Fall/Winter Roundup I

by Marty McCormack

featuring Henry the Horse (who would not dance the waltz)

The Difference between a Kansas Stompboard and a Michigan Stompboard

Why Long-Haired Musicians on Mackinac Island in November Don't Fit In

Colonel Sundy, who said, "This green room ain't big enough for the both of us"

The Art of Speaking Canadian

Brian's Wayward Jackets Adventure

and Fruitcakes at the Airport

Well by all accounts, this should still be October...but it is December. We had a great Day of the Dead Show this year at FitzGerald’s. It was a good pairing with Luke Doucet and his wife, who was recently spotted backing Sarah McLachlan on “Good Morning America”. So there you go as to famous people hanging in the Switchback camp. On November 3rd, we played at the Red Rock Center in Fairmont, Minnesota. What was amazing about this gig was that Brian and I did a fund raiser some nine years earlier to help save the building from demolition. It was saved and turned into a new performing arts center. Steamer Cathy Osmundson (WayGood Minnesota) had contacted the folks in charge and the connection wasn’t made until we heard from Jim and Maryann Smith, who were with us in the early days of Switchback. They had set up the original benefit show. So it does prove that good deeds do get rewarded. We had helped save a building that we helped re-open for the arts. If Cathy hadn’t made the effort to get us back to Minnesota, the event wouldn’t have taken place!

Our benefit in Cascade, Iowa was great. We met Darlene Reiter, who knew our friend, Larsh Bristol, who passed away in a car accident this past August. D, as she is called, joined up with Steam after catching the concert (more on this later–her sister “Sputz” and her husband are long-time fans and Rondy participants) I am sure that Steamers will hear more from D as time goes on. She is now helping head up WayGood Wyoming and organizing concerts out near Sheridan and Gillette. Our benefit in memory of Larsh Bristol took place on Sunday, Nov. 5th . It was an old-time Switchback show, like we had in the early days at Dar’s Place. We all raised our glasses in memory of Larsh and played like hell the non-stop originals and cover tunes that are required to get the Iowans out on the floor. It was a reunion of long-time Switchback fans, who saw us when we were breaking into Northeast Iowa and our voices and arms showed it.

So it was a challenge when we got on KUNI radio the next day. We had a full house for the radio show..one of the largest in the stations history, thanks to the efforts of fans Jane and Tom Shea. They had joined us on our trip to Ireland and singlehandedly recruited folks to come in and join us at KUNI. Our Steamer, Denise Dooley (WayGood Iowa) drove down with some folks some three hours from Des Moines to be part of the show. It was an impressive display of dedication. The funny thing was that we were all so polite on the radio...nice manners....it took a lot of cajoling to get someone to knock over a chair for Wild Irish Polkas!

Bill's Blues in Evanston was our next Chicago area gig. Switchback fan Mary Ellen and her group of supporters came out from Naperville to join Indiana John and the Hoosiers as we broke in the club. We were on the fence as to whether or not we liked the club, but we do like working with Nancy Emrich, who is a promoter and Switchback supporter. Mary Ellen, by the way donated the beer “coozies” for the Rondy this year.

Brian, I and Quartermaster Chris drove out to Ohio to play the Hey Hey Bar and Grill, Sleepy LaBeef’s hangout in Ohio and definite Switchback country. We were glad to see Soupbone and Monica make the drive up from Cincinnati. The local Daughters of Erin (Lori and president Karen) came down to join us and rally support. The two Ohio Mikes also were there. Our attendance was low, as Sue Gall, the owner of the Hey, Hey had little time to promote the show due to an illness. But we are going to be back in February for a Groundhog Concert. Rumor has it that Sue might be on hand for the Rondy this year, bringing her culinary talents to benefit the Rondy lovers.

