Shows at Random

It's been a good long while since the last post. I'll catch up with some highlights and than focus on a few recent shows.

Highlights beyond the regular gigs

Feb. 27 - Speak the Word Church International
We played at my church as part of our Cafe Night, an event put on 1-2x a year. A very large crowd, one of the biggest we've played to.

Feb. 28 - The Varsity Theater, Mpls
We played as part of the Eclectone Records showcase. Great big venue, good crowd and great friends/label mates. There was video taken but nothing has surfaced. Jed Staack (drummer) did double duty, playing with us and Mark Thomas Stockert. A long night for him.

Also on the bill that night:
The 757s
Six Mile Grove
Hojas Rojas
Dan Israel
Little Man
The Mad Ripple

Fast forward to present

May 18 - Iowa Public Radio

We were in Cedar Falls, IA at KUNI for their Live From Studio One radio show and you can listen to the program below. (Click on songs to start)

My wife took her 2 favorite songs from each disc to make up the set list. She did a great job! It's always nice playing songs you know someone wants to hear.

It's a bit dry in the radio studio...no real atmosphere to connect with. But I believe it was the best we've done on this program. We've played it 4x and this was the keeper.

Big thanks to Phil Maas (engineer) for greating us with a smile and for always being so friendly.

June 3 - Lake Harriet Band Shell, Mpls

Paul Liebenow (bass) is one of the sound engineers for the Lake Harriet Band Shell concert series and he landed us this slot. Great weather! It was odd at times, uncomfortable at times and fun at times.

Odd - people bike, run or walk by and than stop, look and listen, and head on their way. I felt a bit like a carnie trying to get people to stop by my booth.

Uncomfortable - besides the benches...there were birds zig zagging and dive bombing us all night! One came zooming right between me and Paul! We were joking prior to the set about who'd get pooped on...It was Paul's bass that got struck...funny and not at the same time. Sorry Paul.

Fun - we got to play outside, which is great.

Thanks to Dale for snapping theses pics!

End cap

We've been trying out new material and that's brought some refreshing to the dryness I know we all feel. We have 18 new songs we've been working on, 9 for a new CD...a tribute to the gospel sides of Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Washington Phillips, Dock Reed, Charley Patton, Son House, Lightnin' Hopkins and Robert Wilkins. You can view the blog/liner notes @ solecd.blogspot.com

The other songs will be distributed somewhere.

I've been listening to a ton more music lately and have been thus working out covers. Which is a change from my "I don't do covers" stance. I've realized that my joy in music is sharing the music I like with you...original or covers.

So, to end things off, here's a few discs I've really been enjoying.

Til next time! All the best.
-Tom Feldmann

- McCormick Gospel Singers: Songs Of Faith-Southern Gospel Legends Series

- Kilby Snow : Country Songs and Tunes with Autoharp

- Washington Phillips: Storefront & Streetcorner Gospel 1927 - 1929

- The Flying Clouds of Detroit: 1942-1950

- The Radio Four: 1952-1954

- Complete Recordings of Sam Cooke with The Soul Stirrers

- E.C. Ball: with Orna Ball & the Friendly Gospel Singers

Live on Iowa Public Radio

We were in Iowa City on November 8, 2008 for Iowa Public Radio's "Java Blend Radio Show". It was an hour long show, but I scaled it down to 20min for these purposes.

Click the player below to listen. Hope you enjoy!!


**Embedded Code for this Podcast**

Set:
Intro
Gypsy Russian Rose - lyrics
Pedal Steel Heaven - lyrics
10,000 Chains - lyrics
Interview Segment
Red Shoe Song - lyrics
Credits
Redeemed - lyrics

You Sound Like Bon Jovi, Right?

Madison/Chicago CD Release Shows
Cafe Montmartre - Madison, WI
The Orphanage - Chicago, IL

Saturday, November 1,

We were booked to close the night following the wonderful Jeffrey Foucault and equally talented Kris Delmhorst . Considering they are the well known singer/songwriters, we were happy to be on the bill.

