Bicycle Ice Cream ( an explanation of the song "So Far Away" )

I've come to grips with the constant questioning that's been directed at me since I was a small boy: "What's it like having five sisters?"my answer eventually became this very simple and philosophical answer "I don't know what it's not like."

 I'll share with you one of the myriad things that makes having a gaggle of sisters such a fun and unique experience and I'll add that being a boy within that home made me by default a 'bull in a china shop'. 

There was one activity that I can remember with amazing vivid detail as if it was just 20 minutes ago that I was all of 5 years old and learning how to "make" ice cream with a bicycle. 

Step 1. 

Take a BMX style bike or the more girlie version with banana seat and handle bar streamers and flip it over so that it resets on it's handles and seat. 

Step 2. 

Address the bicycle by facing the pedal and crank with your favored arm towards the front wheel. 

Step 3. 

With your other hand firmly grasp the small stick (with bark: preferably Silver Maple)  that you have gathered up from the backyard.

Step 4. 

Begin vigorously cranking the pedal of the bike.

Step 5. 

Make contact between the rubber of the rear wheel and the stick almost as if dropping a needle onto an LP with precision, yet with force. 

Step 6. 

Turning the stick like a piece of corn being eaten row by row remove as much of the bark as desired. 

Step 7. 

Pass out "sticks" to all present and charge them 25 cents for each hand-dipped "cone"

Step 8. 

Repeat until you have enough change to chase down the italian ice truck

Bonus points:

Convince your younger siblings that if you lick it will taste like ice cream. 

Seat of my pants, skin of my teeth.

... As soon as I landed back in Nashville from my Jamaican adventure I made a bee line for the Apple store and the appointment I had made to check out my brandy new laptop that wasn't starting up after the drop to the tile floor in my hotel room... amazingly when I got there and pulled it out at the Genius Bar it started right up! The nice kid ran the diagnostic protocol they have and she checked out just fine! To celebrate I went out and wandered around downtown Nashville and checked out the action. 

Lots of tourists in cowboy boots and Stetsons. 

Stuff is happening...

And I will be updating this thing more regularly... I've been dropping the ball due to a crazy travel and work schedule and I apologize if you have been clicking on the link and not getting new stories... If you would do me the honor of leaving a comment just so I know how big (or small) my readership is it would be greatly appreciated... knowing such a thing would help me narrow down and write with all of you in mind!!!

Today I fly out to Los Angeles

Big things to come!

Stay tuned!!

Jamaica, Farewell.

Waking up to a broken computer, the tool of my connectivity, so very necessary for the 3 month odyssey that I was only a week into on top of the hangover and stolen joint that was to be my cure for said angry head drove me to make the only rational decision that I could make... head for the airport and get back to an apple store asp! So that's what I set out to do.
I packed my things and headed out to the main road in front of the hotel with my bags and the bottle of rum that I smuggled out of the resort... ( at the all inclusives you can basically just order bottles to your room so I availed myself of one in the hopes that I might give it to some poor local who could use it for trade... I know I'm such a Robin Hood) I walked back over to the shack where I was swindled out of some cash, looking for a taxi and a local to give the bottle to. Well that was kinda futile but I did scope out a nice piece of property that may or may not need a carpenter to help build up a nice lodge and night club :) I'm always on the lookout for such barter-type situations.
To make a long story short without the computer I didn't know what time the flights were running out of Montego Bay and since my ticket was actually for Sunday morning and this was saturday and I in my fuzzy logic was sure that I could catch a flight (as if this was JFK in NYC) and so took the beautifully scenic ride... Well much to my dismay I missed the last flight by 20 minutes my cell phone was running out of battery and I couldn't find my charger... and... the kiosk didn't have the kind I needed... and... and... and... well I called up the taxi driver who had thankfully given my his card. He picked me up and after explaining my predicament swung me over to the nicest little hotel that he brings his "women" to :)
I ate fried chicken for dinner and then laid in bed with the fuzzy flat screen TV on and waited for morning and my 9am flight.
To my surprise there was another guest from the wedding at the airport and so she and I talked and talked till it was time to board hoping we might grab some seats next to each other or at the least convince another adjacent passenger to give a seat and swap.. well I got on to find someone in my seat! Turned out to be the one and only Jorma Kaukonen of the famed Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship!!!
Got to chat with him a bit about learning the blues in a Christian home and the pitfalls of life on the road. I think I might just take him up on his offer and swing by the Fur Peace Ranch on the way back east.

