Well spring is here and I am on the road once again, and its time for another installment of the "Tour Blog". I am writing from Kansas City, MO at the moment, and as you can probably guess I am already a ways into this tour. The last time I wrote was back in January, when I went out west to Colorado, and I did a daily blog that time. As this is a longer (and busier) tour for me, I will not be writing daily, but hope to do 3 seperate installments to keep you updated! Now its time to start from the beginning, and fill you all in! A link to pictures follows at the bottom.

Tuesday, April 22nd - Chicago, IL

It was rainy and cold when I left Wisconsin, but as I got further south and finally to Chicago it was sunny and in the high 70's, certainly not spring weather! The first thing on the itinerary was a radio performance at WNUR, the campus radio station for Northwestern University in Evanston. The show is called "Airplay", and they basically just let me play a half-hour set, uninterrupted, on-air. It was fun to control the airwaves a bit, and afterwards I had to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. Found myself a park in Evanston to take a little nap in and walked around for a bit. Finally I headed over to Uncommon Ground, the venue I was playing at that night. After eating some delicious fish tacos I took a walk around the neighborhood. Uncommon Ground is located in Wrigleyville, the area around Wrigley Field in Chicago. Its a vibrant neighborhood, and this particular afternoon was full of drunken revelers after the Cubs game earlier that afternoon. The Cubs were my favorite team when I was a kid, and I hadn't been to Wrigley Field since my 11th birthday, so it was fun to walk around the stadium and take come pictures. I headed back to Uncommon Ground and set up to play. Sharing the night with me were John Craigie (San Francisco) and a group called the Western Civilization (Houston). John played first and he was really great, a classic folksinger in the style of Dylan. He is also one hell of a harmonica player, and he happens to be playing at Cafe Montmartre tomorrow night (Sunday), so if you are looking for something to do in Madison go check his show out! I played my hour long set, and made sure to include some new songs, as the show was being recorded. Hopefully, you will be able to hear this show if I release it as a live album this summer (that is the plan!). After my set, the Western Civilization played, and they are an indie group that sounds somewhat like a mix between Iron & Wine and Death Cab. Some old high school friends that live in Chicago showed up, as well as my cousin (with whom I was staying for the night) and her friends, so it was fun to visit. After the show I headed back to my cousin Joanna's place and turned in for the night.

Wednesday, April 23rd - Bourbonnais, IL

Soon after I woke Joanna and her roommate both left for work, so I hung around for a little bit before taking off. I took Joanna's dog Jordan for a walk, and she was one friendly puppy (reminds quite a bit of Jeremiah Nelson's Zimmi). I left Chicago and headed to Dekalb to meet up with an old college roommate of mine who lives there now. Nate and I had some delicious Thai food for lunch, and then I was on my way again, down to Bourbonnais, south of Chicago. Bourbonnais is where the Chicago Bears train during the offseason, so its got that going for it, which is nice. The weather was again beautiful, and I was lucky enough to get to play out on the patio at the Moon Monkey. Though there was a slight chill in the air, you could tell that people were aching to be outside after the long winter, and a pretty good crowd made it out for the show. I had myself a grand old time, and enjoyed chatting with all of the locals before and after the show. Afterwards I headed back to the KOA where I was camping for the night, and spent my first night in the brand new tent I bought with my tax return money!

