Tuesday, June 9, 2009
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Sunday, June 7, 2009
8 Down & 2 To Go
Hard to believe that there are only TWO shows left in the Sloan River Project’s 2009 Summer Tour! We’re currently back in Chattanooga and just finished setting up and sound checking for the show tonight (5:00 btw). The band seems really happy, and everyone’s energy seems to be really high – even those of us who got on the road @ 5am today and drove across TN. Thanks again to Star Smith for encouraging the trip, driving to Tunica, putting us up for a couple hours of sleep, and otherwise being absolutely awesome. Also the band would like to give a shout out to Star’s very good friend Chris Parnell – we’re hoping for a guest appearance as the opening act next tour, or at least a pre-recorded intro and an autograph.
When I stop to think about it, I have a hard time believing we’ve only been seven days on road – but I can’t decide if it feels longer or shorter. Last Monday feels really far away but the tour as a whole seemed to go by incredibly quick. Sitting in tonight with the band is guest bassist Allen Shikoh – a good friend of Mr. Hopkins. Allen mentioned to the band that he’s been playing a lot of jazz of late and is really looking forward to playing something different tonight.
So Josh just had to change his shirt (it’s crazy hot outside again) I just noticed that he has an interesting black ink tattoo on his chest…I'm curious what it means, so I'm going to ask.
Me: Josh what does the tattoo mean?
Josh: Well, they’re Chinese characters, and it translates to “impermanent”. It’s my reminder that even things that we think last forever really don’t.”
That’s pretty profound for a tattoo I think, and it’s a very relative sentiment for this tour. Somehow I think we all thought it was going to last forever, even as we talked about our post-tour plans and going back to our regular lives. Everyone has really been living into the moment – every day has been a new adventure in one-way or another. There have been new venues, new dynamics and new challenges and those things have kept us from really appreciating how brief this little experiment has been, and how quickly it will be over.
But all good things must come to an end, and this is no exception. The last two shows will be amazing (I’m particularly looking forward to tonight), then we’ll have a final band meal in Greensboro (Hibachi) and be on our way. Tonight though, after the show is over, and everyone has gone home, there is only one thing the members of the SRP want to do – GO BOWLING!!!
Until tomorrow…
Matt & Sam vs. Tunica
I don't care what happens for the rest of this tour, nothing can bring me down now!! :-)
Friday, June 5, 2009
Small But Powerful
Travel today fun - we stopped in Nashville and had lunch with Trone Sawyer and the soon to be Mrs. Sawyer, Catherine Nelson. Many tacos were consumed, and a good time was had by all. Catherine was also given the important job of tallying the final results for the band mix contest. It was a close affair, but in the end Mix #1 (crafted by yours truly) came out on top. The set-list went as follows,
Up Around The Bend (Credence Clearwater)
Trashcan Song (Delta Spirit)
Wagon Wheel (Old Crow Medicine Show)
10,000,000 Slaves (Otis Taylor)
The Boxer (Carbon Leaf)
I Could Sleep (Band Of Horses)
Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)
Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)
My Name is Jonas (Wheezer)
Electric Feel (MGMT)
Paper Planes (MIA)
Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots)
See The World (Gomez)
Rivers of Babylon (Sublime)
Walking In Memphis (Rockapella)
Night Swimming (REM)
I'm honored to have won, but in the end what we really had were 6 hours of really great tunes to listen to as we traversed the country. I highly recommend this little game for anyone planning a road-trip in the near future.
Anyway, I know this is kinda short but none of us got a whole lot of sleep last night for various reasons, so I'm a little tired. On top of that we have a fun filled evening ahead of us in the form of some cosmic bowling...so I'm going to wrap this up. I might add on later...but who knows. If not, then the next thing posted will be the band video interview I did earlier this afternoon. Best wishes and have a good weekend!!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Live Blog From Rhythm & Brews!!
Band Pic From ATL
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Back to the 'Noog
Hot, Hot, Hot-Lanta
If there’s any draw back to planning a concert tour in June, in the South it’s that you can almost guarantee the weather is going to be HOT and Atlanta is no exception. It’s about 4:30 and the SRP has been here since about 3, setting up and doing the sound checks. The first thing the band asked for? - four pitchers of ice water. I’m still sweaty and I’ve been inside for 15 minutes. Basically unless you were born on the sun, today is crazy hot. All that being said, as long as no one passes out, I think this has the potential to be one of the best shows of the tour. The band is actually set up on a REAL stage, the vocals sound fantastic and everyone is well rested. Today’s show is also part of a combination dinner/concert fundraiser that Holy Innocence is doing for their upcoming mission trip, and the attendance is expected to be 100+. That’s pretty exciting stuff.
The trip down from Gastonia was an uneventful 3.5 hours ride, during which the contest mixes were finished (no winner has been determined yet) and the remaining time was spent playing Random Car Trivia, including such questions as “Name all six light-weight characters in Mario-Kart?” And “Luke Skywalker didn’t want to clean the new droids because he was going into __________ to get some _________.” Are we big time geeks? I think so.
