We got to Arts Collinwood shortly after to find a beautiful community center/coffee shop. We were greeted by two friendly faces and got our guitars and merchandise all loaded in. The small coffee shop looked pretty desolate when I was getting ready to play with just a handful of familiar faces in the room. We decided to pull up some chairs and form a kind of a semi circle and get people to migrate in the front and listen to our songs. It was like most shows of which you don’t know what to expect going into it. It turned out really well, 20-30 kids with a lot of the bands that were playing The Beachland, all the kids from Ohio Sky and All Dinosaurs.

A long day. Chris closed out the night with his amazing songs and the rain started drizzling down. We headed down the overcast street to The Beachland, and let the volume level get pushed up for all the punk rock bands that we’re playing. The Beachland is an old venue off 156th street. In the basement, they have a vintage clothing shop/vinyl store, long story short I left with an original pressing of Hawks & Doves. We let the show round out. It was six in the morning when I finally got to bed, watching the sun come up over the suburbs of Cleveland from an old New England-style house that glows green in the day time and gets swallowed by stars in the Ohio night.

A nice house perched halfway up the southwest hills set outside the city in a suburb called Southmont. My talented old friends from Philly, Trunks and Tales and their current travel comrades, Young Mountain (from NH) already had made their way into town and were getting setting up. Like most house shows I didn’t know what to expect, but was very happy that the small turnout of Johnstown kids were very welcoming to all of us that came in from far off towns and I went on first.

It’s nice how a basement can fill in so fast. I set up and played while everyone sat carefully & listened to my songs. Basement shows are different all together from club shows, it’s amazing how conversational they can be. Sometimes when you play on a stage their is a certain akward separation between the artist and the crowd. I have always been grateful for how personal and comfortable it can be playing in living rooms, basements, etc to a small crowd of appreciative kids. The set went just like that. In the end, I was surprised with how many kids picked up the tail end of The (first) Grand Scheme Of Things pressing. Chris and I split the money we made down the middle with Trunks and Tales to ensure both our ships made it on to our respective Saturday evening shows and this morning we set our sails towards Cleveland, Ohio for a show at Arts Collinwood.

XO

* Cafe Arts Collinwood is located at 397 E 156th St. in Cleveland, OH.

I’m really, really sorry to bear such bad news regarding the shows in Pennsylvania the next couple days but… due to some transportation problems that are out of my control and that I won’t go into great detail over, but will say make me real bummed out. I unfortunately won’t be able to make it out to the shows this weekend. But I made a pact with myself to make it up to you later this summer and make sure that I will be in town to share some songs and to hang with you over the following summer months.

For now, everyone should make sure to make it out to see Tara Toms and all my friends at the show in Hershey tonight at Dan’s Auto Body, find out more by clicking here …

And then tommorow in Elizabethtown will be my good friends in Ship Wrecks, Old Time Burials, and a couple other awesome Northeast songwriters, more via http://www.myspace.com/thebasementpa …

Don’t hold it against me too bad,
I’ll see you soon,

Roger

The show last night was in Archbald, PA on the outskirts of Scranton at a tavern called, Angelo’s Pub and Eatery. I got into town after a long drive straight through to find a desolate bar with a few scattered local drunks complete with unwelcoming looks for me when I walked in. I checked in and almost instantly headed to find some dinner up the road at a Thai restaurant.

It’s never quite clear to me. Not knowing what to expect I wrapped things up and headed back to the desolate bar in the rundown Pennsylvania town. Pulled in and was greeted by two friendly kids that we had worked with on the show, Jeremy and Eddie, aka Matchstick Men Promotions. I was surprised to find that the show was setting up and the room was filling in with younger kids, the weight lifted and the bar took a new appearance as the younger local crowd rearranged things. I played to room full of new faces, as well as a few familiar ones, that were all very appreciative and willing to participate in my folk songs, clapping and singing along. I’ve learned to never make judgement on how shows will turn out because like much of life when you get convinced it is bound to go i one direction, you are often surprised at where you end up.

I settled up and headed to a friend of mine’s apartment to round the evening out with late night talks and old MC5 records spinning on the stereo.

Down late, and up early in the morning and up the highway to Morgantown, WV and my friends in The Demon Beat, a handful of new mixes in from Nashville for a new band and the record we recorded last month coming through the speakers, just enjoying the day.

We got into Shepherdstown in the early evening and headed straight to The Blue Moon to load in and spend some time with my dear friends and Shepherdstown locals, The Demon Beat. The Blue Moon is located right on the grounds of Shepherdstown Universities campus. The small liberal college in the beautiful historic town set on the riverside of the Potomac that seperates Maryland from the West Virginia line. Its the kind of town where young creative kids still gather in basements and small show spaces around town and lend their eyes and ears to both local and traveling artist and musicians with a curoiusity and appreciation that has fizzled out in most towns in America, where the cultural overload of media has left the independent creative community out on the skids.