Bunganut Pig and the madnss off batteries

(continued...)    Just off the exit to the highway I found a little gas station that was closed but had a scissor-lift parked in front of their little "mart"so I snugged my little truck up next to it. In my thoughts it seemed like a pickup next to a piece of construction equipment would go unnoticed to whom ever would care be they employee or police... I was correct; however I didn't account for the ringing in my ear so I decided that some late night talk radio would help me to doze off...
Now I may be 6'4" but some how I have managed to figure out how to pretty comfortably curl my frame onto the bench seat of my little Dodge Dakota I however did not remember that I had a weak battery... I left the radio on... 

The truck started up when I woke up in the morning and I got back on the highway and the snow was blowing hard all around my swaying carriage. By the time I got to Nashville the weather had calmed down and the sun was out just in time to grab lunch with my good friend Femke and catch up on all the excitement in her life... seems she gets a new award or accolade just about every other month for her songwriting. Then it was south down to Franklin to find the couch I would be crashing on. I found the house no problem took and nap and got ready to head over to my gig that night walked out to start my truck and noooooo I had left the headlights on and killed the last of the battery...
Mad dash to the auto parts store with a ride from my friend Mark, (who originally hails from Summit, NJ) and now plays bass for all sorts of interesting musicians around Nashville.
Got to the gig 20 minutes late but all was well.
New friends all around at the show and it was the first time I've had the other musicians from the bill come up to me and buy my album!
Great day.

Shoes in the Dark, Computer on the Floor...

My good friends got married down in Jamaica March 8th so naturally I had to fly down and join in the festivities. However being a musician on the road I could not afford the all inclusive resort for lodging so when I got off the plane at 9pm in Montego Bay I grabbed the JUTA bus over to Negril with a word from the driver that he knew where I was staying... well turns out he didn't so there was a bit of a kerfuffle with me as the loner passenger in a very large bus with the driver and his girlfriend whipping back and forth up and down the main drag looking for a newly renamed hotel :) We found it, I dropped off my luggage and hid my valuables around the room and decided to go find a beer... which turned into me getting hustled by a couple locals for a couple drinks and a very small amount ganja for 60$. I was duped but it was fun learning where the line of tourist and savvy traveler met. The main dude I eventually had to run off as he didn't believe that I was a poor working musician that didn't have a never-ending wallet of American cash...
That was Thursday and Friday brought some new adventures.. mainly getting over to Sandals and the wedding party to hang out in the pool with rum and water slides. The ceremony was beautiful at sunset just like something out of a modern fairy-tale and the reception quickly turned into a killer dance party that had spurts of dancing and minutes of catching my breathe out under the amazing black blanket of stars on the beach. Naturally we all danced till 2 am in the dance club after the reception which lead up to the time I had to "check out" of the all-inclusive and head back over to my hotel 3 miles away. I had been wearing a great pair of "sandal slippers" kinda like Sanuks and decided in my inebriated state to forgo a taxi and walk the three miles which turned into bare feet... about a mile down the road side I chose to walk there was a gully that I dipped down into which wasn't lit by the street lamps that were behind and before me by at least a hundred yards. Needless to say I lost one slipper in a puddle and then in the search to find the first I lost the second and without a flashlight handy I was now shoeless 2 miles away from my bed... I made it home fine but found that the cleaning crew had removed the refrigerator (which I wasn't using anyway) and the 10$ joint I had been hustled for the night before...
I laid down in bed and facebooked a bit falling asleep with the computer on my bed only to wake up the next morning to hear it fall onto the tile floor beside the bed...  I just wanted to go home to America so right then and there a new adventure began...

to be continued....