We hopped on a plane to Kansas City on November 15th and were met by Steamer Liz Harvey (WayGood Kansas) and her daughter Addie. We were held up when Brian discovered that someone else had made off with his bag. It was kind of funny as both guys didn’t have their name on the outside, the bags were identical and even had an old, torn up paper tag in the same spot. A quick call from the airport brought the young guy back with Brian’s bag. An exchange was made and we gave the guy and his family some CD’s, for returning so quickly to the airport. Three hours later we were in Salina. We spent the next day performing for radio stations, all coordinated by Liz and Switchback fans Joyce and Richard Volk. Joyce set up the show that night in Salina, which was a wonderful intimate concert. We were amazed to see some long-time Iowa fans there. This couple had moved back to Kansas and was told of the concert by another fan in Iowa who saw it on the website. They are now going to work with Liz on the Kansas shows.

Liz drove us over to St. Joe, Missouri, where we joined the Elders on stage for a night of driving Irish music. It was a great concert for the Hibernians. We were approached by Donal Murphy, who drove all the way from Albuquerque to get the Elders for his festival. When he saw us, he asked to hire us instead. So it was a good, rollicking night. Again, we were happy to see Steamers making the drive for the show. Denise (WayGood Iowa) came down to the concert and local Missouri fans were there as well. Fans Martha and Mindy from the Ireland tour were on hand with their relatives...it was a great time and show.

We were pretty wiped out when we boarded the plane to fly to Chicago. We arrived in plenty of time to play at Tinley Park for a children’s show and then a fund-raiser to benefit the library. Both of the shows were great. We enjoyed the kids at the first show. It reminded us that we will have to have a SwitchBrats album made soon. (That’s brat as in kid, not as in sausage, Helmut.)

The Sunday after Thanksgiving saw us flying up to Traverse City, Michigan for the Northern Lights Tour. We were greeted at the airport by Steamer Brenda Winslow (WayGood Michigan) and driven over to the Colonel and Mrs. Col’s residence. The next day saw us driving in a thick rain up to the St. Ignace ferry to bring us over to Mackinac Island. We loaded our equipment onto a cart and pushed it onto the boat. The cold weather drew us all inside the ferry, which rocked a bit as we made the 30 minute journey across the straits of Mackinac. We arrived on the island and stood in the cold rain as a team of horses with a dray was found to bring our equipment over to the school. I rode up with the driver, who wasn’t use to this team and had a terrible cold. He kept pleading with the horses... Henry, please , expectorating after every third Henry. I couldn’t really see what Henry was doing wrong, but all the same he and his partner got us over to the school. We rolled our cart of equipment into the school.

We had special stomp boards made in both Kansas and Michigan...something that flying is starting to make happen for us.. It was funny to see the difference in sizes...perhaps we will have to put this up on the site. The Kansas boards were made with plywood, some 2x4's and some screws and a six-pack. The Michigan boards were huge and made with eco-harvested South American hardwoods and glued, stained and varnished. Does this mean anything about Michiganders and Kansans? You be the judge.

Our concert finished, we loaded up and headed the dray back to St. Anne’s church on the island, listening to Henry, please! C’mon Henry! Hey Henry, aw, c’mon, Henry all the way over to the church. The weather had turned pretty ugly by then, with freezing rain coming down. I was very impressed that we had an audience of 20 islanders there for the concert. It is a beautiful church, with wonderful acoustics. The Colonel inaugurated the portable studio, which we purchased for the purpose of creating live albums and DVD’s. It performed flawlessly and we were very pleased to be one of the first acts in the country to use this equipment.

We had the dray come back and we loaded up after the concert, the rain never stopping. Mackinac Island was deserted, the tourists long gone and a few construction workers working on building improvements. It had the feeling of a ghost town, with awnings flapping in the driving rain.

We met some of the construction workers at Sinclair’s pub, where we stopped for dinner. One in particular was not too happy (or maybe real happy if you ask the Colonel) with my long hair. He was “in his cups” and gestured to me.

