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Summer in the USA
Entry 30 of 40 | show all | print this entry |
First things first: Happy Birthday to my Valentine on Sunday, May 7th and many many happy returns.... And a million thanks to my old friend and comrade from the Detroit Artists Workshop, the great poet and composer James Semark, whose generous donation to the Golden Bard Travel Fund has removed the Mallet of Pov from pounding at the side of my head for a while.
I'm in the middle of planning my 2006 summer tour of the USA, another kamikaze assault on the American underground that will take me from coast to coast and then some between June 24 and September 7, and the crucial Golden Bard Travel Fund balance will ebb and flow along the course of my travels. As usual I'm putting the gigs together myself: tracking down venues and promoters, negotiating the dates and the pitiful fees and arranging lodgings with friends and loved ones along the way.
A guy at a Boston paper asked me once how I determined my touring schedule, and I told him: "First I decide where I want to go, then I figure out how to get there, and then I go there. But it's not as easy as it sounds." That's still the case, although more and more I'm enjoying the relative luxury of planning trips around dates that have been requested and guaranteed and often include transportation and lodging. Then I arrange my travels around these little anchors and try to move from one locale to another with maximum efficiency and minimum cost, calling on my legion of friends for assistance whenever necessary.
OK, let's see how this shit works: I started planning this time with the first week in July at Common Ground, something I do every summer. Then there's a date at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles on July 21, and the Seattle HempFest (to which my friends at Apothecary Seeds and Don E. Wirtshafter have invited me) August 18-20, and the possibility of playing the ARTHURFEST in Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend, followed by a fast flight to the Motor City to perform at the Detroit International Jazz Festival on Labor Day if all goes well, and capped by a videotaping session at the University of Michigan in conjunction with an Ann Arbor in the '60s project they're doing.
How to get a tour out of these widely spaced dots all over the map? First, plot a skeleton course from place to place with gig possibilities to be filled in later. Next, figure out the means and costs of public transportation and if there's anyone who will pay the fares. Then, inventory one's vernacular resources in terms of whom one knows where and will they offer temporary lodging to a penurious traveler, or can they hook me up with local venues where I might gain an opportunity to perform while I'm there.
Let me say it right out: The biggest problem I have arranging tour dates is that there's virtually no market at all for what I do, which is performing my poetry with musical accompaniment in any sort of venue that will let me in the door. I'm not out there by popular demand so much as I simply insist on appearing and doing my shows irrespective of potential audience or pecuniary reward.
Don't get me wrong: I love an audience and I love to get paid, but I'll play for five people if I have to as long as the band is worth hearing, and yes, I will work for food and lodgings if that's all there is. If I were a different person I'd lay back and wait for people to insist that I come to them at a proper price, but I'm not that character and I've become enured to working with the one I've got. Basically I never do anything I don't want to do anyway, and the converse is also true: I do pretty much whatever I want.
Right now I want to travel and gain recognition for my work in poetry and music over the past 42 years while I'm still alive, and I want to continue to pursue my life-long mission of turning people on to musicians and poets and artists and historical characters of all kinds who will bring joy and delight into their lives. These are the people who populate my poems and writings, who are heard on my radio programs, whose praises I have chosen to sing and keep singing as long as I have breath.
This is what I chose to do as a young man, and somehow I've managed to do it, one way or another, all my life. Since 1995, starting at the ripe old age of 53, I've been touring regularly and forcing myself on the public every chance I get, whether they're ready or not. Like everything else in life now, I've got to do this while I can, and later for the rest, as my mentor The Frantic One, Ernie Durham would say.
So I'll be hitting it again next month, starting out at the ComFest in Columbus, Ohio on June 25th, then in New York City for four days, Washington DC for a night, a week at Common Ground in Westminster, Maryland, and then heading west through Memphis, a few days in Oxford, maybe Denver, then a week in Los Angeles, a week in the Bay Area, back to Detroit for 10 days, back to SF to drive up the Pacific Coast to Seattle with Jim Epstein for the HempFest and back, perhaps shoot down to Los Angeles for the ARTHURFEST and finally fly back to Detroit for the Jazz Festival and my gigs in Ann Arbor, which now include a return to the Ann Arbor Public Library for a program relating my poetry to the artists who've performed at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival.
