Chapter Thirty One
Part Two: Most Roads Lead South
April 2007
by Amy Bob
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Chapter Thirty One Part Two: Most Roads Lead South
April 2007 by Amy Bob |
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Wednesday 4/25/07 - Just Cheese, She Said
Yes, Virginia, there is a 9:00 a.m. We’re giving a brief workshop for a women’s chorus in the beautiful Recital Hall at Salem State. Pamela is grinning from ear to ear in the back of the room, talking about having us back again soon, inviting me to come and stay with her in Salem…
We coffee and head out to New York listening to more podcasts of This American Life,
Thursday 4/26/07 - New Tunes Ahoy!
Joe’s out all morning. I’m thrilled to be doing laundry, but jonesing for coffee... but I have no pants… so I must wait until the first load’s done to venture out! All is well around 11am… and I repack and catch up on email and this log before heading to meet the guys at the car.
Phil doesn’t usually book Thursday shows at the Towne Crier, but we’d rather fill the night than not while in the area, so here we are, vrooming back up the Saw Mill to Pawling. It’s light tonight, but that’s OK. We’ve been doing “Sandwich Man” and “Tight Pants Tango” from the new album for several months, so tonight we’re premiering two more tunes in from the new album. (If you wanna hear premieres, the Towne Crier’s usually where we do them for some reason!) “Disappointment Pants” and “Poverty” are both on deck.
The new tunes are great, although after rehearsing I am beginning to not feel so hot. My throat is actually hurting and I have no power. So I back off considerably during the show and down an Emergen-C. Am I just cumulatively tired after the two doubleheader show days and all the traveling, or really getting sick? I’ll take something to ensure sleep tonight and forego all social invitations for tomorrow. Waaah.
Friday 4/27/07 - I Knew I Liked Metropolitans...
Our 9:30 show is SOLD OUT, and it ROCKS. “Disappointment Pants” is finding its groove… my voice is back (yeah, baby – guess I was just overtired, quelle surprise) … and we’re talking about coming back for a 2-night engagement later in the year. This is a good room for us – just intimate enough. We run late, yak and yak with fans and friends, and I meet up with the musical director from Blue Man Group, a Bobs fan from way back. How cool is that? Maybe some kind of interesting collaboration could emerge… too fun to even think about.
Mathew and I cab it uptown, I get in around 1:30, and pretty much don’t sleep because I’m too keyed up and can’t get “Disappointment Pants” out of my head.
Saturday 4/28/07 - Pack It In, Then Pack Them In
It takes no time to get to Grand Army Plaza and find Prospect Perk, the coffeehouse where we’re meeting @
11am. I check email there over a mango smoothie, and Richard meets us with the car (he took
it to Williamsburg after Pawling). Sadly, my luggage zipper dies right before Matthew packs the trunk. Before my
underwear has a chance to explode all over the street, he jams the bag shut against everyone else’s bags! Google maps guides us to the BQE, then the Narrows bridge.
We opt for the Outerbridge Crossing this time to avoid the clusterf&*k that the Turnpike near Newark Airport has
been the last few times… when I was a kid, there was a big deal about shoppers coming in from Staten Island on the
weekends. Woodbridge Center had just opened, the biggest mall in New Jersey at the time, which in itself was a big deal – this was during the Mall Bloom of the 80’s. Jeez, now I do my best to avoid them at all costs!
Bob Malone beats us there, for the first time! His honkytonk tones bounce off of the walls of the dressing room halls as we claim our own rooms and head up for soundcheck. Bob just got back from an awesome
tour of Australia and New Zealand, mainly blues festivals. When he tours there, they treat him like the star he truly is. Right before he left,
we saw each other up in the northwest – I drove up to Seattle for our March dates at the Moisture Festival,
so I stopped in Portland to see him play at Mississippi Studios (an awesome venue, BTW). After I sang a tune with him in his show, I said, “And The Bobs
will be here in Portland next Sunday!” Bob said, “I’ll be in Sydney.” THANKS, BUDDY!! Bob’s opening set is terrific as always despite his massive jetlag/time-space continuum issues.
Fans are intense in the lobby here, as always. A lovely little girl in a bunny t-shirt tells me she likes the “Fluffy song.” I tell Dan Taylor and his wife that
they’re all over the fan footage of the Bobs documentary that we’re about to release. We sell out of Anniversary posters and it’s an autograph frenzy.
My cousins are back, hanging with Todd and Tanja in the lobby, unfazed by the fun fan crush I’m under. Our Gaelic dancer fan, Renee, and her
game designer husband say hi – when’s that FLUFFY game gonna be ready?! – and a wonderful mob of lovely people greet us as well.
I’m off to Florida tomorrow to visit my mother and grandmother before heading back. Back at the hotel, I hear from Todd and Tanja –
can we meet for breakfast tomorrow? (Yes.) I confirm a session in LA I’ve been called to sing on Wednesday, then rebook my American Airlines ticket
from Fort Lauderdale for Tuesday, and check in with Alex while repacking, checking email and taking off makeup. It’s a whirlwind… then I don’t really sleep…
Sunday 4/29/07 - It's All Relative
Florida will be humid but bearable this time (turns out I’ll be there less than 48 hours anyway)… and I swear, the garlic bread spread at
Zuckerello’s on Commercial in Fort Lauderdale is the universal cure for EVERYTHING! See y'all in Denver in a few weeks...
the new Ozomatli record and Sirius Radio. Dan and I are cracking up to Kevin Regan on the Blue Collar Comedy channel so badly I am crying… Alex texts me to say the DSL at home is all screwed up (again) and the idiots at Earthlink support in Bangalore are in full bloom. The pilgrim hat signs of the Mass Pike give way to I-84, then CT 15 and the Merritt Parkway… I am driving now as we hit the Henry Hudson. And applause breaks out as I parallel park the huge pimpmobile on the first try in a primo spot on Morningside Drive (no dog poo this time!). Last month in Seattle, I was so tired for some reason, I couldn’t parallel park my OWN CAR and had Richard do it, so this is a sweet event! See y’all here at 3:30pm tomorrow…
Joe and I head for Artisanal (aw, come on, you knew that was coming). Raclette fondue with thyme and a lovely cheese plate featuring their new Portuguese imports. Artisanal has a
pamphlet that describes each of their over 250 cheeses in three or four words that always crack me up.
