Doing solo, solo

I can think of a lot of things that one lonely person needs on the road, but I can think of two things that are crucial: 1. cruise control, 2. someone who has or does mother children. Cruise control is obvious. Why a mom? It's simple. They're just concerned about you, especially if you happen to be sleeping in their home and are a singer of songs that they enjoy, even if you are a total stranger. Yes it's true, the fans are very important, but not as important as the mothers that you meet along the way. They're the ones who really get you through the tour. "Would you like to do some laundry? Can I make you a to go cup of coffee? Can I fix you some dinner? Would you like to take a bath? I made you some apple brownies." seriously, you don't get that sort of hospitality anywhere except from a mother. And then you hit the road again, well-rested with a full belly, clean jeans and the warm fuzzies.

I'm just leaving St. Louis, where I played the 4th of 8 shows with The Wood Brothers. I stayed two nights with friends of a friend of friend, Mike and Kelly. Kelly is a mom. Now you know where I'm standing. Well, I'm sitting actually, I'm driving, sort of. I've got the cruise control on and I'm typing this with my voice. Ah technology.

I'm headed to Bloomington Indiana, Twin City to Athens Georgia, or so they say. This is my first ever solo tour. Solo driving, solo loading, solo performing, solo everything. This wasn't the original plan, but Ben Lewis' flight was canceled due to hurricane Sandy, and so here I am. Anyway, it's really not so bad. In fact I'm seeing this tour as a rite of passage. I could see it being harder if the Wood Brothers weren't so sweet.

Four more shows and four more cities to go and then a long ass drive home to Nashville. Wish me luck!

Oh and happy Halloween!

Lera

NYC- Ali

I just want to throw it up for Ali.  Grazie Mille.  Sorry if I stay at your home too often.
You are a shining star onto the world.

Grazie Mille.

WOW! My face looks red.  

I've "Ben" Everywhere Man

Grand Rapids MI
Cleveland, OH
Chautaqua, NY
Westhampton Beach, NY
New York, NY
Ridgefield, CT
Philadephia, PN
Newport, RI
Lowell, MA

Not everywhere, but certainly several places, and hung out with some pretty great people.  The Davis's of Chadds Ford are wonderful people with a beautiful new deck.  And it was at their home that I finally watched Blazing Saddles.  Fantastic.  Mel Brooks and Willy Wonka are a fabulous team.  I would love to do a remake.  I would be Willy Wonka and Cleavon Little would be played by, oh I don't know, how about... and Don Cheadle!  BOOM!!!!  Now that's a remake.
And as we are on the road with Jerry Reeds grandson, Jerry Roe (who is the drummer for kd lang), I've also been dreaming of growing a mustache remaking a little film called "Gator."  Jerry Roe would play Bama McCall and I would be Gator.
I would also love to play Batman.
If you have any other suggestions of remakes that the Lera Lynn band could possibly dream of starring in, please post it on Facebook.  If someone comes up with one that makes me "LOL," I'll send you a shirt or something.
Ben's mom sent me a Rubiks cube.  It's really frustrating when you can't win.  It's a youth puzzle, and there's a million kids on YouTube that can do it.  But me... I'm just a big idiot.
We're playing Hyannis tonight on a stage that spins around!  If I said I wasn't excited, I would be a liar.

Creepy Obama Thing in Westhampton Beach.

Lera isn't ready in this photo. 

Worlds weirdest mascots.

Rotating Stage!

Practice.

The SPACE Between Fort Collins and Grand Rapids.

Sometimes you forget about things you love or move on from them for one reason or another. But forgetting means you can later rediscover. Last night in Evanston, IL., I had the opportunity to rediscover the magic of something I once held near and dear; whiskey. Bourbon to be specific. Having recently spent 2 weeks in England, driving in a backwards car on a backwards road, I wasn't able to spend as much time as usual with my old friend. Upon return to the US, as some of you know, I was hit with a quadruple health challenge. I tried everything imaginable, except whiskey. Let me tell you, Whiskey truly is a cure-all.

How is it that the road delivers us wonderful people all the time? I guess the universe approves of our ventures. We played at Space, where the owner put as much, if not more, thought into the green room as the live room. Super super rad there. Can't wait to go back. We also met the coolest, sweetest couple last night, Ernie and Quinn, of somewhere south of Chicago IL. Ernie opened the show for us and then opened his home to us for the night. They built us a fire outside, played fiddle tunes and made us pancakes for breakfast. I slept better than I have in weeks. What have we done to deserve this? Nothing probaby.