A few quick notes about the shirts – first it has been determined that the official color of the tour shirt is Rangpore Green. Does that color exist in a box of Crayolas? No probably not, but Sam Hensley said it was so, and hence it is. Also, we’ve sold all the tour shirts we ordered for this trip, but if you would like a shirt, just send an e-mail to mailtheSRP@gmail.com with your size and shipping address, and as soon as we get enough people for a minimum order, we will place one. You can also send any comments you have for the band to that same address, unless your comment is negative, in which case you have poor taste in music and can stick it in your ear. (j/k the SRP is certainly open to constructive criticism.)
A special thanks goes out to last night’s crowd – you were both fun and generous, and as always, we appreciate it. Also further “thank-you’s” are in for the entire Robertson family for feeding us (twice) and for housing us. Without generosity like theirs and the other families and friends who have put (and will be putting) us up, this tour would probably not be possible.
Btw, here is last night’s set-list…
Heal This Land
Amazed
Trying To Find A Purpose
Let Your Light Shine
Blue Boat Home
Sunflower Land
40
Prodigal Son
Broken
Shine On
Where Is The Light
Help From My Friends
Umbrella
Long Train
Turn Turn Turn
Ok River Rats…I’m going to pause this blog now, so the laptop can charge up a little, then maybe I’ll try and have a live band interview session before show time tonight. Peace out for now!
And we’re back! Ten minutes till show time, so we’ll sneak a few questions in…
Me: You’re stuck on an deserted island for the rest of your life. You can take one album from the past ten years to listen to...what do you take?
Josh: That’s really tough. Really, really tough.
Me: So is being stranded on an island.
Steven: Are we all going to have to answer this?
Me:Yep.
Steven: Ok, I'll start putting some thought into it now then.
Josh: I’m on an island – so probably some Jack Johnson. Very islandy. Definitely not Brushfire.
Probably Sleeping Through the Static.
Drew: I’d take the new DMB album – I haven’t heard it yet, but I bet it sounds sick.
Sam: Bruce Springstein – "The Rising". That is an amazing album.
Josh: I can’t believe you didn’t’ say the WL 33 album.
Sam: I flip-flopped on it.
Steven: I have to take metal.
Drew: No metal.
Steven: Quiet - this is for me.
Drew: No, for me.
Steven: And I would have to say Devin Townsend's "Terria".
Me: Why?
Steven: Because it’s beautiful, loud and I can listen to it over and over again. I’m going to make everyone listen to it on this tour.
Josh: Not while I’m driving. Unless you’re there to explain to me what exactly it is I should be appreciating.
Steven: I’ll just remind you that it’s good.
Me: Drew, your #1 musical influence, who is it?
Drew: Carter Beauford. He’s good as keeping it simple, but also doing a lot of stuff without making it messy. He’s completely ridiculous.
Josh: Paul Simon for me and David Wilcox. He’s a Boone NC guy. He’s great...14 albums, singer/song writer. It’s theology in 3 minutes. Very good stuff.
Steven: Do I have to answer this too?
Me: I wasn’t going to make you.
Steven: It’s going to be really lame.
Me: Ok...
Steven: Devin Townsend – go figure. But also Ben Folds. Both those guys really taught me a lot about song writing.
Sam: James Taylor, Vertical Horizon and Fran.
Me: What do they have in common?
Sam: Well they’re all tall skinny white guys for starters. (much laughter)
Me: Right, true…but I meant more musically.
Sam: Oh. Right. It’s the guitar work. James Taylor has this amazing lyrical ability and he also plays such incredibly artistic guitar. It’s almost lead and rhythm at the same time. Vertical really showed me that acoustic guitar can be powerful if you use the right cords, and Fran gave me my start playing guitar on stage.
And now it’s 6:30 and show time is imminent. The band is working a few final acapella harmonies, and trying to relax. It’s still hot, but not as bad as it was now that the sun has gone down a little. That ought to last until these guys get on stage tonight – I’m predicting great things, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m going to close down now and go get a good seat – more blogging tomorrow!
Overheard on Tour:
"Click."
“I’d like a nice strong kidney punch right before we go on”
“I think I got a side of gas with my combo meal.”
“The band left with out me?! What the hell man!”
"No whining."
"This is Arnold's pizza shop..."
"Want to go shoot some BBs?"
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Pondering the Project
Breaking Up The Band
Right now the SRP is rolling from Charlotte to Gastonia, and Drew was nice enough to volunteer to drive my car so I could type this. I’m a little worried though, as much time as he’s spent across the Pond, I wonder if he remembers which side of the road civilized people drive on. (j/k) So far so good, but we haven’t had to do much turning yet.
MIX CONTEST UPDATE:
With four mixes down and two to go, conspiracy theories abound with regards to what mix belongs to who. We’ve had bluegrass sightings (Sam), classic rock entries (Josh), some Umphry’s (Ben), some Devin Townsend (Steven), and a little U2 & DMB (Drew, Matt). With two entries to go, Mix #4 seems to be leading the unofficial polling. Btw, we’re still waiting for some of our readers to tell us what songs they would start (or end) their mix with. Best three song entry wins an autographed Sloan River Project tour poster.
