The Backyard Dusk

So I did go to the RB show at McCabe's in Santa Monica (July 11th) -- all acoustic; Buckner solo; no opening act. I'll try and put up a set list soon. It was a riveting show as usual, and RB seemed to be in very good spirits and smiled more than ever. He played a number of new songs, all of which sounded like they could be from D+D or Since. A couple of them were particularly stunning. After the show I asked him when he'd record them, and he said he'd work on them in Austin over the fall/winter with some different musicians sitting in as well. If he finishes it early, we could see a new album in the spring of 2004!

I read the following captivating story on the Doubters list, and Nate Woodard was kind enough to give me permission to post it here! So if you like it, take a moment to thank him for sharing his story. :-)

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My Buckner summer vacation

So a couple weeks ago a buddy and I spent 8 days roaming around the vast American west in a rental car with an "unlimited miles" provision. We returned the car with 5,400 more miles than it had when we left. Yes, 5,400 miles . . .in 8 days.

We brought an absurd amount of music with us, and it was a good thing because, well, there's lots of time to listen to music when you're driving 5,400 miles.

Anyway, thought y'all might enjoy this story:The first day we drove from St. Louis to Casper, Wyoming (approx. 1,100 miles). As you might imagine, this was a loooong day of driving, and as we hit midnight, we were both exhausted (the endless prairies of Nebraska will suck the energy right of out you after a few hours in their vortex). But we plowed onward north to Casper on I-25. Perhaps out of subconscious instinct, or maybe destiny, we threw on Buckner's Since.

From the first note of "Believer," this record held us in rapture -- we were awake and alert again. Some records have places and times in which they sound utterly and completely PERFECT. Apparently for Since, it is I-25 at 1:30am on the road to Casper, with its giant Wyoming plains, foothills, and gulleys being lit up occasionally by thunderheads off in the distance on either side of the lonely interstate.

So it was a thing of transcendent beauty when "Ocean Cliff Clearing" came on and we heard the following lyrics: "Showboat Motel, Casper night, the river was high and losing . . . " The Showboat Motel! If such a place existed, THIS is where we would finally stop for the night. As the last notes of "Once" played at the end of this gorgeous album, we pulled into Casper, as empty a city as you will find in America late at night. We rounded hills and corners of the interstate hoping to catch some sign of this mysterious, legendary Showboat Motel.

We had all but given up as we came around the last bend in the interstate through Casper, when there it was with its beautifully kitschy neon paddlewheel gleaming in the night -- the Showboat Motel! Right on the banks of the lovely North Platte River (which was not high or losing, by the way).

We got ourselves a room for the night (unsurprisingly, the night attendant had never heard of Richard Buckner or "Ocean Cliff Clearing," but he did offer us free coffee in the morning). We asked for the "sick room suite" (referenced in the beginning of the song), but he said he'd never heard of such a thing. The room was quite comfortable and we enjoyed our stay so much that we considered making it a "10-Day Room," but alas, the road beckoned, so on we went up I-25 to Montana and beyond.

We decided to dedicate our daily "Mad Lib" ritual to Buckner (all blanks would be filled with Buckner lyrics and phrases), and here's what we came up with (blanks are in all caps):

"Specialty of the House"
Here is chef MR. KESSLER's award-BOBBING recipe for roast BIG BLUE of MONSTER: Choose a BIG BLUE weighing about 27 KNOCKANDO ROLLERS. Remove excess HOOKER OAK TREES. Add 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and JEWEL-BOMBED. Season with 2 tablespoons of chopped HALF SHELL BBQ. Add a tablespoon of RAINSQUALL. Sprinkle with a touch of LIL salt. Add a pinch of ground TOOLEY MUNI ISLAND NIGHT. Cook at 350 SOMA ROOMS for 22 minutes. Remove from the oven when the skin is BLUE AND WONDER. Serve with mashed FATERS and a SHOWBOAT MOTEL CASPER NIGHT.

There were, of course, other transcendent album moments on the trip (like listening to "California" on Farrar's Terroir Blues after we spent the day walking around Mission Street and Chinatown in San Francisco), but none quite as sublime as the Showboat Motel.

-- Nate "even after extensive driving in the Pacific Northwest, I am sad to report that there were no Sasquatch sightings" Woodard
(nate_woodard [a t] msn.com)
July 29, 2003

I'm still going to be working on fiddling with colors/layout/design/etc. so what you see now most likely is going to be temporary. And yes, I know for a fact that the left column looks wrong when using Mozilla.

Latest tour news: RB is almost at the end of his current U.S. tour. Check both the Davis McLarty site and Pollstar for the latest dates, as Overcoat's site hasn't been updated since last fall. Currently the McLarty site has more upcoming dates listed that aren't showing up on Pollstar. But sometimes Pollstar has dates that aren't on the McLarty site.

In any case, the McLarty site has RB playing in these cities from now - September '03: Santa Monica, CA; Austin TX; Nashville TN; Louisville KY; Springfield IL; Chicago IL (yes, it's a Schubas show); Indianapolis IN; Austin TX. For more details on venues etc. be sure to check the McLarty site.

BTW I neglected to mention that I'd like to also include a list of RB's concert history here. Pollstar and the other sites keep deleting past dates so I only have the most current ones. If you've kept track of his tour dates, I'd love to get a copy. Of course I'll always give credit where credit is due.

So with the absence of the wolf-eyes Buckner fan pages, I've noticed no real alternative Buckner-related info pages, aside from the standard official site (still promoting The Hill). I've been wanting to create a good, detailed Web discography of his stuff for a long time now...while that's not ready as of yet, I've started this space for other reasons as well: tour date links, latest news, recommended links and of course instructions on how to subscribe to the Doubters list.

I've only just started, but I hope to add more as time passes. Maybe later on I can add concert reviews, images (when I get the web space) and other good material.

Thanks for visiting. Ideas and contributions welcome.