It was a very packed house for their portion of the night and as we got up to do our set, the majority of the place cleared. In our defense it was Madison's big Halloween bash that night with big "doings" going on down the street.

We did hold a few people in the room for our set, but we couldn't get a good groove going and the whole thing was pretty out of sync. Jed was particulary hard on himself and was thinking of leaving the band...which we talked him out of cause he's a real fine drummer.

We hung around while the Halloweeners came in and out and since the manager on hand gave Jed and Paul 30 drink tickets earlier in the night, came back drunk to give them more, they were happy to stay put.

Sunday, November 2



The Orphanage is located in the First Luthern Church and is a very odd artsy space. We met a guy in the parking lot who is Bon Jovi's biggest fan and assumed we sounded like them, cause everybody loves Bon Jovi...

Not to be impolite I did agree that their earlier work was much better than the recent.

One of the most paranoid people we've met, he kept looking at Paul and Jed and saying, "oh man, who's that? Is he with you?" He jetted off into the middle of the street on his electric wheel chair pissed that we weren't pot heads and unable to help him out.



It was a lonely show, it's a destination venue (meaning if you don't have people coming to see you, nobody's there) and it seemed none of us bands had any people to see us. We played a great set, lots of fun, felt tight and sounded good to us. It was a good change from the previous show.

This was a hard trip as it made us take a hard look to the future and decide which direction to take. It's nobody's fault really, if people aren't coming out it's not their fault, nor is it ours. We do our best, you do your best.

It seems more people are staying home and if we get more views on youtube than we get people in the seats, it seems wiser to meet people where they are at and invest in making quality videos than driving great distances. If the computer can bridge the distance gap, I'm all for it.

I do know this, I'm extremely optimistic, hopefull and excited about the future, which I know to be Gods encouragement within me. So as new songs come forth and new ideas blossom as to how to get those songs out , we continue on.

More photos @ flickr.com

Midwestern White Kids Have No Butts.(Iowa CD Release Shows)

Thursday, October 23 - Des Moines, IA
Java Joe's - 7-8:30p
Vaudeville Mews - 10p



Our early show was at Java's Joes and it went quite well. There were swing dancing lessons in the theater part of the building, so we played in the main cafe area. Mingling folks, crazy looking homeless people who weren't homeless at all, and young kids trying to look like crazy homeless people pretty much made up the crowd.

We met 2 of Sarah Palin's campaign workers who were in town setting up for her Des Moines visit. They bought CD's, which was nice. Vaudeville Mews, the club next door, was having an all-ages rock show and no one came so the bands from that were milling about as well.

We did a long 1 1/2 hr. set, packed up and loaded in next door. The clubs are next door to each other.

Vaudeville Mews is a typical bar/venue, but I have to say they aren't very interested in having bands play their venue. They would rather be closed and be at home. Case in point. A band from Canada was setting up when we loaded in, they were supposed to play the all-ages show but got into town late, drove all day from Denver! So we said, cool, play. They played to the 2 people who came to see them and then when the local band went to set up, the club manager told them to go home because they didn't bring any paying customers!

So this poor local band, which I booked to play the CD release with us, had to come out late, listen to a band they really didn't like and then were told to leave!
If a band drives to play your venue, I think you should at least give them the option to decide whether to play or not. This is a growing epidemic within the music scene, venues that make you feel like, oh great the bands here...in a negative way.

Thumbs down for Vaudeville Mews!

We got on the road and made it to Iowa City by 2a. Fog like pea soup all the way, the guys were a bit nervous.

Friday, October 24 - Iowa City
Java Blend Radio Show - 12noon
Java House - 8p



We did 2 shows in Iowa City as well. 1st at noon for Iowa Public Radio's, Java Blend Radio Show. It's a live audience taping and airs a few weeks later. Ben Keiffer is the host and he had this to say about us, "Rich music mined from the depths of Americana. Feldmann’s probing lyrics and yearning growl will echo in your soul and lift you up."

