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2010-10-23: The Road to Florence

Steve Wynn in Milan

There are nine people in this particular tour of the Songs With Other Strangers band and another four people on the crew. I've never toured in an entourage of this size. And that presents several challenges. For one thing there is learning the names (had that down before the tour), histories, music, conversational rhythms and on-stage quirks of each person. But on a more simple and fundamental daily level, there is the challenge to figure out who exactly is in the van, where they are sitting and who just might be missing, a task made even more daunting on a day like today where the journey (six hours) outnumbers the hours of sleep that I had last night (four). If we stopped for a panini and espresso break and one person was left behind, you might not even know until you were well down the autostrade.

But the greatest challenge when it comes to the task at hand, this very diary, is to allow you to have the chance to get to know everyone. I mean, I have had most of each 24-hour day cycle with these talented, funny, kind people in the last week whereas you've only had the 3 minutes it takes to read each of these entries, scanning the words while drinking coffee, monitoring entertainment gossip, watching sports scores (don't talk to me about the Yankees) and losing your shirt at online poker. So, let's take a look at the Rolling Variety Show that is Songs With Other Strangers.

In alphabetical order:

  • MANUEL AGNELLI - the singer and founder of After Hours. I got to know him when our two bands played a show together in Brooklyn last year and we all had a few great, late nights of billiards and conversation. On this tour he's playing keyboards, guitar and percussion and when he begins the two After Hours songs that we are playing on this tour the crowd goes wild. His band is well loved and having seen them live a few times I can see why. He and I share an enthusiasm for good food and he was my guide through the various courses at that monumental meal in Milan two nights ago. He just came back from playing Shanghai. I hope he had a good food guide over there.
  • CESARE BASILE - a leading light of the independent music scene of Italy. He has toured and played with Robert Fisher of Willard Grant Conspiracy, which led to Robert playing with Rodrigo D'Erasmo which led to ME playing with Rodrigo. See how these things connect? Rodrigo played some of Cesare's music for me on our tour together and I dug it mightily so I was looking forward to playing with him. I have not been disappointed, his fractured folk punk blues gospel melancholy tunes leave much room for squonk and squalor from my Jazzmaster. He's been a good late night drinking buddy. Cesare plays guitar and drums, though not at the same time.
  • RODRIGO D'ERASMO - You all know Rodrigo from the Dragon Bridge Orchestra, the band I assembled for my "Crossing Dragon Bridge" tour back in 2008. What can I say about Rodrigo that I didn't say back then? He blows my mind on a nightly basis. He's not only a stunning violin and viola player but he also is an uncanny improviser and I have enjoyed tossing songs from my back catalog that he had never heard before at him at shows only to have him come up with THE essential part on the spot, making me wish I could take said song back into the studio for a quick re-recording. This is certainly not the last time we'll tour together. And he guests on the upcoming Baseball Project CD, giving the proper Italian opera flair to "Tony (Boston's Chosen Son)," a song about Tony Conigliaro. He tells a good tale and has many to tell.
  • STEF CAMIL KARLENS - Stef lives in Antwerp, was a founding member of Deus and now is with Zita Swoon, two of the best known bands in the last few decades of Belgium's music scene. He told me that he doesn't think in terms of new albums but rather in new productions and stage shows from which the CDs will naturally follow. Working with him live, I can see how that would make sense. He has a great flair for dramatic stage flair, exciting and provocative arrangement ideas and has given me some of the best jaw-dropping moments on stage (his mastery of beer tray percussion in Ravenna comes to mind). His inspired singing with me on the third verse of "Manhattan Fault Line" each night makes me feel like we are a bizarre world Simon and Garfunkel. I wonder which one of us is Art. Aside from beer tray, Stef plays guitar and keyboards and his version of PJ Harvey's "Is This Love" is a nightly show-stopper.
  • MARTA COLLICA - Besides making her own solo records, Marta has also played in touring bands with both Hugo Race and John Parish (see below in this alphabetical cast of characters - always a method that leaves me at the bottom, save for collaborations with Dweezil Zappa). Like Cesare, she is a native Sicilian but she currently lives in Berlin. She plays keyboards and guitar and her song "Anger" has been stuck in my head most hours that I'm not on stage. I just wish I could remember the chords so I could get up and play it one night before this tour is over.
  • JOHN PARISH - You very likely have John in your record collection. He has been a collaborator of Polly Jean Harvey both in PJ Harvey and also the duo records they have made together. Amazing stuff. He also has produced many records including "Chore of Enchantment," one of my favorite Giant Sand discs. We met briefly before at the Strade Blu festival here in Italy and I had looked forward to knowing him better on this tour. He alternates with Cesare on guitar and drums on this tour, his "Baby's Coming" opens the show, was written for this tour and knocks me out every night, striking me as something Lou Reed might have written for the early 70s Beach Boys had they been produced by Phil Spector. He gave me a taste of some very find Scotch whiskey last night and gave me a short wine tasting lesson. He is a gentleman.
  • GEORGIA POLI - Georgia holds down the low end on this tour and has been the touring bassist with Hugo and John over the years. She also provides just the right vocal elegance for "Manhattan Fault Line" as well as the daunting muscular hypnotic tension for "Resolution" which means that she can cover some serious ground. She wears yellow on stage, setting her apart from the rest of her clad-in-black bandmates like an apparition sent down to groove the devil's music.
  • HUGO RACE - Hugo's had quite the musical history, is a fine singer and songwriter and has been in some mighty fine collaborations from Nick Cave to, most recently, Dirt Music, the band he shares with my old pals Chris Eckman and Chris Brokaw. In other words, I have now toured with every member of Dirt Music. (Do you have their last album "BKO?" You should.). His dark, foreboding, "Midas Touch" is a blast to play and allows me the chance to summon my inner Hubert Sumlin each night. We have shared some good road stories as well as a late night discussion about whether Leonard Cohen was serious or ironic when he wrote "Democracy" 20 years ago. Hugo is from Melbourne and has a very a very elegant accent to go with a devilish and mischievous demeanor.

So, there you go. And then there's our crew and management team (ciao Roberta, Marco, Davide and Cecca) but that will have to wait for the next time we do this again (and I hope that I'm invited for another go-round at some point down the line). As you can see, the numbers and varieties of personas allows for variety and depth not only on stage but off as well. I just hope we don't leave anyone at the next rest stop. It's rough when the head count is greater than the nightly hours of sleep.

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