“I sound like trash” -me after rehearsal on Thursday night, where I sound… frankly, like trash.
I have been sick all week. Like, call out from my day job (which I never do) because I can't work sick. I'm coughing and have a sinus infection and my right ear is pretty consistently plugged up. I have antibiotics from the doctor and a bunch of over-the-counter meds. Ron isn't feeling amazing either. But this is one of my favorite gigs of the year, so we're doing this.
We leave on Friday morning at around 10 am. Ron is driving and tells me all I have to do is navigate and relax. I'm finally on the upswing (no more fever at least and the symptoms are getting better), so I'm hoping that by the time we perform on Saturday I'll be okay. We stop in Palm Springs for lunch at a place called Billy Reed's, which is permanently stuck in 1975's idea of opulence. Red plush carpet and dark wood everywhere. I don't have much of an appetite, but I eat half of a really good patty melt and fries with a Shirley Temple. Billy Reed's is just the kind of place that demands you drink a Shirley Temple.
We stop a few more times. We don't want to push ourselves on the drive since we're both tired and getting over being sick, and we get to Tucson at around 7 pm. We're staying at Hotel McCoy again, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to stay. You stay at a lot of places when you travel, some better than others (ask me about the Motel 6 in Phoenix sometime), but Hotel McCoy is always welcoming and it's comfy and cozy. We go get Mexican food for dinner and then we relax and go to bed. We don't want to tax ourselves too much.
I don't sleep well. I'm up half the night coughing.
Saturday morning I wake up and dope myself to the gills with DayQuil and Mucinex and we head to the festival. Like I said, Tucson Folk Festival is one of my favorite shows. Everyone is always so positive. The staff and volunteers are happy to be there, the people watching are happy to be there, the performers are happy to be there and it always runs well. We check in and run into Scott from Fox and Bones. We say a quick hello and then head to our stage. We're early. It's not even noon and we don't perform until 1:30, but I like to be early. It calms my nerves.
We watch the acts before us and everyone is just fantastic. The Humanjones Review does a cover of “Baba O'Reilly” that I was not expecting. Kayla Von Der Heide sings songs about the desert with a beautiful rich voice. We miss a lot of the Secret Trails set because we're getting ourselves settled and tuned, but I really like what I hear.
Then it's our turn. I've been taught not to apologize in advance for your performance, so I don't say anything about being sick to the audience. We've crafted our setlist to be as easy on my voice as possible and off we go. We start with “Jenny Lynn” and the definitely seem to be on our side. Then we do “Another One Like You”, which is about the only song I could sing lead on. Bobbo and Tracy from The Fallen Stars and Tracy's parents show up about one song into our set. They were at the Hands Off protest, which we really wanted to attend, but with our schedule and how we were feeling, we couldn't make it work. According to Bobbo we got cheers during “Drowning Rain” and I saw some people singing along to “A Song For You" which is nice. Always good to see some Gram Parson appreciation.
We end, like we often do with “Water's Edge.” It's one of my favorite songs we've written. My voice is about 70% and I feel clumsy on the guitar, but we give the best show we possibly can under the circumstances. We sell a few CDs and as we walk around the festival the rest of the day, people keep recognizing and stopping us to say how much they enjoyed our set. It's a good feeling.
A couple of guys from New England practically force a twenty dollar bill into Ron's hand as a thank you tip. We really try not to take it, because it feels weird to accept a tip at a festival, but he won't let it go. We talk with them a bit and chat with Eric Douglas. We try to catch Bobbo's workshop, but by the time we make it over there, he's well into it and I don't want to join late and cause a disruption, so we leave.
We give a quick little interview with Tucson Loves Music, where I hope I sound coherent. Then we eat something, which means, unfortunately, that we miss Eric's set, but it's almost 3 and we're starving. By this time, my social and physical batteries are just about depleted, so we decide to head back to the hotel. As we're leaving, a wind kicks up and it starts to rain, so we really left right on time.
Back at the hotel we relax with some local beer from the bar and eventually order a pizza (on the phone, like it's the 90's!) from a local place that the front desk recommended. There's live music at the hotel tonight and we want to go, but I can't bring myself to leave the room. I'm just too beat. So we watch the kind of movie you watch just because it's on and not too mentally taxing.
The next morning I sleep in until almost 10. We get on the road just before checkout time (11 am) and head home. It's kind of a long drive, but the weekend makes it completely worth it. Farewell Tucson. Until we meet again.