Canada was a great change from the States, but now I am back in United?’s and heading towards the Big Apple… strangely I have never really had a great attraction to New York, I think over the years, like Chicago, it has been so saturated into my psyche from TV, Movies and modern “culture” that I already grew weary of it (without even being there). And there’s the rub, I am so not in hurry to get there I take the opportunity to divert around to see a little bit of the top north east, as I had a slidey bluesy mate Matt Foster who was from Maine, and new friends from Boston like Casey Staskawicz (who I met in New Orleans swing dancing), and got in contact with a Sax playing music bandit, Ken Field.

After getting thru the gate, Vermont is pretty in the Fall, it’s always really interesting to see different places, see their landscape and alien flora to an Aussie like me.  Pine forests, trees loosing their leaves, and flat granite outcrops jutting into the midmorning sunlight.  The smells of unknown earth, moist and cool with beautiful outlooks.

It’s cool fun to just cycle around close to the city, it’s a much more personal way to get a feel for it in one day & cover a lot of ground. I am totally being a tourist, but in one day that is all you can be. I cruise the harbour area, and around a lot of newly developed apartments on the waterfront, find Christopher Columbus’ Park by accident. A few skyscrapers, lots of medium density, a prominent harbour and rivers, Boston sort of gives me a Sydney feel. It seems like a really clean, and proper city.

It’s just one of those things, that personal contact and actually getting to REALLY know a place really equates to TIME. If you are just rushing around looking at things, you are nothing more than a stone skipping across a pond… never really delving into the depths, and what it is to be immersed in a place, and get to know it and it’s people properly. Luckily I have had just a good toe dip with Ken to be my guide, and get to me to a couple of things here. I cruise around Commercial St the whole city waterfront, and then end up in Charlestown, @ the Bunker Hill Monument, it’s an area full of terrance houses, the place is in full Halloween swing (I’m here on Oct 30th/31st), giant spiders and webs over doorways, bollards made into ghosts, and pumpkin-heads everywhere, American’s take their All Hallows Eve seriously!

I head back around to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to find Ken @ WMBR, pass through a few other areas.

Sit in on Ken’s show, listen to some great and avant garde music from all over the place, we chat about music and all things Boston, off-air between tracks and announcing. Not everyone knows I have done stints on Student Radio way back in the day, and ran a late night music radio show in Wollongong in the mid 90s. It’s fun to sit back and watch the machinations of a show run again, and seeing the behind the scenes of the show and of a Radio Station again.

After the show, we try to get another hire bike for me to ride with Ken (he rides into work), but all the ones at MIT leave as we arrive at the stand, we walk, Ken show’s me a few more Boston spots, and we have some of the best ice-cream ever at Toscanini’s “the World’s best Ice-cream” - New York Times, it’s true, it’s damn good and Ken introduces me to the owner, Gus Rancatore! (I think Ken eats a lot of ice-cream) I can’t remember what flavour I got, but I had a quick look at the menu and I think it was French Vanilla (I like to try it everywhere), and Goat Cheese with Honey Walnut (gotta try the crazy ones)…We have a couple of great random chats with a few of the locals and Gus, I love the Bwawston accent…!

I brunch on the way, and also look up the things I want to do in New York, Music, Blues, Swing Dancing, Galleries, Museums, Times Square… and find that it’s a lot harder to find credible stuff, as there is just too much stuff, and also too many trawly sites with just bad information. I’m really starting to hate the automated-internet,it’s full of so much useless stuff.

If you booked way in advance and waited for deals etc then you might find something better or cheaper, but like the rest of this trip I booked the accom on the way into the city, literally at the motel on my way from Boston the day before arriving. I find some Swing dancing to go too, but jams are harder to find, there seems to be some around, but its more jazz than blues, and I am finding my energy levels are almost completely drained.  It’s been 3.5 months of constant interaction and high energy level activities. New York is totally a beast I won’t tame in 6 days. Skimming another pond :)

Bushwick is like Kings Cross crossed with St Peters, or the dodgey end of St Kilda. People just doing their do, and it seems pretty much like minorities mixed with arty, poorer or aspiring white folks and young couples. I have a little of that unwarranted feeling of being on-guard, but nothing ever happens in this place, and everyone I interacted with was cool. I have to drop my little Ford Focus back, that I have driven all over the states, New Orleans, San Marcos, Austin, Greenville, Clarksdale, Memphis, Nashville, St Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston and now New York.

I check my list from people, and decide it’s such a nice crisp sunny day to walk the High-Line down to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The High Line was an old overhead railway, now built into a forested pedestrian walk from West 34th St down to about Little West 12th Street. It’s a great walk if you are touristing around NYC on a nice day, and ends at a Gallery.

It’s full of plants, seats to sit on, in-situ artworks and sculptures, art market, and lots of stopping & viewing areas.

It’s just on dusk, but I am in no hurry (unlike the majority of people on the streets) so I just saunter across town, with the vague notion of heading northwards in the city again, I have a Swing Dance night I want to get to, The Frim Fram Jam which sounds cool, back up on 31st st back near Penn Station on 8th Avenue. But it’s later so I just enjoy the city for a while and wander the streets a little to get the NYC vibes.  I’m pretty sure this is where I find bagel, a bar, and a conversation.  New York attitude reminds me of Nashville, and perhaps Sydney. There’s lots going on, but until you have the time to dig around in it, it’s a soulless, indifferent place.  Trust me, all of these places have great stuff going on, but no-one will be concerned if you don’t find it. It seems the way of cities once they get to a certain size, and economic value. It’s why dancing and music are a great way into a place as you bypass some of that shield and dig under the armour a little.

It ends up being a sort of late night, and I do some more city-joofing and check out the subway system, endup overshooting a line cross, and visiting other parts of NY, but it’s fine, I’m on the NY Subway ha ha. Surprisingly after all the stories, movies and hype… even late at night on a thurs, it’s pretty tame. I think the idea of the end of the trip is catching up. Even though I want to spend as of my time doing things in NYC, my body is saying no.  I end up having a day off, as I am feeling weird, the utter destruction of my body over the last 3.5months both physically, mentally and emotionally need the days off. So I stay in bed on Friday, watch movies, blog a little, and get some takeaway food in Bushwick that day and just check out the local surrounds in the evening. This part of Brooklyn is pretty cool.

To get a sense of the place, as I just don't have the time to get anything other than a splash of the place. It's never enough, & NYC seems like the sort of place that you could live a small lifetime and still never get to experience every part of it.

It’s a 4 hour drive to Toronto from Detroit, and after leaving at 12pm, and taking a long break at a Gas stop to do some online research and book the accom, I get in later in the evening, I drive the Gardiner Expressway right by the southern part of the city and Lake Ontario. It’s a pretty city by night. I contemplate going out, but as nothing specific came up I decide to get to the Accomodation and get settled.

Another swing dance event happens in the Bloor st area at Dovercourt House (3 stories of dance lessons, styles and social) so I head there for the intermediate lesson, and social dancing after.  Get heaps of dances in, and more local contacts for other dancing, music things, venues, and Toronto independent culture.

Next day I try to explore other areas of the city, and one area that keep coming up was Younge & Eglinton area which, granted was more website recommends, but after a look around it’s not much of an area.  More commercial and has cafes and shopping areas, but seems just like a regular type of area that perhaps was creative and trendy a while ago, but has been lost to commercialism.  There is also plenty of road construction going on around Toronto which makes getting around a bit hectic at times.  Toronto does seem to have a lot of large scale street art and sculpture, and seems like a fairly cultural, progressive city.

I also have to do some housekeeping and find Yummi Cafe Laundromat, best thing! laundry, food, and wifi!  I get to some blogging, while stinkiness is washed away and get a great freshly made salad roll. It starts to get rainy in Toronto, and I feel the Autumn (Fall) coolness and upset weather starting to close in.  The idea of chasing summer is looking more appealing as the thought of enduring minus temperatures at Christmas compared to the Aussie Summer on a beach is no comparison.

Cameron House is exactly like the sort of music venue I will eventually open one day.  Just the right size for medium-sized touring performances, great decor, 2 rooms of different sizes for multiple preformance styles, and just a great vibe! Its situated right in the heart of the Queen West Neighbourhood, Bars, cafes, vintage clothing, and generally a funky area full of historic (read: old, not quite bought out by developers yet) buildings.

​

Decide to do day things Tues, so don’t stay out too late just a midnight-ish sort of night :) plan to do the tourist thing for a day and head off to Niagara Falls for the day. The sun is out, and it’s only about an hour drive down to the border. Niagara is as impressive as you think. The area is so well developed, perhaps too well, but nothing overshadows the awesome spectacle and power of one of nature's wonders. Niagara is celebrating it’s 150th year? I stand on top of a railing to get a shot of this sign and the falls in the background (otherwise the sign blocked the Falls: Marketing fail), and while I was balanced up there and young Asian tourist hands me his camera to take a shot for him… I obliged of course ha ha!

Niagara is simply an amazing amount of water falling down a cliff. Definitely take the time to just experience it for a while if you ever get there.  I see a lot of people rushing along the edge taking a photo and then rushing off… or worse still just driving along the road and getting a gawk from afar. Sure the parking costs money, and the tours cost money… but its not that much and the most enveloping experience for me was taking the Journey Behind the Falls Tour.  You can also take a boat cruise right up to the falls, but the Journey is only $16.75 and gets you close right beside the bottom of the falls with spray in your face (and a souvenir rain Poncho ha ha) and you get to see some of the infrastructure behind the falls, which is less spectacular than it sounds, but standing outside only metres from (peak rate, so go in spring) 6400 cubic metres (225,000 cubic feet) of water falling per second! was a pretty amazing experience. Just stayed and literally soaked it up for a while, while others came and went. Nature is pretty amazing, the amount of ions or whatever is happening there with all that broken water is invigorating.

Sometimes really taking the time, makes earning the money all worth it… why else do we earn money? it's just a means to these ends...

