Ellery Stimulus

I was born in the morning of the world,
So I know how morning looks…
Morning looks like people look,
like a cornfield wanting corn,
like a sea wanting ships.
Tell me about any strong beautiful wanting
And there is your morning, my morning,
everybody’s morning. From Timesweep

On October 11th, 2008, we were driving down I-26 in North Carolina when we spotted a sign for (poet) Carl Sandburg’s historic home, located off the next exit. This writer is monumental to me, so we immediately exited the highway and found ourselves in one of the most delicious afternoons I can remember… I wrote about the experience here.

So. On October 13th, 2009, we were driving across I-74 from Des Moines to Cincinnati, when we spotted a sign for the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site in Galesburg IL, coming up at the next exit. On this trip we deliberated only a moment; it was getting late and we had hours to go… But- seriously.

We made our way through Galesburg’s rainy windswept streets lined with old houses, warehouses, small shops… Train tracks intersected this way and that, trains coming and going every few minutes, creaking and rumbling.
We pulled down the relatively quiet street where Sandburg grew up, and slowed in front of the house where he was born.

I was born on the prairie and the milk of its wheat, the red of its clover, the eyes of its women, gave me a slong and a slogan… –From Prairie

At this point we hadn’t made the connection with our previous Sandburg excursion almost exactly a year earlier. But there was a familiar sense of lush mystery as we rolled down the windows and peered into the cold.

The home & museum are only open for tours on Sundays, so we were limited to the grounds. Justin parked; we took it all in. It was a bitter cold day for October; it had rained all morning and the wind was up. I wrapped a blanket around me and the light coat I was wearing, and we huddled down the walk, around that tiny house, to the back lawn where Sandburg’s ashes are buried.

We had no idea this was here, and it was a bittersweet surprise. We stood and listened to the trains. Leaves fell.

We tried and -oh, regretfully- failed to remember any of Sandburg’s words, too pulled by tasks and long drives, by the unexpected intersection, the strange quiet everywhere.

So here, what I wish I could have said over Mr. Sandburg’s stone of remembrance:

I speak of new cities and new people.
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.
I tell you yesterday is a wind gone down,
a sun dropped in the west.
I tell you there is nothing in the world
only an ocean of tomorrows,
a sky of tomorrows.
From Prairie

(Where will we see you again? These chance October meetings have stirred our souls.)

Double-checking spelling on signs is always recommended.
(Photo by Scott Bruce.)

We said hello to the month of May in Knoxville TN…  A fine city we hadn’t played in years.  We drove in on April 30th and woke early on May 1st to make our way to The Square Room downtown.  Our load-in was at 10am that morning, for WDVX’s “Blue Plate Special” - a noon show performed live on-air with a live audience.  Very fun.  And on Fridays, it’s held at The Square Room.
So we couldn’t have asked for a better (re) introduction to Knoxville:
* Matt Morelock was a great host
* We saw the wonder that is J’s MegaMart on Gay Street (Thanks Matt — Who knew??!)
* We got to share the hour with the wildly-the-real-deal Malcolm Holcombe
* We were at The Square Room, which in addition to being one of the coolest rooms we’ve played in a while, has an amazing, amazing staff
* We had a great audience, and a lot of folks joined us from the adjacent cafe
* We were treated (oh so kindly) to an amazing lunch from Cafe 4.  That place serves FOOD.  And we partook.  Oh my.

We took off and made our way to my family’s house just south of Knoxville, which is gloriously in the middle of nowhere, atop a high hill in the woods, right up against the Smokies.
My family was vacationing, so we spent some quality time with their animals: a dog that’s half wolf (appropriately named Wolf), an enormous cat named Blue, some horses, a peacock, a couple goats, several chickens, and some mysterious barn cats that didn’t show their faces.

It mostly rained during our Knoxville stay, but we heard the area needed it, and it was a lovely sound - Splashing on the roof of that quiet house, singing to us over dinner, lulling us to sleep.

The next day (Saturday May 2) we headed back to The Square Room for our show that evening with Derek Webb.  It was great to connect with Derek (great songwriter, defier of stereotypes, great conversationalist), and it was great to land at such a lovely venue again.

