April 10, 2005 - Covington, KY

This entry includes the 2 days before the 1st show also.

These 2 weeks went by like a blur. I can’t believe I’m back out on the road again already. I flew down to Nashville on Friday about mid-day. Victor picked me up at the airport around 3:30pm. The weather was great in Nashville. We had to run around and take care of a couple of things for the tour. I absolutely love when we’re ‘running errands’ for the tour. Most people would probably think just the playing and traveling part is fun. But I love getting in the extra hang time with Victor. We’re getting so busy on the road that we hardly get a chance to hang. We talk about everything when we’re riding around. He tells me all of his ideas for new ‘endeavors’. He has some very cool things planned. I can’t really say what they are right now but you guys will know soon enough.

One of things we did was go by Compass records and pick up some of Victor’s ‘older’ CDs. We got a chance to spend some time with Alison Brown and Garry West. Alison is an incredible banjo player and her husband, Garry, is a great bassist. They also own Compass. They gave us a tour of their new office/studio. It’s great. I remember the 1st time I heard Alison play,….

I was driving on 95 South heading to the Fredericksburg, VA area. I heard this incredible tune on the radio called ‘Red Balloon’. I remember thinking to myself,…”I can’t remember what Flecktones CD this song is from”. The playing was so good I thought it was Béla. I later found out it was Alison. I remember calling Victor to tell him about the incredible banjo player named Alison Brown. Of course,…he already knew her.

The Alison Brown Quartet will be performing in the DC area on May 12th at the Birchmere. Her new CD comes out on May 10th (my birthday). It’s called “Stolen Moments”. When you pick that CD up, pick up a copy of ‘Red Balloon’ too. She gave Victor and I copies of her new CD. Garry gave me about 7 or 8 CDs from various artists on Compass records.

After we left Compass we stopped and had Thai food. I can never get enough of Thai food.

It was almost dark when we got to Victor’s house. I played with the kids until their bed time. Then I got online and chatted with some folks in Victor’s chatroom.

We got up early the next morning to go to Adam’s soccer game. Man,…that was a whole lot of fun. Can you imagine a soccer field full of 3 and 4 year olds kicking the ball around. Those ‘lil dudes had me crackin’ up big time. I found out later that they don’t ‘keep score’ at the kid’s soccer games.

After the game we went to see a play at the Nashville library put on by the Nashville Ballet. I sat in the back of the mini van with the kids. That was an experience! The play/ballet was very cool too. There was a 12’ giant in the play. It was a puppet with a ‘dude’ inside of it. The play was a ‘Southern’ version of Jack and the Beanstalk. The play was called Tennessee Jack and the Kudzu Vine. When we got back to the house we filmed an ‘outro’ for tour. When we were done with that it was time to go and load the bus down at ‘Soundcheck’, the rehearsal hall.

We got back very late. Saundra, Ted and Dave Welsch (our new tour manager) had gotten into town. Dave is onboard to help Danette out on this leg of the tour. I think Danette will meet us in a day or 2.

I went into the chatroom for a very short time because we were meeting the bus very early the following morning. We were leaving Nashville at 6am CST. That means we would hafta’ leave Victor’s house at 5am.

Man,…the next morning I was so tired. I knew that I was just gonna’ get on the bus and sleep all of the way to Covington, KY.

At the bus I got to meet a friend of Regi’s named Rose. She’s a singer/pianist . She told me that she reads the diary. She just stumbled onto it by doing research online for the tour. She said that she really enjoys it. That was good to hear. She asked me why I don’t mention Regi a lot,...

Regi is very, very quiet on tour. He doesn’t speak much but when he does it’s usually something very insightful. Or,…he’s laughing at something ‘silly’ one of us said. Like I said once before,…once you get Regi laughing,…he’ll be laughing for a while.

Regi is like the ‘spiritual center’ of our circle. Victor is undoubtedly the ‘dynamic center’ but Regi is like our ‘Shaman’. At least, this is how I see it. He’s like a very wise person who doesn’t talk much but he’s always listening when his ‘pupils’ are talking. Like all great teachers, Regi is comfortable with someone getting credit or the ‘limelight’ with something we may have come up with. He never complains. I have a feeling that if I said to him,…”Regi,…you hafta’ do tonight’s show with just 3 strings on your guitar because we don’t have anymore”,…he’d just say,…”That’s OK, 3 strings are more than enough.”

Even in his silence,…he says a whole lot.

Oh yea,…he’s one helluva’ guitar player too. But I ain’t gotta’ tell y’all that.

The bus ride to Cincinnati was short. We did cross over a ‘time zone’ so that through me off ‘time wise’.

I think most of us slept the whole trip since it was SO early. We got to Cincinnati and the weather was beautiful. We unloaded the gear. Kurt rode his bike a ‘lil bit. We have 2 tour buses out right now. The 2nd bus pulled up and parked next to the other one. That would be the 1st time that I would see buses together. Man,…we look ‘big time’ with 2 buses. I had to get Saundra to take a picture of me standing between both buses.

I saw that Victor pulled his Segway out and rode it around for a while. I can’t believe how nice the weather is. We loaded in and sound check. My new thing to do is to set up my laptop to see if we have a wifi connection. There was a wireless connection in the Madison Theater. We’re actually in Covington, KY but we’re really looking at this as a Cincinnati gig. We’re right across the river.

My friend Sherri came and hung out. She drove me around town for awhile. Then it was time to get back for the gig. I have so many responsibilities at the beginning of the show that I have to make a mental checklist. I have to do everything from tuning basses, changing batteries in 3 or 4 wireless units, start and stop videos, move stage drums around, get Victor’s bass backstage to him and more,…

None of them are hard but there so many ‘small’ things that it is easy to forget something. Plus,…I’m playing more and my mind is on ‘nailing’ the song. But,…I have the unique position of being ‘crew’ and ‘band’. Plus,…Victor wouldn’t ask me to do these things if he didn’t think they’d get done.

The show was great. Everyone in the band gets featured. I don’t really get a feature but playing bass in this show is a ‘feature’. Unfortunately Bootsy couldn’t make it to the show (he lives in Cincinnati). I was really hoping he would come and hang out with us.

After the show we drove to our hotel. We had an ‘overnight’ so everyone in the band was happy about that. It’s very nice to be able to start the tour with an overnight stay.

I got back to the hotel and set up the laptop again. I didn’t finish the tour diary entry because I was so tired. I called my wife and I went straight to sleep. The crew (Kurt, Ted and I) have our work cut out for us.

Peace&blessings,
Anthony

“Smells Like Funk”