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A tour diary by Derek Schleelein 6/21/07 Café Montmartre, Madison, WI This is my first real tour with a working band, and so far the first twelve hours have been good: it’s the first Blue Mountain show of the tour, and the first one I’ve ever seen. Café Montmarte is an intimate venue and the band is not quite as loud as they are accustomed to playing, but the sound is good and everyone is very accommodating. The café hooked us up with some good free food, one of the main perks I find being with the band. We also got a case of Blatz beer (named for what happens if you drink too many), a Wisconsin staple from the Heileman brewery, the geniuses behind Old Style and Colt 45 malt liquor. The crowd is small but enthusiastic; a big thunderstorm is keeping away the crowd, but the band deliver their first of many hour plus sets of the tour to a handful of dedicated fans. It’s actually almost cold outside, something that I will come to miss being in Mississippi for 10 days in the middle of summer. I am impressed by Blue Mountain’s on stage stamina and the fact that they rarely mess up (or just hide it well). The show winds down and I do my first equipment load out as the band’s official roadie/driver/merch lackey. I am also impressed by the band’s ability to keep their gear to a minimum. The drive back to Chicago is uneventful, but I warm up to the idea of traveling with Blue Mountain for the remainder of the summer shows. Big thanks to the Café Montmartre and the Planet Propaganda folks for the kick ass show posters. 6/22/07- Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI Shank Hall is one of the coolest venues I’ve ever seen, doubly so for being named after a fictitious venue from the movie This is Spinal Tap. The guy who founded the club actually booked the touring version of Spinal Tap in the 80’s, and promised that if he ever opened a club he would name it Shank Hall in honor of the best rock comedy movie ever made. The place is littered with great memorabilia and press stuff from the movie and band (including a show guarantee for the touring Spinal Tap from 1984, for just $3,000!), they even have a replica mini-Stonehenge above the stage, I guess for good luck. The place is very clean, they even mop the stage for the band, and they have a great backstage area and merch table set up. On top of that, they have an impressive collection of signed press photos from almost any band that’s toured in the past 20 years. Blue Mountain’s is just underneath Richard Thompson, and they haven’t changed all that much from what I can see (they might disagree). We unload on a beautifully sunny afternoon, and gorge on Indian food from the place down the street. Milwaukee is actually much nicer than I would have thought, they have a nice bike/walking path and I spend a good hour walking by the lake. I get back in time for the show, and man the merch table while Blue Mountain does their thing again. Some yahoos from the Madison show are here again, and the crowd is slightly bigger than the night before. The crowd is very appreciative and there’s much more audience interaction, even though the band has forgotten some of the songs that the audience requests (hey they’ve only been back together for a month). Big props to the people who came to both shows, (and debated coming to the Chicago show). After another easy load out, and getting paid for it (and feeling like I am definitely pulling one over on the band), I man the van back to Chicago. 6/24/07- Schuba’s, Chicago, IL Tonight’s show is almost sold out and the place is packed, especially for a Sunday. With competition for audience from a big Gay Pride parade and a few other rock shows around the North side. I am impressed at the turnout (don’t tell the band). The drive to the venue takes about 15 mintues, playing where you live is nice. We load in and take it easy for a few hours before the show. We get another comp meal (maybe the best part for me at these shows) and hang around one of the best venues in Chicago catching up with friends and killing time before the rockin’ goes on. 
