I don’t think there’s any way this tour could have been more fun or have been improved in anyway. Not from my perspective. Admittedly though, by the time we got to Sunday, we were all seriously exhausted and slap happy. We split into two groups to drive to Dayton. JB and Jon took the band gear van and got an early start for Cincinnati where JB had found a great deal on a 2″ tape machine. (small aside: JB made my week - when they picked it up the guy he bought it from told JB that it was used to record the records of one of my favoritest bands ever: The Afghan Whigs!) Danny borrowed a car from his parents and he and Sam and I piled in an hour later and started the final drive for Dayton OH at the mercy of the 6 disc CD changer in the back of the car. At least we heard Sinead’s spectacular Prince cover “Nothing Compares 2 U”. That was the high point as we wandered between skippables like N-Sync, Backstreet Boys, and the truly curious disc “Menopause - The Musical.” The track “Stayin’ Awake” (Bee Gees re-written), was good for a laugh or twelve.  It was bitterly cold. Really the first inclement weather we’d encountered all tour (amazing, considering Milwaukee and Chicago were on the list in Dec). We were golden until we realized we’d accounted for seemingly everything but the time zone change. Whoops! Eh, The JSB were still the first ones at the venue, so what are you gonna do? Since we got there early, we had time to order a band pizza. We’re all spoiled by NY pizza, but this was something to blog about: Cheeseburger pizza. Instead of tomato sauce, ketchup and mustard were mixed, and it was topped with tomato, onion, bacon and pickles. Delicious!

We performed at the Canal Street Tavern, a venue I hadn’t been to since high school, when I saw Peter Mulvey perform there. It hadn’t changed a bit. Perfect place to close down the tour. The Umbrella Men had curated the bill and it was a great turnout for a couple of groups of hometown heros. The place was mobbed! My dad got up and gave a us a kind introduction, and then we tore through a final hoarse set, energy restored by the attentive crowd. When it was time to leave, I was the lucky one. Jon, Danny and Sam were driving back to St. Louis where they would find Monday’s transportation to the arms of their family. JB was taking the gear and the van back to NEW JERSEY(?!), driving as long as he could Sunday night, and finishing up the rest of the travel on Christmas Eve. I got off easy - my ‘rents took me home 45 minutes away and gave me clam-chowder and salad and bread and pie and a bed. Yes, a bed. Exhausted as we were, Danny’s father shared a a great story of how to stay awake when driving with an empty energy tank. He and his brother were driving late night to Arizona and falling asleep at the wheel, but apparently were unable to stop and rest. They developed this ingenious plan instead: whoever was driving rolled down their window and held a $100 bill out the window. Ya! No sleep till Brooklyn, indeed.

See ya in the new year, lovelies!!!

It was a dark and stormy night. Honest. After a rowdy Chicago show we rolled into the Lou in a downpour. Because I misunderstood the sound man, we wound up spending two hours dozing on the basement couches at the cavernous Old Rock House before we got onstage for a check. On the bill with us was the fantastic St. Louis based band The Feed who are fronted by my old grade school pal Dave Grelle. Dave, who is an indisputable keyboard virtuoso, not only put together the night and played a great show with his band, he also gave JB free reign over his fire engine red Fender Rhodes piano and played some wicked melodica with us on Bill Monroe’s ‘Sittin on Top of the World’. The crowd was big, enthusiastic, attentive, friendly, and almost entirely related to me, which was nice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2183154838/

After being woken up by David’s dogs (thanks again David and Phylis!) we got going to my hometown, Chicago, and before I speak about the show, I have to tell you about something very important - JB’s very first Chicago Hot Dog…  So JB’s never had one of these beauties and for those of you who don’t know, all hot dogs in the world are gross compared to a Chicago dog.  First off, it’s an all beef dog with a steamed poppyseed bun, but then you pretty much have an entire garden of toppings on the dog (onions, relish, mustard, tomatoes, cucumbers, hot sport peppers, and finally, a crunch dill pickle spear and NO KETCHUP.)  Anyway, I took JB to one of my favorite spots in the city, Hot Doug’s, where not only do they make an amazing hot dog, but they also make their own insanely unique sausages (elk, venison, kangaroo, duck, etc.) but on Fri/Sat, they make their special duck fat fries (heavenly good.)  Here’s a photo of our feast - I got a blue cheese pork sausage with green apples, creme fraiche, and smoked almonds (no joke) it was the best thing ever) and JB finally ate his first Chicago hot dog!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2182368285/

So, onto the show… For the past 3 years, my brothers and I have thrown a holiday party in Chicago called “Deck The Hulls.”   It’s become a grand Hull family tradition - it consists of us inviting friends, dressing up in really bad holiday sweaters, and usually ending up at at Louie’s for karaoke and La Pasadita (the smallest one) for the best Horchata ever.

