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The American Roadhouse Blog Pt. 6 - Iowa by way of Nebraska

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:24:36 -0700

Not much to write about this weekend. Business as usual. Loaded up for the road with Bob and Kurt opting to bring Mrs. Birch and Mullins respectively; Monty, Kelley, Jeff and I hauling the trailer to Council Bluffs Friday afternoon. One of the coolest things that happened all weekend was the SUV with South Dakota Plates driving up beside us about 40 miles out of Sioux City with a gal hanging out of the passenger side window holding a Profane Saints Koozie in each hand yelling HELL YEAH at 70 miles per hour. That got a howl and a hoot from everyone on board the Profane Ford. It was great to meet the Mezcal Brothers from Lincoln- what a fabulous band. Straight rockabilly done right. Harrahs wasn't packed (our first time in Council Bluffs- something we expected) but those in attendance were very enthusiastic. I'd like to give a shout to our new friends from Minnesota-one of them being Brando Reinhart (a bitchin’ name if I say so myself) from New Ulm, MN and his fabulous crew that stayed for the entire show. When we got paid I felt a cool buzz reading the top of the check printed with the letters "CAESAR'S PALACE LAS VEGAS NEVADA" Hell yes. Thank you Harrahs. We all headed back for the hotel where we drank cheap beer and watched crappy horror movies on HBO. Thank you Super 8.

Bummed around Omaha that morning and afternoon, visited the famous Drastic Plastic, Ted and Wally's Homemade Ice cream shop and the old market candy store for some old fashioned horehound drops (hardcore...I know) Visited a cool sheepskin and custom leather store as well...Omaha is a cool town. Tons of culture to take in. As late afternoon approached we headed to Tin Lizzy's in Fremont, set up for the show and grabbed some dinner. When we left the bar there were about 3 people in the place. Upon returning the whole bar was PACKED with many people already crowding the area where we set up. As we sailed through the first set...the look on 90% of the audiences face was "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" Determined to win the crowd over, I came back with an acoustic set calling on some familiar covers by the holy Trinity of Johns...Johnny Cash, John Prine and John Hiatt. That seemed to do the trick. Once we were two or three songs into the last set we had people dancing on tables, dancing inches away from us. We were surrounded by dancers. Very cool- we'd won over some hearts and ears. The night ended with us pulling out of Fremont and arriving back home around 3 AM. Head ringing, adrenalin fading my head hit the pillow and everything went dark. Another weekend on the road under our belts.

The American Roadhouse Blog pt 5 - Last Chance Gasoline - Gas prices and the independent tour

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:20:38 -0700

Alright- first off. I'm not broke. Not completely anyway. All of my crew and band members are gainfully employed at their day jobs and the band/music has become a second job for us. After going through our receipts (not including hotel costs, food etc.) There's no polite way of putting this. We're taking it in the rear with no lube. No joke. Gas prices are killing us. Food is going up but we can pack a cooler, which helps. Hotels? Half of the songs I write are about dirty, dingy places. I don't mind staying in a dive, but I speak only for myself seeing as Jeff, the drummer had a a vivid dream on the road that I changed into a silverbacked gorilla and was picking the bed bugs off of him during a nightitme attack- and Bob has resorted to sleeping on top of the sheets.

So what does this mean for independents like us? More solo gigs? Sure. Less vehicles? A must. Got me curious though and I'd like to get your thoughts on this- how are YOU making it on the road? Are you raising your prices? Are you sleeping in the van at rest stops? How are you keeping the wheels turning without losing an arm and a leg? Us? We're all piling into a Ford Expedition that hauls all of our gear and luggage and splitting it all from here on out as often as we're able...but is this sustainable?

Open to any and all input here but I'd like to deal in reality. No obtuse political statements here- I get enough of that bullshit on AM radio and NPR. What are your strategies for making the road work for you?

