Tour Diary: Afton Wolfe pt. 1: AmericanaFestivities
“It’s weird times.” – Everyone.
In late September, I began a string of shows I’ve been looking forward to for three months. Actually, I’ve been looking forward to doing this for over a decade. In fact, I haven’t done 10 shows in two weeks in probably 18 years (where most of my peers have had a brief but unfortunate 18 months or so off). There’s plenty to unpack there, but it’s not for this discussion. The point is that, after releasing my first solo full-length, Kings For Sale, in June of this year, a little more than a year after the release my debut EP, Petronius’ Last Meal, and waiting for over a year to support it, which never really happened due to COVID, I was looking forward to playing live music and being on the road and really indulging in my Peter Pan Syndrome/mid-life crisis/musical renaissance. It was broken up between a few appearances at AmericanaFest in Nashville and a short run from Nashville down through the Southeast US. So, this will be a two-parter, and here’s the first part.
This year’s AmericanaFest was strange. It’s weird times. Because of the pandemic, Europe and Australia were unable to send their contingencies to the fest this year. That’s a big hit right off the top, as those crowds are not only abundant, but they are fun and hungry to discover new American music, where the Nashville crowd can understandably take the abundance of talent and events for granted sometimes (guilty). Add to that the uncertainty that everyone is feeling about making any kinds of plans, regardless of external restrictions, and attendance was just way down. I heard rumors that it was about a third of what 2019 was in that respect. I think they did a great job just pulling it off and putting in the appropriate mitigation management, but it felt like a regional thing at most.
Axiomatically, though, those of us who create and discover and perform music don’t have a choice to do so – never did. And many of us are trying to build our crafts and careers and make connections, both with other musicians and with listeners. So, we (my team and band) pressed forward, attended, performed, and tried to take all reasonable measures to protect ourselves and our families and friends (which I believe everyone is trying, albeit in different ways, to do).
In addition to my performances, I was also gifted by my friend and publicist, Rob Evanoff, a ticket to the Awards show. It’s weird times. It was full of amazing performances by Charlie Crockett, Allison Russell, Valerie June, and many others. Steve Earle played Harlem River Blues, and I started crying when he said “See ya when I get there, cowboy.” But the Ryman – America’s greatest concert hall – was not full for it. As awards shows go (which I generally loathe, by the way), this one was as good as it gets. It was inspiring, supportive, and had much less sanctimony than such events usually have (not zero sanctimony, mind you). But it’s weird times.
Tuesday and Wednesday: Cordovas and Friends
On Tuesday, the night before the fest officially began – but a night usually hopping with early arrivals and great “unofficial” shows, and again on Wednesday at the annual FOMO Party, I was invited by my friends in Cordovas to join them in their celebrations at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. At the end of each fantastic show, which both included stellar acts, Cordovas played a short set of their great tunes followed by a longer set of covers, where they brought up friends of theirs, of which I am proud to be among, to play and sing with them.
For both nights, I joined Cordovas, my favorite band in Nashville and one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen anywhere, and sang “Come On Up To The House” by Tom Waits. Joe Firstman chose the song, but it’s one of my favorites, and I eagerly accepted. Tuesday was awesome, but Wednesday was even better because we’d had an extra run-through to get the arrangement and cues exactly right. Being on stage with those dudes is a blast. There’s a chemistry you feel from the crowd that is already outrageous and impressive, but on stage with Joe and Lucca and the guys (Toby – one of my favorite blues guitarists – sat this song out to make room for Dayna Bee on violin and Seth Fox on saxophone) is a completely different ego dissolution. It sounded great with Joe and Lucca contributing vocal harmonies there before undiscovered and giving the song even more gospel life.
I also jumped up with Tyler King of fantastic dance band The Jag, and sang backups for “This Must Be The Place” on Tuesday night, but when they played it Wednesday, I was having a smoke on the awesome patio at Brooklyn Bowl, and I couldn’t get to the stage, but they rocked it anyway. It was a great way to kick off AmericanaFest, even though the attendance wasn’t what it should have been for a band as great as Cordovas. It’s weird times.
Thursday and Friday: Official/Unofficial
For Thursday, we played an official/unofficial set at Fat Kat Slim’s, which is a relatively new restaurant/bar/venue in the Gulch area of downtown Nashville. It’s a great venue, and there was delicious food provided by Slim’s and very good craft beer given away by Crosstown Brewing from Memphis.
In my humble opinion, it was one of the best lineups of the fest. Along with myself and my band – made up of Daniel Seymour, Seth Fox, Rebecca Weiner Tompkins, Renee Hikari, Alan Bailey, Patricia Billings and Laura Rabell, the show had Adrian+Meredith, Dayna Bee, Kevin Daniel, Cristina Vane, and King Corduroy, who also had a large band. We weren’t immune to the diminished attendance, but the performances were premium, and the Frito Pies went perfectly with the cold beers.
