Jeff Miller's Crazy Tour Blog

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #8 (end of Tour + 11 days)

2011-11-03T17:47:00.000-04:00

Alright... if you don't mind, I am going to attempt to recap the final week and a half in this one final post for the 2011 Fall Tour. I fear that it will not get recapped in its entirety, otherwise.

Okay, Thursday, October 13th. I have a good college friend who is from the Harrisburg (PA) area. I have stayed with his family numerous times during several tours, but had never played in Harrisburg. And I almost didn't play there on this scheduled date. For every Fall Tour that I do, I expect 1 or 2 shows to be cancelled. It's a big monkey on a park bench, but it happens. However, during the 2011 Fall Tour, not a single show was cancelled. Delightful.

I received a mysterious email two nights before this scheduled show in Harrisburg (notifications of cancellations never come with enough time to reschedule another show). This email informed me that the venue was in the middle of some sort of lease payment dispute, and that some shows were happening, while others were not. Thankfully, the powers that be kept this show on the schedule, though neither of the opening acts decided to show up. And apparently news of the dispute had been leaked in the local media. All of this did not help for attempting to get people out to the show. But there were still enough people to have a show, and a local singer/songwriter/guitarist was stopping by, and she ended up doing a short set between my two sets. I think the whole lease issue is just a misunderstanding, as I was still paid for the show, and was able to sell a few CDs. As with the previous night's show, I was invited back to do a (hopefully) better-attended/promoted/etcetera-ed show in the future.

We now come to what was the best weekend of the tour. I would do 4 shows over the next 3 days. 3 of them took place in Maryland. I had two House Concerts back-to-back on Friday and Saturday. House Concerts are my favorite shows. I've been mentioning this for a couple years now, but some people just don't seem to get it. It's just what it sounds like - a concert in a person's home. It's a great, intimate setting for concerts. Compared to bars or clubs where people either aren't paying attention or can't pay attention because of all of the distractions, I'd choose a house concert every time. If you haven't been to one, I strongly suggest it. Perhaps you could even host one. All it takes is a room and an audience.

And you can custom-order m&m's for the night, too, if you want too...

And bake some 15-inch calzones...

That's overachieving, but I certainly don't mind it. I was able to consume some genuine pierogies for dinner before the guests arrived, too. Here is a picture of just some of the attendees that night, from my vantage point:

I shared the night with a local guy named Bob Sima. It was a great night, as most House Concert nights are. A fan who had seen me play in DC during last year's tour came with his fiancee, and it was their first House Concert experience. Way to buck the system, guys!

On Saturday, I did another House Concert in MD, in a more rural setting, near Westminster. The house had a wide room that allowed me to set up a PA easily.

We had a bit of a smaller crowd, but I'd much rather play for a small group of people who are into the music, than to play to an entire bar of loud loudos, who could not care less about Jeff Miller standing in the corner playing his songs that they don't think they can sing along to. I had one of (if not THE) highest CDs sold to attendees ratios at this show, as 11 CDs were picked up for the listening at the end of the show.

On Sunday the 16th, I had another 2-show day. The first show was also in Maryland, in the historic town of Frederick. I have been doing shows there for maybe the past 2 1/2 years, and have only have one not-so-great show. This afternoon, though NFL football took away a good chunk of potential listeners, the show was still a good one. It was a fairly intimate group, but everyone who came out was into the music. There were even a few people who apparently didn't know that there would be live music, and they stuck around for the show.

I had a little bit of time to kill between shows, but eventually headed back to the DC area, to play the Feature Slot at an open mic in Arlington, VA. I played a short set, and headed to where I would be staying that evening, realizing that the tour was finally down to its final week. The final 4 Sundays of this tour were unusually busy ones, which was great. Sundays aren't always easy to book.

Monday was a big driving day, as I would head from the DC area to Blacksburg, VA, in the southwestern portion of the state. I always underestimate the time that this drive takes. It's a nasty drive, and I would have probably preferred to have had that day off. But I did an early evening Starbucks show. I started to get a headache midway through the drive, and it didn't go away until well after the show. Doing shows with a headache is tough. I at least sold a couple of CDs and made a little in tips to help with gas money, but I would have rather just taken the day off. I know; boo hoo....

On Tuesday, I did an early afternoon show at the same Starbucks (these shows were last-minute fillers). My headache was gone, and the response was a bit better for this show. I sold a couple more cds and made a little more in tips, and was in a much better mood.

Okay... Wednesday... yes. I played at a restaurant in Blacksburg on Wednesday that has become my Blacksburg go-to venue. Attendance was a bit disappointing, but I had to wait for some tables to clear, and didn't get to start on time. Attendance is usually on the underwhelming side at this venue, but the people there (including employees) always seem to be listening to the music. The employees even tell each other to hang out to listen. That's pretty cool. I sold a CD to a girl who was only able to catch 2 songs, and had a request to accept a credit card to pay for a CD. During this tour, I probably would have sold about 20 more cds had I been able to accept credit cards. And now, I am pleased to announce that I can accept them at live shows! Thanks to my Blacksburg hosts educating me, I now have an app for my iPod Touch that allows me to process credit card payments. And I just pay a tiny percent of each sale back to the company that supplies the app. I registered with them last Thursday, and have had two shows... and at each show, I've been asked if I accept credit cards. Now, I can! What an amazing time in which to exist. This development is revolutionary for me. Revolutionary.

Thursday - I returned to a venue in a town between Blacksburg and Charlottesville to do a show at a place. I played there in March, and it went decently, given that it was a Tuesday night. This time, we were expecting more. But, boy, we shouldn't have. The fliers I emailed out were printed out very tiny-ly. 3 were posted, but 2 of them had only one adhesion point, and were curling in on themselves, so that you would have to spread the paper out flat to read what was on it. The two employees behind the counter did not even know that there was going to be a show. There was a $5 suggested donation, but while the attendance was a little bit higher than the previous show (maybe 12-15 people were there for at least half of the night), not even a single audience member put in as much as one dollar. On eof the employees really dug the music and bought two CDs, but it was not a good night.

Oh boy, I have to get going again, to get ready for a show here in Nashville. We came soooo close to the end. Lest you be concerned that the Tour ended with a flicker rather than a bang, don't worry. Things got a little worse, then a little better, and then a LOT better to close out the Tour.

Maybe I'll recap the final three days; maybe I won't...?

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

2011-10-27T19:04:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-19T18:13:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-18T18:33:00.007-04:00

Driving Stats:

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, here is the view from lane 13:

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

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

Instead, I got this picture:

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

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

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

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

2011-10-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

Driving Stats (approximate):

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

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

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

Here I am with Kate:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-11T13:18:00.001-04:00

Driving Stats:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***Picture to be added later***

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-01T15:54:00.002-04:00

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

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

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

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

Stop it.

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

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

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

I hope that all made sense.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #2 (day 8)

2011-09-24T15:28:00.002-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 923
Average Speed - 47 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33

I am typing this entry to you from the location of my first House Concert of the Tour, in Cleveland, Ohio. I'll be doing the first of two House Concerts here in about an hour.

So... we left off after my last show in Cincinnati on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I would visit one of my favorite spots in OH - Night Sky in Troy.

(I guess they really want you to remember that Ohio is part of The United States of America.)

I got there early to eat dinner, and set up the stage area to perform. There was a decent crowd there by the time that I started. But after my second or third song, a table with a big party including small children got up and left. And shortly after they left, it seemed like over half of the restaurant filed out. It was kind of strange. I finished my first set, and waited around to see if any more people might trickle in. A couple, who for some reason decided not to clap after my songs, wound up buying 2 CDs. One of them was a local high school band director. I think I will always be confused by people who like the music enough to buy an album or more, but don't applaud. I just don't get it.

I packed up my gear, and as I was mostly done with that, a few people came in. As it was getting close to closing time, I didn't re-set up anything. But as I continued to pack up my gear, a few employees came by to check out CDs, and I wound up selling 6 CDs there. Not bad, considering the number of people who were there.

One of the employees told me about an open mic that was happening that night at a bar a couple of blocks away. I figured it would only make sense to check it out, since I was right there. It didn't seem very promising at first, but as I waited around, more people arrived at the bar. I decided to play a mini set. It wasn't the most attention-paying crowd, but there were a few people paying attention, one of whom bought a couple CDs after I finished playing. So it was definitely worth stopping by, and that night wound up being much better than I was fearing it would be!

Thursday was mostly a relaxing day. I got up, took a shower, and headed back to Night Sky, where I was invited to grab lunch. I did so, and also had my first chance to use a computer with a keyboard since the tour began. I tried to catch up a bit on some booking, and composed the first blog entry of the tour, as well. I got back to where I was staying, relaxed for about 30 mintues, and then packed the car again, for my drive to Ohio Christian University in Circleville, OH (maybe 40 miles south of Columbus). During this drive, I noticed that the heater in my car didn't seem to be working.

The school was feeding and housing me, and I was told that I needed to get there before 7 if I wanted to grab dinner there. I arrived shortly after 6:30. Oh, I was also told to go to "The Cafe", and that I'd have no trouble finding it, because the campus is small. Well, the campus is pretty small, but I found no such building called "The Cafe". I did find something with cafe in its name, but there was no one inside that room, and it was certainly not set up for dinner. Then I went to a building that looked a bit like a student center to me. Again, not a soul to be found. I walked around, hoping to just find one person to talk to, so that I could go to this Cafe which I was searching for.

My third stop (it was about 6:50 or so at this point) was at the campus welcome center. It seemed like I was about to strike out, when I found an office with a few people in it. One of them called one of the student activities people for me, and I was directed to where I would need to go. It was really close to 7 at this point, and they had locked the doors for the dining area. We were let in, and though food was not being prepared any more, there was some pizza and salad bar food left out still. So that had to suffice for my dinner.

I hung out for a bit after eating, until it was time to start the show. The parameters were really loose - I think they only expected me to play for about an hour, because some of the kids seemed surprised that I had 2 sets worth of material. It was a pretty fun show, and a good number of kids came out. Unfortunately, I only sold one CD, because most of the kids didn't have cash on them. Several of them asked me if I could take credit card payments. Does anybody out there know how much a merchant account would cost me? I have an iPod Touch that should be able to use the app for accepting payments, but I haven't looked into the logistics of accepting credit card payments in a while. Last I checked, the costs of setting up and running an account were a little too high to justify getting one.

It turned out that I would be staying in that same building that I first went inside upon arriving at the campus. It was a really nice apartment that is usually used to house missionary families. The folks at Ohio Christian treated me really well, and it looks like I'll be making some return trips there on a regular basis.

