2003-10-19 - 4:05 a.m.
We’re up and out pretty early, as we need to make Dallas where we have price-lined rooms 200 miles from our first Texas play of the tour. Thirteen long and tedious hours later we arrive in Dallas and pass out. A short ride the next day puts us at the Last Concert Café in Houston Café. The club is in a warehouse district that is slowly turning into a cool neighborhood. You can walk to the heart of downtown but you’re not really aware of it. Allan and Gary are two music-loving nuts who are the promoters of the show. I love these guys! This is turning out to be the “good Mexican food’ tour. The food at the venue is Mexican and terrific. My old friend Charlie Sullivan is at the show with his teenage daughter and her friend in tow. This time we have more than 100 people and the show comes off without a hitch.
The Harvest Moon Festival in Wimberly, Texas (Excuse me is this Wembley? No it’s Thursday. So am I. Let’s have a drink) is our destination. We’re on a bill with Peter Rowan and our label mates, the Gourds. The rainy season has descended on the Hill Country around Austin and it rains throughout our set but no one seems to mind. Some of the same folks we met at Old Settlers are present including my friends Tammy Stewart and her beau Erik. Peter Rowan smoked the place, as did the Gourds and afterwards we convene to the porch of the cottage they have provided for us for a humdinger of a jam session featuring a local guitar whiz named Slim, some other locals and some of Peter’s band. Andy and me round out the lineup and the music runs on till’ early in the morning.
It takes a long time for me to get the Texas mud off my Chuck Taylor All Stars in the morning. Out we go to New Orleans to play a 1 am show at Howling Wolf’s. Thirteen hours, a shower and hot meal later we head down to the club and get ridiculously lost on the way. We use Microsoft’s Streets and Trips and sometimes it just sucks. We’re starting the show late because it’s billed as a Widespread Panic after party. They’ve been in town doing a bunch of shows. It’s an ok show but we’re a little tired, as one would imagine. New Orleans, even more than NYC is the city that never sleeps and we go out after the show to prove it. I make it through 2 double scotches and throw in the towel. Mike, Todd, Grubb and our new merch guy, Dave stay for more adventures. Up next Jacksonville Beach and one of our favorite festivals of all Magnolia Fest in Live Oak, Florida!
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