We played an hour set, mixed the new stuff in with the old and it was really a great show. It's recorded at the Java House, which is where we would play that night, and it was full of people at the noon hour and what can I say, great show, great crowd, great time.

The show was a little slow that night, not many folks were out, but we had a good time with those who were there. We went out to the Mill afterwards and had an interesting time...don't sit next to the jukebox! Lots of college kids, all looked way to young to be in a bar. They all seemed to want to stand next to the jukebox and block the door to the bathrooms and since we were sitting in the booth next to the jukebox, by the door to the bathrooms, we had butts in our faces the whole night...one thing I learned, Midwestern white kids have no butts.

It rained most the time in Iowa City so we didn't get many pictures except this scary looking Ronald McDonald.



Saturday, October 25 - Davenport
Mojo's - 7p



Mojo's Coffeehouse is on the ground level of the River Music Experience building, which not only has multiple venues but acts as sort of a music museum.

We had to end early, 8p instead of 9, because their was a Smooth Jazz series going on upstairs and the guys were wailing! It was fun to see all the people all dressed up...unfortunately they walked by us and went upstairs.

A couple came out to see us who heard me on the radio about 8-9 years ago and have followed me since. It was great to talk with them and they dug the "private" show.

We decided to drive home that night and left Davenport by 8:30p. We stopped at Iowa's largest truck stop, got some supplies and were on the road. We got to Minneapolis by 4a. I was home by 5a.

Crazy wind through Iowa on the drive back which showed up in the form of snow in MN. First snow of the year...Oct. 26.

Jed took a bunch of photo's and you can see them @ flickr.com

Saturday, Sept. 27

30-Minute Music Hour, Madison, WI - 2:30p
Bernice's Tavern, Chicago, IL - 10p

We left around 5p for Madison on Friday, Sept. 26. Figured we'd drive down and stay with our friend Josh Harty rather than get up early in the AM and drive on Saturday.



Got into town around 10p and wandered State Street trying to remember where Josh worked. Finally tagged him at 10:30 and we headed to the Alchemy to see local Madison musician Blake Thomas. We ate, they drank and we got to know Josh's new girlfriend Jess, who was nice enough to let us stay with her and Josh that night and also cook us breakfast the next morning.

If not for the cat, to which I'm allergic, it would have been a great stay. I grabbed my toilet paper and headed for my "private" room, away from the cat.



Saturday, Sept. 27

We gathered our stuff, said goodbye to Jess, went to Josh's work to say farewell, and then made our way to the campus area where the Wisconsin Public Television studio's are located.

Parked outside of the building was a motorcycle with a casket.



30-Minute Music Hour is a music program recorded once a month. They film 3 acts in an afternoon and air them separately a month or so later on Wisconsin Public Television. You can see our segment @ WPT.org

A huge warehouse space, WPT is filled to the brim with PBS stuff; sets, cameras, building materials and lights, seemed every inch of the ceiling was occupied by lights. Being a PBS junky, I liked the pledge drive set/area the best.



We set up, sound checked and dove into the intro, which is us playing while Andy Moore, the host/producer/super nice guy, says the tag for the show.

Now, your intro is supposed to be a part of your first song. The idea being your playing while he does his tag and your into the show/first song. No stop, no break, as it's live via web. But Andy started making these hand gestures to me after he said his tag and I didn't know if he meant for me to stop or what. So I stopped, but Jed and Paul kept on playing, like your supposed to. Andy didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do, so I just started singing the song. It was a mess.

They called it, and we stopped and started over. You have to wait for the tapes to get cued up again, and all the camera people are looking at you and you know the folks watching via web are looking at you thinking, idiots! Kind of embarrassing.

Andy said he thinks we are the only ones to have done that. Sounds about right.

The rest of the show came out solid and he was very pleased. You'd never know I messed it up though, cause they only air the re-due, thankfully.

