Stormcellar Band Home Page

Touring is an intensive process, for musicians it also means a period where otherwise introverted people spend a lot of time with...people.

There's a good reason they say 'what goes on tour, stays on tour'.

For my part, a cup of tea, petting the dog and looking out my window are among my favourite ways to spend this lifetime.

It's good to be back.

The 2020 tour has been an unending set of revelations, visitations, experiences and symbolic inferences that may take some time to process.

It'll take a bit.

To start though, we need to acknowledge the hands who lift us up.

STORMCELLAR ROLL OF GRATITUDE

Texas Johhny R, user of the C word, drinker of Clam beer, source of much support.

Mark & Susie 'Sparky' N. - our US Agent, Road Crew, Trouble Shooter, Road Master and Staunch Allies.

Steve 'Rockford' & Annette J, opener of doors and intel.

Gary & Carol V. who opened their home and hearts and took us to sing for God.

Art @ B, Roger @ C, Johnny K @ L, for making room at the Inn and allowing us a place to play for the spirits.

Dawayne G, Cathy and Cathy Q, Frank L, and Frank H for the focus of power into one night in Kansas City where what was done was pleasing to the spirits of the Blues

Jackie S for making us welcome in the place of naming where we danced our power dance.

I'd also like to thank Simple for his great kindness and service, the two angels at Avis who prayed with me after we had some rental car issues ;-).

To my bandmates - Theo & Carl who went above and beyond in supporting me when PTSD was kicking my butt somewhat, I say thank you from the bottom of my Harp.

Ditto to the wonderful Qantas ladies who offered Camoilie and Biscuits in a moment of need.

To Louis, Aztec Priest, thank you.

To Dr Rock, seer and sage, thank you.

To Cherie, whose teachings helped me get through, thank you.

Also on behalf of the band, thank you to Di Ford at the Sydney Blues Society.

To FiFi Scard for her prep work.

And to Steve 'CC' Jones, chronicleer, self appointed tour manager, security agent and constant source of wonder at the American Experience I say well done sir, and thank you.

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It takes a profound amount of work, planning, commitment and effort to take 7 people 25,000 miles, 10 states, 1 album and back again safely.

It continues to be my great privilege and honour to serve this community of people.

These are the things our lives are made of, the people around us, what we witness, what we do.

We do this out of choice, despite the hardship, sacrifice and effort. 

If left to my own devices, much like Bilbo Baggins, I'd merely send my thoughts adventuring, not my feet, but then I would not witness what I have witnessed, feel what I have felt, and I would be, unknowing, the lesser for it.

We stood on hallowed ground, performed for the spirits past and offered sacrifice at the crossroads.

I'd tell you the rest, but you'd never believe me.

Home now, here in the ancient land of the rainbow serpent, a place with an older, deeper power, we are returned to our own dreaming.

It is done.

Until we do it again.

Meanwhile, I have tea, the fires are out and the skies have become blue again. It is a good time to be home.

felt the first flake of snow in my hand in decades, a short rare burst in Mississippi.

We had to change our travel plans around After millage was unable to join us on the tour due to a family emergency We spent a few days in Memphis writing songs and now as I write into my phone we are sitting in Clarksdale Mississippi somewhere near the crossroads eating Mississippi tamales and recording songs.

 with some seasonal warmth I had expected things would become progressively warmer but winter has returned except for today .

Our next destinations are reporting below 0°

Yikes.

 We did our first Clarksdale show last night with things to our hosts Johnny and Naomi . 

 This has been a long tour and is Rosie said to me the other day a lot hasn’t gone to plan but a lot has gone alright .

 Walking the streets of Clarksdale at dawn writing lyrics,  I was in search of salvation . :)  some interesting songs and some very interesting experiences .

 Work continues, unfortunately we are still blogging to Facebook Can see more stuff there if you want

With great thanks to our friends at the Central Mississippi  bluesSociety , sadly, we will not be at their Monday night show tonight.

Touring aint easy :) 

ok I know I have said I don’t want to support Facebook but it’s been where we are doing the on the fly blogging. Argh.

I’m conflicted. Oh well.

a week in Memphis, the end of our IBC campaign. Big ups to our mates in the  achievers for making the semis and to Ray Beadle for making the finals.

it has definitely been an experience.

beale st is smaller than you might think, the peel st mall in Tamworth runs longer.

We have been travelling back and forth using Uber which is giving me a chance to hear the opinions of the locals about Memphis and some of those experiences wound up in a new song. 

 Getting ready for this unexpected tour took six months and otherwise we would have been recording an album by now. It seems  slightly ironic that it takes an overseas journey for us to have enough time to do the next batch of songs, or perhaps it doesn’t, perhaps that’s exactly the right way .

Looks like we will be doing a few days of recording in the coming week which I am greatly looking forward to.

Oh yeah we also added another show at the cat head in Clarksdale on Sunday the ninth.

 I am also advised by our Kansas City friends to say go Chiefs ahead of tomorrow’s Super Bowl .

I was standing outside our venue on Beale Street listening  some back-and-forth regarding the current state of US politics . 

 As guests in a foreign country we are very much neutral observers .  Nonetheless it is an inescapable element of American life at the moment and I think tumultuous times are to come .

 Monday marks the halfway point of the tour and we still have many miles to cover and many things to do .

 Our good mate Jonesey is experiencing the US for the first time and blogging like crazy on Facebook on our page and I think he’s putting an excellent perspective and plenty of pics up .

We have some work to do over the next couple of days to get the guide tracks ready ahead of the recording sessions.

 The cool air, the fresh air and lack of smoke make me think of how folks are doing it back home and I confess to a little homesickness .

 Nonetheless onwards we go.  We have other people’s stories to tell and other people stories to listen to .

We’ve been on the ground a week now, far from the heat and smoke and dust of a still suffering Sydney.

everyone we meet  has heard of the fires and they all send their regards with a collective kindness that may come as a surprise .

 Much as we see one image from the outside, the locals see Australia as on fire,  where we see nothing but impeachment talk .

In both cases there is an element of truth, it does not describe the totality. The map is not the territory.

 In the three years since we were last here things have not significantly changed .  Americans still live the 24 hour lifestyle and are too busy doing their own thing to be collectively obsessed with one subject .

 Having said that, there is a deep sense of something being out of whack, but what it is depends on your perspective .

 We try to remain good houseguests  and I grow strangely quiet when certain subjects are raised finding that it is better to listen .

 My focus is first and foremost the logistics of moving a bunch of people around in cars, taxis, Uber, planes trains and mule wagon.

In the week since we have been here, the very straightforward tasks of obtaining equipment, lodging and transport have occupied my time.

 We have been able to renew the bonds of friendship with our mates in the states, without Whom  it would be very hard indeed to do this.

I am dictating this into my phone, seated behind my cup of coffee, here on a cold Memphis morning while the sound of trains honking their horns comes in from the nearby tracks.

 We do our first show tonight as part of the international blues challenge and I will admit to feeling the excitement that comes with walking such hallowed ground. 

Even in this age of the removal of privacy, there are some elements of organising a tour, the ups and downs, starts and stops, that I leave for a future time. It is fair to say the calling this the minor miracle tour  is apt .

Last night we ate our first meal together in Memphis and spent time reviewing our set lists,  making sure our equipment is in order and getting ready to represent .

 We still have much ahead of us and I need another cup of coffee .

 Seven days in, my thoughts are still of home  shrouded under dark skies and heat, as I look in wonder at the blue skies of Texas and Memphis and the relief of a soft winter.