Markets round Dos.

Going on tour, seeing what there is to see, spreading your music, is always a good experience...but not always as good as other good experiences of a similar nature.

The first long leg of our farmer's market tour behind us, Dave and I embarked on the southern section with high hopes for humankind and the sorts of people we'd meet and experiences we'd had. There was such an outpouring of support and love for us and what we were doing on the central/western tour, that we could only assume a similar atmosphere would prevail when we traveled south of Albany.

It's not to say that the tour wasn't profitable, we saw amazing places, made some money and exposed a lot of people to Almost Awake. New Paltz was a superb town, where we played to a joyous audience at the Mudd Puddle Cafe, I swear I saw Pete Seeger in Beacon, and White Plains seems like a whole new place now that i've seen both the westchester mall and the working-class people at the farmers market. But all the same, the energy wasn't in this tour that flowed so freely through the entirety of the other leg. It was very hour to hour, joy or despair. This was more steady. There were ups and downs, but they were less extreme in both directions, and people in general didn't seem as into the purpose of our tour or the presence of our music.

A perfect example is Sandy Hook Connecticut. The person who booked us to play was so accomodating and happy to have us that she offered her pool house for us to stay in. When it turned out that she would be in NYC for the dates we'd be there, she decided to book us a room at a hotel. The hotel was the fanciest, most amenity-saturated place i've ever stayed, and the recreation center as well as cable, WiFi and free cookies and coffee provided more entertainment and fun than I could have imagined. We were also told that everyone in Sandy Hook was looking forward to our performance and that we would be recieved quite favorably. This seemed to explain the gracious treatment on the part of the market manager, but wasn't actually true. The people at the market only responded luke-warmly to our appearance, and although a number of people tipped us, not many stopped to listen, clapped, or bought CDs. Even the Assistant Manager didn't do much more than tell us where it was okay to set up. The market having been the highlight of our tour looking forward, it ended up being the turning point that brought us home early in the end.

Dave and I decided, after a similar situation in White Plains that Beacon and Mudd Puddle were the best part of the originally scheduled tour and the prevailing trend was downward at that point. We were four days in and we decided to change up the next four. We still played in Arlington, but took friday off and spend Saturday and Sunday at markets close to home that we knew would rock a lot.

Saturday was Troy...and it was awesome despite a little rain late in the day. It's great to be playing and see friendly familiar faces meeting and greeting each other, stopping by to say hello and visiting their favorite vendors for their weekly re-stock of produce.

Today was Cambridge, which is just the most giving market i've ever seen. I think we recieved tips in the form of goods from over half the vendors at the end of the market, and a good portion of the patrons stopped to listen or sit at the picnic table next to our tent and soak in the sound. It sprinkled and misted for our first two sets but no one was detered, and the third set was gorgeous.

So, that's the story of the farmers market tour, leg 2. Dave and I still have Manchester VT next week, as well as Ballston Spa (our last chance to play it without rain). Lets keep our fingers crossed that those two towns can appreciate some fin local music to brighten their natural shopping expedition.

*C*