So I try to drive all night to Philly, but don’t quite make it. I’m fading by 2am so I stop at a rest area for a break, but am even more drowsy on my drive to the next one. So we crash for a couple hours, then drive all day to Manyunk, arriving around 5pm. We stopped for some food, then ran into my friend Jesse, the super-drummer, on the street corner in front of the frozen yogurt place. It was like we old times; like we had only seen each other a week ago. Between him, his parents, my wife’s uncle, some random ladies I recruited to the show from the fro-yo place, and the bar patrons and musicians, EKG+Hannah played in front of an large and gracious bunch at the Grape Room. I had a lot of fun, and was uber-proud of us for playing 9 songs in 40 minutes.

Embarrasing story: So after the show we drive just past Trenton to stay at Jesse’s parents’ house in New Jersey, which I have been to dozens of times. I drive into the subdivison, parked around the bend I remember in front of his house. Jesse texts me: “Back door is unlocked.” I walk the band to the back of the house and think to myself, “Wow when did they get a pool?” The back sliding glass door to the basement is locked. Hmm. I tell the band to hold on while I go to the front of the house. I walk up the curved sidewalk I remember, and look through the glass next to the front door. I am about to text Jesse when I see a silhouette at the top of the staircase landing, inside his house. I wave my bright phone in front of the glass. Someone comes to the door nd the porch light flicks on. A strange blonde lady opens the front door a crack: “Can I help you?” I now see the person at the top of the landing is a brown-haired lady in pajamas holding a baseball bat. I immediately apologize and tell her the address I’m looking for. Its right around the next corner; this house is nearly identical in layout and placement on the adjacent corner! I walk to the backyard where some have removed shoes, and sit with legs dipped in the pool. “Totally the wrong house. Let’s go.”

Tuesday July 12

Today we get to relax in Jesse’s hot tub for a bit. Awesome! The show at The Red Lion in New York City  tonight is fun. My other friend Jesse, (who is from the town I grew up in, but just moved to NYC) brings his steel drum and sits in on a few tunes. Within 30 minutes of the end of our set, Hannah gets a phone call from some show attendees, who want her to sing on a project of theirs. The band and friends walk around the NYU Campus to find food. The guys want some pizza since its their first time in NYC. I wander a few more blocks for some awesome pad thai from a place called Beyond, right by the legendary Blue Note. Walking back while scarfing a bowl full of noodles, I find the guys where I left them, and the girls across the street in a store that sells body jewelry. Okay back to Jersey.

Wednesday July 13

The band has the day off. We all drive back up to NYC and I accompany Hannah to her business meeting with the potential producer who attended last night’s performance. Looking on Foursquare, and see that Def Jam in in the building across the street from our meeting. Afterwards, we get some Chinese food on Avenue of the America’s. On the way to the car, in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen, we walk right past a Jermaine Clement chatting on his cell; the girls don’t recognize, so I turn around for a double take to catch him turning around for a glimpse at the two girls walking away from him. Trying to get out of NYC at afternoon rush-hour is interesting; the weather erupts something fierce and it rains sideways like a tornado is going through the city. We are laughing at the UPS truck guy yelling at a box truck driver who is blocking the intersection by trying to squeeze through the last yellow. Such harsh cusses sound too funny in a thick east coast accent, which the band seems to uncontrollably mimic until we are west of Jersey. Back at Jesse’s we hop in the Jacuzzi one last time. Jesse and I reminisce and tell tall tales to the young band members about being on the road with The Greenscene.

Thursday July 14

I wake up early and walk to the deli up the road for some bagels, tuna salad and a Stewart’s soda. The band hits the road to Williamsport, PA to play at Bullfrog Brewery, one of my favorite craft breweries anywhere. My stomach is a little out of sorts, but we eat some great food, and I set up the PA system, just in time to play of course. The crowd is small but energetic, and we feed off that. The band is tight. My stomach ache has disappeared. I’m electrified and over-emotional during my own songs, like I’ve never really felt the words I’ve been singing, before tonight. After hours, I fill a few growlers, and we crash upstairs in the owners loft.

