Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Back from Tour Part 1

I have been busy for the last six months preparing and going on tour with my band holy!holy!holy!. I've been playing accordion for over two years now with the band and this is my second tour. Fair and Whitman love being on the road and Michael and I are coming closer to our dream of being a nomadic family. We left on a six week tour Nov. 1st and returned right before Winter Solstice. It was a crazy experience, but well worth any of the bumps in the road...
We had anywhere from 10-13 people traveling with us at anytime. Our band usually consists of 9 musicians, but add kids, girlfriends and tag-alongs and it can get a little cramped... but we made it work.

Here's half of the traveling crew hanging with the kids.


Big Sur, CA

We started in Portland and traveled down the Californian coast to San Diego. Then we turned east through Arizona and up through Colorado, turning west and eventually making it back home. We played over 20 shows and meet some amazing people along the way. The kids got picked up by Michael's mom and stayed with her in Tucson for a week, giving Michael and I the first time without kids EVER!!! We had fun but missed them terribly... When we got to Tucson, Grandma agreed to help get their ears pierced, but fair wasn't too stoked on it after the first ear. Whitman was a trooper. We took them to a professional piercing/tattoo parlor that Michael's friend Lenny owns. Speaking of tattoos... Michael got his facial tattoos done and I had my first "stick and poke" tattoo as well.


fair and whitman post piercing... yes fair is not happy...

One of the best parts of tour was spending time at the beach in San Diego. The kids got to swim in the ocean for the first time. Oregon's coastal waters are freezing all year long and the kids were stoked playing with dad in the water. Fair and I regularly went rock hunting and now have quite the collection.


So now... we are gearing up for another tour, but this time we are going for almost 4 months, with two buses (sometimes three) and incorporating belly dancing and more crafty endeavors as well. We lost four members and now have added over 6 new ones. So right now we are going over old songs and writing new ones. It's exciting and so many things are coming together...

Quintin, our violinist, suited up for our Halloween Tour kick-off.