Casey Henry

I made it to England and back in one piece. The big festival we played there was really wonderful, and the little mini-festival was fun in a more low-key sort of way. Here are some pictures to illustrate the experience.

We flew out of Dulles Airport, which required a six-hour drive from our meeting place in Abingdon, Va. We took off Wednesday night, arriving in London at 10 a.m. the next morning. We had some trouble locating our driver, who was to take us to the hotel, so for a couple hours we made ourselves at home in the middle of the floor in Heathrow’s terminal one.

Buddy Woodward, Casey Henry, Rachel Renee Johnson, Todd Livingston and luggage.

As soon as we got to the hotel, Rachel and I headed straight to the bar to get some lunch. There I enjoyed my very first Guinness of the trip. So what if it was only 9 a.m. in Nashville??

Casey with the first Guinness of the trip.

It’s often the little differences that delight me the most when traveling abroad. This trip it was the milk that accompanied the tea/coffee tray in the hotel room. Instead of being powdered creamer like in the U.S., or even liquid milk in a little round foil-topped container, it was liquid milk in a tube. How cool!

Milk in a tube.

Friday we played at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. Our driver, Martin Driver, picked us up and took us to the festival. Here we all are:

Martin Driver, Rachel Renee Johnson, Sav Sankaran, Todd Livingston, Buddy Woodward, Brandi Hart, Casey Henry

The stage was, I swear, like four stories tall. Just look at how Buddy and Rachel are dwarfed by it in the picture below. It was closed on three sides, so it was almost like playing indoors.

Rachel and Buddy next to the really huge stage.

This was our view from the stage. I think there were about 20,000 people in the audience. I really would have needed a wide-angle lens to capture the whole thing. This is about a quarter of the crowd.

The crowd at Cropredy.

After our set we signed autographs for nearly an hour. In addition to CDs and programs we got to sign funny hats, a pair of rain boots (still on the girl’s feet), the playing side of a CD, a beach ball that we had thrown into the crowd, the front of someone’s jacket while he was still wearing it, and a twenty pound note (which felt really weird. Is that even legal??) Here’s us after the signing in our stage duds:

The Dixie Bee-Liners.

The next day’s gig was at the Face Bar in Reading. A van came and picked us up for the two-hour drive. The mini-festival, called Cold Dog Soup, had five bands. The banjo player from Amy Harrison and the Secondhand Stringband interviewed me for his website. He also brought me beer. (He clearly did his research about how to get on my good side!) I was a bit nervous about getting the beer back home, since I had to check it and it was in glass bottles, but I carefully packed each bottle in a sock and wrapped up the cardboard bottle carrier in a bunch of t-shirts that we’d brought to sell but didn’t. All arrived home completely intact, to be enjoyed in the near future.

Harvey's beer sampler.

I met a couple Murphy Method students while there, which was cool. Overall the trip was too short and too busy. We didn’t get a chance to see anything but the roads between the airport, hotels, and gigs. I take that back. Rachel and I did walk around Banbury one evening, and we went to see the movie Inception. (Wow.) Hopefully the next trip (whenever that might be) will be at a more leisurely pace. But we met some really nice people and got to play a huge festival, so overall: a success.

Casey Henry

Today the Dixie Bee-Liners take off for England where we’ll play two days: Friday at a big folk festival in Cropredy put on by the Fairport Convention, Saturday at a mini-festival called Cold Dog Soup, held at the Face Bar in Reading. It’s great to have the opportunity to play in the UK, but a bummer our trip is so short. We come back Sunday morning.

I’m taking CDs with me (duh), packed in my checked luggage, as well as a few DVDs. It was hard to decide which DVDs to bring, since we have so many. I settled on ten, which was all that would fit in my suitcase and still leave room for clothes. Two each of: Beyond Vamping, Easy Songs, Slow Jam, Picking up the Pace, and Beginning Banjo Vol 1. I know it’s sometimes challenging for UK customers to get our products, and I don’t even know if I’ll see any of our students while I’m there, but if I don’t sell all the CDs and DVDs the people at the end of the night on Saturday are going to get some extremely good deals!

My plane reading material (because I know your’re curious) will be Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna and Colleen McCullough The Thorn Birds, both of which have been sitting on my unread shelf a long time.

I’d better go change my strings, so that I can take my wire cutters out of my case. They don’t like them in carry-on luggage. I once had my bracket wrench almost confiscated and I had to mail it back to myself from the airport. If ever there was a more innocuous piece of metal than a bracket wrench I don’t know what it would be! But it’s now worth $5.95 more to me than it was before.

