Saturday, April 24, 2010

Upcoming release - Nathaniel Rateliff

Denver's Nathaniel Rateliff has been putting out some good material prior to next week's digital release of his new album. Check out the recent video from Yours Tru.ly recorded during SXSW:

Nathaniel Rateliff "Boil & Fight" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.



In Memory of Loss - Nathaniel Rateliff
Digital release this Tuesday, April 27 on Rounder Records.
In stores May 4th.

Interestingly, apparently Itunes, Amazon, and Rhapsody each have a different bonus track that comes with the album. Puts the fans in an interesting position, especially assuming the bonus tracks are album-only, meaning one would have to buy the album 3 times to get each of the 3 songs.

Check him out live on the Daytrotter Barnstormer III tour.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Various

Busy at work, plus back-to-back shows in Denver last week make me want to crawl under my desk and stay there until the weekend, and then I got sick over the weekend, and so Monday I think I really did crawl under my desk in a cold medicine haze. My point being that the blog has really been down for the count as a result.

Various notes:

Lucero at the Bluebird - good as always.
Spent too much money, as always.
Didn't feel so hot the next day, as always.

Shooter Jennings as opener for Lucero - hmm, how can I say this nicely? Ok, I can't. Not good. Just not good. Conceptually, I respect that he is trying to do something completely different than his dad's kind of music, but musically, what he is doing sucks. I could have handled 30 minutes of it, but his 90 minute set was horrible overkill.

See a review of the show and photo slideshow of this show here.


No rest for the weary though, as Wednesday night brought Thrift Store Cowboys, Mount Righteous, Amanda Shires & Barton Carroll to the Hi-Dive.

Barton started out the show with his solo acoustic set. He is an interesting guy, and his songwriting has a very literary feel to it (which I mean in a good way), and he deals with some quite heavy subjects. He could probably teach a world history class just by playing his songs.

Amanda Shires continues to come into her own as a songwriter. She played both new songs as well as some off of her most recent record, all with the accompaniment of Colt Miller on guitar.

Mount Righteous brought their 9-piece marching band to the Hi-Dive, and somehow they fit on the stage, and more importantly, the stage did not collapse. It's a super high energy show, and is almost so unclassifiable I am at a loss for describing it further.

Thrift Store Cowboys played a set of mostly new songs, off of the album they have just finished recording at Wavelab Studios in Tucson. Definitely extremely excited for this record, which is tentatively scheduled for a September release.

See photos from Denver Post Reverb blog here.


In other news, Denver's mini-SXSW, The Underground Music Showcase (or The UMS) has just made their first lineup announcement. I'm sure more bands will be announced in coming months, but the lineup already looks great. It's a bit like I imagine SXSW was at the very beginning, i.e. long before showcases were sponsored by energy drinks.

Also, pretty good new What's So Funny? column out today.

I have to admit, I didn't get that excited about Record Store Day this year, largely because there just weren't a ton of releases I was that interested in. This year seemed to have a lot more labels just trying to cash in on the event with boring releases rather than actually putting out something quality. I did get the one thing I most wanted, which was the Bon Iver/Peter Gabriel 7" split. Best find wasn't even associated with RSD, but there was no question I had to get it. Found a copy of Vic Chesnutt's first album Little on vinyl for a really reasonable price. Apparently the record store found a number of copies in the back that had basically gotten buried soon after the album was released, so needless to say, they are worth a good bit more than they were in 1990.

Friday, April 16, 2010

One Wolf II: Secret of the Wolf - album review























With one of my favorite albums of 2010 thus far, emerging Lubbock, Texas, rock band One Wolf recently released their second album to date, entitled One Wolf II: Secret of the Wolf. OW leader Daniel Markham has long been known to draw on a diverse set of musical influences, some of them seemingly impossible to weave together into any kind of cohesive musical project, yet time and time again, he pulls it off. Markham has a knack for creating songs that move him out of the musical comfort zone of his past projects to explore new directions, all the while creating extremely enjoyable music to listen to.



Lubbock provides for an interesting locale to base one's band in. The core of the local music scene, Texas Tech's radio station KTXT, was shut down about a year and a half ago by the university, leaving it up to independent entities to keep the scene alive. So far the scene has thrived, due in large part to acts like One Wolf, as well as a diverse range of other musical acts. One Wolf has benefited a great deal from being one of the marquee local bands in Lubbock, having the chance to open for a diverse set of acts and make connections that have allowed them to spread their music to new markets, most notably their recent run of dates with Deer Tick.


