Hey everyone. Another rather lengthy gap between updates and I only have 11 minutes left on this computer in Grand Junction public library, so I'll try to make this quick.
Columbia MO is definitely a college town. The kids who live there call it CoMo, but any suspicions that this might have something to do with Perry Como should be dispelled by this photographic evidence from the show:
Kids in CoMo like to drink and then they apparently like to play 'Spin the bottle' (no really!) and take off their clothes. Luckily they also like to listen to music and generally have a fun time, so the show was a real highlight of the tour. I felt a little bit old and out of place (and, no, I didn't join in with the spin the bottle), but everyone was really friendly and fun to talk to. This dude Noah played a cool set and also gave me a ride in to Kansas City the next day, which was swell of him.
From Kansas City I took the Greyhound over to Topeka, KS. I had a lot of fun strolling around Topeka, which has some lovely old houses and a church with some of the eeriest sounding chimes I've ever heard. The weather is still beautiful and Summery here which is great, because I hear I missed Summer in England when it finally arrived. Here's a photo from my stroll around Topeka:
The show I played in town was not a lot of fun, partly becasue I was feeling pretty fatigued from my late and rather boozy night in Columbia, and partly because the show was full of stoner kids who wanted to play long stodgy jams using 'ethnic' instruments and loads of expensive guitar pedals. There was also a white kid with dreadlocks who did slam poetry about how awesome slam poetry is. Not really my kind of scene. BUT Sarah, who set up the show, was really nice and kind and the people that I actually spoke to were very friendly and welcoming.
The next day was a day of EXTREME highs and lows, making the preceding emotional landscape of the tour seem somewhat akin to Kansas' monotonous topography. I realised that there is no bus service between Topeka and Omaha NE, which admittedly I should have noticed far earlier, so was left with no choice but to try my hand at hitch-hiking. Hitch-hiking is not too common in America these days as the people here (just like in the UK) have cultivated the notion that anybody one doesn't know is likely to be a murdering paedophile psychopath. Topeka to Omaha is a three hour drive. It took me 8. This is what it looks like when you're hitch-hiking in Kansas:
Still, I made it and the despair that I occasionally felt along the way has long since dissipated, leaving me with an experience that I'm glad I was able to have. Thanks to Tom, the hill-billy couple whose names I didn't catch, propane-salesman Fred, and particularly Gary who drove 20 miles out of his way to drop me off in Omaha. May karma see that you all get yours. An interesting experience then, but one I will try my best to avoid repeating.
I had time to get some decent chana masala (my first food of the day) before the show so was feeling a lot better by the time I got on stage. A band called Archaeology (from Portland) played who were pretty fun and then 'South of Lincoln' played, which is a guy called Max who sang some intriguing songs in a nicely controlled fashion. Max and I met up the next day when he interviewed and photographed me for a Nebraska music web-zine and also bought me some good Mexican food. Thanks, Max!
I spent the whole day in Omaha, which seems like a cool town, then caught the overnight train to Denver, CO. Going down to Denver makes it hard for me not to get this song in my head, which is alright with me!
I saw the sun coming up over Colorado which is beautiful and spent the whole day wandering around the town in the sunshine. I had a picnic lunch of decent bread, decent cheese and lots of salad on the grass in front of the capitol building and watched the 'Occupy Denver' protestors below me. Edible bread and cheese are hard to come by here, so I was feeling pretty contented.
The show in Denver was at a place called Mouth House, a gargantuan complex of artists, musicians and comedians, with a great positive creative vibe to it. I sat in the park opposite the house reading Kazantzakis while I waited for show-time to roll around, feeling very much like I was where I should be. The show was a blast and there were some very cool and interesting people around. The band Fiction is Fun played a rollicking, drunken set, which looked a bit like this:
I caught the bus to Grand Junction yesterday, through some of the most beautiful and dramatic countryside America has to offer. During a stop-over I took a photo of my replica picnic lunch:
Grand Junction itself is a bit of a one-horse town and the show I had wasn't much of a show at all. I played outside a cafe to 6 people who were trying to get on with the conversations I had interrupted when I started singing. I made $2.01, but I got a pretty fine sandwich and a poem from one customer who has shared my misfortune in living in Taunton (Somerset) for a time!
Today I am catching a lift up to Salt Lake City, a town I enjoyed very much last time I was there. The person driving is only going as far as Orem, a town about 35 miles south of SLC, so I may have to hitch-hike again if the public transport options are as limited as they have been elsewhere. Maybe my luck will be better this time: Mormons are friendly, right?
Alright. That's all for now. Thanks for reading and keep in touch.
Hugh
x
PS - in case anyone was marvelling at my typing speed, my session at the computer got extended by abother 15 minutes...
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