The show went just like that with a room full of quiet and curious kids enjoying the switched over restaurant by day, venue by night that is The Blue Moon. The Blue Moon has become a sort of epicenter for art and music both for the indie songwriter scene and for more traditional artist. Everytime I play there I am grateful that they have been so generous to open their doors to me with open hearts. Great times, the first show with my label-mate, Cait O’Shea and good friend of mine, Dani Mari’s first time playing in West Virginia. Old friends, some new ones, and a good night sleep at Tucker’s house and we’re back down the road with a short drive to Philly right back where the weekend began.

A good friend of mine, and amazingly talented songwriter, Dani Mari host an open stage on Sunday evenings at Triumph as well as the First Friday Showcase of which she was kind enough to invite me in for. I was glad to see after a long drive that the place was filled with folks, with the TV screens buzzin’ for the Philadelphia Fliers playoff game and an audience fixed on the game.

All the musicians were great, Dani played and I followed and we passed through the rooms attention span competing with the sports game. More importantly, I was grateful for the small crowd gathering closer to the stage and listening to our songs. After the show we headed up the road to South Street. A long drive, an awesome Friday night, and a good start to a weekend run of shows with Dani Mari.

Now it’s morning, its beaming through the windows, & we are headed to Shepherdstown, WV.

Playing up the street from my first apartment in Williamsburg at The Charleston on N. 7th & Bedford in the center of the hip, young kingdom that has sprawled out off the “L” Train and covered the old Polish District. I love playing The Charleston, it’s a modest young rocker bar with a dingy show space in the basement.

There is nothing like old friends. The first time I played there was with The Demon Beat in late January 2009. They had made the trek from a small town in West Virginia I had never heard of at the time called Shepherdstown. A split album with their bassist, Tucker Riggleman and countless Dandelion Snow & The Demon Beat shows later all over the East Coast. We came back as the old friends we’ve become and playing once again to a small crowd of friends that made the trip up from all over the place. Weird crowd, as NYC tends to turnout but all in all it was a great show and in the end I was very grateful to have spent time with so many old friends that made their way out.

The late night let the long day catch up with us and we headed to Jessi and Danny’s apartment on Manhattan Avenue to get some rest for an early morning.

It was good to drive north, and see lots of familiar faces mixed in with lots of friendly new faces. Sharing the stage with some old friends Trunks And Tales & Shipwrecks and some new friends, Chris, aka Anniversary Club, alongside three extremely talented traveling songwriters from Switzerland. All the artist were amazing and It’s always reassuring to see good-hearted young kids interested and organizing their own events in a small town like Hershey where there’s not much to do. No place for the misfits among the chocolate factory tourist and the strict 21+ taverns. In passing a friends father explained to me earlier today that “Necessity is the birthplace of invention.” These kids solidified that rationality, and it was refreshing to see.

Queen Anne’s Lace. I played early to a room full of careful eyes and was really happy to have gotten a chance to share some songs and share the bill with a lot of talented like-minded individuals. After I played a girl gave me a bouquet of flowers she picked from a field across the street. What more could I ask for? I nice short drive, a great show, a bouquet of Queen Anne’s Lace, and some new friends later I’m on Interstate 83 heading south back to the hollow and the company of some beautiful friends of mine.

The Fire. A small club in Fishtown, a desolate part of Philly with a up-and-coming young artistic vibe. The Fire is a small bar with a venue in the side room. We got into town pretty early forgetting how short the drive from NYC to Philly is. Headed into the venue that was pretty dead on the bar side and peaked our heads into the venue where a local Hip Hop act was recording a music video. (See Picture Below, ha ha) Lots of lights and akward dancing.

After a while the video crew cleared out and the show started, We shared the stage with a young traveling band from Nashville called The Great Collide. Awesome. We closed the night out and played to very small group of kids and some people trickling in and out from the bar. Late night, half-drunk crowd. Not the best show, but could have been a lot worst. Especially in a town like Philadelphia. In the end, everything worked out and everyone at the venue was really hospitable to us and we are glad we came and got a little closer to home. We settled up and headed down the street to the other side of Fishtown.

We stayed the night with an old friend of Max and I’s, Mike Ski, who has a house right up the street from the venue. Super awesome to sleep in a comfortable bed and get some much deserved rest. Knowing we would wake up to a long drive into Pittsburgh to get right out of the past three days and into writing for Max & I’s new project.

Kerouac’s grave. Lowell, Massachusetts is a tiny old mill town about 45 minutes north of Boston where Kerouac spent his childhood years before moving in with his Aunt in New York City for college and the pre-cursor to his ramblin’ lifestyle he soon fell into. We rolled into town in the early afternoon and headed to the Lowell Cemetery set outside town and walked into the last entrance and followed the directions to the a gravestone surrounded by trinkets of all kinds, cigarettes, and a small empty bottle of Jameson perched on top. We left a match book and headed back to car sharing stories about how Kerouac’s literature had effected our lives. Short stop, and we GO.

On the road to New York City, for the evening. Back in one of my many hometown having a hard time finding a place to stay. We had dinner at a Williamsburg restaurant I used to work in and decided to head back out of the city to Long Island to see our friends in Lemuria play. Awesome show. We split up into a few groups after the shows and stayed a few blocks from each other in Clinton Hill and put another day of good vibes and good times to rest.