Back to the album though, I am truly hooked. The recording and production are absolutely fantastic, and the songs are very well crafted and tastefully arranged. New elements on this record compared to the last are the introduction of keyboard and the use of heavy fuzz guitar. On paper, I would be a bit skeptical of each of those things, but on the album they work brilliantly. One Wolf has moved flawlessly from some heavily alt country beginnings into a rock sound that gives them a great deal more freedom to explore new sounds. This record and other recent records done at Ramble Creek recording studio, including Collin Herring's Ocho and Telegraph Canyon's The Tide and the Current, are establishing the Austin studio as one of the premier places to record amidst the ever-expanding sea of recording studios to choose from.

While I will always hold a personal bias toward the material of Lubbock bands, I think that Secret of the Wolf is a record that will stand side-by-side with many of the best records this year. Plus, you've got to love most any band that names a song "Rick Nelson."

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Oh Dear, New Deer Tick

It seems that each year I go to SXSW, I get really into a band that was there, but that I didn't get to see. Well, it's happened the last two years. Last year it was Justin Townes Earle, and probably within about 6 weeks of last year's SXSW, I had purchased every record he had. This year it is Deer Tick. I've never had the chance to see these guys live, but I regret whatever chances I've missed to see them (especially when they came through with the Felice Brothers).

I think it just took me a bit of time to really soak in what they are doing. What that is I'm not quite sure. In short, they basically just Jerry Jeff Walkered all of us. What does that mean? Well, this is what happens when people from the northeast play roots/rock/indie folk/americana/alt. country (or as their myspace says, Christian Rap) as well or better than any of us south/southwest-erners. We like to think it can't happen, but then the Ronald Crosbys and the John McCauleys of the world come around and remind us that it doesn't matter where you're from, as long as you can pick and sing it like you mean it.























Since I don't really play the download game, you can just go to your parents' favorite blog here to hear the song.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

The Proud Colorado Mountains of Townes Van Zandt

On the motivation from a recent Onion AV Club article about Townes Van Zandt, I recently tried to locate the Boulder apartment complex where Van Zandt apparently jumped/fell off of a fourth floor balcony, ending up unhurt and not having spilled any of the wine he was holding. As the story is told, the apartments were the Varsity Manor apartments, which no longer seem to exist in Boulder under that same name. The resulting search turned a simple inquiry into a much more involved project. Thinking they might provide a few more details, I picked up the two fairly recent Townes Van Zandt biographies, To Live's to Fly and A Deeper Blue, although what I found was not much more in-depth than what I already knew. Instead the books turned up a number of additional Boulder and other Colorado connections for Townes that I was not previously aware of, and which I decided would be worthwhile to document as best I could. The pictures are not professional quality, but you can click them to see a bit larger image.

To begin with, Townes and his family spent a substantial amount of time in Boulder for vacations during his childhood, frequently staying in a cabin in Chautauqua Park. I didn't necessarily want to find the exact cabin, just so I don't lead anyone to trespass or otherwise do something foolish, but below you can see a row of the cabins at Chautauqua. He actually noted in a live recording many years later that his first job ever, at age 9, was mixing the instant mashed potatoes at the Dining Hall at Chautauqua.




































A few years later, Townes and his family lived in Boulder for a short span, as his family moved frequently because of his father's job. Townes attended Boulder High for his freshman and sophomore years, although his family moved again, at which time he enrolled in Shattuck Military Academy in Minnesota, where he would eventually graduate.



