Friday, we did a livestream/in-studio performance from Audio Authorities, a cool studio in East Nashville, owned by Nomad Ovunc and Mare Wakefield. These sets were intended to be primarily for our European friends who weren’t able to make the trip this year, and there were very limited seats for the folks who found the place. Intimate performances by myself (along with most of my band from Wednesday), Kevin Daniel, Forest Sun, Mare Wakefield and Nomad, Celia Chavez, Dillon Warnek, and Casey Noel were all top notch, and it was an all-around great time.
In the next part, I’ll talk about the brief tour run that Kevin Daniel and I, along with some awesome musicians, took through the Southeast after leaving AmericanaFest. Spoiler: It’s weird times.
Peace.
Part 2: Come with Me to New Orleans
I played a few things at AmericanaFest (see part 1) from Tuesday through Friday, and even though attendance was down for several reasons, they were great experiences. Saturday and Sunday were days of rest and hanging out with my lovely wife, Robin. Then Monday, we left for a six-show run through Memphis, Tupelo, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson, and Laurel. The trip ended in New Orleans, where I didn’t have a show, but where my keyboardist for this tour, Alan Bailey, lives. So he flew up to Nashville to play AmericanaFest shows, and then we drove him back home after our last show on the tour.
We played all six shows with Kevin Daniel, a killer Southern Rock, Country, and all-around Americana singer/songwriter out of Asheville, North Carolina, and a seasoned vet of the road. We shared a rhythm section of Renee Hikari (drums) and Keith Harry (bass), while Kevin’s band also featured Billy Pearson on guitar, and I had Seth Fox playing woodwinds and the aforementioned Mr. Bailey on the keys. Having Kevin and his band with us added so much to the experience. Not only was I extremely fortunate to get to share the stage with Renee and Keith, who are powerhouses respectively, but my guy Seth ended up playing with them many nights, as well as Billy jumping up on stage with us a few times to cover “Melissa,” a song the love for which Billy and I bonded over. And we had a few late-night poker games that were made much better by the good company.
Most importantly, I learned a lot from Kevin and his squad. They’re pros and veterans, and I haven’t done anything like this in almost 20 years. And the last time I did anything even remotely similar to this, I had a lot of support from a few beautiful friends, and my bandmates were all contributing equally to the process. This time, it was on me to know what to do about things I was not used to handling, like merch, advances, load-in times, hotels, equipment, etc… It’s not easy, and being solely responsible for it simplifies it, but makes it even harder, if that makes sense. It’s simple, because the buck clearly stops with me for everything, but it’s difficult, because I can only stop so many bucks as the single human I am.
The shows were all fun, because playing music is beautiful, and doing it with cool people is like traveling to a different dimension with friends. Of special note, Will in Jackson showed us tremendous hospitality and kindness after our show at Hal & Mal’s. It was great to see my old friend Brian in Birmingham at one of the greatest Southern dive bars, The Nick.
I was elated to see how cool 320 Fifth Street in Laurel, Mississippi was; there was nothing like that place in Laurel 20 years ago. But we played there to close out the run, and it was a great way to close it. James and Chris and Brandon were awesome, and in addition to my folks, a musical hero and occasional “avuncular” figure to musicians in and around Mississippi, Cary Hudson, was in attendance.
I traveled with Alan and Seth, and those guys were great travel companions. They never complained about me domineering the audio on the trip, because it was my car, and I was driving, and I would have been a brat about it. After a week of AmericanaFest, I personally needed a little break from “roots” music. So, I wanted to listen to old Pavement, new Kendrick Lamar, and everything Björk’s done. We had a slight scare with the car – sounded like the drivetrain or the transmission – pulling into Atlanta. But we kept a positive attitude, and I drove real gently on those elements. Thankfully the vehicle survived the entire round trip. I am definitely waiting the other shoe to drop, though.
Probably my favorite part of this run was watching Seth play with everybody. Since the beginning of the pandemic when I found him on Craigslist after being laid off from a cruise ship gig, he and I have gotten to know each other well and played a pretty good bit of music together. He’s a young dude with an old soul and the rare combination of taste, ear, chops, and discipline. He practices all of the instruments he plays perpetually, even on the road, even with a little fuzz from the night before. But over the course these two weeks – AmericanaFest and the short run thereafter – Seth Fox has been a joy to watch, performing songs and sets with myself, Cordovas, Kevin Daniel, Sherman Lee, Hughes Taylor and Rod Gator. He’s fearless and brilliant, and I’m excited to say I was on the ground floor of the cool things he’s going to do.
I got some shows coming up – October 23rd at The 5 Spot in East Nashville, with Cary Hudson and Long Tall Shorty (feat. Chelsea Lovitt) on the bill as well. And I’m gonna be partying with Cordovas again, singing some well-suited cover jams at Hop Springs in Murfreesboro on Halloween. Then it’s back to the studio in the winter! But we’ll see. It’s weird times.
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