House Shows, The Road, Woodstock…
First of all, sorry for the delay in posting. I’ve been on the road for a little over three weeks now and internet has been sparse.
The past 12 days I’ve been on a house show tour with Eliot Morris. If you’ve been at the show or hosted us THANK YOU!! We’re really having a great time driving around in a Volvo and having a memorable experience playing our songs in living rooms across the Mid-West and East coast. Here’s some pics from the tour so far.
I hope this fortune cookie is right.
The Ninja Fight of the Century.
Jon Black Wins! Fatality!
Chicago Deep Dish Pizza from Gino’s
A Large Lake that Chicago sits on (Lake Michigan)
Backyard show in Lafayette, Indiana
After our show in Medford, NJ last night we drove up to Bethel, NY to meet up with the Counting Crows. Bethel is where Woodstock happened back in 1969. This week is the 39th anniversary and walking around there felt electric. Eliot had the fortune of being on tour with Counting Crows in 2006 and sent all the right Christmas cards to get us passes backstage and full set photo passes as well. We took some great footage. Before the show we got a small tour of the farm where Woodstock happened. When I was 13 and learning to play guitar we would rent the Woodstock movie and watch it mainly to see Jimi Hendrix. A childhood dream of mine came true today. I stood where the Woodstock stage was and had goosebumps. Our tour guide accidentally ended up at Woodstock and never left. He spoke of it like it was yesterday. Music combined with the human experience and exchange is a powerful thing.
I thought about how I’ve named my new record Goodbye Golden Age while standing in the very spot of the Woodstock stage… right where Jimi Hendrix played his version of the Star Spangled Banner… things may never be like that again. Things have changed. I was reminded of that watching Maroon 5 sell sex tonight on stage in front of a lot of white middle-aged women dancing awkwardly. The band sounded great but it’s like Lester Bangs said: “Rock n’ Roll, in the future, will be the industry of cool.” Too much noise to cut through these days and songs about life, dreams, and how big the moon actually is may not have a place in the future. Thank God for living rooms full of people who want to listen.
We ended up catching most of the Counting Crows set and then jumping on stage at the end to sing Hangin’ Around. I’ve never stood in front of that many people and used my voice. It was something I’ll never forget and I’m grateful for everyone that helped make this happen. I even hand-delivered a copy of my new record to Adam Duritz… hopefully he’ll connect with it.
We have a few more dates left on this tour and it’s been a huge success. I’m glad it’s not over and I hope to have more adventures later this week to share about.
I miss my wife though and my own bed but that’s part of the deal with playing music… you give and take.
Hope all is well on your side of the screen.
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Two things, Fatality (re: Ninja fight with Eliot) was the name of my metal band back in the day: http://www.myspace.com/fatality1989
My friend went to see the CC, M5, SB thing and said CC was not on-point, I see you neglected to comment on their performance. Sounds like you had fun though singing with them.
“I even hand-delivered a copy of my new record to Adam Duritz…”
you gotta do what you gotta do.
I’m still regretting not pasting Micah’s Paste review on Ben Harper’s trailer door. Never will I live a chance like that down again
Anna - exactly, I gotta do what I gotta do.
Randy - yeah, CC sounded good but I think I’d prefer to see them in a theater setting like The Fox in Atlanta or The Alabama Theatre in Birmingham… I’ve never had a good time at amphitheater shows. I really think this was the first one I’d been to at least 10 years. They were good and I wish I could have heard them play for much longer.
so when’s the new record come out anyway?
hey Jon….happy to see your site isn’t blocked at my work (silly firewalls block EVERYTHING)!!
i’ve bookmarked it as a favorite. thank you again for doing everything you do. you’re as real in your journal words as you are in person. just incredible
(although, hopefully you don’t mind, but you and Eliot will always be hand-in-hand in my head..i can’t really see it any other way, now that i know who Jon Black is :P)
Wow. That. Is. Cool.
SUPER COOL.