Charlotte - the long night...

From a distance the Wachovia building in downtown Charlotte looks a lot like the tower of Sauron so as I approached the city I felt the need to duck behind the wheel so as not to be seen by the eye! Also to be noted when traveling to Charlotte, if you park on one of the main streets there beware that the lights all become no left turn at 5 pm... which can make going around a corner a 20 minute affair ... 

Once loaded to Connolly's on 5th it began to rain which put a damper on the turn out for the night well that and Bon Jovi was playing down the street. All in all I managed to entertain those that did show up I made some new friends from Maine.. packed up the truck and decided to hit the road.

Nashville isn't that close but I figured I could sleep in a rest stop along the way.. which I did.  I stopped at about 2 am and got 2-3 hours of sleep curled up on the bench seat of my pickup... which is not a really easy feat at my height. For added bonus I left the radio on to lull me into dreamland which was fine until I got to Nashville and the battery died :(

Asheville Ashville Take Me In!

Spanish moss draped lazily off the trees that lined route 576 as I departed Myrtle Beach and headed west up and over the foothills and into the Appalachian Mountains of North-Western Carolina.  When I was a kid these hills and the people that inhabited them were of great interest to me through the eyes and writings of anthropology students in  a series of books called Foxfire. It is from the pages of these books that I learned the simple joys (albeit tough for them) of mountain living and the ingenious techniques employed to home-build all the needs of daily living (brooms, butter churns etc..) as well as musical instruments, tanning leather, down feather beds, corn-husk dolls and on and on... As many of you who have known me in this life time know I am always up for inventing new tools and solving problems the solutions to which have come from this compendium. 

I arrived at the exit for Asheville and decided that I would have a look around so I pulled off into downtown and took some random turns which ended me up in a parking lot across the street from 5Walnut (an amazing little wine bar that I had unsuccessfully tried to book a gig at for the tour).  I wandered up the street on the phone and found a 20$ bill in the gutter! Reacting to this good fortune I walked into said wine bar and ordered myself a big Italian red which then turned into a great conversation with the gal who books the entertainment and a gig for a future date.  I also found one of the nicest hostels I've ever set foot in; Sweet Peas.
Now back to the Firefox thing... It was a fantastically wonderful day that Monday the 4th of March and so taking a walk around town was in sure order. Along one of the streets up on the top of the hill there's a row of permanent booths that artisans rent to sell their wares. A guy selling dulcimer cigar box guitars another peddling terrariums from the miniature necklace pendant on up to very large glass-domed multiple species feature, wood turnings from bowls to funky lazy-Susans and last but not least a blacksmith who I had a very long conversation with about the ratio of heat and the color aspects that it brings out in different metals. I told him about etching with Muriatic acid... might have spawned a new line of work for him :) Great day.
My old friend and artist Stephanie, from my New Brunswick days, had moved down to Asheville in the last year and was kind enough to host a small gathering in her living room. Pot-luck style we hung out and drank great micro-brew beer ate home made pita and hummus and I performed songs from my album in between spurts of laughter and cries from the childrens. 

The First Long Haul...

After an epic night of playing music and drinking beer without eating dinner (Hi Mom :), on H Street in NE D.C. .. I woke up with 2 dogs staring me in the face! My host was still asleep and I was hungover enough that I stumbled out and started up my tour wagon in search of Rt 95 and a big breakfast so as to confuse my liver with fat and get it off the alcohol.

