Gold rode up and down the slopes and valleys. I thought it was grain for most of the ride. A smooth and even golden brown shimmer lay across like a tall rug hovering over the plains. It sure looked like grain, or barley, but then again what do I know, Los Angeles isnt really a farming town. I learned a lot when I finally saw a field of grain standing next to a corn field and realized that grain probably didnt grow 8 feet tall. The brown and golden stalks were actually just dying corn. The sea of it which was occasionally parted by green pasture, and framed by the brown, yellow, and green of Iowas Autumn made almost as good of a pairing as the Red and Green of Colorado in any season where the snow hasnt turned all of the red white. There was a sort of metallic sheen to it all, as if it were an ocean of some precious metal that swayed with the wind. And, although the sky was grey and it was about half as warm as we had been anticipating there was a energy emanating from the Iowa farms and the people who ran them that quickly made us feel comfortable.
This was the landscape of the Barnstormer tour. This was not a tour of proper venues, although two were involved. This was not a proper tour at all, and still, I feel like nothing else no matter how rock star could ever compete. As our luck had fortuned us, Iowa happened to be the coldest State in the country the week we played. All of our fingers usually took a couple songs to warm up. And playing inside the barns wasnt exactly like playing inside. They werent quite insulated, and they were definitely not heated. This was all irrellevent, because the tour was such an adventure, the other bands were cool, and Daytrotter is the shit. We actually set up a show with Chris Denny and Natives (One of the bands from the tour) right around Thanksgiving in Arkansas, their hometown. Think Hank William’s band fronted by Roy Orbison. They are fantastic, as were all the bands Daytrotter put together. I attached some photos I took.
-Alex
