The vast dessert sky greeted us with open arms as we barreled out of Albuquerque almost before our alarms went off. We had about a seven-hour drive to Bisbee, with a gig at the end of that drive, so we wanted to get there with plenty of time to rest before the show.
Before we get to Bisbee, I’d like to let you know why in the world we went all the way down to Bisbee, AZ, a town damn near on the Mexico border, in the absolute hottest time of the year, in a record-breaking heat year, to play a couple shows. Well, sometimes life is just so persistent, you can’t help but acquiesce. In this case, it wasn’t “life” necessarily, it was our friend Trish Lecey, former T-town dweller, friend, and an actual huge part of the current “Champagne Sunday” most of you have come to know and love.
Trish, along with being a multi-hat-wearer in so many ways, had a hair salon in Tacoma called Embellish. It is still there and thriving. Please check them out. (Jared here: You might recognize her and the salon from our music video for “10 Best Dressed“.) Her entire business model spoke to me. Essentially their approach was, and still is, “come as you are and we’ll just build on that. We don’t want to change you into what we think is “better”. We just want the most confident and real YOU to shine”! A beautiful and relatable business model that really spoke to my heart. A friend of mine introduced me to Trish at Embellish and we became instantly connected. Fast forward to her standing in our kitchen a year later showcasing one of her other many gifts, her business of “Culture Crafting”, essentially honing in on the exact purpose of your “craft”, or career path. We sat in that kitchen for HOURS, scribbling on a huge white piece of butcher paper taped to the window, Trish cussing at the dried up markers that refused to give one more bit of ink to her mad circles around key words that described us. Her eyes were glowing with intensity as she pushed us to fight for ourselves and come up with the one word that you all have heard us refer to time and time again: CELEBRATE! From there, the rest is kind of history. Since that long night, there has not been one show where we have not referenced that, spoken it, shouted it even. It has led us, driven us, and saved us many times when we have otherwise been apt to float aimlessly on a sea of “who are we’s” and “what do we stand for’s”. It is the North Star on our musical compass, and it is there because Trish took the time, and cared enough to put herself into the CS machine, and it has continued to shape and influence our image, performances, interviews, and songwriting. We are constantly grateful for that night in our kitchen., and we CELEBRATE it every day.
Trish moved to Bisbee maybe six years ago, and almost immediately reached out and said we NEEDED to come play there. Always being too far, hot, and without real solid places to play, just didn’t seem a right fit. Well, I reached out to her a few months before tour, and within a couple days, she had three gigs lined up for us!
Friday: The Grand Hotel
Saturday: Bisbee Coffee Company (which cancelled and was moved to Gene’s Place-but I’m getting ahead of myself)
Sunday: The Royale Theater-Brunch Show
Well Bisbee, here we come!!
Because we were playing that night at the historic Grand Hotel, in downtown Bisbee, they offered a room for the band. Lucky us!! If it hadn’t been a brothel or some other stopping point for nefarious ne’er-do-wells, I’d be surprised. The place was covered toes to teeth in lush, red carpet, wonderfully gaudy wall paper, stuffed curio cabinets, secret seating nooks, obscure art work, and lavish bedrooms and bathrooms. Upon entry, from the bottom of the grand staircase, the air smelled like a century of old boots and perfumes, vying for position in the olfactory foreground, amidst the musty, heavy heat of the 104 degree Summers. Jared held the door for me as we walked back in time to our suite for the night. (See our instagram page for a quick walk through of this exquisite space)
Our bed in the “Oriental Suite” was an authentic, genuine “Chinese Wedding Bed”, and I can imagine an entire pain in the butt to make every day, so don’t you come for me about how it looks! Yes, it is messy. Yes this was ACTUALLY a pic from the next morning. And YES…the rest is absolutely none of your damn business. But, in case you’re the “zoom-in type”, that black mask on the bed is a SLEEP MASK, you pervs, and the other is Jared’s C-pap machine if you all MUST know, because I hate the light and he tries to choke himself to death in his sleep every night. How rockstar is THAT?!?!?
(We put them on AFTER all the fun was had!)
This is the view from the foot of the bed! We had a living room!
Our stage for the night was right downstairs under our room! Talk about an easy travel night.
No shots from the gig, as we didn’t manage to get any of the shots from the friends that were there to see us. But I promise you we were up there, and we had a great show. But the real star was my ukulele. Trish shot this pic of her. Just look at how pretty she looked! Later in the trip she was renamed in the most darling way possible, by Trish’s six-year-old granddaughter, Lilly. She asked me if she could play my “Kukulele”, and now, it will henceforth be known as such.
The day was really long and full, but we were absolutely thrilled to be in Bisbee, and looking forward to the next couple days worth of exploring the town and having even more to celebrate!!
