Touring Montana

I have played in many bands in my life, playing many different genres. But only once had I toured with a band - Portland to Anchorage and back with the “All Wave” band, Boanerges, when I was 19.

Last week, my wife and I did a short tour of Montana with our acoustic duo, Earthshine. We played to audiences from two to two dozen and earned enough money to break even on our expenses.

            Those expenses included filling up with $3.50 per gallon 100% biodiesel in Missoula and staying at an RV park in Garrison. We kept costs down by camping in friends’ driveways. We travel in an ’82 VW diesel Wesfalia Vanagon.

            It was a great experience and we look forward to doing more of it soon.

            I decided to include a little travelogue this week of life on the road in Montana for a touring band.

            The tour kicked off with a concert at the Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Monday night. We promoted it mostly through e-mails sent to friends, but a few folks caught our listing in the Outpost or the Enjoy section of the Gazette. We only had ten folks show up, but they kicked in $70 and some change afterwards. That was a big encouragement and we want to say thanks to everyone who put something in the hat: from the $20 bill to the steel washer!

            We left the next morning for Bozeman. It was a dual-purpose visit, as we attended sessions at the Governor’s Energy Symposium during the day.

            The show was at Smiler’s Café, a coffee shop/juice bar/Thai restaurant on Main St. that has a small stage and occasional live music.

            The Bozeman Daily Chronicle included a our press release, but we also sent e-mails to all of our Bozeman friends who turned out in droves (eight of the two-dozen people there that night were friends). We really appreciated the support from Gallatin Gateway singer/songwriter Jim Averitt and his wife Karen, and Sandy Dodge, pedal steel player with the great Bozeman country/western band www.twang, who stopped in on his way to rehearsal. You can check both of them out online at www.jimaveritt.com and www.twang.org.

            We especially appreciated Bozeman flute player extraordinaire Ben Klein, who sat in with us and made our original transfolk sound all the more transcendental.  If you haven’t heard his “Ben Flutism” CD or his work with the trio Trillian Green, you need to soon. You can hear samples at www.cdbaby.com/cd/benklein.

            Thanks to Smiler’s for feeding us some delicious Thai food before the show.

            We try to play without a sound system whenever possible, but we probably should have used one to rise above the periodic din of the smoothies being mixed up by the friendly staff.

We forgot to even put out a tip jar, but performing with Ben Klein was payment in itself. We hope to add his playing to our ongoing CD project.

            Wednesday we were back at the Energy Symposium, before heading to Garrison. We had hoped to perform for in the chapel building at Riverfront RV Park, but they were having a Wednesday night fellowship there, so we practiced in the common room for two folks: the owners! They had come to hear us after the meeting and we gave them a little house concert.

            The next morning we headed to Missoula to attend the MEA-MFT conference for two days. But the big thrill was getting to twice engorge ourselves at the lunch buffet at Tipu’s Tiger – the only East Indian restaurant in Montana (and it’s vegetarian!).

            Our show was listed in the Missoula Independent, plus we e-mailed a bunch of friends, so we were excited to play for a big crowd at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Missoula. Two people showed up. They were enthusiastic about our music, but we didn’t even ask for donations, since they’d have felt obligated.

            We had planned to camp in the fellowship’s driveway, but they offered to let us bring our sleeping bags in, so we had a warm place to sleep and bathe.

            The next day we headed to Helena, where we were scheduled to perform at the Fire Tower Coffee House on Last Chance Gulch. The Queen City News included us in their calendar, and we also sent out a bunch of e-mails.

            This show was a great way to wrap up the tour, as we had a couple dozen folks there – most stayed for the entire two performance – and they were knocking each other over to reach the tip jar afterwards! We pulled in just over $40 this night and never once mentioned tips.

            A few musicians who perform there regularly said that the audiences are pretty supportive there, so we really want to say thanks to Helena live music fans. One local singer/songwriter, Bruce Anfinson, not only was there for the entire show, he helped us set up and tear down. You may know him from hearing his song, “Home Is Where Montana Is,” on Montana PBS promos. You can check him out at www.charlierussell.com.

            It seems as if our biggest fans are from our parents’ generation, so it was encouraging that we got such an enthusiastic response from the Fire Tower’s barista for the evening, the 16-year-old Isha Lloyd, who had just shot her first elk the day before - in between ballet rehearsals. She also teaches hunter safety classes for kids. And she’s an Earthshine fan!

            We returned to Billings on Saturday, encouraged by the warm reception everywhere and already planning our next little tour.

To hear what our music sounds like, visit www.purevolume.com/earthshinemt or www.myspace.com/earthshinemt.