… the worry about making the next gig on time… the multi semi accidents in the middle ground of the highway… and visions of your family crossing your mind…

Pressure to make bad decisions in a dangerous time – that not only describes how I felt driving on this last tour, it could be said of all of us in this day and age. 24 hour news cycles… entire lives lived out online… kids growing and maturing too fast… the drive for ‘the next big thing’ being more important than family… jumping through hoops… we all feel the pressure to go faster.

There is a great moment in the movie ‘That Thing You Do!’ when the band asks when their new single will come out. The engineer replies “Luke 21:19…”  and they all look confused until the Bass Player says, “In your patience, possess ye your souls.” Still confused, the engineer says “Wednesday.”

In your patience, possess ye your souls… what does that mean? I have come across that phrase more recently when I was re-reading some Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes saying it to Watson when he was anxious. Other translations of the Bible say it this way: “By your endurance, you will gain your lives” (NAS) or “Staying with it – that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end.” (Message)

Calm down. Slow down. Stay with it.

Whether I am driving in a snow storm or contemplating where God may be leading me, I am tempted to try and go too fast.

Calm down. Slow down. Stay with it. In your patience, possess ye your souls…

In God’s hands all of this is part of the Adventure, so I think I will flip on my blinkers, slow wayyyy down and pull in behind that snowplow…

Fresh AIR and Real Faces

A couple of weeks ago I had the distinct honor of being both the Speaker and Musician for A.I.R. Camp (Aldersgate Institute Redesigned) at Little Grassy UM Camp in Makanda, IL. What a blast! We spent the week digging deeply into the parable of the Prodigal Son and swatting the largest horse flies humans have ever seen! I love going to camp, doesn’t matter where in the country, I love going to camp.

Around 95% of what I do during the year are one-off concerts – pull into town, set up, sing, tear down and leave. And over the course of a year, I probably meet over a thousand new people, new faces. And two days after each concert, if I am honest, I couldn’t tell you the name of a single one of those people. All that time, all that travel, and all those people…

But camp changes that for me. Getting to be in one place for a week, getting to eat meals with kids, getting to plot with the adults, taking communion with Pringles and Pepsi, getting to actually connect in a way that makes those ‘faces’ real – that fires me up to continue. It is far too easy to become isolated and insular when you move from Jeep to stage to hotel to Jeep, repeat. But you have to become part of the community when you go to camp. You have to learn names and faces and people become real and mean something to you at camp.

So, thank you very much to all the folks at AIR Camp for inviting me, and for all the Real Faces!

The Re-entry Phase…

I think the strangest part about touring is the ‘re-entry phase’ ( Those of you who travel extensively will know what I am talking about). The re-entry phase is not specific to the musician, but is familiar to anyone who spends extensive time traveling.

Basically put, the re-entry phase is that time period that occurs right after coming home from a road trip, the process of switching from solitary road dog to community minded family man. It can appear, to the outside observer or family member, as a self centered process but it really isn’t.

When you are on the road, you have only yourself to worry about – the schedule you have to keep, the people you have to meet, the tasks you have to get done. When questions arise, you only need consult yourself. You get into a solitary way of working very quickly. You also have to let go of the home fires while on the road. Not because you are a jerk, but because you can’t really do anything about it – you call and text but beyond that… Add to that the fact that on the road, the venues and churches very kindly meet your needs while you are there to perform, you are in essence the center of attention at that moment and place in time.

When you get home, it all changes! There are no stages, no concerts to play, no ‘center of attention’ to enjoy.  Instead there is real life… family to hug and kiss, kids to drive around, toilets to plunge, wrestling matches to have, lawns to mow, spouses to relieve from their solitary parenting duties… And it takes a bit to switch between the two modes.

I have often wondered about finding a better way to do the re-entry phase. It would be great if you could put one day between the last day on the road and the first at home to be used for the switch. That, however, just makes your time away from home longer, so no-go. Maybe, if my scientifically inclined son ‘Bean Pole’ (you’ll meet him later) could come up with a way of stopping time…

Ah well, until then I will just have to do the best I can and dive headfirst back into life at home! I would write more, but I have a lawn to mow…

Summer Wrap Up

Whew! The summer’s touring is over… several weeks out in the mid-west, more dates in the northeast followed by a few camps… I am exhausted! But, what a great summer…

Since my last update I had the chance to share the stage with Chris Lucas and Alathea in Maryland, lead worship for junior high youth in Pennsylvania, sing songs and tell stories to elementary and junior high campers in New York and perform several concerts all over! Now it is back home to catch up on office work, booking new dates and updating everything from websites to blogs! And we can’t forget the most wonderful day of the year… NY Schools start on September 4! Hallelujah!

