To recap a little, my band, Bel Air, decided to go on a small tour with the goal of getting the new songs that we are putting on our next album solid and tight before we record them. So, we booked a week of shows down south. Here is a chronicle of how it happened:

11/9/09 - Practice Space, Greenpoint, Brooklyn - Our second to last practice before we leave for our tour. The boys are cranky. I'm cranky. Do I really have to be around these people for a week solid? I'll never survive.

11/12/09 - Practice Space - Our last practice before tour. The crankiness is gone and a feeling of senior-itis pervades the room. The music is well rehearsed and we can't wait to leave.

11/13/09 - At Work - Midtown, Manhattan - Our music WAS well rehearsed until we decided to re-work our newest song AFTER our last practice. We are now rehearsing via email. Demos are going back and forth with accompanying notes. It's not the ideal way to do things but it's all we have left.

11/15/09 - The Van (White 15 passenger named Kansas) - Manhattan - And, we're off! We picked up some I heart NY t-shirts on St. Mark's on our way out of town for a friend in Savannah. If you fast forward to Savannah you will see that we forgot to give them to her. Typical musicians.

Later on, my bandmate Jeff said that he read online about a recent movement to ban 15 passenger vans from existence because of safety concerns. Apparently they flip and kill people. Now, nobody wants to drive.

Kansas on the road and our hula-dancing mascot, Cheyenne.

Philly - Our first show. Friend and Philly resident, Mike "Slomo" Brenner showed up to sit in on lap steel with us. He played two songs and completely killed it. We felt really lucky to be able to play with him. People were actually in the audience (and dancing) during our set at midnight on a Sunday. Could it have been a good show in Philly? I didn't think those existed!

11/16/09 - Wilmington, NC - The Juggling Gypsy - On the outskirts of town but conveniently located across the street from an ABC liquor store, is the Juggling Gypsy. It is everything that the name conjures up - a hippy hookah bar!

Bel Air frontman and life-long hippie, Jeff Mensch.

It's a very DIY venue but they hooked us up with free food, drink and shisha! We played for two hours and successfully worked the newly arranged/never practiced song into the set without a problem. We all nailed it. Our bass player, Turner purchased a handle of Old Crow at the ABC store which we dove into after the show at the Burgaw Motel in Burgaw, NC. Thriving metropolis.

11/17/09 - Winston Salem, NC - The Garage - This was the best venue we played, hands down. The sound was great thanks to a sound guy who, we found out later, knows a lot of the same people that we know. He engineered a record for a band that I used to play on the same bills with at least 8 years ago called Crazee and Heaven. I loved that band. Small world. The bartender was really nice and had a sweet mustache which never hurts.

In the background: Matt Smith, John Howie Jr. and Billie Feather. In the foreground, our bartender at the Garage, Doug.

We played with Billie Feather and Matt Smith from the Darnell Woodies and John Howie Jr. who has the richest baritone voice I've heard in a long time.

Matt Smith. He had a lot of brilliant lyrics including one that was something like “I know I look good in black leather.” Awesome. He donated his share of the door to us. What a guy.

Billie Feather and John Howie Jr. in the process of breaking everyone’s hearts.

11/18/09 - Asheville, NC - Bobo Gallery - Cool town! We spent the afternoon in record stores, vintage clothing stores and coffee shops. I had dreamed of visiting the Biltmore Estates while in Asheville but the tickets would have cost more than our van rental. The Vanderbilts are trying to get their hands on every last dollar out there, apparently. Oh, well. Maybe next time. The show was in a small art gallery. We played well. The night before, as we were sipping Old Crow in the hotel room, we talked about making a change to the new song. It wasn't until we had launched into that song that I remembered that conversation and realized that we had never discussed it sober. Were we making the change or not? I decided to go for the change hoping that everyone remembered the conversation and would follow my lead. They did, and the song went beautifully.

We opened for a band with the unfortunate name Shod My Feet. Their jazzy keyboard rock took a second to get used to but by the end of their set we were all mesmerized by it - particularly the lead singer's voice. I can't really explain it. You have to hear it with your own two ears. We got our hands on a copy of their CD and listened to it a couple times in the van. Their songs became a bit of a theme.

11/19/09 - Auburn, AL - 8th and Rail - This venue was actually in Opelika which I learned after saying "It's great to be here in Auburn" or something to that affect into a mic on stage. Hey, Springsteen does it too! We all messed up one of our new songs because we talked about it too much and in the end none of us were on the same page. After that Turner said to me "I don't know about this 'touring to get tight' thing". Yeah. Me neither. If we had played the same set every night it would have been a different story but that wasn't possible on this tour.

11/20/09 - Savannah, GA - Hang Fire - We played with a band called Damon and The Shitkickers who do dead-on covers of classic country songs. They were great.

There were chalk boards in the bathroom at Hang Fire. “Bel Air was cool but bring on the Shitkickers”

Damon and the Shitkickers.

It was a fun night, everyone got drunk, I narrowly escaped eating a foot-long hot dog at 2am (thankfully), and we passed out in a hotel room after a brief, albeit violent, pillow fight. By now the bottle of Old Crow was flying with one wing.

11/21/09 - Raleigh, NC - Slim's - Last show. I was able to catch up with some good friends at this show so it was especially fun for me. We had a great crowd and the new song went really well. We finally killed the Crow and were put up by this nice guy:

Richard Bacchus

11/22/09 - The Van - The long ride home. 10 hours from Raleigh to Brooklyn. There we unloaded the van then drove back into New Jersey, returned the van at Newark and then headed back into the city to go home. “Long day” doesn't quite sum it up.

This definitely wasn’t the most raucous tour I’ve been on. In fact, I’ve nicknamed it the Mature Tour ‘09. It turns out that we’re getting a little old for crashing on people’s floors and drinking till we puke. Regardless of that, the tour was a real inter-band bonding experience. I know a lot about those guys that I didn't before and we're a better band because of that. There are more stories than I've put in this tour diary but they'll come out in good time.

I've got a great recommendation for you this month: Deer Tick. Their most recent album "Born on Flag Day" is the best thing I've heard since I laid ears on Justin Townes Earle. Their great songwriting is influenced not only by Dylan but by early rock 'n' rollers like Richie Valens. They've been touted as the second coming of Whiskeytown and I can see that if only for their much-written-about stage antics. If any of this namedropping appeals to you, you will love this album.