Author Archives: Two Cow Garage

Two Cow Garage Tour Diary: Part II

AUG 4th- JACKSON, MS
Earlier in July we received an invitation to take a guided tour of Ardent Studios in Memphis, and then a guided tour of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, by the founder of Ardent, John Fry. We of course took them up on this and had an amazing afternoon with Mr. Fry hearing some pretty crazy stories. They were also re-mastering “I Am The Cosmos” while we were there and the master tapes were just sitting in a chair, which was awesome/funny. All in all one of the best side trips we’ve ever done. If you’re ever in Memphis check out the Stax Museum, it’s worth it.

After our nice afternoon we headed out for a relatively leisurely drive to Jackson, Mississippi. Everyone is in good spirits. We’ve decided that East Bound and Down is the funniest thing of the year. The previous night Mike Hale introduced us to the miracle of physics that is spinning beer. Where was Don Herbert for this bit of practical science?

The speed limit is 70. I’m cruising at about 75 laughing at someone or something. Then the trailer breaks in half. Yep. Breaks. In. Half. The van becomes almost impossible to drive. Sparks are flying down the highway. We manage to pull over on the side of the road. The chassis of the trailer was rusted through and the tongue and body are now at a ninety degree angle. But everyone is safe. No one is hurt. That’s the important thing.

The promoter of the show is an old friend, so we load what we can into our van and he drives the 60 or so miles up to get the rest of our stuff. We make the show.
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Two Cow Garage Tour Diary: Part 1

(Joel’s note: I’ll be posting these in sections as I get them, which is just now, so we’re starting at the first of the tour and we’ll work our way up to the present…)

JULY 31st – INDIANAPOLIS
Two Cow has been touring for seven years and not once in that time have we ever traveled with a trailer. We’ve debated it to the point of exhaustion and I personally have railed against it. Up until this point I have won out, maybe because I do most of the driving, or maybe because no one wanted to hear me bitch, but for whatever reason it just did not happen. Until now. The tour we are currently involved with is a package tour, a sort of revue of our record label Suburban Home Records. So, the Suburban Home Records Tour is to feature Two Cow Garage, Austin Lucas, Mike Hale, and a smattering of Jon Snodgrass. Six people all traveling in our van. I finally lost the trailer fight. I will say this, at the risk of sounding stubborn, there are pros and cons. That’s all.

So we start the tour in Indianapolis, where we are to meet Mike Hale and Austin Lucas. We’ve borrowed a trailer from a friend, and before it’s even completely loaded up we realize that the taillights are not working properly. After an hour in an Auto Zone parking lot, the decision is made that they are working “good enough” and that we should just head to Indianapolis and see how things shake out. The drive is fine and once we reach Indy we decide to spend the extra time on getting the taillights figured out, which, with the help of a nice O’Reilly’s employee, and another hour in a parking lot, we do. Or I should say Andy does, I have no fucking clue about that stuff. We meet up with Mike Hale (whom we’ve never really met), and Austin Lucas at the show, which was possibly the best show we’ve ever had in Indy. It has not been a very friendly town to us in the past. The next show of the tour is back in Columbus, which is also something we’ve never done before, played at home during a tour. We drive straight back home after the show.

AUG. 1ST – COLUMBUS
Turns out playing a show at home to kick off a tour is not a bad way to start. Even with the New Bomb Turks playing at another club we still had a great show. Austin is from Indiana but a lot of his family lives in the Ohio/Michigan/Indiana, tri-state area and he records with his father and family backing him. Several of them came out and played with him, which turned out to be pretty cool.

I don’t remember how I got home.
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