Back to my original intention of finding the Varsity Manor apartments, the first trail I followed was to see if the currently operating Varsity Townhouses, located near the Hill in Boulder, were in fact what was once Varsity Manor. When I first checked out these apartments, the existence of a fourth floor seemed a bit doubtful, and thus I wasn't quite convinced that this was the place. A bit more searching turned up only one more useful resource about Varsity Manor, and interestingly, it involved a couple of other past residents by the name of Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. I found a reference in Ginsberg: A Biography (Barry Miles 1989) that mentions Ginsberg lived at "425 Varsity Manor, in the Swiss-chalet style Varsity Townhouses complex" in the early 1980s (p. 488). In fact, supposedly he lived across the courtyard from where William Burroughs lived in the late 1970s, presumably the courtyard pictured below. What I don't know is why any apartment in this complex would have been numbered in the 400s because it looks more like 3 floors, but I guess the entire numbering system may have been changed in the last 30 years. In fact, I consider it likely that the numbers might have been changed for the explicit reason of preventing people from snooping around and trying to find Allen Ginsberg's old apartment. After reaching a few dead ends trying to find out if these apartments had housed three of America's greatest writers at different times, I have currently come to the conclusion that the courtyard below is likely the place where Ginsberg and Burroughs lived, but was not in fact the site of Townes' storied fall.



















Rather, after speaking a bit with Tom Peters, who owns the Beat Book Shop, I came to find that the Townes Van Zandt documentary Be Here to Love Me actually shows the exact apartment where the fall occurred. I watched the film a number of years back, but didn't make the connection then because it doesn't explicitly mention that they are showing a location in Boulder, and thus it didn't register that I had probably walked by the place a few dozen times without realizing the connection. The anonymity they give the location in the film may be to avoid having people track down the place and bother whatever 19 year-old college students live there now, or worse yet, to try and reenact the fall themselves. With that, let me make my disclaimer here that I don't advocate anyone engaging in any illegal activity in tracking down any of these locations. That said, based on what the movie shows and what I now know about this general area, the picture below shows the apartment where this fall apparently occurred, not at Varsity Townhouses, but at the apartment complex across the street. One can see why there are conflicting reports in various accounts as to whether the fall was from a 3rd or 4th story balcony, as the ground contours here would make a fall from the 4th floor more like a fall from the 3rd story.

























Another Boulder locale mentioned in the Townes Van Zandt biography is Tulagi's, the now defunct rock club where Van Zandt apparently worked the door for a period of time. Located on the Hill beside the Fox Theatre, Tulagi's sadly closed down in 2003, and has since been changed to commercial space. To give you an idea of how things stand in Boulder now, the once renowned rock club has been replaced by a franchise of the Which Wich sandwich chain. The Tulagi sign remains, as pictured below, but the local music scene (not pictured) has since moved to Denver.



















Another location of interest mentioned in A Deeper Blue was a small coffee shop where Townes played called Barefoot Charlie's. Finding where this was located was no easy task, as Barefoot Charlie's does not seem to have been in business for a long time, possibly since the 1960s. After speaking over the phone with Townes' college roommate and lifelong friend Bob Myrick, I was able to gather roughly where the coffee shop was located, which is on University Hill in Boulder, not far up the street from Tulagi's. As you can see in the pictures below, the building now houses various businesses such as a college apparel store and a food court. According to the book, Van Zandt wasn't performing original material when he played Barefoot Charlie's in college, although Myrick noted that Townes returned to play the coffee shop later on while touring behind some of his early records, by which time he was playing almost solely original material. I don't think there is much point in arguing this location is the "first" place Townes ever played a show, but I think it holds historical significance in being one of the places he played early on and before he actually made the decision to pursue a full-time career in music.
































While in college, Townes was reportedly quite fond of rock climbing, although he apparently didn't do so using the fancy climbing equipment like you see in Boulder today. Rather, accounts from the biographies say that he more often went climbing at night and after a fair amount of drinking. Below is a picture of one of many places a young Townes might have gone climbing in Boulder Canyon, although there are many places where he might have done his climbing. Today, however, one has to be careful where one stops and takes pictures because of all the private driveways, so this locale just up the road from Boulder will have to suffice as a hypothetical example.



















This is a late addition to this blog post, as I only recently found one location I had been looking for. In A Deeper Blue, it is mentioned by Fran that she and Townes and others would have picnics in the canyon outside Boulder near an abandoned railroad station. I went to some great lengths trying to find this area in the canyon, but to no avail. However, out for a recent run, I found this small plot for sale on the edge of town. Fifty years ago, there is little doubt that this spot wasn't even part of Boulder proper, so I think it could have been construed as being up the canyon. Anyway, it's a little spot at the entrance of Boulder Canyon that looks as though there is a small train depot and an old railroad bridge. The lot is actually for sale, and the buildings will likely be torn down at that point, so I doubt it will be there for too terribly much longer. Nonetheless, my guess would be that this was the area referred to in the book.



















