Songs & Strings Tour Journal
Autumn 2002, West Coast
Michael DeLalla & Andrew McKnight
October 22, 2002: A Typical Day in the Life, and Music and the Moon on the Mojave
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Songs & Strings Tour JournalAutumn 2002, West Coast
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 Michael in a moment of deep intensity on his Lowden guitar
Andrew delivers the goods, unplugged and intimate |
I thought today might be a good day to approach the journal a little differently, more to describe a typical day in the life of a touring acoustic musician. Sometimes we joke about how our job is to drive and find places, and when we run out of energy to do any more we stop and play music. Sometimes that's not so far from the truth! Yesterday's 750-plus mile drive from Centralia to Stockton completely changed the landscape. From dense evergreen shrubs and pervasive fog in the morning to the seemingly endless sunshine of the nation's breadbasket, the California corporate agri-business empire of the Central Valley. We awoke this morning in typical touring musician digs, a Motel 6 backed up against rush hour on Interstate 5. A little morning haze and sun casts a surrealistic abstractness to the Valley's endless fields and orchards. Certainly looks a lot different than the frosty autumn dew of home! Our days usually start with a quick motel departure in search of a good cup of coffee. In some places, this is the most difficult challenge we will face in a day. The Central Valley of California is one of those places. For two guys who are each fond of good strong locally roasted coffee (rather than charcoaled chain stuff :), the quest usually requires exploring the downtown center of artsy or touristy little towns. In lieu of a good coffee roaster, out west we have discovered that your basic double shot latte is preferable to a bad cup of stale Maxwell House. We found a little espresso joint a little way off the highway in Manteca, and thusly caffeinated, the day began. (I should mention here that carrying a combination of fresh ground organic coffee from Trader Joe's and a #2 Melitta cone and filter allows one to make good coffee at any convenience store using the hot water tap on the side of their coffee pots, which is usually infinitely better than the stuff sitting there baking on the burners of those same machines. Coffee snobs we may be, but life is short!) Most tours usually involve several days with long 300 or 400 mile drives, especially out west. Today is no exception, with about 350 miles of I-5 standing between us and our destination, Lancaster in southern California's Antelope Valley near Tehachapi, a place made famous in an old lonesome country song. Along the way the distinctly non-eastern sights of the Central Valley unfolded before us pretty much right out of Steinbeck. And a whole lot of sights that define the present day valley; concrete-lined canals carrying water from where it intended to go to some place it didn't, giant pairs of power lines stretching between horizons, golden rolling treeless hills,the fields of oil jacks near Bakersfield, dust devils in the fallow fields, and an array of fruits and plants integral to the American table growing in others - cotton, almonds, berries, grapes and leafy vegetables. Every day the opportunity to watch the American story unfold through the windshield is a great blessing. This place is particularly intense in its contrasts and paradoxes. Along the way today we have to stop to do a phone interview with KHSU 90.5 FM radio, a community station on the north California redwood coast, to promote next Tuesday's show in Eureka. It's always interesting to hear your music on the phone, especially knowing it's being broadcast all over the place while you sit comfortably removed from the whole process with a phone to your ear. Our interviewer Candice was very sweet and very enthusiastic, and though it is hard to think more than a day in advance, I know that we will greatly enjoy our first concert in redwood country. Tonight's show is hosted by my friend Nelline, a pal from my environmental engineering days and a big fan of my tune "Bargeman". If you host a house concert you get priority with requests, so I spent some time making sure I remembered the words. We went for a quick walk in a nearby nature preserve with the oldest living organism in the Antelope Valley, a creosote bush many hundreds of years old, mixed in with a bunch of cholla cactus and Joshua trees that look straight out of Dr. Suess! She made a fabulous dinner which really set the night off beautifully. Her house is a splendid abode in the style of southern California and reminiscent of the Mediterranean, says Michael who (unlike me) has actually been on the Mediterranean. We had a lovely crowd join us tonight, enthusiastic and doing lots of Christmas shopping early at the CD table. They inspired some pretty wonderful musical moments; Michael's extraordinarily beautiful reading of "Lauren Grace" written for his youngest daughter; me somehow conjuring up the rising moon through the picture window over my shoulder during "I Can't Understand the Moon"; a rousing and emotional singalong on "Road to Appomattox", and a pretty kicking guitar jam at the end to send everyone on their way happy and satiated. Top that all off with a nice glass of wine, a quick soak in a hot tub under the Antelope Valley stars, and a great night sleep, and it makes for a pretty much excellent day. And of course, so many of those things were not thought about or expected at the day's beginning, which in a sense makes this just like every other day; pretty darn special and full of gifts. Andrew |
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