It was Andy's B-Day and he requested "Salvation" from our upcoming CD, Tin Roof Sky. We played a number of songs from the new album:

Set List
Jesus
Tin Roof Sky - new album
Gypsy Russian Rose - new album
Broadway - new album
Salvation - new album
Pedal Steel Heaven
Redeemed

We ended by 4:45p and loaded out by 5p and were on our way to Chicago for our 10p show at Bernice's Tavern.



Bernice's is a new venue for us. Located on the south side, it's a small hypster dive bar, on most nights anyway. The White Sox crew was out and I've never heard such profanity in my life. First set was crazy loud, them not us, but they left after the first set and we had a good crowd of locals to play to. We ended at 1am, long day, very long day, and headed to our luxurious Motel 6 to rest for the drive home on Sunday.

DVD of choice on this trip: Flight of the Concords series

More photos @ flickr.com

Hope to see you guys out and about.
-Tom Feldmann

Small clubs, Big bugs and White sand beaches

July 1 - Nashville, TN
July 2 - Birmingham, AL
July 3 - Pensacola, FL
July 4 - Pensacola, FL
July 5 - Mobile, AL
July 6 - Memphis, TN

First Stop, Nashville

The Music City Bar in Nashville is pretty much across the road from the ginormous OpryLand Resort/Center. The closest we may come to the Grand Ole Opry!

Being a Tuesday night we weren't really hoping for much, food and enough $$ to cover expenses was good enough. Bobby Green and his Smokin' Aces were playing before us, sort of an after Opry showcase of Classic Country, so we were looking forward to that. His poster advertised "the best pickers in Nashville" which we didn't believe, until who should waltz through the door? Mr. Doug Jernigan . Not exactly a household name, unless you have a pedal steel in your home, but Doug is one of the top steel players, labeled as "the fastest picking steelman of his day.

Naturally, Jed Germond (our pedal steel player) was a little nervous to be playing his first show on tour with us with Jernigan in the audience. By the time we got on to play Doug was on his way home, but not before we captured a few pictures.

The crowd fizzled out to a small group of locals (midnight on a Tues., I'd be leaving too). So we finished off the night and headed back to our accommodations satisfied that not only did we get to see one of the greatest steel players alive, but also got paid to play in Nashville.

On to B'Ham

Oh, the Oasis. A club I've played in various bands before, which led me to believe that they didn't remember me this time around because not only did they agree to pay us way more than they ever did before, but they paid for us to eat at some swanky outdoor eatery up the street. Only thing they gave us to eat in yrs. past were small bags of Bugles. Yes, we took some of those this time around to.

Good crowd, nice people, what more can you ask for? This was our first 3hr. gig and so it was great to see that we could pull it off. More than enough material.

More importantly, Birmingham is home to some of the biggest bugs we've seen! The locals said they were grasshoppers but I don't believe them. Our grasshoppers in MN are small and green, not huge and black. These are Kung Fu grasshoppers that could rip your face off...and the noise! Oh, man the noise.

I was brave enough to put out a hand for the photo opp.

P'cola

We were scheduled for 2 nights in Pensacola, FL.

The reason for the trip was to return to Radio Live, a live radio show program recorded in Pensacola on Florida Public Radio's WUWF.

Our first visit in '07 was broadcast from the Bayfront Warf, a gated resort community that you have to see to believe ...The Truman Show was filmed down the road. But this time, thankfully, it was back at it's regular venue, the Museum of Commerce building.

Easily the best turn out with over 200 people in attendance, it was great to play to such a receptive crowd. Also on the bill that night were Martha's Trouble from Auburn, AL and Sneeky Pete and the Fens. Listen to the archived July 3rd show.

This was a pre-show picture:)

I lived in Pensacola back in '03 so the one nice thing about that is I know where to go eat! So, after the show we took Germond to experience his first "Whataburger"...I would say the 2nd best fast food burger in the country (In-N-Out Burger being the 1st).

