The First. Of Many.

Friends and Family,

I am taking the suggestion of many and trying my hand at this blogging craze that seems to be so popular among the young kids these days. I have yet to establish a style of writing (or photography for that matter) for which to follow, so I hope the journey you join me on is not too bumpy, but just bumpy enough. This is my first attempt at expressing thoughts and sharing opinions openly on a public webpage, but if you know me, or have even only met me a few times, you’ll be familiar with my ability to shove foot-in-mouth at even the most inappropriate of times, so the blog shouldn’t be too hard to get used to. Kasey has set this blog up for me, and I have chosen a theme that should make it fairly easy for you to catch up on past posts, should say, you have other things to do than sit around waiting for my next post. Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of, I am open to all suggestions. I hope this will be an enjoyable experience for those of you I had to leave behind for these two months, and for those of you I don’t see often enough. Enjoy!

Since I am either extremely familiar with those of you who will be reading this or estranged and potentially don’t know who you are, I’ll catch you up on some things that will be included in this blog: Until recently, Kasey and I had been living together in Germany. I worked for an American hotel in Bavaria, and he worked from “home”, an apartment we inhabited at the base of the Alps in a tourist-infested ski-town. While there, Kasey started his own record label, Red River Records, on which he recently released (February 16, 2010) his latest album Nowhere Nights. Since coming home in February, Kasey has been on a short tour through California, played SXSW, and we are now on the road for his two month long CD release tour. I will be selling the merchandise, taking photos, and helping with those twelve hour drives. The tour spans far and wide across the nation, as he’ll be playing 60+ shows in a little over 60 days. We’ll be making a loop around the country, so if you check out his website and find a city that you have relatives or friends in, make sure to mention his tour. We’ll likely spend a lot more time in the car than any of you care to consider, but Kasey’s wonderful mom sent us on the road with a cooler and groceries, and we’ll be staying with friends and family along the way. A car full of CD’s we’ll be sick of in no time and gear that will wear down the car tires, our two-month journey begins…

The tour officially started in Bellingham, WA six nights ago at the Green Frog Tavern. Along the way there, Kasey and I stopped at a camera shop in Seattle and picked up the camera that will accompany us on this tour, and be to blame for the horrifically (amateur) beautiful shots I’ll post for your viewing pleasure.

The Green Frog was a tavern like any other; mounds of peanut shells lined the bar’s floor, and neon lights flashed behind Kasey as he played a two hour set and people just kept coming in. I imagine because he lived there for eight years and has established a distaste for noisy audiences, that his ideal audience comes from Bellingham, and therefore explains why his show-goers came out on the 25th: to listen. My first night behind the viewfinder of the new camera was a new perspective on Kasey’s performance. Things were blurry, things were bright, and yet the audience and I were captured by something we’d all seen so many times before and yet couldn’t get enough of. Kasey’s music was better than ever, with a new take on Nowhere Nights and All Lit Up, but he’d say otherwise of his performance that night. After the show we were introduced to Jared, who was new in town, and who stopped in with enough time to hear the music, buy a CD, and freestyle-rap us out of the venue. If only we had exit music each time we left a building. Great first night.

Our second night was spent in Ballard, a suburb of Seattle, WA since 1907, when it was no longer considered its own city. We ate dinner with Kasey’s friends at the Hi-Life; an historic firehouse turned delicious restaurant, then headed to Conor Byrne. Kasey headlined a show and played with Ali Marcus and the band Crying Shame. The place was pretty packed; at one point I had to give up my seat and watch Kasey play from the side of the stage – something I would do any time at any show. It always amazes me when I’m in the way at one of Kasey’s shows, because it means there are more people there than there’s room for. Movin’ on up.

The 27th was spent driving back down to Portland and finishing up last minute packing before heading out to Mississippi Pizza for Kasey’s six o clock show. Prior to the six o clock show, there’s a kid’s jamboree, whatever that is, which evidently involves every household in Portland greater than three kids. There were kids running all over the place, climbing under chairs, and making a lot of noise; something Kasey was able to ignore as he went on stage and gave a great performance. Donations were made that night in place of a no-charge cover, and showed that even in the middle of a recession, people support the things that still make them happy. Kasey played This Old Town for my sister Leah, who was unable to attend the show. He also played requested tunes for family friends, and his re-arranged Nowhere Nights and All Lit Up to perfection. Thank you to my family and friends that were able to spend my last night in town supporting Kasey’s show, and thank you to Kasey’s friends and family, if you are reading this.

May 28th Kasey played a show in Eugene at Sam Bond’s Garage for an impressively attentive audience. The venue was reasonably sized, and yet packed, all the way to the back (well, front) door. He reminisced a little, and shared with the audience an experience he’d had at the Green Frog several years ago: after every song he’d finished playing, one guy in the audience would point at him with both index fingers and say the word “appreciation”. He used this story as an experiment, and asked the audience, if they felt appreciation for what they’d just seen, to do this gesture in honor of this experience instead of applause. He played a song, a long one, and by the end, only a few people had remembered what they were supposed to do and the rest just clapped. One guy in the audience insisted that Kasey give them another chance to get it right, which Kasey laughed about and continued playing. Another guy asked if he could play the tambourine while Kasey played. The audience was engaged again.

After the show, a man came up and purchased a copy of Nowhere Nights on CD. Moments later he came back, chuckled, and admitted that he was embarrassed: “I was going to go home and make a copy of this for my son. That’s not right.” He slapped ten dollars down on the table and took another copy.

Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers played after Kasey, and blew me away. A true country sound with a female lead vocalist on acoustic, a bass guitar, drums, a pedal steel player and a mandolin(ist?) player. I highly recommend this band if you like a nice contrast between sweet love ballads and great dance tunes.

May 29th was our day off and therefore date night. We stayed in Redding and had dinner and then saw How To Train Your Dragon in 3D. See. This. Movie.

The following day was spent in Chico, CA awaiting Kasey’s show at Empire Coffee, located inside of an old train car. This show was uneventful, but Kasey played acoustically (without speakers) and I got a few cool pictures.

Last night Kasey played in Reno, NV at a house show. Now, I will admit, I was imagining a gruesome ending of my young life in someone’s basement when Kasey told me he was playing at a house show. But that was before I knew people could be as wonderful as Tim Wainer.

He contacted Kasey a few weeks ago noting an open space on his tour calendar, and invited him out to Reno where he guaranteed a respectful audience and merchandise purchasers. Deliver he did. Tim had invited close to thirty people over to his house to see Kasey perform, and they all sat quietly in the living room the entire time. The only sound besides Kasey’s music that echoed in that room was the shutter on my camera. Everyone was impressed, and several people bought records after the show. If only all of Kasey’s shows could be in the comfort of some dude’s living room.

Well, I’ve finally finished the first post of my tour blog. I can guarantee that the rest of the posts will not be this long, but that they will be more frequent and up to date. I hope we can stick to this, you and I.

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