Friday July 15th

I am pleasantly awakened by the owners new baby, Cypress, who rivals my son’s level of cute-ocity. The band walks to eat breakfast together, and we leave Williamsport around noon. Anthony drives us all the way home to Milwaukee safely, but not before the delirium from being in a car all day sets in.

Saturday July 16th

Hannah’s parents arrive in Milwaukee on the ferry today to catch tonight’s homecoming, headlining show at Bastille Days Festival. We have a nice meal at Charro before we play, and chat about all the good times and all kinds of post-tour plans. So many good friends come out to see the razor sharp band. Sean “The Situation” Williamson joins EKG and Hannah tonight on lead guitar and lap steel. Our show is great, but I am already sad while on stage, singing my life stories on the mic in front of everyone tonight. If they could only see on the inside how I need this every single day. I love being in the moment, playing for today, but I also love remembering yesterday, and love how that keeps me driving towards the future. The whole entourage heads to Ma Fisher’s diner for one final aftershow meal with the group.

Total Miles: 4500+

Shows/Venues played: 17

Top Five Foodstuffs:

5. Fresh picked strawberries

4. Cherry Salsa

3. Smoked Salmon and Wheat Thins

2. Sweet Pea Hummus

1. Mama Beale’s Quiche

Five Favorite Beverages:

5. EK Cooler

4. Apple Ale (New Glarus)

3. Biere De Mars (Jolly Pumpkin)

2. Cask Aged Farhouse Hatter (New Holland)

1. French Saison Farm Ale (Bullfrog Brewery)

Top Ten Performances:

10. Bay View Barbecue (Frankfort, MI)

9. The Cornerstone (Galena, IL)

8. The Union (Kalamazoo, MI)

7. Bullfrog Brewery (Williamsport, PA)

6. St. James Church (Franklin, WI)

5. The Grotto (Sheboygan, WI)

4. The Grape Room (Philadelphia, PA)

3. Bastille Days (Milwaukee, WI)

2. July 4th Fireworks (Frankfort, MI)

1. Concerts on the Square (Wausau, WI)

Lowlights:

5. Going around the block like 40 times, even getting pulled over, just trying to find the entrance to Lincoln Tunnel to get out of NYC.

4. Not getting a phone call from a potential producer 20 minutes after rocking out.

3. One horrible hangover.

2. Feeling time crunch all the time.

1. When its over, the fear of possibly never getting to have that much fun on a tour again.

Highlights:

Constantly awesome weather.

Biggest crowds ever performed for ever.

Not losing money when you take a full band on the road.

Incredible hospitality; not one dollar spent on lodging.

Having chemistry with awesome young musicians and feeling tight-knit; intertwined.

Everyone getting to stop at home and see family during tour.

Native American nicknames earned:

Dillon Treacy – “Strips All Places” (for his willingness to remove clothing, anywhere at any time)

Sam Gerkhe – “Saunters to Get That” (for the way he asks for something, and his leisurely gait)

Anthony Deutsch – “Angered by Signs” (for the way a peaceful man is set off by advertisements and bumper stickers)

Ethan Keller – “Man-Child” (for being a geezer, yet not quite grown up)

Wed July 6th

We crash at my friends house after the show in Kalamazoo. My friends play in the band Funktion. Hannah stays elsewhere but comes over this morning just in time to see me walk out and grab a parking ticket off my windshield; it’s like 8:14 and the restriction started at 8am. Great.

We drive all day straight to downtown Wausau, WI, where a brand new outdoor amphitheater has just been finished on the town square. We are the third band ever to play on it. During the set, a plump boy comes to the front of the stage, and for about 4 minutes repeatedly yells, “Rock out! Rock out! C’mon! Rock Harder! Crank it!” At this moment I’m reminded of when Dylan told the band to “PLAY F*#%ING LOUD!” There is an interesting slapback effect as the sound bounces off of the historic buildings. Wow! We play for around 2500 people! The weather is perfect! I rock out for the kid after his mother finally collects him We make many new lovely friends. We crash out at my lovely old friend’s house.

