Rope Around America!

Hey folks! Hope everyone's doing well. As I'm writing this we're cruisin' through Nashville headed to Texas. Telisha's driving and Annabelle (the real road dog!) is asleep in the back of the Mobile Clubhouse. Things couldn't be better... other than gas prices, which send me into small fits of rage every time we pass a billboard with an even higher number than the last one.

Anyway- in an effort to think about something other than that, Telisha and I have been talking about you guys. Yep, you. We've had some really good shows lately, and a lot of the reason is because a bunch of ya'll have either sent your friends out to see us or drug them along with you when you came out to see us. I can't express how much that means to us. it's the only way we can make this work, and we really appreciate it more than you know. We'd really like to find a way to thank you for it!

So with that in mind we've got an idea. We're really expanding our touring and playing in a bunch of new places. The good news about that is that we're hopefully getting ready to make a bunch of new fans and friends. The bad news is that we might not know a lot of people in the places we're heading to. That's where you come in. We're calling it the "Rope Around America" campaign! It's simple. At all of our shows, we've got a little clipboard where we collect email addresses. All you have to do is send your friends, or drag your friends, to our show. Then all they have to do is write YOUR name on the clipboard by the email blank! Whoever gets their name written down the most times between now and July 1st wins. See? Simple. Oh- what do you win? More good news. Telisha and I are going back into the studio at the end of this Summer. That still puts the new release WAY off, but the grand prize winner will have their name mentioned in a song on the record! I'm not kidding! We're really going to do this. It's just how much we appreciate your help.

So- to give you a running start I've pasted a bunch of our upcoming shows below. Of course there are more on the website, so go there too. (www.DandTW.com/tour.html) Even if you don't live in any of these places, SURELY you know someone close to some of them. Send them out! Do whatever you gotta do. The only real rule is just don't cheat- One person=one name=one point. We don't have any Michigan or Florida dates between now and July, but we're in negotiations, and hopefully we'll have it all worked out in a fair way by the conventio.... uh... recording.

Mar 20, 2008 Thursday 6:00 PM Whole Foods Market Austin, TX With Idgy Vaughn!
Mar 21, 2008 Friday 9:00 PM Anderson Fair Houston, TX
Mar 22, 2008 Saturday 8:00 PM Labyrinth Walk Coffeehouse Dallas, TX with Small Potatoes
Mar 25, 2008 Tuesday All Day University of Central Missouri - Social Work Conference Warrensburg, MO
Mar 28, 2008 Friday 7:00 PM House Concert Mineral Wells, TX
http://rafandsioux.com/house_concerts.html
Apr 3, 2008 Thursday 8:00 PM Mojo Risin' Coffeehouse Houston, TX
Apr 4, 2008 Friday 8:00 PM White Rock Coffee Dallas, TX
Apr 5, 2008 Saturday 8:00 PM The Bugle Boy LaGrange, TX
http://www.thebugleboy.com
Apr 11, 2008 Friday 8:00 PM Eden Hall Gleneden Beach, OR
http://www.edenhall.com
Apr 12, 2008 Saturday TBA Old Richmond Church Richmond, OR
Apr 18, 2008 Friday 8:00 PM Bongo Billy's Salida, CO
http://www.salidacafe.com
Apr 24, 2008 Thursday 7:30 PM The Birchmere Alexandria, VA
Opening for Joe Ely!
Apr 25, 2008 Friday 8:00 PM The Gravity Lounge Charlottesville, VA
With Danny Schmidt!

OK- That's it for now! Good luck! Hope to see you all somewhere down the road soon-
Doug
www.DandTW.com

Why I support Barack Obama

Truthfully, some of you don’t care. I’m just one other person with an opinion. And opinions are like… uh… noses – everybody’s got one. But I figure I may as well air mine out. You’re welcome to do the same. This whole “shut up and sing” phenomenon is really strange to me. Politics, music, literature and art have always been intermingled, no matter what anyone tells you.