I had my first two-show day yesterday (Friday the 23rd). The first of these was in the small town of Berlin, OH. The owner had indicated that they have a great lunch crowd in the late afternoon. I started about 10 minutes late, because of some driving delays on one lane country roads that I should have been able to go 55 mph on, but got stuck at about 40 mph for good portions of. I set up my PA in record time. I noticed on my way in, and after walking around the place, that no fliers had been posted for the show, though they had been emailed out twice. That is often a bad sign, because it indicates that the venue doesn't really care about having live music. The baristas didn't seem to be aware that I was going to be playing that afternoon, and when I asked about the lack of fliers, I was told that the owner doesn't always inform them of things. Great. In addition to this, there was no built-in lunch crowd. For my first set, I played to maybe 7 or 8 people, all of whom weren't there to sit and stay or eat. I made a dollar in tips, and one of the employees picked up a CD as she left when her shift was over. I took a break to eat lunch (I hadn't eaten, since I had arrived later than I wanted to), and somewhat reluctantly got back up to play another once I noticed several people walk in the front door. A woman and three kids sat right in front of me, which was interesting, because this place was rather large, and there were tons of open seats. They were the only people who really seemed interested in the music, and the woman bought a CD before they left. Once they left, I played another song or two, and got ready for another drive for my second show.

This drive was relatively short, but longer than I expected it to be, because of a road closure and because I had to drive through Extreme Amish Country. It was insane. I have always known Lancaster, PA to be the Amish capital of the world, but this area destroyed Lancaster (I've driven through Lancaster several times). There were Amish people everywhere; at points, I'm pretty sure there were more Amish people than non-Amish, or "English", as I think they refer to us. There were Amish people on foot, Amish people on bicycles, Amish people on horseback, and Amish people on horse-drawn buggies on 55 mph roads. There were buggies to the left.

There were buggies to the right.

At points, there were even buggies on both sides. Sorry, no picture; you'll have to take my word for it.

I made it to Sonnets in Wadsworth, OH (a small town outside of Akron) a little later than I anticipated, but this time with enough time to eat dinner before performing. But, as with the first show, there were no fliers posted. I asked someone about it, and he said he was sure he saw the fliers somewhere, and that he thought they had been posted. What can you do? This show was a little better than the other one, and a few people even came out early, in ancticipation of the show. I wound up selling 4 CDs at that show, 2 of them to a family that included a mom with a brain tumor. My wife and I had recently watched a movie about the importance that music plays in our brain functioning (The Music Never Stopped), and this woman connected with the music in much the same way that it was portrayed in the movie. It was pretty neat to be a part of that, and an honor to get to meet that family. They told me that I was the best musician to play on the stage there, and that they've been coming out at least once a week for a while now.

There was a photographer on hand for the show, as well as a curious high school couple - they had a handheld video recorder, and recorded about 2/3 of one of my songs, and then got up and left. I don't know if it will be up on YouTube, or what their story was. Curious, I tell you.

The first House Concert is about to start. Gotta go!

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #1 (day 5)

2011-09-22T14:13:00.005-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 638
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33.5

Well.... unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to share about the tour so far. The first few days have been somewhat uneventful. The tour began on Saturday the 17th in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a venue that I have known about for several years now. This show was a late addition to the tour, and increased the number of days on the tour by 3 or 4. The bill for Saturday's show included 2 OH performers, one of them a Cincinnatian. So I was hopeful that there would be a good crowd, and was told to expect one. When the local performer didn't even arrive until after the first act went on, and I learned that the venue had failed to post fliers that were sent to them, I started having my doubts.

When all was said and done, we had 2 paying audience members, one of whom I had met during my summer shows in the Outer Banks and would be staying with for the first two nights of the tour. Neither of the OH acts brought any people out for the show. It was a definite disappointment. But my host bought a couple of CDs (even though I tried to give them to him), so I guess things could have gone a little worse.

The venue didn't have meal food, so by the end of the show at about 11 pm, I still hadn't had dinner. My host noticed that there wasn't food at the venue, and asked if I had eaten dinner. He then insisted on taking me out to grab a bite to eat. He hadn't had much to eat for dinner either, and we stopped into a Steak & Shake outside of Cincinnati, on the way to his place in Dayton. This worked out well, because I had coupons! If I wasn't allowed to pay for my dinner, I would at least save my host some money. I guess it's not technically fast food, but I would consider this my first fast food meal of the tour. I try not to have fast food more than a couple times while I'm on tour (and usually go to Taco Bell if I do - a guilty pleasure of mine). Anyway, we stayed up talking music and a variety of other topics before calling it a night.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit, and we headed to a local diner for brunch. I meant to take a picture or two, but I didn't. The diner was an old school one, with old ads and table-top jukeboxes and other nostalgic things within its walls. It was called The Hasty Tasty, and there apparently used to be 9 locations in and around Dayton back in the day. I don't know if there are more than just this one location now, but I think there are. Any Dayton readers care to comment?

My host showed me around town a little, and then we headed back to his house, where we would watch the Pittsburgh Steelers handily defeat the Seattle Seahawks in a game of American Footy-Ball. Here is a still of one of the plays from that very game:

I had no shows on the schedule for this second day of the tour - a first for any Fall Tour that I've ever done - so I had checked out some open mics, and we went out to one around dinner time. We went to a venue that I had tried to book shows at in the past, and it was a pretty cool room in an apparently music-supporting small town called Yellow Springs. My host brought out a couple of people, and I played a few songs. I sold a CD there, maintaining my fragile consecutive-days with CDs sold record. We hung around a little bit after I played, and I asked about their booking process, with little solution offered (only one person does the booking, and she isn't easy to get a hold of).

We headed back to the house and hung out a bit, and I retreated to the guest bedroom for the night. I perused my host's Netflix lists, and watched a movie that wouldn't keep me up too late. It was not very good. I was a bit surprised, because it was the first Adrien Brody film that I've seen that I didn't like. The movie was...

The acting was fine, and I still think that Brody is a great actor, but the movie just wasn't that good. I don't recommend it.

On Monday, I would head back to Cincinnati for another show. This one was at a non-profit coffee shop, and the owner told me not to expect a huge crowd. Mondays are probably the most difficult days for finding shows with good crowds, so I was appreciative of his honesty, and approached the show accordingly. It was, in fact, very low on the attendance side, with only about 5 people there, and maybe 2 on a consistent basis. I decided to only play one set. I still managed to sell 2 CDs, which was about 1.7 more than I expected to sell. And the friendly barista there offered me a lot of info on the music scene in the area, and potential venues and areas to look into for future visits.

That night, I stayed with a friend who I originally knew from his days in Nashville, and his family. I watched another movie that night, before hitting the hay.

This one was much better.

On Tuesday night, I would again head to Cincinnati for another coffee shop show. It was starting to feel like

This time, though, there was finally a crowd, and our first good show of the tour. Thank God. There are inevitably going to be some bad dates on any tour, but after three unusual days in a row, this was an extremely-welcomed change. The owner and other worker were very nice. The owner did her best to spread the word about the show, and it was apparent. For a Tuesday night, it was a good number of people, and at least a few of them came out just to hear the music. I wound up selling 8 CDs by the end of the show.

I had eaten lunch earlier in the day with my host, at an Indian buffet. We stuffed our faces, so I was in no condition to eat dinner before the show. So they made me an order to go, and sent me on my way, asking me to come back for shows in the near future. It's nice to have a good potential musical base venue in Cincinnati now; that city has been an enigma to me over the past few years.

I watched yet another movie to accompany my late night dinner eating.

This one was just okay. I wouldn't recommend it. But it did contain some good acting again, and Christian Bale really made his body suffer in order to play his part in this movie.

Well, I shall bid you adieu here, on a good note for the tour. I'm currently writing from the town of Troy, OH as I sit at one of my favorite places (and the location of last night's show) - Night Sky.

Thanks for following along - please spread the word about this tour's shows, and come back soon for the continuing tale of this year's Fall East Coast Tour.

2011 Fall East Coast Tour - begins tomorrow!

2011-09-16T12:57:00.004-04:00

I'll be hitting the road tomorrow, for the first stop of the tour - Rohs Street Cafe in Cincinnati, OH!

I didn't have time to work on a fancy map this year, so Google was there to save me. Here's the approximate route of this year's tour. It's not as accurate and doesn't contain all the stops (and isn't as fancy), but it's very close to the path that I will be traversing over the next 5 weeks and 2 days.

For all of the show details, please check out www.JeffMillerOnline.com

This year's route looks a bit like Pikachu:

NC / SC Tour Blog #2 (Day 20)

2011-07-29T18:09:00.000-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 1508
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

Alright; we left in Asheville, NC, where we stayed on the evening of the 14th. On the 15th, I was scheduled to play at a country club in Cornelius (just north of Charlotte). I had played there last year, at a restaurant on the grounds. This year, I was originally supposed to play in the same spot. But the event was moved to the pool, which was appropriate, except that the weather was not so good that night. Thunderstorms were threatening, but holding off around the time that I arrived. So I was instructed to set up at the pool (under cover, thankfully). The skies continued to look dark in spots, but it didn't really rain more than some drops in certain places. Several people had called during the day to ask about music that night, so we were expecting at least some music listeners, if not any swimmers.

A few people showed up, including some who just wanted to hear music, so I promised to play at least a set for them. I took a break, and stuck around a little to see what the weather would be like. I sold a couple cds, and then it started to rain - drizzling, but steadily. So that was it - maybe the easiest paid gig I've ever done. But given the interest throughout the day, it would have been better to have been able to perform a couple more sets. Ah well; I'm not complaining.

Here's a crappy cell phone photo from the night:

I have to get ready to head out for my last Hilton Head show now, so we're going to have cut this entry short.

I hope everyone is having a super summer!

NC / SC Tour Blog #1 (Day 13)

2011-07-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 935
Average Speed - 50 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

So... I guess I am on tour now, but some might argue that I am not. I am writing this blog from the island of Ocracoke (in the Outer Banks, NC). My wife and I hit the road on Sunday, July 10th. We headed out to beautiful Lake Junaluska, NC, where I would be playing guitar for the SOULfeast conference. It's a pretty nice gig, because I don't need to be the person up front (most of the time), and I don't need to have all of my music and words memorized. And I get to hang out in a beautiful location for several days.

The conference ran from Sunday night until Thursday (the 14th) morning. I played two solo shows at a coffee shop by the lake, on Monday and Wednesday. I also got to play some tennis, and went for a run around the lake (which resulted in sore legs for the next 2 or 3 days) during the week.

I also ate my first Taco Bell XXL Stuft Burrito. It was not XXL. I do not recommend it. I like Taco Bell, but it failed me in this instance. I'd much rather have three Hard Taco Supremes... or is it Tacos Supreme?

Oh, and speaking of firsts - I almost forgot this - I had my first Cheerwine while I was at the conference. No, it's not wine, and it contains no alcohol. It's a soda that seems to only be available in western North Carolina. Here's a picture:

(*There will be a picture here, eventually*)

After the conference concluded on Thursday morning, I did a lunchtime show in the nearby town of Waynesville. It was unfortunately a bit low on the attendance side, but a few people grabbed some CDs before they left, and it was still definitely a worthwhile show. The CDs grabbed to persons in attendance ratio was pretty good. My wife and I grabbed lunch afterwards, and while we were eating, a woman collapsed behind me and had a seizure. Paramedics came to the coffee shop, and she came to while they attended to her. An otherwise uneventful day became very eventful. The woman has apparently had continuing issues, but we haven't heard much about her in the past week. I hope she's okay.