Also, check it out: The Square Room offers an apartment for its performers, which we got to take advantage of that evening.  Wow.
The apartment doubled as the Green Room for the afternoon, so it was a lovely place to prepare, to chat with Derek, to have some dinner and feel utterly at peace.
And after all that, we had an amazing audience that night; such attentive listeners, such kind folks.  We can’t wait to come back.

And the story wouldn’t be complete without this:

Apparently while at my family’s house south of Nashville, we picked up a stowaway.
During our stay there, Justin had to rid us of two scorpions.
Yes, scorpions!  Real ones!
Fortunately, we didn’t see them until Saturday, otherwise we wouldn’t have slept the two nights before…

Anyway, we had left that house on Saturday and stayed in the apt. in downtown Knoxville, then headed home on Sunday May 3rd.  So:

Unpacking later that night.  Pull something out of the inside lid pocket of my suitcase.  See something small and dark.  Look closer.
Yes, it’s a scorpion.
“It’s dead,” I assume, incorrectly.  “I’ll have Justin get it out later.”
For whatever reason, I zip the pocket closed.
“It’s not dead,” he said a few minutes later.  “Look.”  He tapped the lid.
It wasn’t dead.

Okay, so even dead, a scorpion in one’s suitcase is — SO worthy of the jibblies.
But alive??!  In my suitcase??!

There was a lot of shaking-of-clothes and searching-through-bags.
Fortunately, this was our only stowaway, and I think he met his end in our driveway.

I’m just feeling lucky that Mr. Scorpion was in that one spot and not hiding out in the pocket of my jeans or something.  Because seriously.

Alright, I don’t want to think about it anymore.  I’ve told the story.

There you have it Knoxville: We loved our visit, thank you, such a cool venue, such fine people, such a peaceful stay, and you gave us a scorpion.  What more could we ask?
Can’t wait to see you again–

Technical difficulty action-and-adventure, in the middle of the song “Pieces.” Dig it.

So.  We took off this morning from Hurley NY, where we had a beautiful stay at The Hurley Stone House.  It had been a dark and rainy day, a return to February by all appearances, so when we finally arrived it was a gift to be greeted by Mila, a tabby cat who was as friendly as his masters and quickly stole our hearts.  (Not that such a thing is difficult.)

We’ve been anxious for our visit ever since I stumbled upon the Stone House website a month or so ago and immediately fell in love with the architecture, decor, and general vibe of the place.  We quickly decided we needed to stay there for a few nights this Summer while we’re recording in next-door Kingston NY… And we’ve included a stay at The Stone House as one of the “prizes” in the Ellery Stimulus campaign.  (You can come to the studio for the afternoon, meet our producer, listen in, etc… And then head back for a restful night and an amazing breakfast.  See ellerystimulus.com for details!)

We were disappointed that the weather wasn’t better; The house sits on a hill overlooking the Esopus Creek, and it’s right around the corner from an amazing walking/bike path.  But the inside was fabulous to explore, and we were treated to a fantastic tour by Sam, one of our hosts.  The place is vibrating with its history…  Until a few decades ago, it was kept within the same family that built it in the early 1700’s.  The folks who owned the home before Sam & Nadia (our hosts) were gardeners for the last descendant of the original builders, and they inherited it from her.  (Isn’t that awesome?)
Sam & Nadia, who opened The Stone House Bed & Breakfast in Fall 08, purchased it from them and have been restoring and finishing portions of the house, with a deep respect for its history (which you can sense when you talk with them; it’s lovely) and with fabulous style.  The Goldens (that’s us) love simple decor, clean lines, deep rich woods, natural light…  And this home had all of that and more than we could take in.

We were fed an amazing breakfast this morning, and a couple danish pastries are wrapped up in our van awaiting a moment when we finally feel like we can eat again.

The drive today was dreary again, although we were accompanied by (big surprise) Peter Sagal & Carl Kasell… And Ira Glass.  We have an evening to visit with family in NJ before heading to Philadelphia tomorrow.

Given our questionable vehicle-luck on the tour so far, we were a little intimidated by the downpour that accompanied us from Newburgh NY to Natick MA yesterday.  It was a steady, driving rain - The kind that occasionally engulfs the road ahead so that you have to drive under 40mph on the interstate if you want to see clearly.
But our quickly-diminishing collection of podcasts was good company, offering a bit of peace & distraction (the positive kind)… And even through that Corridor of Immense Traffic in Connecticut, all was refreshingly Well.

