Mike’s Tour Blog: Vol. II Issue II

Note to self: Call Ratty for names/places & insert pictures/videos…

Where were we?

Oh, leaving…

So, the smokers Hearne, Jacob and I got comfy in the van and began our trek.  Our first out of town show was in Oxford Mississippi.  This guy Andrew Ratcliffe who has done some really cool records with some really cool people did a really cool thing and set up a show for us in his home town which was also a chance for us to check out his really cool studio.  I got a voice mail about a week before we left.  “Hey Mike, you know I’m in Oxford, Mississippi not Oxford, Alabama right?”.

Wrong.

It happens, you know states, cities, whatever.  So that added a couple hours to the trip but I didn’t mind driving them at all and I can’t wait to go back to Oxford, but lets take a step back.  During the last tour we went on, we got in a little accident, unfortunately one of the kings was driving and not me.  It was a bad bad thing.  We don’t have a lot of money floating around or rich kid backgrounds or credit cards so any set back is pretty big for us, every penny is accounted for and whatnot.  Anyways, until someone else can foot the bill for these kinds of things or the band makes enough to cover it, I decided that I would have to do the driving… all of the driving.  For me more than the other guys, if anyone’s wrecking the bane of my existence its going to be me.

SO!

I drove 7 hours to Atlanta.  Of course the major benefit of driving is playing DJ, I went through the standards to start with, “Hey Travis have you heard the Hold Steady? I think you’d dig em”, “Oh yeah, this is that band the Damnwells I was telling you about”, “Dude how good are the Lonely Hearts gonna be in Nashville…” We got to our friend Ashleys just in time to get some food and beer and sleep.  We ate at this joint that is kind of like the meeting place for democrats in the Atlanta area, I wished we were there 2 weeks earlier.  I ordered my go to greasy food (rueben, no sauerkraut, no 1000 island… go ahead, call it blasphemy) downed two Miller Lites and went to bed.  Oh, also, it was freezing.  We were not prepared, but we were definitely happy.  Jacob threw a bunch of leaves in the air.

We got up pretty early, it was still a decent drive to Oxford.  The trip was pretty uneventful save for a slew of tour catchphrases that would stay with us for the week.  We “ran a train” on some Zaxbys.  Around 4pm the sun was starting to set, we should have been about an hour and a half outside of Oxford, maybe 15 minutes from Tupelo, or “Tulepeo” as Cannon would say.  “Hey this road can take us all the way to Nashville” I said as I hopped on Natchez Trace Parkway.  The sun was setting right in front of us, the trees were high.  Around 4:30pm only shards of light poked through the branches here and there.  At 4:40 I put on “Stereo” by Paul Westerberg.  “Baby learns to crawl watching daddy’s skin.”  OHHHHH, I get it.  His skin is crawling, why didn’t I catch that line before?

4:45pm: The only lie worth telling is I’m in love with you…
4:53pm: Time for Lucinda
4:58pm: Sun is almost gone
5:05pm: Where the hell is MS-6?

5:12pm: Hey Travis… how long were we supposed to go on Natchez? THREE MILES!? Hrm.  I do believe I went significantly farther than that.  Yeah I definitely did.

5:56pm: Tupelo.  Lucinda make everything ok.  We pass a vintage guitar shop that I would love to stop at if we had any time.  There’s a 69 thinline telecaster in the window, its probably the real deal, its probably real expensive… I’d probably break it.  Keep driving.  Tupelo seems like a lovely town, I wish we had more time to check it out.  Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was an excellent choice for this drive.  These are the places that brilliant woman is singing about but so far we’ve only seen it from our little black death machine.

We got into Oxford about an hour later, Mr. Ratcliff or Ratty as we called him was right around the corner.  We stepped into Parrish Baker Pub and felt at home, maybe we just needed to get out of the van.  I knew that this was their Relight Redlight (our version of “Cheers” in Winter Park).  The Hold Steady record that we listened to earlier was playing in the back room and there was a Paul Westerberg poster from “Eventually” hanging on the wall.  It was signed.  I realized how badly I wanted to be part of this very small gang, the guys that “get it” and how people need to identify with bands and how it can become more than it is.  They’re just songs ya know, but sometimes they become more than that.

Something to shoot for.

The Parrish Baker pub is a pretty special place and they treated us right.  Drinks & food.  We made it a point to try some “local fare” everyday, today it was burgers on garlic bread and home made potato chips with special dipping sauces, I forget what they called it, it ruled though.  Ratty go there as were finishing up, I’m sure we looked like hell.  My red cap had matted my hair into a mess of grease and frizz, not the “I worked on this for 30 minutes bed hair”, the other kind.  He looked like I had imagined, like he should be playing in a stately Alt Country band, Wilco or the Jayhawks: western shirt, corderoy blazer, glasses, classy and unassuming… well done.

