Blake Christiana of Yarn on Soundcheck Rehearsals and the “Drinkin’ Blues”

Photo credit: Bob Adamek

Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?

We’ve had many tour vans. We lost our first tour van in PA after we hit a deer and the van caught fire and burned down to the frame. A few years back on my way to Salt Lake City for a run of shows around the Rockies I fell asleep at the wheel going 80 mph through Kansas. Somehow I didn’t die. The rest of the band was flying in but I was meeting Bobby in Denver to ride with me the rest of the way to Salt Lake. Bobby had to rent a giant SUV and come get me at the salvage lot and then we had to drive through the night make soundcheck at The State Room in Salt Lake City. I called my buddy in town and told him to find me a used van I could buy. He found one, I went right there and put the van on my credit card and we didn’t miss a single show of the tour. IT WAS ROUGH.

How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?

The venues take pretty good care of us. Back in the day we ate horribly, tons of fast food. Can’t do that anymore. We’re all pretty easy when it comes to food. Two meals a day is plenty.

How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?

I only change a string when I break one. I don’t like fresh strings. The cost is minimal.

Where do you rehearse?

Our rehearsal space is soundcheck at the club. That’s when the new songs make their debut and get worked out. We live all over the place.

What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?

I was a kid, maybe 13 had I wrote a song called “Drinkin’ Blues.” I have no idea what the words were or what it sounded like, but I’m sure it was horrible and probably a straight rip off Stevie Ray Vaughn. I think it was in Dm.

Describe your first gig.

Our first Yarn gig was at Kenny’s Castaway on Bleeker St in Greenwich Village in NYC. We played there every Monday night for two years before we even had a name, the band changed weekly until the lineup settled in a few months later. We played for very little money but all we could drink. We stayed until at least 5 am every time, and we all had day jobs at the time. Also rough.

What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?

My last day job was security and barback at an Irish pub in the east village of Manhattan.

How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?

Oh man. Painful question. We’re squeaking by as most folks like us are and hope to be coasting within the year. Super grateful we’ve gotten to do this for a living for so long but ready to be more comfortable soon.

What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?

I wish I knew we would have lasted this long. It’s an occupation with absolutely no job security. I would have done some things differently if I knew Yarn would still be around today. And I would have taken things just a tad more seriously.

You might expect a band that calls itself Yarn to, naturally, tend to spin a yarn or two. “That’s what we do, we tell stories, live and in the studio, truth and fiction”,singer/songwriter Blake Christiana insists. “We don’t always opt for consistency. There’s a different vibe onstage from what comes through in our recordings. There’s a difference in every show as well, you never know what you’re going to get.”

Yarn’s ability to persevere ought to come as no great surprise, especially for a band that spent two years honing their chops during a Monday night residency at the famed Kenny’s Castaway in New York’s Greenwich Village. In effect, it allowed them to rehearse onstage, mostly in front of audiences that often ranged in size from five to a hundred people on any given night. 10 studio albums followed — Yarn (2007), Empty Pockets (2008), Leftovers Part One (2009), Come On In (2010), Leftovers Part 2 (2011), Almost Home (2012), Shine the Light On (2013), This Is The Year (2016), and Lucky 13 parts 1 & 2 (2019). The band then took to the road, playing upwards of 170 shows a year and sharing stages with such superstars as Dwight Yoakam, Charlie Daniels, Railroad Earth, Marty Stuart, Allison Krauss, Leon Russell, Jim Lauderdale, Leftover Salmon, Amos Lee, The Lumineers and many more. They performed at any number of prestigious venues — Mountain Stage, Daytrotter, the Orange Peel in Asheville, the Fox Theater in Boulder, the 9:30 Club in D.C, South by Southwest, the Strawberry Festival, Rhythm and Roots, Meadowgrass, Floydfest and so much more, eventually surpassing 1,000 shows, half a million miles and performances in nearly every state.

Born, Blessed, Grateful, & Alive, the group’s latest album, was released on 26 July. Connect with them online and on the road.