ebenezer

So you burned rubber up and down the East Coast, from Florida to Massachusetts, in promotion of your current Ten Dry Acres EP. Tell us about how it’s all went.
well, i'd have to say that overall the whole thing turned out to be the shit. it all started at my house where i put the package together..as in the the stage gear i was going to bring, camping gear, surf gear and merch. but most of all the pull
along trailer i was planning to build so i could house all my crap. i have a small motor home but due to high gas prices and the fact that the bad boy tops out at about 63 mph, i went to plan b. it was really cool because i was able to get help from a very good friend of mine glen "bundy" riley that happened to be in florida, and happens to be a good carpenter, an excellent painter, a wonderful musician, a guy that can take shifts driving...and plus he's funny as heck. the trailer came out great, complete with a door from the movie "planet ibsen"and a paint job that only a gypsy could love. the first date was at churchill's in miami, and although it went well, i was a bit nervous and was not quite comfortable due to the sound which was hollow and swirling and completely different than what it all sounded like while i was rehearsing in my studio.
but the turn out was good and it felt great to be back on stage after such a long time. from there bundy and i hit the road hard straight to rhode island where the new england portion of the journey took place.

Who you got playing with you along the way?
um, this could get a little long winded.....i had this idea that i would render services of musicians in different places (like in the old days of big band or early days of rock and soul). it was out of the question to travel with a full band and the make up of ebenezer is such that i do play solo at times, but the bigger shows i was looking for back up to give the people a little more than little ol' me...so i gathered players in certain situations. the rhode island show i played with stephen fredette who is now with a band called pony. he and i used to play together several years ago in the groups lester, bladderbats and the lucky charms. he is a blast to play with....a very spontaneous, fearless and quality musician and a true sweetheart. plus he is one of those people that must play therefore he does, unlike some that do because they can!
i was also able to talk the rest of pony (with the exception of the drummer) to join me for the cape cod show at the beachcomber and the boston show at zu zu. i also had bundy on bass for the same shows. for the last show of the tour i had percussionist shai goldenberg join me at the luna star in n. miami......very cool.

Any reason your calling it the Indian Summer Tour? It’s funny it rained most of the time while you were in Boston.
yeah, when i was visualizing the whole thing i saw myself as sort of this gypsy/native american sort of fellow driving up and down the coast....living off the land...where i laid my hat was my home sort of thing, and to a certain extent that's what it turned out to be for a portion of it. so the indian summer tour idea was derived from that ideal. leaves changing....packing out to play, packing up to go to the next place, like that. plus, i had camping and surf gear so i was totally self contained and i could roll up to some remote place like a beach or woods and spread out. which i did on several occasions over the course othe the 5 or so weeks. the rain and cold of boston just brought back memories, all good.


Any good road stories?
of course. right from the beginning it was an adventure. starting with the trailer...we left melbourne (fl) and made a b line to rhodi, arriving the next afternoon 19 hours later after driving non stop, bundy and i switching off at each 300 mile or so fill up. we noticed that the fenders where digging into the tires so we bent them out to avoid a blow out.....we also noticed that the tongue was bending at the fulcrum causing the iron crossbeam to bend in a very precarious fashion, so when we got to boston carissa from pony supplied us with a piece of channel iron that we attached across the failing one.

While in Boston, Ebenezer got on the bill at the New York City rock club CBGBs at the very last minute.
How did that come about and how did the show go?
that was just one of those really cool things that happen from time to time. my friend steve o has a summer place on cape cod, more like a compound really.....and he was letting me stay there. it happens that he also extended space to a band out of nyc. as i'm pulling out to leave they are coming in. we traded hellos and talked about each others shows.....they mentioned cb's and said that they were looking for a band to fill a slot and the rest is folklore! the show went well...i played solo, i felt very comfortable that night.

How have your other shows been going?
each show had it's own soul. which was really cool. i was able to come aw - great evolving sound