Moving beyond Boulder, A Deeper Blue details that Townes played a small tour of mountain towns around 1974 or 1975 with Mickey White and Rex Bell, with the three collectively calling themselves the Hemmer Ridge Mountain Boys. The book describes that the tour wasn't exactly a resounding success, far from it, in fact. However, Van Zandt and company were on the road for a number of weeks, playing multiple nights at many of the venues. One of those venues was the Oxford Hotel in Denver, which can still be found at 17th and Wazee in downtown Denver.



















I was quite surprised to find out that the final gigs of this mountain tour were played at the Pioneer Inn in Nederland, CO, a small mountain town just 18 miles up the canyon from Boulder. Apparently the group had quite a harrowing drive just to get there, which is no surprise considering how quickly the weather can change and conditions can deteriorate at 8,000 feet or more above sea level. Mountain towns in Colorado have a culture all their own, and I can only imagine that in the mid-70s, Ned was likely a pretty interesting place to play. When I took a picture of the Pioneer in early 2010, it was a bit unfortunate to see that someone is trying to sell the place with the pitch of "Own 37 Years of Music History," but such is life I guess.



















Townes' time in Boulder would eventually come full circle, returning to his childhood vacation spot of Chautauqua Park in August of 1990 to play a show at the Auditorium with Guy Clark and opener Robert Earl Keen. Various live recordings of this show exist around the internet for those who search for it a bit. Chautauqua was and is one of the most impressive places in Boulder, sitting adjacent to open space in front of the Flatirons and looking out over the city to the east. Following the Chautauqua show, Townes returned to Boulder in 1992 and 1994 to play the radio show E-Town, which took place at the Boulder Theater. Pictured below are the Auditorium, the open space near Chautauqua in summer, and the marquee at the Boulder Theater, located at 2032 14th St.




















































I know various other Colorado locales exist with connections to Townes, but these are the ones that I could find in the Denver/Boulder area. I do welcome corrections/additions from anyone with additional information, as this is by no means an exhaustive accounting. The books provide a number of interesting stories and are well worth your time if you are interested in Townes' life. Interestingly, neither book provides much perspective from Steve Earle, who has recently brought a great deal of attention to Townes Van Zandt and his music. At his in-store at Twist and Shout last year, Earle emphasized Townes' great love for the mountains of Colorado, and I have to say it became a minor obsession of mine to track down the places where he spent his time in the state. However, like most of the places in Townes' life, Colorado was but a temporary stop on a fairly continuous life on the road. The longing for the mountains heard in his songs is both poignant and powerful, yet the longing to keep moving seemed to be the most powerful of all:
"It's snowin' on raton, come mornin' I'll be through them hills and gone."
--Townes Van Zandt, "Snowin' on Raton"

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

News on Doug Burr - O Ye Devastator

In less than a month now, Velvet Blue is set to release Doug Burr's latest studio record, O Ye Devastator. Having heard a number of the new songs at SXSW, I'm super excited about this record.

In the last week or so, the cover art (and 30 second song samples) were put up on Amazon. Now, the good folks at Velvet Blue have done us one better and made two full songs available for online streaming, so go check them out. Love both songs, but "Red, Red" is already a new favorite.


The Low Anthem & Nathaniel Rateliff - Boulder, CO, 04/03/10


















It is a relatively rare occurrence that I attend a concert with the primary intent of watching the opening act, especially if I don't know the headliner's music at all. It's not intentional really, but often local openers are stuck on a bill for no good reason other than hoping they'll bring a few people in. I think the last time I went to a show for the opener was to see Centro-matic open for Jason Isbell roughly two and a half years ago, although that part of the story isn't terribly important. Saturday night we went to see Denver artist Nathaniel Rateliff open for The Low Anthem at the Fox Theatre in Boulder. I first came to know of Rateliff last summer when he opened for Bon Iver for the sold out show at the same venue, and have been following his music ever since.

