Summer Tour 2022!
It’s that time of year now where every artist feels the pressure of “making it happen again,” and every moment is spent with our wheels turning about the next trip, practicing our songs in between. We sit still at our computer or with our phone, but our brains are moving about a thousand miles a minute trying to plan the next big adventure. And at bedtime we crash from mental exhaustion. But it’s all more than worth it, because we get to look back on what we accomplished in the whole year…
It’s so hard for me to believe that this whole tour is almost over! We honestly didn’t expect to play this much in 2022 being a new group on the scene. But the Lord has been and continues to be so good to us, and I just want to be quick to thank Him for this list of shows that we’ve been working our way through for the past two months. I don’t have enough time to recap every one of them, but I will highlight some of my favorites :)
We started the summer out at Bethel Church of Midland doing a gospel set for their inaugural ArborFest! We were there with our friends Chosen Road and High Road, and got to meet Jason Crabb as well. We pulled a double header that day and rode over to Mongomery General Store where we played almost two hours of music for an intimate audience setting. I think we all remember the fabulous wood-fired pizza and pop we had afterwards. Nothing like an old-timey soda!
The next couple weeks found us making our first roadtrip of the year, to Tennessee in our new-old Toyota Sienna. That definitely brought back memories of my and Autumn’s teenage years before we learned how to drive. Mom and daddy would haul us and Paul around to our shows, and we’d be packed down with instruments, suitcases, and an upright bass slid between the armrests of the back seats of their Odessey! So much fun. We also made sure to stop at the brand-new Buc-ee’s in Crossville, TN. Y’all, I ain’t never seen so many people in one place. But that food sure was good.
That weekend we performed for the first time at the Knoxville Visitor’s Center on Blue Plate Special! We shared the stage with Knoxville native Kevin Mahoney. That was a lot of fun! They had such a great crowd and we hope to do it again soon. That day we also pulled a double header and drove three more hours to make our Nashville debut at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens! They had their first ever Bluegrass Under the Stars event, and we were honored to share the stage with The Grascals and have Kyle Cantrell of Bluegrass Junction bring us onstage. It threatened to storm all evening, but it held off until the Grascals were allllllmost done. The sky opened up at about 9:15pm and Daniel and I ran to the front of the stage and just do-see-doed right in front of the stage as the Grascal’s finished their last song. Drenched. Soaked. It was hilarious.
The next show we did was a hometown show for Autumn and I. We’d never done a morning worship service at our home church before, but it was really good. Our pastor had gone on sabbatical and asked us to fill that Sunday for him. I’m so glad he did! The week after that Daniel and I flew across the country to perform with our buddy Nick Dumas as part of his new band Branchline. It was so good to spend some time out west again! We played four shows out there with him, Andrew Knapp, Will McSeveney, and Michael Kilby. Truly some of the best grass we’d been able to be a part of. Nick has a new project coming out on Skyline Records out of Nashville and he had me play fiddle and sing on it, so this string of shows was to help promote that. Y’all are really gonna love the songs he’s done. It is a killer record!
In our downtime we got to see some pretty awesome sights. We went up through Stephen’s Pass and saw the mountains and got in the river off the side of the highway. Nick said that it was snowmelt from Mount Rainier. Simply gorgeous. We also chased trains and rode ferries.
The only downside to our PNW trip was that I came down with THE most random sinus infection EVER. Like, usually if I get sick it starts out as a little scratch in my throat and then I’ll gradually get sicker, but no. This thing hit me like a freight train five songs into our very first show out there. I never saw it coming. It progressed quickly and I was able to get through the shows, but I had to back out of singing lead on a few of them. Nick gave me some dayquil/niquil and I pumped vitamins like crazy. The next week we had our debut appearance at Milan Music Fest in Michigan, and a weekend run of shows after that, so we were just praying I could get better enough to get through those too. The evening we landed at home, my band came and spent the night with us in Newton so we could leave out the next morning for Michigan.
Our first show was at 2:00 that Wednesday, and the sinus-y stuff was still lingering, but it was a fun set! We were supposed to play again that night at 7:00, but a terrible storm came through and completely knocked out the power around the whole campground! We opted to do our set down in their pavillion where folks were congregating and waiting out the storm, but with no power we couldn’t plug in Paul’s bass amp, so the festival promoter asked us if we could come back the next morning and do our set then. Of course we said yes, we were just thrilled to even be there! So we did one song and tried to sing louder than the pouring rain on the tin roof, and told the kind folks that we’d be back the next morning at 10:30.
They were so sweet to come back and hear us that early. I was still stuffy and trying to be careful with my voice. One song we do is called “Shoulders” by for King & Country, and the chorus has a line that says “You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on Your shoulders”. I had to hold back tears while singing that song, because for the past week the Lord had been carrying my weakness and sickness, and helping me through all the many shows we had. I felt so blessed to be back on that stage, and the people even asked us to do one more! I joked with them and said “It’s too early for an encore!” and they just laughed. We sang one more, and just like that our time at Milan had come and gone.
We loaded up the Sienna and got on the road to our next stop in Ohio for our first time at the Sterling Bluegrass Jamboree. Of course it would come up ANOTHER big terrible storm and knock the power out AGAIN! They had to call the power company to come repair the box. Sawyer said, “Welp, we’re two for three!” But within 40 minutes or so it was working, and the shows were able to proceed right on time! The Lord is good!
That night we stayed in the most beautiful AirBnb we’ve ever seen! It was an old refurbished 1830’s house, and we could hardly get ready for bed for all the ooh-ing and ahh-ing and exploring we were doing. Jackson, Ohio, y’all. If you ever need a place we 10/10 recommend there. I’ll try to share the link here.
Finally on Friday we played at the Mercer County fair, and wouldn’t you know it was threatening to storm again. John Holder was doing sound and we’d told him what happened with our previous two shows. He said, “Well, if it does storm the power WILL go out, but it won’t be the lightning’s fault; it’ll be me!” We just laughed. We wound up having a small crowd because of the weather but it was a great set nonetheless! We had fun.
On into August we performed at Sawyer’s home church which was a lot of fun! We had more people than expected, so it was good to see that many sweet faces in the crowd. That show is still available on Facebook for anyone interested. Just look up Fleming Chapel Baptist Church and scroll back to August 14th.
And finally, last weekend we played two shows in Virginia. Y’all, if you have never visited the Sam Snead Tavern in Hot Springs, VA, do yourself a favor and GO! It’s such a cool place, and the food was immaculate. We hope to be back up that way next year if not before, so keep up with our calendar and come on the road with us next time!
This Saturday Daniel and I will be playing at Lake Junaluska, NC for the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival, and then on September 10th we’ll officially end our first summer tour at Carolina Bible Camp Bluegrass Festival. I’m looking forward to that one. You can get your tickets for both of these shows online right now!
Goodness y’all, if you’ve read this far thank you! I think this will be a fun way for me to recap our little road adventures. I’m so looking forward to seeing what next year will hold and what the Lord has in store for us. We’re not through yet! Check out my tour dates page to see where you can see us next. Fall is coming…. :)
Much love!!
—Carley
Photo Credits go to Laci Connell, Brian Savage, Nicole King, & Marsha Channell.