Anyway- different rant. Back to Obama. Here’s what it boils down to for me. There are some big issues on the table; Health care, the war in Iraq, education, and constitutional rights. I really think we need a universal, civilized, affordable, national health care plan, just like the rest of the ‘civilized’ world. So do both Obama and Clinton. I want to have our troops in Iraq return home ASAP. So do both Obama and Clinton. I want our public education to be properly funded and progressive and forward thinking. So do both Obama and Clinton. I believe in the constitution- from front to back, beginning to end. Particularly the Bill of Rights (yes, even the 2nd amendment—real Liberals like me support our right to bear arms). So do… well, they’re both with me on most of it, like free speech, privacy, right to a fair trial, personal liberties, church and state stuff. Things that have turned up missing over the past 7 years.

I could go on listing topics, “Green Collar” jobs, right to choice, minority rights, gay rights, etc., but that’s missing the point. There are two things that are at play here that I think we’re missing in the national democratic debate. One-- Hillary and Barack line up pretty darn close on almost every issue. Two—The president doesn’t just “say” something is law and it becomes law (unless you’re W, and you scribble out unconstitutional signing statements—but I digress). Things happen in Washington through cooperation and hard work. The minute differences in the policies both of them propose don’t add up to anything. It doesn’t matter. By the time either of them get anything through congress it will look a lot different than it does now.

So why do I care? Why am I excited about Obama? First off because he’s an exciting guy. Maybe that seems like a pretty soft reason to endorse a candidate, but think about it for a minute. In America, we’ve been disenfranchised with our politics pretty much since Watergate. I WANT to be excited about a candidate. I WANT other people to be excited. I WANT to hope for a better America, and I want to be inspired. People keep comparing him to JFK for a reason. He makes you feel good, and that’s not an entirely bad thing, is it? I’ve heard people try to detract from this point. They say it’s an “Obama-palooza” and that “he’s the next best thing to Hanna Montana and getting an iPod”. I suppose that means it’s a fad to be excited about him. He’s trendy, and he’s got all these young whipper-snappers excited about politics. I still haven’t heard anyone explain why that’s a bad thing, though.

Second, maybe it is time for just an itsy-bitsy revolution. Out with the old and in with the new. I love Hillary. I do. I hope she has a great and long political career ahead of her, just not as the President of the United States right now. This might upset some of you, and I hope it doesn’t, but here goes. When I watch them speak and debate, and when I watch their ads and read their press, I get a sense that Hillary is very intent on winning this election. On the other hand, I get the sense that Barack is very intent on leading this nation. To me there is a massive difference there. (And no, I’m not a sexist—not any more than Hillary supporters are racists.)

My third reason is that Barack really is a uniter and, whether it’s intentional or not, Hillary is a very polarizing subject. Notice I said “subject” and not “person”. Call it bad luck, or whatever, but your average every day republican HATES the Clintons. Sure, they all made a lot of money in the killer economy Bill provided for them in the 90’s, but that point gets missed. The Clintons were the first big target for the ‘Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” and it worked. Hillary was right. Now for better or for worse, as Machiavellian as this may sound, she unfortunately has to pay the price. This is something that through traveling I’ve learned “blue state” democrats don’t understand. Obama, on the other hand, actually has republicans voting for him in open primaries! Obama-cans! I’ve met some of these strange creatures and talked to them. There are several reasons why they do it. The first, and obvious, reason is the lack of a good choice on the republican ticket. The second is that they’re actually fed up with the neo-cons and want to get back to Goldwater and earlier style republicanism. The third is that, hey, the guy’s pretty cool. Something about him I just trust, and “like”. (I could write a whole other post on how so many good, honest republicans have been conned by the neo-cons into going along with them. I miss the old republicans- they were fun to debate. They generally meant well, even if they were wrong.) Anyway—I guess I feel like these qualities will help him actually get things done. Help him get some good cooperation from good hearted republicans. If this makes me sound naïve then so be it.