The American Roadhouse Blog Pt 4. The Road Song Chronicles Chapter 1

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:32:20 -0700

As we rolled east down I-90 on an unending stretch of badland Dakota highway I saw a lone truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Run down, falling apart and blowing away in the spring wind. I felt I was looking into the future through some prophetic window flashing scenes of the pending apocalypse. That mopment inspired one of the first of what I suspect to be many road songs to come. Here's what I came up with

The Truck Stop at the End of the World

this was the place he knew it always reeked of diesel fuel and bbq/ they'd keep the coffee on as black as hell and hotter than a midnight sun /another graveyard shift closer now to the dying than the day before / he'd watch the waitress dip as she slid a soggy mop across a hardwood floor

might see a letter fall jumping off the roof line of a crumbling wall /the shattered glass exposed casting crystal shadows in some secret code /he laid a dollar bill underneath an empty cup and headed south /bound somewhere in between a bumfuck town and "hey you got a pretty mouth"

where the satelites fell out of sky /and a man's soul could buy him a slice of pie /stood the last chance stop for gasoline /road maps and tabloid magazines /spirits fly like tumbleweeds on the wind / and a sign reads "Y'all come back again" / where the strangers fell in love the girl serving deep fried lust at the truckstop at the end of the world

this was the place he knew it always reeked of diesel fuel and bbq / but now it's shot to hell boarded up and hollow as an empty shell / another graveyard shift further from redemption than it's ever been / with every ghost inside just staring out the windows looking back at him

where the satelites fell out of sky / and a man's soul could buy him a slice of pie / stood the last chance stop for gasoline / road maps and tabloid magazines / spirits fly like tumbleweeds on the wind / and a sign reads "Y'all come back again" / where the strangers fell in love the girl serving deep fried lust at the truckstop at the end of the world

to hear the demo of this song visit the following link where it's available for free download...

http://www.thesixtyone.com/s/GuXwZyVMapw/

"From the Reservation to Rapid City" The American Roadhouse Blog Pt 3.

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:39:05 -0700

We pulled into the Hotel and Casino around 1pm on Friday afternoon. The skies were overcast and made the prairie look a little bit foreboding in a good way. We all checked in and were pleasantly surprised how nice the rooms were. They were comped as well along with two meals per guy. We could get used to this. Surrounded by the typical casino fare of elderly gamblers, hundreds of ashtrays, plastic cups and the smell of meat and potatoes and cigarette smoke hanging heavily in the air; we all went down to the lounge and the crew started unloading the gear. We got everything loaded in and waited for our sound tech to show up. After about an hour of dead time, hanging out and joking about Jeff's new pants (a pair of grey stone washed skinny jeans we was incredibly proud of - one of the central topics of the weekend) our sound man Little Bull showed up and got us a few monitors onstage. We weren't going to be playing through a PA. He piped my acoustic and vox through the house mains and everything else would be coming from the amps and drums onstage. We flew through "Austin Texas" to set levels and the reaction from the staff was TOO LOUD. The bartender and waitress immediately told Little Bull that we were way too loud and we needed to come down. They then informed us that they needed to maintain a volume of 90 decibels during the show and that we were well over a hundred. Bob and Kurt turned down their amps and Jeff opted to use his stick/brushes to help. This was situation we were not used to. We would be playing as quietly as possible. I began to think they hired the wrong band! As show time approached Little Bull spoke to me backstage and told me that once the new casino was finished- (there was a huge addition being built onto the old building) that volume wouldn't be a problem. He explained that since the casino was wide open, they had to respect the gamers. One thing I will say is that all of the staff at the casino was very helpful and friendly. We performed for perhaps a total of 25 people over the course of the evening (including three crew members) I told the other members not to push it and to play it nice and easy seeing as we were heading to Rapid City the following night and since there was virtually no crowd, I held back vocally. I t was a lot like getting paid to practice, and we were cool with that. After the show Little Bull showed me to the cage where we were paid cash and paid well. Even though the crowd was virtually non-existent we still managed to sell a few shirts and CDs. All in all an okay night all things considered and the hotel treated us very well. Our crew member Missy and I gambled for an hour or so following the show where we both lost a whopping ten dollars to the one armed bandits. We had an early departure the next day...I texted Mrs. D that I loved her and hit the sack- falling asleep to "Son of Chucky"...B movie dreams ensued till morning. I woke up to the sound of Monty knocking on the door. I got dressed and went out to the hall where we were met by Bob who declared that he had a confession..."Last night I snuck into Jeff's room and had sex with his jeans...he'll never be able to use his change pocket again." Nice to see we were in top form so early in the morning.