Man, I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it! If that character from Memphis who got a Grammy nomination thinks It's Hard for a Pimp Out Here, guess what? Being the Hardest Working Poet in Show Business ain't nothin' nice!
Now I'm going to put my schedule into kind of a calendar format so you can interact with it and help me fill the open spaces. I like to work as many days and nights as I can while I'm on the road, because if I wanted to sit around and relax I'd stay here in Amsterdam and drink coffee and smoke joints in my favorite haunts. So let's take a look, and where it says TBA it means that I need a gig on that date or several gigs in that timeframe:
Saturday, June 24: Leave Amsterdam > Newark > Columbus OH
Sunday, June 25: Columbus OH: ComFest
Monday, June 26: Columbus OH: Recording Session
Tuesday, June 27: Columbus OH > Newark > NYC
Brooklyn: Union Pool with Ryan Sawyer & Daniel Carter
Wednesday, June 28: New York City TBA
Thursday, June 29: Brooklyn: Frankie's in Red Hook
Friday, June 30: New York City TBA
Saturday, July 1: NYC > DC with Tom Dodd & Oranj @ TBA
Sunday-Friday, July 2-7: Westminster MD: Common Ground on the Hill
Saturday- Sunday, July 8-9: American Music Festival
Monday, July 10: Baltimore >Memphis by air
Tuesday-Friday, July 11-14: Oxford MS
Wednesday, July 12: (Potential) Oxford MS: Two Stick
Friday, July 14: Memphis > Denver
Friday-Tuesday, July 14-18: Denver: TBA
Wednesday-Wednesday, July 19-26: Los Angeles: TBA except
Friday, July 21: Venice: Beyond Baroque with Gerry Fialka
Thursday-Friday, July 27-August 4: San Francisco Bay Area TBA
Friday, August 4: SF > Flint MI > Davison: Eagles Hall
Saturday, August 5: Davison: Blues Festival with Marc Adams
Sunday, August 6: Ann Arbor: West Park w/Tommy Spaghetti
Monday, August 7: Detroit OFF
Tuesday, August 8: Lansing: Creole Gallery with RJ Spangler
Wednesday, August 9: Lansing with Bob Baldori > Big Rapids with Michael Erlewine
Thursday, August 10: Big Rapids MI: Two Sisters
Friday, August 11: Detroit: Buzz Club w/RJ Spangler
Saturday, August 12: (Potential) Flint: Churchill's with Glowb
Sunday, August 13: Detroit: Your Place Lounge with RJ Spangler
Monday, August 14: Flint > San Francisco via air
Tuesday-Friday, August 15-18: San Francisco > Seattle by auto
Friday, August 18: Seattle: HempFest
Saturday, August 19: Seattle: HempFest with Chris Morda
Sunday, August 20: Seattle: HempFest
Monday, August 21: (P) Portland
Tuesday, August 22: (P) Portland
Wednesday, August 23: (P) Eugene
Thursday, August 24 : (P) Arcata
Friday, August 25: (P) Main Street
Saturday, August 26: Boonville: Lauren's
Sunday, August 27: (P) Sebastopol:
Monday, August 28: Berkeley: TBA
Tuesday, August 29: Berkeley: TBA
Wednesday, August 30: Berkeley: TBA
Thursday, August 31 : San Francisco > Los Angeles or Detroit
Friday, September 1: (P) Los Angeles: ArthurFest or Detroit
Saturday, September 2: (P) Los Angeles: ArthurFest or Detroit
Sunday, September 3: (P) Los Angeles > Detroit
Monday, September 4: (Tentative) Detroit International Jazz Festival
Tuesday, September 5: Detroit: OFF
Wednesday, September 6: Ann Arbor: UM Taping and
Ann Arbor Public Library Concert
Thursday, September 7: Ann Arbor > Detroit > Roma
Friday, September 8: Stampa Alternativa Poetry Festival, Siena, Italy
Saturday, September 9: Stampa Alternativa Poetry Festival, Siena
Sunday, September 10: Stampa Alternativa Poetry Festival, Siena
Now, what I'm particularly looking for: In New York City, a date at the Bowery Poetry Café on Wednesday, June 28 and a show on Friday night somewhere in Manhattan. In Memphis: one night and a short stay with my pal Laurence Hall. In Oxford: I'm taken care of by Chad & Allison at Two Stick. In Denver: I'm trying to get with Doug Kauffman to see if he still wants me there and has some gigs for me; if not I'll stay in Oxford another few days, always a tremendous pleasure.
