Our friend Clark at Chippewa calls this particular style of boot the “Mystiquero” boot & its true. This is the pair the Mystiqueros all have, and wear most often. They are heavy, durable (maybe indestructable), and they are a much cooler looking boot than I should be allowed to wear, because I am most definitely not cool. I elected to have these boots on the front cover of my new record, “Plenty,” not my face. The designer, who works in Fort Worth, Texas, must regard these among his finest creations. I hope so.

The Mystiquero boot is constructed in El Paso, Texas & Joplin, Missouri, and Chippewas a 100+ year old company from Wisconsin. That’s about as home-grown Americanas there is. Check out ChippewaBoots.com; there’s an insanely cool collection of high-quality, iconic footwear. We call it boot-porn.

Now, Chippewa has made a few new pair of our beloved Mystiquero Boot for us to try out in a lighter, sand color, with rough-out leather. They may be cooler than the originals - ’Hard to say. But I suspect I will wear my new pair of Mystiquero Boots for a long time, and with apologies to many of my fellow troubadors who will without a doubt cast longing eyes down at my new friends, I don’t think I will give these away either.
They’ll be available to everyone before long.

WW

The weather was beautiful and we finally got to play the Abilene Bar outside under the stars. That was the plan the very first time we came up here but it rained. It couldn’t have been more beautiful. The patio was packed with folks and it felt great to

Main Street brodge over the Genesee River, Rochester NY June 2012

have all the boys together rocking out. If I hadn’t managed to trip over a step and fall down on my way out the back gate, the evening would have been perfect…..  don’t worry the only permanent damage done was to my pride

As usual, the Colvin’s treated us to an afternoon of food, beer and fun the next day including the quickly becoming annual wiffle ball game. WW’s team won the day and we headed to Buffalo and the Sportsman’s Tavern. Still and always one of my favorite places. However the pizza joint I always talk about when we play the Sportsman’s was CLOSED! We got saved by No.1 Chinese, right down the street. A little family run hole in the wall with fast fresh tasting food. The interior renovations at the Tavern are pretty much complete and it’s now about twice the size it was when we played out first show here. The crowd in Buffalo is always warm and welcoming and I hope to be coming back here for a long time.

The big surprise of the weekend was The Linda in Albany. Ensconced in an old bank building, the WAMC Performing Arts Center was a new venue and a new city for us and I was hoping that 10 people would show up. We ended up with 50 or so attentive listeners and played a more “songwriter” show that the previous 2 rocking nights. It was sweet and cool. Former Austinite Michael Eck opened the show and we made some new fans and friends. We also got to see the state capital of NY which, after growing up just 4 hours away, I had never seen. Everyone is looking forward to our visit to Cooperstown Baseball heaven and another weekend in Upstate NY comes to a successful end.

Once again I got to see and play some music with my old friend Lou Mondelli and I managed to leave my beloved and perfectly worn in Chippewa Boots in the hotel room! We spent the early afternoon on a boat on lake Wylie with our local promoter and friends and were 2 hours done the road north before I realized I’d left my boots!! After many phone calls, they have been located and I hope are being sent overnight to me for tomorrow’s show in Buffalo.

We had a good day of driving yesterday to make it up to our friends the Colvin’s house in LeRoy NY, our staging area for the next leg of the tour. We made a small stop to look at the Little League International Baseball Field. Brian, Corby and Ray pulled in around 9:30 from Nashville and when Marcus lands at Rochester International today, will have all the boys back together and ready to rock. Look out upstate NY…..

Of course we had to have both Memphis food groups, so we hit the Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken location in Germantown on our way to Nashville. That is how fried chicken should be. With BBQ, Chicken and a fun show out of the way we headed off to Nashville to visit with friends and play the Bluebird Cafe. My favorite surprise of the tour came when I found out the Danny Flowers would be playing all night at the Bluebird with us. Danny is one of my favorite songwriters and a badass on the guitar. He was kind enough to let me take a verse on the first Danny Flowers song I ever learned, “Tulsa Time.” I couldn’t just gone home after that, cause that was just plain cool. Thanks Danny. The rest of the show was great and we had a nice evening before heading off to the hills outside of Knoxville for a house concert.