Thursday July 7
Today it seems like the others: we drive all day straight to the gig with just enough time to set up and play, although today I have to stop home and grab my PA system. We play in the basement of my church. Frankly, its what one might expect: a cold dining hall with that soul sucking flourescent lighting, but surely it is filled with the warmest souls. They are also recklessly generous at the merchandise table, which is humbling.  We chat with my family and some parishoners after the show over some ice cream concessions. We have the rest of the night free, so the band splits up, but each us go to Summerfest to see different bands! I take Hannah and Melissa to see G. Love at Harley Davidson stage, and of course Katy Perry at Marcus Amphitheater.

I come home to all the Funktion guys crashed on my couch, futon, and floor. They played all day today in the heat; their first Summerfest gig.

Friday July 8
Today my Twitter acount is hacked. I find out on my drive to our first gig; we have two today. Right before the first show at Freeport Music, Hannah let’s me use her laptop to log in and change my password, but the hijacker already sent out the max quota of spam messages (300) from my account today, so I can’t even reply to everyone who told me I got hacked.

Keyboardist Anthony is from this town, and we ate some graduation party cakes that his family brought to the concert. Our set opening for Zoe Muth at the bandshell in Port Washington is quick, but fun.  Afterwards, I get the most angry the whole tour. I yell at a sound guy who pulls on a drum mic cord, lifts a leg of my guitar stand, tips my Gibson ES-135 over, and puts a little niche in my headstock.

We race to the next gig at The Grotto in Sheboygan and set up right quick. Mary and Topher own the coolest sushi and wine bar; it also has a full size pizza and bread oven. The whole crew eats some delicious maki and then we commence it.

Tonight is one of my favorite shows on tour, because of the Zen quality of it. Hannah, as she often does, literally silences and mesmerizes the crowd with a new song that she plays acoustic; tonight the song is “Take Your Time.” Later, EKG cuts loose on an amazing and far out extended jam at the end of “Move on to Better Things,” but of course, the transcendent fiasco only plays out after the videographer presses PAUSE (see the laws of quantum mechanics where things behave differently when observed). After the show Topher makes us a few pies. Perfect.

Saturday July 9
The caravan drives to Galena, IL to play at The Cornerstone. We arrive just in time to be late. It is my bad. The venue owner is not mad, he just wants to bust my balls about it the whole night. Tonight this town is raucous. Several bachelorette party chicks want to pounce on Dillon. People are doing a lot of drinking and dancing. The bar does well and we get a bonus. Awesome! We have no place to stay, so, outside on the sidewalk we meet some new friends who live four doors down from the venue. Sweet! We all have a big slumber party in this spacious living room; staying up late and gabbing each other to sleep.

Sunday July 10
This morning we have a righteous breakfast at a superb restaurant called Otto’s Place. I scarf the most scrumptious biscuits and gravy ever. We jet, driving past Ulysses S. Grant’s home on the other side of the river, on our way out of Galena. Its a hilly, scenic drive just east of town, as northwestern Illinois is part of the “driftless area” (a spot in the midwest unscoured by the previous glacial advance). This moment is one of the most tranquil of the whole tour. I’m just a passenger in the backseat, enjoying the view, and soaking in some Jimi Hendrix songs from Dillon’s ipod that I haven’t heard in years. These young folks I play with help remind me why I and countless others try and play music. We so are moved by soulful tones, that we feel irresistable motivation to create something as emotionally potent. Subdued and in awe of its power, we fall helplessly, hopelessly in love with it, and hunger for it always. We become addicted, and are stirred into an obsession with our one true fix. Music becomes our native language.

We arrive in Chicago, and stop at Andy’s music. I immediately begin a love affair with a certain hammer dulcimer. We meet my friend Bill for dinner then head to play our shortest set of the tour at a place in Bucktown. We then embark on our longest single-day journey of the tour; an overnight drive to Philadelphia for a show the next evening.

