Greetings, Appalachia. (Lexington, Virginia)
We’re making our way West… we’ve “turned the corner,” as the saying goes…
Cruising through Appalachia right now, with beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains off to our left. We spent the night relaxing on the farm outside of Charlottesville last night, after having spent the day walking around Charlottesville, seeing the sights. What a gorgeous town. We walked the University of Virginia campus, which is where our esteemed bass player went to college, so he was able to give us a great tour. We saw Edgar Allen Poe’s dorm room (which they have set up with 1800’s style furniture as he would have had it), the “Rotunda” designed by Thomas Jefferson, the serpentine brick walls designed by Jefferson (brick walls that are only one brick thick, but curved to stay upright and strong), the pavilion gardens designed by Jefferson, the music hall, the big lawn behind the rotunda, and “the corner,” which is the “college-y” neighborhood next to the campus. We ate some delicious bagel sandwiches at Bodo’s, and then cruised down to downtown Charlottesville to check out some local venues. We saw Rapture, the former Gravity Lounge, the big Charlottesville Pavilion outdoor venue, and Miller’s, the tiny jazz bar that Dave Matthews worked and played at when DMB was first forming. DMB’s manager, Coran Capshaw, is featured on the cover of the local newspaper with the title “Coran Capshaw is #1.” Evidently this week’s edition of the paper profiles the top ‘power brokers’ in Charlottesville’s entertainment industry, and Coran tops the list. He owns half the commercial real estate in town, books virtually all of the live shows in town via his “Starr Hill Presents” promotion company, and he owns MusicToday.com, which powers online merch sales and distribution for the biggest names in music (Coldplay, DMB, Metallica, U2, and on and on). Ya, I’d say he’s doing alright for himself.
And so now we leave all of that behind us as we ride up and down the mountain passes of Appalachia. We’re going ‘up’ right now, with some semi trucks around us, but in general the interstate is pretty wide open, which is nice. We had seen on the weather channel that the forecast was looking rough for our drive… severe storms, t-storms, tornadoes, and the like… but so far it’s just been drizzling on us.
Man, the view off to the left right now is incredible – a huge valley full of trees and the occasional open green pasture, with the 4,000 foot mountain peaks on the horizon, with some misty fog from the rain sitting down in the valleys. Looks like a postcard.
Tonight we play in Yellow Springs, Ohio… about 6 hours from where we are now. This is our second time playing there, so we know what to expect, which is nice. The last time we played there, Dave Chapelle came in and danced for a few songs. The owners of the club are fantastic, and they own a little house that they give to touring artists for the night. We’ll be staying there for the night before driving on to Kansas City tomorrow.
I’ll post Charlottesville and UVA photos from Anton’s camera later today (he’s driving right now, but he’ll get me the pics when we change up drivers).
Hasta for now…