We struck out for Rapid City at 9:30. Headed up a rural highway that connected to the interstate that was a straight shot to the beautiful Black Hills. We stopped off at Wall Drug a few hours later. Taking in our fill of Midwestern Americana, souvenirs and roadside attractions at their finest, we headed for the venue to drop off our gear with 50 miles left of a 250 mile drive. We pulled into Sally O’Malley’s around 2pm and loaded in. One of the cool things we were looking forward to is that Kurt's sister Mary lived in Rapid and came down to the club to greet us. She started snapping pictures as the crew hauled our stuff in. Once everything was set up we all headed back to the hotel- a little gun shy from our stay in the "We'll leave the light on for you" hotel chain- we all checked in and found we were all put in newly remodeled rooms. A pleasant surprise. Super clean, very nice. $48 well spent. About this time it hit us as to how high gas prices really were. Hauling a trailer burns fuel and it burns it fast. I was thinking I'd appreciate some investors right now, but that's the name of the independent game. Of course gas prices were more than a dollar cheaper when we booked this tour. Ouch. It's clear that this tour wasn't making money; it's costing the crew and all of us an arm and a leg. Oh well. We were here. We went to Arnolds Diner, modeled after the whole Happy Days 50's themed restaurant, and proceeded to watch Missy eat the hugest chili dog we have ever seen. Impressive.

After some down time at the hotel, the crew and I; with the other band members a good hour behind us went down to Sally O’Malley’s to watch the opening act the Beerslingers- an all acoustic quartet that featured three guitarists and a bass player. With solid vocals and off collar bar room humor the 'slingers wrapped at 7:30pm, an hour and half before we were scheduled to take the stage. At around 8pm the band showed up ready to go. I started the night off acoustic with "Metropolicana" a John Prine cover "Angel from Montgomery" and a request for "House of the Rising Sun” After a few more numbers the band kicked things off with "Austin Texas" to an enthusiastic crowd that began two-stepping right away. Let me say there is no shortage of GREAT dancers at Sally O' Malley's! We performed new material from our upcoming album to hoots and hollers. From time to time the band would leave the stage and I'd do the solo thing for two or three numbers. During "Ford Marriage" a gal walked up to the dance floor and stood about three feet from me. Real drunk, real weepy. She stood there and stared at me tears rolling down her face. I'm not known for being Mr. Sensitive so I got through the song and went into another acoustic number doing my best not to pay close attention to what she was doing. As soon as I began the next song she sat herself down on the edge of the stage, about 12 inches from me and began swaying and crying, to which my crew began snapping photos. At the end of the song security came up and asked her to not sit on the stage during the show. Last I heard she was seen urinating between two cars in the parking lot in front of a crowd of 20 or so people including Bob's wife and our crew. The party never ends folks. Everyone at Sally's was very supportive...lots of dancing and good times for sure. Our friend and fan Sam approached me at the end of the show and asked if I'd sign her hip. I asked "Why?" She replied "Make it look pretty-it's getting tattooed on me tomorrow." After a few minutes of me reminding her that it will be there forever she told me to shut up and sign her, which I did...,I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result. We all headed back to the hotel, crashed woke up and headed home. 400 miles to Sioux City. One more date in South Dakota with Bob Wayne and Wayne "The Train" Hancock on the books...Next up- Nebraska in May. It was great to get back home. Sleep came on fast.

Road-kill and the Concrete Prairie”¦ Mitchell, SD - The American Roadhouse Blog Pt 2

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 14:20:31 -0700

With the trailer loaded we set off for Mitchell, South Dakota; the first stop on the American Roadhouse tour. Merle and I made a few stops in Sioux Falls on the edge of the state border, 75 miles north of our home base in Sioux City, IA. Headed east on I-90 to the town of Mitchell nearly 70 miles west- home of the world's largest and last Corn Palace which at one time was constructed entirely of corn and has become a large auditorium decorated with corn from head to toe. A sight to see. Across the street stood the husk of what used to be the Doll museum which I found during the show had been closed for some time. On the way we passed the world's largest Longhorn sculpture, a landmark that stood like on of the infamous Easter Island faces with a redneck sort of flavor. Patches of snow collected in the ditches- glued to the dead grass like a dying lover clinging on for dear life- a strange sight to see in 60 degree weather on a spring afternoon. Road kill was everywhere, scattered on the shoulder and the broken lines of the interstate. We had an interview on KMIT Hot Country as soon as we reached town. About ten minutes from reaching the city's gates Laurriee calls and says she's got us booked back to back with another radio station across town. Cool. We were off to a great start at 2:45 in the afternoon.