Well that’s going to be about it for now…but before we wrap this up, here is the set-list from last night’s Cary show. Thanks to all of you who came out – we hope you enjoyed the show. A special shout out to Dr. Tommy who was in attendance, had a smokin’ rendition of Umbrella dedicated to him, and then joined us for a late dinner at Cosmic Cantina in Chapel Hill. (where four band members who shall remain anonymous consumed a total of 5 and a half burritos and a chimichaunga)
Anyway, set-list for Cary, 6-1-09
Heal This Land
Amazed
Sunflower Land
Blue Boat
Stone & Light
Prodigal Son
Let Your Light Shine
40
Broken
Shine On
Where Is The Light
One Love
Help From My Friends
Umbrella
Long Train Runnin’
Turn, Turn, Turn
We just pulled into Gastonia, and the band can’t wait to see Ben and Ellen and everyone else at All Saints! Hope lots of you can make it out to the show tonight!! (7:30) See you there!
IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP: When playing tambourine, it is important to be conscious of how hard you are hitting your thigh, and to occasionally change location. For more information, or to arrange a tambourine safety class for you church or school, please contact Josh Edwards.
P.S. – Special thanks to E-Ha, my unofficial copy editor for this blog. She does a fantastic job of finding my many misprints and misspellings, informing me of them and generally making me feel like I should have paid more attention in middle school English. :-)
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @ http://www.blogger.com/www.twitter.com/thesrp
Live From The Green Room 6/1/09
The rest of this blog was written live on the fly, so bear with me...
Right now the band is killing time in the “Green Room” @ St. Paul’s before our 7:00 start time. The current conversation is about the number of people who will be at the show – it’s a small source of nerves for this band, and probably any band, before getting on stage it seems. Not that anyone has an issue with playing to small groups, so long as the band isn't bigger than the audience, which Josh says happened to him once and it wasn't fun. Now feels like a good time to ask some general band questions, so here goes…a little impromptu interview session.
Sloan: What do you guys think about before going on stage?
Ben: I don’t think about things before shows, I try and stay open. I don’t think about the lines or anything show related. If I do, I’ll freak out.
Sam: I wonder about how the rest of the band feels. I hope that everyone is still having a good time.
Ben: I’m having a better time now that my bass sounds good again.
Sloan: If you didn’t play your part in the band, what would you play?
Josh: I would love to play lead guitar. I mean I would have to learn how, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun.
Steven: No, it sucks.
Josh: Yea I would like to rip some nasty solos and licks. Heck I might never leave my room if I could do that. (click)
Drew: I would love to play keys or organ. I like how applicable the sound is in any song.
Sam: If you can play good piano, you can rule the world.
Drew: Plus it’s easier to serenade people with a piano than with drums.
Sam: But you can’t do it outside their window.
Drew: True.
Sloan: So Steven, does the length of your hair affect your ability to rock out?
Steven: I don’t really do a whole lot of rocking out in this group….(much laughing from band).
Josh: No no, this is true. I have seen Steven rock out and what he’s doing now isn’t it.
Steven: But yes, I would say it does overall.
Sloan: Ok last question, If you guys had to pick one person in the band to perform heart surgery on you…without any prior training, who would it be?
Josh: Sam.
Ben & Drew: Josh. Josh would probably do the most research.
Sam: Sloan….Sloan has a good chance of getting it right somehow.
Steven: I pick myself. (laughter)
Josh: I feel like Sam would do everything he could to get it exactly right.
With that, the door opens and the band is told the crowd is ready - it's time for the show. Humming a little to themselves everyone ambles down the hallway, into the parish hall and onto the stage. No introduction, no preamble - straight into Heal This Land, and the Cary show is underway. I'm going to stop typing now and listen so I can help critique the show later tonight. Thanks for reading! Hope to see some of you in Gastonia tomorrow!
Tuesday's Show:
7:30
All Saint's Episcopal Church
1201 South New Hope Road
Gastonia NC
See you there!!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Greensboro Stop
Let The Project Begin
It's day one of the SRP tour and I'm watching Josh pack up the Wii while Steven eats cake for breakfast - don't ever let it be said that we don't have our priorities in order. Last night the band made a very successful debut at Hensley House to an enthusiastic crowd of family and friends. Following that we did what all good bands do after a show and PARTIED!! By which I mean we had dinner and drinks (those of us of legal drinking age), came home, smoked some hookah, ate pie, played Mario Kart and went to bed. We're still working on the whole "party like a rock-star" thing.
Well it's about time to hit the road so let me wrap this up...I hope you enjoy the blogging. Feel free to comment, and also you can follow us on TWITTE @ http://twitter.com/TheSRP.
We'll be in Greensboro tonight, playing at Holy Trinity Episcopal, 607 North Greene St. Show starts @ 5:00! Hope to see you all there!!