Everyone that has driven through St. Louis, Mo has see the forever iconic Arch. A gate way of sorts that you drive by and feels welcome when you pass through. This particular time in the birth place of the self proclaimed “King of beers” I traveled with a local. Michael Colôn, who has been filling in for Chris the last few weeks while he rehabs his broken fibula back to kick drum thunder power. Michael has a natural draw to the club we’re playing. A draw of family and friends that are happy to see him on the stage playing with us as if we had been doing it for years. I’ve never heard a crowd erupt into such a white noise frenzy for a drummer at a roots music concert before. Most certainly it energized the show. creating a non stop hootenanny at the Gramophone. The sound that came out of that room was very much the shape of that old relic that symbolizes the first days of sharing music out side of live performance.  The small copper pipe that flutes into a flowering bell. Creating a horn of notes or words. The instrument that puts a natural  hum, hiss and crackle on every song. And to this day still will take you back to the first day you heard that sound, if indeed you have, and most people will even remember the song that was playing and that memory will reflect some memory of an old movie that you watched on late night tv before the age of HD. The irony on putting that particular artifact in a movie is mind blowing time travel in its self if you think about it. I hope all recording artist in all realms and those who use video/cameras, microphones and tuners on your handheld  smart phone don’t think of it as a “miracle” in today’s society. Instead give thanks to Edison and strive to be the best you can be with the tools you have. I know when I’m on stage playing to a full house,  I need those building blocks that came before me. The dedication of time, invention, passion, tenacity, opportunity, vision and persistence that help me to achieve my goals in life. And a personal thank you to the people who have improved our “sharing platforms” over the centuries (S Jobs). We’ve got some bad ass electronic devices in this world that are ever evolving and changing. Just like my kids will grow up so will good ideas and every now and again change the face of time. Gramophone to iPhone is proof you can make it if you try. On the other hand sometimes there are ideas that stand the test of time and couldn’t or shouldn’t even be messed with.

  “Call for order. Beef, hot, dog, everything soda fifty seven”, the girl behind the counter yells into the air. As she writes onto a red and white Portillo’s bag. Then she fires through a few key strokes on the register and says to me. “that will be $10.57 please yer number fifty seven thank you”. Halla? <singing coming from the line of cooks and staff> “hum hum gonna cook it just right”

  This transaction happened in about 15 seconds.

 I had my bag handed back to me at the other end of the counter in about 3 minutes full of steamy, spicy, carnivorous, flavor bombs.  An “I can’t resist!” meal in Chicago that  only takes about 4 minutes to get my fix. Even on St Paddy’s day when the streets are filled with people drunk on Guinness and Irish whiskey. Hungry for the fastest thing they can find to keep their  buzz in check. There are other places I’ve heard about or been to that I might consider better at executing one or the other (Al’s Hot Italian Beef or Hot Doug’s) but neither of those places can get it to you faster and with the showmanship of Portillo’s. However, I have now found another Chicago food staple that I really can’t believe I’ve never tried in all the times I’ve been to the windy city. I’ve known about it, I’ve asked about it, I’ve seen it, smelled it wafting through the wind like some sort of pied piper of red sauce and fresh baked bread. Never really wanted to commit to waiting for a pie that looks like I might end up with it on my clothes. Oh man, how thankful I am that I’m wrong. See I learned something the day after our first head line show at Martyr’s. That putting thought in how, when and why you order food can pay off like one of life’s last little mysteries. I I highly recommended taking this approach to any new or unfamiliar eateries you go. Or not if you have time, feel adventures, love wasting money on food that is only average to you. Some people if not most take the latter approach. Here’s mine: Ask around. A friend or local that gets that excitement in their eyes about food is a good sign. 1.Get out your smart phone (or on the dinosaur desk top) while in route or before you leave. 2. Look through the menus of the desired eatery and find out what they’re all about. Once you have an idea of the destination then is all about you might be hungry for. Decisions decisions. When I’m thinking about food it’s more about quality than quantity or price. Organizing flavor is up to the chef. Sure I’ve been let down using this method but I’ve had more success than not. And I get to be my own guide. Those of you who know me personally know that food and I battle about several things. I put limits on my pallet but I’m not afraid to try anything at least once possibly twice. And I try and stay away from all fast food fecal matter franchises/chains that target the younger pallets with clowns and cartoon characters. By know means am I an expert nor do I have the money or time to go out in an Anthony Bourdain fashion. But I  have eaten my way around the the Americas and Europe and found many peice de resistance. I would guess I consume  less than one meal a day while touring. So, naturally, I try and make it count.