Frank Coutch, Cary ‘pained rock face’ Hudson, and Laurie
Stirratt, rockin at Schuba’s The show is the best so far. The band plays for over two hours, and even though I am pinned standing up at the merch stand, the show seems like it goes quickly and sounds great. Watch for live video of this show (maybe even of some new songs) on the Broadmoor and/or Blue Mountain MySpace page(s). So far it’s not the glamorous cliché of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but we still have five shows left. The ride home is a snap and I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. 6/25/07- We drive to Oxford, MS today, it’s basically a straight shot south on I-55, and it takes about 8 hours. The southern heat for a Yankee like myself is a whole new world of unpleasantness, basically humidity that makes you sweat once you start moving. We stay at a shotgun cabin about ten minutes away from Oxford in the town of Tayor, MS. The downtown area consists of a post office and three connected stores, it’s something you’d see in a move trying to portray a small southern town. One of the stores is a general store/grocery that also serves the best catfish in town. I assume this includes the greater Oxford area, since it’s the only place in Taylor that serves any food at all. Apparently they also have live concerts from the front porch, something that Blue Mountain has done in the past. The cabin hasn’t had the gas turned on, so we have no stove to cook with or hot water in the shower. I get used to cooking everything on the grill and don’t mind the cold showers, especially after being outside for more than ten minutes or so. When it starts getting dark, Laurie and I take a ride around the county, and I am introduced to the fine tradition of “low ridin’”, drinking beer from a to-go cup while someone else drives. There’s a particular color of light at dusk in the south that various authors have described as “gloam”, and I am glad to get a chance to experience it. The pace of Oxford compared to Chicago is like a donkey cart compared to a subway train, but I am starting to like it. 6/26/07-6/29/07 Another day off, and this time we go to the Hill Country Picnic in Pott’s Camp, MS where Blue Mountain will play tomorrow. I get a backstage pass, free access to the beer cooler, and I get to see Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia, and T-Model Ford. Cold beer is non-existant in and around Oxford. Local laws prohibit the sale of any beer from a cooler, so most stores sock Styrofoam ice chests and bags of ice next to their beer selection. Some ingenious Oxford resident figured out that if you put a can of beer in a chest of ice (some partially melted) and actually spin the can for 83 full rotations, the can will be cold. It works. No one knows who invented this technique, but if you ask me, this anonymous hero should at least have a plaque in the town square dedicated to him. T-Model Ford is one of the few surviving blues men from the Mississippi Hill Country, I definitely recognize how rare a privilege it is to see a guy like T-Model on his home turf. Thanks to the folks at Fat Possum records, T- Model, and fellow hill country musicians (and now sadly departed) R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough got some recognition as authentic voices in blues music. T-Model took charge of the stage with a pawn shop guitar and his 9-year-old grandson, Stud, on the drums. Between songs he would pause for “Jack Daniel’s Time,” then go right back in to playing. Everything about the Hill Country blues players is gritty and raw, and it just blows every sports-bar, leather-vest-and-cowboy-boots blues band out of the water. It’s impressive to see because you can tell that these guys have seen hard times, but carry on because they live for playing music. 
T-Model Ford and Stud at the
2007 Hill Country Picnic, photo courtesy of MaxShores.com 6/30/07- The Hill Country Picnic, Pott’s Camp,
MS/ Hal and Mal’s, Jackson MS. This was the busiest day of the tour, but also the
best. I stumble out of bed
at 10:30 am (after being up til 4am the night before), and we have
to get to the show for a prompt load in at noon. The rest of the day
is alternately fast and slow; some hours feel like five minutes, some
minutes feel like five hours. There is a weird dimension of time that anyone
who travels a lot knows, and I really feel it on this trip. A day goes by and you can’t remember if the
place you played yesterday was actually a week ago, then you get ready
all day for a show that if it goes right makes 2 hours feel like it
was an enjoyable ten minutes. 
Cary ‘pained rock face/questionable
safari hat’ Hudson doing more rockin’ at Potts Camp
Photo courtesy of MaxShores.com
I scarcely get the merch set up when it starts to
rain, which is welcome in the heat.
Blue Mountain does a half-hour set in the rain, and when they
clear the stage the rain stops. Lucky for me I don’t have to haul
gear in the rain. I pack up the merchandise and the gear and we leave
for Jackson, about a two and a half hour drive and a load in of 8pm.
I sleep a little on the way there and we get to the venue on
time. Hal and Mal’s in Jackson is a really nice venue,
it’s got a full restaurant and bar and a huge performance space. We get another free meal, and I get to try real
southern red rice and beans for the first time. It’s Friday and the place is packed. All told there are over 600 people at the show,
and I am really excited that the band is doing this well. The only drawbacks of the evening are the fact
that everyone in the place is drunk and it’s overwhelmingly hot. And even though I field the majority of the
foolish drunk questions at the merch table (And please don’t get me
wrong, Blue Mountain fans, we love you), the band has a much more
difficult time in the humidity and certainly over 100 degree heat
(I regret that through the whole trip I am unable to once check a
thermostat, even though it probably would have just upset me).
Even after a break, Frank looks like he is about to drop dead
from heat exhaustion. 
