tl;dr cultural whiplash, stadium drums, delirium, Merle Haggard fun facts, weave puns
Friday
5:30 AM // alarm goes off…stumble out of bed to start the coffee and take a quick shower. Even when I have to get up before dawn I *always* shower, otherwise I will feel decidedly asleep and greasy for the rest of the day.
6:00 AM // I drive to Hermitage for 6:30 van call. I’m going out with a Bluegrass/Gospel outfit for whom I’ve never worked, so I pack some leftovers and 3 RX bars since I’m not sure how often they like to stop for food and I have hunger anxiety
6:30 AM // van and trailer loaded, we head off towards Ohio. It’s a six-piece band, and I snag a solo spot on a half-bench. Not quite long enough to lie down but at least I don’t have to stay sitting up straight the whole time like the boys in the very back.
8:30 AM // driving…I spend the hours listening intensely to mixes that are being sent back and forth between collaborators and checking out different modern alt-country albums that I think could be good references for an upcoming production project. Van time is always my best listening/thinking time. I text my manager excitedly about drum sounds before I realize that he’s not sitting in a van and probably this isn’t a great use of his time. I start a few playlists and chug a second coffee from McDonalds.
1:00 PM // Chipotle stop. Turns out I didn’t need the leftovers after all but I had already eaten them so I sit awkwardly with a cup of lemonade, trying to convince everyone how un-hungry I am.
3:30 PM // Load-In/Soundcheck. We are playing in the ballroom of an Amish-inspired restaurant. It is unclear who in the place is actually Amish. We set up and get everything plugged in. We try one tune, and I try to make mental notes regarding the set list about which songs have a specific fiddle part I must hit and which can stand a more interpretive approach.
5 PM // I ask for the greenroom and am shown to a gnarly supply closet. It smells like mold and sauerkraut. My biggest pet peeve…no mirrors, no power supplies, no private bathroom. This means you have to either awkwardly do your hair and makeup in the bathroom with the future audience members, or try your luck with a mirrored iPhone and risk wild eyeliner. “People usually arrive dressed”, says the promoter. My head nods but I think Sir, I’d like to see the receipts on that observation
5:30 // Dinner, delicious. We order iced lattes, life is restored.
6:00 // I give up on the green room and go outside to the patio to wait for our set. I pass the time talking to two old men who tell me some wild facts about Merle Haggard and his upbringing in a refrigerator train car, and him buying a round for an entire show at Billy Bob’s in Texas and earning the Guinness Book of World Records title for most expensive round of drinks, the total coming in around $12,000 (back in the 80’s!)
7-9 PM // Showtime. Goes as well as can be expected, I am happy to have made it through without any major flubs. I did my homework, but we were about 10 mins short with our prepped set and ended up playing a few I’d never heard before.
9-10 PM // Load-out, pack up, collect pies and donuts for the road.
10:30 PM // 3 of us arrive at a Comfort Inn for early flights out, and the rest of the band heads home to Nashville with extra donuts for their late night drive.
11:00 PM // I have to wake up at 4:30 AM, and I’m starting to panic as I see the hours of potential sleep tick away. I lie restlessly in the dark trying to get my brain to turn off.
Saturday
4:30 AM // Awake again, it takes me a minute to figure out where I am. I slam some hotel coffee, Shower, and stumble down for the airport shuttle.
6:00 AM // Security keeps running my bag over and over and I start to panic about what I may have left in it, turns out to be a small packet of ketchup.
7:00 AM // Flight from Columbus to Charlotte, NC to meet up with my next gig of the weekend. I drank a double espresso in the Airport and am wired. I finish my book I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai (phenomenal), before passing out on the tray table, just in time for landing. ma’am i’m going to need you. to raise that tray table up…
8:30 AM // land in Charlotte. I text my girl KK who I’m playing for, to tell her I’ve landed and ask if she has any place I could nap. She sweetly responds that I’m welcome to use her hotel bed and that there has been “no hanky panky in it”.
9:15-10:30 AM // Fitful nap in KK’s bed while the rest of the band gets ready.
10:30 AM // up and getting dressed. I swap out yesterday’s full-coverage maxi dress for a double denim look, which is what this gig calls for. I have an old pair of wranglers from my sister. They look great, but they are hard to breathe in. I squeeze them on and prepare for a long hot afternoon.
On the way to the gig KK tells me about accidentally leaving her weave behind in Nashville but remembering it because she discovered a flat tire just down the road from their house. If we hadn’t had that flat, I would have left it behind! See, someone says, God is Good, you have to be-weave in his divine reasoning. We do weave puns for the rest of the drive, incredible.
12:00 AM // We arrive at our stage outside the Panther’s stadium in Charlotte. It’s a pre-party for the Luke Combs tour and it’s like whiplash from the previous day’s vibe. Yesterday was all white hair and Jesus. Today is all boots and short-shorts, cold beer, and cigarettes.
12:30 PM // Soundcheck. They interrupt us to run bomb dogs around the stage, sniffing at the instruments and gear. They find no bombs and we are back up and running.
1:00 PM // I am starving but the place is a maze and I have no idea where the catering is in the huge stadium. I attach myself to the friendly monitor engineer who shows me inside the bowels of the enormous complex. The lunch catering is lit, with full salad bar, buffet, smoothie and juice stations (labeled TOUR ONLY, but I’m tempted). There are also more donuts, and importantly coffee.
Wandering back to our stage, it’s crazy to see the soundcheck happening in the empty stadium. There’s a sound map on the big screen showing the waves hitting each seat, rolling out like surf. Luke Combs has three openers in addition to the three bands playing the outdoor pre-party. All those bands, busses, crew, as well as security, production, merch, catering, ticketing etc, etc. It’s a massive operation.
2:00-3:00 PM // Showtime. This one is not as smooth for me. I forgot how loud stadium-style drums are and am struggling to play or hear anything over them. I can only check the pitch on my BGV’s by holding my ears shut to invert the sound. But, KK sounds great and the audience seems to love her.
3:30 PM // I bid farewell to the band and head out of the roadblock area to find an uber back to the hotel.
4:00 PM // I make it back to the hotel, and change quickly. Manage to squeeze in a 30 minute workout in the fitness room and a shower before passing out for another awkward hour in KK’s bed.
6:00 PM // Airport shuttle for the second time that day. This shuttle driver is really sweet and is trying to learn the bass. I give him a mini-lesson on the Nashville number system en route to my drop off and he is *stoked*.
8:30 PM // Late flight back to Nashville. We have now made it to my present moment of writing. If all goes according to plan… George will grab me from the airport and we will go pick up my van from yesterday’s early van call. I will take a double dose of Benadryl and hope for a deep healing sleep before starting a two-day recording session tomorrow AM.
Hope all you croissants had a fun weekend, and got a little more sleep than I did!
-Rachel