Two Choo-Choo Week

The railfluencer edition of my tour newsletter

It’s a two-choo-choo week for me. (Translation: “A week of two train rides.”)

The Sam Evian September tour party rode a cable train in Chattanooga, Tennessee—the Lookout Mountain Incline Railroad, in service since 1895.

And I rode Amtrak yesterday to St. Louis, where Casey’s sister is getting married today. Whee!

A few days after the mini-Waxahatchee tour last month, I joined Sam Evian’s tour in Upstate New York and the South. It was soooo so lovely. Sam’s musicianship and songwriting stun me. He strikes the balance between careful and carefree—deliberate, virtuosic playing that’s also wild, entranced playing—live, especially. Sam’s music pushed me and I’m heading home this week feeling like a more grown musician.

Some highlights from the run:

• Spending time with Brian Betancourt again (we met in 2014 during the first Tweedy shows, when Hospitality, in which Brian played bass, was touring with us), and Hannah Cohen, Wil Wright, and my quasi-brother, Liam Kazar.

• Playing the last drums that Levon played, at his barn in Woodstock. Liam rehearsing on Richard Manuel’s piano.

• PAVEMENT sloppy-slaying at Hopscotch Music Festival. My first time seeing them (unless I saw them as a toddler at Lounge Ax).

• Visiting close friends Brendan and Devin (and their daughter, Finn) in Eastern Pennsylvania where we burned some of the unsellable furniture from their home’s Satanist former owner.

• The gourmet meals that Sam, Hannah, and Liam cooked. The gallons of fresh ginger tea Hannah painstakingly microplaned and brewed when I had travel sickness slash cryptocovid.

• Sitting in with Sam and Hannah’s country cover band with our friends Meg and Keenan during Liam’s Isfahan pop-up dinner, pre-tour.

• Soul food in Macon and seafood in Savannah.

• SAVANNAH! What a pleasant city. Parker, a friend of the show promoter, took us on his boat to Wassaw Island. Dolphins swam alongside the boat; Parker’s adorable blond dog, Miller, barked at them from his post in the captain’s chair. Don’t tell my mom but I under-applied sunscreen on my shoulders and completely destroyed them. I’m talking three days later, my upper back was a roiling furnace of cell death and rebirth, hot to the touch. It’s feeling better now.

• El Rocko Lounge transforming from a rock club into a raging college dance club within minutes of the end of our set. One moment we were playing and the next, first-year SCAD students were making out on the venue’s short stage and getting bounced out the door for rolling too hard. El rocko on.

The last drums Levon played; Liam playing Richard Manuel’s piano, at Levon Helm Studios.

In hindsight, burning tar-based roof shingles was inadvisable.

Institutional design at its best. Flooring at a rest stop in North Carolina.

This venue thoughtfully provided a ladder for Extreme Pooping.

In every which way, a lovely tour. Thank you, Sam, thank you, Hannah, thanks to everyone who came out to hear Sam’s songs. Especially Lucinda.

Thank you too!
Spencer