Leaving Eden Blog

By Eden Parker
Contributing Writer

5/23/2011 Day 1: Fargo to Omaha
Getting on the road early was not in the cards. Best laid plans as usual to get all of our stuff together, run a few errands and head south by 1 pm. This plan naturally turned into leaving Fargo at 5:08 and reaching Omaha by 1 am. We are being hosted in a beautiful historic old house, currently home to 7 college students, 2 couch surfers from Montreal, and now the Eden Parker Band. Our hosts, Chad and Harri (two brothers who travel via couch surfing all over the country) put together a little shindig to welcome us to Omaha. Bonfires, Beer pong, fireworks, and guitars.  [Editor’s Note: To learn about couchsurfing check out HPR’s coverage at ]http://hpr1.com/feature/article/7975/]

5/24/2011 Day 2:
Woke up to a tremendous thunderstorm. Harri is home, and making tea. I may give mine a shot of whiskey just to ensure that my voice doesn’t act up this evening like it did yesterday. The roommates are all coming to our show tonight. These guys are great! This afternoon we drove to Benson and stopped into Hargiss Stringed Instruments. A privately owned guitar shop that builds and repairs guitars. John Hargiss lives in a beautiful loft apartment in the back of the guitar shop. If you ever go to Omaha, you have to stop into this shop and visit with him.The Sidedoor Lounge is a small older venue with ivy growing up around every visible surface. 15 or so round candlelit tables. Beautiful art. New York style cocktails. Definitely worth checking out.

5/25/2011 Day 3: Omaha to Wichita
We woke up around 10 AM. Driving south, we immediately hit another crazy thunderstorm. Torrential rains made the roads nearly undriveable. Arriving in Wichita, we are greeted by 3 guys in their mid-twenties.  They bought us Ginger Tea to sooth our vocal chords before the show. NakedCity is an Art Gallery and music venue in Old Town Wichita. We’ll be splitting the evening with Scott Allan Knost: a local acoustic musician who I found online to play the show with us. His style would make waves quickly in the Fargo music scene. NakedCity reminds me of a larger version of Ecce. Beautiful space. Very live acoustics. Afterwards, the roommates took us out to Denim & Diamonds. This place had at least a 2,000 person capacity, a dance floor the size of the Venue at the Hub, and a giant glittering saddle disco ball.

5/26/2011 Day 4: Wichita to Dallas
After saying goodbye to our new friends, we hit the road for Dallas.  We stopped in Oklahoma City where they were building a new skyscraper next to Thunder stadium. Very cool to see a building that big only half finished. Check out the pictures on Facebook. We are staying at a country house about an hour and half outside of Dallas. There are 8 dogs here. We were immediately greeted with Brisket, Potato salad, baked beans, and Corona. Southern hospitality at its finest.

5/27/2011 Day 5: Dallas & surrounding areas
Woke up bright and early with the sun. But also to a huge Texas breakfast. Complete with Eggs, spinach quiche, homemade sausage, and biscuits, we ate our fill and then laid on the sun porch. After breakfast we went wake-boarding, swam, and went tubing until we were too hot and tired to do it anymore. Our show this evening at Opening Bell Coffee is with 3 other local acoustic musicians. Opening Bell is one of the premier acoustic venues in the city of Dallas, and our show is already listed in the local paper as one of the top shows for the week in Dallas. I had to stop in and check out Bill’s Records: an oldschool album store at which Bill himself still works everyday and hosts live shows. Bill is probably in his 80s and recently had to downsize his store because of the lack of album sales in this day and age of digital media and music downloads. Tomorrow we play at La Grange: a restaurant and live music venue downtown.

5/28/2011 Day 6: Dallas to Lubbock
Good morning Dallas! it’s already 92 degrees at 11 am as we load in for our brunch show. La Grange is a beautiful restaurant and live music venue. Their stage is beautiful. 3 feet high and round with a lot of space to maneuver around. It could easily fit a 6 piece band without anyone rubbing elbows. La Grange is a must-see, must-play venue for Dallas. The stage alone is enough of a selling point. But, if that doesn’t persuade you, the atmostphere, the food, and the barstaff should do the trick. Beth and I both had surprise guests in the audience. Me, a girl from my old high school, and Beth, her grandpa. Nice to have some familiar faces to play for out on the road. After only 6 days out, I already start to miss our usual friends and fans who support live music. There is definitely something to be said for a home-court advantage.

Next week will bring us from San Antonio, through the Grand Canyon Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Stay tuned, and follow along on facebook as the journey unfolds.

To follow Eden go to: http://on.fb.me/j0GWSe . You can also email Eden at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for the latest update on the “Leaving Eden National Tour”.