In keeping with the previous post, we received this image via twitter just yesterday:
This is making my head hurt.
With the accompanying text:
“It’s quiet in Sarasota so we opened all the cabinets to “help” Justin sleep.” (From @mrs_simpleton)
I’m feeling the love, I’m feeling the love.
J.
If any of you have made it to one of our shows recently, you might have heard Tasha tell the story behind the song “Lay Your Head Down“, that came from her exploiting my [not so] mild OCD tendencies…
If you have, this picture is for you (emailed to me yesterday from her phone):
Open Drawer - oh my!
Derek and Justin discussing the finer points of Jeff Tweedy's awesomeness; pic by twitter.com/benbannister
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.
Wolf the dog.
Blue The Cat
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.
The beautiful artist lodging at The Square Room
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.
Justin's scorpion impression
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.