I hung around for a quite a while and took a walk further up the head waters as well, so saw it while the sun was shining, rainbows, and also when it was cloudy and forboding, the water took on a amazing deep green as the sunlight abated. If you‘re in the area it’s worth a look.  I didn’t know, but as expected the whole area attached to the Falls is one big tourist attraction, and insanely so… I never expected the streets around town to be like this:

Sweet jeebuzzz… commerciality gone wild! I s’pose it’s good for the kids? after they have seen a wonder of nature to get some modern reality into them while forking over some of their parents cash ha ha… Frankenstein with a burger… really!??!

I wander the late night streets of Toronto, I am running out of days so have to limit and use my time well in each place from now on. There is so much World to see, after getting a late night hotdog at a stand just up the street from The ‘Shoe, I see this “art" in an alleyway… well I thought it was worth a pic, strange how my lighting brain works:

Daylight burns my eyes, and my accomodation is so adequate they’ll only be getting 3stars on AirBnb. The 5 Star rating for any of the App services has become collateral, so use them wisely. On this trip I used Bookings.com so much and actually wrote the odd review that I got upgraded to “writer” status which opened up some other priorities and specials. But there’s nothing like the truth to burn through some of the commerciality of accomodation wroughting by companies.

Karen invited me to Toronto Island for some kayaking, and I wouldn’t have normally bothered getting out to an island, but like everything on this adventure, when an opportunity presents… I didn’t even know about Toronto Island, and it’s basically an adventure park of an island just a short ferry ride across the bay.  Think boating, nature tours, frisbee golf, and a small Coney Island rides park that is open in the Summer.  There are beaches and walks/hikes etc.

But I totally forget that I have an American phone, and solo have been using wifi all over the place (there is free wifi everywhere) and don’t realise that the phone can’t call out to Canadians… and I can’t find any wifi on the Island, as it’s off-season and none of the businesses are open.  I find one coffee shop, but it doesn’t have wifi ha ha so I have trouble getting in contact with Karen once I am on the island. I thought it would be a small place that I could find her, but it’s actually a series of islands, with multiple roads, and small community/holiday houses and theme parks and beach places. So after a while trying to find Karen I just end up having my own adventure discovering the islands while I am searching.

This place would definitely be a-buzz with activity in the Summer months and school holidays I am thinking. It has some lovely developed areas, waterways in between the group of islands for kayaking and rowing, and lots of adventuring opportunities. The beach is a bit rough by Australian standards, but I’m sure would be well used when there’s nice weather.

I totally forget to this point that I have another friend Renata, who I lived in share house in Sydney way back in the early 2000s, while she was over from Toronto doing her Masters I think with an Australian University. I message her on Facebook and line up a meet up at Faye’s bar on Bloor St which is just down the road from where Renata lives now. We have a great catch up, filling in what has happened in the last 15 years… ha ha It’s always fun to reconnect with people who were fun positive people in your life, especially in person on the other side of the world!

I do a gas/petrol stop and get a bite to eat, even the roadhouses in Canada have healthy options. I use the free wifi to research some music, jams and swing dancing in Montreal. There are a few options, and Montreal strikes me as a creative place, as many people have said along the way.  I photograph a few addresses and events, and head on into Montreal, start to hear the French language and accents, & I wonder will I be able to cope with a language barrier again (it’s been a while)

Anyway I book the AirBnb, but won’t be arriving when Adriana my host will be there, so she just leaves a key in a spot for me.  I must have a good rating on AirBnB (I do, I have glowing reviews ha ha) as hosts are quite ok with trusting me and making arrangements that work. I get to Montreal and do a drive around the city, it’s raining and gloomy. The Fall has definitely set in. I check out a the city, it is smallish, about 1.7 million people, so about the size of Brisbane in Australia. Big enough for city things, but small enough to retain some friendly country town vibe.

It’s gonna be a huge night, so I have a late morning, rest up, finally get out of the house after lunch.  But rightly so, check out some more of the city, and know that tonight is the ZOMBIE WALK in Montreal so I figure it will be big, and then there is the CAT’s CORNER LINDY HOP EXCHANGE (which is a huge swing dance festival!) so its gonna be a late one.

But now it’s become a more commercialised things, and have gotten more involved and whole cities are putting on festival like versions. Montreal went all out and seems to be a full council festival. The main part of the city has screens everywhere a big stage, bands playing, faux-derelicte street furniture including fire bins (with safety rims) and smoke machines every where… its hilarious. And it’s really packed but with normal people who’ve just come for a look.

But in a way it’s sort of ruined the effect of it all, as now there is about 50,000 more people than the maybe what seems like a couple of hundred zombies… which I think I have missed it as I can’t see any zombies anywhere, but eventually a small path is opened up through the crowd by security, and a handful of zombies stroll through a barrage of gawkers, phone cameras, Dslr cameras, video cameras, so it sort of becomes a bit of a farce.

But in some ways that was more effective, as people didn't know it was happening, and looked up from there paper or coffee on the street and there was 80 chaotic zombies in front of them. ​Some people genuinely were startled or frightened, others clapped, some laughed. But it seemed more like the ethos of it because it was in public, unexpected. Anyway Montreal put on a show, and it was good! It was good to see mainstream culture embracing some fringe in their lives, even if it was a bit overproduced, was a great night out for the kids ha ha!

I head back, after some commercialism of fringe culture, through the city and to the edge of the city to where St Laurent Boulevarde.  There is some great street art in this city.

I drive the strip, and it’s impossible to find a park near to where I need to be, its Friday night in the cafe/restaurant area… arrrhhhggg! I eventually find a semi-legal spot a few blocks away around a corner in a one way street. Good to see city parking & driving are the same everywhere, & after living in Sydney for 8 years, all the same tricks hold you well in any city.

The first dance I have is awkward, getting used to new areas is always just a slight adjustment, as each city (re: teachers) have their way of dancing, so if you are some random from across the world, and also have been learning steps/style from all the cities you have travelled to, you don’t usually fit the local establishment exactly.  It’s been really fun actually having swing dancing as a side adventure alongside music on this journey. You get to meet a totally different subculture of a city/town.  Also you think it’s “Swing Dancing”, but New Orleans, Louisianna do it differently, say to Austin, Texas… and Montreal also have a different thing to say Chicago, or Melbourne…  The Basic/Foundation steps are usually all the same, but like a lot of things in life, the subtitles are what make it interesting. Dancing is a lot like jamming in music, it takes an intuitive and responsive person to have a great dance. If they try to force you into a way of dancing, ultimately you have an “awkward” dance. Now this may because they are a limited dancer, or they have an inflexible personality, the song is the wrong tempo for them or maybe they are just nervous. And all the same applies to you as well. But sometimes you just find those people that you gel with, and listen and feel, and the music the band playing is just the right song, and then dancing is the most magical thing in the world. It’s all about being absolutely present in that moment, especially in Swing, where there are moves, but the composition of the dance over time is completely ad-libbed by the partners in the moment, reacting to the song. It’s amazing and intimate when both people are present and enjoying it. 

I gradually work my way into a few dances, and get back from the brink of the first awkward one, and have a couple of really great ones, and one really delicious slow dance. You also get to interact with many age groups if you’re not biased. The dance community have also become a very safe environment for interaction.  All groups and events that I have been too have a Code of Conduct policy too, and don’t tolerate sexual harrassment etc it’s just a dance.  There is nothing more to it, than just a dance.  You can dance with the same person again if you want to and they want to, you can go and only dance with your partner (if you have a dancing one), and you can feel free to refuse dances, which everyone in the community expects and respects, not everyone is going to say yes everytime, or they might be tired from just dancing the fastest dance ever, or maybe they are waiting for someone they want to dance with, or maybe the tempo of the song is wrong for them.  It’s actually very freeing, especially as a traveller to just have a 3.5min interaction with someone where virtually no words are exchanged, but you discover lots about someone without even talking, and that might be all you do with them all night. Of course some people you end up chatting with all night as well, and make new friends for life. Some people you might end up dancing with many times, as they are the fun-est person ever, and they like dancing with you too.

Dancing, esp Swing dancing is also energetic, so for me it’s creative and exercise… ask me if I like to jog…. bamp-bow!  I end up staying really late, Swing dancers like to party, and I end up in the small room with a great jazz band, a few great dances, and one with a gal I wanted to dance with all night, probably a little above my level of skill, but hey you don’t get better by dancing with people who are worse than you right!  As the night winds down, I roll out the door at like 3.30/4am or something… ha ha Swingsters how I love you...

After a while blogging, and eating, I notice one of the guys drawing is looking at me, I look at him and his face is familiar, but I go “I don’t know anyone in Montreal?” we have a chat across the room, and then I go over when I get another coffee.  It turns out he was the sound guy at the Popolo gig, and recognised me. We have a great chat about the gig, then the music scene in general in Montreal, and they seem to be going through the same stuff all musicians are going through.  But he runs a radio show, and a record label/co-op, and I dig some underground Montreal dirt out of him. I also fill him in on the Australian independent music scene, as he doesn’t really know anything about it, and is very interested to find out that we deal with very similar things, albeit with some slight differences.

It seems like the mission of the place has been fulfilled, as lots of people just meet up here and eat and have meetings, and do art, and listen to music, and the kitchen also seems like a locally sourced, locally run affair with really friendly staff. The food is great too.

It’s my last night in Montreal :( so I try to find a jam to end on, and it's a Saturday so it's not a jam-ish night… but there is an acoustic Open Mic, BoOO! and I find one other that has drums and amps supplied. I head over to Bar De Courcelle in the Saint Henri area of just south of Montreal CBD along the river.  It’s a low key neighbourhood bar, and pretty quite when I arrive, but I am slightly early, have some food and a beer.  Soon they setup a drum kit and backline, and the PA, and a few more musos shlep in and sign up.  It turns out to be a more solo/singer songwriter night, as not many people seem applicable to jam… but eventually I get a run as a drummer ha ha, I can drum, especially to simple singer songwriter stuff and blues and cover songs. So that is fun and unexpected.  There are some pretty talented singers and players at this jam, and some totally wacky ones as well.