The Fiore Sardo from Sardinia is “complex, concentrated smoky aroma,”
the aged Gouda (called Roomano here) is
“crystalline, with robust Butterscotch flavor” and the creamy Portuguese
Serra de Estrela is “yeasty with delightful
sheepy flavors,” a description Joe now wishes he hadn’t read. The waiter tells us that head chef and fromagiere Terrance Brennan puts these descriptions
on the menu because he wants people to cultivate more positive associations with animal scents… OK… barring that, I will continue to associate some
of the more pithy descriptions with ex-boyfriends…”soft, metallic, spicy nuances,” "moist, biting, fudgy,” “full, round, pleasantly oily flavor," and of course, “rich, earthy, hints of wild mint.”
Richard’s daughter Ashley is coming up with us, which is nice. She’s tiring of the expense of New York, three jobs she doesn’t dig and never having enough money… she is so ready to jump to the next level. The money part sounds familiar… don’t choose the artist’s life, Ashley!
Out in the drizzle to the Deluxe again… After telling me he wants to lose some weight in his middle but won’t do situps unless someone "helps," Joe orders a double breakfast again – eggs, fries
, bacon and toast AND French toast. As a model case for the lo-carb lifestyle, I have to ask, “What is he thinking?!” It’s always an uphill
battle to convince people that if they truly want to lose weight, sugar is the enemy… I postpone my not talking (in an attempt to conserve vocal energy) long
enough to guilt him into at least leaving the fries untouched! We nap and I do email all day as the rain abates…
Looks like I won’t be seeing anyone else in NYC this trip… I tried to get together with my pal Sharon, a powerhouse music industry chick these days,
but it is not to be. She phones with what is surely the Best Excuse Ever - in the hospital with a brain hemhorrage. Seriously. I can't believe I'm anywhere near that important that she has
even phoned me back! This very fact is so her, to politely call to tell me this - that it is obvious she has NOT been seriously damaged by this freak occurrence! Kind of
puts things in perspective... maybe I'LL go back to the Deluxe and order the french toast... (Sharon is fine now, BTW.)
I head down to the Metropolitan Room around 5 to dump my stuff and hear
Terese Genecco rehearsing her new show. At 7:30 tonight, she debuts a tribute
to songwriter Arthur Schwartz. Terese’s last show here was a revamped version of DRUNK WITH LOVE: A Tribute to
Frances Faye, which they recorded live and she’s just released. You can get it HERE. I was the musical director for the theatrical
iteration of this show in San Francisco in July 2005. Terese is a powerhouse – and she’s still the kickass,
smartass I knew at Syracuse University. Her show, which I return to see after a Starbucks snack and coffee
reading the Village Voice, is great despite her insistence that it’s still a little rough around the edges.
You rock, Terese! See you next week in Oakland, I hope (I’m judging the 2007 Harmony Sweeps Finals at the
Marin County Civic Center next week…I won’t even unpack my suitcase...)
Once we get to the hotel near Dulles, I realize there will be no shower... I've gotta deal with the roll-aboard.
I still have three flights to take before I get home and I want to be able to check it. Miraculously, I find a
luggage repair place online that’s 15 minutes away – but they close in an hour and are not open on Sundays!
There goes my shower… vrooom… the folks there repair it quickly and I don’t feel too guilty bringing the car back
5 minutes later than our planned meeting time. Hey, these things happen, and even though this was a giant pain, I’d rather spend $30 on a repair than
$100 on a new bag. We were gonna be late to soundcheck anyway since we need to find dinner on the way…
We are SOLD OUT here as well, which is especially cool since my brother Todd and his wife Tanja are here. They’re up from Tallahassee visiting one of her college friends in DC, so this worked out perfectly!
They haven’t seen us since about 2001, when they surprised me at the Bottom Line in NYC. But that wasn’t a full show, and they’ve never seen Dan, so I think they’re in for a great time. The show IS great – perhaps one of the… loosest ones we’ve done here… owing partially to a drunk woman down front who started yelling loudly about disenfranchisement when the mailing list clipboard didn’t get to her in time for us to pick a “winner of a fabulous prize.” (But to quote John Mellencamp, for whom I once worked,
“Ain’t that America?”) We just can’t Traffic Copter the clipboards to keep ‘em moving all the time as much as we probably should… Sorry, y’all – but if you’re reading this, you know where to find us to sign up. : )
Somehow I get out of the hotel @ 8:30 am… The other Bobs are already @ Dulles, having shuttled there much earlier. I think of them on their
respective planes home as I take the Bobsmobile for once last spin around the Capital Beltway. A long brunch with Todd, Tanja, and their friends
Thomas & Melissa at La Madeleine in Alexandria melts into a quiet stroll and reading break along the Potomac River on the
George Washington Memorial Parkway. It's a nice coda to the long tour, on a gorgeous day... and then I’m off to the airport, exhausted as per usual.
(C)2007 Amy Bob Engelhardt