Here's the latest:
Howdy!
Things are getting strange out there, folks. Or maybe not. One way or the other we've clearly lost perspective. And it's not caffeine abuse, either ... as you know, we leanted THAT lesson the hard way. Perhaps it's just road fatigue. Festival season always means preposterous routing, and we simply do whatever it takes to get to from summertime festival to summertime festival all over North America. Necessarily that means too much sedentary time sitting in mechanical conveyances of various typestoo much greasy food (one restaurant chain has decided to cut to the chase and simply offer on their menus Fried Item # 1, Fried Item #2, etc), and too little sleep. Oooo, that's a wicked combo. It means too much time to notice What's Going On Out There.
Strangeness starts happening at the beginning of each tour. It starts at the airport. We wonder how TSA (Transporation Safety Authority, although travelling musicians regularly refer to them as "Tears Sh** Apart") can see explosive potential in possible combinations of toothpaste, perfume and hair goo when there are invariably dozens of soda cans onboard the plane and Mentos are readily available in every airport gift shops. Don't they KNOW? We admit that we take no small measure of passive-aggressive delight in carrying Mentos right onto a soda-laden airliner. It's one little way us lefties can feel like we're really Sticking It To The Man.
Perhaps we spend too much time in airports altogther, and that this contributes to the apparent Great Strangeness out there. Perhaps it starts with having read too many perfect-for-long-airplane-trip novels written by Dan Brown. Perhaps you really should expect everything else to seem strange when the inadvertent psychological cocktail of DaVinci Code, Fried Items and glassy-eyed road fatigue make you start believing you can read secret messages in the bug splatters on the windshield of your rented vehicle. Fair enough. We've all done that, right? But should it seem odd that the model name of that motor vehicle is "Contour?" What kind of name for a car is that? Doesn't that sound more like a novelty item one might find in a truck stop men's room? ("Probe" falls into the same category, and the three older Waybacks eschew that particular rental car absolutely whenever possible.) And speaking of truck-stops, is it really really odd that truck stop gift shops, of all places, should always be packed to the rafters with creepy half-lifesize bride dolls in full regalia? That ain't right. Good heavens, haven't we all seen that Karen Black And The Zuni Warrior Doll movie-of-the-week from the mid-70s? Don't we know by now that nothing good comes from having small faux-humanoids lying about? Too, the linkage between truck stops and creepy dolls eludes us altogether. And we're grateful for that. But did something happen to the country that we somehow missed this last 5 years we've been on the road? Or do we just need a nap?
Uhhhhh .... 5 years ... airports ... truckstops .... where were we?
Oh yes! The last 5 years have certainly seen a disturbing trend toward over-automation in airport and restroom washroom design, we can tell you. We're certain that the newfangled infrared-operated devices have reduced the chances of catching many exotic jungle diseases, but folks, when the electric eye don't work, homie don't get no water or towels. On more than one occasion we have found ourselves waving frantically at faucets, hand dryers and paper-towel dispensers like the robot on Lost In Space. It is most undignified.
Lost In Space .... uhhhhh ...... zzzzzzzzz ....
Right! Navigation! Navigation is always on our minds. Getting from Noontime Squat-And-Gobble to Venue Du Jour to Midnight Mini-Mart to Inevitable X-Files-Lookin' Motel in a timely fashion is always of great concern to touring bands like us, and friends, we have seen the intrusion of Strangeness there, too. We finally got fed up with MapQuest and Yahoo (aptly named) giving us funky directions, and all too often ending us up in M. Night Shyamalan-ville, so we got ourselves one of them fancy GPS units. This one talks. Oh, lots of them talk, sure ... road pal David Gans (see photo at bottom of home page) tells us that whenever he ignores the prescribed route his GPS groans rather peevishly, "Oh, all right ...
But this summer hasn't been all strange. We've had tons of wonderful gigs and have met many, many wonderful people. One feller we didn't actually meet, but who nonetheless sticks in the collective memory was the somewhat over-served young festivarian who staggered up to our merchandise table after a show and was crestfallen to discover we couldn't sell him a Coors. "You're all out of beer? WHAT KIND OF FESTIVAL IS THIS?!?" Somehow we found this delightfully normal and reassuring. We miss that guy.