“What the @@#% is this guy doing on the island?” He proceeded to tell us that he saw me on the dray and that I looked out of place with my pony tail. “You don’t fit in here,” he said. I politely smiled and nervously sipped my coke. The Colonel and Brian were mysteriously silent. He then noticed my bracelet. “You believe in the red road?” he said. “You must if you have that Native bracelet on your arm.” I said I was very much into Native American culture, which made him relax a bit. The Colonel mentioned we were musicians and he then was fine with my looks and our collective presence on the island. “Just think,” he said. “A musician on the island, in November! I told you, you don’t fit in.” We smiled, paid our bill and got the hell out of there. I was so shaken, that I gave the Colonel my plastic wrapped pastry that was sitting in our rooms along with the towel that was made to look like a duck. Someone has a lot of time to kill on the island.

The next day, it was raining. We got the cart back onto the boat and sailed across to Ignace. We did a radio interview from the car and headed over to Java Joe’s, where we met Joe, his wife Sandy and had some coffee and breakfast. I noticed that Joe had his pony tail.... He had some cool mugs that were made to look like him. It gave us the idea that perhaps we make some Switchback mugs.....

The Colonel’s window on his van malfunctioned as we started crossing the Mackinac Bridge. By starting and stopping the engine, we were able to push and cajole it into place. But the damage was done and the Colonel was soaked by the driving rain. We made it to Petoskey and the Crooked Tree Art Center for the evening concert. The Crooked Tree is a beautiful venue, with an impressive stage, yet an intimate setting. The room was sold out, which was unheard of for the Tuesday evening. Jim Marshall, a fan, came down to join us on percussion that night, fighting the flu bug through the show. We were given a nice green room that had a shower and ordered some dinner, dropped our clothes and luggage on the floor and rested a bit.

Pretty soon it came time to get upstairs for a sound check. While waiting for the check to begin, we were approached by this well dressed man with impeccably coifed gray hair. I thought he was perhaps the promoter for the concert, so I reached out my hand and smiled. He nervously smiled and asked:
“Would you mind if we shared the Green Room with you?”
“Uh....,” I replied. “What do you want?”
“Well, we have our monthly meeting in the green room and I was wondering if we could have a meeting in the green room if that’s OK with you guys. We could just move some of your stuff..”
Brian and I look at each other to see if this is a joke or something and the Colonel picks up on our vibes and walks over.
“Um,” I said, “We have our gear, cases, clothes and CD’s in there right now. Did you think about using the kitchen?”
The kitchen being twice the size of the green room, seemed a logical location for any meeting in the first place.
“Oh no,” the man replied, with a look of horror, “We never meet in the kitchen. Only the Green Room.”
The Colonel took over.
“Listen, you can’t have the Green Room.”
“But,” the man protested.
“These guys are needing the Green Room,” the Colonel stammered, his voice full of incredulity and exasperation. “They have to take showers and get ready for a show. I am sorry, but you can’t-- share-- the Green Room!”
The man gave the Colonel a baleful look and slunk out of the room.

We were happy with the concert and the Colonel and Mrs. Colonel managed to get some great photos and recordings of the event. We were happy to see Carl and Cornelia Dehassler, who are great fans and run the Black Cat Concert Series. Cornelia is working on our playing over in Germany. I never found out if that guy did have his meeting or not.

The next day we hit the radio stations, WNMC with our friend Eric Hines in Traverse City and the local Fox News Station.
Vic McGarrity, the DJ at the Fox station, asked Brian where we got our influence for writing “Falling Water River”
“We get all our inspiration from Fox News,” Brian replied rather matter of fact.
“Do I sense some sarcasm in the air?” Vic responded.
It was a fun interview..Mrs. Colonel got in on the fun and soon Vic was asking to get her off the mic. We ran out of time and beat a hasty retreat out to the highschool for an afternoon concert. There we did a show on music and the importance of creating energy between the audience and entertainer. We made the students, who were studying madrigals get up and perform for their fellow students...thus showing that being a musician requires that you are ready to perform at a moments notice. It was cool to see the local musicians, the serious kids, come up and talk after the show.

