The Patience of Trees – On the Road

The Green Room, Lizard Lounge – Photo by Anthony Mulcahy/Mulography.

 

Rockaway, Sunday June 4th

 

I got back to the hotel Thursday night, drank a case of Champagne, snorted a load of coke and threw the TV in the swimming pool.

No? No.

Thursday night, I got back to the hotel and worked for hours on a very short email to send out to my mailing list. I hummed and hawed over commas and tone, and got to bed about 2.30am.

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We’d just played the first full band of ‘The Patience of Trees’ tour at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Massachusetts is a hard word to spell. E.W. Harris met me in Rockaway and we car pooled up to Boston together. If you ever get time to take road trip with this man, make it happen. The air conditioning in my car does this charming trick of breaking when you’re travelling below 65 miles an hour and its hot out.  I do this charming trick of accidentally adjusting both windows and not just mine. Nearly severing E.W.’s  arm on more than one occasion.

I’d booked us in at Hampton Inn, in Sturbridge, MA about an hour out of Cambridge. We picked guitar player Chris Foley up there and met Len and Brandon at the venue. I’d been dreading looking for parking in Cambridge, miraculously we found it right out front.

The sound engineer Renee was ready for us on arrival, she was phenomenal and soundcheck felt really good. The staff, Stevie, Nikka and Autumn were all very welcoming and friendly. Our friend Anthony Mulcahy came along and took some great photos in the green room before the gig.

 

Kevin Connolly and his friend Scotty opened the night. I love Kevin’s songwriting. He began his set by saying ‘The Patience of Trees’ was one of the best albums he’d heard in the past five years. I didn’t even have to pay him to say this. Or at least I haven’t gotten the bill yet.

 

A woman named Sarah brought me a really cool ‘It’s a beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutiful life’ T- shirt.

A man named Dermot came. My father taught him in my father’s first year teaching at Farranferris. Colin Campbell, Isaac, Ed, so many friends. Thank you for coming.

The gig was a great.  Myself on acoustic and guitar, Len on vocals, drums, keys, Brandon on bass and vocals, Chris on electric guitar and E.W.  on various keys and synths.  Kevin joined us on harmonies for ‘Out the Light’

 

In the morning E.W.  suggested we stop at either Mark Twain House or the Dinosaur State Park. We went and looked at some impressive dinosaur footprints and I felt the freedom of our relative insignificance.  Until I got back in the car and resumed my hostile negotiation with the air conditioning dial on the 14 year old Honda Civic. Traffic was okay/bad/not terrible and okay again on the way back to NYC. Once more, we lucked out and found parking relatively nearby on Essex street.

Doors coincided with a thunder storm. Naturally / supernaturally. Sure listen, what can you do…

Our friend May Cheung opened for us. May is great and she also joined us on ‘Out the Light’. Big shout out to Alex at Rockwood for another majestic job on sound. We played a slightly shorter set at Rockwood than Lizard. Warren Malone joined us on mandolin on ‘ Maybe Next Year’ and vocals on ‘ Brooklyn Sky’. Some friends and neighbours came in from Rockaway. Loads of Big City Folk friends and people I’ve met through music in recent years braved the storm. I felt really good about both gigs. Thanks so much to all who made it out.

I felt completely drained and utterly hungover all day Saturday. Despite the fact it’s been just shy of three years since I had a drink. It would seem I did give these gigs my all. Though perhaps the lack of air conditioning in the car contributed too. Either way, I’m fully recharged again.

 

 

Monday’s gig in DC has been postponed/ cancelled for now. This was not my decision and is nobody’s fault. Still, I’m disappointed and apologise for any inconvenience it may cause. I do hope all who need to know it’s cancelled get the message in time. I look forward to coming back another time.

Loads more gigs coming up including Woodstock with band Saturday June 10th and a solo trip to Denver, where I’ll play with my old friend David Rynhart on Friday June 16th.

Thanks for listening to the new album. Please continue to share it with your friends and enemies alike. Stream it on all your devices with all the windows open. Click all those follow, save, like, share, share, buttons. The algorithm’s gonna get you. Hopefully.

Algorithm’s a very hard word to spell.

My wonderful friend Thomas Deneuville designed my website and has set up a very helpful album link on the music page of the site. Thank you Thomas.

 

Thanks for reading, thanks for listening,

Niall

 

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