On The Road Observations

[pfrank]

Greetings fellow trumpeters! I have just returned from my bands’ 1st. national tour and boy are my wings tired! No, really folks, we’re here every tuesday night, try the tube steak...ba-dump-bump...looks like I missed some funny and insightful post while I was away!
Anyway, I’m a New Englander who has never been west of the Mississippi, yes, Bilbo left the Shire. I have been North and South and Over The Pond, but never Westward. Our band plays Ecklectica: a mix of Old Americana, Klezmer, Gypsy, Circus, Kurt Weilian sorta thing. People love it and they dance to it (except in Chicago). I'm the only trumpet in the band (I also play melodica and pedal steel guitar on the country stuff) but there is a guy who plays clarinet and cello, so we have most of the solos. My parts go from a loud fat low F# to a screemin high note klezmer introduction (in one song, actually).
We played: Boston (home) to NY City to Hoboken to Columbus OH to Chicago to St Louis to Laurence Kansas to Denver to Boulder CO. to San Fran to Portland to Seattle to Missoula MO. to Stevens Point Wisconsin, and a repeat Chicago show (where they Still didn’t dance). Then a grand 20 hour dash back to Boston and our beds.
Here are some observations:
The natural beauty of this country is grand and precious. Watching the types of birds change was more interesting than watching the humans (who all watch the same TV shows anyway). (Just kidding. Meeting the folks of different places was is wonderful experience, especially the friendly ones who abound) In the Badlands of S. Dakota a magpie walked up to us, gave us a look and walked away.
If Portland OR is a city, then NY (city) is something else. NY is THE city. The women in NY are the skinniest in the country. They have to be, there is no room for fat.
In St Louis, they love to get down and party, and it’s serious stuff. Keeps the depression at bay.
Montana reminded me of Vermont, but five times begger in scale. The people actually like to talk to you.
An air-conditioned van works well as a incubator for colds. Same is true of hotel rooms.
Flexable sleeping skills are more important than playing skills.
On tour you get very good at playing “the book” but it’s important to use any days off for practice: long tones and lip flexabilities etc. (even if the guitarist looks at you like you are crazy). Playing shows every day is great, though.
Mouthpiece experimentation went out the window. Just what works, please.
Another skill is looking at a truck stop menu and finding some actual food listed on it. It can be done!
It’s a great idea to put a city next to a mountain, but only in the presence of enough water.
You can get a good buy on an instrumant in San Fran, but all the savings go to rent.
Playing in Denver/Boulder was a challenge due to the Thin air. I had to plan out breathing like I haven’t had to since...well never. One beer one mile up equals three at sea level. But Denver gets the best clouds award. The Pacific NW is wonderful, (especially after the flatlands of Utah and Nevada, why Tim Curry lives in Reno, I’ll never understand) the pine trees magnificent and the people friendly. Wisconsin was comfortable because of the decidiuous trees and humidity in the air. Some places have more fireworks stores than people.
It was good to come home. We New Englanders may be uptight, but the gentle breezes through the hills and shade from the oak, maple and birch trees are what feels best to me...
Oh-oh, Europe is Next!
Blessings, y'all


_________________
"Truth is not in the heights but at the bottom of all things."
Paul Twitchell

[ This Message was edited by: pfrank on 2002-06-14 09:39 ]

[_Don Herman]

Sounds like a nice, if tiring, trip! Holler before you head to Denver next time, and maybe we can meet. Hope the clouds weren't smoke...
_________________
Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[pfrank]

Actually we will be back to Denver because there are roots in the band there. The main songwriter/vocalist is from Boulder and the clarinetist/cellist lives in Denver. We played at the Gothic Theatre (a old 2000 person dance hall with balconys, painted murals and the best sound/light system we've seen) and it was our most sucessful gig of the tour (in the money/sales sense). It was a homecomming for the Denver contingent. Actually, Denver is a cultural center of the type of music we do. We played with "Tarantella" in Denver and other similar groups there are "16 Horse Power", "Dvatchka" and "The Denver Gentlemen." We also did our NY, NJ and Chicago shows with "Slim Cessna's Auto Club"--Slim is a Denverite as well as his alterego, J. Munley. (Slim is the angel, Munley the devil).
The name of our band is "Reverend Glasseye and His Wodden Legs". <reverendglasseye.com> has some sound files...

The incredible clouds of Denver weren't smoke...there was no smoke there when we passed through, but the drout was so severe that I'm not surprised a fire has happened. That's why I wrote "...a city next to a mountain, but only in the presence of enough water". It's sad for those people in it's path, although in the natural world, fires from lightening are a healthy part of the forest life cycle.

The altitude thing there was interesting...olympic trumpeters should go there to become the Big Air People.


[ This Message was edited by: pfrank on 2002-06-14 10:48 ]

[PH]

From my travelin' days...

You can classify restaurants by their menu style. For example...

Uppity places that don't put the prices on the menu (If you can't afford it you don't want it).

Places with typewritten menus and no spell check!

Places with photos of food on the menu. Hint: It probably won't really look like that!