That evening, the President of Steam came into town and we greeted Madame President at the Elk Rapids concert. The concert was held in the Elk Rapids Town Hall. There was a pretty neat curtain from the 1800's that had all the local businesses from the time painted on it. We had to move around screens, tables, odd pieces of metal, a large Rotary sign that weighed a ton, to clear enough room to get us on stage. It turned out to be the most intimate evening of the tour. Stephanie O’Dell (Jim and Karen’s niece) got up on stage and did a wonderful job of singing “O Holy Night” and “Ave Maria.” But the crowning moment was a heartfelt rendition of “At Last” for her grandmother, Janice’s birthday. That brought the house down.

We had no issues crossing the border on Thursday, except that the Colonel didn’t quite hear the Canadian Customs Officer when he asked if we had any liquor in the car. The Colonel thought he was talking about the show that night and said, “I don’t know if there’s any liquor!” The officer looked at him a bit oddly. We had to quickly tell the Colonel he was talking about the car and not the show in order to avoid a three hour strip search.

It was great to be back at the Switchback Canadian Base Camp. St. Joseph Island has the warmest, nicest folks in the world. We pulled up to the Legion Hall to set up for the show and there was David Nelson, waiting with his sound equipment. Brian made Dave repeat his greeting so he could hear that Canadian accent. “Do it again,” Brian said. “No, do it like you said it before. No, that’s not how you said it, do it again.” Poor David had to repeat his greeting to us about three times before Brian felt he was properly speaking Canadian.

We met with Cameron Ross and Teresa and Neil Caughill once we got inside. The stage set up looked great, with a huge Canadian Flag as a backdrop on the stage. After the setup and sound check, we headed over to the Ross home for a wonderful meal prepared by Laura.. We made some toasts and headed back to the Legion for the show. The place was packed and it was nice to see Carmen Nelson and Dave’s parents, as well as Teresa’s folks. Donna Schell was there from the Sault Star newspaper. It felt like a homecoming.

Cameron’s brother is the acting head of the Legion and he read a letter from one of the soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. It turned out that the packages (the costs of which were covered by the fund raiser) had reached the soldiers at a good time. They had lost a couple of men and were in mourning about it. A bit of home helped cheer them up. It was a very emotional letter and the reality of what’s going on over seas hit home. We proceeded to start the concert with “Falling Water River” and from there eased the audience into a rollicking good concert.

I think the big hit was “Hockey Games.” The Canadians even let Brian off the hook for wearing a Blackhawks jersey underneath his tux coat. Turns out that the Hawks had a farm team for a while up on the Sault. We had a wonderful standing ovation for the show and headed over to the Caughill’s for a celebratory nightcap of Irish whiskey. The deer were in backyard, feeding at a small trough that Teresa’s dad had built. Their house is a cozy stone home, that has been in the family for generations. It was a real pleasure to kick back and relax with folks that seem more like family than fans. We noticed a double ring around the moon as we headed out to the car at 1:30 a.m. “Looks like a bit of weather coming in,” said Neil.

Sure enough, we got the weather. But before the snow starting flying, we put on a presentation at the middle school on the island. Cameron came down in his reserve uniform and explained to the kids why we were there. We did a program on Celtic music and I must say, these kids were so well behaved and with such great answers and questions that I was awestruck. Afterwards, they came up and mentioned how they want to play guitar and how their uncles are in bands. It was great fun. The Colonel set up a full school assembly picture.

The snow didn’t really start in earnest until we were finished with our huge breakfast at the Drydock restaurant, which has the best hashbrowns in all of North America. And a nice warm fireplace to boot. By the time we made the highschool in Deberats, it was coming down really nicely. The concert for the highschool was somewhat different from the highschool concert in Michigan. For one thing, we had a young guy who got up and played percussion on a guitar case and another young lady, Barbara, get up and perform an original song for the school. The fact we didn’t have to plead, cajole or threaten was refreshing. The other was that they listened quite well to our program. There was understanding about the how important the energy bond is between audience and performer. We led the students through jazz, classical, celtic, country, and elements of songwriting.