That evening, we stayed with some friends, and had a nice dinner in Asheville, NC. I was hoping to perform there that night, but things just didn't pan out this time around. Get it? Pan?

Okay... I'll probably have a couple opportunities to post a couple more blogs next week, while we are in Hilton Head. So stay tuned for the continuing tale of the NC / SC Tour!

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #6 (End of Tour)

2011-06-14T18:41:00.000-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 3711
Average Speed - 51 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33

Well, we've made it to the last week of the tour, and the final blog entry for this Second US Tour of the Year. This entry is going to be a doozy, so grab some coffee. I've been in Nashville for almost two weeks now, so I'm sure that I've forgotten some of the more interesting details, but hopefully it will all come back to me as I type.

I stayed near Harrisburg after my show on Saturday, the 21st. I did a lot of driving that day. The next day would be another 2-show day. But I would only be playing one set at each of these shows, so it wasn't stressful. And for a Sunday, things turned out quite well.

I arrived in Frederick, MD early, to unwind and get another blog entry composed. If you recall one of the entries needing to be finished because my netbook's battery was depleted, this was the scene for that composition. Frederick is a very cool "historic" town in Maryland. I have become rather fond of it and its people. There is a Sunday Songwriters' Showcase that takes place at the main independent coffee house in town, and I returned to play a set there. Another former Berklee student was on the lineup as well, which is always a neat thing to run into. We hadn't attended Berklee at the same time, though. I sold a few cds, and people tipped well. It was a good show for a late Sunday afternoon. Many faces at the Frederick shows are starting to become familiar to me now, and a few friends made a drive out to catch my set as well.

I was going to put up a picture or two here, but the photographer has them protected, so here is a link to his flickr page for the event.

I grabbed a quick bite for dinner at the coffee house, and then headed to DC (Arlington, VA), where I would be the "featured artist" at the weekly open mic at Northside Social Club. The event is hosted by a friend I met here in Nashville over a year ago, while he was visiting and playing some shows. Several friends from the Pittsburgh area who have since relocated came out for this show, and it was great to see them and catch up. I also made a few new friends (one of which would come out for another show later in the week), and sold another 7 cds. There was no real request for the audience to tip at this show, so I'm always a little nervous about those gigs, because I need to be selling merch in order to make any money. But all in all, it was a great and supportive environment for live music on a Sunday night.

The next few days would be the worst of the tour. I believe I mentioned that I didn't have much time to get this tour planned, due to having to get things squared away for a week of shows in London in February and a longer tour in March/April. This week would include a couple more open mic "feature" sets, which, as I mentioned, can be really good, but also have the chance of not working out so great.

On Monday, I did the only show of the entire tour that yielded no cd sales. I believe it was the last show we put on the schedule, and I probably just should have given myself a day off. But the venue was very cool (I went back to Philadelphia to play a two-story coffee shop), and the staff was very nice. The time for this show was a bit strange ("any time between 2 and 7"). I think I got there around 2 or 2:30. They fed me a light lunch, and I slowly set up the stage area upstairs. There were just 2 or 3 people up there when I arrived, so I decided to wait a bit, to see if things picked up. I finished eating, and finished setting up, and waited around a bit. I finally started playing, maybe around 4 or so, after a few people wandered upstairs. They seemed very interested, especially in the looping, and even sent texts and made calls to invite friends out for my second set. I took a break between sets, and people looked at CDs. I thought for sure that I'd sell at least two, but no dice. I played the second set, and friends of the people came out for the second set, but all I left with was 5 bucks in tips. I was pretty surprised, especially after the enthusiastic response that I received. Sometimes things don't turn out the way you expect them to. The coffee shop gave me a sandwich for the road, and I headed to Wilmington, DE, where I would be staying the next two nights.

On Tuesday, I would hit two venues again. A fan in Philly had informed me that there was a great new venue in Wilmington. There is a famous-ish venue in Philadelphia called World Cafe Live, and a second one opened up in Wilmington just a while back. They host an open mic on Tuesdays, so I figured it would be stupid for me not to check it out. But I needed to get an early enough slot so that I could still make it out to Philly for my scheduled performance. I have this strange relationship with World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Every time I play out that way, people mention that I need to look into playing at World Cafe Live. But I had tried, for years (about 7 now), to set up a show there, and never got a reply (this after making sure that I contacted them in the exact way they spelled it out on their website). So I gave up... I wasn't quite sure what else to do. So I performed my 2 songs at this open mic, and the host, who happens to book shows at this incarnation of the venue, asked me for my contact information for future shows. I got her info as well, and hopefully we'll get something lined up for the Fall Tour. I've sent her just one email regarding coming back to play a show, and she replied the next day. That's much preferred to waiting 7 years.

Fast forward to that evening's show in Philadelphia, which would be another feature slot at an open mic. If you've never been to an open mic, you don't know what you're missing. Sometimes they are full of very talented people with good songs and stories to share. Sometimes they are full of people who maybe shouldn't be playing music at all. Usually, it's a good mix. And, usually, there are at least a couple of *strange* people on the list to perform that evening.

I got there before the open mic began (to my surprise, as I had been told when to arrive by, and that it would be underway by that point in time). This would have been fine, except that I had 7 people come out to hear my set close to the time that I had told them, and I had left the venue in Wilmington a bit earlier than I otherwise would have wanted to. I got dinner there, which I believe was my first actual Philly Cheesesteak IN Philadelphia.

It wasn't anything to write home (or blog) about. But I shouldn't complain when venues feed me, right?

One of the first performers of the night was an interesting woman. She was a decent musician, it seemed, thought she performed with pre-recorded tracks that she had stored on her keyboard, so it was kind of difficult to tell what she was actually playing herself. Her musical composition skills seemed decent, but all of her songs sounded like something from a strange musical. Her first song was about how actual, made-from-paper books are better than electronic devices like the Kindle. Then, her next two songs involved sushi very prevalently. The people I was sitting with all agreed that she should be writing a musical about a quirky girl who loves books and sushi, who is searching for her soul mate (that we decided has to like the same things in order for it to work out). Maybe she has already written the musical.

But here's the kicker: After she was done performing, she announced that she had a show coming up that weekend, at.... World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. She was selling tickets for it.

I started to play about 45 minutes after I was expecting to, and was thankful that the people who came to hear me stuck around. The set was alright, but I only wound up selling a single copy of my new disc to a fan who had all my other albums (thanks, Marli!). They passed the hat for tips (which usually goes over well for artists), but tips were on the low side again, but at least not as bad as Monday's show.

The whole evening had a very Twilight Zone feel to it, as performers played some bad renditions of covers, and one performer played songs (original songs, I think) about sex that were very explicit. I left while this latter performer was playing.

On Wednesday night, I would travel back to Arlington, VA to do yet another open mic feature set, but this one was at the area's best-known clubs, called IOTA. I had again been told to be there at a certain time, but didn't go on until an hour after that time. I guess it's difficult for hosts to coordinate times when there are so many people playing, but it can be a bit of a drag to deal with when I am trying to time drives from other cities, and let people know when I am playing (and let hosts know what time I will be at their homes), only to play a 30-minute set with no pay...

One new fan from the Sunday night show came out again, which is always nice. The set seemed to go over well, but after I got off the stage and was getting ready to put my stuff away, I was fearing that it might be the second zero cd sales night of the tour. I got my guitar and gear put away, and thanked the person for coming out again. She introduced me to some people she had met that night, and one of them asked about picking up a couple of cds. This would at least ensure that I got gas money back for the day! He bought copies of my last two albums, and as I was getting ready to head out, a couple local musicians came out to talk to me for a bit, and they each ended up picking up a disc. So while it wasn't a spectacular night, it turned out much better than it was looking like it would.

On Thursday night, I returned to our nation's capital to play at what I think is one of the best venues it has to offer: Ebenezer's Coffeehouse. I would be opening up for another Nashville-based band - Roustabout - a great bluegrass band that reinterprets classic bluegrass tunes so that they don't sound so much like straight-ahead bluegrass.

Unfortunately, very few people showed up for this show - maybe 12 people, in a great venue that holds up to 100. I had a handful of people who had rsvp'd to come out, and they all backed out the week of, for one reason or another. The bluegrass group only brought out about 4 people. I had originally thought that the entire crowd was there to see them (since I knew that I hadn't brought anyone out), but the majority of people just came out because they like catching live music at that venue. I sold a couple cds, and a small group of them came back (to the merch table) to talk with me for a while. One of them was from Pittsburgh, so we talked a bit about that, and I told him that I go back for shows on a regular basis. So while the turnout was disappointing, I actually left that show encouraged that a few people were turned on to the music.

After 7 years of actively touring, I still don't understand how touring acts are able to bring in enough people to make these types of shows successful. I love the venues, but it's pretty stressful to have to do all sorts of work to try to promote and get people to come out to these types of shows, and have absolutely no way of knowing how many people will actually show. And this very thing even happens to the more "established" artists; at one of the shows during this tour, a fan told me he had gone to see Taylor Hicks play in a mostly-empty theatre earlier in the month. And I've interacted with some fairly well-known artists who have told me about disappointing turnouts in some cities. Are these types of shows dying out? I would much rather do a house concert or a show at a church, largely because of the unpredicatability of shows at "real" music venues.

In retrospect, I chalk a good bit of the low turnout up to it being Memorial Day Weekend. I played two Memorial Day Weekends in a row in NY City, and those shows were really low in attendance. After this go-around, I have decided to either not be on tour during that holiday weekend (or, drive back home during that weekend), or only play festival-type shows, or parties, or house concerts.

We are now to the final weekend of the tour, which was Memorial Day Weekend. Friday the 27th would bring me back to Charlottesville, VA, where, during my last visit, I got a ticket for running a stop sign, ran out of gas, and got my car towed in less than 14 hours' time. I am happy to report that none of that happened on this visit.

I arrived in Charlottesville well before the time of my show, and had some time to hang out at my hosts' home. I wrote another blog entry there, and watched some NFL Network Top Ten List specials. It was good to just relax a little.

The attendance that night was, again, a little on the thin side, but not as bad as the previous night. My hosts brought some people out, and they got a cd. They informed me that they would be moving to Pittsburgh in the very near future, and wanted to come out to shows there, as well. It was a decent night, in a low-stress environment.

On Saturday, I would make my first visit to a restaurant in Greensburg, PA (just east of Pittsburgh). This would mean that I would have a long drive to make. The drive would take me through a new area (I think) that I hadn't driven through before - I drove through a good portion of the mountains of West Virginia.

My GPS didn't have all the roads mapped correctly (and perhaps didn't even have some of the roads included). And I was a tad concerned that it was going to take me onto some gravel roads that lead into a lake, but it didn't turn out that way. I did drive through a large portion of country roads where a few drivers were driving too fast and not on their side of the road at times. But most of the drive was pretty nice, and took me through new, nice areas that I usually don't get a chance to see while I'm on tour.

