Utah

I’m out on the road again.  I’m joined by my friend Meg May on violin.  We’re 3 days into a 3 month tour that takes us to Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Washington D.C., New York, Kentucky, Texas (again), New Mexico (again), Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington.  Hopefully we’ll be adding shows between Louisiana and North Carolina and between NYC and Texas.  It doesn’t finish until Thanksgiving.

This will be my first time playing North Carolina; Washington D.C.; Marfa, TX; Terlingua, TX; Corvallis, OR;  Taos, NM; and it will be my first time playing New York City and New Orleans in about 6 years.  I’m looking forward to all of them.

Today we drive from Salt Lake City, UT to Boulder, CO.  It’s about an 8 1/2 hour drive.

I want to blog more often.  I generally get up in the morning and write my “morning pages” every day.  But I left my book bag –which also houses my morning pages journal – in Reno.  I could easily get another binder and some paper, but for now, I think I’ll focus on blogging instead.

The first show of this tour with Meg was in Reno at Studio on 4th.  It’s a really nice little venue.  I don’t often play bars, but Studio on 4th is not your normal bar.  They have good theater lighting, a proscenium stage, candlelit tables, and the bar is in a separate room (which means it’s quiet in the performance space).  I don’t use a mic or any other amplification when I play there.  The room is just the right size.  Another reason I like the venue is that it’s in Reno, and Reno is only two hours from my home town.  This means that my parents, Marty and Diane, are able to attend.  This time they brought my music teacher from elementary, middle, and high school.  His name is Lou Hamilton.  It was special to have him there.  He hadn’t seen me perform since I first started singing and accompanying myself with accordion and banjo about 15 years ago.  Also having taught for 10 years, I know the feeling of seeing an ex student succeed in music; it feels really good, from both sides.

The past two nights we performed in Utah at my friend Jason Thomas’ house in Sandy.  I met Jason last October while I was out on tour with Marianne Dissard from Tucson.  He and I hit it off.  Last time I came through Salt Lake City, he and I talked about doing shows in his living room,… that’s exactly what we did these past two nights.

He did an excellent job preparing the space.  He built a hollow wooden stage (partly to elevate us but mainly so I’d have something to stomp on), he brought in professional lighting, borrowed over 40 chairs, catered the event with excellent food and beverages, and even streamed the show live online.  It was a blast.  I plan on working with him as a promoter/producer for my shows in the SLC area for many years to come.

One of the best things about the 2 shows is that only about 5 of the 90 or so people who saw me perform this weekend had seen me perform before.  Jason worked hard to get all his friends out to the show.  In the end, we got standing ovations both nights and most of these people will likely bring more friends to my next concert here in the spring of 2011.  I also sold lots of CDs.

I’m building relationships like this all over the US.  See, Saint Judas didn’t get any strong national press like we hoped it would,… no NPR story, no articles in the major glossies.  If we had, we (Porto Franco Records and my team) would have seen a spike in sales and potentially had access to established booking agents and larger venues.  But, seeing as how we didn’t, I’ve got to continue to get out on the road and bust ass.  Without the bigger breaks, this is a grass roots endeavor.  I’m building my fan base slow and steady, and it is growing.  Even though my work isn’t well known on a national level, I’m successful in my primary goal, which is to inspire, delight and touch people and to get them singing.  I don’t need huge audiences and an interview on NPR to do that.  My work depends relationships with enthusiastic people in different towns who want to help put on shows and share my work with their friends.

Thank you Jason.

Here’s one of them:

I took these photos from my car the other day.  I was driving through downtown Los Angeles and it was raining overhead, but the sun was peaking beneath the clouds as it set in the west.  This made for glorious rainbows.

Photo by Mauro Luna

Photo by Mauro Luna

Mauro Luna took these photos at my concert at AvantGarden in Houston, TX – one of my favorite venues.  I’ll be returning there on March 25 and 26, 2010.