Grave in Exeter Cathedral. If anyone knows anything about this grave please fill me in.



Graffitied wall in Belfast. Yet another reason to love the Irish!



I'd drive this sucker all over Nashville. I wouldn't feel great about it on the highway but I'm sure it's safer than a motorcycle.



Peter Dunwell took this photo of Billy and I in London. I like this one for a few reasons. 1) It's a nice shot. 2) Billy looks great with that Gibson and I think they should give him this guitar. 3) I look like the guy that is always standing on the side of the stage looking tough while Run DMC or MC Hammer busts out the rhymes.

This was a party for "Jail Guitar Doors". It's a very cool organization that Billy set up to send guitars into prisons. It's a way to reward the best behaved inmates and give them something constructive to work on while they pass time. It has a very good track record of helping rehabilitate inmates and is spoken highly of by wardens in the UK. You can learn more at http://www.jailguitardoors.org.uk/



Your guess is as good as mine?



Self portrait backstage in Belfast.



This is me on stage at the beautiful, Empire Music Hall in Belfast.



Another grave in Exeter Cathedral.



I have no idea who this is and I've never seen the show, but I can say with confidence that this has to be the best ventriloquist act of all time!



Someone sent me this photo of Billy and I on stage at Shepherds Bush Empire in London (photographer unknown). If you took this photo, please let me know and I'll credit you or pull it down.



This was also sent to me by an unknown photographer. It's a crowd shot of Shepherds Bush Empire in London. If you took this photo, please let me know and I'll credit you or pull it down.

Thanks for giving a damn,

-Otis

*****More to come******

I snapped this shot of the audience just moments before taking the stage in Leeds.

This is part 1 of the many disorganized posts that I'll be throwing together in the next few days. I'll be chronicling my month long tour with everyone's best friend, Billy Bragg.

The tour started out with United Airlines losing my luggage (it ended the same way). This is but one of many times that they've lost my luggage over the years. This made it impossible for me to change clothes for the first few days of the tour. I'm sure that I was pretty unpopular in the bus.


With my luggage lost, I asked the hotel clerk if they had a tooth brush and some paste. This is what they gave me. I think that this came straight from a Barbie Doll play set.


Drunk man chatting us up at 10 a.m.


Sound checking at St. Alban's Arena in Manchester.


This was in my hotel room in Leeds. I'm afraid to ask what it's for.


I dig this little energy saver. The power in your hotel room only works when your key is inserted.


I fell in love with this theater in Treorchy, Wales.


The theater was built by money raised by local miners. They gave 1/100 of their wages to build this theater. Its beautiful without being pretentious and it has a wonderful vibe.


I fell in love with these old tea cups that were backstage in Treorchy. I decided that I needed to bring them home to Amy. Using my lame negotiating skills, I convinced the very kind promoter to throw in this set as part of my settlement. I'm drinking coffee out of one of them as I write this.


Billy is an expert in the fine art of monotony breaking.

I'd like to go on record by saying that mince pie does not suck!

I don't know what it means, but it looks serious.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was stopping off for "pub lunch". This is a part of English culture that I really like. We stopped off at a pub in a small town and had a game of Skittle. I'd never heard of it before, but I jumped right in and proceeded to dominate the match. Keep an eye out for me on the Skittle circuit because I'll be turning pro by summer.

A great crowd in Hastings.

Thanks for giving a damn,
-Otis

More to come......

Hello friends-
File this in the better late than never category. I learned a few things while touring the UK. Blood Pudding is nothing that a Hoosier needs to partake in, Crumpets are everything that this man needs when he can't find a biscuit, The Clash played their first gig at The Boardwalk in Sheffield and Americans have no business driving in England! Now on with the photos!


Angel of the North -just outside of Newcastle Upon Tyne


Statues -where The Tyne meets the North Sea


Scottish border -We hit a snow storm in Scotland that was no fun to drive through. did i mention that Americans should not be allowed to drive in the UK? I can't describe how cold we were standing there taking this photo. The wind was relentless. It felt like we were being mugged by a gang of snowmen.


More fun in the snow!


It was a great gig in Glasgow!