I got to the restaurant with enough time to set up and stuff my face with pizza. I hadn't had lunch, so I was, what do call it? Oh yes, hungry.

This show would, surprisingly, turn out to be one of the best ones of the tour. It had almost been canceled just weeks prior, because of the date it fell on. Not only was it Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, but Greensburg has an annual Community Day event that happens on that Saturday every year, with events all day, culminating with a big-ish concert and fireworks right around when I was supposed to be performing. During the first set, the place was pretty full. A few people in the audience, one of whom was celebrating her birthday that day, brought out several other people, and they stayed the whole night, which was pretty great. After my first set, I took a break for the fireworks. The idea was to wait a bit after the fireworks to see if people might come out afterwards.

A group of us went out to the parking lot to catch the 'works:

I waited a bit, and just a couple more people came into the restaurant. But I continued playing for a while, and before the night was over, I had sold 10 cds and a t-shirt.

The final show of the tour was an annual block party in Pittsburgh. This block party has apparently been going on for decades, and I think I was the first musical act to be a part of it. What an honor. It was a hot late afternoon, but luckily I got to set up in the shade. I was still very hot, and had sweat through my clothes while setting up my PA. If only I had gotten a photo.

After packing things up at the block party, I was off to hang out with some high school friends that I hadn't seen in years. Many of the people I went to high school with still live in the Pittsburgh area. One of our friends has started a facebook group, and they are trying to plan some semi-regular events that will force us to hang out. I figure that I won't get many chances to come out to these events, so I didn't want to miss this one. I was glad I was able to make it.

On Monday the 30th, I made the long drive (8 and a half hours, 585 miles or so) from Pittsburgh to Nashville.

The End.

PS - Thanks again for following my travels, trials, and travails through this Tour Blog.

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #5 (Day 20)

2011-05-29T15:41:00.002-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 3085 (approximate)
Average Speed - 50 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

We were nearing the end of my week in western NY when we last left off. I made a 4 mile detour to visit Tea Leaf Cafe and get another bubble tea to keep me company during my drive to the Rochester area. That night, I stayed at my brother-in-law's and his wife's house. They have a very big yard. It was my first visit to their house. I feel like I'm writing a 1st grade English assignment. The sky is blue. Sometimes clouds are in the sky. They are white, but not all of the time. Angry clouds are grey.

I have to go to the bathroom.

Okay - I'm back. Where were we? Ah yes, angry clouds are grey. It rained pretty much every day during the first two weeks of this tour (and it is a three-week tour, so that's a large portion of the days). During most of the week in NY, the highs were somewhere between the low fifties and 60 degrees. It didn't rain much on Thursday, and that was one of the nicer days of the week.

The show that evening wasn't so great. In fact, it was one of the worst ones of the tour. As I say, they can't all be winners. The first set actually went moderately okay, with at least one table of people paying attention to the show. They picked up a couple of cds, but unfortunately left during my break. For most of the second set, it was as though I wasn't even there. My brother-in-law and his wife clapped after songs, but it was a bit of a struggle to get through that set. During my last couple songs, a man came in and sat near the stage area. He sat by himself and was obviously paying attention. He clapped after the songs. I finished the show and started packing things up. We talked a bit, and he said, loud enough for the other people in the room to hear, "these people just don't get it, man." He was very encouraging, and seemed even more upset by the lack of response than I was. I was glad that he showed up. There's a verse in the New Testament about entertaining strangers who were, unbeknownst to us, angels. That's kind of how I feel about this guy, in retrospect. He was scruffy, and no one seemed to pay attention to him while he was there. He stuck around for my last few songs, and then left after talking to me for a moment. I don't even remember him getting coffee or anything while he was there.

So I left that gig in somewhat better spirits than I may have otherwise.

Friday (the 20th) was a good ending to my week of shows in the Empire State. It stayed dry for the majority of the day, and the temperature got warm enough that I was able to go out for my first run of the year. I would like to run year round, but my throat/lungs have some serious issues when the temperature is lower than, say, 62 degrees or so. This weather was just right. It's difficult fitting in days to run or exercise while on tour, because I usually need to make those days match up with when I will be doing laundry. I also notice that I seem to have less control with my singing voice on days that I run... I'm not sure what that's about, but I assume it has something to do with more forceful breathing that might aggravate my throat just a bit. Anyway, I was happy to be able to get a run in. I'll be playing Ultimate Frisbee all summer, and want to have gotten some running in before hitting the field.

That evening, I would return to Buffalo, to play more of a bona fide music show, to an audience that was there specifically for the show. Finding parking was a nightmare, which included: 1) someone pulling up right behind me as I was signalling to back up for a parallel parking situation; 2) someone pulling right in front of me as I signaled to pull forward into a spot that I was waiting for someone to pull out of; 3) someone driving the wrong way down a one-way street that I actually had to back up for, to let out onto another street; 4) one of the concert attendees getting a spot that I was circling around to try to get. After 3 times around the block, I decided to look elsewhere. I luckily found a spot that wasn't too far away, but it was kind of annoying, carrying all the gear and other stuff. I was a little bit later to sound check than I wanted to be, but it didn't effect anything else that evening, so all was well. I was just a bit rushed.

For this final show, I would be opening for a local Buffalo group called Shambu. The room we played in was the back room of a cafe/restaurant. It was a cozy, but good room to play in. We packed it pretty well, which is always a good thing.

Here are the guys in Shambu:

I sold several cds that night, and stuck around to catch half of Shambu's set. They were quite good. If you live in the Buffalo area, check them out. I would have stuck around the whole night, but was going back to the Rochester area to sleep that night, and had a 5 1/2 hour drive the next day. Someone in the audience recorded my entire set in HD, so we should have some new high-quality videos up on the YouTube page very soon!

I did, however, make another quick detour to Tea Leaf Cafe for my third and final bubble tea of the tour. My booking assistant got to have her first-ever bubble tea experience, as well as meet the owner, with whom she had communicated to set up the show I did earlier in the week.

Saturday was a bit of a blur, but I believe it was the first day of the tour without rain up to that point. I played in Bryn Mawr, PA that night. Bryn Mawr is just west of Philadelphia. Several fans in the area came out for the show, and it was good to see them again. A couple new fans came out, too, as the result of some word-spreading by a Nashville friend. Thanks, Doug! I say it at shows all the time, but it bears repeating here: Word of mouth is probably the independent musician's biggest ally. I can't over-stress how much of a help it is when fans spread the word to their friends about my shows, or talk to venues on my behalf, or do a little work to help set up shows. It's a huge help, and I appreciated it greatly.

Saturday was the first post-rapture day, I think. I didn't hear about any of my loved ones getting taken up. An Americana group out of Boston opened up for me, and as luck would have it, they have an interesting niche: they play old traditional Appalachian folk songs that deal with death, often on older instruments. They were pretty decent.

I decided to start the majority of the rest of my shows with "Can't Take It With You" from that date on.

I had a bit of a drive, to the Harrisburg area, after the show. Lots of driving that day. I got gas for $3.67(9) a gallon that night, which was the cheapest price I had seen it for up to that point during the tour. (I got some for $3.42(9) on Friday the 27th.)

Alright - I am off to the final engagement of this Second US Tour of 2011 now. I'll be making the long drive home to Nashville tomorrow, and hopefully doing a final blog post to recap the last week of this tour within the next several days.

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #4 (Day 18)

2011-05-27T19:17:00.001-04:00

Miles Driven - 2765
Average Speed - 50 mph
Miles Per Gallon – 32

Ah man, we are way behind now... I finished off at the end of the first weekend of this Tour, after an unusual Sunday which included the biggest tip I had ever received. But I have a good chunk of time while I chill before doing a show here in Charlottesville, VA, so I should be able to recap a good portion of the tour now.

The next week would consist almost entirely of shows in western NY (Buffalo and Rochester), thanks to the efforts of my new booking assistant. In lining up these shows, she has already proven to be more effective than any of the other booking “help” that I've had over the past 7 years.

On Saturday night, at my first public show in Buffalo since 2004, I sold my last remaining copy of the first press of my third album, Seesaw.

This is the first time that I have sold out of an album while on tour. Before I departed for this tour, I had reordered the discs, and they were supposed to be shipped to Pittsburgh, where they would arrive while I was still in town doing shows. But as timing would have it, the arrival date was off by 2 days. So I asked my Buffalo hosts if it would be okay to have the 1000 discs sent to their house, and they graciously said that it would be fine. So I had to go a few days without any copies of Seesaw available.

On Monday night, I performed at Tea Leaf Cafe in Amherst. I had the honor of being their very first musical act to perform. It was a great place to play, the staff and owner were almost excessively nice to me, but unfortunately attendance was a bit on the low side. I would later learn that school (there is a college campus very close) had just let out the Friday before...so that couldn't have helped. But the people who were there were into the music, and I sold a few albums. I will hopefully be returning to Tea Leaf Cafe during my Fall Tour, when we should be able to expect a better crowd.

As I left, I ordered a bubble tea to go, which would be my first NY bubble tea experience (I play at a tea place in OH that also makes these delicious drinks). The owner told me to stop by again at any point for a free bubble tea if I wanted to. I told him I just might take him up on the offer.

When I got back to my hosts' home, they were watching the season finale of The Fringe. I had never seen a single episode, so I was completely lost (which is another show I've yet to see). But the popcorn was pretty good.

On Tuesday, I had checked the tracking for the second pressing of Seesaw, and saw that it had arrived in Buffalo. I called UPS to see if I could go to their center and pick it up myself (the company that pressed the disc informed me that they'd let me do this). It wasn't scheduled to be delivered until Wednesday, and I figured they'd be happy to save the gas, and I'd have the disc available for more shows. But after spending 5-10 minutes on the phone, I was told that I could not come out to pick up the discs. I was pretty surprised.

That afternoon, instead of getting the discs, I spent some time doing some booking work and I believe I was able to post a blog entry that day, as well.

On Tuesday night, I had my first of two shows at SPoT Coffee. SPoT is a chain of coffee houses in western NY. I have actually known about them for years now, but had never played in one. They had me come out and play on Tuesday and Wednesday night. This is unusual for a number of reasons: 1) Coffee shops usually only have music on weekends; 2) They paid me (and fed me) to perform each night; 3) We scheduled these shows with very little advance notice; 4) They had me perform on back to back nights. They made up this nifty sign for me, which was the first thing I saw when I walked in the door:

The location that I performed in was huge. They had asked me to perform acoustic, or with just a small amp. I was a little surprised as I walked into the building. But it has high ceilings, and brick walls, and the sound carried in an amazing way. I travel with a small amp that I usually use as a monitor for my looper, and this was what I used to perform at SPoT.

