Road Music:
Lesson learned:
Pee before you leave the Waffle House; Clemson is farther than you think.
Jun. 27, 2001
Greenville, SC
Road trip! Woo-hoo! I left the opera at lunch time, and now here I am on my first ever tour of the southeast. I'm calling it "Summer Vacation Tour 2001". Too bad I didn't get all of the dates confirmed in time to get silly t-shirts made. But here I go to experience life on the road. I went to the Kroger last night and stocked up on apples, carrots and crack bars (Quaker chewy granola bars, peanut butter & chocolate chip flavor, only 2 grams of fat. Highly recommended), so I figure I'll just buy some fries each day and that'll cover my daily nutrition requirements.
Tonight I'm playing at Coffee Underground, a theatre in Greenville which is rented out every Wednesday night by Dry Ridge Productions, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting folk music. Because I have no idea what traffic will be like but have a vague recollection of there always being construction just outside of Greenville, I arrive way too early. I meet Ray, the brains of Dry Ridge Productions, who tells me all about the company. It sounds really cool, and I'm excited to play there. They do it just because they really love music. As they say in their press release, when they fill the theatre they break even, and when they don't quite fill the theatre they sustain a loss "rougly equivalent to a nicotine habit."
Since I have a few hours to kill, I decide to see scenic downtown Greenville, which doesn't take long. It's your basic downtown: cute stores, restaurants with outdoor patios, and it dead-ends into a river. An old man with the longest beard I've ever seen in real life asks me if I know where he can score some pot, then hugs me and tells me I'm "sweet." Uh-huh.
When I get back to the theatre, I meet Leslie Berry, who does the booking for Coffee Underground and who is even nicer in person than she is on e-mail. Tonight I am "running sound," which is a first. I set up the PA system and hope the others will know what they're doing 'cause I don't really. (Wires and cables are not my favorite things; just ask Charles and Jeff.) When Jennifer Goree and Christy Snow arrive, they do in fact know what they're doing, which is cool. Christy even knows the actual technical terms for stuff, as opposed to me; I frequently say things like, "It's a little, um, you know. I think you should twiddle the bass thingie on the guitar."
The show is really fun. We do it in the round, and Jennifer and Christy are fabulous! Jennifer is jazzy and cool with a beautiful voice and a percussive/fingerpicking guitar style. Christy reminds me of Kristen Hall; she has the same blend of humor and honesty in her writing that makes you want to be her new best friend, and her stories are hilarious. They've both clearly been at this longer than I have, and I feel a bit like a kid sister onstage, but I'm having a blast. And Shosha, one of the cool people I met at Swannanoah last year, is there! It's such a nice surprise to see her!
After the show I go out to Waffle House with Ray, who insists on paying. We have a great conversation, and he points me towards Clemson, where I'm staying tonight with someone I've never even met. If you live in Greenville, go to the Coffee Underground on a Wednesday night. It's quality stuff, man.
Road Music:
Lesson learned:
Pee before you leave the Waffle House; Clemson is farther than you think.