You Can Get There From Here

10 years ago this past summer I finally entered the world of the innerwebz. Suddenly it seemed to make destinations such as Raleigh feel less distant. Just reading about shows when I happened upon a copy of the Spectator or the Independent was cool enough for me but it wasn’t enough for me to act on instinct to travel the distance. With the web I could map it all out; the mileage, the time, the money, all of the logistics. With friends and relatives in the area I also had a place to stay. I think my first trip up here was for Southern Culture on the Skids at the Cats Cradle in the winter/early spring of ’97. The show was sold out but a kind couple gifted my brother and I with a pair of extra tickets they had won. Zen Frisbee opened and even had the balls to cover SCOTS’ own Shotgun during their set. My brother had so much fun he danced a hole in his sock. I don’t recall how much of a role the web played in that trip but it definitely played a huge part in my next journey to the area.

Some time in the mid-90s Son Volt’s Drown single got the best of me. It got to me to the point where I made the trip from Swansboro to Tracks (formerly Record Bar) in Jacksonville one night just to buy their debut album, Trace. I had been reading about this “alt.country” thing here and there over the years and even had an Uncle Tupelo record (Anodyne), one I really never paid much mind to at the time but the subsequent off-shoot groups Wilco and Son Volt were starting to get my attention. Couple this with a burgeoning local alt.country scene and I was finding new interest in local music again. Namely Whiskeytown, whose singer I heard hailed from Jacksonville. After purchasing a compilation of mainly local bands (Revival Vol. 1: Brunswick Stew n’ Pig Pickin’ on Yep Roc) I could actually sample what these bands sounded like. I was somewhat aware of Whiskeytown through my brief tenure at WSFL in New Bern where we had their first single (though I don’t recall it ever being played on the air). I also remember the initial buzz around them with the inescapable “alt.country Nirvana” tag thanks to the antics of frontman Ryan Adams. The sampler also introduced me to the Backsliders, Trailer Bride, Six String Drag, Two Dollar Pistols and Glory Fountain. In fact, I think I even bought the Backsliders debut before I purchased my first Whiskeytown record (Strangers Almanac) but I digress…

It’s the fall of 1998 and a listing for Whiskeytown at the Brewery in Raleigh is tugging at me. It’s on a Thursday night but thanks to a fairly flexible work schedule I’m able to come in for half a day on Friday so I can attend the show. When I referred to my second trip to Raleigh for a local show as a “journey” I meant it. Somewhere on I-40 near Meadow, NC I start having a rather bumpy ride. I pull over on the shoulder of the road to discover I have not one but two flat tires on my van. After a tow truck ride into town and having the tires replaced I’m back on the road. When I arrive at the show openers Lou Ford from Charlotte are just finishing up their set. As Whiskeytown’s arrival grows near the house music gets louder as a lone spotlight shines on a drumkit with Ryan’s guitar leaned up against it. Soon they take the stage and Ryan explains Caitlin Cary will do most of the talking this evening so he can avoid putting his foot in his mouth. The songs are mostly new, many of which still haven’t appeared on a proper Whiskeytown record. The set is also peppered with cuts from their newest album at the time, Strangers Almanac. The first set is over far too quickly and the band is back onstage to close out the night. If I thought the first set was brief, I was in for a huge surprise with the second. Before I knew it amps were being punctured with guitar necks as the band shook up their beers and sprayed the audience. All this amongst ear piercing feedback that recalled Sonic Youth (I’d find out years later the closing song in question was a Whiskeytown original called Piss On Your Grave). I didn’t know what hit me but whatever it was, I enjoyed it. It seems like the show had barely started before the houselights went up and the concert was over. I had a fleeting moment to catch Ryan’s ear as he emerged from the dressing room so I told him of my trip from his hometown, complete with two flat tires along the way, only to arrive and hear a set that lasted barely over an hour. His response? “Sometimes it just happens that way”. At the time I was a bit peeved but as the years have gone by I feel fortunate just to have seen Whiskeytown in any form.

My first Guitartown gathering, the parking lot at Walnut Creek prior to Wilco and R.E.M. taking the stage on my birthday, August 27th, 1999.

Fast forward to the spring of ’99 and I have somehow stumbled upon a link to a Triangle based music listserve called Guitartown with an emphasis on the local alt.country scene. Shortly thereafter I joined up and soon find myself traveling to the area much more frequently. Reflecting upon the years I can’t even begin to count up the number of times I’ve hit I-40 from Swansboro for various live music locales in the Triangle. It all began with a Trailer Bride show at the Brewery that summer, just a few weekends prior to R.E.M. playing Walnut Creek with Wilco where I met some of my newfound Guitartown friends for the first time. Some of the members of the list have come and gone over the years while a handful of folks that were there in the very beginning have remained. I wasn’t there at the start but I got there as quick as I could.

In the last 9 years I have made various attempts to move to the region I found so rich with music and friendship. I miss the coast but due to circumstances beyond my control my family had to part with a home we’d had there since the early 70s. In the last couple of years I have fallen upon hard times on the work front. Nothing seemed to work out. After a considerable stretch of this, some dear friends in Raleigh offered to open up one of the rooms in their home to me. This would not only get me out of the former hellhole I was living in (Tarboro, a nice enough town but not much goes on there) but allow me to be in a city where I’m at most every weekend anyway, not to mention having many more prospects on the job front.

In March of this year Guitartown turned 10. Oddly enough, now that I've finally arrived the founder of the list (Alison Williams) has plans to move to Boston this summer. She will be dearly missed but I remain eternally grateful for the community she helped create and for the many friends I've made as well as all the great music I've had the pleasure of hearing over the past 10 years, none of which would have ever happened if I didn't stumble upon that link to Guitartown way back in the summer of 1998 whilst surfing the "series of tubes" known as the internet.

Not long ago, a very dear friend proofread this essay I've been working on since arriving in Raleigh last August. She thought it was good but it needed an ending. 9 months later that ending is still writing itself. I'm just glad to finally be where I've struggled so long and hard to be for the last 10 years. Thanks to all of my friends who've been kind enough to welcome me into their homes over the years, here's to all the great music we've shared along the way. The next part of my journey is just now beginning.

Getting Situated In Raleighwood

A couple of years ago I tried to set up a wireless network at the beach between my brother's PC and my Mac but it just wasn't happening. If there was a way for it to work I couldn't figure it out, especially after spending countless hours on the phone with Tech Support and trying various products they assured me would "do the trick". Fast forward to the summer of 2008 and my arrival in Raleigh. The cats I'm living with have a wireless network already set up so it was just a matter of purchasing a wireless adapter from the nearest electronics behemoth. Immediately upon installation the network showed up on my computer but I was unable to launch my web browser. After using the OS X internet setup assistant I saw my iGoogle theme suddenly appear in the background. I'm not sure what I did but whatever it was, I am now connected to the innerwebz. Now, if I can just keep my roommates from setting my homepage to one of the many feline related websites out there...