In Los Angeles my co-conspirators are scrounging the town looking for performance opportunities for me, as always. I want to play at least one night with Wayne Kramer and Charles Moore, and as always Michael Simmons and Margaret Saadi Kramer will fill in the gaps with some interesting things to do. Any offers or tips on gigs in the area will be most welcome.
In the Bay Area my hope is to advance the idea I had last year: Doing talks and poetry performances in the marijuana dispensaries and medical centers where patients gather. I had a ball playing for the Berkeley Patients group and would love to expand on that and play several nights in the dispensary community in the Bay Area. I've also got the benefit of my RPP comrade Walden Simper on the case, and I'm hoping she'll book me back in to the Book Zoo in Berkeley for an evening of verse as well as cash in some of her other creative wig bubbles, as Lord Buckley used to put it.
Uncharacteristically, I have to break up my West Coast jaunt in order to fly back to Michigan to perform and MC at the first ever Davison Blues Festival in my old home town. My pal Marc Adams, one of New Orleans' finest keyboard men and a native of Davison, was forced to flee there with his wife when the levees broke in New Orleans last August, and somehow he set the place on fire with the blues-so much so that they wanna have a blues festival this year. Adams told them he knew he could get me to come, and truer words were never spoken: I wouldn't miss this one for the world!
From this point on everything gets smoother. Davison will pay my way from SF and back, Jim Epstein will drive me to Seattle and back, and the University of Michigan will cover my flight from SF (or LA) back to Detroit. My Italian publisher, Stampa Alternativa, will fly me from Detroit to Rome for their 35th anniversary festival in Siena and then on to Amsterdam from there, so I'm home free.
But I'm going to have to find a way (or a sponsor!) to pay for the first part of my trip: travel from New York City to DC (Amtrak), Baltimore to Memphis (air), and Memphis to Los Angeles (air), although if I do go to Denver I expect that Doug Kauffman will get me there and then on to L.A., because Doug always does everything right-and he plays pretty hip James Jamerson-style bass, too.
If I'm on for ARTHURFEST I'll finesse the UM ticket by getting a round-trip LA-SF ticket that will bring me from LA to SF in July and back to LA for Labor Day weekend, then fly to Detroit from LA instead of SF-the UM doesn't care. Oh shit, I'm thinking out loud now, but at least I've got the basic logistics figured out.
I didn't mean to bore you with all this detail, but since this kind of guerrilla planning is such a big part of my life now, I thought it would be kicks to write it down and see what happens. When I asked for money in a moment of utter destitution two months ago, the next day I had $350 US in my PayPal account and my life was spared.
(I say US $$ because you may not be aware that the US dollar is a piece of shit next to the Euro and gets worse all the time. It costs about $1.27 today to buy 1 Euro; a dollar is worth a little less than 80 Euro cents. This reflects the weakness of the American economy in relation to the strength of Europe's right now, and what it means for me is that when I get $100 US, I have only 75-80% of it to spend. Or I order 100 Euros from the ATM and it costs me $127 US plus $5 for using the cash advance plus whatever the ATM people charge me. Like the poet said, "That's severe.")
