“Mamma Are You Having A Heart Attack?”
I’m home today. 85 days on the road.
All summer Christa de Mayo and I have criss-crossed the USA on tour with our little boy Leon. We’ve done this for the past few years from Berlin to Bisbee. We’re lucky to know so many welcoming people in so many weird places. And oh the places we go. This time we found ourselves in an emergency room 2,700 miles from home. Christa suffered congestive heart failure during my set at a festival in Washington. My love and rock of reliability was loaded into an ambulance on a gurney and whisked away as little Leon and I held hands in the urgent care parking lot. For all the priceless laughs and adventures, life on the road is fucking hard and can be frightening.
Times are tough up here in the Tower of Song. On our best days, with an albatross of ambition tied around our necks, we’re still fighting for scraps. Most musicians have to hit the road to make any kind of tangible impact. Selling tee shirts, pressing flesh, convincing listeners to lend a tired ear. If you’re physically unable to tour or the 9-to-5 got a chain around your ankle or your band is too big – whatever – you’re going to find it even more difficult to leave your mark.
There are lifers out there who’ve been burning rubber for years with little recognition other than that from the bartenders and bouncers they play for every few months. Heaven help those like me that are doggedly driven to honor their impractical gift because of a Quixotic “calling”. When I think about it, this is an insane situation and I think about it all the time. However life up here can get considerably easier if you’re hooked up with label/management with established contacts and money to loan. This can make a huge difference obvs, but how do you get a label to take a risk on you in the first place? More touring.
I’m not getting rich, I’m not sure I’m even breaking even but I have figured out a way to make the current paradigm work. I’ve established little satellite Drunken Prayers all over the country. A 5 piece rock band in Austin, 2 piece ambient group in Albuquerque, a Kansas City power trio. I once had a 14 member big band in Portland, OR. We play regionally for a few dates then I move on playing solo en route to the next group of players. It’s not Utopian but my older songs are about as fresh as they can still be, and so am I. I’m certainly not the first or only one doing this, but it’s a path I’m happy to have found for staying on the road and fielding a band without much outside support. I’m fortunate that circumstances have worked out as they have. My peculiar tours wouldn’t be possible without a different kind of tour support, one of family and friends, that would be hard for a business to provide. If you’re interested in more about this, send me a message.
Christa is good and getting better. Leon is at school. We’ve unpacked and Heehaw is purring at the end of the bed. I’m paying bills today. I’m not sure what the next move will be or if there will be one at all. But we’re still a-livin’, so everything’s okay.
Thank you players, friends, fans and family that keep us afloat. We’re lucky to have you in our corner – know that we are forever in yours.
Put your heart to the grindstone.
Morgan
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