Thursday, May 10, 2012

April 25-28: Farewell Blues - Dan's last run with us

UPCOMING SHOWS
05.10.12 - 40 Watt (Athens, GA)
05.11.12 - Party On The Plank (High Point, NC)
05.14.12 - Woodlands Tavern (Columbus, OH)
05.16.12 - Mad Frog (Cincinnati, OH)

Hello out there, all you Big Bus Lovin' Daddios!!

As I write this, we are finishing up a long run in Florida, which I'll tell you all about in next week's post. I'd like this week's post to focus on Daniel's last week or so on the road with us; we had some incredible shows and felt a tremendous outpouring of love for him and all of us as we go through this transition. So Dan, this post is for you! We love you and thank you for everything you've done. 

April 25-26: Nashville and Johnson City


I've already told you all about the amazing Kickstarter party a few weeks back, which turned out to be the perfect afternoon for us and nearly 100 longtime, dedicated fans. It was a really special and emotional day for everyone. Many people there were seeing Dan with BDL for the last time, so I wanted to mention it again in this write-up.

The next early Wednesday morning found us loading up the Love Bus for the long drive to Nashville. We have been honored to make three previous appearances on the Jim Lauderdale-hosted weekly live music show, Music City Roots; this time, we were especially excited to share the stage with the legendary band Leftover Salmon. The Loveless Cafe served up their famous chicken and biscuits before the show, and there was a packed house by the time we took the stage.



MCR streams the whole show online, and you can watch the archived version right here! Make sure to check out the other great bands, and the big jam at the end.



Watch live streaming video from musiccityroots at livestream.com

The show ended early in the evening, so we had the rare chance to go to a local brewpub for an afterparty jam to hang out and relax. Joey took this photo, so I can't really explain what's going on here.  We were joined by two great friends and two people who are "fan of the week" alumni,  a follow Spartan Jamie Bryan, and our great friend from CA, Jenny De Guzman. 


Our friends, The Volunteer String Band, were playing the after-party and got us onstage to play a few songs for the packed house.  


On Thursday, we again had a fairly long drive over to Johnson City, TN. We played a new-to-us venue there, the Galaxy Lounge. There was a good crowd, and several people were in costume. The venue also had people doing face and body painting.


If there was a costume contest Gaelyn Porter would have won!
I have no words for this picture....

April 27-28: Winston-Salem and Lexington
Friday night found us back in Winston-Salem for our first ever show at Ten O One. Dan wanted it to be a big celebration, so we made it one! We had a really fun, energetic crowd, a series of special guests on stage including Bill Stevens on keys, Lauren Caudle, Jennifer Clowers, and Stacy Jones, and a few surprise cover songs (including "Sweet Child of Mine). We let Dan do a lot of talking, especially in the first set. You can listen to and/or download a great recording of the show here, thanks to our archivist, Travis Viars.




On Saturday, we started the afternoon with a set at the Lexington BBQ Cookoff. We always have a good time in Lexington at our High Rock Outfitters shows, so it was great to see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. Dan's family came up for the show, and his sons sang on a couple of songs. Check out his boys on stage with the banner they made:



We invited all the kids in the audience to come up on stage; the only rule was that they had to dance.
No matter where we all go, this will always be family.


We had one more show that day, at a wedding in Eden, NC. We love playing private events like this; and please know that if you ever hire us to play your wedding or event, we will put our best foot forward, as evidenced in this video:




Dan, we wish you the best of luck, and much love to you. Love Bussers, the Bus rolls on, and we will see you very soon!

We are sitting here in Athens Ga, finishing up a 9 day run through Florida, and I would like to encourage all our faithful fans to come to High Point tomorrow to the Party on the Plank event.   I know many of you are wondering about our next phase and this will be a great introduction.   As the late great Bob Marley sang, "Everything's gonna be alright....Everything's gonna be alright..."


SPREAD THE LOVE
We would LOVE for you to help us out with the street team activities. If you'd like to help promote an upcoming show, email streetteam@ufomusic.net and we will set you up with everything you need. We've got great e-flyers, widgets, and other tools you can use to help promote online, so if you've got Internet access, you can help! If you want to hang up posters, hand out flyers, and talk to real people, feel free to print up the digital posters. And of course, we'd also love your help over at the merch booth! Check out the list of places we could use help spreading the love.

05.10.12 - 40 Watt (Athens, GA)
05.11.12 - Party On The Plank (High Point, NC)
05.14.12 - Woodlands Tavern (Columbus, OH)
05.16.12 - Mad Frog (Cincinnati, OH)
05.17.12 - The Box (Charlottesville, VA)
05.18.12 - Town Park Gazebo (Damascus, VA)
05.19.12 - Back To Your Roots Celebration (Glade Valley, NC)
05.27.12 - Quixote's True Blue (Denver, CO)
05.31.12 - River Jam Concert Series (Charlotte, NC)
06.01.12 - The Pour House (Raleigh, NC)
06.08.12 - Empty Glass (Charleston, WV)

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