Freezing my ass off at Stonhenge.


My best buddy Todd with a shameless product endorsement.


I can't remember where this was taken but i think it was outside of Sheffield.


This is the photo that ended a long friendship. Todd was cussing and complaining about driving in the fog and on the opposite side of the road when he would rather be taking photos. I was leaning out the window when i took this not so great photo. He hasn't talked to me since.


The Cluny in Newcastle is about as good a gig as a fella could ask for. These are some of the nicest folks and they genuinely love music. What more could you want?


Avebury Ring -This is older than Stonehenge and well worth the drive.


London -We knew it was going to be a good gig when we walked in and saw the Freddy Fender backdrop. This was the rowdiest gig and there were a lot of people singing along to "The Peoples Day." Good times!


London Swan


Todd in a London subway -I joke about my buddy Todd because he's a good sport but he's also a wonderful photographer. Please go visit his photography page by CLICKING HERE and tell him that I said that he's an asshole!


Protester in London -Although we agreed with most everything that this lady was saying, she was by far the most annoying person I've come across in a while. We walked up to her to say hello and she never shut up for the next hour. Literally! I marched in protest to the war before it started with a half a million people in Prague, a few hundred thousand in Vienna and with 18 people in Indianapolis but that lady stole one hour of my life that I'll never get back. Preaching to the converted or anyone else might be fun on the pulpit but it's a little tiring in the audience.






My new best friend in London


I'm a long way from Wanamaker.


Chicken coop outside of Gloucester.


Rainbows along the roadside.


The Musician in West Leicester.


I did some shows with Sam Baker on this trip. Sam is a great songwriter and a beautiful man. I strongly urge you to do yourself a favor and listen to sams music by by CLICKING HERE. I recommend "Odessa." It has a long intro before it gets to the song so be patient. (recommended if you like Townes Van Zandt, Leonard cohen, Tom Waits etc.)

I apologize to the people and the towns that I don't have photos for. We had very little down time on this trip and the photography suffered because of it. I'll try to make up for it on the next tour.
Thanks for giving a damn!
-Otis

i was fortunate enough to be invited to tour with the bottle rockets last fall. we did a stretch of dates in the northeastern united states at the end of last year and then a couple weeks in february through the southeast. here are some somewhat random photos of my travels.


this is a boiled peanut stand somewhere in south carolina. i survived on
nothing but boiled peanuts for nine days in a row and i returned a better man
because of it.




chicken reflection -yeehaw junction, florida





bait shop outside of athens, georgia





lincoln memorial -washington, dc





bleachers in arlington cemetery -arlington, va





store wall detail -somewhere in rural georgia




these last three photos were all taken by my buddy todd fox. please click on this link to see more of his photos. he is featured in the current issue of black and white fine art photography magazine. needless to say i'm very happy for him.




me onstage with the bottle rockets in macon, georgia.





hanging backstage with mark and brian of the bottle rockets in charlottesville, va.





onstage in lake worth, florida.



thanks to all of you who came out to the shows and thanks to the bottle rockets for inviting me to tour with them. i have quite a few photos from these dates so i may post a part two photo blog if there is enough interest.

feel free to subscribe to this blog thingy!

in early spring of this year a friend of ours in austin, texas (laura thomas) asked if i'd be interested in playing at a homeless shelter in austin during south by southwest. we said yes. she asked us to pick between two days and we said that it didn't matter to us. she said that she needed us to decide so....we flipped a coin and chose friday. she then informed us that we would be playing at the homeless shelter with billy bragg! billy and i ended up having a great conversation and he enjoyed my set so much that he asked me if i'd be interested in doing some shows with him. i was more than happy to take him up on his offer.

me and billy at caritas soup kitchen in austin, texas.

 

billy at the alladin theater in portland, oregon.

 

i didn't have much spare time to take photographs but i did manage to take a few. here are some random images.

salmon ladder in seattle, washington.

 

fishermen in fog seattle, washington.

 

 

 

 

 

i have no idea what this game is called or how to play it but i really enjoyed watching the old men sit around playing it. two men would play while a dozen or so would stand around cheering and laughing (most likely trash talking). i watched for two hours or so. san francisco, california.

