after the disastrous ills of jan. 8th, life reassembled itself here in town.
chained from the change, we learned to walk again in those shackles.
about a week went by and then another tour date loomed. obama came to town the night before to aid in letting go. on the chicago plane i was handed a newspaper with tucson on the front page again.
i must’ve mumbled something about it cause the flight attendant looked at me like a war refugee. asked if there was anything she could do. i felt the way anyone must feel when the world wants to extend their help due to such renown puncture. awkward. but she wanted to do something. anything.
so we sent some drinks to thøger who was stuck back in coach class.
GLASGOW
it was a one off, a fling to glasgow for just one show.
didn’t want to leave home. left anyway. loved landing in manchester. no lines. no nothing. then the train below to scotland, and it had its own spell-bound-ary. luckiest guy on earth scenery. drifted on and off while the lag was kickin’ in. right about the time the only other couple in our car was explaining how lougherby was a cover up conspiracy, the lag kicked my butt and mulched it with dream fodder in slo mo.
the show was a festival thing called “celtic connections”, and i suppose we all have one. great grandmother hailed from cardiff,
mom had red hair, the new album shouts about the ‘molly mcquires’. it’s a mixed up world and america thrives on its source of such.
arrival. . .
somehow they sequestered me in a separate hotel other then where the band is staying. a business man’s paradise that i now infiltrate.
the lag takes over and slams me to the bed. the traffic hum blurs off.
waking . . .
‘head’ is here to do sound tonight and so good to hang with him again.
he was there when we did ‘chore of enchantment’, and he’s been firmly lodged in the john parish/pj harvey camp for ions.
we discover that films at 35,000 ft. have a peculiar effect on us both.
they extract actual salt water from our tear ducts, and while doing so, offer no sensible reason for this. it’s a physical phenomenon. perhaps its age related since we are nearly the exact age, but something serves to muck us up way up there in the lower stratosphere, even when we think the movie sucks. the movie sucks tears from us like an alien tactic. pondered enough, we now replenish the ducts with regional libations, preferred single malts, in order to resume resilience to such and reacquire the knack of the thick skinned man.
2011. its time now to re-think everything in tour life. to take inventory. to establish what it is this is and if it should be at all.
the show was done well and well done, but also noted an interesting form of dreaming that has permeated my stage meander these days.
the room seemed full. heat from the gathering spilt up on stage and held the chill outside to remain at arm’s length. the spirit of the crowd up north is particular and always a fine bolster. afterwards we took in the account of the evening’s set and the playmanship. inventory.
went to bed later then should have, but letting go of the day is an art.
next day headed out early. breakfast before sun up. a traveling salesmen of insurance seemed to need me there to babble to incoherently. his loneliness had no bounds and his voice blended in with the hiss of heat from some invisible source. i excused myself.
headed to the train then. got there too early for my liking. sat in the bluster waiting for the train to edinburgh. then bus to the plane. flung me to madrid for the night, which is becoming the norm of return.
next day flung home in less time then it took to leave, seemingly.
NEW YORK
another one off.
the band flies in. its cold again. we bunk in a soho hotel. its difficult to walk anywhere in my red wings. we find a fine restaurant at the end of an ally and settle in. we get pseudo-caught in the ice storm that threatens. frictionless world, but never fell, just maneuvered in slide.
the show was at the city winery, a luxuriously large joint with elbow room. many friends. the show was sweet and rectifying. the crowd was such a fine relief, hearing them actually understanding the lyrical base and responding to the delivery in accordance. no one gets the true zing of the words like an american audience who just naturally knows the difference between the intended expressions and jilt of the poetic. its something that’s always welcoming returning to these shores, no matter how much i love losing myself abroad, rapt in their embrace yonder. it still stirs the choices made way back when, having had to choose between touring territories once children entered the equation of limited available time away. the work is all still finer then ever, but the commute takes it toll these days heading out always so far flung.
the ice waited for us patiently out doors and then tugged at our equilibrium.
we managed to escaped the ‘monster storm’ headed this way. it missed the city by a few miles and we only got rain while records were broken everywhere else it slammed. we flung home luckily though a stormless dallas, them having had it just 2 days prior.
arrived in tucson and embraced the sun like suspicious old friends.
in winter, home here is a pipe line for the danes we’ve come to know and love, to escape the grim grip of greydom. the adobe abode abides.
TUCSON
and now this 2nd show stateside completes the USA tour.
we set up at the rialto theater. the best thing is that its so convenient.
my philosophy is to live a life only blocks away from anything needed as though it were a small town here. and i finally get to play my bitchin’ 6 speaker super reverb giganto amp that can’t travel.
one speaker was causing overall sludge-moans, but bruce, the trusted soundman and poker dude, shoved a rag in it. it sounded stunning.
we invited a coupla bands to open. first up was ‘kiss and the tells’, a phil specter ish kind of band with 2 alternating lead female vocalists and 2 more backing. very sultry and very much exhibiting the illustrious ills and lug of seduction the women can’t help but be burdened with. they looked and sounded stunning. the band, all males, were killer. they looked purty good too in semi-tuxed out gear.
next up was our collective love, lonna kelley. so good to see her without the crumple of illness. the novemebr tour that almost killed me with fever, was worse on her with emergency surgery and such. seeing her tonight was a splendor. her old man, mark, sounded fine with matt on pedal steel playing anything except what a pedal steel normally sounds like. her 2 backing singers delivered the goods that only elevated lonna’s voice and sent the songs soaring. a send-sation.
then us.
our set was good and strong and so fine to have the full 5 piece in town. but cannot remember how it ended. i kind of drifted off in a foggy end game. the stage dreaming came into play again. i can only tell you the band sounded so good that i did not want to stop playing, no matter how long the set should have been by standard set standards. and my amp, good lord, my amp was a religion waiting to happen. thick and big, pungent and serious and lovingly massive enough to embrace the entire proceedings in a sonic bear hug.
a fine night and no ice in sight. the local crowd were in minority to the invading gem show throng. it made for some interesting inventory.
the end.
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epilogue:
john convertino came by for some coffee time. was a good yammer, always like trad old men recounting their youth. but then also made tentative plans for another ‘melted wires’ benefit come april here.
i had to leave then. had an hour in the studio lined up for singing up a new song giant sand recorded a few days ago. wrote up the lyrics there and it sounded decidedly jan. 8th. but it tended to illuminate the recovery mission of the wounded instead of the disastrous ills.
next day stopped in to capture some kids vocals on a lap top at miles school for possible back up vocals for the track. some random stuff.
assembled the song the following day, there on the fling to frankfurt.
am always so far flung.
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