My forth reason I’ll keep short. I love his message. “In America, there has never been anything false about Hope!” God, it just gives me goose bumps! It’s so positive. So inspiring. So against my cynical nature to buy into it, but I CAN’T HELP IT! I do believe it. Damnit, YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

Ok—so that’s it. I’ll close it out with this little story. My sister called me on her cell phone after leaving the polling station yesterday. The poor thing used to think she was a republican, then she saw the light, then it got dark again, and now I think she’s pretty much removed the blinders and is a full-fledged democrat. She isn’t as liberal as me (thank God—if everyone were as liberal as me I wouldn’t have anyone to argue politics with, which would remove VAST amounts of fun from my life!) but she believes in pretty much all the right things, as far as I can tell. Anyway, she called to tell me that it was the first time in her life that she had had an opportunity to cast a vote for a candidate that she really believed in. It felt good. It almost moved her to tears. It made me proud. It made me proud of her, and it also made me proud to be an American again, to know that yes, we can still do it. It’s been a while, but we’ve still got it. We can still be a shining beacon to the rest of the world.

Brushes with Greatness

Telisha and I had a night recently that we'll remember forever. It was just amazing. John Laird, or agent, landed us an opening spot for Charlie Louvin! We were pretty excited about it as soon as we heard about it, and as the date got closer the excitement just kept building. We actually started getting really nervous- I mean, we were going to MEET and OPEN FOR a country music legend. Member of the Grand Ol' Opry. Member of the Country Music Hall of Fame! His music, with his Brother, Ira, influenced so many others that you really can't listen to rock or country and not hear, at least indirectly, some influence from the Louvin Brothers. Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, the Beatles-- people who we all cite as our influences today--were all influenced by the Louvin Brothers.

Needless to say, the day of the show I was a wreck. Telisha and I were both just as nervous as we could be. We were on schedule to get to the venue early, but we didn't want to get their TOO early. We did a little drive-by and didn't see much life out in the parking lot so we decided to head down to a grocery store and buy a 6 pack of beer. Not that we needed beer, we just needed something to do, and you can always use beer.

After we'd twiddled our thumbs for what we thought was a acceptable time we finally pulled into the parking lot of the Handlebar in Greenville, SC. No sign of Charlie (story spoiler: Later on, he tells us to call him Charlie, not Mr. Louvin- just didn't want you to think we were being disrespectful!) or his band yet, so we load our stuff in, met the sound engineer, and sat down in the middle of the room and proceeded to twiddle our thumbs again.

The side door swings open - Telisha and I stand up nervously and just kinda walk around in circles, trying not to look anxious, but trying not to look bored either- hell, I don't know what we were trying to look. Anyway, the band finally comes comes in. It's like big scene in a movie. Third in line is Charlie, in his tennis shoes, blue jeans, button down shirt and cowboy hat, with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Telisha and I amble over and she says "Hello Mr. Louvin- we're very excited about tonight, it's a pleasure to meet you!" or something like that. He replied with "Boy, you sure are cute!" and turns and walks back out to the van. Cute. We stand there for a moment both feeling like we had just said "I carried a watermelon"