 After the show at Martyr’s I found my self asking the locals where the best best Chicago Deep Dish could be found. After much debate between a group of our fans. They came to the decision that Gino’s East would be my best bet. And that ordering ahead of time or pick up would be the best bet. After a late night and most likely moving slow in the morning I did as instructed. I called Gino’s while we were in route from North Chi-town around 1 PM. Traffic is painful in the city so I figured it would take forty five minutes or so to get to our destination. Absolutely difficult to navigate a forty foot bus in downtown as we arrived about fifty minutes later. Only to find a line out the door. Good thing I called ahead, right? It still took another twenty minutes to get our box. I carry the seemingly ten pounds to the bus. Complete with plates knives and forks. Knife and fork you might be wondering? Yes. Opening the box as soon as possible, I was hit in the face with grandeur only known to dogs when scavenging. We divided up the eight slices between the six of us primates and there was nothing but silence. Well except for the occasional mmmm…F@*# that’s fantastic. The pie is basically built upside down sans the crust. Thin layer of sauce followed by cheese then a layer of crumbled sausage, mushroom and onion. One more layer of cheese and topped with a thick layer of chunky sauce. One slice will do the trick for hunger purposes, but one extra bite after another is virtually impossible to avoid. I love pizza of all types, even anchovy, but this particular pie is in my top three best slices of all time. That might not be saying much but you should give it a try and we can compare notes. Not to worry NY slices still remain number one,  but Chi-deep is different thing. Unique to itself. Very much like music, a different recipe with the same ingredients and a completely different out come.

 Just as quiet as can be. Two people are sitting down in front of each other.  One on a  wooden chair and the other on a wooden bench. They have been looking at each other, scanning the room randomly for ideas, the man in the chair leans over the acoustic guitar he’s holding and jots something down in his note book. Then he grabs his chin to think, like some sort of device for processing what he’s just written down. The other young man bumps into the ivory keys as he gets his pen off the sound board. “what about this…….?” 

The quiet time described above is a part of collaborating with another writer. Some times it can take hours and sometimes seconds. Scanning the depths of ones mind to render notes and words that will evoke an intense emotion. This is what making music is all about. Has been for all of time. The heart beat of a drum or the warmth of the musical chords, the groove of the bass notes, the sound of an alto singer that gives you images of angels when the vibrato rings out, are all things that go along with the notes and words to give them a divine intensity. As I walked through the upper floors at the Marriot Hotel in downtown Memphis, TN waring my credentials to the Folk Alliance International I witnessed countless amounts performers evoking these intense emotions. You could see the pain on the performers faces as they sang ballads and the energy of a bands excitement playing songs about cornbread and catfish. It was everywhere I turned. Everyone was there for one reason or another. But collectively we were all there keeping the spirit of folk music alive. And it is very much alive and well. While you may not think you are hearing it on the radio, or the program has been cut from your favorite station it is all around you. It’s in every style of music. It’s like the gramophone a starting point of sorts even though music has been around before the word Folk was considered a musical term. It’s a root from a very large musical tree that gets the water of ideas that fall from the sky to the leaves of expression at the tip of every limb. You see traditional folk music got right to the trepidation of hard times and the joy of coming out of them. Or the love unfortunately lost and revenge that came after. And love that might be shy or expressed. I could go on and on but hopefully you got the point. And those scenario’s are in all other genres of music in my opinion.  None of which are the same. They use many of the same ingredients but have very different stories to tell. I’m a changed man when it comes to understanding the greatness of folk and I owe a big thank you to Folk Alliance International for giving me a new perspective.

To those creators  in music. Keep moving the ideas around. We all want to hear!