Our evening concert was a private show at a lighthouse way out on Lake Huron. It was a beautiful location, with a huge pudding stone fireplace that had a very warm fire going in it. We had a great turkey feast, which left me totally in food coma, but I managed to stagger to the stage and play. The road up to the lighthouse was an adventure. There was a causeway that spanned an inlet. The folks at the lighthouse kind of made their own bridge over the inlet by welding two flat beds together with reinforced steel plating. Then there was some gravel dumped on both ends, about a half dozen red reflectors stuck in the gravel and viola, a bridge. The fact there were no guardrails and it was snowing quite a bit didn’t faze anyone heading to the event.

Alas we had to leave....and we recieved some wonderful emails from the WayGood Canadians that summed up our mutual feelings:

Hi Brian and Marty, hope things went well after you left and you made your connections for your next show. I hated to say farewell on such a great morning when the the snow had finally stopped and the sun had come out-- it was a wonderful day. I have heard nothing but accolades from everyone who saw you perform and regrets from those who missed you. I have been hearing your names everywhere I go. The quality of your music and your way with people has certainly won over the hearts of the Islanders.Everyone wants to know when you will return and I tell them we will be working on it. I always feel motivated to spend more time writing and playing after hearing you perform and spending time with you both. It is a rare thing when musicians of your caliber focus so much on motivating others to create and perform rather than being focused on their own talents. Thank you for that. I hope you have the time to enjoy some rest, your families,and the Christmas season. We are wishing a wonderful Christmas for you and yours, you are in our thoughts. All the best, David, Carmen and the entire Nelson clan!

Hey Marty and Brian, just a short note to say what a great weekend we all had and we hope that you were able to get to your destination in Wyoming? on Saturday!!! The weather looked pretty ominous out your way. I hope that you will get a break soon and have a wonderful holiday with your families. We look forward to seeing you both in the not so distant future. Take care and Merry Christmas and have a super New Years. Thanks again for coming and brightening the lives of alot of folks. I'm sure the troops were thrilled with their hampers. Take care, Teresa

The stay in Canada was too brief and we had to head back for Chicago the next day. So Madame President, Brenda, Brian and myself piled into Brenda’s Subaru and headed south from the island. The weather had blown itself out, so the roads were clear.

About five miles down the road, Brian realized that he forgot his black tux jacket. It turned out that he had left it in the Colonel’s van, but we drove on and Brian noted that he now had a dress jacket waiting for him in Ireland, Canada and the US. The Colonel later located the jacket and had it mailed down to St. Louis for the next public concert.
We were all amazed when we saw what at first looked like a bear, hanging out by the side of the road. It turned out to be a deep black timber wolf, which was nosing around for some road kill. The wolf had these wonderful amber eyes. So we were all blown away by that. We made it to US customs and Brenda was asked if we were bringing anything over the border. “Only these two fruitcakes,” she replied. At first I thought she was taking a pot shot at the band. “Would you like one?” she asked. The custom officer was a pretty droll character and didn’t quite catch the gentle humor. After looking at our passports, he sent us on our way.

We made it to Traverse City to find out that the plane was delayed to depart until 5 p.m. for Chicago. So we had a bit of rush to get to our evening show in Crown Point, Indiana. Luckily, we arrived with a half hour to spare. It was pretty neat to be viewing a timber wolf in Canada in the morning and back in the lights of Chicago that evening. Ah, modern travel!

So after a day off, we again headed back on the road. This time to St. Louis on Monday, for another private concert. On the way down, we passed a convoy of some 30 power line utility trucks heading to St. Louis from Iron Mountain, Michigan. The city had been walloped by a huge ice storm on Friday and folks were still stranded without electricity.

We met up with Steamers Herr Helmut and Frau Sarah (WayGood Missouri) after the concert and spent the night at their home, visiting and catching up on news. In the morning, Helmut drove us out to the airport, where we caught a flight to Denver and then on to Billings, Montana. There we were met by Steamer D (Darlene) Reiter (WayGood Wyoming) who drove us down to Sheridan for two private shows. We stopped off at Little Bighorn, as Brian had never been in this part of the West before, to take in that part of history. Then we completed the drive down to the beautiful Shining Mountains, the Bighorns. We picked up some sound equipment at the music store owned by an interesting and mysterious man call Q-man. He has a store that not only has musical equipment, but has an assortment of turquoise jewelry, odd paintings, old-time artifacts and a complete museum in the back filled with Buffalo Bill Wild West show posters, ghost shirts, Japanese prints, statues of Ganesh, buffalo skulls, deer antlers...pretty much everything you could imagine.