With Bob and Jeff still a few hours behind us. Kurt and I along with crew member Merle pulled into the radio station. Merle stood in the parking lot for a smoke and I got the guitar together. We walked on into the radio station and were greeted by some of the nicest people we would meet that weekend. The radio station was large and wide open, a rarity drawing from past experiences in other stations. This was the largest one I'd ever had the pleasure of visiting and one of the friendliest. After chatting with a good looking gal working the phones up front we were greeted by the great Big J who looked like his call sign- Big, bearded and very accommodating. We were led down the hall to a corner studio. A few minutes later Laurriee, Jimmy and another young man scheduled to open the show that night joined us and before we knew it we were on the air. After a quick interview I performed "Bikini Bull Riding" live on the air. We posed for a few photos and we were off to station number a two, a top 40 pop station downtown. We were greeted by another very friendly DJ, had another quick interview and I wondered what the hell a flyover country songwriter would perform live on air for a Top 40 audience. Time was money- so I flew through a quick rendition of "40 Watt Moon" and tried to sound as accessible as I could.

With Laurriee and the boys heading to the club, Merle, Kurt and I called crew members Monty and Kelley who had already checked in at the Motel. We drove back across town and checked into something that resembled many of the fictional locations in my songs. We checked into room 112, a cold tiny space with two beds that smelled of combination diesel fuel, B.O. and a porta-potty. So this is motel Americana...hello you sweet, dear, dirty old girl. Got word Bob and Jeff were getting close so we all hauled ass to the club and proceeded to unload the gear. The owner Jimmy was a friendly man from Memphis Tennessee, all the way from Memphis to Mitchell. Cool. Before we had even set up he was beaming from the radio slots..."I want you back and you haven't even played yet." We were off to a great start.

Jeff and Bob rolled in, we got the rest of the gear in...everything was set up and the dinner crowd started showing up. Food...what's that? Hadn't eaten since the turkey and ham sandwich in a zip lock bag since that morning- it was damned near 7:30pm. We jumped in the truck and headed through a charming town winding up at a local BBQ dive that featured an all you can eat seafood buffet. Being almost always in the mood for old fashioned BBQ and a good piece of fish we parked the car, proceeded in and found out that the buffet was only $23.00 per person. Damn. Yeah- I'll take one of your smaller, combo meals. After a $9 serving of delicious BBQ in airport cafe portions, we headed back to the club for final sound check. I found out that the young man scheduled to open the show had never performed live before. He hit the stage and did quite well for his first go at it. A good set of lungs. Next up was local mainstay Jimmy Isburg who strummed a strong set of his own rootsy originals and was joined by new band Jade Monkey on his last tune. It was now time to take the stage- we thundered through 28 songs with me filling in with about a dozen acoustic numbers. The crowd was at times very enthusiastic, at other times looking at us like "We're aren't used to this." Only complaint we had was a gal smoking a cigarette outside that rambled " Why don't they play something we know???" Lori, Bob's wife replied "Buy one of their CDs and get to know their songs." It was either true love or total confusion. All I knew was that at the end of the night- Mitchell knew who Mat D and the Profane Saints were.