Casey Henry

Now that I’m temporarily back home and in front of my desktop computer, here are some pictures from last weekend’s touring.

The Dixie Bee-Liners, on the air at WNRN in Charlottesville. Sav Sankaran, Buddy Woodward, Brandi Hart, Rachel Renee Johnson.

This cracked me up. It was on the bulletin board at the WNRN studio.

Last Friday night's venue, in Staunton, Virginia.

Notice the little bee they drew on their chalkboard marquee. That's attention to detail, right there!

The Dixie Bee-Liners on stage at the Mockingbird: Casey Henry, Buddy Woodward, Brandi Hart, Rachel Renee Johnson, Sav Sankaran.

...and a view from the opposite direction...

We stayed at the Rooster Hill bed and breakfast in Crozet, Virginia, for the weekend. They have chickens. Here's Rachel, gathering our Saturday morning breakfast!

And finally, the sign outside the Purple Fiddle in Thomas, West Virginia. This was next to the street, just in case anyone was driving by and suddenly realized they had the urge to stop and hear some live music.

Casey Henry

The Dixie Bee-Liners went out last weekend for a quick run up to Iowa and Wisconsin to play a couple of gigs. These weekend out-and-back trips are typical for a touring bluegrass band, so I thought I’d give you a brief picture of how our time breaks down.

Total time away from home: 77 hours

Time spent driving/riding: 32.5 hours (or 42%)

Time spent sleeping 20 hours (this is pretty good, actually!)

Time spent practicing: 2 hours

Time spent actually playing music on stage 3 hours 10 minutes (or 4%)

The two shows we played went really, really well. At the Legion Arts Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we had a nearly-sold-out crowd that was extremely enthusiastic and bought lots of CDs. (That’s our favorite type of crowd!) The building that housed the show—built in 1891—was originally a Czech social hall and it had that wonderful, slightly musty old building smell the second you walked in the door. Now it’s used for concerts and art exhibits. The exhibit currently on display featured artifacts someone had pulled our of their river two years ago when it flooded. (The many still-empty store fronts in downtown Cedar Rapids provided a sobering parallel to Nashville’s more recent disaster.)

Possibly the most interesting element of our show that night was the bat that flew around while we played. It made a couple of swooping passes during each set and, I suppose, kept the room mosquito free. Our concert was the next-to-last before they pause for a major building renovation, during which they will close up all the holes where bats come in (among other things). I, for one, am extremely glad we got to play in the old version of the hall. Bats add so much scope for imagination.

The Quaker Oats factory in Cedar Rapids.

(Exciting side note [well, exciting to me, anyway...]: Cedar Rapids is apparently the home of Quaker Oats. Our hotel was right across from their factory. And downtown really did smell like oatmeal! Dear Quaker Oats folks, I have one request: organic steel-cut oats. Thank you.)

Our show the next day was in Two Rivers, WI. We were a bit late arriving because the GPS (I believe I’ve mentioned here before that I HATE THE GPS!!!) took us on a longer-than-necessary route (instead of 312 miles on four-lane state highways—5 hours 45 min—it sent us 389 miles on interstates—6 hours 30 minutes).

But after a speedy set-up and soundcheck we were treated to yet another enthusiastic audience. This time they not only gave us an encore, but baked goods as well. The famous Hagar, who makes half-pound cookies (no kidding), bestowed upon us a bag full of them, one of which became my supper. We actually sold out of Susanville CDs that night, which is a great feeling.

My first attempt at a granny square.

During all of our driving around I finished up one crocheting project, and figured out how to make my very first granny square (perhaps a little messy, but still recognizable). I predict many more of these in the future.

On the trip back Sunday I, for once, actually arrived home before the rest of the band. Usually we head east, so I meet the van at Brandi and Buddy’s house in Abingdon, Va., which is a five-hour drive from my house. This time we met up in Louisville—three hours for me, but six for them. As I sat on my couch that evening, with a frosty cold beer, I thought about them, still in the van, traveling through the night to make it back home.

Casey Henry

The Dixie Bee-Liners are in the northeast this weekend and we have totally lucked out on the weather. We played in Cambridge, MA, Friday night, Shirley, MA, Saturday night, and are headed to Harrisburg, PA, today, and it’s supposed to be 46 degrees. How awesome is that!

