ToI: The Kurtz Days
Friday morning we picked up Craig and Michael (drums and guitar) from the airport and together we headed down to the DE-MD High School Synod gathering. After a stop, per Michael’s request, at Wawa we arrived at Ocean City MD mid afternoon. We were greeted by a ton of helpful High Schoolers who quickly loaded in all our stuff – up to this point we had only been doing acoustic stuff but now we got to bring in the electric stuff too. Here’s what they brought in:
2 electrics, 3 amps, two pedal boards, electric lap steel, acoustic lapsteel, banjo, mandolin, melodica, xylophone, 2 acoustics, a bass, small keyboard and merch.
Indulgent. But, I’d like to point out that everything was played during the weekend. We made good use of our resources. I also learned that you can quietly play a small xylophone with brass fingerpicks. Good to know.
It was a great band. Micah switched over to bass and along with Craig on drums they kept us all together. Michael did his thing that he does so well on electric, I got to fill in on whatever was left, usually mandolin or banjo, but there was room for slide and electric stuff too. Rachel Kurtz hammered out her songs and we backed her up and got all kinds of great compliments. It was a vocationally affirming weekend.
Like every other day of the tour we were up till at least midnight and every morning I was awake by 7 – usually earlier. It allowed me to get a few runs in, but really I would have appreciated my body letting me sleep in a bit later.
We wrapped up the weekend with lunch at Panera (my new favorite chain when traveling) and Micah and I said goodbye, got back in the van, and drove another 8 hours towards home.