I think I have the post tour blues.
Happens every time.
Sitting in my home with Ironweed on in the background and a case of my dangerous beer in the kitchen is a welcome distraction but I always find it a bit weird decompressing after a tour. I have been with my kids for the last two days catching up, batting off their squabbles, tantrums and unintentionally profound inquisitions but generally being the spoiling father to make up for my absence. It doesn’t matter if it’s a brief jaunt or a lengthy spell, there are mainly highs, rarely lows, my family is always missed, sometimes unbearably, but with a tour there are usually equal measures of gleefully diminished responsibility, new friendships that hold fast & obsessions that develop as a result of boredom and travelling. Like collecting hideous bobbleheads from dead-end petrol stations, amassing new tattoos or using Instagram at every waking moment for no apparent reason.
This ‘BITW 2013’ mini-tour has been one of my favourites. Why?
1) Because of the company that I have been lucky to keep. Touring can be a bit like Russian Roulette in a gregarious sense. Sean, my manager, had the unfortunate short straw of driving myself, Catherine A.D. & Sophie Green from Her Name Is Calla around the country and I never once heard him bitch or moan. Apart from when we were on a loop on the one-way systems in most cities. He’s a trooper and he likes cats so that’s good enough for me.
Catherine & Sophie spearheaded the much needed female quota, stopping the car from getting too testosterone fuelled and putting up with my demented backseat driver rants at other cars, honestly it’s really easy to turn into a foul-mouthed beast on tour…wait a minute..er…but lemme tell yas these flame-haired warrior goddesses kept me in check without saying a single word.
2) Did I mention Catherine A.D. and Sophie Green? CAD is a true original and if you didn’t catch her on this tour you messed up BAD. Songs that cause heart-palpitations in the pulpit, trembling fevers and they metaphysically slit your throat but in a really beautiful way so you don’t really mind. It was a real pleasure to bring her along.
3) The vast selection of ales and IPAs on display in the many bars we frequented: Mello Mello & Parr Studios in Liverpool, Friends of Ham & the Smokestack in Leeds, The New Oxford in Salford & The Wick in Sheffield. We had a stash of Dark Heart in the car which was nice. It’s quite more-ish (I’m not trying to sell it, well sort of)
4) The beautiful venues - churches, theatres, working men’s clubs and the like. Each one had it’s own character and I really enjoyed playing some of those big pipe organs. There were a few hiccups but nothing we couldn’t deal with because…
5) ….of YOU. Thanks so much for coming to the shows and buying the merch and generally making us feel so welcome, you are the reason why I’m able to come out and play these shows, albeit not as frequently as I should or want, but I would like to extend a big hearty, hairy palm to each and every one of you. Next time you see me it’s going to be a bit different.
Mahalo.
ED xo
p.s. you can, if you so wish, leave a reply to this missive on Facebook.
p.p.s. we have some t-shirts and tour posters left. Get yours from http://edharcourt.bandcamp.com
UPCOMING LIVE DATES
June
27th Milton Keynes, Stables + Catherine A.D.
29th Glastonbury - Park Stage (Saturday afternoon)
July
4th Beck Song Reader Show - Barbican, London
13th Village Green Festival, Southend-on-Sea
19th-21st Latitude Festival (special Film & Music tent piano set)
25th-28th Womad Festival
August
30th End of the Road Festival
More dates to be announced!
