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Dixie Bee Liners L-R: Sara Needham, Sav Sankaran, Brandi Hart, Leah Needham, Zachary Mongan, Buddy Woodward |
Prescription Bluegrass offered the Bee Liners a chance to be guest bloggers during the month of May as a way to keep fans up-to-date on the groups road tour, to give us all a glimpse into just what it really takes to put a touring band on the road and hopefully a method of attracting some "Dixie Converts" into the hive. So far we think it's working. Readership on their posts is incredible. Here in this third installment, group founder Buddy Woodward picks up where Sav Sankaran left off. See for yourself if you've been buzzed into the Bee Liners' swarm. [Read previous posts here]George Orwell once observed that the first obligation of the intelligent man is sometimes to restate the obvious.
Which is a clever way for me to segue into Dixie Bee-Liners' Road Rule #2: No matter how hungry you are...no matter what time it is...no matter how tired, dispirited and cranky you are...NEVER eat gas station hot dogs.
Especially with "chili."
With that little hard learned lesson (among, er, other things) under our belts, we limped home from our last spate of weekend gigs in Charlotte, NC and Louisa, VA, where, due to a contractual snafu (not the promoter's fault) we spent the night in a motel that can be politely described as A SCARY METH LAB -- the carpet actually "crunched" when you walked on it -- and prepared ourselves for our upcoming 2011 Summer Swarm Tour!
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[PICTURE #1 - tour poster] |
How do you pack for a month on the road, when you're sharing the same vehicle with five other people, and space is premium? Can you get by with two pairs of jeans, which you can in theory rotate every other day, and hope you can find a launderette on the road? Or should you just throw away your dirty laundry and buy new clothes, as one well-known (but who shall remain nameless) bandleader does?
Do flip-flops count as an "extra pair of shoes"?
I have a system, which includes the following maxim: when packing "intimate apparel," bring two extra. In other words, if you're out for three days, pack five pair of skivvies, socks and undershirts. Seven days = nine undies. You see where I'm going with this.
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[PICTURE #2 - Leah] |
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[PICTURE #3 - fun picture of band] |
...as opposed to replaceable side-men, so in a case like this you are of course incredibly worried and concerned about the health and welfare of your dear friend, not to mention frustrated at your inability to DO anything, other than to wait by the phone for updates.
At the same time we're leaving on a month-long tour in less than 10 hours, and difficult decisions need to be made. Or, at very least, contingencies need to be considered -- a "Plan B," in other words.. And fast.
Most performers understand that "the show must go on," and we're no exception, especially when contracts have been signed, deposits have been collected, and promotional materials have been mailed, though we do our best to handle difficult (and thankfully extremely rare) decisions like this from a position of love, respect and gratitude. That, in theory at least, is supposed to help keep you from feeling like a heel when you have to make a tough 11th hour ruling.
10:45pm: Sara calls us with the news that Leah is sick.
10:56pm: Brandi and I have a quick meeting and decide on a contingency plan.
11:00pm: We call our friend Todd Livingston, a crackerjack resonator guitar player who played on our last CD, Susanville, and toured with us on our UK tour last summer, to see if there was a remote possibility he could drop everything at literally the last minute if it turned out Leah was truly incapacitated. Amazingly, he told us he could.
11:20pm: We call Sara (Leah's sister) for an update, she tells us she hasn't heard anything new, but she's pretty sure an overnight hospital stay is imminent.
11:29pm: I pour myself a giant class of iced tea, Brandi drinks four Diet Pepsi's in rapid succession.
11:32pm: Brandi calls Todd back and tell him to pack his white Levi's. Mind you, about a year ago Todd relocated to Brooklyn, NY, so there's no way he can meet us in Bristol the next morning to drive to Louisville. So we've got to get him on a flight to Kentucky and pick him up at the airport, so I research flights on Southwest Airline's website, while Brandi hammers out details with Todd.
12:04am: We call Southwest and make the flight arrangements, call Todd back and give him flight info.
12:07am: We breathe a sigh of relief that this crisis is more or less averted...until we realize we still have SEVERAL HOURS OF WORK AHEAD OF US, not to mention laundry, packing, etc. No sleep until Louisville!
It was a difficult decision, to be sure, but as it turned out, there was no way Leah could come with us, even if she had been released from hospital in time to meet the tour van the next morning, as she was ordered to recuperate for at least a week. I can't say that made us feel "better" about the decision per se -- we won't be able to really relax until she's fully recovered -- but it did ease the guilt somewhat.
Now, turns out our Louisville gig was happening on the same night that My Morning Jacket was holding a huge record release party or something of that nature at the Louisville Palace Theatre. Not that we necessarily have that much of a cross-over audience, but a giant event like that does tend to suck a lot of oxygen out of a market. It just does.
So in other words, attendance at our kickoff show was light, mostly comprised of Brandi's family and a few friends, but for once we were grateful, as we were all profoundly sleep deprived, and distracted by worry for Leah.
We played an abbreviated set, spent a bit of time schmoozing with Brandi's family, grabbed a quick bite at Burger Boy, a REALLY cool little 24 hour burger joint in Louisville's "Old Louisville" section, and then headed to the house of our dear friends Mike and Michelle Bucayu, where we were staying the night. And COLLAPSED.
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[PICTURE #4 - Buddy & Todd in gas station] |
RIGHT????
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[PICTURE #5 - Hands reaching for fried pickles] |
That's more like it. Fried pickles make EVRYTHING better.
-Buddy
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| [PICTURE #6 - Buddy and George] |
PS - Don't forget: DEMAND THAT GEORGE SHUFFLER IS INDUCTED INTO THE IBMA HALL OF FAME THIS YEAR!
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