Mostly spent a lot of time on lyrics and melody skills in vocals and guitar-ing… but forget about rhythm. ha ha It’s still good, and then sometimes you find singers with really great tone and timbre to their voices too. Always nice when their voice can grab you with just it’s quality. He accompanies the host for next week, who belts out a tune or two.  These other crazy gothic cowboys also play some pretty cool, dark country sounding stuff.  Other singers are completely weird, hilarious, not-sure-if they-are-serious-type bedroom heroes singing Johnny Cash etc. But I admire anyone who can get out and up in front of people and play their music, that takes guts in itself, and a lot of people can’t even do that.

Sometimes the hours driving in the car are my meditation, where I don’t have to be interactive with anyone or use my brain.  You just get a few hours of doing nothing and sitting quietly with only the white line fever hypnotically bringing more natural sights, sounds and smells, like an ever-changing screen saver washing over your conciousness. Alert but drifting.

Until eventually you run into the USA border and a gruff guard, is demanding your ID, and gets alarmed that you’ve been travelling longer than 90 days! (who does that right?!?!) ha ha he gets quite present and his security face comes on… but I direct him to my 5 year B1/B2 visa to the USA, and suddenly a wash of friendliness comes over his face and I turn back into a warm Aussie to him.  Hello USA again, hello Vermont! This is Bernie territory.  The Fall has definitely set in and Vermont IS beautiful this time of year, just like they say in the movies. Only just over a week before it’s all over, I’m soaking it all up. I’m heading to New York, but doing a side trip just for a day or 2 to Boston on the way to see a musical acquaintance.

After my drive out of Chicago, I cruise the edge of Lake Michigan on the i94, I’m not really in a hurry.  So when the opportunity to pull off for some dinner and a quick view around some other areas, I get into a sunset over the lake at Stevensville in Michigan. The drift of time is catching up with me, but that is no excuse to not smell some roses when being a solo traveller allows the privilege of choices. Circle through the town to a couple of areas that front the lake, but unlike Australia where most beaches. rivers and lakes all have public shores… this area seems to be more like privately owned.  The first spot is just houses in a tree’d area, but I stop and bush bash my way though some trees and a track to where it opens to a mavelous view of the sandy lake shore. 

Have a good online chat with the owners, and organise to arrive late,  I follow the GPS into Detroit, bypassing Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Jackson all of which sound great, and Ann Arbour which I have heard of. But it’s dark by then and can’t site-see anything, and this is a music trip so I h​ung-it to Detroit. Drive in and it’s getting later, Detroit brings up the thoughts of a ghetto-city, dangerous, poor, lost place where everyone else in other USA cities have said “WHY are you going there?, There is nothing to see, DON’T go there…” so many different voices were ringing in my ears, let alone what I know from the news and TV.

I have a good chat with Alex and Jenny about their place, Detroit, and the world with them and all the occupants of the stay. They all seem like interesting people. But this is a musical trip so it’s time to get into the obvious stuff and work my way downwards from there.

Detroit today shows a lot of evidence of these rags to riches, American dream, boom or bust, everything or nothing.  The Hitsville Museum sits in the new centre of West Grand Boulevard, a leafy double wide street, near the Hospital. But as pleasant as it sounds some of that neighbourhood is run down, there are the disparate terms on which Detroitians live. On hope boulevard where the billion dollar Motown industry is founded, today people 1 block down are selling their clothes on a street market, a homeless guy walks up to me and asks for money. I don’t give him any. 

Detroit was a haven, and then a underground network for slaves to leave into Canada.  The irony of this history through current times is not lost on me. A lot of people have a one-eyed view of Detroit, and in some ways there are some truths to the hype. It does still have run down areas and neighbourhoods that feel a bit edgy. You can have a burnt out house next to a run-down house, next to a renovated house. There are still run-down neighbourhoods, but there are also renewing neighbourhoods, and lots of community creative things happening around too.

Out of all the US cities that I visited though, it felt like the only city that was in an upswing. It has already had its lows, layed in its own vomit in the gutters of bankrupted industry and stared into its own abyss. Since the lows of the 80s and 90s it’s hit a renewal of creativity and an explosion of some sort of grass-roots community renewal.  Perhaps the “swamp” thought it so unprofitable that it was abandoned rather than drained, and all that was left were the people who rolled their sleeves up, and the arrival of people now with hope of a cheap new start.  Detroit still has its problems, but the vibe from the people I met, and the musos, creatives and punters I met in dive bars all over the city was a good sense, dare I even say hopeful sense of where this phoenix has to rise.  It’s got plenty of grittiness and a-ways-to-go, but compared to a lot of other big cities that I visited (which were stayed and stagnant and established) Detroit seemed like it was ready for change, and was doing something about it, no matter how small or big.

Another thing that gets me about Detroit after I see it in the daylight for the first time, in my mind Detroit was this crowded, closed in industrial city, with a claustraphobic dark cityscape, where it only rained… (the thing of movies).  But like this centre of the city picture, Detroit is almost the complete opposite of that, spread out, wide boulevard streets lined with trees, sunny warm days, plenty of grassed area, just a bit of high rise in the CBD, but most of the city is single/double story buildings… perhaps it’s just the days that I arrive, but totally not the feel for the city I expected.  After a bit of a musical tour, I head into the CBD and have a walk around, see the sights, check all the newly added art and beautification remodelling for some 100 year celebrations. The centre of the city is being transformed into a pedestrian haven with alfresco living.

The Bathtub Pub is just a single width terrace, graffitti on the walls, a little grimy but has a nice feel to it, I am the only customer in there at 4:45pm, so I say hello to the bartender, Keon, he is friendly and speaks with a thick Detroit accent and slang that I have to concentrate to understand him, this is my sort of bar.  After a beer, Keon talks me into $4 spicy chicken wings and chips, who can say no to $4 spicy wings! he hand cuts his chips, and makes the spice, they are delicious. It seems like Bathtub is not the first choice of a lot of Detroitians, but eventually a few more business people and randoms wander in. Keon introduces me to another hip hop mate who comes in, everyone who comes in gets to sign the walls. 

It’s low key, so I walk to the side of stage and stow my bass, ask if there is a list, there isn't one really… I go to the bar and get a beer from the friendly and cheeky bar-lady and a pencil to put my name on the paper. The house band cracks into some blues, I hang at the side, and then the back, but once start chatting, as everyone recognises me as not local, I gradually talk to Tosha Owens who is the singer in the house band and also Jane Cassisi who is part of the Detroit Blues Society organising committee. I let them know I’m here to play and that I play blues, but also funk, groove, ska, reggae etc.

We have some great blues jams, and it rolls around wonderfully with a few different players. I shake the shamans hand… we have a small chat.  I later find out from the other players over a beer that he is JC “Billy" Davis, who played with Hank Ballard & the Midnighters in the 50s and 60s, and later with Jackie Wilson and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and touring with Sam & Dave in the 80s.  But it was in the early days that Billy played a tour to Seattle in ’59 where the young Jimi Hendrix hassled to see Billy & learn some guitar licks.  Jimi took Billy to meet his dad. It’s pretty crazy to meet guys like this in jams.

Stacy gives me a few tips and a contact for local art projects! and a Sticker Trade Market over the other side of town happening later that day. I give her a blues jam that I am going to at the Blue Goose Hotel northside on Thurs night.

It’s SO great to be standing in an art project that I saw on an art show on TV about 8 years previous.  Tyree has been working on the project since the mid 80s, and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.  The council has been both ways on the project and have nearly shut it down twice in it’s history, but it project has managed, and stayed, and now employs a few people and as with people who stick at things for the right reasons, Tyree has become a world renown artist.

After a reaally long and beautiful chat with Stacy, she let’s me know that Tyree is actually here today, he likes to keep it low key, he is tending a few pieces and after wandering around I briefly say hello and shake his hand, and let him know that I’m from Australia and have followed his project for 8yrs and it’s pretty amazing to be standing here in it. We have a brief chat and I leave him to his work.

So Stacy’s Sticker Swap Meet doesn’t seem to be happening, but I met Emanuel (A Photographer from Switzerland), who is also photographing the park and a local Detroit-ian skater Steve. We have a chat about Detroit and art and all things worldly.  Emanuel is keen to hear about New Orleans, or was it Austin? we have a friendly little world chat, and then Emanuel’s partner in crime, yells at him out the car window and then drives off! after photographing a few more things I ask him if he needs a lift anywhere… he says she’s always like this, and will come back. Just as I am driving down the road, she does.

A surprise! as Stacy Risner shows up to the gig and gets to see me play, which is awesome, after I mentioned it at Heidelberg, the pub is around the corner from where she lives, and she didn’t know that music happened there, ha! informing the locals… it’s cool to see people more than once on trips like these.

I see a bit more of the city and find the Play Space recommended by Stacy, run by Michael Feld a musician and technologist.  He created his own studio space, art centre/creative hub, that provides facility and opportunity for up and comers. I do find the place but just can’t quite link up with Michael, so we email a bit. I head over to another place Stacy put on my list, Hamtramck Disneyland! 

Completed by Dymrto Szylak from the Ukraine but moved and worked for General Motors for years in Detroit, and completed this folk art in his yard after he retired and needed a hobby, it’s now owned by a Art conglomerate who rents 3 of the units on the property to cover costs, & one unit for an artist in residence.  Detroit certainly has its share of crazy grassroots art & artists.

Unfortunately this is my last night in Detroit… I stay the next morning, head to the Eastern Markets area again for coffee, breakfast and more blogging, I was only going to do a stopover in Detroit, but ended up staying a few extra days (sorry New York and Boston) but it’s great to cram so much into such a short time.  Some huge musical icons, local jams, getting to know some creative people, getting to lots of areas (good & bad), most of all finally having a 3D personal view of what Detroit is ACTUALLY like, the rest of USA you don’t know what you are talkin’ about, Detroit is a must see in my books :)

Great connections, great people, I’m sure I will be back, Love ya Detroit Rock City! then it’s over the river into Canada heading to Toronto and Montreal. I can feel the Fall temperatures starting to bite, as the leaves are all starting to turn brown.