I was too slow and indecisive in packing, and was a little late to the park and ride and of course I have to reload the van like a tetris genius because Dillon, Sam and Anthony bring huge airline luggage cases, and 5 bags of food and a dozen other things for this 17-day tour. I have a backpack.

We get to Grand Rapids and load into the venue. One Trick Pony makes a perfect hamburger. Hannah and I talk business and advance the band some per diem cash. Then we wander the downtown for a minute, window shop, and stumble upon a weird restaurant/bar with an old school arcade. I light up like a Christmas tree and play me some Gradius and original Mario Brothers. Some of the dang machines eat about 4 of my quarters. Psshhhh!

We bounce back to our gig. We meet Melissa the videographer and merchandise girl about to accompany the band on the road. We perform for many of Hannah’s friends and family members. My guitar amplifier is channeling a televangelism radio program and is like a 6th band member; a murmuring background vocalist whose message only gets to shine in between songs if you listen real hard.

Afterwards, I finally meet Hannah’s brother, Charles, an actor and filmmaker. Some guy tells me I look like Harry Potter. Thanks! Wait a sec… Ouch! Oh well, if I even had an ego it might have been bruised. We load up in the rain.

We stay at some friends of the Beale Family in lovely East Grand Rapids, and watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The 80′s hitmaker Joe Jackson is musical guest (I love the song “Steppin Out“). I try to get Questlove to reply to a tweet. He seems to reply to every shmo but me. Maybe he just jealous of that my drummer’s afro is cooler. I enjoy a New Glarus Apple Ale. Bedtime.

Fri July 1
Hannah comes over for breakfast, (she and Melissa crashed elsewhere), and we upload some emails to our mailing list databases. Then we play Apples to Apples and a scrabble type game with the band while listening to some CD’s from my car, like Soulive and Raashan Ahmad.

We jet to Holland, Michigan and mess around in RIT Music. I’m drooling on a certain Telecaster. Hannah buys a green egg shaker. Next door, we eat at the venue, then walk around town a bit and take some silly band photos with a bronzed band. On the way back we stop at Kilwin’s, and they name a beverage after me. It is a huge ordeal because the lowy humble sever has to get permission from superiors to actually combine the ingredients I request: Fresh squeezed limeade, lemon sorbet, and sprite.

The band sets up. I guess as usual in these parts, my guitar pedals cause my amp to broadcast radio signal, this time a sports network is loud and clear through my Fender Deville 2×12 so I have to play without effects, but our show at New Holland Brewery rocks nevertheless. I fill a growler of a cask aged Mad Hatter (about 10% ABV), with a prediction that it won’t last 24 hours.

Sat July 2
Its 1 am and we drive 3 hours from Holland to Hannah’s house in Frankfort. We arrive and its getting light out so the delirous band stays up and talks.

I stay awake, watch the sun rise, walk to the lake, walk in the woods, too buggy, walk back. I raid The Beales garden and begin chopping and slicing and preparing breakfast for the extended family. I make some mean fried green tomatoes my first try ever. Crash after breakfast.

Wake with a headache. Take a long shower. Ill for two hours. Oh man I have to play in the sweltering afternoon sun at The Bayview Barbecue in about an hour. I am totally exhausted and out of sorts. We set up and play. A few of my vocal acrobatics fail early on, but today the band clicks and we sink into a groove and deliver our first great performance of the tour. There is a carnival in Frankfort and during our set an 80-year old woman gracefully ascends, then sways back and forth atop a 100-foot pole. The carousel and tilt-a-whirl spin. The neon lights flash. The band members ride the Gravitron.

Laura and Emory arrive in Frankfort after the show, (thanks to a friend who brings them up) after their ride from Manitowoc to Ludington, on the last steam ferry on the Great Lakes, the S.S. Badger. Back at the Beales, we roast some marshmallows for smores around the campfire, and I give an amateur astronomy lesson. Then we go to bed.

