Outta Sight

I can still remember the fear of the unknown road. Ominous tales from the more seasoned musicians I knew warned that tour either caused you to quit the dream of being in a band or left you hooked for life. As we started touring it become apparent that we were of the latter breed. We became addicted to the weird bars and gas station stops and the random acts of kindness from strangers that we encountered on the road. It still shocks me how often people will answer yes to the question, “Can five doods you don’t know come over and crash on your floor tonight?” It’s the unplanned happenings that make the monotonous 6 hour/day drives seem like nothing.

Case and point: Kelcey got to talking to the woman next to him on the flight home from our first tour in the UK. Kelcey explained how he was a musician, and Diane, who was finishing a vacation by visiting Los Angeles with her mother, offered to put us up any time we were near her home in Vermont. Diane would later write to inform us that she had, as Kelcey had asked her to, checked out our music, and that the song Airplanes especially spoke to her as she had gone through a recent death of someone close to her. Three months later we are playing a show in Burlington Vermont and racking our brains to think of a friend or relative whose house we could commandeer for the night. Diane shows up at the concert and graciously offers her place, a beautiful home in the woods of Vermont with several open rooms where her children have long since vacated. The comfortable sleep space and homemade breakfast in the morning were incredibly rejuvenating to a group of exhausted people.

In the morning we said our thank you’s, took a group photo, and backed into the mud of her driveway, getting completely stuck. We tried everything to get the van unstuck and we’re at it for over an hour before the entire community began to get involved. A 70 year old woman and her grandson helped us put dry brush under the tires. In the end it took two tractors and two hours to finally pull the van free. Though it was still early by musician standards, we played an acoustic version of Airplanes for our new friends as a thank you, barely making it to our show in Montreal in time to play. But rather than frustrated, I felt completely refreshed by the experience, remembering why it is that we love the touring life.

Taylor
Local Natives