It was a toss up as to when we were gonna head to the beach and after we ate at my next favorite P'cola haunt, Hub Stacey's, we happened by the venue that we were supposed to play that evening. I say supposed to because it turned out that the booking agent left the venue and the club owners didn't have any record of who was playing so they booked another band for that weekend. We of course had no idea until we arrived at the Blues Cafe and found someone else's poster up in the window with the date we were supposed to play.

The Pensacola Independent did a nice full page story on us for that show. To read the aticle, click on the above link and enter The Get-Rites in "Search Articles".

After a rather frustrating conversation with the club owner, we didn't scratch our heads too long before deciding to move on to the beach. Not a bad second prize.

Wonderful white sand only to be deafened by the brilliance of our shimmering Minnesota tans...I'll spare you the pictures. It was good to get in the ocean again, something I did on a daily basis when I lived in the area, and it was good to see the guys enjoying themselves as well.

Mobile,AL

The Blind Mule was our Mobile stop and I've never played in Mobile, though I've traveled through to many times to count. My friend and old traveling partner Abraham Piper and I wrote a song about a hitchhiker we picked up and drove to Mobile. Fast Living, Slow Suicide is that song.

My good friend Chad Bishop set up the show and we played with his band Paper Scissors Rocketpack. We've toured with his previous band, The Cripple Lilies numerous times over the past few yrs. and it's a must for me to see Chad at least once a yr.

It was 4th of July weekend and I've never seen a town more dead than Mobile, but we loaded into the Blind Mule and got set up to play our 10 o'clock set. We had to drive 3hrs. to Jackson, MS that night to get to Memphis early the next day so we just wanted to get this one over with.

The venue is upstairs from the restaurant/bar and after we hiked our gear up the very unstable, very wet metal staircase to the side door we wondered if it was worth the effort...it wasn't.

We did see a nice double rainbow, so at least we had that.

We ended at 11p, loaded up and were out of there by 11:15.

On our way to Memphis.

Huey's Midtown Tavern was our last stop on the trip. For those MN's it's basically a Famous Daves BBQ style joint.

We were tired so it was nice to play a laid back afternoon set (4-7p) to a very nice group of people. They eat and listen, eat and listen. I really like this place and it used to be a bi-monthly stop for me so I was actually excited to be back.

Germond was seriously disappointed that they didn't have BBQ, who would of thought, Memphis and no BBQ? But he survived.

I 've always liked Memphis. Unfortunately the music scene has dried up a bit since the Blues, Rock&Roll and Soul days were it reigned supreme. We meant to get to Graceland and Sun Studio's but it was Sunday and we were lazy.

The boys did find enough strength to throw toothpicks at the ceiling, a Huey's tradition. I think the locals use straws to shoot them up but the Jed's (Staack and Germond) were man enough to do it by hand.

Homeward Bound

The shows were done, it was a great time and now it was 13hrs. to home. We made it to St. Louis, MO that night and were back in our own beds by midnight the next day. It was great to get home to my wife and daughter.

For me it's all about the traveling and we logged around 3,000 miles this trip. We had some great shows and some not so great shows, but when you get to spend time with guys you enjoy, view the country, make enough $$ to cover expenses, pay the boys, get home safe and sing about Jesus every night, than that spells a successful trip to me!

We also got to test out our new van, which proved much nicer than the old. We had to ditch our huge Chevy Van for a Nissan Quest...we traded size for luxury, and with the DVD option it proved a good choice. The Chevy was over $100 to fill and the Quest was around $50-$60 so not only did we get a hundred miles farther on mileage, we saved hundreds of dollars as well.

It is beautiful out there, so I hope you can get out and see something for yourself. The one disappointment was that there were hardly any RV's and other traveling vehicles out and about. I know that gas being what is drives that, but I had to laugh because I can remember standing at a pump when gas went up to $1.75 and I said, "I'll never be able to tour again, gas is way too expensive." Thank God that wasn't true.

Best,

-Tom

To view more photo's of the trip go to: flickr.com/photos