SXSW TOUR: Part 3 of 3...The Famous Game, Duggan's Cove, and the Long Journey Home

1600 miles away from playgrounds where neither of us had spent any of our days, we had finally arrived in Austin, TX. Our gracious host, Duggan Flanakin, was there to greet us. Duggan is a Boston transplant, and Austin lifer, whose passion for supporting up and coming artists is unparalled. We quickly learned we'd be staying in a cove of artistic collaboration; reminiscint of a Woodstock, west village dive or Blue Bird Cafe springboard for talent from all over the country. By day and early evening, we were a mechanized, local tour de force, hauling our gear and ourselves all over Austin to places like the Waterloo Ice House, House Wine, and Giddy Ups. The picture you see is from a "Philly Showcase" hosted by Milkboy at club 1808. Look closely, and you'll see the flyer accompanied by "Sly", minutes after his epic showdown with, "the champ", Apollo Creed. Thank you, Austin, for reminding us Phildelphians that our most famous athlete does not exist. We embrace this whole heartedly.

By night, we roamed the mad house that was 6th street; an endless sea of bars, clubs, live music and beligerent youth. Of all of the accomplishments of our tour, I am most proud of what happened next. 

Seeing this as golden opportunity to prank tourists, I decided that one of us from our group would pretend to be famous. Left alone to look jaded and unamused, "fans" one and two would approach and say something like, 

"Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but are you Dan Orlando?"

"Yes I am"

"Man, we came all the way from Philly to see you...would you mind if my friend and I got a picture with you"

"Not at all, thanks for the support..."

(Snap...flash...buzz from curious onlookers)

"I'm sorry Dan, one more, your eyes were closed"

(Buzz begins to intensify)

"Thanks so much"

"No problem, guys, enjoy the rest of the festival"

One of our subjects was asked if he minded getting recognized by two lovely ladies. To which he rambled on about building connections with fans, and reminiscing about his days as an up and comer meeting his idols for the first time. He must sealed have the deal with his humility, because we didn't see him for the rest of the tour. Said equation ends by multipying by 12, accounting for alcohol (X) and a margin of error for lack of charisma (Y) and you get a pisser of a social experiment. 

By tour's end, we are all exhausted but prepped for the 36 hour drive back to Philly. Most of this is a haze, though I do remember Thee Idea Men and Katie Frank passing out CD's to a Christian Youth Tour Bus. My guess is the only "Blues Rock" and "Americana" those kids had heard of before were sites of miracles and a secret mistress of Moses. 

So, that was our tour in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed the recap. Don't forget, single release party at the Kennett Flash June 1st! Click here for tickets.

SXSW TOUR: Part 2 of 3

Shout out to Will Lindsay, our tour manager.

We rolled into Nashville on March 11th, road weary but excited for our gig at the National Underground. Our audience was comprised mostly of onlookers that strolled in to hear us. The room went from dead to electric, an atmospheric phenomenon I always enjoy. Having completed our touring responsibilities for the night, we strolled onto Broadway and wandered in and out of Honky Tonks, perpetually amazed at the level of musicianship from what were supposed to be bar bands! Lesson learned. There are no average, working guitarists in Nashville. Don't believe me? Go. You'll have a great time.

The next day, we played one of my favorite sets of the tour; a day time gig at Boulevard Music. It was a chance for us to shoot some video in front of a surprised, enthusiastic crowd. Check out the highlights!: 

After a radio interview at Vanderbilt University and a visit to Jack White's "Third Man Records", it was off to Austin. A long haul in which we discovered that, and I did not know this, no one lives in Arkansas. "Ark" is an ancient prefix meaning "non", thus, "non" Kansas looks exactly how it sounds.

Also, the Texans that we met rarely drive east to west. While stopped at a gas station, we asked around how much longer it was to Austin, and the answers ranged anywhere from two to six hours. To be fair, they could've meant by tractor. 

Late into the night, after I inadvertely let our British GPS take us the conquistador route, we arrived at our host Duggan Flannagan's house. Duggan has lived in Austin for several years, and is a great booster of local or undiscovered talent. The room was like a scene out of woodstock documentary. Dozens of artists flocked in and out, jammming, socializing, preparing for their sets, or trying their best to get some semblance of a good nights' sleep. 

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!

SXSW Tour: Part 1 of 3

I'm back from the road and ready to spill the goods!

Here's a picture of myself, Katie Frank and "The Pheromones", and "Thee Idea Men" after I just introduced them to Cincinnati's own "Skyline Chili". 

And now, highlights from part one of our journey:

We left from Philadelphia, PA in our 15 passenger van named "Tulula". Disclaimer, if you work for Hertz Rental, WE DID NOT PLAY IN AUSTIN, TX. IN NO WAY DID WE CROSS THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER THUS VIOLATING OUR RENTAL AGREEMENT. RATHER, THIS ENTIRE POST IS A ROUGE TO KEEP OUR FAN BASES ENGAGED. PLEASE STOP READING.

Sorry about that. Anyway, five minutes into our trip, we were pulled over for not having our headlights all the way on, an easy mistake to make while driving an unfamiliar vehicle. The stop would have been routine had a dashing, gym-teacher-esque man not run across the highway, towards our vehicle, screaming for the police. When he arrived, he told the officer he'd been following a vehicle involved in a hit and run for two miles, and that they needed to "get him...get him off the road...now!". Needless to say, the officers wasted no time, abandoning our vehicle and leaving us paralyzed with doubt. Can we go? Should we stay and wait for them to come back? Finally, after consulting a hotline for twenty minutes, Officer "Griffin" told us we could leave. 