Miraculously, the rain stopped as soon as we pulled into The Center for Arts Natick, and we loaded our gear into the building sans soaking and said hello to some of the kindest folks around.

The Center for Arts Natick (”tCAN”) is a beautiful converted firehouse… It’s full of historic vibe, and the sound is amazing in the performance room.  Lucy sound-checked with Billy Joel’s “Goodnight My Angel” (which I hadn’t heard in years and is as beautiful as I remembered,) and we took the time to settle in after the drive.  We let our jaws drop at the amazing paintings newly-installed on the walls of the performance space, which were done by local high school students from Walnut Hill Art School.  These are these stunning, deeply-emotional portraits that left us in disbelief about the young talent… And grateful for the art, which seemed ideal for the night’s music.

And we couldn’t have asked for a lovelier experience: A nearly sold-out show, the opportunity to play a beautiful (and beautifully-tuned) grand piano, a fabulous audience, and a fine artist to open for.  So many thanks to tCAN and the crowd tonight– We loved loved loved connecting with you.

The winding roads of Massachusetts have always enthralled us.  The scenery is charming and mysterious in this altogether New England way, and we can’t help ourselves.  It often feels magical.  One of these dark and tree-lined, spotted-with-lovely-cape-cods routes led us to our hotel last night.
And we may be easily-pleased these days, but we’ve found ourselves tonight in a lovely, clean, and safe place nestled against a couple rolling hills, and wow, that front desk guy was such a human being - absolutely kind.  We’re laying our heads down tonight with some deep breaths.

It’s our first tour since the Stimulus began, and we’re racking up our share of adventures –

The Early-April Tour So Far:

• Day Minus-One: Tasha loses her voice.  (Come on!)  New bag of cough drops saves the day.  (Leaves me smelling like medicine @ our shows, but — singing.)
• Off to Akron.
• Day One: Stranded north of Columbus because ignition won’t turn.  AAA guy saves the day, which gets us to Akron, where Justin’s cousin-the-awesome-mechanic REALLY saves the day.
  

  Singing for our van repair. No, really.

• Off to the University.
• Day Two: Flat tire for no identifiable reason.  Fix-a-Flat and nearby tire&lube place (and new tire) saves the day.
• Off to Pittsburgh.
• Day Three: Leave early from Pittsburgh for Penn Tech in Williamsport.  Spend 80 minutes getting out of the city; now running VERY late.  Construction on every state hwy and interstate, ALL the way to Williamsport.  (No really: every highway & interstate.  And we hear this is typical of Pennsylvania; anyone want to verify this rumor?)  So: Oh the angst!  Arrival time: 15 minutes after showtime.  In this case, the incredible patience of the college staff (and our kind listeners) saves the day.
• Off to Newburgh NY for the night.
• Day Three (later): Check into name-brand hotel that is inexplicably skanky.  We are disturbed upon entry… Then the toxic cleaner-fumes give us crazy headaches & sore throats.  Disturbing—>Scary!  Check out (with grace from a kind front-desk clerk), and drive down the road.
• Day Three (evening): Explore Algonquin Park in Newburgh.


Algonquin Park

• Breathe fresh air, take pictures, watch the sunset.  Are totally wrong about what we think all those old stone buildings are.


Algonquin Park

• Go to the PetsMart across the street & de-stress by staring at adoptable cats.  Go back to cower in our room for a while.  In short: Slowly perk up.  (Chocolate and those “veggie chips” from Whole Foods certainly help.)  (And Colbert.)
• Currently: Justin’s playing guitar along to some music on his laptop, but he’s wearing headphones & I can’t hear anything but the (not-plugged-in) electric.  Sounds cool.  And hilarious.
• I’m turning my phone off with a delight reserved for the most hermit-ish of hotel dwellers.  “Ha,” I say.  “If you call, I can’t hear it.”  (I mean this with love.)

Speaking of love, oh, has it been good to connect with kind audiences.  With these eventful days we’ve been arriving at shows in a rather ragged and desperate state…  Only to find the loveliest of people waiting for us.  So, our many thanks to U of A, Howler’s, and PennTech for welcoming us–

• Tomorrow: The drive to Massachusetts: always beautiful.  And we’ll collide with Lucy Kaplansky’s tour again at the lovely Center for Arts Natick–