"Hot Smoke And
Sassafras" Tour, 1998
A Diary
(by Pete & Maura Kennedy)
Day One - Drive South
Our first travel day takes us from Reston, VA to Athens, GA, where we'll
be
staying with Maura's sister, Kris, a faculty member at U. GA. We get
in late,
and we all stay up discussing the evening's most notable phenomenon
-- no
traffic on I-85 during the final "Seinfeld" episode. Kris volunteers
to run a
video tape of the show, but we decline, preferring the smug satisfaction
of
having not seen it.
Day Two - Don't Go Back To Rockville
We hang out in Athens, at guitar stores and thrift shops. This is the running
theme of all of our tours. We have coffee at a sidewalk cafe with Kris
and a
friend, bartender John. John is a philosophy graduate from Yale, and
he sings
us a witty original song, poking fun at local icon Michael Stipe. Later
John
shows us his bar, the "Tasty Delight" and we all discuss the possibility
of
making it our performing base in Athens. As happy hour approaches,
we depart
for Pensacola.
Day Three - Meet Me In The Middle Of The Day
We spend the afternoon, except for the hour on stage, reclining in our
van
like somnambulant alligators, with all bodily systems slowed down,
as we
adjust to the intense heat. The SpringFest site is about twenty feet
from the
Gulf of Mexico. Steve Forbert rouses us from our cocoon-like state
and we
spend a few hours in his trailer, jamming and exchanging gossip. Later
on, we
watch headliner Jerry Lee Lewis, with James Burton on guitar. The opening
act
is New Orleans wildmen, Dash, Rip, Rock, who do a hilarious sendup
of
"Riverdance". We like Pensacola, and decide to spend tomorrow exploring
the
area's abundant thrift shops.
Day Four - Ring Of Fire
At a flea market on a white-hot spit of sand by the Gulf, we make our first
major thrift shop find -- a stack of obscure 60's soul singles by Louisiana
artists, all produced by the legendary Huey P. Meaux. At a quarter
apiece,
these go directly in the van. Pete picks up a copy of "The Man In Black",
by
Johnny Cash, also for a quarter. Later on, we return to SpringFest
to catch
Cheap Trick. The beauty of Cheap Trick is that, while they are extremely
proficient at 80's rock, their whole act is a tongue in cheek parody
of the
genre. The beauty of this particular gig is that the crowd seems blissfully
unaware of the parody aspect, making the whole thing totally brilliant.
As
the sun sets, we depart for Mobile, Alabama.
Day Five - Stuck Inside Of Mobile
We head out early (noon) for Meridian, Mississippi to lay down background
vocals on some new Steve Forbert tunes. Eight miles north of Mobile,
we come
to a two-lane blacktop crossroads, called, imaginatively, Eight Mile,
Alabama.
We screech to a halt at a Sanford-And-Son-like junk shop. After perusing
the
place, we notice that the doorstop is a 1969 Fender Deluxe reverb amp.
The
owner wants twenty five dollars for the doorstop and it goes in our
van,
alongside the soul singles and the Johnny Cash biog. We spend the rest
of the
evening harmonizing with Steve on some great new tunes, and note with
pleasure
that the rhythm section on the basic tracks includes Kenny Buttrey
and Spooner
Oldham.
Day Six - The Carpetbaggers
We head south to New Orleans, and just as we cross Lake Pontchartrain we
pick
up amazing public radio - vintage Albert Collins, Big Maybelle, Lightnin'
Hopkins, and lots of Lomax stuff. We exchange thumbs-up as the dj announces
that Rounder, our own record label, is sponsoring the program. After
some
criss-crossing, we find our crash pad -- Peter Holsapple and Susan
Cowsill's
place. We spend the afternoon relaxing while Peter and Susan tell us
stories
about their pre-school age daughter, Miranda. One day, while eating
her
oatmeal, Miranda made the following announcement: "I am Sandy Denny,
and my
voice will live forever". Strange things are happening every day in
New
Orleans. That night, Peter and Susan's band, The Continental Drifters
host
us, along with Jolene and Iain Matthews, at Howlin' Wolf's. As we finish
our
set and leave the stage, we hear a familiar voice from the green room,
singing
Ray Davies' "Waterloo Sunset". Maura joins in and sings the correct
harmony
part (sha la la) -- the song is one of her favorites. Afterwards, the
singer,
who turns out to be Jackson Browne, invites her up to recreate the
moment on
stage. The performance is flawless, and Pete, the proud husband, snaps
many
polaroids, all of which come out a little too dark. It's an inspired
night,
and all the bands turn in great shows. The gig segues into Susan's
birthday
party, and no one gets much sleep, least of all, Peter Holsapple who
heads to
the airport at 6AM, to fly out to L.A. for sessions with Hootie and
the
Blowfish. This, we agree, is the rock and roll life in extremis.