In Cambridge we played at Club Passim, which is a prestigious folk club that has been there for 52 years. I had actually never heard of it, but it turned out to be a really cool place. They have a restaurant adjacent to the club called the Veggie Cafe. They served wonderful food. I had roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, and goat cheese over coconut rice. Scrumptions. A good meal like that before you play makes a huge difference.

We opened for a band called Christabel and the Jons. As it turned out, they are from Tennessee, too, (Knoxville) and play original swingy country/jazz songs. Very cool. I traded for their CD, which we’re going to listen to in the van on the way to the gig today.

Last night we played at the Bull Run Restaurant. This place, which reminded me strongly of Penn Alps in Maryland, had crazy good food. I ate so much. Salad with greens, apples, roasted butternut squash, and a maple balsamic vinegarette. Ravioli stuffed with cheese and peppers over a butternut squash puree. (Butternut squash seems to be a running theme this weekend. Hmmm.) I was still full five hours afterwards. The building was built in 1740, which makes it one of the oldest places I’ve ever played, and the crowd was wonderful. One of my mom’s old school mates from Clarkesville came, Jane Thompson. And I sold two whole CDs. I love it when that happens.

A couple of times this weekend I’ve had a sweaty-finger problem. I’ll be playing a song, usually my banjo tune in the set, “Leroy and Liza,” and I realize that my thumbpick is working its way down my thumb. I’m playing my last break thinking, “Please don’t come off before the last note, please don’t come off before the last note!” Luck was with me and it stayed on, but it was nerve wracking.

Well, gotta dash. We’re loading the van to head to Harrisburg to play at the Stage on Herr tonight. See you there!

Casey Henry

Yesterday: last show of the tour. Cool old Vaudeville theater with a surprising amount of space in the dressing rooms. I had the BEST surprise. I knew that my cousin who lives here in Pittsburgh and her boyfriend were coming to the show. She came when we were soundchecking and we went to eat Greek food (the owner of the restaurant was Jackie O’s personal chef on her yacht). I knew that my cousin and his girlfriend who live about an hour away were coming. But when I walked into the lobby at intermission and saw two of my mom’s cousins who live in Georgia, I was bowled over. Butch Martin had already seen the show once in Atlanta and still wanted to see it again (that’s a good sign, right?).

It was a really good show and really good crowd last night. For the first time on the entire tour, we had trouble with our sign. We’ve been doing a text-in promotion, so we have the phone number on a big sign. Every show after we show it to the audience, Robin props it up in front of the monitor speakers on the stage. Last night for some reason, it would not stay propped. It actually slid off the front of the stage! On his third try it stayed, earning a nice hand from the audience!

The sweet Uncle Earl G’earls gave us a bottle of wine and made us this card:

We’ll miss you, too!! I’ll miss Paula singing baritone at my left shoulder during the finale songs. I’ll miss the theme songs. I’ll miss the jokes. I’ll miss hearing “Shiny Penny” and “Crayola” every day. I wish I had gotten a banjo lesson from Paula.

Here’s what I won’t miss: having to load the van every morning. Hotel breakfasts every morning. Riding in the van every single day. Having to wear the same clothes over and over and over.

Another thing I’ll miss is doing the pattycake on “Crayola.” Here’s Rachel and Sierra, trying to work up their verse, backstage in Hamilton, OH.

Rachel Johnson and Sierra Hull

Rachel Johnson and Sierra Hull

And I’ll miss everyone. I hope we get to do another tour together sometime!

Casey Henry

This is gonna be a speed-blog because I’m running late and we’re about to load the van to drive 4 1/2 hours to our LAST GIG OF THE TOUR!! We were all a bit disappointed yesterday when we realized what a long drive it was. Originally the tour book (our itenerary) had said it was only 110 miles. Alas, it’s 293 miles. Bummer. Here’s a concise view of our tour, courtesy of Uncle Earl: tour map.

First I have to say to my Dad:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I’ll call you later!

There are many things that we’ll miss when this tour is over. Loading the van in the morning is not one of them. Inevitably we’re always waiting on someone or other. So a couple days ago I took some waiting pictures:

Robin Davis. Waiting.

Jeremy Darrow. Waiting. (In his snazzy new Uncle Earl hat. He helped them load their van--he got a hat.)

Casey Henry. Waiting.

We will miss getting to hang out with such great musicians and amusing people every day.

