Our van broke down on top of a mountain in beautiful Jerome, AZ. We were able to coast it into the town of Cottonwood where we had someone look at it to tell us the transmission is shot. We're having someone tow the van back to Phoenix to get it fixed and hopefully we'll be back on the road in a few days.
Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to miss a string of dates on this tour. Sorry to anyone that was hoping to make a show in Boulder, CO, Lincoln, NE or Madison, WI. There's a chance we could still make it to the Madison show but it looks unlikely.
We're making the best of it by kicking it AZ style. We were extremely lucky to meet some of the nicest people ever here near Jerome. A publisher we just met in Phoenix introduced us to a prolific songwriter out here named Steve Easterling of
Easterling and Gildersleeve. His neighbor and sometimes co-writer is this dude Olen who owns a fudge shop on top of the mountain and has been letting us crash with him. He and his buds even took us off-roading way out into the Arizona desert. It was like being on the surface of another planet. Totally breathtaking. The sky is incredible out here, like nothing I've seen anywhere else. I think partly because you can see so far into the distance.
Despite the major setback in terms of time, lost shows and money for car repairs, we are getting to experience a side of the country we might never have found otherwise, and it's really been a joy being welcomed into someone else's town, home, and life. I feel like we've really tapped in to part of the soul of America here. It's kinda what this
DRIFT project is all about. We're only a few weeks in and it's already been a really wild ride but we are learning a lot, going with the flow and soaking up some good stories and experience to use for inspiration.