Lakeshore Records recording artist John Velghe has embarked on the highway, traveling over 3000 miles by motorcycle and performing live music in support of a great cause. We asked him to send us updates on his tour. Here is his first update from the New Hearts Motorcycle Club Roadshow.
So here I am on a motorcycle, stopping for fuel twice as often compared to a van, and de-helmetting every hour or so just to get that weight off my head. Add a half-day of rain and a time zone change and I find myself barely making gigs in time. Traveling by motorcycle really magnifies one of the things I find most tedious about the touring band: the state of perpetual rock band tardiness!
I had a great night in Louisville playing at Open Gallery with a great local songwriter, Jacob Douglas and Kim Webber.
One of the things that occurred to me while listening to Jacob and Kim is how interesting it is that we still have regional songwriting dialects and lexicon in America. You wouldn’t know it by just listening to the radio and it’s hard to hear in that Great Homogenizer we call Modern Recording Technology; but with live music, regional upbringing really comes across. Not just dialect, but word choices and the stories that are told – not to mention the characters that populate those stories.
If you move around the country and play with people from different areas, you’ll notice this. It’s one of the things bigger acts miss when they choose to tour with the same act show after show. Songwriters who are comfortable in their own skin will show you their home in their songs. This is the thing Levon Helm brought to The Band. It’s the thing Steven Van Zandt and Springsteen discovered when they toured.
After just a couple of shows, this exposure to regionalism has been one of the best gifts of my tour. I’m looking forward to hearing more.
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Watch The Music Video Debut, Beaten By Pretenders by John Velghe & The Prodigal Sons with Alejandro Escovedo!
Download The Album!
John Velghe & The Prodigal Sons: Organ Donor Blues
Read about this music video at The Huffington Post.
John Velghe and his crew will be at Gray’s On Main in Knoxville this Saturday, September 27.
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