Show Day!!!
Good morning from campsite CS. A beautiful – no, wait, just kidding – A FREEZING cold day, but very glad to be inside with a heater and some coffee! The very mugs that once held the libations for a deep sleep, now hold that sweet elixir of life: Java! Re-use at it’s finest.
After literally walking through snow (then deciding to drive) to get to the showers at the campsite, which were VERY nice, Champagne Sunday was all cleaned and fresh and ready to get all STANKY again with that good ol’ rock sweat! We were very much looking forward to returning to the Kozy’s crowd. They proved themselves many times over last summer, cheering, dancing, singing along, rocking the merch, and just all around loving on some Champagne Sunday. Well, even though the weather was absolute garbage (apparently last week it was in the 90’s), The bar was full of warm people. So warm, in fact, we were sweating!
Even though the bar was packed, our fans stated this was just a preview of the crowd to come to our next night’s gig at The Cottonwood.
My favorite part of the evening was a story that was told to us after our sound check.
“See that old, grumpy guy over there at the bar?”
“In the tan coat? Yes, I see him.”
“Yep. So, that guy usually leaves the minute a band even walks in. No one can even believe he’s still here.”
“Well, perhaps we can change his mind about live music.”
“I don’t know. He has never stayed for a band.”
Dudes… he not only stayed for almost the whole first set, when he did leave, he popped a $20 in the tip jar, gave us a smile and headed out (with two unopened beers)! My friend then told me he will buy hundreds of dollars of booze, yet NEVER tips the bartenders. I’m not sure what we did, but we got through, even if only for a brief moment.
And that, my friends, is EXACTLY why we do this. 
I told Jared this on our drive back to the campsite.
“You know. When we are on the road, playing for people, I never worry about anything else. I feel complete within our purpose. I am never thinking about who may ‘discover’ us, or ‘How do we reach a bigger or better audience?’, or truly any of the things that tend to plague me while I am home being stationary. Don’t misunderstand me. I really love our home time, our domestic life, and even the day-to-day. I just always feel like when we are on the road, we are always EXACTLY where we’re meant to be, doing EXACTLY what we’re meant to be doing.”
I’m certain I will need to come back to this quote several time while on the Nashville leg of our journey and remember this feeling. Reminding myself that the reason we have these audiences and these venues to play in, is because we did the uncomfortable stuff and put in the work. Then, CONTINUE to put in the effort, giving high energy shows and committing entirely to our fans, even in towns where people say, “Why in the world are you HERE?” I always respond the same way.
“Because YOU’RE here.” And like Ariel said, “I wanna be where the people are…” So, chances are, if there are people around, we are just happy to be there, getting to know you, sharing our stories and songs, and being 100% committed to bringing you a quality show, wherever that may be!