As I sit in a “Holler” in the mountains of TN today, I feel as relaxed as can be. It’s beautiful here. When we arrived at Jay Clarks’ house I knew it would be a good night. We got so relaxed before the show it was actually kind of hard to get started, but the audience was so amazing that we lifted up into the spirit moving, music making realm that we love to dance in. The response from these amazing folks in this beautiful setting will be ringing in my head for the rest of the tour. And just when I was sure it wouldn’t get any better, I was treated to the most amazing show I have ever seen. Thousands upon thousands of fireflies lighting up the woods in a patternless dance of blinking light that felt alive. I hope the decide to come out again tonight……

The drive out of Texas is never our favorite part so we put it off by having a visit at Chippewa Boots and lingering over a nice lunch at a Fort Worth hang called the Yucatan Taco Shack. It’s like an upscale take on Chipotle with an interior Mexican twist. Very nice but we had to keep moving and even though I always like being in Ruston, LA,  I never expected to be greeted by shocks of vibrant flowers. Like little clouds of color and fragrance, every corner in the area near the Sundown Tavern is covered with begonias. I always wonder why we’re coming back to this gig until I walk into the bar and the bartender greets me by name. Fine friendly people, good food, and Monty Russell. That’ll do it for me.

So we’ll get down the road to Memphis today. The land of Stax, Sun, Elvis and Jimmy Davis. The sweet smell of Louisiana begonias in our wake.

Our second trip to Hill Country NYC didn’t disappoint. We were treated well, the BBQ is still pretty darn good and we had a really nice crowd. A before show walk around the block allowed my to snap a pic of the nearby flat iron building. It’s always fun for me to get back to NYC for a day or 2. I really appreciate how much time I spent as a young person there, learning my way around. It comes in handy.

We were back on the road the following morning, stopping at the airport to drop off WW so he could fly to a one night gig in Houston and then heading down to DC. Back home to the Mansion. I truly love it here and will refrain from rambling on about it. Let’s just say I feel quite at home. It was Marcus’s first time at the hotel, so we spent some time exploring and watching the amazed look on his face and then the three of us headed out to a pick up gig at Kybecca Wine Bar in Fredericksberg, VA. I don’t think they get a lot of experienced touring artists at Kybecca. Upon entering we were kind of assaulted and a bit put off by head chef and co-owner Kyle’s attitude and list of do’s and don’ts. We were also told that the microphone and stand that were supposed to be there, had walked off. Something it would have been nice to know yesterday! Being Mystiqueros and professionals, we weathered the storm long enough to start playing a few songs and by the end of the 3rd tune we had the place won over. It was a bit stressful at first, but it all worked out and we had a really fine meal there as well.

It’s a treat to be in the same city for a few days, especially one I like as much as DC, and Ray chose a great spot for lunch the next day. Panos Gourmet Empanadas. It reminds my of a Chipoltle or something. You order at the counter and then take your food, but what food it is. we tried as many different types of empanadas as we could manage, but for me the stand out was the Chipoltle Steak. Really well seasoned, tender steak inside a perfectly baked shell. Along with their spicy Aji sauce and a really nice mixed green salad, we were all fat, happy and ready for our show at the new Hill Country BBQ location in DC.

They might still be working a few kinks out in the new DC Hill Country, but all in all it’s a great place. The staff was excellent to work with, the BBQ pretty consistent with NYC and it was packed! Our show was packed with people. It was a really fun night and we let our hair down a bit. The stage doesn’t sound quite as good as the NYC location and I got some complaints about the front of house sound, but the production staff is doing a fine job and with a little support and a couple of adjustments to the stage and the gear, they’ll have a great sounding little room. Our last full band electric show of the summer tour went swimmingly and I’m already looking forward to coming back.