Coming back from tour is always a tough adjustment. Since being back I can’t help but reflect on all the new places I saw and the many wonderful people I met that will forever be etched into my mind. For 15 dates down the East Coast I had the privilege of traveling with my good friends in Pile as well as my band of amazing musicians. What a wonderful group of guys they were to travel with and what an honor it was to share the stage with them every night. Sadly, when we reached Savannah, it was time for us to part ways. For the remaining 32 dates of the tour I would travel around the country alone in my van, where I must have slept in 25 different Walmart parking lots (Walmart allow customers to park in their lots overnight). As daunting as this journey seemed, I knew I would not come back the same. In Oklahoma I hung with a gang of friends who offered their house to me which they would be evicted from at the months end. I was given a hotel room for a night by a kind hearted Texan who thought “I looked tired” and “was in terrible need of a shower”. I saw a New Mexico sun rise from the back window of my van as I shook off the last night’s hangover. I saw folks who barely had enough money for the weeks groceries throw their last five in a “touring band” donation basket because they felt a “touring musician needed it more than them”. As I played to a nearly empty bar in Cleveland I was reminded of humility when a homeless man walked up to the stage and dropped change in my guitar case, saying “I wish I had more to give you.” I saw the best of this wonderful country on my two month journey and it’s been one of the most uplifting experience of my life. People of America you are good. Thank you.