Ok So I ditch out of amazing Memphis, crazy amazing musical experiences. I head on down the road to St Louis, a nondescript city, with little to no hints from people along the way… are you a black hole St Louis? where no light escapes… I can assure you St Louis is a musical, creative city that seems to have gone under a lot of American’s radars.

I drive across 2 state borders and end up in Missouri, an honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the musical and swing dance trail always offers a doorway into the world that is the unknown. On the road I stop at a roadstop on the way and find a great AirBnB to stay at with Laura in Tower Grove South, on the southside, little local area with small 3 story apartment blocks. She’s a great host and is a Blogger and entertainment person, hence why I picked her place, and also the price. The area is not the best area, but that is part of it. Not to be in the glossiest, closed off version of the city. It’s to find the people, the stories, and the music and in only a short space of time to be emersed in the reason why, not just the showy end result.

Basically it’s a 10 stories of constructed madness, weird areas, tunnels, castles, underwater themed areas, a treehouse area, caves, slippery dips, ladders, spiral stair cases, and secret tunnel openings in every floor connect areas.  They are themed areas with rides, and the roof has bus overhanging the edge, enclosed welded, wire tunnels you can climb through to get to other areas. Forget commercial disneyland, get to City Museum!

This would be a 5 - 16 years heaven I think, and those young at heart (also there are areas for younger children too if you have many ages… rightfully so, when the wristbands get attached on entry, there is a space on your child’s for your phone number, as you will lose them in here. There is just too much to describe, if you ever get to St Louis this is a must DO!

They do live music a few nights a week, and I have a beer with the band loading in, I receive a flower in my hat for my conversation. I have a great chat with some other locals/tourists and end up with a few more things for my Chicago list.

Anyway I watch 2049… In one of the most historic, glorious theatres in St Louis ( I looked it up especially, and if any of you know by now I don’t really do mass culture and cookie-cutter megaplexes) This theatre is so great! they have a classic snacks bar, and the alcohol bar and a separate free mini-cinema lounge was playing classic cheesy movies! (for bladerunner 2049 Total Recall was playing)

We look at each other, get in the car and head round the front real quick (these are the closest angry gunshots I have ever heard, and did feel a little unsafe in that moment)  Other gunshots I have heard in New Orleans, Memphis weren’t as near or behind buildings, or I was in a building etc, so I wasn’t worried at all ha ha.  I think, would that Beretta have helped right now? probably not… dead is dead right...

I stay in an AirBNB south of the city, with Katibu, he is Chicago through and though, he bought his house 30 years ago, and has gradually been doing it up.  It is a great older style house full of character.  Katibu is semi-retired, but still occasionally does specialised work on medical machinery, with radioactive materials! ha ha we have some great talks about programming, and computers, but he also is an avid dancer, and does country-line dancing on Wednesdays.

Second day I've done my research and end up with jammy things everyday! Chicago you BE crazy! Monday I do more of a cruise around the inner city, but also check a few outer-lying areas where music venues are.  It’s great being independent and being able to drive. It always has its disadvantages of what to do with the thing in cities. But on a universe driven adventure its advantages outweigh any minor costs.

I find some goodies and oldies, some of my favourites, some of Stacy’s favourites, and play them all! But I can’t waste a lifetime here like I did in my youth, as this trip is about music. So after a great afternoon and evening, of square eyes, record setting, and ruminating memories of a past era (it’s funny what things trigger in your memory),

Julia goes, it’s you! ha ha nothing planned so I just play a funky groove, and some hip hop dudes jump up with me and throw down some rhymes, and another cahon player does a beat for us. It’s heaps of fun, we go all over the place! several  rappers kick it. I play with another guy. There are also some other great singers/songwriters, and a few average ones, and a few weird ones… great night for a tuesday.  By the closer to the end, Julia and me decide to head over to The Green Mill which is a jazz joint that is on my list and is open late.

This place seems to be steeped in credibility, as it’s low key and the vibe is about the music, it’s not as touristy as Buddy Guys. But I’m here to play, so put my bass up near the stage and make it known I’m here to play! ha ha after a great house set, and another guest or 2, I get put on stage with a blind drummer, and the 2 other white jammers in the place.  Gulp. we get this singer, but he seems to want something specific. (and as the jam goes on, I think he is disappointed that he got put on stage with us), we play the intro, he trys to indicate a few things, we play the feel he wants,  just as we get into a good riff, and he is looking shaky, the drummer drops a stick (as he is not use to this kit, and it’s set up a bit differently to a standard kit), but the singer doesn’t see that.  

Great and funny supporting cast, with some great emotional twinges and innovative 4th wall stuff that holds over from the book.  If you haven’t seen this movie, SEE IT… it’s an insightful relationship entanglement, told as a comedy, to an amazing soundtrack. So here I am, down on the corner of Milwaukee and Honore St in Wicker Park in Chicago, standing outside “Championship Vinyl”, “Rob Gordon’s” record shop…"I own this store called Championship Vinyl. It's located in a neighbourhood that attracts the bare minimum of window shoppers. I get by because the people make a special effort to shop here. Mostly young men...who spend all their time looking for deleted Smiths singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them.”  17 years on, Rob’s neighbourhood has upgraded and been gentrified, as what in the movie was a rundown suburb of north Chicago, is now a popular and trendy cafe and clothing area, and Championship Vinyl is a upmarket bike and clothing shop with a cafe built into it… ha ha I have a little nostalgic episode on the sidewalk looking up at the street signs.

That night I take the long way home, and drive the city edge, check more places, drive the under-railway roads and soak up what it is to be a late night Chicago-ian. How do you soak up more, every moment… I want to feel the city.

It’s friday night, and as it rolls on the rain continues in, and as I am heading to one of the cities big swing dance nights, the rain is of New Orleans-ian proportions. Some of the under railway roadways start to fill up with foot deep pools of water. Earlier in the week I had gone to a couple of swing lessons with one of the local troupes and that is how I found out about this big dance event.  I rock up, and it’s in a funny location, a warehousey area. In the rain I duck in quickly and head up the stairs. At the top I find a room full of people sort of dressed up, some guys with braces on etc so I presume its the swing night, but it just looks like a waiting/bar area. Some of them look at me funny, I take my jacket off, and swap my boots over for the shoes I can dance in, and stow my bag. I look around and out in the hallway, there doesn’t seem to be a dance floor?

They add out-of-towners to that mix, and as an Australian I am from the furthest away! It’s a great dance, but just as I get to one of the gals I wanted to dance with (she is a great active follow, and dances the way I like), I guess I am trying too hard, and I blow my knee out in the dance with her… ha ha (I have an old knee injury from years ago from fire-twirling, and every once and a while I twinge it) I fall on my ass… and she laments that she has broken the guest! ha ha. but it’s fine. The troupe takes care of me, and an ice pack, and I am up and dancing (a little more carefully) for the rest of the night. I have a couple of great dances with some late-comers. 

And as a bass player waveforms that are long and move your body not just your ears. Things that reach down into the soul that makes you up, ticks boxes in your sub-conscious, and makes your ass move and makes it impossible for your feet to stay still.  I have alway enjoyed active music, no matter what style, that has a tempo that is above your heart rate whilst sitting.  Once the tempo does not allow you to comfortably sit still or relax, it forces the animal instincts that you have supressed to bubble to the surface. For live music that story dynamic has always interested me (and how I try to connect with tribe).

I get shrimp mixed, and this is actually the best tasting Mexican food I have tasted in the whole of the USA. It turns out the be the best Mexican I eat, bar none…! for a small place they balance the spiciness, tastiness, amount of food, delicious sides, crispy corn chips, a selection of side salsas. I can’t fault it.  I would _nearly_ say the best meal I had in the USA. I have stayed out really late, I think it’s another 4am night by the time I get home.  Chicago you are upp-ing  to the ante of New Awlins… Sat I am a bit wrecked, and opt to have a rest day, hang and chat with Katibu in the afternoon, and do some more online research about the city.  Decide to have a night off, & stay in the suburbs, & arrange a things for the next days.

I wander the city a little to and see it’s shape. Chicago is another city that passes my gauge for a big city, when you are walking on the street - people don’t make eye contact - you know it’s a big city. But Chicago doesn’t have and aggressive vibe like Sydney or Nashville or New York. It’s big, but it still seems to have held onto it’s working class roots, it’s proud of its ethnic heritages, and the definite communities that have formed because of it.  Sure it has corruption, a little danger, but I think it has retained it’s spirit, the reason why… and managed to not sell it’s soul completely, yet.

Couple of other players get up with the house band, and gradually heads into jammer territory. Sonia and the boys are known to the Jam host Linsey Alexander.  You have to understand, Kingston Mines has been a blues club since 1968, and was recently rated best blues club by Chicago Readers in 2016, and Most Popular Blues Club in the Chicago Music Awards in 2016 (again)! So playing here you are playing in an esteemed and historical blues house.

We plow through a short set, it’s up, the energy is up, and Sonia’s vocals soar over the top of us. The whole room lights up. Big cheers after each song. We have good interaction as well, moving and grooving, and reacting off each other.  I have a great time with Sonia, the drummer and the keyboard player.

Besides having a great time playing, seeing the cities that developed the music styles I like to play, it’s the getting to hang out with musos at that local level and just chatting about the state of things, what they deal with on a day to day level, not the perceived infamy of it all, but what they actually have to deal with in those cities.  The real and gritty reality of playing music in New Orleans, Austin, Memphis, Nashville, St Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York… and like everything the reality is far from it’s famed gloss.

I was msging Mike from a jam earlier in the week, and organise this session.  I send him an old version of the track, and then a reworked version so far with no Guitar lines on it so he can have a listen and work out a few things on it.  Dan Norman is our engineer for it. He’s really enthusiastic about the track as it is an unusual project.  Recording parts along the way with people that I meet in life, and getting them to put their story into the song.

