The second leg of my big summer tour with Chuck Hawthorne took us through a part of the country I honestly haven't spent much time in, the Midwest. 
From Nashville, we
Chuck's good friends Robyn & Ryan Bradbury put together to attend the festivities! Thanks also to the Bradburys for hosting us at their home in StL. The room at 1900 Park is bright and airy with really big and beautiful acoustics, so after our first set, the show turned into more of a song circle format, with venue owner Eric Barnes and local artists Kevin Babb and Tim Ryan joining us for a big ole jam. It was a blast!
The next stop was Kansas City, where Chuck and I met in February '14. Man, this place is a killer music town! Thanks to our friends Diana Linn and Joel Weir at KKFI and the great bill venue
owner Travis Fields put together, we had a packed house at the Westport Saloon! It was awesome to see FAI buddies Paula Crawford and Jason Vivone and my old law firm compadres and dear friends, Debbie and Josh Jones, who drove in from Osceola, MO! We shared the stage with some brilliant local artists - Randy Olinger, Tyler Gregory, and Fireside Collective. It's so cool and refreshing to see a venue bringing in big crowds to see new music! Can't wait to get back to KC in February.
We woke up the next morning in Kansas City to some bad news...our show that night in Spirit Lake, Iowa, had been canceled due to a scheduling snafu. This was quite the bummer, so we posted about the canceled show on Facebook and decided to head on to Minnesota. About 20 minutes later we got a call from Adam and Chris Carroll inviting us to open their show that night at Byron's in Pomeroy, Iowa! What an honor! Byron's is a really cool joint in a very small town in Iowa called Pomeroy.
The owner, Byron, is a music lover who brings in great artists to his venue and draws other music lovers from miles around to catch the show. It's like a music mecca in the corn fields of Iowa! Chuck and I opened up the show, and then Adam Carroll and Chris Carroll brought the songwriting thunder. Damn y'all, they're good, and damn good people too. Check out a show of theirs next time they're in your neck of the woods!
From Iowa, we headed north to Minnesota, birthplace of my grandmother and dad, and home of powerhouse singer-songwriter, performer, and all around good human being, Charlie Roth. Charlie and his wife Deb were so gracious to host us at their beautiful Rockin' R horse farm near Foley, MN. Charlie set up shows for
us at his ranch, at the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum in Alexandria, and he and Chuck played at the St. Cloud VA while I rested up at the farm (at this point of the tour, I had a relapse of a lovely bout with mono that plagued me during my move and before we hit the road)
! We also picked up a show at a really cool joint in Minneapolis called the Nicollet.
This was a fantastic stretch of the trip where I got to see a lot of new places and meet some fantastic new friends! Not gonna lie though, I was ready to head west to the mountains! We lo
aded up the road dog Bridget and were westward ho to Montana via a surprisingly awesome show at the Laughing Sun Brewery in Bismarck, North Dakota! Packed house, fun show, good people. Sometimes it's the ones you least expect that are the most fun!
Next installment in the Summer Tour Recap...THE MOUNTAIN WEST! To read up on the Southeast run of the tour, click HERE. Thanks for reading!
From Nashville, weheaded north through Kentucky and Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri, where we had a fantastically fun show at a cool venue called 1900 Park, which is an art gallery and creative space in a really cool historic neighborhood. My high school buddy, Michael Lourie, surprised me by coming to the show, and we had a great time with the crew that
Chuck's good friends Robyn & Ryan Bradbury put together to attend the festivities! Thanks also to the Bradburys for hosting us at their home in StL. The room at 1900 Park is bright and airy with really big and beautiful acoustics, so after our first set, the show turned into more of a song circle format, with venue owner Eric Barnes and local artists Kevin Babb and Tim Ryan joining us for a big ole jam. It was a blast!
The next stop was Kansas City, where Chuck and I met in February '14. Man, this place is a killer music town! Thanks to our friends Diana Linn and Joel Weir at KKFI and the great bill venue
owner Travis Fields put together, we had a packed house at the Westport Saloon! It was awesome to see FAI buddies Paula Crawford and Jason Vivone and my old law firm compadres and dear friends, Debbie and Josh Jones, who drove in from Osceola, MO! We shared the stage with some brilliant local artists - Randy Olinger, Tyler Gregory, and Fireside Collective. It's so cool and refreshing to see a venue bringing in big crowds to see new music! Can't wait to get back to KC in February.
We woke up the next morning in Kansas City to some bad news...our show that night in Spirit Lake, Iowa, had been canceled due to a scheduling snafu. This was quite the bummer, so we posted about the canceled show on Facebook and decided to head on to Minnesota. About 20 minutes later we got a call from Adam and Chris Carroll inviting us to open their show that night at Byron's in Pomeroy, Iowa! What an honor! Byron's is a really cool joint in a very small town in Iowa called Pomeroy.
The owner, Byron, is a music lover who brings in great artists to his venue and draws other music lovers from miles around to catch the show. It's like a music mecca in the corn fields of Iowa! Chuck and I opened up the show, and then Adam Carroll and Chris Carroll brought the songwriting thunder. Damn y'all, they're good, and damn good people too. Check out a show of theirs next time they're in your neck of the woods!From Iowa, we headed north to Minnesota, birthplace of my grandmother and dad, and home of powerhouse singer-songwriter, performer, and all around good human being, Charlie Roth. Charlie and his wife Deb were so gracious to host us at their beautiful Rockin' R horse farm near Foley, MN. Charlie set up shows for
us at his ranch, at the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum in Alexandria, and he and Chuck played at the St. Cloud VA while I rested up at the farm (at this point of the tour, I had a relapse of a lovely bout with mono that plagued me during my move and before we hit the road)
! We also picked up a show at a really cool joint in Minneapolis called the Nicollet.
This was a fantastic stretch of the trip where I got to see a lot of new places and meet some fantastic new friends! Not gonna lie though, I was ready to head west to the mountains! We lo
aded up the road dog Bridget and were westward ho to Montana via a surprisingly awesome show at the Laughing Sun Brewery in Bismarck, North Dakota! Packed house, fun show, good people. Sometimes it's the ones you least expect that are the most fun! Next installment in the Summer Tour Recap...THE MOUNTAIN WEST! To read up on the Southeast run of the tour, click HERE. Thanks for reading!