But my point was that I asked my friends for help and you responded. Why not ask for help with these gigs and travel necessities? The other thing I left out was the little stretch between August 20-27 when Jim and I plan to drive back down the Pacific Coast from Seattle and hope to stop in a different place each night along the way. I'd love to play somewhere in Portland, Eugene, Eureka, Arcata, Garberville, Santa Rosa, or wherever they'll have me. My man Eric Labowiitz has arranged my annual gig at the popular Lauren's Café in downtown Boonville, CA set for Saturday night 8/25 , and maybe Bill Bradt will have something for me to do in Sebastopol the next night so I can stop and see Emil Bacilla. We plan to be back in San Francisco by the 27th, and I'd like to spend the last three nights in Berkeley like I did last year. That was kicks!
So that's the way it looks today, and as soon as I finish this post and my next On The Road column for entry #31, I'm going to start work in earnest on the scheduling issue and I will need all the help I can get. The other thing is that I'll be trying to make as many radio programs in the States as I can-as usual-and even try to set some of them up in advance this time. I had a ball last summer making impromptu, last-minute shows in all kinds of settings, and I'm sure there'll be some good episodes to come out of this summer's trip as well.
In closing, here are a couple of my favorite American shows from 2005:
The John Sinclair Radio Show #25
New Dodge Lounge, Hamtramck, MI
February 4, 2005 @ 9:15-10:15 pm [20-0508]
For some time we had been corresponding from Amsterdam with Nearly Normal Warren of Ann Arbor Alive Radio, the 24-hour streaming internet station that has been carrying the John Sinclair Radio Show to its listeners in the Dope Capital of the Midwest. When I left Amsterdam for a little February-April tour of the United States I wanted to see if I could produce any of our guerrilla radio shows at different places in the States and contacted Warren about the possibility of broadcasting from my February 4th gig at the New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck (an enclave of Detroit). He met me at the New Dodge and we did a great show from the second-floor balcony before my set with the Blues Scholars started on the stage below. Our guests included Adam Brook, Tom Silvia, Jeff "Baby" Grand, Tino Gross, ibogaine street healer Dimitri Mugianis, and a live performance by poet James Semark and his impromptu choir. My daughters Sunny and Celia were there, my granddaughter Beyonce as well, and there's recorded music by the Blues Scholars, Alberta Adams, Harmonica Shah, Big Walter Horton, Little Milton and Albert Collins.
John Sinclair Show #25 @ The New Dodge Lounge, Hamtramck, MI, February 4, 2005 (.mp3)
Playlist #25
[01] Opening Theme: John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: No Money Down
[02] Intro & Opening Comments with Adam Brook
[03] Alberta Adams: Born with the Blues
[04] Harmonica Shah: Stubborn as a Mule
[05] Comments & Interview with James Semark re: Detroit Artists Workshop
[06] James Semark: "A E I O U" performance
[07] Comments & Birthday Greetings to Tom Silvia
[08] Big Walter Horton: Walter's Swing
[09] John Sinclair & Little Milton: Mother Earth
[10] Comments & Interview with Jeff "Baby" Grand
[11] Albert Collins: Cold Cold Feeling
[12] Comments & Interview with Tino Gross
[13] Comments & Interview with Dimitri Mugianis re: Ibogaine & Outro
[14] Closing Music: John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: My Buddy
Host: John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Producer/Engineer: Nearly Normal Warren for a3radio.com
Executive Producer: John Sinclair
Production Assistance: Adam Brook
©(P) 2005 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Posted @ February 7, 2005
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The John Sinclair Radio Show #46
Two Stick, Oxford MS
July 21, 2005 @ c. 7:00 - 8:00 pm [20-0530]
Oxford, Mississippi has become my third base in the United States, right after Detroit and New Orleans. My friends Chad Henson and Allison Borders own a sushi restaurant and music bar called Two Stick just off the Square downtown, and they put me up, feed me and take care of my recreational needs while I'm there-plus I get to play around Mississippi with a great band called Afrissippi, appear on the Thacker Mt. Revue on Mississippi Public Radio, and play at the Two Stick with Eric Deaton, Justin Showah, Kenny Kimbrough and Guelel Kuumba. I write a column called Blues & Roots for a magazine based in Oxford called An Honest Tune, and I get to see the editor and art director, Tom Speed and Nathan Latil, as well as friends like the great Scott Barretta.
