Last week I travelled to Austin, TX to play some shows during South By Southwest. I had been to Austin once before, this past November. This time, like the last, I fell in love. Getting there, I spent most of my energy on the plane thinking of ways to use my time on the road. Even though I've been relatively quite lately (I'm coming off a month of no social media etc.) my band The Big Lonesome has been touring quite extensively, and like most situations in life I tend to over-obsess over the details. I guess that's what happen's when your an English Major in college, and spend too much time reading Emerson and Thoreau.
When I landed in Austin, I was greeted by my band mates in our newly acquired Ford-350 touring van. Makes you giddy, I know. The air was balmy but overcast, and as we drove to the city, it hit me, that practicing on the road can't be too intense. This bummed me out, but still it was one piece of the puzzle...how can I continue to grow on the road? Our first stop was dead center into the SBSW chaos, 6th street at 2PM. And from the first steps, it was intense, band after band, all of them more talented than the last, hungrier, more real. And, I'll admit, I was intimidated. It helped that I got to see some familiar faces from Boston. We arrived just in time to see my good friend Michael Moore play with his band Fire in The Field. They do this heavy blues-rock, rootsy kinda thing, and it's great.
It continued like this for the first few days. Our host Duggan, was this gracious older guy that we met through a recent friend on the road. He let us into his house, set up tents in his back yard (tent city!), offered us homemade gumbo, and seemed to know every band in the country. And still I was intimidated. I questioned if I knew enough to be here, if i deserved to be, if i had enough influences, the right ones maybe...the next day when it came to be our time to play these things were still swimming in my head. I had seen so much great music in a short period of time. And, i did the one thing I could do. I just played. We were set up outside, and whenever we finished a song I could hear other bands playing in the distance. The air was warmer now, and the sun had set to the point where the early evening has a purplish deep blue tinge to it. I remembered years ago playing a similar gig with the Big Lonesome in Vermont when we were first starting out. And suddenly for the first time in what feels like months I just felt content...As I stepped off stage, Duggan shook my hand and said, "That was beautiful man".
We had to wake up early the next day to play a farmers market. We were tired and worn out, but fortunately set up right by a coffee truck, and still riding high from the night before. After this gig the band dropped me off in Austin and began the journey back home (I was the only one flying). And the weather just turned into summer. I walked down Congress on a sunny afternoon, bought some food, a notebook, and a pen. Walking back I sat next to the river and just watched the world go by. I felt thankful, amazed at the beauty of this place, and ready to accept whatever was to come my way next. What brings everything together here is the individuality, its about the creativity, and I knew in that moment the one thing the road is best for. There unlimited time to write, to experience the world, to let it teach you things. Starting here, I'm hoping to take that lesson to heart, and to commit myself to creating. Austin, SWSW, really is just the beginning...