As it turns out, their bus had broken down. They had piled 4 of the 5 band members and as much gear as they could fit into a rental van to make it to the show. They were all just a bit tense from the situation, but all warmed up to Telisha and me pretty quickly. I'll skip all the details here, but we really connected with them all. Brent, their bass player, was interested in Telisha's bass, so we fooled around with that for a while. They did their sound check and we did ours. One cool thing in our part of the sound check- We were checking our vocals and my guitar to Telisha's mandolin. This left the bass just sitting there. Charlie walks over and picks it up, so we break into an old Hank Williams tune with Charlie Louvin playing bass! (<---incredible moment #1) After sound check and a little dinner, we've still got a few hours before the show. Bob Saxton is playing guitar with Charlie tonight, and he's sitting on stage running through some Merle Travis songs. It just sounds great. I wander over with my guitar and unsuccessfully try to steal some licks. Bob is just a SUPER nice guy and we talk about music for a while and Telisha wanders over into the conversation. Bob asks if we ever do any Patsy Cline songs. Of course we do! We do several! It's at this point that Bob let's us know that he used to PLAY GUITAR FOR PATSY CLINE.... and asks us what key we do Crazy in. We settle on Bb and he starts playing. I know some of you won't believe this, but Telisha quietly and timidly starts to sing. The quiet and timid don't last long and we sit there on stage playing and singing Crazy with a guy who used to play it with Patsy Cline! (<---incredible moment #2) What a thrill. The cool thing was that it really thrilled Bob as well. He said "Patsy would have liked that!" and proceeds to call Telisha "Miss Patsy" for the rest of the evening. We hadn't been planning on it, but after this we decide that we've got to put Crazy in our set list for the night so we can tell the audience that story. It's finally about time to get dressed for the show, so we do that and then go sit down backstage with Charlie and Brent. Brent is a pretty young guy, but a little older than Telisha and me, I'd guess. He's very aware of how cool it is that he gets to play and sing with Charlie every night. We sit there and listen to story after story out of Charlie. Just amazing things, some that I probably shouldn't repeat! He tells me to go get my guitar, he wants to sing some songs for us. I go get it and hand it to Brent, who, by the way, is a fantastic musician. They serenade us (well, Telisha, but I was in the room!) with some really cool old songs. Telisha sings one or two for them, too. So yeah, we're hanging out backstage jamming with Charlie Louvin! (<--#3, right?) Now it's time for us to take the stage. I honestly don't remember what we played, or in what order. It was just such a rush. Like I said earlier, though, we did put Crazy in the list to play. We told the story to the audience, and they all thought it was a cool story, too. Not to brag, but we kinda had 'em in the palm of our hands. So we start into Crazy, pretty confident that we're really gonna kill 'em with it. About three bars into it I catch something out of the corner of my eye- Bob walks out on stage with us and fires up his amp, grabs his guitar, and dives right in! WOW!! He follows our arrangement (which, he informed us earlier, is different from Patsys) and we give him a solo in the middle. It's just beautiful. We get to the end of the song, do the final "...for loving......... youuuuuuuuuu....." and let Bob put a really tasteful, pretty tag on the end of it. Telisha and I just start jumping up and down in excitement, cheering with the rest of the crowd. (<---#4, almost too much, huh?) We shake Bobs hand and hug him and thank him for doing that. He smiles and tells us he really enjoyed it, waves at the crowd, and heads back stage again. We make it to the end of our set, just completely full of energy, and head backstage ourselves. We decide at that point that no matter what else happens tonight, it was worth it. Nothing could bring us down. We pull ourselves together and head out to the back of the room to watch the main part of the show. If you've heard the new Charlie Louvin record and thought that it sounds as good as it does because of studio tricks, you're wrong. His voice sounds fantastic. Every note was spot on and loaded full of honest emotion. It was just a fantastic show. Charlie announced that he had had a great time, thanked everyone for coming out, and said he was going to do his last song. He had told Telisha earlier backstage that if she knew a harmony part to anything he was singing, she should hop up on stage and join in. Of course she knew harmony parts on lots of the songs he'd played but hadn't gotten up the nerve. The last song was "Cash On the Barrel Head". I looked at her and said "If you don't go out there right now, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." That was all the prodding she needed, and she made it to the microphone by the chorus, just in time to join in. It sounded great, and I'd give anything if we'd been recording that show. They finished up the song, and Charlie was just grinning ear to ear. He looked at Telisha and said "Come here, Darlin'" and held his arms out for her. He squezed his arm around her shoulder, held the microphone between them, and sang a benediction to the audience. Telisha really didn't know the words to what he was singing, but she could add in a nice little harmony on the ends of the pharses. It was really cool. (<---I think that's 5, 6, and 7)

So that's it. Well, not quite- we did hang around backstage with Charlie and his band a little longer, trading email addresses and so forth. A few more stories and a few more jokes. Out in the hallway between the dressing rooms and the exit door, away from everyone else, Brent made a very profound statement to us. If I included it in this post, it would be #8 in the incredible moment tally, but I think we're going to keep that one just for ourselves. Our own little private moment that we'll never forget. We said our goodbyes, hugged, promised to stay in touch, and headed for the Waffle House to try and calm down a bit.

So that's our night with Charlie Louvin. Memories we'll carry forever. Thanks for reading- Sorry this one ended up so long! Just too much to say....
Doug

Beck & Andres Got Married (and I helped!)

