Johns USA Tour
Well lads I’ve been on this amazing roadrip, doing gigs around the South Eastern states of the U.S. for the past 11 days, and I have one week to go before I return to Cork, the centre of my universe. It’s all thanks to my friend Tom Pigott, from Limerick, of ENCHANTED WAY TOURS, and Vicki Belinowski, from Austin Texas, who set the whole thing up, like. Tom often brings groups of Americans to Ireland and shows them the REAL Ireland, and often gets me in to play for them. So Tom and Vicki put this tour together for me; thanks also to John Smith, American Singer-Songwriter. Here’s the story of my trip:
Well I flew like a bird into Memphis Tennessee, the home of the King, for the FOLK ALLIANCE, a crazy get together of singers and musicians from all over the States. I was two days late cause of a slight problem with Visa, and so missed my offical showcase like, but nevertheless I did about 5 or 6 little gigs in various rooms around the Alliance, YES MY FRIENDS I SAW THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY, RUSHED THROUGH IT, AND STOLE THE SHOW!
Memphis was a buzz and I got to play with Ronnie Cox, Jack Williams, Bill Isles, David Llewelyn, and saw some great music there. I have to admit it was all a bit surreal to me like cause I had been up by that stage for about 36 hours like, flying over oceans and vast mountain ranges.
Anyway next day we HIT THE ROAD, myself and Tom, and drove to JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, for the next gig in the FENIANS BAR; this was my first REAL gig and I was interested to see how my stuff, especially my new songs, and my CORK SONGS, would go down; WOULD THEY GET IT? Well to cut a long story short they got it alright and I ROCKED THAT JOINT THE FENIANS BAR.
Next morn we hit the highway and rolled along the road until we came to NASHVILLE TENNESSEE, the home of Country Music! What a buzz. We were lucky enough to stay with some really lovely people, Singer and Songwriter KATE CAMPBELL and her husband IRA. Real Southern people and real Southern hospitality. Kate is the real thing, an excellent writer and Real Pure Country Singer. Man I love their Southern Drawl! Next night I had a House Concert in the home of Kari Estrin. Great crack like! What a night of music, there was a great team of us there; David Llewelyn opened with some Welsh coalmining songs, then I hit them hard with my Cherry Trees and proud Cork stuff, then we also had 3 songs from Kate, including the brilliant CRAZY IN ALABAMA and the one about the SNAKE HANDLING PREACHERS; we also had a wunnerful 2piece group from the Ozark Mountains called STILL ON A HILL who played a brand new cover version of MY song THERE WAS A MAN WHO TOOK A WIFE - what a lovely compliment! They were brilliant! Present also was top class BUDDY MONDLOCK of NASHVILLE who sang the lovely CATS OF THE COLISEUM, at my special request, and who subsequently gave me this quote; - ” John Spillane is a World Class Songwriter!” Thank you Buddy. Ah Nashville, where me and Tom drank beer for breakfast in Tootsie’s Bar along the strip, with some poor divil of a country singer singing his little country heart out to 3 people in the A.M. waiting to be plucked off the barstool and straight into the Grand ‘Ol Opry. Ah Nashville you are a dream, a DREAM. Well Kate gave us the local folklore and we broke our next fast in CRACKERBARRELL and ROLLED OUTA TOWN! More later, thanks lads, John.