I like to direct my musos, with feeling words, maybe emotions, and try to connect them with the story of the song. We do about 14-15 different takes with 2 mics, it’s a great session! We pack up, Dan back ups/transfers the session onto my USB, I  transfer a copy onto my hard drive there in the studio (and later this is Time Machine backuped onto another portable Harddrive I have on the trip, 3 back ups, call me a computer nerd) but this stuff won’t be able to be redone. I may be flying by the seat of my pants on this trip, but there is still method to the madness.

Mike has to work, I on the other hand have no such responsibilities… so stay longer and listen to more music.  I meet Maddie and Jeff at the bar, who are creatives and musos with friends jamming… we chat about Chicago. Eventually we get to my list, and they revue the things I have done, and my other Chicago places.  One thing on the list I forgot was Mallort! A Chicago-specific liquor, that has been described as old socks in rusted metal, off pineapple in bin juice, "just don’t have it…!" ha ha so I have to have one… Jeff shouts us all a round, and I buy the beer chasers! it’s no-where near as bad as some people described, and definitely more palatable than some of the backyard alcohol I had in parts of Europe. 

Have a regular coffee, but as I end up there chatting for a while, get talked into a complimentary Vanilla Burbon coffee from their latest experimental roast. It was strange but delicious, had great conversations with the gals, about Tupelo, and what it is and not. And of course the thing that Tupelo is most famous for is it’s where Elvis was born… I’m not really on an Elvis pilgrimage, but its seems the universe is pushing me that way.. ha ha. They tell me a few other things that are happening around, and eventually I head off to another Elvis land.

So end up back in Memphis, I have done all the touristy stuff so it’s time to capitalise on the music. It’s Monday, I check what’s on, not much, so head to a venue on my list The Lafayettes, which I find is in Overton Square (and area that also kept coming up on my list from people)

I chat with the bar staff in the front room and some other band locals, during the night and get some great tips for my list of things to do and see.  They are also impressed with what I already had, which was a lot of places they would’ve suggested.

The food in America is something to be deisred, deep fried fish cake on a white bread roll, with can coleslaw, soggy chips with packet ketchup.  While it’s cooking, I decide if it’s culturally appropriate to buy a stocking do-rag… (I don’t buy one). All of the cities I have been in there seems to be this crumbling infrastructure, areas of the American dream that have been left to disintegrate, to wither back into the plains they were stolen from.  I am not sure how long the USA can stand tall, when it’s own root system is weakened and rotting.

I lie in the park for a while, my body needs a rest. Various fitness people, tourists and locals canter and bike by.  From various positions in Memphis I have seen the glass pyramid (in the picture), so decide to travel the foreshore to see what its about. It turns out to be an Outdoor Fishing, Camping and Shooting complex taken over I presume from whoever was crazy enough to build a pyramid.  The indoor area is the craziest mall I have ever seen, including many outdoors shops in a swamp, bayou, stuffed animals, live fish tanks place with shops in around the area, and checkouts dotted here and there.

Full embrasure of the hunting culture, camping yeah… but mostly hunting. There a lots of huge catfish in display ponds and stuffed animals (bears, deers, turkeys, ducks, goats, antlers etc) in every nook of this display/mall.

There are plenty of camping things, touristy T-shirts, camouflage-ware, canoes/kayaks, boat shop, fishing lines, bow and crossbows complete with a firing range, and of course the gun shop… no stop in ‘Murica would be complete without a stop at a gun shop for an Aussie.  It is a sight to behold, I have never seen so many guns in one place in my life.

It’s pretty nuts to think I could have walked out of the place with a pistol in my pocket for about $189… if you wanted something more powerful, about $350, and top of the line about $800 for handguns.  If I wanted a semi-automatic machine gun it was about $1800-3500. Sobering… but I later look at the Beretta Compact Carry, and think Hmmm maybe I should… ha ha

The music starts and it’s Karen Brown with an all-star lineup of RnB/soul band. They are funky and play a lot of song the crowd knows (and sings along to), but I have never heard before.  It’s pretty amazing to be sitting in front of the Lorraine Motel and hearing a celebration of Civil Rights concert surrounded by people just enjoying themselves.

Strangely like a lot of things I have come across, I am but one of about 50 non-black people in the entire crowd. It is unnerving what the details of daily living in America are doing to my opinions of racial issues. I catch a set of music but as they break I head off to a swing dance lesson just half a block away, as that was my reason for coming to the South Main area.

​I get to the lesson, but even though it looked really good online, and very promoted by a local dance crew Red Hot Swing, it is very sad… one old male teacher, and 2 couples that have walked in off the street. I stay, order 2for1 margaritas as it’s happy hour, to get me through this.  Another guy from the local crew shows up, a steps in as a follow.  I am used to this, as most dance circles have same sex couples here and there, and usually if its it a rotating class you end up dancing with the the guys too. But it is funny in this situation where the tourist guys find themselves not dancing with their girl but with this other guy ha ha.

Just as it’s starting to get a little hairy, Someone calls my name! I look around and it’s Chick from the Stage Stop Jam, he says he used to own this park and street… but he talks him AND me onto the park stage from the band there, so I guess he must have… we jam up a storm in Handy Park. Chick also mentions he has a late night gig @ Ernestine & Hazels Sat Night and invites me to come. Crazy night!  I end up at the taco window on the edge of the park, chatting to Roland from Ghana.  I get 2 Tacos from him and we chat about music and travel, he likes that I am a straight shooter from Australia.  I still haven’t found this Rockabilly band, so I send msg to Red Hot Swing, to see if I can get more details.

The Highjivers are also a great band, playing in Memphis, but they are mostly from Nashville (just 3hours up the road), the singer has an amazing husky whiskey soaked voice, and she knows how to work the stage, very vivacious. The band is solid too, and the guitarist is one of the most electrifying rockabilly guitarists I have ever seen. What a crazy great night! I dance later with some other ladies who are not swing dancers, but really enjoy movement and dancing with someone who can actually lead. fun fUN FUN!  Later I head back to Handy Park for another Taco.

I hang while I eat, and chat, people and clients come and go, Roland intimates to me that he doesn’t like a lot of the American black people, especially the lazy ones that hang around Handy Park. It’s a slap for me, but it’s a reality, Roland is a black guy from Ghana, has travelled all over the world to escape things and create opportunity, he speaks Ghanian, English and Italian (as he lived in Italy for 8 years), he is supporting 5 kids, and they are in or heading to University.  He is doesn’t like a lot of the attitude of black American’s who hang around. He’s seen a lot, and has worked his job here for years, so I believe him. We have great chats about travel and music and things in general. I thank him for his hospitality!

A bunch of sweaty friends, in an indoor venue, and a larger outdoor stage with a backyard-feel party surrounded by a ring of merch tables of all independent bands, and a keg party all rolled into one.  It’s absolutely glorious! I think that Tim Ireland from one of my old bands would love this line up.  I stay at Goner fest all arvo/evening until I have to find some food.

I check my list and one of the other places that is on it and is nearby is "BBQ Shop", finally have some good ol’ Memphis BBQ!.. the diet of the American’s is piling on a few kilos, but hey I can adjust back when I am home.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so much meat in my life.  I remember that Chick’s gig is on at Ernestine And Hazels and head over the South Main and take my bass.

I hang with the band in the break, and sit in the drummers car as he smokes a jay.  We hear gunshots, which sound around the corner and about a block or two away… nobody even flinches. ha ha Memphis how I love you!  Eventually I am too tired, and leave after the next set, the band still has one more to go. They play from 11.30pm - 3am in the morning…! so toughen up Australian musicians, in Memphis the gigs are gunned down and late…  ha ha.

Sunday, and another couple of weeks finally catches up with me.  I decide to have a day off, and just stay in the hotel, watch movies and documentaries from bed, and then order a delivered pizza. It was a great day!

I spend tues morning setting up some stuff for the recording on my laptop for transferring files, and just practicing the bits I want to do. It’s just a little bit exciting to be recording @ Sun Studios! Ples also offered on monday, seeing that I am hanging around longer than I was going to, to take me on a tour of Ardent Studios (which is the massive studio in Memphis, his dad worked there as an engineer for 40 years, and Ples grew up as a kid around the studio) Ardent started in the 50s but throughout the years recorded bands like: Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, Stax artists including Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays and Booker T. and the MGs, later ZZ Top, Freddie King, Cheap Trick, Joe Cocker, and the new crop being the Replacements, R.E.M., the Georgia Satellites, the Gin Blossoms, the Afghan Whigs.  Finally the new school also entered into recording there: Three 6 Mafia, Juvenile, Al Kapone, Cat Power, the White Stripes, Bob Dylan.  We had a good look around and chatted to the current crop of producers and engineers. Great to see the place!

Ok so spirits guide me on, and truly mysterious week that follows.  Memphis like all the big musical cities has it’s party street, Beale St, the once great bustle of music that through history built what we know as blues and rock n roll. But now is  a shell of its former self where commercialism and party society culture has slowly eaten the soul from this place inside to out… Venues where former icons of the scene played, where now everyone plays that same music but with less conviction and doing it because that’s what is expected.

I have sensed everywhere, all the places I have been, like Australia, in the USA, Nola, San Marcos, Austin, Greenville, Clarksdale, Memphis, Nashville, the over-arching vibe I get from chatting to, researching, absorbing, and watching musicians is that the music scene is increasingly hard whereever you are. It’s only ever going to be whatever you are gonna make it for yourself, and the truths that have always been truths, are that you will only be the difference with what becomes of you and your music.  This trip has confirmed one thing for me which is if you want to make music you have to be extremely careful who you pick as your allies in this war of attrition of those with a true heart for it. As many comrades will be lost along the way, and only the truly dedicated will be standing by your side, or even somewhere on the field of battle in years to come.

As an AV tech, the whole tour experience has been done really well! and not just the commercial stuff, I do get some really great insights into the man, and the things that made him the musician he was, very interesting from the point of view of where he came from to where he ended up.

