I'm going to be as transparent as possible about the process from now until its completion. The tour is in the planning/booking stage as we speak. I hope that guiding you along will help you to develop your own tours, learn from my tricks & pitfalls, and most of all, see the humor in all of it.

If I've learned anything, it's that touring can be a silly business. Running out of gas in Middle-of-Nowhere, Kentucky, is silly. If you don't have a sense of humor, you're screwed.

STEP 1: Concept

Note: I am a completely independent musician - no agent, no manager, no label. With the help of my family, fans, and producer I self-released my first album in August. My team is comprised of a publicist, an intern, a mailing list, and a bunch of really awesome people around the country.

After flying solo at the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance this past September, I decided to do things a little bit differently for National Folk Alliance. The conference runs Feb 16-21, and I'd planned on attending solo all year. Alas, I am poor, and traveling with four dudes is pricey.

Douglas Jay Boyd has supplied my acoustic setup for awhile now (cajon/backing vocals); he's a great friend and kickass singer-songwriter, so I asked him to come along. My plan was to do the West Coast solo in January, pick him up at the end of the month, tour the Midwest, then arrive at the conference in Memphis. Doug agrees to February. Three days later, the facebook fairy informs me that he's lost his job. I figure, what the hell, I get bored in the car - and ask Doug to come along with me for the two full months. He agrees.

I cover our memberships to Folk Alliance ($100) - and we both apply as volunteers to cover the cost of the conference ($400). Then we pray to God to get picked as volunteers.

I'd seen a few indie artists tour creatively (see: Ben Sollee, Seth Glier) and make it look like more fun than a 3rd grade science project. Insanely hard work, but with thousands of indie artists pushing for press, it pays to be different. The hum-drum show-to-show routine can get old. I wanted to do something different with this tour, but the best I could come up with was "Two-guitar-slinging-cowboy-boot-loving-homeless-musicians take to road." Original, I know.

After banging our heads against a wall, we decide to call it the "Ragged-Haggard Tour" (a reference to one of my songs) and get on to booking.

This would all change, but I'll get to that later...

Stay tuned for my next post- STEP 2: Routing (or, how not to kill yourself driving across the country).

Live video from the CD Release Party this weekend! Woo!

When I first moved to Austin, I told myself I'd play the Cactus Cafe. A year later - here's footage from my first show there, for the Sirens N'Boots Tour. Pretty sure I felt like I was on drugs, the room is pretty magical. Like, mushrooms magical.