But this year, we’re on the road, so it seemed like a perfect fit for us to play the party…  The Beat Kitchen was PACKED with people and it was a blast!  While Danny and I have played Chicago a couple times as a duo, this was the first time my family and friends back home have seen The Jones Street Boys and it meant a lot to me…

To keep up with tradition, Sam and I rocked some really ugly holiday sweaters at the show – here are some live shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2182366707/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2182366179/

It also meant a lot that a one of the Chicago newspapers listed us as a concert pick for the night – ALONGSIDE R. KELLY!  The hilarity here is immeasurable on its own, but I really goes up a notch considering we’ve been watching the best video he’s ever made on YouTube lately – “Real Talk.”  Words can’t describe how completely ridiculously funny this is – if you haven’t already seen it, watch it here – I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard…

R. Kelly “Real Talk” - http://youtube.com/watch?v=cdaAWFoWr2c

Back when I was an 18 year old freshman at Marquette U I saw the great Irish band Solas play Shank Hall. I was a pretty horrible mandolin player back then and could barely fake 3 chords on the guitar. So, it was pretty satisfying to ride into Milwaukee the way we did, what with a fantastically warm welcome from WMSE 91.7 station manager Tom Crawford to play in his studios and then follow it up with a fun, easy-going sound check at Shank. Our good friends David and Phylis Ravel put us up in their unbelievably cozy home and filled us with delcious chili and, well, delcious bourbon after our check and sent us to the venue quite contented. A great country act by the name of Brown Derby opened up the show with some sneaky slinky guitar playing and some fine singing. We got to play a real long set and showcase some new tunes in what was a perfect capper to a very relaxing day on tour. Plus, Walt got to smoke Winstons on stage - you can still do that in the land of Pabst and honey.

Allright! The big driving distances are behind us and we’re all still in one piece, although JB has a nasty case of the sniffles. We’ve been throwing every conceivable OTC immune system builder at him, and he seems happy and stabilized. No sniffles allowed on stage! We’re currently on the road and on the way to Milwaukee where we’ll be doing a live performance and interview at the radio station WMSE before playing at Shank Hall. Personally, I’m really excited, as I’ve never performed on the radio before. No flubbed notes allowed, as it’ll be recorded, archived, and whatnot… Bloomington was such a positive and homey experience! Jon and I graduated from Indiana University and both adore this town. It really is a little cultural mecca in the middle of the Midwest. I hadn’t been back since the day I left for Brooklyn, and it really felt wonderful to walk down Kirkwood and see the beautiful courthouse square with its annual Christmas lights strung up around the entire square. We stayed at the home of one of my good ol’ friends, the lovely Lyuba and her boyfriend Eugene. Their hospitality made us feel so warm and welcome. And their dog Sampson was a real trip. If you howl, he’ll howl right along with you and try and match your pitch. Quite a sight to behold.

The show was at Uncle Fester’s and was a hot set. Because the students were out of town for winter break and the show was confirmed too late to actively promote, we knew walking in that this wasn’t likely to be a packed house. But oh, the old friends that came out! It was such a joy to see all these wonderful people gathered in the same place: and then rock for them! The sound man handled our complicated needs with grace and aplomb. This may be an obvious statement, but I’ll say it anyway: whenever we can hear well onstage, we have a great time, play a solid set, and walk away satisfied. Fester’s was no exception. We tried on a rather “experimental” set, playing only 3 songs from the record and really stretching our unannointed audience’s expectations of what we were capable of. We even debuted a new tune for the audience. Usually when you perform a song for the first time live it doesn’t quite hit on all cylinders. It takes a show or two to work out the live kinks. We all agreed that we had the strongest debut ever for a brand new song. It’s a new tune of Danny’s called “Engram”. If we’re coming to your town, look for it, as we’re likely to play it at our next couple of shows. Engam, if you’re not familiar, is a word used to describe the chemical traces in the brain after a new memory is created. Yup. Heady.

Kudos once again to JB and Sam for driving through the night

After JB’s very first Cracker Barrel experience, we pulled into Nashville…  We arrived at The Basement – an awesome venue – with an amazing record store (Grimey’s) right above… Before the show I stocked up on some music for the rest of the tour which served us well – especially a reissue of an old soul album by Bob & Gene “If This World Were Mine” (which Daptone just put out) and the new Levon Helm album, “Dirt Farmer.”  I’m a huge fan of old soul music and the Bob & Gene was a rediscovered album from the late ‘60s from Buffalo, NY.  The Levon album was a gem as well…  Especially considering he had 28 radiation treatments for throat cancer and thought he might not ever be able to sing again – he totally owns on this album.  The drums/strings are very well done and his vocals continue to blow me away – when Levon sings something – you believe it!  JB also picked up a great old Kinks album which rules – we heart Grimey’s. 