In short, Rateliff has gained some substantial notoriety in the past year, signing to Rounder Records, being fussed over at CMJ and SXSW, and getting press from the likes of Vanity Fair for his upcoming album on Rounder Records. I had actually intended to see him at SXSW this year, but being a Denver band, I figured I could catch them again without much trouble. And I was right. Interestingly, Rateliff's current band began as a side project from his band Born in the Flood, but at this point, the side project has become the main project. BITF co-founder Joseph Pope III now joins Rateliff's new band, although with the similarities in lineup between the two bands, the differences between the two is striking. Compared to the indie pop of Born in the Flood (see "Anthem"), Rateliff's current band finds their sound on a musical road much less traveled, yet the strength of the vocal harmonies and instrumentation are immediately captivating.

The crowd on Saturday night was one that I could most succinctly characterize as the NPR crowd. I don't mean that in any derogatory way, but compared to say, the Band of Horses crowd, this one was a good bit older, and substantially less concerned with their hip-ness. Unfortunately for the bands, the crowd was relatively sparse, although as a listener, I admittedly enjoy the less congested shows. What was most impressive about this crowd was how quiet and attentive they remained for all of the bands. Having just come from SXSW, where everyone talks all the time, through bands they like and dislike, this was a very welcome environment.

Nathaniel Rateliff put on a very solid performance, with songs mostly from his upcoming record, In Memory of Loss. The band played a full set of strong music, including "Early Spring Till" and "Brakeman," and my personal favorite, "Shroud." I am utterly baffled that "Shroud" does not appear to be on the upcoming album, so I honestly don't know if they are saving it for a later release or if some other factor is behind this. You can still find the song for free on their Daytrotter session, or just the single song for download here (scroll down to mid-page), or you can watch a video of it below. More on the album, etc. at a later date though.

As for the Low Anthem, I went in with little previous knowledge of them and few expectations, but came away fairly impressed. I don't know that they would explicitly characterize themselves as a concept band, but they go great lengths to capture a sound of times past, with very heavy influences from early folk music such as Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie, at least as I perceived them. The music is typically slow to moderately paced, and while this is not a band you will pump your fist to, they do well in representing a foundational piece of Americana history. The show's first openers were Ramseur Records' band Frontier Ruckus, who I found to have a good sound, and some decent potential. I don't know their catalog well, but I almost instantly give respect to artists that Ramseur supports.


Nathaniel Rateliff - Shroud from Ryan Adams on Vimeo.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Dawes - two Colorado shows announced

Los Angeles based rock band Dawes has been touring the country almost non-stop for the past year, in support of their debut album North Hills (ATO Records). As of late, they have been getting some amazing press following their numerous performances at SXSW, of which I was fortunate to catch one of their early morning acoustic sets. For having to be up playing at 9 AM, the band was still on top of their game, and while this doesn't really matter, I have to say that I was impressed they were not whining about the early show, and rather seemed quite grateful to be there. The biggest downside to the drum-less acoustic set was I didn't get to hear them play "When My Time Comes," which is easily one of the catchiest songs on their album and one that you're likely to start singing along to by the second listen.























If you've had the opportunity to see the band live or to listen to their album, you may find yourself wondering how they can sound so polished and together for a band with only one album to their credit. Dawes is in fact an evolution of sorts from a former project of two of the band members, Taylor Goldsmith and Wylie Gelber, called Simon Dawes, whose music fell more into the alternative rock category than Dawes does. Adding Goldsmith's brother Griffin to the lineup on drums and keyboard player Alex Casnoff, Dawes has done well to capture a rock and roll sound with clear influences from California's roots rock past. The band's vocals are one of their major strong points, and the fraternal harmonies of the Goldsmith brothers are perfectly suited for the music (see The Avett Brothers). That is not to sell the instrumentation short, however, as the band can pull off a rocking or musically sparse sound equally well and seemingly at the perfect time for each.

You'll no doubt be hearing about Dawes for many years to come, but let me encourage you to see them now before they really blow up. They will be touring this spring & summer with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Colorado folks should keep two potential dates in mind:

June 18 - Belly Up, Aspen, CO w/ Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
June 19 - Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO - Dawes as sole headliner ($8 advance tickets!)
























(Photo credit Matt Jacoby)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Will Johnson & Anders Parker – Austin, TX, 3/30/10


Will Johnson and Anders Parker kicked off their house show tour in Austin last night and I was lucky enough to attend the sold-out show with approximately 25 other people. Hosting a house can be a tricky thing considering that you’re inviting complete strangers into your home all on the basis that they love the same music as you. It’s up to the host to create a comfortable environment for the visitors as well as the performers. The host for the evening did a great job making each guest feel at ease in his modernly designed home and even provided Chinese food for those that were hungry. The stage setup was simply two chairs and a couple of acoustic guitars. The whole tour will consist of similar scenes since Undertow was clear that no microphones or amps would be used during the house shows. All you really need with these performers is their voices, guitars and words.