When I was in Oxford in March [2005], Justin Showah and I made a joint production of the radio show with Jim Dees on his World Boogie show on WUMS, Rebel Radio at Ole Miss, but we couldn't locate the recording in order to post it on the website. This time we were determined to get some shows done, and we cut the first of our three Oxford radio shows right on stage at the Two Stick, talking with Ms. Imelda Lee, Mei the waitress, former Ole Miss pot farmer John Jernigan and other Oxfordites, sampling the delectable sushi and spinning sounds by local artists like R.L. Burnside, Eric Deaton, Booker White, Dr. Ross, Jimbo Mathus, the Taylor Grocery Band, Otha Turner, and Afrissippi, plus guest artists Kermit Ruffins and my own ensemble, John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars, with our salute to local hero Booker White.
John Sinclair Show #46 @ Two Stick, Oxford MS, July 21, 2005 (.mp3)
Playlist #46
[01] Opening Music: R.L. Burnside: Going Down South with Intro & Opening Comments with Justin Showah
[02] Eric Deaton: Gonna Be Trouble in Here Tonight
[03] Comments with Ms. Lee re: Robert Freeland
[04] Booka White: Parchman Farm Blues
[05] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Shake 'Em On Down
[06] Comments & Discussion with Mei the Waitress
[07] Dr. Ross: Boogie Disease
[08] Jimbo Mathus & Knock Down South: I Saw You Naked
[09] Kermit Ruffins: Hide the Reefer
[10] Comments & Interview with John Jernigan re: U-Miss Marijuana Farm
[11] Othar Turner: Shimmy She Wobble
[12] Afrissippi: Numandi
[13] Comments & Interview with Chad Henson re: Two Stick
[14] Taylor Grocery Band: Power to the People
Produced & Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Co-produced & Engineered by Justin Showah
Executive Producer: John Sinclair
Special thanks to Chad Henson & Allison Borders
©(P) 2005 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Podcasted @ August 8, 2005
* * * * *
Note: I'm about to launch a new TravelPod log covering the period between April 2005 and early 2006 when my computer was down and my On The Road column didn't appear after #13 at the end of April. I wrote #15 after being in New Orleans for the Christmas holidays, #16 during the Mardi Gras, and I'm trying to finish #17 now, the third of the New Orleans trilogy, but I want to write down the places and events and people of last year and early 2006 before I forget the whole thing.
For those who enjoy this travelogue, I'll be posting a new series of entries on this site under the title On The Road #14 (April 2005-March 2006). I'll send a notice when the first entries are posted and not bother you about it again after that unless you request notification. So, it's like Bob French say: "If you like 'em, tell your friends. If you don't like 'em, don't tell nobody!"
Seriously, if the notices for the present Travelogue are too many for you to enjoy, let me know and I'll take your name off the list. Thanks for listening.
Latest Comments (2)
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New York part of trip (reply)
May 11, 2006 16:05 EST by jeromepoynton
John,
Let me know how I can be of help in NYC. If you want me to talk to Bob Hollman at Bowery Poetry Club I can do that. It is not my favorite venue but I don't have another to suggest instead. You can stay at my pad if need be and I'll try to throw some bread toward your road trip.
all the best,
Jerry Poynton
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hey for the motor city........ (reply)
May 7, 2006 13:22 EST by mrpure
glad to hear all is well in the dam, hope to see you on your trip thru the states....pls email your phone numbers as my phone is on the fritz,
the the city a kiss from me,
james
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