Sun July 3
Laura and Emory and I attend mass in Frankfort in the morning. The Beales neighbors loan the band their kayaks for an afternoon expedition on upper and lower Herring lakes, minus Sam, who was recovering from a disconcerting Gravitron ride. For four hours Dillon, Anthony and I kayak across, and halfway around upper, then through the long narrow winding channel to lower, but turn around right before entering it, because of a lack of desire to leave our kayaks and portage over a pier! We talk about religion and philosophy the entire time, and a dragonfly tags along for the ride, perched still on my hat. We paddle back upstream, back into upper, and drive the mule (golf cart) back from the lake lot.

We get to the show, set up, and Emory gets to check the mic! Our show at the Cabbage Shed is hot, meaning sweltering! Its our second show here; the first was two weekends ago after EKG accopmanied Hannah at Elberta Solstice Fest. The venue and audience are both quite hospitable to the band. Tonight Anthony gets to play a great sounding baby grand piano for the show.

Mon July 4
There’s a parade in Frankfort today, and Chuck and Abby Beale are helping with a float in it, as part of Citizens for Responsible Wind. Laura, Emory and I cruise up the Leelanau penninsula, but only make it to Empire before having to return for a 6pm load in. I get some great smoked salmon from a shop in Frankfort, and back at the Beales the band consumes it all during an acoustic practice session on the porch. Tonight we are playing out on the pier, right before the Independence Day fireworks.

We arrive at the beach at the designated early hour of 5pm, but the fireworks guys are still setting up on the lighthouse pier, which we are supposed to play on, so we have to wait. Ok dinnerime; we order at Fusion fast, and I run back 5 blocks to check if they’re ready. Nope. Run back. Eat sushi with Chuck, the band, and my wife and son. 6pm. We all jet back to the beach/pier. Yapping at sound guy. Okay 7pm. Fireworks truck still on the pier needing to exit before we load on. Finally at 7.40 (the band is supposed to play at 8), I get to scarily back down the narrow lighthouse pier in my minivan with a missing passenger sidewiew mirror.

It seems harder to judge, since we are pretty far from the beach, maybe 300-500 yards out on the concrete pier, but we play, with Lake Michigan inches to our left and right and the sun setting beside us, to a crowd perhaps of 5000 plus on an expansive beach in front of us. It is one of the most visually beautiful shows I’ve ever played.

Tues July 5
I sadly have to drive Laura and Emory to the Ludington ferry this morning. After that goodbye made me blue, I stopped at lovely little bakery called McDonald’s, run bye a sweet old couple married for years. The wife made inquiries; I tell her about our tour and she wound up wanting to purchase cd’s from both Hannah and me. I’m impressed by the quality of the long john, filled uber-generously with custard. I also bought a coffee cake to bring back for the band and the Beales.

We pack up and leave the Beale fortress; our last show in Michigan is tonight in Kalamazoo. Before we head south, I take the band up north and show them the pristine beach in Glen Haven, the dune climb at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore near Glen Arbor, and historic fishtown in Leland. Then we head east through Lake Leelanau and come down through Suttons Bay to Traverse City, where I’m obliged to stop and fill empty growlers with hard cherry cider at Cherry Republic.

We arrive at The Union in Kalamazoo and the venue is gorgeous. Hannah opens the show acoustic by herself, and I’m front and center. Then the band takes the stage and proceeds to rock out under the hot colored floodlights. For an encore, we debut James Brown’s “She’s the one,” for a birthday girl.

During loadout, we hear sirens, louder and louder. We see a dark SUV drive through the intersection, followed by, yes, count them, twenty-seven squads! After the din and flashing lights subside, a lonely bike cop pedals our way. I suspect his envy of the motorized cops in chase. He tells us about a bank robbery but withholds further details, as it seems his only way to feel authoritative right then.

Never get busted by a bike cop: you gotta ride to jail on the handlebars.

I realize that today is the best day of my life.