An overheated Frank Coutch and Laurie Stirratt at Hal
and Mal’s Photo by Meredith Martin Everyone in the crowd seems to be having the time
of their lives. Something I
have noticed about crowds in the south, especially at Blue Mountain
shows, is that they are always loose and ready for a good time.
It’s a nice change from the posing and “making-the-scene” that
I am used to in Chicago and other cities in the North East.
The night is probably the best of the tour, all things considered,
and I am ready to sleep anywhere I can.
A friend of the band from Jackson spares us the drive back
to Oxford, and I sleep better than I have in months. 7/1/07-7/3/07 A welcome few days off, and Laurie and I decide to
check out Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s home in Oxford.
We get the VIP treatment from a friend of Laurie’s who works
there, (getting backstage is fun, even at a museum).
I have a renewed appreciation for Faulkner, and I have some
better perspective on the books that I struggled with before and resolve
to give Faulkner another try when I get the chance.
We take it easy out at the cabin for the rest of the day and
prepare for the next few days. 7/4/07- Government Grocery, Ocean Springs, MS. Ocean Springs has the feel of a beach town; the strip
into town reminds me of summer vacations I took as a child in Cape
Cod. I take a walk with Cary before the show and
we go to the beach where people are shooting off fireworks and it’s
general chaos. Ocean Springs suffered damage during Hurricane Katrina;
nearby Deer Island lost a significant portion of land mass and the
bridge to Biloxi was blown apart.
Mississippi as a whole suffered serious damage along with other
places on the Gulf Coast, and it’s still upsetting to see what happened
(not to mention what’s not happening in terms of help from the
government, but I’ll leave politics out of this). I get a small sense of how devastating the storm
was when I see abandoned beachfront property with front stairways
to nowhere, when they previously led to houses.
Back at the show, the crowd is packed in and excited. I know a lot of Blue Mountain songs by heart
now, whereas before I had heard only a handful. It’s funny to think
how fast you can absorb information when you are around something
consistently. The show is another two hour extravaganza.
I guess after not playing together for so long, the band wants
to give people what they’ve been missing.
After the show we scope out a few sketchy motels,
and decide on the Quality Inn, which is worth it.
It’s funny how a simple thing like clean sheets and a shower
can make all the difference after a long day of traveling. I watch TV for the first time in weeks, even
though I haven’t even missed it. 7/5/07- Bottletree Café, Birmingham, AL The Bottletree is by far the nicest, most band friendly
venue that I have ever seen. As
soon as we arrive, Brian the show booker, helps us unload the equipment
and sets us up in the backstage area which has couches, a beer cooler,
wireless internet, free food and a trailer(!) for bands to sleep in
(and, I imagine, carry on other band related indiscretions).
The stage area is great, and the bar is showing old movies
on a giant pull down movie screen.
The band sounds as good as they have all tour and their old
drummer, Matt Brennan, even jumps on stage for a song.
I sit with the opening band at the community merch table, they
are thoroughly impressed by the fact that Frank was an extra in the
movie Big Bad Love, adapted
from the novel by late Oxford writer and friend of Blue Mountain,
Larry Brown. It’s funny the way that being in a transitory situation
helps you get to know people, it’s easier (for me at least) to talk
to people you know you probably won’t ever see again.
You relate to people more quickly than normal, and try to get
as much out of interactions that you can. It’s
fun to be on the move, but it does wear you out as the band can attest. We stay in the nicest hotel of the whole tour, courtesy
of the venue, one more way they went above and beyond their obligation
to the band. Sincere thanks
to Brian and the whole staff at the Bottletree, keep up the good work. 7/6/07- The Thirsty Hippo, Hattiesburg, MS Tonight’s the last show of the tour, and it’s sold
out. The doorman has to turn away several unfortunate
fans, some who traveled to see the band. The show is typically great,
the crowd is rabid, and the club is very nice to us. After we pack up I feel a little sad, knowing that
we don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow, but I am relieved as well.
I can’t think of a better way for me to have spent
a good chunk of my summer than touring with a band that I have come
to respect so much. It’s inspiring
to see the dedication that people can have to their music and I’ll
remember this tour for a while. Overall the tour was way more successful than the
band could have anticipated and I know that they are grateful to everyone
who came to the shows or let us stay at their house. Til next time,
thanks everyone and keep an eye out for future Blue Mountain news
and shows, Derek |