Coffee shops make me nervous. Sometimes, they are good venues to perform in, where the people who want to listen are able to, because it's a quieter environment. But sometimes, they are full of people with their heads stuck in their laptops or cell phones or school work or other work. But there has been a strange phenomenon lately that usually holds true: the less that people seem to be paying attention, the more CDs will be sold, and tips given. This Tuesday night was no exception. I had a few people on my side throughout the show, but with the size of the place, and the number of people in the building, it was a less than encouraging atmosphere. But I would wind up selling 5 cds by the end of the evening. I even got a couple people to get up and dance. Ca razy.

On Wednesday the 18th, I would have my second two-show day. This was also the day that the newly-pressed CDs were scheduled to arrive. As I expected, they didn't arrive until I needed to leave for the first show. Oh well.

The first show was at an interesting coffee shop, which had two rooms, one of which had a stage set up in a corner. When I arrived, they didn't expect me to be there. They said they thought I was coming the previous week. I asked if I could still play, and the owner was fine with it. When I checked out the other room, there were only 3 people in there. I set up my amp (it was another brick room that carried well) and merch table, and a couple of other people had arrived by the time that I began playing. This would end up being my smallest audience for any show on the tour: 4. I played a few songs, and the 2 men who had arrived while I was setting up finished eating and left. With only 2 people left, I decided to finish just one more song, and pack up early. To my surprise, would up selling 3 cds (one to the owner). With only 5 people listening, I consider that a pretty good ratio of cds sold to people in the audience. Imagine if 200 people were there! I would have run out of cds!

I packed up the car and headed back out to SPoT for the second show there. This show was a little different from the first one, in a number of ways. There were slightly fewer people there, but more people seemed to be paying attention (and more people clapped after songs). But I only sold one cd, and made about 15 bucks in tips. Sta range. I sold more cds at the show that only had 5 people in the audience. You never know what's going to happen. I gave up trying to figure out why things turn out the way they do a long time ago.

Thursday night would bring me out to Rochester for a show, so I drove out that way after the second show on Wednesday night. But I made a stop at Tea Leaf Cafe for another delicious bubble tea to enjoy during the drive.

Well, I think this might be a good stopping point. Thanks for checking in here! Perhaps I will get another entry in tomorrow.

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #3 (Day 13)

2011-05-22T23:38:00.001-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 2135 (approximate)
Average Speed - 53 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33

We left off at the end of the 4th day of this tour. This past week was mostly spent in western NY, doing shows that my new booking assistant was magically able to set up. The first day of this week of shows (Saturday the 14th) was my first 2-show day of the tour. The first show was a private house party. I played a couple sets for this outdoor party - they were resourceful enough to set up a few tents, as this day was the first of the bad days of rain during this tour. I played a few sets, but then had to book it on out to Merge Restaurant in Buffalo. There was a band playing at the house party that asked me to join them for a song or two, but I unfortunately didn't make it back in time to join them.

The show at Merge went pretty well. They only paid 20 bucks and dinner, which is pretty lousy for a Saturday show, but there was a decent group of people there who were actually listening. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as: 1) it is a restaurant, 2) they keep the music volume pretty low, and 3) I had never played there before. But it was a supportive audience, and I wound up selling 3 cds and making a little bit in tips. As I ate dinner afterward, the head server (who does the booking there) also bought 3 cds. I think I passed the audition. I got back to the house party as the band was packing up.

The next day would bring probably the craziest day of the tour. I drove from Buffalo to Slippery Rock, PA, to play at my favorite bar - North Country Brewing Company. I almost always get a warm reception here, and people come out to listen to live music. It's great, especially for a Sunday afternoon. I got there to set up and eat lunch around 11:45. I went on at 1, and played my first set. After the set, a man approached me about performing at his friend's bar. I was flattered, but no one gave me any contact info, so who knows what will happen.

During the second set, this same friend of his arrived at the bar (or maybe he was already there, but came closer to where I was playing... I don't know). He was someone who had heard me perform at North Country previously. I said hey to him between my second and third sets. I performed the third set, and as I was getting ready to finish the set (and the show there), he came up to me with a wad of money, offering me $100 to play one more set. I was rather tired (I hadn't slept well the night before), and had driven 3+ hours from Buffalo to get there, and was going to drive another 3+ hours back to Buffalo where I would be staying the next few nights. But I figured it would be silly to pass on the offer. I thanked him, and said I would do another set, and went up to the bar to make sure that this would be okay. They okayed it, and were pretty surprised that someone had offered me $100 to keep playing.

As I went up for the additional 4th set, the same man tried to give me another $100 to "attempt" to play a Pearl Jam song. I like some Pearl Jam stuff, but I don't know any of their songs. He was kind of insistent, but I told him to keep his money - he said to just try a song, but I made it clear that I didn't know any PJ tunes. But as I completed 4th set, he came up again, giving me another $100. I told him to at least take some cds before he left... What a crazy show. I have actually been tipped $100 a few times before, but never $200. Needless to say, it was a good Sunday.

My netbook battery is about to die. Gotta Go!

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #2 (Day 11)

2011-05-20T14:31:00.001-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 1444
Average Speed - 52 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

Today's blog entry comes to you from just outside of Rochester, NY.

I only got through the first couple days of this tour when I had to pack up and head out for a show in Buffalo.

On Thursday the 12th, I would return to The Map Room in Regent Square (Pittsburgh) - a venue that I have grown fond of since my first visit in early October. I always seem to forget that I need my mic stand here. And when I needed to go get it, it had started to pour outside (better than inside, right?). So I ran outside to get the stand, and by the time I got back, I was wet.

Around the same time, a group of guys on a softball team had arrived, and as luck would have it, sat at the table right in front of me. I think I've mentioned this before; it's the Musicians' Murphy's Law: The loudest group of people in the room will somehow wind up closest to the stage. They proceeded to drink and yell over each other as they talked about their softball exploits, among other "guy stuff". Aside from generally being distracting to me, it makes it very difficult to try to win over a crowd when one group is as loud as they were. The eldest member of their group seemed to feel bad about their volume, and gave me a five-dollar tip. I was surprised, because I'm pretty certain he wasn't paying attention. I unfortunately only sold one cd, to the bartender. The worst I had done there previously was 6... so this evening was a bit of a letdown, but some people had come out to catch the show, which is always an encouraging thing. You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both, and there you have the facts of life.

On Friday, I would perform for the first time in the town where my mom grew up: Monongahela, PA. My aunt, uncle, and cousins still live there, and one of my cousins gave me the info for a bar (called The Bar) that he thought would be up for hosting live music. I hadn't been out to Monongahela in quite a while, so it was good to go back. As we got to The Bar, I was a little concerned, as every song pumping through the digital juke box was a rap song, or some white equivalent of non-sung rhymed music. But I set up as usual, and got ready to start playing around 8 pm. The only lights they had in the stage area where I would be playing were LED dance light things. But it was pretty dark where I was, so I decided they would be better than nothing. I was told that I was the first live performer that they had; they had used DJs in the past on some nights, so this made some sense. Here's what it looked like:

I would later confirm that I am not epileptic. These lights were flashing and gyrating, I tell you.

To my relief, it all went over very well (I'm always nervous about first-time gigs at bars, because I do my best to stick to original material, and bar people aren't always happy about that - I usually don't return to the bars like that). I had several people who I didn't know (and some that I did, but hadn't seen in years) come up and talk to me about live looping and pick up some cds. And the pastor that officiated my wedding came out, as well - it was a 45-minute drive for him, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him. It was a great night, and hopefully I'll return there at some point in the future.

Okay... I am now about to go out for a run (I actually packed some clothes for running for this tour, so I'm glad to have the opportunity). It's been raining every stinkin' day, and now it's finally nice outside. Gotta seize the opportunity, right?

See you here again in a few days or so!

Second US Tour of 2011 – blog #1 (Day 8)

2011-05-17T17:52:00.002-04:00

Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 1272
Average Speed - 55 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

Ah man, it's hard to update this blog when I'm playing every night... at least I'm getting to it now!

About a month ago, this tour looked like it was going to be my least-busy tour (with about 14 shows in 20 days) since the very first one I tried to book back in 2004. But since then, the music gods have smiled upon me and allowed the musical floodgates to open. Now, this tour is a 20-day, 24-show whirlwind! I want to send a special thank you out to my new booking assistant, who was somehow able to line up 7 shows in an amazingly short amount of time. And the gigs she got lined up have all been worthwhile ones so far. She has already done more work than the previous 5 or 6 booking agents that I've had "work" for me since I moved to Nashville.

I am only about a month away from the end of my 1st US Tour, which was the busiest one of my life so far. This second tour was rather difficult to book, due to the fact that my booking time was limited while I was on tour the first time. But thankfully I've got a full, busy schedule for this one.

This tour is kind of exciting because I am hitting some areas that I haven't been to in ages (namely Buffalo and Rochester, NY), and playing many venues that I've never performed in before. I have to prove myself to new audiences...which is slightly nerve-wracking, in a good way. Of the 24 shows I am doing, 16 are in brand new venues for me.

The tour began in Columbus, OH - a solid 300-mile drive from Nashville. My Berklee friend Michelle Lewis was kind enough to see about adding me to a bill that she was on with a local artist, Angela Perley. I opened up the show, and there was a nice little crowd there, especially considering it was a Tuesday night. I wound up selling 5 cds, all to new listeners. I drive through Columbus several times a year, so I will hopefully see some of you when I come back! I got some venue recommendations from one of the new listeners, as well. Columbus has been a bit of an enigma to me, so that should be helpful for future tours.

I stuck around for Michelle's set, and the beginning of Angela's set - but I had another 3 hours to drive to Pittsburgh, where I would be sleeping that night. I stopped into a Sheetz (a gas station chain in the northeastern US) on the way, and bought a delicious pina colada smoothie. I think it helped make the drive not take too long.

I don't remember when I woke up on Wednesday, but I'm sure it was late in the morning. I unfortunately woke up to the news that my dad had backed into my car on the way to work. The damage wasn't substantial, though, and the car is running fine. The driver door handle was busted a bit, but my handy dad was able to come up with a fix for it. I would later learn that Michelle (who was also playing in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night) got a flat tire on the way to her show that very night. A weird coincidence, I do say.

That night, I would be making my first visit to an open mic as the "Featured Performer". I am really thankful that many open mic series have features. It's a helpful weekday option for touring musicians to get a worthwhile performing opportunity on nights where it might otherwise be difficult to find other attractive options. And many open mic series are very well supported, getting scores of music-friendly folks out to either perform or just listen throughout the night. This series was very well-supported, and ran all the way from about 8:30 until ??? (I left around 11:30, and it was still going strong). I sold a few cds, and made some new friends, one of whom came out for a full show last weekend. It was a nice low-stress environment to play in after a long day of driving he previous day.

Well... I need to head out to SPoT Coffee here in Buffalo, NY for another show at one of those new venues that I mentioned. But hopefully I will be able to find some more time to type this week (and get a few pics up here)!

Thanks for joining me on this second tour of the year!

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #6 (End of Tour)

2011-04-26T14:06:00.001-04:00

Final Driving Stats:

Miles Driven - 3751
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

Alright; this is going to be a bit more condensed than the other entries for this tour. I've actually been at home in TN for two weeks now, but wanted to put the lid on this set of Tour Blogs.

