Before I delve into this blog I first wanted to say I hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. I’m thinking a lot about you during this time. This blog is going to be a bit different then others I have done due to Coronavirus. Like all touring musicians my shows have either been canceled or postponed so I thought I’d chat a little about what I’m doing at home and talk about what it was like trying to get home, while on tour, as the country was shutting down.
At the beginning of March I embarked on a tour that took me across the country for shows in California. I kept tabs on the news and in contact with my venues as everyday more information was coming out about the virus. At the time no states had shut down and my venues let me know everything was still on. If I had any idea what was going to happen in the county over the next week I definitely would have postponed my shows. The day of my first show I had the news on in my hotel room and the governor of California came on and announced that events of 250 people or more were to be canceled and and events with less people should maintain a safe distance from each other.
I checked in with my venue and they said that everything was still a go and that they could stay within the governor’s rules. The next night was a little different. I headed to my next city to find that everything there had started to shutdown for the most part so the venue owner and I decided to cancel the show. The final show I had was at a winery in the heart of wine country. I kept checking to make sure that the show was still on and I was given the green light. An hour after the show the governor shut all the wineries down. A day after my dad and I had left the state of California the state was put under lockdown.
We still had a long ways to go before getting home to Maryland. As more and more cities/states started to lockdown we ended up re-routing to make sure we would have access to food. We would chat (from a safe distance) with other travels at hotels who were also trying to rush home as the country was locking down.
After making it home we made sure to stay at home as we had been traveling and just incase we were carriers didn’t want to make others sick. It’s been about a month since I got back and since I can’t go out and perform I’ve been doing a lot of practicing & songwriting. Depending if/when things open up I’m hoping to have a new EP out by the end of the year. Creating is a very safe place for me. During these troubled times I feel most at home and protected when I start working on a new song. Whenever the world opens again I look forward to seeing you in person but until then please stay safe and let me know what you have been doing during quarantine.