Other blog...

Hello wonderful blog readers! I don't know if you've noticed, but we've made a new blog at the site www.ellerystimulus.com, and to save some time and confusion, we're only going to be updating that one. Thanks for your patience and following! Please consider heading there and subscribing - your time, attention, and listening mean the world to us. :-)

The update from Massachusetts

Given our questionable vehicle-luck on the tour so far, we were a little intimidated by the downpour that accompanied us from Newburgh NY to Natick MA yesterday. It was a steady, driving rain - The kind that occasionally engulfs the road ahead so that you have to drive under 40mph on the interstate if you want to see clearly.
But our quickly-diminishing collection of podcasts was good company, offering a bit of peace & distraction (the positive kind)... And even through that Corridor of Immense Traffic in Connecticut, all was refreshingly Well.

Miraculously, the rain stopped as soon as we pulled into The Center for Arts Natick, and we loaded our gear into the building sans soaking and said hello to some of the kindest folks around.

The Center for Arts Natick ("tCAN") is a beautiful converted firehouse... It's full of historic vibe, and the sound is amazing in the performance room. Lucy sound-checked with Billy Joel's "Goodnight My Angel" (which I hadn't heard in years and is as beautiful as I remembered,) and we took the time to settle in after the drive. We let our jaws drop at the amazing paintings newly-installed on the walls of the performance space, which were done by local high school students from Walnut Hill Art School. These are these stunning, deeply-emotional portraits that left us in disbelief about the young talent... And grateful for the art, which seemed ideal for the night's music.

And we couldn't have asked for a lovelier experience: A nearly sold-out show, the opportunity to play a beautiful (and beautifully-tuned) grand piano, a fabulous audience, and a fine artist to open for. So many thanks to tCAN and the crowd tonight-- We loved loved loved connecting with you.

The winding roads of Massachusetts have always enthralled us. The scenery is charming and mysterious in this altogether New England way, and we can't help ourselves. It often feels magical. One of these dark and tree-lined, spotted-with-lovely-cape-cods routes led us to our hotel last night.
And we may be easily-pleased these days, but we've found ourselves tonight in a lovely, clean, and safe place nestled against a couple rolling hills, and wow, that front desk guy was such a human being - absolutely kind. We're laying our heads down tonight with some deep breaths.

The Early-April Tour So Far

It's our first tour since the Stimulus began, and we're racking up our share of adventures...

The Early-April Tour So Far:

• Day Minus-One: Tasha loses her voice. (Come on!) New bag of cough drops saves the day. (Leaves me smelling like medicine @ our shows, but -- singing.)


• Off to Akron.


• Day One: Stranded north of Columbus because ignition won't turn. AAA guy saves the day, which gets us to Akron, where Justin's cousin-the-awesome-mechanic REALLY saves the day.
  

  

  
  
• Off to the University.


• Day Two: Flat tire for no identifiable reason. Fix-a-Flat and nearby tire&lube place (and new tire) saves the day.


• Off to Pittsburgh.


• Day Three: Leave early from Pittsburgh for Penn Tech in Williamsport. Spend 80 minutes getting out of the city; now running VERY late. Construction on every state hwy and interstate, ALL the way to Williamsport. (No really: every highway & interstate. And we hear this is typical of Pennsylvania; anyone want to verify this rumor?) So: Oh the angst! Arrival time: 15 minutes after showtime. In this case, the incredible patience of the college staff (and our kind listeners) saves the day.


• Off to Newburgh NY for the night.


• Day Three (later): Check into name-brand hotel that is inexplicably skanky. We are disturbed upon entry... Then the toxic cleaner-fumes give us crazy headaches & sore throats. Disturbing--->Scary! Check out (with grace from a kind front-desk clerk), and drive down the road.


• Day Three (evening): Explore Algonquin Park in Newburgh.







• Breathe fresh air, take pictures, watch the sunset. Are totally wrong about what we think all those old stone buildings are.







• Go to the PetsMart across the street & de-stress by staring at adoptable cats. Go back to cower in our room for a while. In short: Slowly perk up. (Chocolate and those "veggie chips" from Whole Foods certainly help.) (And Colbert.)


• Currently: Justin's playing guitar along to some music on his laptop, but he's wearing headphones & I can't hear anything but the (not-plugged-in) electric. Sounds cool. And hilarious.


• I'm turning my phone off with a delight reserved for the most hermit-ish of hotel dwellers. "Ha," I say. "If you call, I can't hear it." (I mean this with love.)

Speaking of love, oh, has it been good to connect with kind audiences. With these eventful days we've been arriving at shows in a rather ragged and desperate state... Only to find the loveliest of people waiting for us. So, our many thanks to U of A, Howler's, and PennTech for welcoming us--

• Tomorrow: The drive to Massachusetts: always beautiful. And we'll collide with Lucy Kaplansky's tour again at the lovely Center for Arts Natick--