CMT Blog: Archive

Bluegrass in the U.S. is barely a curiosity anymore, not since O Brother. Not so here in Germany. A few stalwart supporters and curious music lovers are enough to make touring viable, but it's a lot like being in a traveling freak show. You get up on stage and play, some nights you get wild applause and a double encore. Other nights, blank stares. Like Jeremy says, "They looked like they were being milked."Tim O'Brien likened touring to riding in a spaceship. Occasionally you land on a planet (gig), get out of your spaceship (van, or if you're lucky, tour bus) and send out some probes in search of life (the actual performance of our music). You look around a little bit, do your thing, then it's back into the ship. The touring band becomes its own little micro-culture, complete with its own dialect. In the states, we arrive at a restaurant or even just a gas station and it's clear that we aren't "from around here." It's drastically more apparent in a foreign country. We've pretty much stopped trying to play it cool, our driver clowns on us with nearly every hotel clerk, waitress and promoter. We don't know what they're saying and we don't care. We're just passing through, sending out a few probes, checking out the scene. We'll be moving along soon enough.

For instance, we played at a place here called Burgerhaus. It was a big day because we use the word "burgies" to describe just about anything. "Want to get some Burgies?" could mean anything from burgers to batteries. So today we played Burgerhaus, the "home of the burgies." (This was our name, not theirs.) It was a little like the Grand Ole Opry to country music fans, or Fenway Park to baseball fans. Us, we love burgies (in all their incarnations), and today we played in the Grand Ole Opry of Burgies. Confused? Imagine how the Germans felt. Six Americans, doubled over with laughter, saying "Burgerhaus" over and over again while their German driver looked on in disbelief. That's when you know it's time to get back in the spaceship. - Travis Book