Just across and into Virginia I found my salvation in the form of 11 yellow squares proclaiming to be an abode of fried carbohydrates. Naturally I pulled in and found a seat at the counter and got my black coffee and a picture menu and set out to find out which combination of food items would sooth my angry stomach. The remedy would also serve as fuel for the 9+ hour drive down to South Carolina and my gig at Handley's Pub & Grub.  The two lovely ladies sitting next to me at the counter struck up some small talk, they were headed for Charlotte and the big NCAA Basketball weekend there... apparently all the big club promoters throw epic parties. Made some new friends and linked up on Instagram... 

95 gets a bad rap north of the Mason Dixon but it's pretty clear sailing once you get down into the heart of the South. That in mind I found my way down through all the pine forests and sandy ground to my friend's lovely home just south of Myrtle Beach with enough time to shower and take a nap... a nap that  almost launched me into missing the gig :) I woke up with 30 mins to get there and get set up! Close call. 

The highlight of the night was having my good friend and singer Diane sit in and sing "Jackson" to close out the night. 

I want to post some photos from the adventures.. but for some reason Blogger isn't letting me... I will investigate and update as soon as possible... stay tuned. 

The Big Board D.C.

    

    When I told my mother that I was headed to H Street North East in Washington D.C. for the first night of my tour her response was as if I had said Camden, NJ a.k.a. notoriously dangerous.   You see she grew up in and around our nation's capitol and I guess 50 years ago it wasn't the part of town a white kid like me would be wandering into unknown to play music.  These days that part of D.C. is almost like a fancier version of Park Slope in Brooklyn with all varieties of night clubs, bars and boutique restaurants and one in particular that has a unique take the buying power of beer drinkers. 

  The Big Board was started by the brothers Flannery as an exercise in free market economic principals and drinking beer!  I will not attempt a review here as I didn't have a chance to eat any food between rushing to the gig (see last post) and then the kitchen being closed after I was finished playing.  I am very much looking forward to heading back to this place and enjoying some food and beer! 

So many things were great about this night besides the things I missed... first off it was a night of reunions and new acquaintances. The man responsible for lining up this show for me and also being kind enough to give me his couch for the night was my across-the-street neighbor in Berkeley Heights.  Also present from the old neighborhood was my good friend AJ (who blogs about life) who brought a number of friends out to occupy the upstairs bar.... some other new friends that may or may not have some great contacts for me! ... :) 

Next up... the long drive to Myrtle Beach! 

Spring Tour 2013

There is a mad dash that one gets involved in when you bite off more than you can chew... which for me means getting tangled up in sprinting for the finish line all the time. I began the planning for this spring tour back in November as I was volunteering down in the wonderful town of Sea Bright after Sandy had blow things to bits. There was a moment then when I was contemplating hanging up the guitar for an indeterminate amount to time so as to help with the rebuilding of the Jersey Shore. I quickly figured out that I could still do both as the bureaucracy that funnels money down to "we the people" takes months so that by the time I reach home there will be lots and lots of work to take up my time.

    Friday the 1st of March I performed at "The Big Board" in Washington D.C. at 9 in the evening the events that lead up to that point are as follows to the best of my ability. Thursday I was completing the tables that you see in the photograph (top right), one of which was quite large (11'x36") and had to be delivered to a bar in NYC before I could hit the road. My father and I loaded up a rented truck with the 5 tables and some gear and headed in at 1am... by 5am the tables were installed (along with raising the bench you see the in the left side of the same shot up top). Then it was home again to grab a quick 2 hour nap to then go finish another job which didn't land me packing for my three month voyage until 3 in the afternoon t-minus 6 hours till gig in DC :-)

I then proceeded with the help of all present to literally throw things into the truck that I might need while on the road... everything from soldering irons, spare screws and tools to bedding, books and extra guitar strings.... the only thing I know I've forgotten at the moment is the keyboard stand I use for my merch table... 

I did manage to make it down route 95 to DC with enough time to grab a parking spot load in and start playing by my scheduled time! 

I will post stories from everyday of the tour so please check back every day for your daily dose of vicarious yarn. 

~DT