The Murphy Method Blog

Casey Henry

If it wasn’t for having to title this blog every day, I’d have no idea how many days we’ve been on tour. Today I was criticized by my tour mates for not updating the blog yesterday, which, I might add, was our day off, so I’d better get with the program today.

Friday night’s hotel was a little weird. It was called the Country Hearth Inn and it still had that new construction smell. There was a high school sports team staying there, as well as a huge group of women who were very enthusiastic and loud, and the walls were very thin, so I could hear people talking in the rooms on both sides of me, and they weren’t even talking loudly. I tried to turn on the AC to drown out the noise, but the fan wouldn’t stay on, so I resorted to ear plugs.

Then in the morning the hot water they had for tea had obviously been run through the coffee maker and tasted awful. And one of the lamps in my room was missing a lightbulb.

But the whole experience was redeemed as we were loading the van, when Robin donned one of the Uncle Earl Halloween wigs:

Robin Davis will wear that starry crown over there.

After that highlight I broke off from the rest of the band, rented a car, and went to my aunt Laurie’s fiftieth birthday party. Great food, great wine, two different chocolate cakes. What more can one ask from a party?

The rest of the band drove to Asheville and took it easy. They had the best Indian food that they’ve ever had (so they tell me) at a restaurant called Mela. Brandi finished book four of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels. Jeremy practiced mandolin. I’m not privy to what the other bands did, but everyone really, really enjoyed their day off.

I re-met the rest of the band today, dropping my rental car off and getting Rachel and her boyfriend Chris to come pick me up and take me to our hotel. Tonight’s venue was the Orange Peel, a club, rather than a theater, which is what we’ve mostly been playing up to this point.

After our load-in and soundcheck Jeremy, Robin, and I walked down the street to a noodle shop for supper. Jeremy had won ton noodle soup, Robin had seseme noodles, and I had tom tom noddle soup. All was well and good until Jeremy bit down on what he thought was a tough piece of cabbage. Unfortunately it wasn’t. This is what is was:

Jeremy Darrow with the rogue soup ingredient.

In case you can’t tell, it’s a piece of paper, like the kind of seal that’s on top of the parmesean cheese container under the cap that you have to take off before you can shake it out. Yeah. And they tried to charge him for it anyway. He made them take it off the bill.

The crowd tonight was very enthusiastic, if not very large. They genuinely seemed to like what we did, and that made us feel good. Alas, they didn’t seem to like it enough to buy CDs, though. You win some, you lose some.

Tonight’s post-show libations were at the Irish pub down the street, Hannah Flannagan’s. Boddington’s for me, Guinness for Jeremy, not sure for Robin. Boy that really hit the spot.

Today is a short drive down to Atlanta, where we’re playing at the Red Light Cafe. I know at least eleven people, my family and friends, who are coming tonight, so we should be able to pack the place!

Monday night's marquee.

Casey Henry

This is the eighth 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.

Tonight, I thought, was the best show that we’ve done so far. A lot of that had to do with audience response—they hooted and hollered (I don’t think it was just my relatives yelling…)—and that makes such a difference. We also had a chance to warm up before the show. That helps, too. And for some reason we really seemed to groove. Maybe it was Rachel’s new sweater (bought on her K-Mart shopping spree yesterday). Maybe it was the pre-show glass of wine.

On stage I was momentarily distracted when I realized that the crotch of my tights had slipped lower than was really comfortable, but I persevered. I’m also not really liking how constricting my new pencil skirt is, but I think I can get my tailor to make the slit up the back bigger to give me a little more room to move around.

Our text-in promotion is going great. We got the most texts we’ve ever gotten last night: fifty!! Yet still, one of the winners didn’t stop by the table to pick up their wristband. Hmmm.

The day started off with a quick two-hour drive during which, I’m proud to say, we did not make a single stop. That’s almost unheard of in this band. Since we got here so early I went on a nice little walk around downtown Greensboro and found an awesome bakery and coffeeshop, Simple Kneads, where I got an amazing scone, a latte, and some hummus and bread for my supper later on. (It also turned out to be my breakfast…) Right next door just happens to be a yarn shop, which I’m going back to tomorrow to pick out some yarn for Rachel to crochet me a scarf.

Our post-show libations were at a wine bar called Rioja where they had lots of cool art, including this nifty painting:

The totally coincidental painting of a banjo at the wine bar.

We are all looking forward to tomorrow, which is a day off—on a Saturday! How ‘bout that. I’m spending the day in Charlotte, attending my aunt’s 50^th birthday party, and I’ll meet up with the rest of the band in Asheville on Sunday for our show at The Orange Peel.

Casey Henry

This is the second 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.

Today started with a drive—around six hours from North Carolina to Maryland. There was a flurry as the three vans were leaving the hotel as we figured out whether we were going to caravan or drive separately. We decided to each make our own way and we got on the road a little after nine.

When we loaded the van I noticed that some of the other band members had cups and bags from Brueggers Bagels. The hotel didn’t have a complimentary breakfast, so I figured we’d stop at Starbucks or something. But Robin said they had actually gone to Brueggers. When we were all in the van I said, “You know what was really cool? When you told me and Rachel that you were going to Brueggers and we all went together and it was a great band bonding experience!” Jeremy was duly apologetic, but I won’t let him forget it…

Rachel had decided to ride with Clay Hess (guitar player with Sierra Hull) and his wife Samantha, who were driving their own car, so I had the whole rear seat of the van to myself. I took advantage of that by sleeping for most of the trip. I did wake up for our coffee stop in Richmond. We got off the interstate, heading toward a Starbucks, but every single attempt we made to find the store was thwarted. In driving fruitlessly around Virginia’s capitol we wasted more than half an hour, never found out Starbucks, and ended up patronizing a more local establishment.

Duly caffined up we got back on the interstate and I promptly went back to sleep.

The Dixie Bee-Liners at the Weinberg Center for the Arts, Frederick, MD

When we got to the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, we did the usual loading in and sound checking. Today our sound check was incredibly long because they were trying to sort out channels leading from our in-ear monitor rig to the house sound system, which took probably close to an hour. I took pictures and tweeted while they were doing that, since setting up sound is not part of my job. It is Jeremy’s job, and we all felt sorry for all the rigmarole he had to deal with. I’m sure we tried the sound man’s patience, but he was a good sport.

We opened the show tonight and our set felt a little smoother than yesterday. We’re still settling in. Tour management doesn’t want band members in the lobby at intermission, only after the show, so we get to hang out back stage, visit and snack, if we’re not up watching the show, until after our final group number.

I had a strange moment in the lobby of the theater. We’d been there for several hours, and I’d been in the lobby at least once. I was in the lobby again looking at a picture on the wall and suddenly I realized that I had been there before. The Maryland Banjo Academy, a camp sponsored by Banjo Newsletter, had one of their concerts here. I distinctly remember playing “Real Women Drive Trucks” on that show. It was startling to realize that I’d been in here for hours and not recognized the place.

The slam-bang finish...

Post-show we signed and visited in the lobby. Murphy Method student Susan Morrison came out to the show, as did our friends Archie and Priscilla Warnock. It means a lot to us when our friends and family come see us. It makes the whole show experience more fun.

After spending the night at a nearby hotel, we’re headed out to Hampton, VA this morning. Both Rachel and I have gotten up and worked out two mornings in a row, and we’re quite proud of ourselves. We’ll see if we can keep that up!!