Thursday, April 24th - St. Louis, MO

So I'm going to admit this right up front: I ate very poorly on Thursday, you'll get to hear more later, but suffice to say I started out the day at Dunkin' Donuts. Drove the 3 hours or so to St. Louis and was treated with the lovely sight of East St. Louis on the Illinois side before crossing the Mississippi River (East St. Louis reminds me a lot of Camden, NJ, another town across the river from somewhere nicer). I decided to try out downtown St. Louis, so I found a parking ramp and began to walk around. Just me luck, it started to pour, and I was hungry, so I dashed into an Irish pub. I decided to order a most un-Irish dish and got some Eggplant Parmesan (my one not so bad meal of the day). I noticed that my server's nametag designated him as a "volunteer", and began to wonder about that, since it seemed to be a fairly upscale restaurant, and who volunteers at a restaurant? It turns out that this particular restaurant participates in a program that helps homeless people get back on their feet and gives them job training. This sounds well and good, but doesn't that mean then that the restaurant is getting free labor? Why can't these people get training AND get paid? The rest of my short walk around the downtown was somewhat depressing, as many of the buildings have broken windows and are abandoned. St. Louis was beginning to look not so nice after all. Before my real gig that night, I was scheduled to play at a KOA campground just west of St. Louis. KOA has a program where as a musician you can perform for the campers and get a free place to stay for the night, which is very nice for us traveling folksingers, so I got to the KOA and set up my PA to perform. The only campers that showed up to listen were a bird-watching couple from Ontario, so I played unplugged for the two of them, and chatted mostly about Canadian folksingers and American politics between the songs. They were very kind, and I enjoyed the visit, giving them a complimentary copy of Our Love Was Made For Canada! After that I had to grab a real quick bite to eat before heading to Pop's Blue Moon for the gig, so lo and behold I spied a White Castle, O Mythic Restaurant of Fast Food Lore! While waiting for my food I watched a young father and his young son say grace before dining... at a White Castle. After a mildly satisfying meal I ended up at Pop's Blue Moon, a hole in the wall, friendly neighborhood bar in an area of St. Louis called The Hill. The Hill is a very cool Italian beighborhood, and the people I met were great. Josh, who set the gig up for me, runs a production company called Loyal Family, that helps book and promote jambands and festivals around the midwest. It was a small crowd and a slow night (never more than 6 people, really), but it was fun talking with Josh and his dad and the rest of the regular clientele. Unfortunately, sometimes slow nights are a part of playing in towns where no one knows you.

Friday, April 25th - Columbia, MO

I left the KOA after a frustrating experience trying to use their wireless to download the previous nights' "Lost" episode (yes, I am addicted to that show). The drive from there to I-70 was beautiful, following some winding highways through the Ozark foothills. Once I reached I-70 the trip became a bit more tedious (interstates are always more boring than the smaller highways in my opinion). After a relatively short drive of 2 hours I reached Columbia in a downpour. I checked into my hotel there, which wasn't in great shape, and literally falling apart. While working on my laptop in my room I heard what sounded like a chunk of ice being thrown against my door, so I walked outside and saw that a piece of the hotel facade had fallen off right in front of my door. There laid a pretty sizeable piece of plaster and wood, and I was very glad I hadn't been leaving then. Soon it was time to head to downtown Columbia to perform at the Cherry Street Artisan. The Artisan is a great club, a mix between a coffee shop, restaurant, and all-out music venue. There was a nice big stage right in the middle of the large room, with plenty of couches and tables surrounding. I performed first, and played an hour-long set to the crowd, which was a mix of attentive listeners and chatty customers. The Palisades played after me, a local Columbia band, and I really enjoyed their performance. A local songwriter I had met over myspace, Jeff Arrigo, showed up with his wife and it was great to meet him in person. Jeff took me over to a cool local venue called the Blue Fugue, where a friend of his, Noah Earle, was playing with his band. Man, Noah's band kicked some ass, and had a hillbilly/folky sound that had the local hippies dancing. Apparently they make it to Wisconsin sometimes, so keep an eye out, Madison! Part way through a particularly high-energy song, the electricity went out on the stage, but Noah and co. kept on playing, screaming at the top of their lungs and stomping their feet. Pretty soon the entire crowd was stomping, clapping, and banging around beer bottles, it really was an amazing live music experience. After Noah's set Jeff and I parted ways, and I headed back to my amazing hotel for a good night's rest.

what I've been listening to:
Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Bob Dylan - self-titled
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Iron & Wine - Creek Drank The Cradle
Widespread Panic - live show from Chicago
and lots of NPR
plus some other albums I can't remember

the next post will cover Kansas City, Fayetteville, Tulsa, and Dallas!

Click here for the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094745&l=af18c&id=71200612