Stay awake, now. Here's the gigs:
Thu - Sat, Sep 14 - 16
WALNUT VALLEY FESTIVAL
Winfield, KS
Dan Crary, Tommy Emmanuel, Stephen Bennet, Pete Huttlinger, Byron Berline, The Greencards, The Wilders, Steve Kauffman, Marley's Ghost.
Mon, Sep 18
HI-TONE CAFE
Memphis, TN
Wed, Sep 20, 9:30pm
AMERICANA MUSIC CONFERENCE
Nashville, TN
Showcase at The Cannery Ballroom.
Thu, Sep 21
CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER
Minneapolis, MN
With The Wilders!
Fri, Sep 22
HIGH NOON SALOON
Madison, WI
With our pals and agency-mates The Wilders.
Sat, Sep 23
OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Chicago, IL
With The Wilders.
Sun, Sep 24
THE ARK
Ann Arbor, MI
Opening for Dave Alvin. Dave's new album leads off with a wonderful song called California Bloodlines, written by our pal, the incredible John Stewart.
Tue, Oct 3
SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.
Chico, CA
SOLD OUT
With Bob Weir .... The Weirbacks ride again!
Wed, Oct 4
SLIM'S
San Francisco, CA
With Bob Weir .... The Weirbacks ride yet again, again.
Sun, Oct 8
HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
San Francisco, CA
With Bob Weir. The Weirbacks join a truly astonishing roster of musicans for this huge, free festival in Golden Gate Park. The lineup so far includes Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, Hot Tuna Acoustic, Flying Other Brothers, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Robert Earl Keen, The Del McCoury Band, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Iris DeMent, Four Year Bender, Hazel Dickens, The Steel Drivers, Billy Bragg, Dale Ann Bradley & Coon Creek, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes, Drive-By Truckers, Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands, Tim O'Brien's Cornbread Nation with special guest Mollie O'Brien, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, The Devil Makes Three, Chatham County Line, Alejandro Escovedo, Jerry Douglas & Best Kept Secret, Gillian Welch, Scott Miller & The Commonwealth, Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Allison Moorer, The Austin Lounge Lizards, Alison Brown Quartet, Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Pine Leaf Boys, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Richard Thompson, The Lee Boys, Todd Snider, North Mississippi Hill Country Revue, Banjo Extravaganza with Bill Evans, Tony Trischka and Alan Munde, Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, T Bone Burnett, Heidi Clare & AtaGallop, Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, Willy Mason, Linda Ronstadt & Ann Savoy, The Avett Brothers, Richie Furay, Danny Barnes Collective, Annie & The Vets, SF Opera Bluegrass Dukes, The Stairwell Sisters, Poor Man's Whiskey, Etienne de Rocher, Freakwater, A.J. Roach
Thu, Oct 12
ELKS LODGE
Red Deer, AB
Fri, Oct 13
FULL MOON FOLK CLUB
Edmonton, AB
Sat, Oct 14
BOW VALLEY MUSIC CLUB
Calgary, AB
Strathcona Community Center / 277 Strathcona Drive SW / (403) 287-2299
Thu, Oct 19
BAMBOO ROOM
Lake Worth, FL
25 South J Street
Folks in Florida know about airport woes. "When we pass on, we have to route through Atlanta."
Fri - Sat, Oct 20 - 21
MAGNOLIAFEST
Live Oak, FL
Sam Bush Band, Donna the Buffalo, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jim Lauderdale Band, The Duhks, The Greencards, Big Chief Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias, Herring Rodgers & Sipe with Mark Van Allen & Neal Fountain, Drew Emmitt Band, Joe Craven, The Lee Boys, Oteil & The Peacemakers, Old School Freight Train, Blueground Undergrass, David Gans, The Overtakers, Dread Clampitt, Redheaded Stepchild, Big Cosmo & The New Traditionals, Scramble Campbell.
We might very well be in New England the end of October. Stay tuned to the Gig Page for updates and details.
Well, there's certainly plenty in this email to trigger even the most forgiving of spam fliters, so if you didn't receive this message, please just email us and we'll be glad to send it to you again. .
Come see us soon, because we plan to sleep all of November. And remember, a vote against Pluto is a vote for the terrorists.
Safe travels, compadres.
Zzzzzzzz .............
____________________
Stevie Coyle
THE WAYBACKS
New album "From The Pasture To The Future" available online at
http://www.waybacks.com
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