Here’s the link to my third tour post over on the Bluegrass Blog.

Gotta run. See y’all in Pittsburgh tonight I hope! (I mean, we’ll definitely be there, I just hope that you will, too.)

Casey Henry

Our band did a school outreach yesterday afternoon at St. John’s Lutheran School. The entire school was in attendence, a couple hundred K-8^th graders. The littler kids were totally into it, clapping to almost every song, though not at all in time (it sounded like heavy rain pounding on a roof), but the eighth graders in the back row were more aloof, watching politely but completely undemonstrative.

It’s a completely different experience playing for children than for adults. I like to study the kids and pick out who looks the most like me at that age. She’d definitely be obeying all the rules, sitting politely, paying attention, long brown hair, headband or ponytail, braces.

We had to adjust our material some, on account of all the singing about alcohol, suicide, and sex that we usually do. J We did “Bound to Ride,” and Buddy introduced it with a long spiel about crackers (the food, not the people). The next song was Robin singing “Nine Pound Hammer.” As he was singing the verse that goes, “It’s a long way to Harlan, it’s a long way to Hazard, just to get a little brew…” he suddenly realized he was singing about moonshine and improvised on the fly: “It’s a long way to Harlan, it’s a long way to Hazard, just to get a pile of crackers…” The band cracked up, of course, and the school’s staff was none the wiser. The kids didn’t care.

Our show tonight had a pretty good crowd, but they were a little too polite. We like the ones who will hoot and holler. Oh. Wait. I can hear them now. They’re hooting and hollering for Uncle Earl. It was just us. Okay then. Never mind….

The women of the American Revival Tour getting ready to sing the Crayola song.

Anyway. Uncle Earl does one of Kristin Andreassen’s songs, “Crayola Doesn’t Make A Color For Your Eyes.” I’m not sure if I’ve really written anything about it until now, but it is a totally awesome song. It won some kind of songwriting award, but it’s completely charming and the last line of the chorus is “Crayola doesn’t make a color to draw my love.” Their arrangement includes a hand clap/slap pattycake thing all the way through. They sing and clap simultaneously and I didn’t fully appreciate how hard that is until last night.

The G’Earls wanted to get all the women on the tour involved and on stage at the same time, so Rachel and Sierra learned a verse to sing while they clapped, and Brandi and I were hand jive partners. To keep the pattern going through the entire song takes a balance of concentration and not-thinking-about-it that I have not achieved yet. Maybe by tonight, or tomorrow.

We just have two more shows left. Two! Long drive today—six hours—and a show tonight in Hamilton, Ohio. We need to make sure to get a group picture before we all go our separate ways.

Casey Henry

I’m sitting the lounge of the Hilton Hotel in Naperville, IL, near Chicago, writing this. Who knows when I’ll be able to post it because they make you pay for internet access here, which I’m not willing to do. Last night my phone told me there was a Caribou Coffee half a mile away, so I was planning on going there. But this morning my phone decided it was really two miles away and, since I don’t have van keys, it would have taken too long to walk there.

Scarf attempt #2.

Yesterday was a travel day, nine hours from Knoxville to the Chicago area. Rachel decided to ride with Clay and Sam Hess, so I once again had the back van seat to myself (woohoo!). That made my trip easier. I finished my second crocheted scarf and finished Charlaine Harris’s new collection of Sookie Stackhouse short stories. Buddy and Jeremy did the driving, and a fine driving job it was, too.

Jeremy realized that we were passing very close to the Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe in Frankfort, Ky., so we stopped there for lunch. The Bee-Liners have played there a few times in the past, and the bookshelf-lined walls created an extremely comfortable atmostphere. I had the black bean salsa wrap and potato salad. Really, really good.

When we got close to the hotel, we decided to grab supper before checking in. We went to possibly the worst Thai restaurant that any of us have ever been to. Good presentation, but they fell far short in the taste department. You win some, you lose some. We certainly lost that one.

I took an early bed but Rachel decided to go to the midnight showing of “New Moon” with Clay and Sam. I was long asleep by the time they got back after 2 a.m. I’m still waiting for a report on the movie, since she was still asleep when I left the room this morning.

Today we’re playing a school show from 2-3 before heading over to the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage for tonight’s show. I really hope that we can hold the attention of a room full of first through eighth graders.

P.S. – A big thank you once again to Caribou Coffee, once again, for their internet access. And for my dark chocolate latte. Big yum.