Day Seven - Maxwell House Blues
Tired but happy, we hit Magazine Street for coffee with chicory and a bit
of
thrift shopping. Pete buys six tee shirts at the Salvation Army, and
Maura
scores a Motown-ish cap, reminiscent of Fontella Bass. Later on in
the day,
Maura, with a sure hand on the wheel, guides us across the Atchafalaya
Basin
to Breaux Bridge, where we dine in splendor at Mulate's, the mecca
of Cajun
cooking. On the FM radio, we hear news reports about a huge cloud of
smoke
heading north from Mexico, and warnings to travellers to STAY AWAY
FROM TEXAS.
Communications satellites are veering off course, and we, naturally,
are
heading straight for Texas.
Day Eight - Hot Smoke And Sassafras
For the first time, we experience the Mexican mega-fire smoke. It's a lot
like L.A. smog, but without the orange color and with a "woodier" smell.
A
lot like your basic boy scout campfire, except that it covers the entire
state
of Texas. We don bluish face masks, like surgeons, and wear them all
the way
across the state, wigging out the locals who probably think that the
government is hiding some horrible truth from them. We head west to
Kerrville
and have a great time on stage. The crowd is super, and, for the first
time,
we do the Kerrville campfire thing. It's great -- each camp is different,
so
you find the one that feels right and join in. Everyone is extremely
good and
the atmosphere really is magical. With the all-pervasive cloud of smoke,
no
actual fires are necessary.
Day Nine - The Home Of The Armadillo
We cruise the hill country, pausing for dinner at the wonderful Rio Blanco
Cafe in tiny Blanco, Texas, sometime home of Peter Rowan. In Fredericksburg,
we buy a cardboard mountain dulcimer. At forty bucks, this is by far
our
largest purchase of the trip, but the cardboard ones have the best
tone, and
we couldn't pass it up. This goes in the van alongside a shiny miniature
accordion we picked up in Louisiana. Later that evening, we go to hear
Teri
and the Tagalongs at a little honky tonk in Austin. They do great late
40's
country, and Teri Joyce is an old friend -- in fact, she introduced
us to each
other way back when!
Day Ten - Take It Away Leon
We spend the day guitar shop hopping, and settle down to dinner at Threadgills
south, on the sight of the old Armadillo World Headquarters. In the
dance
hall is a great band called "The Hot Club Of Cowtown", an acoustic
three-piece
unit -- fiddle, archtop guitar, and upright bass -- they play western
swing
classics interspersed with Django Reinhardt tunes. They're great and,
as
always in Texas, the dance floor is full.
Day Eleven - Fear And Loathing
A travel day through a surreal landscape, as the smoke clamps down on the
West
the way a coyote clamps down on a roadrunner at the end of a long chase.
Face
masks on all day. Close to midnight, we're hauling across Arkansas
on a
lonely stretch of I-40, when we come across an AM radio show called
"Sightings". It's the perfect soundtrack to the Dali-esque landscape.
The
main themes are alien abductions and conspiracy theories. Even the
commercials are for "survival foods" and so forth. Tonight's guest
claims to
have been abducted and points out an alien implant in his left ear,
invisible
to us radio listeners. The show lasts all the way to Memphis, where
we put in
for the night before heading to Nashville.
Day Twelve - Twitty City
We arrive in Nashville, home of the country stars, and also Katy's Ranch
Dressing. The latter is a great vintage clothing store, and the former
are,
umm, country stars. We're here to cut some more Steve Forbert tracks.
After
the session, we head for the Great Escape, a den of vintage vinyl,
where Pete
scores a mint copy of "The Soul Stirrers Greatest Hits, Volume II".
Later
that evening, we catch some great music at Billy Block's Western Beat
showcase, including Bill Lloyd and a band of power-pop teenagers who
call
themselves the Soul Surgeons.
The Rest Of The Tour
Takes us north through New England and upstate New York, where things are
more
"normal", so we'll sum it up quickly. In Dublin, New Hampshire, Maura
scores
a treasure trove of 50's and 60's pulp fiction paperbacks including
thirteen
volumes of the coveted "Man From U.N.C.L.E." series. The titles ("Death
Of A
Pusher", "The Corpse Came Calling") and cover art of these trashy gems
are
like emblems from the lurid underbelly of America. At twelve cents
apiece, we
buy lots of them. The rest of the tour progresses smoothly. In Rochester,
Chuck Campbell, the great gospel steel guitarist, attends our show
and we turn
in an inspired performance. As we head home, with a string of great
gigs
behind us, and the van laden with seven inch singles, pulp fiction,
and a
cardboard dulcimer, we reflect on how great this musical life is. After
all,
where else would we find an excuse to drive all over the country just
to play
guitar, buy junk, and occasionally splurge on a meal at the Waffle House?
