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I awoke on Thursday morning still buzzing with excitement from the night before at the Robin Theatre in Lansing. My hometown kickoff show had been a huge success, and I was thrilled. But, the time had now come to set out on the road for a full month of shows. Hometown gigs with big support were one thing. Convincing strangers in other parts of the country was another hill to climb altogether.
Last summer, on my way to Pittsburgh, my car died an hour south of Detroit. Miraculously, with the kindness of an amazing friend, I managed to make it to Pittsburgh just in time. This year, I was hoping for a much smoother experience. Thankfully, the ride to Pittsburgh was fairly breezy and without any drama whatsoever. I was thrilled.
I pulled into to town and made my way to Old Thunder Brewing to meet my friend Rob for a pint before the show. Built into an old WPA era Post Office, Old Thunder is a lovely spot with huge windows along the back of the brewery that look out over some of the city. I caught up with Rob and enjoyed a couple of very solid pints of beer, including a delicious ESB that was served on cask.
By about 5:30, I was at the home of Barret Ries and Becky Culyba, my very generous hosts for the evening. Becky and Barret had hosted me last year and we’d managed to have an amazing night despite my automotive disaster. They have a gorgeously restored three story house in a beautiful Pittsburgh neighborhood filled with historic homes.
Barret helped me load my gear into the house and I managed to get set up in fairly short order. Last year on the road, I took way too much stuff. This trip, I made a conscious effort to minimize gear wherever possible. Between PA gear, instruments, cameras for recording the set, and a minimal video projection rig, there are still a lot of things to organize, cart, and cram in the Buick.
Guests began to arrive for the show and folks began to catch up or get to know each other. The best part of these house shows is the before and after of the music itself, at least for me. In those moments, I get the opportunity to learn about the folks coming to see me play.
At Barret and Becky’s, the crowd was a combination of their friends, and a couple of my friends and fans. It was a truly lovely crowd for a school night. As the bells struck eight, I made my way to the “stage” and played an hour of songs and shared a number of stories about my tunes, and my life.
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We finished the night with a couple of celebratory drinks and a range of great conversation. As always happens at these gigs, I made new friends as we talked politics, music, movies, and more. Standing in Becky and Barret’s kitchen, and watching the fascinating conversation pour out from the space, I was reminded of Kerouac and his days on the road.
Without any of the debauchery, I too am out on the road visiting folks in their homes and talking about big ideas, and exciting each other with culture, words, and passion. It felt marvelous to be in a room full of smart, empathetic grown ups who were well aware of what a beautiful night we were sharing.
After a nearly full night’s sleep, I awoke early to begin to put my gear together for the drive to Syracuse. Slowly, the rest of the slumber party crew made their way downstairs, as several friends had stayed the night in the large old house. Over coffee, we continued talking and sharing ideas with each other. Eventually, I had to load my shit in to the Buick and hit the road once again. I doled out hugs to Barret and Becky and pointed the car northward.
The drive to Syracuse was a relatively uneventful five hours and change. I pulled up in front of the home of my friend Blake Propst around 4:30 in the afternoon. Originally, Blake had hoped we could have the show outside in his lovely backyard, but the weather had other ideas. With nothing but dark clouds and rain in the forecast for the totality of the evening, Blake and his bandmate Seth began setting up the living room for a show.
As we waited for folks to arrive after setting up, I hopped over to Dorian’s a nearby Greek pizza joint that has been in the same spot for decades. Dorian’s is the sort of hole in the wall local joint that I adore. It’s grubby, unkempt, and practically falling down. It’s a rectangular dinging room with a handful of tables, a counter, and a small kitchen. The joint may not be much to look at, but damn do they serve a good pie.
Shortly after I returned to the house, guests began to arrive. It was to be a small crowd that evening as we were competing against Taste Of Syracuse, an annual food and music festival that features multiple stages of music of the weekend. The best part; it’s free. So, with a big name game to compete against, we would have to soldier on with a small, but strong showing of folks.
My friends Kevin and Carlo from the Stand Up with Pete Dominick community came out to see the show. Carlo and his daughter Kathleen had driven down form Ontario just to see the show. Not only had they driven hours to get to the Matty C performance, that night was also Kathleen’s birthday!
A few other attendees flowed into the living room and we started things off with a set of Tayisha. I wish I had more info on Tayisha, but I forgot the name of her band that she mentioned and because she was a late fill-in, her info is not included in the event pages we made for the show. Her set was a powerful combination of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey. Tayisha’s booming voice is gorgeous and she controls the dynamism of it very well.
I took the stage next and played about 35 minutes of tunes to the appreciative crowd. The set was quick and confident. I could really feel the power of my voice in Blake’s living room. With a third night’s set in a row under my belt, I felt confident and assured about playing in a way that is uncommon for old Matty C.
Blake and Seth played the final set of the night and tore it up. Blake plays a stand up bass along with Seth’s acoustic guitar and the pair meld harmonies, percussion and power to conjure a lovely concoction that is part folk, part punk, part bluegrass. They had not intended upon playing, but two artists cancelled the week of the show, and Tayisha and The Old Main stopped up to the plate to knock it out of the park.
As we stood around chatting with each other and enjoying the evening, Blake got a text from a musician couple in town who were curious if I had finished playing yet. Specifically, Susie wanted to know if I had played The Ravens.
Susie and her husband had seen me a couple of year’s ago when I had played at Blake’s with my pals in the Wild Honey Collective. She had loved and remembered my song and wanted to hear it. So, we waited for the Colemans to arrive and I grabbed another beer.
Eventually, everyone settled in to the living room again once our additional guests had arrived. I obliged the very kind request and happy played The Ravines. It was an odd but pleasurable sensation to get a request via text during the show. It was especially lovely that she remembered my song after hearing it just once.
Instead of coming up for just one song, I asked The Old Main to join me or a John Denver three chord classic. We played and all sang together on ‘Back Home Again’ and the crowd joined in as well. It was a lovely end to a beautiful night of music.
In the morning, I was up early, as I often am. I quietly loaded up all of my gear and packed the car. The sun was poking through a few great clouds as I headed back to the west for a visit with Kevin, Carlo and Kathleen at Kevin’s amazing farm.
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Last year, Kevin hosted me for a show at his gorgeous farm, Slate Hill Edible Forest. The expansive property is part orchard, part beekeeping operation, and part active forest. Kevin gave us a tour of the grounds and shared his plans for the future. While I had seen this before, it was all new to Carlo and Kathleen and they were quite taken with the whole operation.
Sadly, the couple of hours we had together at Kevin’s disappeared quickly and it was time for each of us to head our own way. I said my goodbyes and doled out hugs. I wished Kathleen a happy birthday one last time, and I hopped in the car for the short drive to Rome, NY and the Copper City Brewing Company.
Cheers,
Matty C