Tour Diary: Day 3 Booking Contacts and Insect Porn (The Writing Process)

So, Ann Arbor will not work out this time around... but, Karl and I exchanged some emails and October may be a good time to get out there... I know I seemed a bit down on Karl, for that, Karl has proven me wrong, in this instance.  For that, I am happy.

What's next?  well... like some sort of multi-legged insect, my feelers swivel in search of a soft spot... a place with penetrable integrity to sink my proboscis... err... so, when I write this blog, right now, I'm kind of winging it... not much of a plan to follow.  My AP Lang students would rail against me now.  Suckers.  But you know, I'm looking at that ridiculous metaphor/imagery and it reads like insect porn... seriously... slowly he sinks the rigid tube into the yielding flesh, deep, deeper until...warm fluid rises...

hmmm... let me talk about that later... the importance of editing...

Let's talk about Ann Arbor. So, that's probably not going to happen, so I will turn my eyes back to Detroit.  Detroit is easy to book.  The ease is directly due to Don Duprie whose band Doop and the Inside Outlaws have put out a bunch of great records. 

Doop self reflecting on recent songwriting choices

Please... before reading the rest of this blog... click the link and listen to Doop in the background... his songs deal with hard scrabble blue collar voices trying to be heard...

Anyhow, back to how Doop figures into this blog.  About, five years ago Dave Hadley and I were booking a tour out to SXSW and it was the longest tour I had booked to date.  Rodney Henry... whom you will remember from the Glenmont Popes, Food Networks Next Star, and all around Dangerously Delicious Pie shops, he kept telling me, "Yo, Grimm! Doop says hi!" and I would say... "Cool! Tell 'em I said Hi back!"

I had no idea who the hell Doop was... but it was Rodney... so I just rolled with it... there are many idioms in the Henry lexicon that a person must accept and make peace with... "We're locked on," "We'll get you tightened up," these are the two most frequently uttered phrases from Rodney... and they can mean many many many different things... depending on:

1. context of the situation
2. time of day
3. audience
4. sobriety

So, when booking this tour, I asked Rodney about Doop, he gave me his contact info, and I was able to book a show at his Dangerously Delicious Pies franchise and we were all set.  When we got to Detroit and met Doop, we clarified that yes, indeed, we had never met and almost immediately became friends.  Now, here's where the props come in... Friendships like the one with Doop, and even if we were only acquaintances, allow for touring musicians to survive... he didn't know us--even though I am considered by Rodney as "Piestyle for Life," another idiom that means various things which, in this case, means that we won't stain your carpets if you let us stay at your house-- and Doop was gracious and giving in opening up his home to us... even after the show, he had to work another two hours and he gave us a key to his house and said, "Do whatever you want." 

A lot of times the touring part is exciting and tiring... however, staying in hotels can have a ironical kind of negative effect... you're never really comfortable, or at least I'm not.  Staying with someone like Doop gives you that sense of comfort... like you're home... you can open the fridge and eat or drink whatever you want, within reason... I will not take a man's last beer, but really it's one of the reasons I like touring; in my previous post, I talked about taking songs to people and the human connection.  Being invited and accepted into someone's house, being included, is just another strand of that connection... what is also important, though... is returning the favor. 

But is it a favor?  I guess it's a gesture?  Or proving you're human?  Or what is it?  I don't know... this blog is about to go off-road existential 4 wheeling.  Several times, I have opened my house to traveling musicians... some I didn't even know... "eat what you want, drink what you want... I know what it's like to be far from your own bed and things."  These arrangements are done without reservation because I do know what it feels like.

Empathy. That's what it really is.  I do believe that empathy separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom... except for my cat, Mig. 

Mig the Cat

Right now... he's trying to tell me something... then again, he's always helping me with my computer...  Before I shift to my next topic, thank you Doop and all the people who have opened their homes to me and other traveling musicians... it doesn't happen often, but when it does, it truly makes the experience of playing a lot better.  The experience becomes real... you remember more about the shows because you have communed with people and you your narrative is more about that connection rather then the unbearable funk that has transferred from the dented up SM 58 knock off mic grill to the bottom of your upper lip.  I mean... who used this mic last?  GG Allin?

Regardless... empathy.  That's the deal.  One of the filters in my songwriting process centers around whether or not the voice in the song is, "real."  Does this sound human? Or, is it just some dopey middle-aged white guy rambling about some Americana-esque archetypal clichés? 

Here we go.  The songwriting process.  There's this great line from Hemingway when asked what it takes to be a great writer he says that great writer's have to have "a built in shock proof shit detector."  Which, if you distill that down, really means that great writing doesn't just depend on creativity but the editing process.  Just because you wrote something doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually worth anything, and if this were an advice column... that's the advice I'd give to new songwriters.  Have a good self reflection session with a cup of coffee and what you're writing.  Look for clichés and either delete them or pull a "Paul Westerberg" and change a preposition.  These self-reflective sessions should also make you aware of inadvertent double meanings... like creating a metaphor for booking that somehow pupates into semi-pornographic descriptions...is that really something you want emote in front of people?  Probably not.. 

I bring these things up... because FAWM, February Album Writing Month, starts on Monday... and again this year I will exercise some writing muscles that may have been a bit dormant.  What does that mean... I'm going to write some songs... as I have time... I'll document in the blog how I do this... one the links on this blog... to the right... will take you to my FAWM page.  Which by the way... I was introduced to FAWM by Matt Hopper when he and Andrew Norsworthy stayed with me when I opened my apartment to them while they were on tour... I booked them two gigs, one was locked on at Dangerously Delicious Pies, while the other they played Mum's where Hopper got tightened up with several shots of Evel. 

Okay... so, booking... tour diary... I'm going to text with Doop... I'll get all "Piestyle" for the Detroit show... Sunday 6/26. 

No word on Lincoln NE yet... but we'll see...

Grimm