Over the pass and through the woods....

Here I am staring down the end of the tour, it is bittersweet. Everything is downhill, less shows, less altitude, less spending money, even patience wearing thin, and yet I will miss it the next day upon returning. We spent the day in Crested Butte, there was a bustling art festival in town. We drove up to my brother's land outside of town at Lake Irwin were he was just finishing the foundation of a cabin. Tossed the frisbie for the dogs and even took the canoe out on the lake for a spin. The biggest challenge after stuffing some of CB's finest pizza from the Secret Stash,

was to get our gear to the club around all the hububb of the art festival what was taking place and find a place to stay for the night. We eventually found a route to get the van in amidst all the vendor/exhibitor tents, hauled up two flights of rickity wooden stairs to the second story load in. A great meal, and a great crowd that night.
We had some fun with a few songs and stayed late. A fuzzy start in the morning, breakfast at the Paradise Cafe, and off to Keystone. Winding mountain roads 10 and 11,000 foot passes, the short drive was exhausting in a van with trailer doing 35mph.

It was comforting to be back at the Snake River Saloon good people there and great atmosphere, the apartment upstairs of the venue was an oasis since our accommodations have been pretty basic for the last few nights. The show went off as well as the first time we came through, especially for a Sunday! Some great jams and everyone was pretty on playing wise. The best part was leaving the gear setup and loading out in the morning. A short breakfast stop and on to Boulder.

Boulder is a wildly progressive town, the "greenest" in the States it is said. Evidence of it is everywhere, and for good reason, it is in Colorado with a great university, in close proximity with Denver and right against the mountains. Active lifestlyes everywhere in every facet. Bikes, joggers, masses of people getting off the bus. We stayed in what was once a Holiday Inn Holidome and is under a new name as the Boulder Outlook Hotel. They stated that they were the only green "zero waste" hotel in Boulder. Which by my estimation was a pretty dubious claim, I know for a fact that six greasy road weary musicians laid wasted to two hotel rooms easily. They did their part, recycling everything that they could, composted even, strangely I couldn't find a "zero waste" drinking fountain, I had to use a plastic cup and an electrically cooled water cooler and find a place to recycle my cup. Come on guys. It was a pleasant place though with a climbing rock and waterfall in the dome area as well as hot tub, pool, game room, saunas, yoga and massage available.

Our gig that night was at a brewery, kinda in a strip mall, not necessarily what we expected but it turned out to be a fun show. It was a quasi-acoustic/electric set. It is hard to throttle this band back, it is not that we arent diverse in our abilities, it is just we have too much fun doing what we do. It was a challenge and yet exciting to pull out some acoustic version of our material. I used some broken cymbals and assorted gadgetry that I had with me in addition to my kit.

After the Boulder gig we had two days off. Most of us had plans to go in different directions and that is what we did. Johnny took off to visit friends in Vail, Spotty's lady flew in. The majority of the of band went to camp in the hills. We were hit with a pretty heavy hailstorm and deluge of rain. I went off with my best friend who lives in denver to do some backpacking. We camped in the valley above the Moffat Tunnel in the pine trees past old railroad houses to the sounds of trains and the tunnel's immense exhaust system. The next morning we climbed to a high alpine lake around 10,500 feet. On the way back my tramping gene bit me and I was convinced to ride the last pusher locomotive of a mile long coal train,2 hours through 25 tunnels down into the Denver area. It was like old times back home, yet with better scenery.


The next day the van battery died back at the house in Denver the band was staying at, with no one home to jump it, I was stranded at my buddies house as the rest of the band was stranded at their house, we caught up on some much needed R&R.


The break, the days off, did us good. I had envisioned it to be enough time away to get us ready to show up to whatever curveballs might happen that night and just swab the deck with energy. There was a immense menacing cloud that hung to the west and we were to play outside on the patio. Dark imposing skies stood threatening to push east and dump gallons on us. It only hightening our tension to play. Miraculously the clouds stayed put. Blue skies and stars prevailed as the sun set behind purple folded clouds. Our Bassist's brother (who has graciously hosted 6 grimy dudes while in town) hosted a company party at the club, we has fantastic BBQ and played a set of "hits" for afters. Tishamingo playing a reunion show of sorts inside played a set while we took a break outside. The crowd would march inside then back out. We were like a crew of mangy pirates behind the wood railing working to keep the place jumpin in a rare humid Denver night. We had the place shakin! The outdoor stage had rotted planks and my kit swung and swayed, the bases of stands centimeters away from holes in the wood, drop a stick or a drum key and loose it in the ocean. There was this giant tree next to me in the middle of the stage, the mast of our great ship. I wrapped a sweatshirt around it to keep from funnyboning myself... not much help but it kept me from getting chaffed. As for the sound PA and engineer was much more capable this time and brought a better PA, we sounded as we should. Our last set was a scorcher, one long song after another. It seemed to end too soon.

So here we are on the road on the down hill. One more out of town show before landing back in Nashville. St Louis on Saturday. I miss the mountains already. There is talk of good things to come from them already.