He then took us to the basement, where he had more old guitars, including a round body Gibson from the 1930's, a huge vinyl record collection and about 40 violin cases. It was a perfect place for Switchback and we felt right at home. Q-man’s dad was upstairs, leaning back in a chair behind the store counter. He was dressed in black with a nice dusty, black Stetson on his head. Turns out he has a voice that would put Johnny Cash to shame with its deepness and resonance. He played a bit on his guitar as we nosed around the shop. We were both impressed with the man and he exuded genuine Western character. It was going to be a fun tour in the Bighorns.

The concert that night was intimate and nice at the home of D and her partner, Mike. We met some really wonderful folks who enjoyed the music. By the end of the evening Brian and I felt right at home and very excited about finally getting out to this part of the country to play.

We set up for the concert the next day and had a nice show for folks at D’s law firm in town. It was nice to see some of the folks from the evening before come back for another round of music. We met some local musicians and headed over to listen to Ann play on her guitar and Q-man accompany her on the banjo. Pretty soon, we were passing the guitar around and playing songs to each other.
D took us up into the Bighorns and we got to do a bit of sightseeing and planning strategy for concerts that summer in Wyoming. The weather was cooperating, with 60 degree temperatures. The mule deer were having a good time of it, hanging around the fields in big numbers.

We headed down the mountains and had a round in the Mint Bar that night. The Mint certainly has the Western flavor that I remember as a kid when I spent my summers out in Dubois and Jackson Hole. I was happy to see that Sheridan hadn’t been changed by the high rollers.        

Friday came quickly and we were sad to leave Sheridan and the good folks out there. We stopped in at the Wyo Theater and looked it over for some future concerts. Then we quickly checked out Kings Saddlery and its Western museum of some 200 saddles, horse drawn hearse, buffalo skulls, stuffed two-headed calf and actual painted letters by the great artist, Charlie Russell. I was certainly in my element. I can’t wait to get back out West.

On Saturday, we had a wonderful concert at the Focal Point. I was worried that the audience was not going to show, as we hadn’t advertised at all. Carol, who books the shows at the FP, had been without power since St. Louis was hit was a big ice storm the week before, so no news releases could be sent. Brian and I were thrilled to see that we had a full house, with many reserved seats. It was also wonderful to see that half the audience was made up of folks who were seeing us for the first time. We hit the first set hard, with “Ain’t Going Back, Hockey Games, and Star of the County Down” and proceeded to keep up the pace until our arms couldn’t take it anymore. Helmut and Sarah joined Carol, super fan Dancin’ Donna of the Dancing Ladies Auxiliary after the show for a drink and some quesidillas at the Maya Café, before calling it a night.

Morning came early, we awoke at 5 a.m. bid Helmut and Sarah adieu, and headed north to Chicago. Brian had another five hour leg in front and so I drove, listening to some old-time gospel music playing on the radio from a downstate Illinois station. They would break between the songs to read the local events calendar and the obituaries. It reminded me of my cousins in Ireland, who tune in every day to the local broadcast from Ballyhaunis. Brian and I had traveled quite a bit in about six weeks. Throughout it all, it felt wonderful to meet so many folks that identified with the music of Switchback. I had been reading a book on Willie Nelson at Helmut and Sarah and he mentioned that “he thought of the millions of folks who hadn’t heard his music yet.” I understood what he was driving at. There is something important about the magical, spiritual connection that is made between musician and audience. It is the simple ritual of celebrating the moment of life. It can’t be captured, replayed or revisited. It is why musicians must play and sometimes travel to play. How far does one go for music? As far as one can, in my book.