I was worried that we would be too loud for the small bar, that’s not very rocknroll is it? “No man, do your thing”, Ratty affirmed the place was ready for the real deal.  I started with an acoustic set, a couple covers, stuff I like to do.  Thirteen by Big Star, Whats So Funny Bout Peace Love & Understanding and (with Ratty leading the bar in 4/4 claps) Don’t Look Back in Anger, why not?

The full band was set, we were still getting our footing as a 4 piece after playing as 5 the last couple nights with two amazingly talented Kings: Joey Bradshaw and Kyle Pierce.  Travis held his own, straight forward, steady and 100% rocknroll.  There were about 30 people in the bar it was the same as 300 to us.  I could overhear people talking in between songs “mumbekl wrgrumblestue … Gin Blossoms…. emmkl lshhnw”.  The set went pretty well for a first night, I could hear myself, always a plus.  As we rang out the last notes of Paper Candy we felt like were just getting going and probably brushing off a lot of the tension of a long drive with a good deal of whiskey and gingers and local pints.  Thankfully, the crowd wasn’t ready to be over either.  “Um, do you guys know Hey Jealousy, that guy was yelling something about the Gin Blossoms earlier…”, “Yeah, lets do it.”  We played about 5 more songs, we knew 3 of them.  After we finished Guy At The Bar 1 came up to me, “That was great, bands never play more when we yell at them!”  We sold a couple CDs, packed up and thanked Drew our amazing host at the pub.  Just a genuinely good guy, you could tell the second you met him.

As we were getting ready to go over to Rattys this guy with a bright pink mohawk and requisite jean jacket comes up to us, “You guys were great man do you mind if I hitch a ride with you?  My name’s Lincoln” “Like the President?” “Yeah”, “Sure man”  Lincoln squeezed into the middle of the van hands clasped around his knees, he was talkative but not overbearing.  We asked him all about Oxford.  He reminded me of my cousin that introduced me to punk records, fun stuff like Op Ivy and NOFX.  I missed that stuff, my only regret is that we didn’t know each other well enough to have a top of the lungs singalong to “Unity” during our 10 minute trip to Ratty’s place.

Mr. Ratcliff’s studio is tucked back in the woods of Oxford, private but not too far from anything.  It’s not just a studio, its a compound, mastering lab, studio and house.  Incredible really.  The studio was incredible, I sat near the console while Ratty played his mix tape of stuff recorded at Tweed Recording Studio.  “Now Mike, this is the one man, you gotta listen to this one”, we went down the list… stuff he did for money, stuff he did for free, and stuff that was really really good.  One of the guys that had just recorded something was in the room, unfortunately I forgot his name, it was good though powerful emotive voice recorded up close, it was an intimate recording.  It was also damn good…. man I gotta get his name.  The best stuff was an EP Ratty did for Will Hoge, the stuff was lush, I was amazing to hear that they did almost every last bit live in just a couple takes.  We had done a show with him before and he was a really nice guy to us, I enjoyed some of his stuff but never realized his immense talent until then.  Check out that America EP.

The morning treated us well.  I woke up on a couch in the living room of the studio, the walls were painted red, it reminded me of the dream sequences in Twin Peaks.  Coffee & Pie.  Before we headed out of town Ratty took us to the best breakfast place I have ever been to.  It was an old house made into a restaurant, people coming in and out would warmly great Ratty, this was a kind place.  The cute midwestern girl in the plaid shirt asked us if we wanted to sit in “the living room”.  That’s a yes.  This was not some cutesy theme room, this was an actually living room.  We watched the episode of Full House where the grandpa dies on the big screen TV while a terminally hungover Jacob laid on the couch and Lincoln and Cannon cracked borderline jokes that were a little too loud for the little old ladies in earshot.  Ratty and I rolled our eyes, half delight, half disapproval.  We we’re running out of time, Nashville is calling.

Mike & Ratty / Oxford, MS

We said our goodbyes, I gave Ratty a disc that I thought to be a new mix from the upcoming record, turned out to be a couple Aimee Mann songs I burned on a disc a long time ago.  I’m sure he felt confused and bamboozled when he saw that, like a mark without a con.  (The real disc is on the way Ratty!).  We reluctantly left Oxford and headed to Nashville after dropping off Lincoln near the bar.  “Yeah… I’m not going to work today”, it was disarming when he told us that “Last night was the best night of my life”.  “Well you deserve more of those nights Lincoln.”  I think we all do.