Photo credit Mei-Ling
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
Right now I have a Honda CR-V Touring … only 90,000 miles… I finally traded the last one at about 200,000… this one and the last one have run SOOO well! I’m knocking on wood…such a solid micro-tour-bus…For the road I’ve also borrowed Iris DeMent’s van! And I’ve rented bigger cars…but for the Midwest shows with a duo or trio the CR-V rules…
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I love bringing my own groceries…or finding little grocery stores along the way… but who can resist a great diner breakfast? (morning or late night…)
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I do break a string every once in a while…but my Martin HD35 is a mystical guitar…and it’s super solid…and it sets up well…and it doesn’t mind letting me change tunings more than once in a 75-90 minute set…. I like the John Pearse and D’addario strings and have had great luck with both…
Where do you rehearse?
When I’m home my rehearsal space is in my make-shift garage studio…my neighbor has chickens and they definitely like to chime in…especially when we are plugged in…and I live not far from the train tracks…so lots of good rumble…
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I started making up songs when I was a little little kid…my dad still likes to remind me of some of those early songs… but one of the first songs I wrote and actually sang at some early gigs (and still sing even now – especially again recently) was a song called “Even When” – here are a few of the verses/lines….” All those pretty songs / Out in the world / They can fix things / I know they can…. Like a tattoo/ Ink and skin / A pretty song will mark you/ When its blood sinks in… Hear the sound/ Of every note/ We all go together/ Even when we don’t…”
Describe your first gig.
I grew up around a lot of music gigs/gatherings…and in the early years there were in a lot of rural settings…so when I was a kid I used to dance with a hat turned upside down collecting money for the musicians… But one of my first gigs I played where I sang my own songs was at a little bar in Brooklyn called Sunny’s… I still remember it…lots of people…crowded bar…but people listened and somehow that night I could feel it was just a beginning…
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
One of my last non-music day jobs was being a full-time prop-artisan for a theater company. We made allllllll kinds of things. And I got to comb the thrift stores looking for very specific items.
But my favorite non-music day job might have been driving a high cube truck around New York City. But I also loved working in the record store as a teenager. The guy that ran the store knew EVERYTHING about jazz recordings. And that’s where I first heard Pharoah Sanders…I’m still addicted.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years?
It has changed a lot. The pandemic times really shifted things of course. And the ongoing impact of streaming adds another mind-bending layer to it all. So music-related income decreased significantly for a while…but there’s always been an ebb and flow in my case…and I feel lucky to have been enchanted but the underground from early on…and music fans are amazing people…I feel lucky to have made it this far still making it all work somehow….
What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
I’ve never been great at predictions…I forget about the future…but I reckon that’s partly why I have let myself keep chasing the music…one thing I do know is music is a vital force!
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
People like names they can pronounce! 🙂