DAY FIVE: January 24, 2008

Today we travel about 200 miles north to Rhinelander, Wisconsin for our second concert. It is currently –28 degrees according to the weather channel. Phew! That’s what happens when you go north like that. It’s a beautiful brisk sunny day and great for travel. Any wrong moves and we’re dead, though.
A note about yesterday: there was some anxiety about how people we didn’t know would receive us. Usually we’ve been flown across the country to do a show by some enthusiastic fan. There is a little “crust” one must break through on each stop. Frank calmed my nerves by liking it to a blind date. It’s an arranged encounter built on trust.
Everyone we talk to about Allied Concert Tours seems to think very highly of them. They are the people who arranged this whole thing. We are impressed, as well. I’m sure they are watching us to see how we do- not just on the stage, but logistically. I’d better get off this computer so we can get going. More later.
We’re in Rhinelander and it’s not that cold. Only 2 degrees but going into the minuses tonight. Allied made some beautiful highlighted map routes for us, which we followed
upon realizing that our navigation system was taking us hundreds of miles out of our way! Frank thought that maybe it was taking us to Rhinelander, Germany!
So I am the official navigator with a good old-fashioned fold out map all marked by hand by Willow from Allied Concert tours.
Frank is on the phone with one of our contact people here about tomorrow night’s concert. Being on a Friday night, we’re competing with sports events, but we’re expecting a good crowd.
Good. The piano is a Steinway. Frank’s next call will be shouting to the tuner. Should be interesting.
You know, it’s funny. We heard a few more stories last night about guys being dragged to our shows by their wives, missing the sports game, just to see some lady piano player.
They end up being the first to rise to their feet for that standing”O.” Then I’m signing all the CD’s they’ve purchased. Maybe they weren’t expecting just what we do.
Frank just got off the phone with the tuner and it was a normal conversation. Good. It’s another high school tomorrow. These kids walk around outside in tee shirts, some of them!
Since this is a non- concert day, I’ll go into how this whole thing came about. Musician colleagues who want to know how we did it, pay attention.
We got a call maybe three years ago from a guy who bought one of my old cassettes, “Private Concert” at a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota. Since cassettes were only 50 cents, he bought a few artists. Mine looked interesting. He soon ignored the others and became a big fan. He happened to be on the board for choosing artists for their community arts series. After waiting probably a year before contacting me, we arranged a concert with their series. It was a big success. Then he told us about Allied Concert tours, which books many artists in a ten to twelve state region in the upper Midwest. He also gave them a glowing recommendation for us. Wouldn’t it be funny if he was one of those guys whose wife dragged him to see us?
After some courting on our part, Allied agreed to put us on their artist list (like a catalogue) and made no promises. We would have been happy with a handful of dates, for sure. They ended up calling to ask if it was OK to add on just a few more concerts, not wanting to work us to death. We agreed to 36! This has been more than a year and a half in the making. In 2006 it was weird to be thinking of 2008!
Right now I’m going in the pool, and after that, some good German food and beer. Gotta do this relaxing stuff when you can. Tomorrow’s another big day…
Chow!