Before we knew it was 1 AM. We had gone on at 10:30pm...I hadn't left the stage...no breaks. I unplugged my guitar only to hear Laurriee's voice from the dance floor saying "You're booked till 1:30 darlin. You aren't done. In the contract. Get back up there"...wore out and covered with sweat I took the stage and played a few covers till time was up. Dance floor full- I sangJohn Hiatt’s "Crossing Muddy Waters" and a slow take on June Carter‘s "Ring of Fire". 1:30 came on like hammer. The crew tore down and I sat and visited with Laurriee, a friendly bartender and the owner. One of the nicest things to see is the owner wearing one of our T-shirts greeting his guests. They want us back for Rodeo week. Cool. Mitchell South Dakota was another small success. The seeds had been planted. We headed back to Motel for beers and early morning conversation. Hit the sack at 3:30 AM. First night down. The morning came on fast with Sioux Falls calling us back. We hit the highway...snow gone...bodies of fresh raccoons stinking to high heaven. Just another day on the concrete prairie.

The American Roadhouse Blogspot

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:35:42 -0800

Welcome to the American Roadhouse Blogspot. The official blog of the Profane Saints on the American Roadhouse Tour. I'm Mat D and I'll be the narrator, sharing our stories and experiences on the road which is shaping up to be an experience of small towns and big cities, honky-tonks and beer joints, blue collar ball rooms and rural casinos beginning in our native land of the Midwest. I'll be introducing you to the band, our fabulous road crew and people behind the scenes of this entirely independent, self financed road show. The band has been gearing up for this by developing new songs and perfecting old material, ready to carve our way through the United States when we’re able and wherever we may end up. Speaking for all of us we're thrilled to be traveling outside of our comfort zone and excited to meet many of you on our journey. With a little less than three weeks until this thing kicks off, I've been picking up new merch including some brand new T-shirts and koozies we've designed and taking inventory of everything we have in stock. Mrs. D and I just packed up all of the T-shirts and we had our first get together of everyone that will be traveling with us on tour. Our 50 gallon T shirt bin I’ve nicknamed “the Cornucopia O’ D” is full to the brim. Monty (head of security and gear) brought the trailer over to the house last weekend. He’s putting new diamond plate on it and we’ll slap a few logos on her too. It's been a ton of work getting this thing together and I've been keeping busy developing displays, artwork and promotional material and it's made me appreciate all of the great people that are behind us on this thing. I'd like to take the time to thank all of the club and venue owners and their promoters, Merle, Monty, Missy and Kelley (our road crew) Laurriee (our booking agent for the tour) and most importantly, our wives Molly, Heidi, Lynn and Lori for allowing us to take time away from things at home to see where this adventure takes us. So far we’re looking at the Southwest (Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona) and East Coast in late Fall (New York) with the majority of the tour happening within 400 miles of our home base. We have a ton of fans requesting us on the West Coast, Texas and Overseas…we’re working on it! As opportunities arise we’ll eagerly perform in any venue that’ll have us. For right now we’re just getting this beast in motion. We just want to do it well and do it right.

I plan on electing a mascot for the tour. Something to be included in photos to help document the journey. There has been talk of using some sort of statue or object that will appear where we have been. I’ve considered using a sex toy, an action figure or a statue of the Virgin Mary; even one of Christ himself. It's unknown at this point. All I know is we'll be documenting all of this in word, pictures and song...I plan on doing some songwriting for the next album as well. We'll be traveling with our eyes wide open. The first leg of our tour will take us into familiar waters to the great State of South Dakota. Wall Drug will certainly be a stop on the way as well as the Black Hills and the Badlands. South Dakota should conjure up some great stories and great images. I love the prairie and it‘s people. We’ll kick things off in on April 1 at Signature’s located in downtown Mitchell, SD. Saturday April 2 we’ll be joined by friends PASQUE at Skelly’s Pub in downtown Sioux Falls. The following week we’ll be stopping at Ft. Randall Casino, performing in Lucky’s Lounge on Friday April 8 looking forward to Saturday night April 9 at Sally O’ Malley’s in Rapid City with friends the Beerslingers. This will be the second time I’ve performed at Sally’s and a first for the band. April 27 we’ll return to Sioux Falls to open for Wayne Hancock and Bob Wayne on their national tour, with Nebraska dates just around the corner in May.

So next time you find yourself killing time and reading this, we'll be on the road, taking everything in and chasing the unknown dream on our first leg of the American Roadhouse Tour. Hell yeah good people. Here we go. Hang on to your wigs and keys. Second post should hit the web on April 2.