A few weeks ago I got to do something really cool. I got to preform the wedding ceremony for my sister and her now husband. It was a pretty exciting moment, and pretty surreal. It's a long story and not all that interesting explaining how I got the credentials to be able to do it, so I'll just skip that part. Several of the people who were there and some that weren't have asked me to email them my "sermon" from that day for Becki and Andres. I decided it would be easier to just post it here in the blog for you all to read. So here are my notes! Enjoy!

"It’s exciting for me today to get the chance to perform this ceremony, not only because Becki’s my sister, but also because Andres is my friend, and I think I have at least a little bit to do with Becki and Andres being together in the first place

Several years back, Telisha and I were playing music almost every weekend at a little Italian restaurant in Collinsville called the Capri Café. The Capri was actually owned by a couple from Venezuela, and we got to be friends with the owners. We also got to be friends with another native Venezuelan who spent some time there, Andres.

Of course, as it is with all our friends, Andres also got to know the rest of our family. Eventually, though, it seemed like Andres was spending more time with my sister than the rest of us. At the time Becki was living in Raleigh, so that was quite a feat. They both assured us for months and months that no, they weren’t dating, they were just friends- they just liked spending time together. But Love is patient, and sure enough, over time, it became obvious to us all that that they were indeed in the middle of a budding romance.

I wanted to just speak briefly about the verse we just heard from the bible, from 1^st Corinthians Chapter 13. I think no matter what your religious background is, that’s a pretty strong text. Not only that, but it gives us a fantastic definition of love, something that can otherwise be rather difficult to define.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres”.

Becki and Andres, I’d be willing to bet that if you asked any truly happily married couple what the secret to their marriage was, they would respond with something that could in one way or another be paraphrased as the above scripture.

Always be patient with each other.
Always be kind to one another.
Don’t be jealous- be sure to trust each other with all of your heart.
Let go of little things- don’t be angry at each other for every little thing that comes up- just get out a new roll of toilet paper and forget it.

Work hard to be closer to each other on each tomorrow than you were on each today. It won’t always be easy- it’s just impossible to make it through with out hard times, but if you protect each other, trust each other, and persevere, you’ll make it. Listen to each other and support each other.

Now, perhaps the most important part of that scripture – Love never fails. If you both promise to follow the above advice, this is the reward- love NEVER fails.

As your brother and your friend, I hope both of you remember that long after today as you look back on years and years of wonderful memories.

Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

So there it is. It was a great day, and now I've got a new brother- in-law. Beck and Andres are back from their honeymoon now. Actually, right as I'm posting this, we're down at the coast with them and my parents for a long weekend. Looks like a nice sunny day. I think we're getting ready to head to the water, so I'll sign off for now since everyone else is ready to go. As usual, I'm last : )

Doug

Groooooovin'

Okay, Okay, I missed the month of May, but I'm back on track! We just had a fantastic trip through TN and TX. We put the RV to the ultimate test of major miles, major heat, and loads of stuff!
A week ago yesterday, we had the time of our lives groovin (literally)on stage with Kenny Malone! It was our Nashville performance debut at The Douglas Corner, and we had a great time. If you don't know Kenny Malone, I encourage you to check him out. He plays percussion with almost everyone in Nashville, and I assure you he is no average drummer. Doug and I have a grand time listening to old Don Williams music on satellite radio, and trying to predict whether or not Kenny is playing on that particular cut. There's a definite "essence" to Kenny's playing. If you've heard him at all, you know what I'm talking about. Not only is he (in my humble opinion) the absolute best percussionist in the world, he's also the closest thing to Buddha I know. Doug and I just love being around Kenny. He exudes positivity. I challenge anyone to try not to smile when Kenny Malone walks into the room!
The TX part of our trip was part business/part play. We were heading down to Austin for our friends', Kathy and Derek's wedding. The festivities began on Friday night at the roller skating rink. We were all joking about it being hard to believe that it'd been 20 years since most of us had been on these crazy rolling contraptions. It's not exactly like riding a bike, but it did come back relatively quickly. Kathy and Derek had a beautiful wedding, and it was good to catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in far too long.
We took two days (11 hours each) to drive home. Time to clean the R.V. and stock up for our next road adventure!