Our good buddy JT (who rules) set the show up with a great band he works with, Those Darlins (www.myspace.com/darlins) – who not only played a beautiful set, but were super nice people (always a pleasure to play shows with awesome bands.)  We hit the stage to a packed house at The Basement and had a blast at our first ever Nashville show! 

We then went back to our friend Katie’s house (thanks again Katie and Jen) for a little pickin party… Not only is Katie an amazing person, but she plays a mean fiddle (if anyone has photo/video PLEASE send our way and we’ll post.)  We played a bunch of tunes that didn’t appear in our set earlier that evening and a whole lotta bluegrass. 

Anyway, we had a blast playing till the early hours of the morn with and someone in Idaho even blogged about the party:
http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2007/12/snowplows-and-jones-street-boys.html

On the way to Bloomington, we stopped at a gas station near Louisville where we entered this contest:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2182369413/

Sam (who is good at everything he does) also
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejonesstreetboys/2183153958/

And also at that gas station, a woman in the truck next to us approached the van and asked, “Are you guys in a band?” - Her name is Ducky and she bought a CD - thanks Ducky!  On to B-town…

Monday:  All night drive to Nashville
Big van.  Very big van.  It’s big enough that whichever three of us aren’t on driving duty can lay down, recline and try and catch a few hours of rest.  We’re lucky and thankful to have such a vehicle at our disposal.  And the heat works!  Comfy style. I forgot what an amazing perspective you can gain traveling by car and stopping at highway exit gas stations.  Stopping at stations in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee we’ve seen consumer options akin to the roadside velvet painting vendors I remember from growing up in rural Ohio.  Pennsylvania’s stations offered the innocuously offense plush stuffed animal white Bengal tiger heads just waiting to come home with you for the low low price of $14.95 and rest on the wall above your hearth.  Perhaps the ladies’ rooms in VA and TN offered less ridiculous fare than what we found in the men’s rooms.   The cologne and condom dispensers offered “Freedom French Ticklers”:  ”It’s patriotic!”  What, “Freedom Fries” wasn’t demonstrative enough?  And that was before we found the even sillier “Bin Laden” condom.  Truckstop sex is apparently not for the squeamish or unpolitical.  
We stopped at that ol’ US Highway standby, Cracker Barrel, for breakfast and stuffed our bellies after a long night of travel.  Homestyle cooking definitely has serious recuperative properties.  We’re about an hour outside of Nashville and after a great breakfast, all we need is some showers and a change of clothes and we’ll be feeling great and ready to put on a great show for our Nashville friends.  Bring on the rock!

Van + Gas – Check.
Good Books – Check.
One Banjo – Check.
One Drum Kit – Check.
One Sam Rockwell to play said Drum Kit – Check.

OK, it’s all here. The Jones Street Boys will hit the pavement (no ice jokes please) and are invading the Midwest next week. We’re so excited to see old friends and make new ones and mostly – to rock our way through the Midwest! It all starts this Saturday when Danny makes an appearance on KDHX 88.1, 11AM Central Time. He’ll be talking about The JSB on Keith Dudding’s DOWN YONDER program. Then on Monday night we’ll load up the car, say goodbye to our NYC amigos, leave the faucets dripping slightly to prevent frozen pipes, and hightail it out of Brooklyn!

Here’s a rough rundown of the next few weeks for the JSB. For in depth details, take a look at www.myspace.com/thejonesstreetboys.

12/15 - Danny on KDHX
12/18 - The Basement, Nashville TN
12/19 - Uncle Fester’s, Bloomington IN
12/20 - WSME Radio Interview/Live Performance - 4:30 CST
12/20 - Shank Hall, Milwaukee WI
12/21 - Beat Kitchen, Chicago IL
12/22 - The Old Rock House, St. Louis MO
12/23 - Canal Street Tavern, Dayton OH

While we’re driving and desperately trying to convince Jon that stopping at White Castle is a terrible idea for everyone involved, we’ll keep a tour diary on www.thejonesstreetboys.com. Check out the website for brand new blog entries and tales of the tour. I promise to keep references to our collective body odors to a minimum.

And one last point of order: Thank you Thank you Thank you friends and friends of friends and everyone out there who voted and forwarded emails and sent people to the Deli’s website to make The JSB The Deli Magazine’s Artist of the Month. From the bottom of our instruments, thank you.

We’ll see you in Flyover State territory! Happy Holidays.

The JSB

Hey Everyone,

It’s official - we won The Deli “Artist of the Month” for December! Now our goofy mugs will be featured on the homepage of www.thedelimagazine.com all month!

Seriously though - to everyone who voted, we thank you from the bottom of our instruments…

Love,

JSB