It was last fall when I first thought about a tour for the following year. 2009 was going to be my year; the year where everything would finally come together for me. It already had in terms of projects of mine that were up & running & off the ground. A triumphant return to the poetry scene in Chicago…a new band…regular performances…local & international press. I seemed to have had it all & I was in good spirits, despite what was just around the corner.
I’d been planning for a fall tour of the tri-state area (NY, NJ & PA) much earlier in the spring; I’d even had a contact that promised to help me out. Together we prepared a decent press kit & she promised to get me gigs. But then it happened. The bottom fell out & she disappeared. She continually sent me list emails, but stopped responding to my personal requests of helping me out with this fall tour & so I forged it alone once again. Managed to get a few gigs after a good thrashing from those who I thought were my friends. By then it was too late. Still I had a good time and came home happy.
It was about late December when my good pal Mykel Board proposed a new tour for 2009; but he wanted to go south. I wanted to go to Boston & all points east. Eventually I agreed to go south. We settled on Tennessee initially, but then again, I was the one who would be booking the tour. Just like fall 2007, when I booked that tour as well. Three dates in Chicago, four dates in Indiana. That trip was a true success for me; I’d learnt all the tricks of the trade in terms of how to book shows, where we’d stay, pay (if any) & many other miscellaneous tasks.
I was in my element. I felt we did well, despite small audiences at times & Mykel’s feelings of inadequacy with our last show in Indianapolis of bombing out completely. We’d received good press, whether we knew it or not. We met good people, had great experiences, great adventures, the kind of thing you’d expect when you toured with someone else.
So, in mid-January, 2009, the bookings began. We went back on forth where and where not could we go, due to distance. Once that was settled, it wasn’t long until I had lined up four dates for us; one in Knoxville. One in Nashville. One in Memphis and then one in Greenville, South Carolina. Mykel took care of all the sleeping accommodations via friends & couchsurfing.com & took care of all the sight-seeing activities for us. He said I had the harder part. I disagree, but I digress.
We went back and forth on tour titles until I settled on Mykel’s proposal of “Bad Ole’ Boys” Tour 2009. It seemed to fit in perfectly with the South; you know that mentality I’m talking about. Rednecks, inbreeds, Elvis, KKK, hillbillies, moonshine, gun lovers, hound dogs, Deliverance, Easy Rider, slavery, racism, segregation, civil rights-all the usual stereotypes, that I’d been used to as I’d never been to the South, other than passing though West Memphis once on a Greyhound bus coming back from Texas in 2002.
The furthest South I’d ever been to was Indiana, both visiting there as a child, living there in the middle 1990s and then touring there in 2007. Anything south of Chicago, I considered south. Most people never go out of their own backyard, or just dream about it, so I felt lucky.
Then in late March, 2009, my personal life fell apart. I was terminated from my job that I had held like a prison sentence for seven and a half years long. It was that job that kept me going just in terms of finances, in order to pay for things like airline tickets & rent & bills. Now what was I going to do? All of my friends were happy for me; the complete opposite of what one would expect. But they knew how unhappy I was there. I filed for unemployment and began looking for a new job. In this uncertain economy, anything might be possible. So I thought.
The following week, my group disbanded, due to creative differences. Happens all the time, my co-partner & friend said to me. He said he’d still be able to accompany me for future solo gigs, as his guitar-playing was getting better all the time. But I saw it coming too, as there were major divisions within. The band I had started over two years ago was pulled out from under me & became a runaway bastardized monster; something of course, that I didn’t want or need. Something that was not like me at all. More about that later.
I worried constantly. Lost a lot of sleep & had little appetite in the days that followed. Wondering if after all this time if Mykel would cancel the tour we put together. With no viable income, how could I go or at least afford it? Close to tears, I emailed Mykel and explained my situation that I couldn’t afford to pay for gas & car rental. No problem he said, as he proposed an alternative to paying for my half. All I had to do was give him eight promo radio spot records I’d bought last fall at a yard sale in New Jersey.
I was saved! All I had to do was pay for food and the little trinkets I saw along the way. I’d been hoping that this time perhaps people would either pay us well enough or at least buy my CDs, so’s I could have enough to live on throughout the tour. Unsure of myself, I left the morning of Friday, April 17, for O’Hare International Airport with only $20 in my wallet and three bags, hoping for the best.
What's the worst thing that could happen to two Jews touring in the Bible Belt?