It’s undeniable though, that Elvis’ impact on the music industry is substantial, but the more I have seen local scene, the smaller exhibits, the places significant in other ways, and the other musical histories laid out by different views, that perhaps there is a dissproportionate acclaim held up to certain artists, or people like Elvis, who capitalised on the shoulders of others. In the words of Carl Perkins on arguably the “first" Rockabilly song “Blue Moon of Kentucky” BY Bill Monroe but made famous by Elvis - “A white man’s lyric, to a black man’s rhythm”. It seems Elvis just came at the right time, and fit country, blues, and gospel into the one gyrating package in a palatable white face. Talent undeniable, marketed by a savvy manager, the Colonel, who like a lot of business people of the era, just realised the $$ opportunities that lay ahead.

“I didn’t open the studio to record funerals, weddings and school revues. I knew what I opened the studio for: I was looking for a higher ground that I knew existed in the soul of mankind. And especially at that time the black man’s spirit and his soul.” - Sam Phillips

The best thing about THIS tourist attraction is even though it runs as a gift shop, tours and historical site, the studio is still a great recording space with a full setup and live recording space in its original configuration.  So after 6.30pm when the tours stop, it still records bands, and artists who come in, in the original Sam Phillips ethos, We record anyone! I have been emailing and chatting with the In-house engineer, and plan to track down the bassline to a song I am reworking from my old band Filthy Downtown, hopefully some of that spirit gets infused into the recording :) After the tour I was on, I hang out with the staff/tour guides who are all musos (of course) and get the low down on the scene, more list additions, and even get a sneaky beer in with them.

Ok enough of the nostalgia, it’s time to get real and actually in this, so I dive into a blues jam that I see listed, surprisingly there aren’t many jams listed in Memphis. But I guess like most things you have to dig to find the real ones. So I head way out that night, south to a local pub to and get into really local jam where really only me and one other guy show up to jam with the local house band.  I meet Jack Rowell Jnr, and one of his bands, they love that an Australian came all this way to jam at a jam in Southaven… a very outer suburb in Memphis. 

On my way back into town I drop into DKDC and catch Dave Cousar, local guitar legend with many guests… truly unique singer guitarist, and has great flavours with extra singers, bassplayers, snare drummers, acoustic guitarists.

Wed, tick The Edge Cafe off my list, and have arguably the best coffee I have had in America so far. New boutique cafe in a mini-boutique mall with artisan shops, they know how to make food and coffee, and brewed infused cold coffees too! This becomes my fav cafe in Memphis and end up doing most of my Blogging here. (I am there right now doing this Blog)

Thurs, decide to get some more history into me, there are so many exhibits, Stax Records, Blues Hall of Fame… amongst others, I’m a bit exhibited out,  but a local suggests the Rock N Soul Museum as it’s a good history and not too targeted at one thing like the rest, set up by The Smithsonian Institute.  He’s right it’s actually really good.  It takes you all the way through from the early work songs, blues, and country music, through the different eras - Blues, Country, Soul, the development of the key artists, a smattering of all the important original indie record companies Stax, Hi, and the development of the styles of music known from Memphis that changed music as we know it. 

Memphis was, and still is at the crossroads in the country where cultures and musics collide. Nashville may have become the music capital, but Memphis definitely seems to have held onto its musical soul just that little bit more than its cut-throat counter-part.

So I arrive at almost the right time, and literally get thrown onstage almost immediately! I find out it’s more just Jack’s Band, and it’s not really a jam more of an invitational, but Jack knows I can play so I’m straight in.  This is a great jam, great players, Stax records demo session players, ex-Hank Williams Jnr players, and Jack has been nominated for best Indie Blues by The Blues Foundation. Work up a connection with both the drummer and the guitarist on stage, and also get throw a bass solo ha ha not the best I’ve ever done ad-libbed, but its enough to get cheers from the crowd. As a player on the search for the heart of things musically, this is one of the best nights on this trip so far, not just for the music, but also the connection I make musically with all the players on this night.

I do a cruise around, and end up down at Broadway, the strip, for a while to just check it out (Nashville’s Burbon st, Beale St). It is a hotbed of music bars and tourist T-shirt/boot shops, and like its predecessors an armpit of covers-y noise, neon lights & drunken bachelorette parties, bros, hoes, and security.  Fun for a moment, but a good place to avoid in the future. I find out there is 2 football games on, but even locals tell me that its usually nearly this busy, it’s pretty packed everywhere.

The only place that I wanted to see in Nashville was the original Grand Ole Opry. Renamed the Ryman Auditorium, and still hosts the winter concerts for the Grand Ole Opry TV show.  If you are ever here see the introduction tour video, it’s something else! AV-wise so much better than the usual boring info film… state of the art tech, loved it! Have a great chat with Brandon the head lighting tech of the place as they are setting up for the show tonight. Grand MA lighting desk & plenty of standard and moving lighting. He’s only been in the job for 1 year, great gig! He gives me a few more tips for my list.

The Ryman has such great history, with the Opry Radio/TV Show, and also so many great artists have played here, it’s big enough for a national/international artist to play, but also small enough that it still feels intimate for the audience. So many great artists played here, including Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams (who received six encores), Patsy Cline, Carl Perkins, and later newer artists in the revival after a period of dormancy and near destruction, Neil Young, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ringo Starr, Cold Play, Garth Brooks, Foofighters and Kesha (who is from Nashville). 

It’s a nicely setup bluesy bar, with a medium 1 metre high stage, surrounded by a mezzanine level.  The musos are going through so interesting covers and standards, very occasionally put in an original song.  They are selling CD merch of their own stuff, and a tip bucket, but rarely showcase their own music. It’s what’s expected in these types of establishments.

I head out to more city, and go directly to the pit, Broadway to just soak up that side of things, you can’t have an opinion unless you see it totally for yourself right.  I check many venues but hang particularly at 2 to see bands play, the first is so typically bedroom-hero-my-mum-told-me-i-am-good playing bad covers like Summer of 69… ha ha it’s cheesy good! but the second Rachael Johnson - with band, are actually really tight, and a great band and singer.  But they do a slightly better covers, in really good ways. Rachael also has her own stuff on sale. The band plays songs every once and while, while sexy Rachael wanders the crowd for requests and the tip jar… they have a great system for maximising incomes.  I ask them later, after requesting an original (but they can’t play one), where there band plays.  But Rachael is a solo artist and the band is temporary, They are called the Funkonaughts. I finally head home after soaking up more of the ghastly street vibe, footy season has bolstered the vomit, have a Nashville hotdog on the street and get out of there.

‘Cause I am out north of the city I have a look at my list for Nashville, and Fontanelle comes up way out north too. So head there for lunch, it’s a winery/music venue/hiking area.  Sit at the bar, order the brunch Corned Beef Harsh Benedict which is absolutely delicious, and order a Bloody Mary to go with it, which is also a very accomplished version with jalepeno, pepper, bacon, olive and cherry tomato.

There are 3 experienced ol’ boys playing a mixture of jazz standards, bluegrass, and bluesy swingy inspired numbers. Nothing to offensive for the lunchtime crowd. The Fontanel property was built by country star Barbara Mandrell in 80s, the largest log cabin in the world, but since then it’s been sold and made into a tourist complex with cafe, venues, hiking trails and high adventure activities. Do we see a pattern forming in ‘Murica.

I decide to possibly head to New Orleans for a Swing Dance Festival, and hang with friends there, and after a daytime ditch into the biggest flea market in Nashville, which I pick up a great little ampere guage to add to my steampunk bass, see some NAS cars as the track is right next door, and then I head on down the road. 

But as with things on this trip, plans change, and I discover my friends place in Nola isn’t going to work out, and then the whole idea of travelling way out of my way, and the extra accomodation expense needed, and also the festival cost make it a really expensive detour now.  So after heading off, I decide to head back to Memphis as its only 3hrs away, and head there via Tupelo… which becomes its own story next week. Another week down, so many great things, music is crazy and great!

After a great time in mid south Texas, hooked up a stay with Rich (muso mate of Nick from San Marcos) in Austin proper. He luckily has a caravan for touring in his yard that band people and muso mates can stay.  I after getting acquainted, do  a drive around the central area again, I have a bit of an idea of Austin already. Austin is a bit more spread out, it has a nice feel, more sprawling with lots of river around, every available empty block is full of little food trucks.

Tues luckily is HAAM Benefit Day in Austin! Such a great thing, HAAM stands for Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and its literally that, the benefit day is their fundraiser, where bands/musos play all over Austin and money earned goes to HAAM, who help musos in need of acute medical care. Like most places in the world, musos never can afford to take care of themselves, or do the big medical and dental maintenance that people with regular careers take for granted. I hear many stories during the day from performers who have benefited from the program (and are putting back in for free this day).  Such a great initiative! one of the main setups is at Wholefoods supermarket outdoor area, with bands all day 6am - 8pm.

I saw heaps of great music here, from pop-py country blues, solo gravelly country with pedal steel, world-y Marimba group playing Zimbabwean music, groovy alt rock, a great day and selection of high quality players.  It’s sunny and hot, and a dry heat here in Austin, it reminds me of late Spring/early Summer in my home town in NSW.  Late arvo when the music gets a bit commercial, I do a bit of a walk around the Texas Capitol, the main govt building in the centre of town.

Wed, have a slow start. Have a bit of a drive around Central Austin, and Cherrywood, just to see some other place around town, check the communities. stop off at near Wholefoods again on the way back to Office Max to get a USB stick and a new back-up harddrive, as I left my full backup of my computer in Aus, wrapped in plastic in storage (as you can’t be too careful). But now I have heaps of new stuff that I don't want to lose, so decide to start a new USA backup that stays separate to my laptop :)  ha! do i sound like a computer nerd now! later head back to The Whitehorse because Lauren’s other big band outfit is playing swingy tunes there. They are seriously good, and the Two-Steppin’ western swing dancers love it, and there are a few swing dancers there too. I’ve started to feel the western swing dancers vibe, but it’s still a challenge, to match enough to not confuse them with Lindy moves. I head over to Dozen St again where there is listed Butta & Jam listed, but when I get there it’s actually more a band playing smooth grooves, and not much intention of any jamming happening.  I watch for a while, it’s groove / RnB / hip hop, but then head home.