(My theory, the "gym teacher" was an east coast version of the terminator sent from the future to ensure we arrived at the festival on time. Shout out to you my friend for setting that car on fire amid traffic, but I think we would have gotten to Texas with our without your misguided bravery)

Weird episode behind us, we headed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where we stayed with my good friend and guitarist Benjamin Thomas. Ben was in Seattle soaking up rain, enjoying indie grunge, and sipping sweet lattes while shopping for flannel shirts, so that left Steve Patota and Peter Gemus in charge of us east coast hooligans. The apartment was a treasure trove of instruments and handmade show bills, and I'd like to congratulate the group for using up Cincinnati's entire reserve of American Heritage Cigarrettes, Yuengling Lagers, and that other thing...

Our first show was at Rohs Street Cafe:

It was our first opportunity to listen to each others' acts, and a very special opportunity for me to catch up with old college buddies as well as my cousin, Phil. I opened with my upcoming single "Talk Too Much", introduced a few covers into my act such as "Heard It Through The GrapeVine" and closed with a song called "Someone's Got A Handle On Life". It was hard to wipe the grin off of my face as close friend after close friend meandered into the room to hear me play. The night brought back a lot great memories, and I was so glad to relive them.

"Thee Idea Men" played next with what would become their signature, rip roaring set of the tour; original, riff driven, blues rock ala "The Black Keys", "Third Eye Blind" and early "Kings of Leon". The show was held in the cafe's adjoining church hall, a difficult room from a musicians' perspective but a blast for the casual fan. "Thee Idea Men" took full advantage of the venue's boisterous acoustics, turning up the volume on tunes from their debut album "Getcho Groove On" such as "Help Me Mama" and "Out of Place".

Next, it was Katie Frank and "The Pheremones'" turn to crank it up on Rohs Street. The band's unique blend of original Americana, East Coast Rock and Midwestern Twang played well in this town, as I suspected it would. The gang played songs off of Katie's latest EP "Covered Bridge Road" like the heartfelt "Feel", infectious single "Close" and introduced what would become my personal favorite of the tour, "Tunnell Vision". Katie's band was gracious enough to learn two of my songs "Butterflies" and "Need You On My Side" to end the night with a bang. 

Our first show in the books, we were off to Skyline Chili and a world of hurt afterwards. I told you all, it may look like too much cheese, but it actually isn't enough. In the morning, it was off to Nashville with no time to waste...

Check back in next week for Part 2! 

Finishing Touches...

Last week I traveled to Minneapolis, where my producer Charles Peck and I put the finishing touches on our upcoming record "Range of Irrational". Thanks to Micka Knabb for taking such a great picture!

Among our biggest tasks was completely re-working a ballad called "Face Value". The first version was your standard band arrangement. After some reflection, Charlie asked if we could experiment with something more open, raw and honest. I agreed to try and am thrilled with the result. The rest of the songs required a few keyboard sounds, background harmonies and tweaks. 

I owe a lot to the man you see in this picture. Two years ago, we had delivered another album's final mix to our then label only to never really hear from them again. You all know how fortunate I was to meet people like Cari Cole, Kristin Reily, Tamar Haviv, Sarah Foster and Jodi Goodman in New York that greatly helped my development, but during those two years, I also ran encountered all sorts of "industry experts" who pidgeonholed my potential, saying I was too old-school, theatrical, and not modern enough to ever make it no matter what material I submitted to them.

I don't believe that, but perhaps it's true. I haven't been around long enough to say for sure. The point is that when it came time to try again, Charlie was all in. It would've been easy, heck, understandable for him to have reservations about working with me again, wondering what would come of our results. Instead, he kept his faith in me, and put my music through an exhaustive ringer of which I have no strength left to deal with but am forever grateful for. As much as I cannot wait to show you this new material, I am equally excited to showcase his talents to the world. Thank you Charlie! 

My TAZA Chocolate Gig! (Side Work Never Tasted So Good)

Whole Foods, Jenkintown, PA:

No less than thirty seconds after the last sample dish was filled and the last crease on the table cloth smoothed out was I mobbed in a sea of diverse moochers, their basic survival instincts in full swing at the mere whiff of a free meal. 

In thirty seconds, I had already never worked a sales job so delicious, so fun, so...EASY. At least compared to selling gym memberships during any month besides January, or albums that long ago became generation Y's most downloadable commodity, or electric pianos long outdated by their offspring. 

I mean, what's not to like about organic Chocolate right? And a gig that lets you demo it on your schedule? Sold. 

And yet, I couldn't help but envy my tasty employer. 

How can I make my music (and thus myself) as easy to market as TAZA chocolate without covering myself in cocoa butter during shows? (Unless you guys are into that...) 

1. Maybe I could say this album is entirely Organic? Negated only by a few dozen mountain dews, iced coffees and Jimmy John "Big Johns" consumed during lunch breaks...

2. This album is dairy free! (But makes your bones...strong...?...that won't work either)

3. Look this album comes in a variety of flavors! (Damn if I didn't stop trying to please everyone two years ago)

Then a few more minutes went by, and I realized none of this stuff would have to be explained if the chocolate didn't taste good. So therein lies my strategy these days, reaffirmed by a part time gig I'm extremely grateful for. Make the best product you know how, and marketing it becomes that much easier.

Seriously, if you guys are into cocoa butter, I'll do it. I love you.