 

 

i'm not sure whose grave this is but i found it to be interesting. hollywood, california.

 

 

grant, mushi, billy, vaughn and andy. billy is blessed with some wonderful folks around him. there was no shortage of laughs back stage!

 

if you have any photos of the shows please feel free to post them here.

war mother.

he said that his name is jack marvin and that he is lee marvins cousin. i don't know if it's true but i do know that he was the most cantanquerous person i've met in quite a while. he served in three wars and didn't like to talk about it. he spends most of his time sitting on a park bench in san antonio whistling at girls passing by.

 

this might be the smartest bird i've ever seen. it was waiting for cars to pull of the highway and park in the lot across the street from the alamo. after the people left it would swoop down and eat dead insects off the grill of the car. pretty damn bright for a bird!

 

derrick frazier was executed two days after this photo was taken.

 

self portrait in a funhouse mirror.

 

carls corner truck stop.

 

these last few photos are of the residents and sights of luchenbach, texas.

 

i had the good fortune of spending all of august in austin. i spent most of my days wandering the countryside with my camera and most of my nights on a barstool. here are some photos of some of the people i met and some of the things that i experienced.

i want to send out a special thank you to my friends cameron and jenn for letting me stay with them at their place in austin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

i have quite a few more photos from texas that i'll be happy to post if anyone is interested in seeing them. thanks for allowing me to share these with you.

 

i was sitting on a barstool last week at a bar in bastrop, texas. i was asking some fellas if there were any ghost towns near by and after a short while the conversation finally came around to someone mentioning mcmahan, texas. it's a tiny town that's been all but abandoned. it's been around for about a hundred years. the population peaked in the 1960s at 250 people and it's been on a steady decline ever since. a local rancher started buying buildings as they became available in hopes of preserving the town. he's now the owner of what's left of the town and he's trying to sell it.something about this whole story struck a nerve so i decide to drive out to see it for myself.


after spending about an hour chatting with a fella that runs the local BBQ
joint i started thinking that i might be interested in owning my own town. i checked into it and you can buy the whole town for 215 grand. to tell the truth i think that it might be a little bit overpriced but i'm still interested.




i told amy about it thinking that she would send me to a psychiatrist but she was more interested than i was. who knew?





i like the idea of being boss hog and owning a whole town. we could set up speed traps and live off of the money i get from speeding tickets. i could become a cult leader and set up a compound where everyone would worship gillian welch as the one true savior. we could build the worlds greatest roadside attraction featuring the worlds largest statue of harry dean stanton that would lure weary travelers to us from all over the world. we could open up an artist colony where we could house artist that needed somewhere to create without the distractions of everyday madness. there are way too many options to keep up with. i like the idea of just moving out into the middle of nowhere and just telling the world to kiss our asses.





i'm doubting that we'll go through with it but who knows. i've done dumber things!

thanks to everyone who helped make my trip as wonderful as it was. we made
a ton of new friends and were treated like long lost family members.


the strange looking building on the right is the venue that i was fortunate enough to play. it's called the "sage gateshead" and it's an amazing facility. i opened for guy clark and played to a sold out crowd.





the tyne bridge. newcastle and gateshead are seperated by the tyne river.


view of the tyne bridge from our hotel room window.


another view of the sage and the tyne river.



here are some photos from durham, england.













yummy!


cowboy shadows in the sage


i don't know what in the hell this is about.



i'll leave you with some random images from the train

"carhenge" alliance, nebraska. we drove a few hundred miles out of the way and risked being late to a gig in omaha just to see carhenge. it was worth every mile. this is easily in my top five favorite roadside attractions that i've been fortunate enough to visit!

 

the nerds among us already know where this was taken but for everyone else it's riverside, iowa.

 

church folks protesting an adult film store outside of uniontown, indiana. the man in the second picture yelled at me for about twenty minutes about fire and brimstone. every time i tried to smile and make nice he'd start screaming out bible verses. the woman just stood in the background quietly. he eventually ran out of scripture and asked if i'd like to take a photo.