We left off in Pittsburgh, after I had played on campus at Pitt. I had mentioned that it was snowing as I parked before the show. Well, by the end of the show, it was bright and sunny. I packed the car, and got ready to set off to Charlottesville, VA. Within a minute or two of starting my car, the weather situation had changed again, to a dreary, steady drizzle sort of rain. If I recall, a good portion of the first half of this drive was dreary and slightly rainy. But once I got into Virginia, the skies cleared up and stayed clear the rest of the day.

That evening, I would make my second visit to a wine bar in the walking mall in Charlottesville. About 30 miles outside of Charlottesville, my "low fuel" light went off. I have about 3 1/2 gallons of gas left when this happens, so I got to the venue without a problem. I did have to circle around the area a few times before finding a parking spot, though. I ended up getting a really good one. Parking is tricky in this area; because it's a walking mall, you can't park right in front of the shops or restaurants. Since I have a bunch of gear to set up, I am always looking for the best option, and it's not always easy. But I was relatively lucky.

The evening's show went well, and I sold a few cds. That night, while I was driving back to my hosts' home, I managed to run a stop sign. I didn't even see it. Unfortunately, there was a cop nearby who did see me, however. The first thing he said was "you ran through that stop sign like it wasn't there." I was hoping for a warning, but wasn't so lucky. As I got to the hosts' home, I relayed what had happened. My host said that the sign there is in a bad spot, and not that close to the street. Thanks, Charlottesville... ($91 ticket)

Things would get worse before they got better. On Saturday, April 2nd, I was scheduled to play my first show in Baltimore, MD. Right after lunch, I packed the car and left Charlottesville. As you might recall, my low fuel light had gone off the night before. By this time, I had driven about 60 miles. I put a local gas station that was on the route into my GPS. But did I make it to the gas station? Less than 2 miles before reaching the station, I ran out of gas... for the first time in my life. Someone was kind enough to help push my car to the side of the road. I put my flashers on, and located the closes gas station that I could walk to on my GPS. I felt stupid, but I wasn't that concerned, because I found a station that was a mile away, and I still had time to get to Baltimore (I plan to arrive pretty early before my shows start as often as I can).

I set off walking to the station, GPS in hand now. I figured that with a very brisk walk (I jogged when the route was downhill), I could get a can and a couple gallons of gas in less than 25 minutes. And as luck would have it, I came to a gas station that was en route to the station I had chosen (but not listed on the GPS). Unfortunately, though the pumps were on, the station's store was closed. I found this to be astounding - it was a Saturday, after all. I banged on the door, to no avail. A woman was filling her tank, and I asked her if she had a can that I might be able to buy, but no luck. She did, however, inform me of a store on the same road that would be open, and also sold gas cans. And this store was also on the way to the original station I had put into my GPS. So I bought the can, and went back to the station where I had just been. But immediately after leaving the store where I bought the can, it got very windy, and then started to hail. I had no option but to laugh at the whole situation. The precipitation also prompted me to move faster, as I didn't want to spend a three-hour drive in soaked clothes. So I was able to make up some more time. I pumped the gas into my brand new can, and continued to head back to where I had left my car.

The hail didn't last long, but instead turned into rain. But the rain tapered off rather quickly, as well. I wondered to myself if this was the same weather system that had gone through Pittsburgh the day prior. I was about to cross a street and make my final turn toward my car, when an older man in a whit pickup truck asked me if I needed a ride. I told him I was less than a 1/2 mile from my car, and that he should just go ahead. But he pulled off to the curb, and waited for me. As I got in the truck, I was greeted by his granddaughter and three of her middle-school-aged friends. There were on their way to hang out at the mall. The driver asked me where my car was, and we headed off. We passed where I thought I had left it, but there was no car there. At this point, I was wondering if I had just become disoriented or something. But since I had my GPS, I recreated the route that I had taken, and we got back to the last turn that I remembered making. We drove on the same stretch of road that we had just been on, and, sure enough, my car was gone. In the 15 to 20 minutes that it had taken me to get the can and the gas: the Charlottesville police had spotted the car and deemed it "abandoned" (even though my flashers were obviously on); called a wrecker to have it towed; the tow truck arrived to tow the car; and the car had gotten to the wrecker's lot. I was really thankful that the man had pulled over to pick me up. Thankfully, the wrecker was really close by, and the driver knew where it was (he actually knew the owner, and tried to talk them out of charging me any fees). We got to the wrecker, and there was my car, flashers still flashing. Thanks, Charlottesville... ($85 to get the car - $55 to the police, and $30 for the towing fee)

I emptied most of my can into the gas tank, filled the rest of the tank at a gas station, and then set out to Baltimore, much more delayed than I originally thought I might be. I called the venue while I was en route, and they were understanding. Unfortunately, they didn't let all of their staff know. I had several people who were coming out for the show who asked about my status, but weren't told that I was on my way. But thankfully, they stayed. I was supposed to play from 5 to 7 pm, but didn't get there until about 5:20 (this was, of course, a miracle). I frantically set up, and got started at about a quarter to 6. The venue paid me about half of what we agreed to, and I sold 8 cds, so it actually turned out to be a rather good ending to a horrible day.

A friend would later dub this the "I fought the law, and the law won Tour".

Those were the only real driving mishaps of the tour, and they occurred within 2 miles of each other, and within a 14-hour span of time.

The next day, I would have another 2-show day. It was rather exhausting. The longest show I usually do is 3 hours (divided into 3 sets, with two breaks). But there is a Vineyard that I play that has music for 4 hours in the afternoon. I did more looping/instrumental sections than usual, and got through the event unharmed. But I had only had breakfast (and maybe a banana or a granola bar or two during the day), and was very hungry after the gig. I would be playing in Washington, D.C. that evening, and part of my compensation there was a $25 food tab. I used it. Because of a scheduling mishap on my last tour, the guy who books the nights there paid me at least double what the usual pay was, and it was definitely worth fitting that show in on that busy day.

I slept deeply that evening, and had another long drive, to western PA for a show at a great little coffee shop in Beaver Falls. I'm always pleasantly surprised by the people who come out just to listen to music there. Mind you, this was a Monday night. The people who work there are very nice, too.

On Tuesday, I had another 2-show day. It started with a community college gig around lunch time. I've done enough of these to know that it's considered background music. But I usually don't have lunchtime shows, and they pay decently, so they are definitely worth doing. I think maybe 3 people clapped through the entire gig, on 2 or 3 songs total. That evening, I had my first show at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. I had several people come out for this show, and it was pretty decent. I hope to return to their campus for another show during my Fall Tour (which I am booking dates for now! Let me know if you want me to visit your town, or have a specific venue in mind, or would like to host a House Concert!).

Wednesday the 6th would bring yet another 2-show day. In the morning, I visited my high school Alma Mater in Upper St. Clair. I visited a few music classes, and talked with students about songwriting and life as a professional musician. I played a show during the lunch periods (we call them "mods"), too. Several teachers that I knew / had were still there, and picked up some cds. I was there for almost the entire school day, so it was a rather busy day. That evening, I had a gig in the Theatre District of Pittsburgh. I don't remember what I did after that gig, aside from eat dinner, but I'm sure that I was tired.

On Thursday, I had another community college lunchtime gig. That evening, I went out with my family for dinner for my birthday (which was in March). That was a good day to recuperate.

We are now to the final weekend of the Tour...

That Friday night, I performed at a restaurant owned by an Upper St. Clair couple. A student from USC came out for the show, as well as one of the audience members from the Monday night show in Beaver Falls, and a bunch of parents of some of the USC students. I sold about 10 cds thee, and it was a great last show in Pittsburgh. I hope to return there in the near future (the venue, that is; I'm sure I'll be in Pittsburgh in the near future).

On Saturday, I had my final 2-show day of the tour. I performed at two places in Ohio that I often play when traveling through. There were some familiar faces at each show, which is always a good thing. I sold 7 cds and a shirt, to bump up the cd sales record

Sunday night would bring me to my final show of the whole Tour - show # 30! It was a house concert in Louisville, KY. Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as the other house concerts (I haven't had a good show in KY yet). But there was one person in the audience who bought each of my albums, and tipped me on top of it. If he wasn't there, I would have only made 10 dollars.

After the show, I hit the road again, making it home around 11:15 that evening. What an adventure!

Thanks for following me on the road, and for coming out to the shows. Even with the mishaps in Charlottesville, this was the best tour that I've ever done. I've referenced CD sales a decent amount during this blog series. CD sales are maybe the best barometer for artists to figure out how shows are going, not only financially, but in terms of whether the audience is into what they are doing.

My previous record for CD sales in one tour was 86 CDs. During this tour, I wound up selling over 130 cds. This is more than a 50% increase! I credit all the great music-loving and musician-supporting audiences during the tour. Thank you again!

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #5 (day 22)

2011-04-08T19:32:00.000-04:00

Miles Driven - 3089
Average Speed - 49 mph (I think that's what my car display said last...)
Miles Per Gallon - 32.5

We left off after the really long drive on Monday night / Tuesday morning (the 29th of March). I'll try to cover the first of 2 sets of shows in western PA, land of my hometown of Pittsburgh.

On Tuesday night, I would return to one of my favorite bars to play at - North Country Brewing Co. in Slippery Rock, PA. The great thing about this place is that people actually listen to music there, and appreciate original music. I rarely have to deal with anyone making requests or heckling from the crowd. Neither of these things occurred on Tuesday night, but it was unfortunately not a very music-listening audience that I played to. Usually, there is a good mix of townspeople and college students, but it was overrun with college students on this particular evening. And for the first set, there was one girl who was unbelievably loud. She was probably about 20 feet away from where I was playing, but I could here much of what she was saying loud and clear. I guess it's because they have higher-pitched voices, but it always seems like it's drunk girls that cause the most noise at these less-than-ideal show settings. The rest of the night didn't get any better, and this was easily the worst visit to North Country that I have ever made. Ah well... you can't win them all, I guess.

On Wednesday, it was rather cold in Pittsburgh, and the precipitation vacillated (is that the right word?) throughout the day, from drizzly rain to snow. This evening would bring my least-stressful gig of the tour, I think: Rock n' Bowl at Arsenal Bowling Lanes in Pittsburgh. That's right - live music at a bowling alley. It happens every Wednesday night there. $8 for shoe rentals + all you can bowl from 9 pm to midnight. I play 2 30-minute sets, and bowl before, between, and/or after if I want to. The venue splits the cover with the performers, and I realize that people are there to bowl, so I just play without any expectations. I think I sell a cd or two each time that I play there. But the weather apparently kept people away this evening. There were maybe 18 people out. Several of them actually clapped after songs, and it was probably the most attentive bowling audience that I've ever played for. And at the end of the night, the woman who collects and gives out the shoes behind the counter, who I had thought seemed like an old, crabby lady, made a point to tell me that she always loves it when I come to play. I guess you can't always tell a book by its cover.

