Steve's Tour Diary

  • JFK Airport, Terminal 4

    2002-12-09: Sitting here at Gate A7 and waiting for my delayed flight to take me to Amsterdam and then to Stuttgart and then finally to Berlin where I'll be playing a show with the wonderful Alejandro Escovedo and then jumping into the first day of promotion for my new album 'Static Transmission.' That's right, after a year ofmore
  • New York City

    2002-09-08: When the programming director for Delta Airlines in-flight radio and magazine contacted me to host an hour-long show about anything I chose, I wasnt at a loss for ideas. I was a DJ when I was in college (and still dabble now and then--have me up to your station when I come to town!) and this kind of stuff ismore
  • New York City

    2002-08-02: Sitting in a sweltering New York City apartment and the new Bruce Springsteen CD is on the stereo and if there was any further need to remind myself that I am back on American soil I suppose I will get such home reinforcement when I head into the East Village tonight to battle the resident hipsters for valuable air-conditioned space,more
  • New York City

    2002-07-23: In the midst of the unlikeliest of tour routing: Scotland to Cleveland to Sicily. I've had people comment incredulously on the difficulty of such travel but, to be honest, if you've got enough books, CDs and maybe a laptop and songs to write, the trip goes by pretty quickly. And gives a chance to make studied analysis of the differencesmore
  • London

    2002-07-16: The last song of the last night of a tour is certainly the chance to do something impulsive. It's a good chance for an unusual cover tune, a long jam session or even the ripping of every string from the body of the guitar (as I did after the final Dream Syndicate show in 1988). But last night in Birminghammore
  • Leaving Scotland

    2002-07-14: Every tour needs a little time for blatant and unabashed tourism and yesterday was certainly the day. The small, scenic roads that wind through the Northern Scotland countryside between Aberdeen and Inverness allowed for stops at an actual Stone Circle (druid ritual worship site constructed 4000 years ago and currently tended by cud-chewing cows who seem pretty bored with themore
  • The road to Aberdeen

    2002-07-12: The phrase 'unplugged' has become almost ubiquitous, an absolute cliche and usually a glaring inaccuracy as bands with giant PA systems, supercharged amplifiers, effects pedals and dozens of roadies to keep all of these items in line are termed 'unplugged' as long as one or two of the guitars have a big hole in the middle and could be heardmore
  • Glasgow

    2002-07-11: Deanna left the tour yesterday for a one-off gig in Mallorca (a Tom Waits related festival that I played last year) and while we miss her, we are also well aware that she's gotta be enjoying a few days in the Mediterranean sun. So we soldier on, the all-male trio version of the Songwriter Circle (with Tonya on board tomore
  • Crossing the border into Scotland

    2002-07-10: I could tell you all about the show in Manchester. I could tell you that we were able to sprawl across one of our largest stages of the tour, scattering our various instruments, notes and personal effects in every direction as though were waiting for a Greyhound bus to Kalamazoo. I could tell you that we all performed some materialmore
  • Manchester

    2002-07-09: Any night that ends in a room filled with old vinyl, drinking homemade wine and listening to Sun Ra and the Blues Project playing music inspired by the Batman TV show is just fine with me. And that was indeed the culmination of a great night in Newcastle. Our show in York had been canceled at the last minute andmore