The weekend is a toss up, but nothing is grabbing me in Austin, and I remember a festival that I wasn’t sure if it would time out, but as I spent a bit more time in New Orleans, it schedules out OK! so I decide to make a run for the Mississippi Delta Blues & Heritage Festival, which turns out to be their 40th Anniversary Fest! leave friday lunch and travel halfway to a small town called Marshall, stay in a motel, travel the rest of the way on Sat morning to arrive at lunchtime for the festival in Greenville Mississippi! basically a 9hr journey! just of hop skip and a jump for a touring aussie muso ;)

Highways are generally pretty good, major divided affairs, and this part of the country is mostly pretty flat, so they are big and straight… but luckily some of the places I’m going to are small, so I get to travel some byways and little places. Past cotton fields, and farms and towns of a few thousand, and every small village proudly has a water tower with their name on it.  I cross a state line into the corner of Arkansas, then the mighty Mississippi river again into Mississippi, The home and heart of the Blues and Rock and Roll.

First stop The Delta Fest! it’s pretty crazy, and very low-fi compared to say Byron Bay Blues Fest in Australia.  There is little pretence here, NO major corporations gauging as much cash out of you as possible.  Tickets for the whole festival are $30!! that’s right… 4 stages, music all day and night, there are only basic facilities, plenty of BBQ and food trucks onsite, and really no restrictions… people just bring wheelie trucks of marques, cooler boxes (eskies) full of beer, their own smokers and BBQ grills,  foldout chairs, the whole she-bang! & like a lot of festivals most setup up camp in front of the mainstage & don’t move.

It’s pretty dry and very hot this day in a dusty paddock!  lots of round bales of hay are dotted around, in case of rain and mud etc but I find they are also good to sit on later for a good view.  Main stage is huge, and has a massive PA, the Duke stage is small, and basic,  I mean really basic, but I find like most festivals I find myself moving around during the day and evening to different stages to check out some interesting stuff.  As with most main stages, the performer are all pretty good to great, but sometime can be a bit “safe” (read commercial) for my liking… ha ha the Duke stage has heaps of local acts, which are good and great. I buy one CD. There is also the Gospel Stage, which I gather after a few performances is actually a full gospel blues stage, like run by churches, with church bands and band/choirs that sing full on Church music southern style! Pretty amazing to watch, as the LEAST amount of harmony singing I saw on this stage was 3 part harmonies, and it went up from there, amazing! but after a while, each time, it started to sound a bit same-y to me, and when all the lyrics are about Jesus and God, and being uplifted, Amen! I get a bit lyrically tired, and went for some more variation on the Duke Stage.

Anyway I get over it, and start to have some conversations with a few people around and some of the stall holders, who can’t believe I came all the way from Australia! Whenever you talk most people assume you are British… I soon poo-poo that and set them straight ha ha! and after some great musical conversations and some BBQ ribs with spicy beans and potato salad, I could get used to this… hanging at the Duke stage I chat more closely with people and the barriers are breaking down, even the main stage area I start to get lots of smiles and nods from people that see me moving backwards and forwards from stage to stage, I think they know that only blues enthusiasts make it to this festival :)

But I have my own connection to Clarksdale, besides all the famed blues mumbo jumbo, and have always wanted to see the place.  Many years ago I was at a blues jam in Thirroul Australia, and ended up thrown into a jam with Matt Foster, a wild drunken slide bluesman from Maine in the USA, but he lived in Australia for years (Sidenote: and as a carpenter, Matt built some of the Nebauchadnezzar, Morpheus’ space ship in The Matrix 1) but we ended up jamming and playing many gigs over the years, and we did a song called "Going Down to Clarksdale”.  It always made me wonder about the place, it was a great song, and had incredibly bluesy, raucous, inciteful story lyrics, now I have stood in that place & walked that blues trail.

Also another totally random thing, I always wondered what happened to The Vanguard in Newtown Sydney, it had such a great vibe, and seemed to be going so well.  Then it has lately changed hands and become a bit more lack-lustre as Leadbelly.  But randomly walk into Levon’s in Clarksdale Mississippi, and run into Daniel Champagne! (Aussie Guitarist/Singer, who lives in Nashville now) who is playing in Levon’s. He explains that Johnny Cass who used to run The Vanguard, sold up everything and moved to Clarksdale, and now runs this venue! crazy!

I have to skirt north around Houston as all the highways are completely flooded from Hurricane Harvey, and Nick msgs me to say there are fuel shortages in the area. I break the trip up and stay in Shreveport, in a late night dodgey motel, two stars, with the most hillarious included breakfast, but hit the road and make it to  San Marcos late in the arvo, 11hr drive, just a easy one over 1 1/2days for an Aussie. Meet up with Nick and head out to a food truck area for dinner. And check out a couple of local venues and bars including The Showdown, a great local hang. Above the bar hang about 300 stickered, plastic stein mugs, each one belongs to a local, and the refills are cheap.

The other thing that San Marcos is really famous for is its river, a river tubing.  The junction geologically and the natural spring fed river lends itself to the clearest river water I have ever seen.  The last thing you’d expect in dusty Texas is such amazing rivers, but this whole area of the state has heaps of great rivers to swim in, which I did! perfect near the end of a hot day! and made with built rapids with smooth water slides and plenty of easy access steps and hang places.

I must say beer is weird in the USA, it’s not that great (there I said it)… ha ha there are plenty of fine Beers, but let’s just say it’s no Germany or Czech Republic.   I have a great breakfast Quesadilla, if there is one thing that Texas does well is Tex Mex food! the Mexican influence is brilliant! even the fast foody versions made by Mexicans are really good, and one of my local pick up taco joints is Bobcat Quickie in the Exxon gas station, but they have a full grill kitchen that makes amazing food any time of day or night.  I also have a great conversation with Jim from the Steampunk lighting shop. After a great chat he invites me to a steampunk mixer that is coming up, and I get a small custom made oldschool key to add to my steampunk bass guitar.

Saw my first Amercian squirrel in the park burying nuts for the winter, whilst eating my soft shelled Tilapia (fish taco) and a potato/choriozo/avocado taco custom, washed down with at Mint & Honey Moonshine Sweet Tea.  Apparently cars don’t need doors in San Marcos, and who could blame them with this weather.

Friday is punk night, and surprisingly there is a full on punk night in San Marcos which is rare these days. We stop by Tantra on the way for a cheap jug of beer (each ha ha) and one of Nick’s friends is spinning hip hop vinyl there, super cool. Nick and I catch a bit of the first punk bands at Kiva, and they are pretty standard SoCal style punk, we head out check some other places around town, & back to catch the final band “Piñata Protest” who I thoroughly recommend.  They are a bit more old school, and have a strong Mexican flavour.  The lead singer also plays accordion! which is fantastic with punk! Crazy night, get in the mosh-pit, but it’s a really supportive pit, and you get picked up if you get knocked over ha ha! I end up on the stage at one point, I don’t know how, and have one set of sneakers destroyed, and wake up with black stuff all over my legs.

Next day head out to New Braunfels where Georgia & Nick play a duo market gig, New Braunfels is a germanic town, so has a great farmers market ethos, and a huge Beirgarten Hall to go with it. Krauses’ has about 50 beers on tap! plays live music with a great outdoor beer garden style stage and has markets and lots of kid/family friendly activities.

I did intend on going moving on up to Austin this day, but end up hanging and going to another gig with that Georgia is playing upright bass with Steel Betty band also in New Braunfels. After lunch check Duckworth’s Violin Shop, where Bryan Duckworth has been making and repairing violins, cellos and double basses for over 30 years. See a few other night spots in town with some of Nick’s local friends, but then eventually head home to San Marcos, via some more tacos...

Nick’s San Marcos area has been a treat and Nick was a fantastic contact in the local music scene and showed me one hell of a time, but now it’s time to head on to Austin proper, and organise to stay with Rich Russell who also toured Aus with Nick. Time to catch some more music in Austin.  Another week drifts by and hurricane Irma has destroyed a lot of the Caribbean and now Cuba… so I may have to modify my end of trip plans, will see.  Some New Orleans friends are calling me back so I may end up back there ! ha ha :) Thanks San Marcos you were an absolute HOOT!

It’s a well rounded end of week 3 in Nola, and as Hurricane Harvey pushes in to deluge the south into submission, I sit in EnVie Cafe on Decatur St drinking my cup o’ Joe.  What a week it’s been, definitely worked my way into the lifestyle of this place, Nola has engulfed me in her kind, warm arms. Monday is supposed to be my last day with Taylor in his digs in Uptown/Carrolton, but I am so distracted I msg and say can we arrange more time. Taylor is pretty cool and I am totally flexible, he has several Airbnb rooms and a couch so we can work out anything. I work out a new place to stay over in Mandeville st, north of Claiborne, which is a totally sketchier neighbourhood but walkable to Frenchmen st and The French Quarter. It’s fine though, I think I’ve had enough time here that I definitely have a feel for it, and the rhythm of this city. 

I literally have stopped adding anything to my list now as it’s incredibly long and detailed… now with notes of people and places and soundtrack and memories.  I feel I am starting to get sucked into this city and if I stay here much longer I fear I will never leave. I now know most of the scene, musos are starting to recognise me on the street, “Bassplayer, right?” ha, and the swing dance Krewe all know me for a chat and a dance now, doormen don’t ask me for ID, just warm nod. I chat with Rhonda the Doorwoman at Negril on Frenchmen st, I’ve been there a lot in the last few weeks, and saw a great blues act there on Wed night. Rhonda is a badass, not only does she do door, she does bass as well. The Professor (on bass) invites her up to do a spot, she funks and slaps it up like a champ! it seems everyone local in this town has at least 4 talents and then there is the other stuff they do! I think I would fit right in… ha ha

Late that night, end up at the Apple Barrell, and meet Windex Pete who is playing is washboard with 2 metal forks outside to the funky bluesy tunes.. soon he is joined by the bassplayer on the street who has a wireless lead system (and it’s a slow tues), soon a few tourist are partying with them, dancing and Windex Pete is encouraging everyone one to have a go at the washboard with various drunken versions of success/failure… ha ha

Head out and catch a few groups/bands, trios, brass, funk, they are all starting to blurr into one… New Orleans is just one great pot of venues, night after night, day after day of bands playing various times, all day, every day. It’s crazy to think that a place of this small size can support so many musicians and venues.  Some venues have 3 bands a day, lunch arvo shift, evening shift and late night shift. Pretty much live entertainment for about 12 hours a day in many venues within walkable distance of each other. Crazy when you think about Sydney or Wollongong in comparison.