The last 2 western PA shows of this first visit would redeem the first two. On Thursday, I played at another one of my favorite bars to perform original music: The Map Room in the Regent Square area of Pittsburgh. Attendance was decent, and I sold 9 cds by the end of the night, including one to someone who heard me play the last time I played here, but had only just walked in as I was packing up and saying goodnight to the staff.

On Friday, I performed a noon show on campus at Pitt, for a series run by a songwriting organization in Pittsburgh, called Calliope. The shows are held in the University's library, which I find a little bit ironic. I was warned about parking, and left with ample time to circle around a time or two to find a spot. Luckily, I was able to snag the last spot on the same street that the library was on. I didn't see any other spots that were conveniently close, so I was thankful to find the spot. It was snowing as I unpacked things from my car. By the time that I had finished the show and hit the road for that evening's show, it was sunny. In the time between, I performed a set in the library. From what I could tell, people come out regularly to catch music for this series, and it was a good listening audience, some of whom weren't even reading books or using laptops. I sold 5 cds after the hour-long set, including one to a fan who I hadn't seen in over 2 years.

Alright; I've got to get on the road to my last Pittsburgh show of the second western PA visit (which you'll hopefully read about later), but come back soon to read about last weekend's shows, and some unfortunate driving circumstances that would befall me.

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #4 (day 18)

2011-04-04T18:21:00.004-04:00

Miles Driven - 2892
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33

It has been 5 days since I've been able to check in. Too much driving, too many shows, too much other stuff for me to get a good chunk of time to sit down for another post. Please don't hate me.

We left off at the end of the first week of this current tour, in Fredericksburg, VA, on Thursday the 24th of March. I had been looking forward to this second weekend of the tour....and it didn't disappoint.

On Friday, I made a return trip to the small town of Keedysville, MD, for the Salem United Methodist Church Coffee House series. After a stop at a Subway near the church, and some misdirection from my GPS, which took me on some pretty sketchy roads, one of which was a dead end, I made it there in time to eat my sub and catch up with a few people. I would like to have arrived about 30 minutes earlier, but everything went fine after all. The people who run the series are great, and it was good to be back to perform (it had been at least a year and a half). The attendance was a tad on the slim side, but it was still a great show, full of some Q&A with the audience and ample time to get to talk to people who had come out. There were also several people in attendance who had come out the first time I performed there. As I said before leaving, I'd rather play a show for 20 people who are really paying attention, that to play for 100 who are being so loud that I can't hear myself. Hopefully a return for their series will happen before another year and a half.

The Show on Saturday would be my first official House Concert of this tour. This one was hosted in the Annapolis area. If you haven't been reading my blog or Newsletter for a while, then you might not know that House Concerts are becoming my favorite type of show to do. They are just what they sound like: Concerts in people's homes. Sometimes they include food and drink; they always include live music, and a listening room environment.

If you'd like to learn more about (and potentially host) house concerts, please feel free to check out my profile at this popular House Concert Website:

--->CIYH SITE<---

A local singer/songwriter named David Glaser opened up the show. He was quite good. About 20 people came out for the show, and I finished the evening with 17 cds sold, and a couple t-shirts sold, too. It's an overwhelmingly-good feeling to have almost every audience member leave with a cd. When I play louder bar gigs, I am wondering what I need to do to try to get just a few people to pay attention enough to see if they even like the music. At the house concerts, people are they because they love live music, so it's not so much of a chore for the artist to get people's attention - people are there to pay attention. And if they like the artists, they are supportive. I wish every concert I did could be a house concert.

On Sunday night, I performed on the other side of DC, for another house concert. People arrived early for this one, which I took as a good sign for the night. The was another local opener that evening - a jazz trio that sang songs about animals.

People weren't paying much attention to them, so my heart was sinking a bit as I listened to their set. But as I was getting ready to start my set, the host announced who I was and that I was about to start, and the room got quiet. Oh, the relief. House Concerts can become house parties if they aren't presented properly. Thankfully, my set was introduced well - I sold another 12-15 cds, and a few more t-shirts. Not too shabby for a Sunday night. The hosts had a cool separate studio/guest room behind their house, where I stayed and posted the second blog entry of this tour.

On Monday, after posting that blog entry, I headed out to Frederick, MD, where I have been performing for the past year or year and a half. There is a weekly songwriter showcase show that is done at a restaurant/brewery in town. It's another great listening room setting. I was the featured performer for the evening. Aside from one table of people (who got Shhhhhh'd a few times during my set), the room remained a great listening room environment. People tipped well, and I sold a few cds... all in all, a great show for a Monday.

Unfortunately, I would be driving all the way to Pittsburgh after the show. I didn't arrive until about a quarter to 4 in the morning, thanks to some oversized load trucks, and a weird situation involving road crew workers who went 15 mph in both lanes for about 25 minutes. I'm still not sure that I have recovered from that drive.

There might be some typos in this bloggggg - I'm typing on my netbook right now, at the coffee shop where I will be performing in about an hour. I'll do my best to get back to it and correct any errors, and add some photos. Thanks for following my adventures - I hope you're enjoying the ride.

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #3 (day 13)

2011-03-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

Miles Driven - 1840
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

I am playing at least one show every day during this show, but today is a bit like a day off - I have little driving to do, and will only be playing for about an hour later this evening. So I have been able to get some things done today, like booking work and getting to this blog entry!

We left off after my first visit to the small town of Forest, VA, and a coffee shop there that I rather liked, called The Good Cherry.

After the show, we would hit the road to Charlottesville, VA, where we would spend the night. There were thunderstorm warnings all over the place for the night, but we didn't drive through anything worth mentioning. I have driven through some bad storms, including one about the same time last year, but the weather has thankfully been very tame so far. We caught up some with our hosts in Charlottesville, and called it a night.

Thursday the 24th was set to be a busy day. We got up in the morning, had a quick breakfast, repacked the car, and head out to Dulles Airport near Washington, DC. My wife would be leaving for a conference in Chicago, and her week on tour would come to a close. It was pretty great having her along for the first week. We were invited to have lunch with a former family at my wife's school. The family had relocated to the DC area, and we went to a Japanese restaurant. It was delicious.

I dropped my wife off at the airport, and then had some time to kill. I headed out to Alexandria, VA, where I would be staying the next couple of nights. I unpacked my car, and put food from my cooler in the fridge. I didn't have too long to unwind there, as I would be performing in Fredericksburg, VA that evening. So I did a bit of backtracking to go there for the evening's show.

I met up with one of the other performers for dinner at the venue, a couple hours before the start of the show. After eating, I posted the first Tour Blog for this current tour. Then it was time for the show to begin. I have not been playing in Fredericksburg long, and am still figuring out the venues there. The venue I have been playing at gives a demonstration of one of live music's paradoxes: Oftentimes, higher attendance at shows results in fewer people paying attention. The last time I performed, attendance was rather slim, but I mentioned to sell several cds. This evening's show was well-attended, but I didn't sell any cds to anyone in the audience, and it was a pretty loud environment. Not the best thing for live music, unfortunately.

The following 4 nights of the tour would bring back to back to back to back Listening Room shows, and one of the better weekend(+)s of my entire touring career.

Tune in for the 4th blog to read about those 4 shows!

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #2 (day 11)

2011-03-28T15:17:00.007-04:00

Miles Driven - 1455 (approximately)
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 32

We left off in the wee hours of Sunday morning, the 20th of March. We arrived in Blacksburg, where I would be staying with a high school friend and his wife. We took them out for brunch on Sunday, and then went to Rita's for dessert. Rita's Italian Ice locations give out free regular ices on the first day of spring. This would be the second year in a row that we would partake of this magnificence while on tour.

We would watch the Penguins lose to the Rangers that afternoon. The Penguins are doing remarkably well this season, given the myriad of injuries that have befallen them. They are threatening to win the top seed in the Eastern Conference, with just about 5 or 6 games left in the regular season.

On Sunday night, I performed at The Cellar. Sunday nights at this place are an enigma. A couple shows there have been good, but some of them have been scanty in the attendance department. This night was unfortunately of the latter ilk. But every time I play there, there are at least a couple people who are really into the music. This was no exception. A couple was there to listen, and even came back to my show a couple nights later. At least there was that... but this has been the worst show of the tour so far. Sometimes Sundays aren't the best. But here's a cool pic:

On Monday, I was a bit wary of the gig that I would be doing. I used to perform at Starbucks locations pretty regularly back in the day. Many locations used to pay performers, and it was actually a pretty decent venue for live music. Ever since I started touring on a regular basis, both of those aspects started changing. Paying locations dropped, and it was very hard to tell if anyone was paying attention. I would still sell cds, but it always took me by surprise because no one would applaud after the songs. The lack of response is one of the worst things a performer can experience. Thankfully, I seldom play in these types venues any more.

I was set to play at the Starbucks in Christiansburg, which is a stone's throw from Blacksburg. The manager was excited to have me play, and he used to live in Nashville. Unfortunately, the response was nearly typical of most Starbucks shows for that night's show. It started off with some decent applause after songs, but that tapered off, song by song, until there was none. But I could tell that people were paying attention, as several people tipped, and I sold 4 cds. It's just a weird thing to have the same people who weren't clapping be interested enough to buy an album or two. So it went well, and they fed us dinner, too, in the form of breakfast food (Starbucks sells breakfast sandwiches now). I was asked to come back for a shorter morning/lunch performance on that Wednesday, and since I wasn't doing anything else, figured I would give it another go.

On Tuesday night, I would perform at a hookah lounge near Virginia Tech, called She-Sha.

When we got inside, I immediately noticed that they had an 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System set up. They offered to move it for the show, but I liked it, so it stayed.

Tips and cd sales were rather slim, but the room was almost full of people who came out specifically because I was playing. So it was a good night emotionally, if not financially. The couple from The Cellar came out, as well as someone from the previous night's Starbucks show, and a VT student who saw me a year or so ago.

Wednesday the 23rd would be out last day in the Blacksburg area, and would be my first of several 2-show days. We went back to Starbucks around 10:30 am, to set up for an 11 am start. This time, I had a couple in the audience who had looked me up online, and came out to hear me. They had come the previous day (which I was originally scheduled for), and came back on Wednesday after the date was changed. I apologized to them, and assured them that it wasn't my fault. So it was good to have people on my side for the start of that gig. I believe there was some form of clapping after every song I played. I played for about an hour, and sold 6 cds. So it was definitely worth the return visit. We were also fed some breakfast sandwiches again, this time for lunch.