Being on the road also presents challenges, especially with respect to finding mail recepticals. Lately we've been chasing down mail people and asking them to send out our postcards. I wonder if they think they're about to be accosted, ony to be handed a pile of ridiculous post cards. You're welcome. --Lera

Fort Collins

Katie is a cat lady.  And a cat lady is a nemesis to the band, no matter how sweet, how generous, and how amiable a person is.  The Ben’s will never fully accept a keeper of cats.  Meow.  We hate our allergies. 

As we drive through Nebraska, I reflect on our time spent in Colorado.  To quote Lera Lynn, “Colorado is possibly the worst climate for a South Eastern bred singer for two reasons. 1: It’s dry.  2.  I can’t hold my whiskey.”  To quote me, “I’m from Colorado, I love it here, please stop talking about the altitude.”  One actual downside about Colorado, no Bank of America, which has led me to invent a game.  It’s a race.  First person to find out where I am, kill me and take my wallet wins way more cash than anyone should ever carry in a wallet, much less a child Velcro wallet. 

Nebraska is a perfect state for pondering questions in ones head.  Can my pin number be 5 numbers long?  If so should I switch my pin to P-I-Z-Z-A?  How much do stuntmen make a year?  How far away can Chicago be?  If someone killed me and took my wallet, how long until they guessed P-I-Z-Z-A?  I wonder what Lera’s pin is. 

You know what?  Nebraska is pretty.  We’re 82 miles from Kearny. 

You have until 12PM, 8-8-12 to kill me.

Meow!

My first burrito of the trip.  Today I had the privilege to watch a man eat a burrito, and then begin and encore burrito!  10:40 AM.  Fort Collins, Colorado.

Colorado

Dear Fans of the Blog,
I am sorry.  I am sorry that I let you down, yet again and failed to blog overseas.  More than once.
- Lera

Buon Giorno!  I'm in my home state, Colorado!  Rad.  Adam came all the way from Utah and the Knutsons were there, and my family and the Ebel's and it was Suzanne's birthday, and and and my brother had too much to drink and I'm sure today he has buyers remorse for spending like, over $100 on things he probably could have stollen out of our van.  I'm saying... I would have trusted him with the keys.
Lera has altitude sickness, jet lag, allergies and womanly times happening right now, so she's a blast.  Flat tire on E470.  Our first one.  Got it by running over a Browning shotgun choke. It was a real treat trying to figure out how to get the tire off the bottom of van... it was a mess.  Good thing Jeremy showed up and saved us from what would have been certain lateness.
Ricky came too!  All the way from Florida.
Every time I visit Colorado I wonder why I ever moved away.  What?  So that I could ultimately meet Lera and have to ride around in a van with her while she steals my Advil and tells me to stop playing my Indian flute that I bought at Heritage Square?  Hindsight = 20/20.
So many good things.  Anyways, I'm sort of busy.  I'm going to go try to find Bama McCall's grandson and hang out with him, because yes... I'm on tour with him.  And they say sequels are never as good as the original...

Our address for receiving mail is:
PO Box 214
Athens, Georgia
30606
We'd love to hear from you.

BOOM!

And now... it never happened.

I hope he gets the job.

I'm such a horrible keeper of the blog. Apologies. I know all of you have just been hanging on to the edge of your seats, anxiously awaiting my next post. Well, I have an almost excuse for my neglect. We're in the UK. Internet access is rare when you're driving all over. NO more excuses. We're relaxing in the Lake District in England after a week of traveling and performing and driving on the wrong side of the road. I will say, I'm almost a master at wrong-side driving now, except when backing up. It's backwards twice so that it's almost right. Whatever the case, it's a real brain fuck.

We played at the Secret Garden Party in England. No one told us that we'd have to traverse acres of suck-your-feet-down mud before getting to the stage. No one told us that we'd want to have water proof shoes either. I started with Chaco's. Ben with his lizard cowboy boots. Poor boots. They're in need of repair now. Eventually Ben just went barefooted. Even the costumed party goers on who knows what were giving us funny looks. We might have been 2 of 5 people in that 20,000 person festival without the rubber boots. Oops! I'm told by several that while we were on stage, playing our folky duo set, a man approached the stage and exposed himself to us. Ben says they made eye contact. Luckily I was distracted by something and missed this altogether. Phew! If you're ever in England in the "summer,"and looking for an experience, go to the not-so-secret Garden Party.

We played our first set on a river boat. Everyone gets drunk midday. They walk around on the boat and sit and listen to music. It's a good thing. I'd do it again. And again. Mary Ben's Girlfriend met us in Newcastle just before boarding the boat. I'm really glad she's here.

Tomorrow we're headed back to London, then up to Perth, Scotland to play a couple shows before heading down to the Cambridge Folk Festival. I can't believe we're already half way through this trip. I am anxious to get back to Ben Wills, and hear some bass on these songs, I can tell you that. Ben, we love you.

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