Delicious Wild Mushroom Gnocchi starter, Blackened Redfish, Shrimp and Grits, with sides of Sweet Potato mash and grilled Asparagus, and a great wine.  We decided to get a bit dressed up, the first time that I have pulled out the Damn Fine outfit on this entire trip, and lucky I did as Tomahawk is gorgeous in a vintage pink ruffled summer dress, but is still funky enough to rock up on her vintage bicycle. We cycle around the city afterwards and she shows me a few places I haven’t been before. When your guide to the city is this funky, social and sexy, the city that never stops, is such an appealing place.

The next week became a blur, stirring the pot with many of my new friends, and getting to more gigs and dances in all my favourite venues.  Highlights were getting into Preservation Hall with Tomahawk to see the best and most authentic New Orleans jazz musicians! amazing gig in a hall that literally played the first jazz gigs…(I thought it was going to be a huge concert hall, but it was a tiny un-aircondiitioned hall the size of a lounge room, and so hard to book in for)

Ok 2 weeks have gone by and the gloss, glow and the flash-in-the-pants romance have dithered away, I’m beginning pull back your skin Nola and to see the flesh beneath.  Somehow I don’t think I’ll have time to make it to the bone and see the real heart of you... yet. My list has now been ticked off more than new things being added, but I am still running into interesting people who wryly find me something to add to what has become a great list (I may publish it at the end of this trip)

It’s monday so that means D-Macs Blues jam, I intend heading there straight after Dragon’s, but walk up Frenchmens and contemplate an Uber, but as I walk passed Apple Barrell/Adolfos, a solo bluesy guy is laying down some slide, I duck in the door as I always do now, lean on the rail, he’s fun and his style is right up my alley. He finishes a song, I clap, without even thinking about it he asks if I want to jam (I have the bass over my shoulder), “Alright! let’s do this.” and as I agree a sax player walks in the door and was liking it too, he joins us. I quickly set up my bass and plug staight into the PA precariously  leaning on top of the upright piano stuffed against the wall in the entrance. Next thing we are jamming away on a bluesy gospel number, and another tune, sax joins in. It’s a happy little collaboration out of the blue, after a couple of numbers I say I have to go to another jam, Sam Cammarata exchanges emails, and I have to rush off.

1 hour goes by, 2 hours go by, 3rd hour another whole band gets up, they look like an established white-y band, they definitely don’t want fresh players up in their business… Profit and another Jamaican guy who I’ve been chatting with want to do something funkier, as these white guys are playing really straight, white rock blues… yeesh, it’s the same over here ha ha! they play endless songs, sometimes not even blues, with 5min solos… eventually I tire of the charade of it all. Profit finally gets a run as a drummer, but it seems I am gonna have to wait ’til the end of time. I’ve had a couple of PBRs (Pabst cheap beer) and finally give up. Jam’s here are the same as Australia. Pack my stuff walk out the door, zap an Uber an decide I should have stayed jamming with Sam at Apple Barrell, and there’s always swing dancing at The Spotted Cat. While I am waiting a dude sticks his head out of the door, “ I think they need a bass player” too little, too late, I am waiting on the Uber, and have classic Tim stubborn-head on. When it’s classed as a JAM, and people just play it safe all night, then get entire bands up to just run some of their songs, I cease to submit, no matter where and who. I just don’t understand why people have to be so false and insecure about their playing. Everyone there are great players, can’t you just trust on a monday night that you can explore music with some other great exotic players that you wouldn’t normally play with… JAM  pfffft!

The nights are starting to blur into one, I need some fresh take on it, I know where I am, and found the vibe, have walked around and across town to the street cars 11 nights in a row after midnight, in the town where 300+ people get murdered each year. It sounds startling to an Aussie, but the place feels no more dangerous than a night at Kings Cross.  Sure you have to keep your wits reasonably about you, and solo, you have to listen to your intuition sometimes and not walk down thAt alleyway shortcut, or just Uber it from here to there.  If you listen to your inner animal, it chats always with Nola who wants to guide you to the sweaty sexy light that blurs the darkness out. There ARE some crazies wandering the streets, but in this place there sure are a lot more obvious and easier targets than me (some people are just so unaware). 2.30am home

I get to Bambula’s where there is s’pose to be a swing lesson drop in, but there is nobody there but the cool band playin’ that  Nola Jazz and a couple of bar flys.  Django Reinhardt inspired guitar jazz, prob a tad fast for my swing dance style, but perfectly on the levee of New Orleans pace of life.  I order a couple of Tacos & a PBR.  There is one younger gal sitting at the end of the bar in black, but I assume she’s a bar chick on her break. One taco later in walks one of the swing dudes I’ve seen at The Cat, he chats with her, and I figure she’s the teacher. We chat, it’s past time, but she says she’s doing lessons at Dance Space near Magazine St, but she’s almost late for it, luckily 6.30pm solo jazz, then Lindy Hop at 7.30pm. I’m might come for Lindy. She says “sure” like that’ll happen. Whilst finishing my Tacos look up the place.  It’s right off the street car line, so add my tip (which I’m starting to get the gist of unconciously calculating approx right $$ amount now), and head off. Class is fun, I get the basics of Nola Lindy Hop with Giselle and a small class, which is basically less steps for faster music.

Now those people weren’t kidding, the place is huge, and Ron fills me in, that it moved from down the road after the floods, and was created by John who he introduces me too.  John’s a bit of a dancer, loves music, but wanted a place where all kinds of people and families could come for a great night out! he wasn’t wrong!… 

There is 20+ bowling lanes, big bistro, huge picnic style table area behind each lane, gigantic centre bar, massive stage for the bands, and a dancefloor that would put any RSL Auditorium to shame, in fact the entire place’s floor everywhere is proper wooden dance floor. Simply glorious unlike any venue I have ever seen. The night we are there it’s a bit rock n roll/rockabilly, so not exactly my dance style, but there are plenty of dancers and it’s a total mixture of crowd, some oldies dancing, and eating, a young uni kids function doing bowling and food platters, middle aged people just at the bar or eating. Some of the youngies eventually after a few drinks get on the dancefloor too. The dance partners thin out, so I convince Ron to go into town to Spotted Cat for some real swing, his arm is easily twisted.

Damn! there’s a Pedicab sitting right outside The ‘Cat, I never use them, I’d rather save the money and Shank’s pony-it wherever… Look at my list, what haven’t I done yet? my eyes dart back to her, this Pedicabber just has something, normally they are sweaty jocky guys dishevelled and busting their hump in Nola’s hellish bake-ery…I walk to cross the street, but haven’t really found anything yet, Nola whispers to me, by just raising her eyebrows, no words.  I lean on the back of the Pedicab, “So you look like the sort of person who can add something to my list or point me in the right direction at least”, she smiles all-business-like (I try to not roll my eyes), but she looks at my list… then scrolls down, “that’s a great list!” then I smile all-business-like. She adds “Preservation Hall” to my list and is surprised it’s not on there already considering the calibre of my list.

I just have a relaxing start to Friday, start checking for 2nd hand cars, it’s not looking good. The online reviews of some places confirm your worst nightmares about shonky 2nd-hand car dealers, and the process to get it registered through the DMV for a non-local are pretty horrendous. Taylor suggests hiring from Avis as they are the cheapest. I check it, they are pretty competitive, and if stay a bit longer in New Orleans, the hire works out to be about what I would spend, but for a brand new car, with no break down worries, hmmmm… food for thought

One Eyed Jacks theatre room proves to be a formidable venue, reminds me of the old Gaelic Club in its heyday, prob about 400 size, with a mezzanine level, and stepped up main floor, proscenium arch style theatre, haunted I’m told. It’s refreshing to see acts in a space with a decent PA not just the size of it, but the frequency spectrum of it.  Sea Battle run through sonically edged, theatrics, back-up goddesses, songs about mermaids, aliens, freaky music, female rapping, costume changes. MC Hot Tee steps up the MCing and also has backup dancers, and adds a circusy act, loop tissue act hanging from the rigging.  The headliner Delish the Goddess throws down a massive set of gangsta-ess, the production quality of the music pushing the sound system to its limit, the bass is so low and punchy and strong that it lifted me onto my feet… bassplayer heaven.  A sound system that surely went down to at least 60htz maybe even 40… (for you tech heads) the walls shook, the crowd bounced, and it was a great night. Something completely different from Nola than the usual lightly-fared jazz acoustica. I run into Tomahawk on the dance floor in the last set, I love acts that dance in other bands sets! she seems glad that I came to the gig, and alone no less. “Stick with me” she intimates, we get backstage at one stage, and later introduces me to some of the other band members, the owner of the bar, and the owner of Preservation Hall… Great meet ups :) I’m so glad I came.

Sunday I’m feeling so contented, but its maintenance time, I finally have to do some laundry, so out of non-smelly clothes,  start this blog in Babylon cafe/laundromat, do your washing and you get free drip or iced coffee… my kinda place. I do some emailing, then get home and finish a few things from another project, old invoice that I forgot to send, connect a couple of friends for another project, digital nomad… I could handle this… onto the blog, here I am finishing this, get a take-away Spinach/Artichoke Dip with breads, and a veggo calzone from Mellow Mushroom down on Oak St. Finish blog, do vLog edit… missed a swing thing tonight, but I think I;m ok with it, video to you all :) ENJOY!