Laundry was done for the first time on Wednesday, and we had to sort clothes from the dryer and repack before heading out from Blacksburg. That evening, I performed in the small town of Forest, Virginia. It's near Lynchburg. There is a well-sized coffee shop out there called The Good Cherry. A student from the nearby Liberty University, named Todd Picht, opened up for me. He brought some folks out, and it was a nice, intimate show for about 10-15 people. I think a return to this venue in the near future is likely. I sold 6 cds. This tour has been going surprisingly well in the cd sale department. People always talk about cd sales plummeting, but they seem to be getting better for me (knock on wood). CDs have much better sound quality than mp3s (at least the standard ones available on iTunes, for example), they can include lyrics and liner notes, as well as other artwork, and they can be signed. They also can include a whole album's worth of material. The move to mp3s is largely killing the concept of the album, as artists are putting out singles more and more these days. It's like we're back in the early 1960's. Anyway, I am on pace to overwhelmingly beat my old record for cd sales in a single tour. Eat that, mp3s!

Jeff's First US Tour of 2011 – blog #1 (day 7)

2011-03-24T20:45:00.005-04:00

Tonight's show is about to start, but I wanted to get a blog out for this tour, since it's almost been a full week.

Here you go.

Welcome to the new (well, old – actually the original) home of the Tour Blog! While I liked the features associated with the MySpace blog, I just don't use MySpace any more, and don't appreciate the new layout and look over there. I hope you find this site to be just as good of a home for the blog, if not a better one.

Miles Driven – 1075
Average Speed – 52 mph
Miles Per Gallon – 33

Things got started off in a town outside of Atlanta, Georgia, called Roswell. There, I would make my first visit to the Land of 1000 Hills Coffee House.

When this tour (which includes 30 shows over a period of 24 days, and might therefore include fewer blog entries) concludes, I will have played 11 shows at previously unvisited venues. That's a high percentage for someone who's been at it for a while in this geographical area. Hopefully it's a sign that I am reaching some new listeners, as well.

Back to Roswell... or Nashville, I guess. My wife is a teacher, and is currently on spring break, which has enabled her to be with me for the first week of this tour. That's pretty awesome. She taught for half of a day on Friday, and came home. We quickly ate lunch, finished packing the car, and hit the road early in the afternoon.

The venue I was playing to kick off the tour was not feeding us dinner, so we ate a bit on the drive south. We got there about a half hour before the start time. Upon arrival, I was told that the venue did not have a sound system. In my email communication with them, I was informed that they did have one, but it was apparently on loan to them or something, and they no longer had it. I had been looking forward to not having to set up my equipment after the long drive. Ah well... I was also informed that music, which was usually held indoors, would be outdoors on their patio that night, because the weather was unusually nice. So I needed my full PA, rather than my small amp.

Needless to say, the show did not start on time. But I had some people coming out to the show who had not yet arrived, and the manager at the coffee house didn't mind the late start, so it was probably for the best. The weather was pretty wonderful; I never would have guessed that my first outdoor show would be a night time one on March 18th. But it stayed nice out there on the patio, well past 10 pm. The turnout was pretty good, too, and I got to catch up with a few friends who have relocated to the area, and some fans who came out for the show.

I enjoyed my first visit to 1000 Hills, and am hoping to hit the Atlanta area a few more times this year. If you have some venue suggestions, or live in the area and would like to host a house concert, let me know!

My wife and I were rather hungry after the show, so we accidentally stopped at Taco Bell on the way to our hosts' home. I missed a turn on the GPS directions, and happened to turn around in a parking lot where a Taco Bell was. I usually make a point to have one Taco Bell meal on each tour, and it looks like we got that out of the way early on. We stayed with a former coworker of my wife's that night. The next day, they were having a yard sale. This is otherwise not worth reporting, except that it was the second time that I had experienced a yard sale while staying with a tour host. The first was several years ago, as my parents were selling my childhood memories at the house where I grew up in Pittsburgh, before they moved to a different house.

The Sunday before the tour began, I got a really bad pinched nerve in my back, near my left shoulder. I was concerned that it would make setting up and tearing down my equipment a painful effort. That pinched nerve is still present, though it doesn't cause nearly as much pain as it did at this time last week. However, on Friday night / Saturday morning, something happened while I was sleeping. I was using a rather thick pillow, and it probably would have worked well I slept on my side. But I usually sleep on my back, and apparently slept that way this time, as well. When I woke up, the right side of my neck hurt pretty bad. That issue is still pretty painful now, almost a week later. I don't have to set up my PA for the next few shows, and hope the pain subsides over those next few days.

Back to the shows. On Saturday, we would make the long drive from Canton, GA (north of Atlanta) to Lenoir, NC (northwest of Hickory). We did a similarly-long drive during last year's first tour, but I had forgotten just how long it was. We made it to the venue with ample time to spare, though. I played here last year, and had hoped to come back at some point in 2010, but the timing never worked out. The owners are great people, and fed us when we got there. They unexpectedly offered us some apple pie a la mode when we were done, too. It was delicious. Unexpected deliciousness.

A friend from the Pittsburgh area, who had moved to Hickory, came out to the show. We had a good chance to catch up before the show. Unfortunately, the show was low in attendance this time around. But there was some stand-up comic performing at the Civic Center nearby, which I think really limited the attendance. Lenoir is a small town, I believe we were told that its population is maybe 20,000. So any big event happening in town is likely to impact the attendance of other events. But a few other people came out, and it was still a good, intimate show.

This venue in Lenoir is in the middle of a battle to keep its doors open. To read about them and perhaps offer support, check out http://www.visiononmainstreet.com/press-media/press01.html

After that show, we made another decent drive, of about 3 hours, to Blacksburg, VA, where I would be staying and performing over the next 3+ days. It was nice not to have to drive 100s of miles each day over those few days. We'll pick up in Blacksburg to start the next blog entry.

2008 Fall East Coast Tour!

2008-09-25T17:13:00.001-04:00

Yes. It is that time of year again.

2007 Fall East Coast Tour!

2007-10-06T16:43:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again, my friends. The 2007 Fall East Coast Tour will begin on Wednesday, October 10th! Here is a map of the entire tour, with all of the stops. This year, I will be doing 26 shows in 25 days, so you really don't have a good excuse for not coming out to a show. (click on the map to get a bigger, readable version)

Also, it appears that the audio blogs that I so faithfully added to this site no longer function. In the hopes that this will somehow be remedied, I am leaving them up. But as of early October, they don't play any more. I got a message from the Google Blog folks last year, saying that the posts would continue to be playable, but new audio posts were not being accepted. Apparently they lied...

So come out to a show, and we can pretend to do an audio blog together after I'm done playing.

2006-11-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

2006-11-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

2006-11-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

2006-11-01T12:40:00.000-05:00

2006-10-31T13:55:00.000-05:00

1/2 of an address

2006-10-31T00:32:00.000-05:00

2006-10-29T09:15:00.000-05:00

2006-10-28T17:05:00.000-04:00

2006-10-27T14:42:00.000-04:00

2006-10-26T01:00:00.000-04:00

Special Guest: Andrew Chadwick

2006-10-24T18:36:00.000-04:00

2006-10-23T20:18:00.001-04:00

2006-10-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

2006-10-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

2006-10-23T20:08:00.000-04:00

2006-10-21T19:03:00.000-04:00

2006-10-20T15:13:00.000-04:00

2006-10-20T00:03:00.000-04:00

2006-10-18T23:53:00.000-04:00

2006-10-18T15:56:00.000-04:00

Another special guest, who should have been on this blog last year

2006-10-17T22:02:00.000-04:00

Paul Tabachneck gets long-winded.

2006-10-17T13:51:00.000-04:00

Go Steelers!

2006-10-15T17:41:00.000-04:00

2006-10-14T01:36:00.000-04:00

2006-10-12T13:57:00.000-04:00

2006-10-12T13:08:00.000-04:00

2006 FALL EAST COAST TOUR COMING UP!

2006-10-07T02:42:00.000-04:00

I will embark on my third Fall East Coast Tour on Thursday, October 12th. Check this site for some brand new audio blogs, maybe some with pictures... Speaking of the audio blog, the company that I currently use that makes this audio blog stuff possible has decided to stop offering the audio blog service, beginning on November 1st of this year. I will have to figure out another way to bring the audio to the bloggio.

If you live on the east coast (or in OH or western PA), you can hear me live and in person in the coming weeks. I promise many nights of great music and fun this tour! Tell your friends about the shows if you can't make it out yourself this time around...

I love Pittsburgh (and most of western PA)

2006-09-16T01:53:00.000-04:00

"...sweating all over my guitar."

2006-09-13T14:07:00.000-04:00

Ketchup...

2006-09-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

2006-09-08T14:46:00.000-04:00

Hopkinsville is very nice to me, and the gas is cheaper out there

2006-09-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

If only Jimmy could be on every post

2006-07-27T23:51:00.000-04:00

"Hopefully I won't pass out while I'm playing."

2006-07-21T17:41:00.000-04:00

"The window is unscrollable"

2006-07-11T22:07:00.000-04:00

2006-07-11T17:38:00.000-04:00

2006-06-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

Dead deer and thick fog

2006-06-09T00:12:00.000-04:00

National Donut Day!

2006-06-02T23:40:00.000-04:00

2006-06-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

A vegetarian gets her protein...

2006-04-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

2006-04-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

2006-04-11T17:12:00.000-04:00

2006-04-11T17:03:00.000-04:00

"I thought that Sheetz was better."

2006-04-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

Finally, another special guest for this tour!

2006-04-10T22:19:00.000-04:00

2006-04-10T22:17:00.000-04:00

2006-04-09T11:53:00.000-04:00

2006-04-07T14:22:00.000-04:00

2006-04-07T11:53:00.000-04:00

Rambling on about the price of gas

2006-04-06T14:00:00.000-04:00

2006-04-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

Colleges give me food

2006-04-05T22:29:00.001-04:00

$2.49 for gas is good? Man....

2006-04-04T16:28:00.000-04:00

Garage Sale! One day only!

2006-04-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

Drive through the rainbow

2006-03-31T18:45:00.000-05:00

I like small towns

2006-03-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

People forgetting things at Wendy's in Kentucky

2006-03-30T15:58:00.000-05:00

The Adrian Bischoff factor

2006-02-16T23:58:00.000-05:00

Parking in New York City is a drag

2006-02-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

Sibling Rivalry

2006-02-12T18:22:00.000-05:00

Snow business

2006-02-12T13:50:00.000-05:00

An international Special Guest

2006-02-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Um, well, and other stuff

2006-01-04T01:17:00.000-05:00

Can't stay out tonight

2005-12-23T22:49:00.000-05:00

On the road again!

2005-12-18T18:38:00.000-05:00

Final driving stats

2005-10-29T19:03:00.000-04:00

The cheapest gas price of the Tour; Breaking the 3500 mile mark

2005-10-29T16:56:00.000-04:00

Passing the home of the infamous runaway bride

2005-10-29T10:18:00.000-04:00

"Ed, who is wearing, uh, women's, uh . . . jeans"

2005-10-28T23:39:00.000-04:00

Georgia and "the rules of safe gas pumping"

2005-10-28T21:25:00.000-04:00

My Name in Lights

2005-10-28T21:11:00.000-04:00

Sweet Bumper Pool

2005-10-28T14:05:00.000-04:00

Fall Break....curses!

2005-10-28T01:01:00.000-04:00