And it was completely worth it – for the hot-dog carts and honky tonks alone. The occasion was a showcase for Live on Stage, an entertainment company that books community concerts around the country. Each year they put together a roster of forty or so artists to offer to their clients around the USA.

They also put together a huge, awesome weekend of artist showcases. Representatives of concert associations from all over the country fly into Nashville for the showcase weekend and also to hobnob and visit with the artists and booking agents. It felt like a really fun, warm party.

This year, the event was held at The Renaissance Hotel. It was quite a venue. The stage crew and production were top notch and the performers were so, so good. We were very honored to be among them. A couple of my favorites were “The Lost Fingers,” “The Italian String Quartet,” and “The Depue Brothers.” Of course, we were the only act with a trombone player who could make his horn sound like a traffic helicopter.

You can see some of the other artists here. You may recognize some of them such as the band, Exile (whose showcase performance was excellent.)

We were very nervous before our showcase. Nathan was gnawing on his trombone (just kidding.) We had a fifteen minute sound check in the morning during which everything seemed to work well and during which we were blown away by how solicitous for us the stage crew was. They were incredibly organized. I think they had to be in order to get that many artists on and off the stage smoothly.

Our performance felt very good. There were a couple of moments that felt a little magical to me and we evidently made an impact as we received a partial standing ovation. Sam’s bright orange shoe laces and bandana stole the show. We performed our songs Chemistry, Noon O’Clock, Clueless Joy and Stuff. We had originally intended to perform The Muppet Show as well, but we timed our set before we left for Nashville and it put us just over fifteen minutes.

You may wonder how we were connected with a company in Nashville. It was thanks to Lewis County Community Concerts in Centralia, WA. In October of 2011 they invited us to be the opening act for the Carpe Diem String Quartet, who were wonderful and also on the roster of Live on Stage. We thought it was brave of LCC to book three musical geniuses and a trombone player to open for a classical string quartet, but Carpe Diem is a string quartet “that rocks” and the interesting pairing seemed to work out well. I later sent a demo to Nashville and fine folks Larry McGee and Marie Panesko from Centralia recommended us.

We have played hundreds of shows of many different kinds over the years, some for thousands of people, but this was definitely the first time we have traveled thousands of miles to perform four songs. It was fun and I hope we do it again sometime.

The dates are not completely finalized yet, but it looks like LOS booked Locust Street Taxi at 6 concerts and 8 school performances in VA, NC, KS, TX and CA in 2014. We are really looking forward to all of them and are thankful to the Live On Stage crew. We highly recommend them, and their yearly showcase, to anyone looking for a great one-stop source of talent for community concerts.

I was actually looking for a good-sized, overdue paycheck when I opened our PO Box. I found this instead, which was smaller but much more uplifting anyhow – a nice warm surprise on a cold rainy day.

Dear LST,

Here’s $20 for the Kickstarter campaign.

You deserve to be famous for sure. But my summers will be duller without the occasional sparkle of your joyous and nimble concerts.

Best wishes. If no Kickstarter, don’t return the money. Send me an old album (with “Stuff” on it if possible.) Or buy yourselves a beer.

- Dick Conway, Port Townsend, WA

Maybe we’ll do both. And even if we do get famous, we darned well better still be available for yearly nimble concerts in PT. And if I ever make it to the gym, we may even be able to keep up the “nimble” part. Thanks again for the letter, Dick.

Drums: Austen Anderson
Bass: Andrew Chard
Engineer: Tom Brown (of course)
Recorded: live in the middle of the night at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Port Hadlock, WA

One backer of the project from Olympia, WA has already taken one of three rewards available by which the backer gets to choose the title and topic of one of the songs on the album. We can’t wait to write it for him.

There are lots more crazy rewards to be had (name the album for $1000) as well as plain ol’ signed copies of the album. Take a look at the page here and watch Nathan’s charming video:
Locust Street Taxi’s Final Album (BBF)

Sasha Landis on drums