Howdy Howdy—

it’s just about 9 am and the band and I are rolling through the Arizona desert on our way to Los Angeles.  We’re currently in search of coffee and the ever-elusive Mystical Taco Stand that members of the group seem to think exists.  After our gig at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix and a couple of large after-show pizzas, we pulled off at a truckstop last night and slept for four hours.  There’s something about the excitement and energy of a good crowd that makes it pretty hard to sleep for a long time.  And Phoenix was a sweet crowd.  Thank you.

But let me back up a minute:  two days before, we were in Austin, Texas for a two day stay and a gig at the famed Continental Club.

Austin is….well….you’ve heard it before….a sweet town.  To me, it’s a mixture of Minneapolis and Honolulu (sans the winter and the ocean).  The town has a rich sense of home-owned business, arts appreciation, musical diversity,and overall eccentricity without pretense.  I mean….the town motto is “Keep Austin Weird”.  I wouldn’t say the town is weird, but compared to the rest of Texas, it is definitely an oasis.

We spent a couple nights off of Georgian Street with Kevin Johnson and his special lady friend, Carol.  They’re old friends of our manager and they were more than welcoming to us right upon arrival.  The first night Kevin made a Jamaican-style dinner and Carol made some sweet peach cobbler.  We hadn’t had a meal like that in forever.  My drummer said the pork chops were the best he’d ever had.  I didn’t have em but I believe him. 

Later on that night, Kevin’s brother Cowboy and his wife Amanda came over and we all broke out the guitars and sang songs into the night.  It was a nice two days with them…..low key and free of hassle…..the kind of place you wanna be when you’re on the road awhile.

The remainder of Austin was spent rolling around in an ancient Lincoln Town Car with the word PROGRESS stenciled on all sides courtesy of our friend Rigel Thurston.  Rigel and his girlfriend Polly were super sweet to us.  We went to a buncha different places—Waterloo Records, Whole Foods, Austin Vintage Guitars, Jimmy’s Drum Shop PROGRESS begat progress. 

One interesting that I’ve been feeling about being out here with the band is how I feel like I’m in some kinda human ant colony.  Everyone’s moving at the same pace, going the same place, wearing a similar face.  When we had the whole day off, it was hard to move out on our own.  I remember at one point, we were standing in a parking lot for about an hour-and-a-half doing nothing but asking, “where are we going?”  Bizarre.  I’m finding little ways to keep myself sane amidst the movement.  Yesterday, I went to use the bathroom and sat on the toilet for about fifteen minutes and stared at the wall.  It was quiet there.  Nothing moving except the slow drift of a mind.  That’s a hard find these days. 

On the last day, we waited around to play Austin’s Continental Club.  We ended up having a really nice, responsive crowd.  I sweated my ass off.  We ate some barbecue and I even got to meet a guy who played piano in Johnny Cash’s touring band.  He said, “Hello son, I like what you boys are goin’ for.”  That made me smile.  It seems like older people have their bullshit out of the way so when they tell you something, good or bad, it’s believable.

After playing a pretty rockin’ set, we said goodbye to our friends, thanked our manager, and packed ‘em in for the trip to Phoenix.

Eli drove all the way to Phoenix from Austin in one shot.  We hardly even breaked.  Everyone’s running on some kinda snake oil mystic energy.  How long we can keep it up is anyone’s guess.  I hope it keeps going forever.  Everyone on board is getting along and the windows are down and we’re feelin’ fine although I must admit our day-to-day vernacular has been invaded by the accent of a Russian immigrant family.  I don’t know how it happened but I’m pointing my finger at Eli.  You’ll see later on in some videos.

Playing with Bob has been a really good time.  My band all giggled at me last night at the Rhythm Room when we started our set and I said, “Hi, I’m Jason Shannon and we’re super-happy to be here!”  Well, duh.  I am.

be back soon—

jason

p.s.  thanks to everyone who’s helped us out along the way—Kevin & Carol, Cowboy & Amanda, Beef Wellington, Rigel & Polly, Micah.  We really appreciate it.