I wake up. Emory wakes up. He smiles wide and his eyes light up. I make him brekkist.

I listen to Greenscene Don’t 4 get 2 get d0wn and Random Acts and remanisce and feel 18 years old again. I hop in the shower, then drive downtown to the Milwaukee Public Market for flowers. As always, I serendipitously run into Rabbi Bradley; he’s walking down Wells St. right where I park. I arrange to buy flowers from him later. I ride the elevator to surprise my wife with gifts and myself. Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary. She smiles wide and her eyes light up as she blushes. She kisses me.

The talented and soulful Hannah Rae Beale and I go to lunch to chat with a friend of mine who could help some of our dreams manifest sooner than later. We cruise down Lake drive, through Whitefish Bay and Shorewood and look at the mansions, villas, and chateaus adjacent to Lake Michigan’s gorgeous shore. We stop at Roast near UW Milwaukee to grab some iced chai. We go home and play and talk about music before she has to leave on the Lake Express high-speed ferry.

I go to Riviera Maya in Bayview for anniversary dinner. The rabbi shows up, and I buy the daisies he promised me and give them to my wife, who blushes again. I buy and eat key lime pie ice cream from Babe’s on Kinnickinnic Ave. We drive to Humboldt Park for Chill on the Hill and watch Emory run around and dance to my friends’ band, The Urbanites. We go home to relax.

I go to the Jazz Estate to catch The Erotic Adventures of the Static Chicken. They are so explosive I can’t stop yelling, and I turn on my voice recorder 3 times to attempt to capture some of the breathtaking moments. On their way out, someone says goodbye to me and I begin to explain all the love being showered on me lately, and it hits me and I say out loud: “I realize right NOW that this is the best day of my life!”

So far, so good.
But the day isn’t over…
It gets better…

I succumb to a late night snack on the way home. I get home and it begins to thunderstorm and I want to go play in it. So I strip to my boxers, and go out my back door to my backyard to play in the rain. I come back in and a lightning crack startles my son awake. I hold him close and rock him back and forth, back and forth, until he falls asleep in my wet arms.

I’m playing a new song called “Bounty in my Arms” on this co-headlining tour with Hannah Rae Beale. The first part of the song to emerge from the conference with my muse was the bridge, and it goes: “…All these gifts I’ve been blessed with…they can’t be wrong… I’ve got to hold on…” Indeed, although there have been fundamental planning problems, last minute issues, and daily snafus, sometimes “it feels like gold must run in my veins,” and I’m “carrying a heavy burden.”

It reminds me of the old Sesame Street skit where the large-moustached baker emerges triumphantly out of the kitchen balancing 12 pies on his person; at the last second he slips and falls on the floor in a tempest of white cream, then sits, sobbing, lamenting the demise of his immaculate pies.

I’m blessed to have met Hannah, Dillon, Anthony, and Sam; some of the most inspiring musicians I’ve seen and heard in years, and they are each only 18 years old. I’m lucky to get to go on tour with a full band again, not to mention a band that gels and becomes razor sharp. I was lucky to have my wife and son spend three days with me over Independence Day in beautiful northern Michigan, and visit them again in Milwaukee, mid-tour. I’m blessed to have played to the largest crowds I’ve ever played in front of on this jaunt. And the generosity of venues, patrons and friends has been beyond measure.

Even though I have a certain amount of faith, this constant shower of gifts sometimes leaves me wondering who to thank.

If you are reading this, thank YOU!

Ethan Keller Group and Hannah Rae Beale at Freeport Music – Port Washington, WI (7.8.11)

EKG and Hannah Rae Beale play for 2000+ crowd at Wausau Concerts on the Square (7.6.11). We were one of the first acts to play on their superb new stage!

Ethan Keller Group and Hannah Rae Beale play on the lighthouse pier in Hannah’s hometown of Frankfort, MI. Probably the biggest crowd I’ve personally ever played in front of (6000+). Happy Fourth of July!

Goofin around with the band on the lovely picturesque streets of Holland

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