Casey Henry
This is the first in my series of tour blogs from the American Revival concerts. In order for you to make sense of them you’ll need to know this: The Dixie Bee-Liners are Brandi Hart (guitar, vocals), Buddy Woodward (mandolin), Rachel Johnson (fiddle), Jeremy Darrow (bass), Robin Davis (guitar), and myself Casey Henry on banjo.
The Dixie Bee-Liners van pulled out of Abingdon, VA dark and early (that is, before sunrise) on Thursday morning, headed for Raleigh, NC to play at the Stewart Theater at North Carolina State University. Jeremy (who drew the short straw) was behind the wheel, the rest of us were in an mostly-unconscious state as he drove through the fog, the dawn, and then into the blinding eastern sun.
Jeremy Darrow at the wheel.
The other two bands on the tour—Uncle Earl, and Sierra Hull and Highway 111—had flown into Raleigh the day before and they, in their rental vans, pulled into the venue shortly after we did. For the first time ever in our lives we had no fewer than five eager willing stage hands to help us unload all our equipment from the van. Awesome.
The dressing rooms back stage were divided by gender, so we Bee girls, the Earl girls, and Sierra plopped our stuff into the women’s side, while the balance of the band members inhabited the men’s quarters. It was a nice mixer right away, and although some of us hadn’t met each other, enough people from the three bands were friends that we were immediately at ease with each others. Ira, our tour manager, had allowed plenty of time for soundchecks, so we had lots of hanging out time in the dressing rooms.
Uncle Earl soundchecked first, so I worked on my computer, taking advantage of the free wireless at the theater. DBL soundchecked second, Sierra last, since she was opening the show. They fed us a nice lunch of soup and sandwiches, with plenty of vegetarian options, and they even remembered Brandi’s dairy-free sandwich.
There was still tons of time between the end of our soundcheck and supper time, so Jeremy and I got out and walked around campus, enjoying the fall colors. It felt good just to move around!
As showtime approached they set up a lovely supper of salad, chicken or salmon entrée, and some luscious desserts. Rachel, Brandi, and I ate with Ron Block, who is playing banjo and guitar with Sierra. With food as good as they’ve giving us, it will be really hard not to gain weight on this trip!
The stage was half-circle shaped, with the audience arced all the way around. It had a very cozy feel. But when we were on stage the lights were so bright that we couldn’t see anyone at all! No one had told us whether they were going to introduce us or had shared any details of our entrance at all, so when Sierra finished and the stagehands set up our stuff, we walked out and made our own adjustments and just kinda stood there when we were ready. They killed the lights, and then brought them back up, and we kicked in to the first tune, “Crooked Road.” Gotta work on that for tonight!
Our set went as smoothly as it could have for a first show. It was the first time we’d done at least two of the songs: “Truck Stop Baby,” from Susanville, and our new promo tune, “She Plays Like A Girl.” We closed with the latter, and except for me coming in singing the chorus in the wrong place and Brandi switching two verses around it went just fine.
DBL USB bracelet
We’re running a special text-in promotion to win a free download of that song. Brandi ordered these cool USB flashdrive bracelets, and we’ve loaded the track onto them. The first three audience members to text us during the show win one. And I’m a little jealous of them, actually, because she didn’t give them to us band members!
Uncle Earl played after intermission—a truly wonderful set that we ended with a big group encore number—and then we all headed to the lobby to sign CDs and chat. After the huge merchandise counting and repacking all the stuff in the van we headed to the hotel, where I fell gratefully into bed. I don’t think the first tour day could possibly have gone better, and it really pumped us up for the rest of the eighteen shows. Tonight: Frederick, Maryland.
Tags: American Revival, dixie bee-liners, tour
Way to go Casey! You’re off to a good start. I enjoyed reading your entry. Good luck and best wishes to you and all the Dixie Bee-Liners.