Anders Parker started the evening with his blend of folk and indie pop. I’m not completely familiar with all of Anders’ work but I went into the evening knowing one of his solo albums. He fronted the alternative country band, Varnaline, back in the day and has gone on to create numerous solo albums and a collaborative project with Jay Farrar entitled Gob Iron. Parker spent some time in Brooklyn, but now resides in Vermont and looks the part with a wooly beard and hair that screams “lumberjack”. His set consisted of songs that spanned his entire discography. Quiet folk songs were played in between discordant acoustic rockers. Anders didn’t spend a lot of time talking but did thank everyone for coming out and remarked on how happy he was to be back on the road with Will Johnson. He said that before the show they were reminiscing on all of their strange tour stories but that he would let Will tell them when the time came.

The best moment of Parker’s set came at the end of a song about the owner of a bar in Brooklyn where he used to work. It was a heartfelt Irish tinged song that kept the attention of every audience member. As Anders played the last chord of the song, the homeowner’s dog let out a loud howl. The timing was perfect! Anders just laughed and stated that they had worked on the song for an hour earlier in the day. The moment was a great example of the little things that make a house show so special and intimate.

There was a brief intermission between the two performer’s sets and everyone was able to stretch and grab another beverage. Will Johnson sat at the front of the room and quietly tuned his guitar while the crowd noise grew louder. A few minutes later the host killed the music, Will started playing and everyone went silent. It’s been mentioned a few times on this blog but it can’t hurt to reiterate the importance of Will Johnson’s voice and songs. The power of his raspy voice mixed with the emotion of his songs is a combination that's hard to put into words. The mixture is one that thousands of performers try to accomplish but few actually pull off. I’ve been lucky enough to see so many of Johnson’s projects, including Centro-matic and Monsters of Folk, but nothing compares to his solo show. The first word rang out and he had the small crowd’s attention and whatever awkwardness that was in the air was destroyed.

Johnson filled his hour long set with crowd favorites and lesser known songs from his vast catalogue. Songs like “Just to Know What You’ve Been Dreaming” and “Flashes & Cables” drew the biggest pre-chorus cheers while songs from the Molina & Johnson album slowly made sense in the ears of first time listeners. Johnson played a new track, “Chorine, My Sheeba Queen”, from an upcoming collaborative album exploring the lost lyrics and words of Woody Guthrie. Jim James, Jay Farrar and Anders Parker are the other players on the album. As Will explained the album, I thought that it’s not every day that you hear someone tell a story about working with Jim James and Jay Farrar on new Guthrie tunes in a stranger’s living room. Will remarked how good it was to have a dog in the crowd as the owner’s dog made his way in and out of people’s legs. He was quick to point out that things are not so good when there are two dogs in a crowd. He then told a story involving a show in Bisbee, Arizona and two dogs that couldn’t wait for a private environment to do “the nasty”.

The crowd was attentive throughout the set and even felt comfortable enough to ask a few questions along the way. Will politely answered and then plowed through another heart wrenching song. He closed the evening with a cover of Vic Chesnutt’s “Independence Day” that was one of the most emotional performances I’ve ever witnessed. I assume that this was one of the first times that he had performed the song since Chesnutt’s passing in December. They were close friends and even toured together in the fantastic Undertow Orchestra so everyone understood the importance of the moment. The song perfectly captured the humor and poetry of Chesnutt and Johnson played the tribute perfectly. Johnson let the last chord ring out and then sat there in motionless silence for 15 seconds. It’s a moment that’s impossible to put into words so I'll just recommend listening to Chesnutt's album, Little.

Overall the night was a huge success. The performers and guests both left happy and Johnson and Parker remarked on how they hoped the rest of the tour goes as smoothly as the opening night. A big thanks to Shane for opening his home and hosting the show. Make sure you check the tour out if they come your way. As an added bonus Will Johnson has small prints of his great baseball paintings for sale at the merch table. You can find all of the dates and ticket information at the Undertow website.