Favorite memories for the summer… concert with the band in Liverpool to debut music from the new CD, the concert at River Valley Ranch with Chris Lucas and Alathea, breaking my cell phone at the YFC Camp in PA, and the whole week at Mission Meadows!

On stage at River Valley Ranch

Hello… are you in there?

With Chris Lucas and Alathea

Tearing it up with the band

Paul and Danny

the band

NFTR #5

Two more nights down… and great ones too! Tuesday night in Kansas City, KS at a Celebrate Recovery Meeting and Wednesday at an evening service in Festus, MO… I think the biggest joy of this trip is that all of the places I have played have been return gigs, places I have played before… and what has been so humbling is that people are excited to have me back and remember what I said and sang last time so they are excited about the new CD, about what is going on now…

Another nice thing is that this tour is the first sustained effort with a new set list incorporating the new CD… a few tweaks here and there, a few modifications and the new set list is really tightening up… thought you might like to have a view from behind the mic, these were taken right after my soundcheck in Festus…

From behind the mic…

pedals and setlist…

Notes From The Road #4

Halfway through the tour… 5 dates down and 5 to go… yesterday was fantastic, First Methodist in Denton TX in the morning and H2O Church in Ada, OK in the evening… the morning was a mix of traditional services and a jazz contemporary service and the evening was a concert held in a sanctuary decked out in current movie themes… each moment was wildly different from the others… that is what makes being a wandering minstrel so cool… getting to step in to peoples’ lives for a moment, getting to share your story and God’s grace and then move on with the memories firmly implanted… how cool is that?

H2O Church’s Sanctuary decked out like a movie…

Indiana Jones Running Away from the Boulder in the H2O Church

The Stage ar H2O Church

Notes From The Road #3

Welp, I discovered the one place that Verizon Wireless can’t ‘hear me now’… Ballinger, TX! But, other than that, last night was perfect! First of all, my GPS system worked like a champ… love this thing! Plus, it gives me someone to talk to while I drive… The event in Ballinger was held outside in a park, complete with hot dogs and watermelon. 3 choirs from local churches came and sang and then my bit…

It was a glorious 101 degrees and reminded me of a Texas picnic from 1989… on that night a girl told me I had three months to ask her to marry me… she was right!

GPS Rules

Winters UMC Choir opening the show

Yep, it WAS this hot…

Notes From The Road #2

Here I am in Dallas, TX… staying with my buddy Rex, bass player from the Watermark days (for you hardcore fans)… it was 20 years ago today, Watermark moved to Dallas to play… really… it WAS 20 years ago today… played tonight at White Rock Coffee… good show, saw some old friends who used to own another coffee house in the Dallas area that I have played in the past… playing coffee houses is sort of the ‘Christian bar circuit’… you play long sets, later in the evening and you are essentially background music… but the fun comes in having the freedom to do all sorts of things off the cuff, or pull out an old song, or a new one that you haven’t really rehearsed… or just make up a loop and jam it for awhile…

Broke down today and finally bought one of those portable GPS things… gotta be better for the environment than my printing off hundreds of pages of Mapquest directions every year… I will give it the crucial test tomorrow, let it lead me to Ballinger, TX for my next gig… so, Joe, if you are reading this… I should be there by 4, assuming this GPS gadget works!

White Rock Coffee!

Playing and Singing...

Notes From The Road #1

Day 3 of a two week tour… first night was in Grove City at East Main Presbyterian Church. What a great night! Got to spend time with several old friends and catch up, then play songs from the new CD for them! Monday it was on to Nashville. No gigs, but meetings and photos and such. Monday night I had the opportunity to attend a House Concert featuring John Standefer who was in town for the Chet Atkins Festival. John is a world class finger style player and definitely worth checking out… I picked up his instructional books and hope to learn a little of his style.

Day 3… more meetings, songwriting sessions for a couple of ALBIE Entertainment artists, and a photo shoot for Breedlove’s website… show casing the guitar I received back in March. Finally, I wasn’t able to be in Kansas City this past April for the KCCM Awards when I was fortunate enough to receive the award for Acoustic Rock Artist, so the folks at ALBIE presented it to me here.

Tomorrow? On to Texas!

With John Standefer

Breedlove!

KCCM Award!