A great weekend in the South! There is nothing quite like good southern cooking, and we made sure we took full advantage of our surroundings this weekend with stops at some out-of-the-way mom-and-pop eateries that rank at the very top of anywhere we've eaten down south. Jeff Watkins will be writing a food blog about our food on tour, so details coming soon, but take a look at Mama's Boy and Carolina Crossing, two spots well worth the trip!
We left Nola in the wee hours of the morning and started our drive to Athens, GA for our first show there, ever. The day was perfect and the drive was pleasantly uneventful, arriving in Athens right on schedule. Thanks to our boy Paul Agostino for running the sound at The Melting Point, and for other Widespread Panic crew members for their help throughout the night - Willie needed a drum key, Jake brought a guitar to be re-fretted, and with our friends and connections in the Panic world, we were well taken care of.
Our show that night was a good one, surprisingly filling the room on a weekday night with school between semesters. Our set got stronger every song, and by the last few songs the entire crowd was up and dancing - we left Athens the next morning feeling like we made a good mark in that town, can't wait to go back!
The drive to Charleston is short, and we were there before we even know what happened. There's something special about the Pour House - their new restaurant is bangin and the staff is top notch. I've known the owner since he bought the place 16 years ago, and he's still one of the nicest guys in the industry. We had another strong crowd - that town REALLY knows how to party - and pulled away from C-town the next day feeling good - 2 for 2.
We headed to our last stop for the weekend, in the deep woods of South Carolina. We didn't have an address or any info, we were told to follow the smoke signals and keep our ears open to the sound of chanting and tribal drumming. Following those things, we arrived at a place on sacred Indian Lands, an amphitheater carved into the very forest. There they were - like a coven of dancing tree nymphs, the local tribes people gathered together and dancing to the beat of their own drums. We joined in and together created a night of unspeakable bliss, the strains of dancing and music heard drifting through the trees until the sun started coming up...
That really made the next day's drive - a 12-hour behemoth - seem like un insurmountable task. We took it on head-first, limping away from the forest with satisfied grins on our faces, and found ourselves at a down-home little restaurant on the wrong side of the tracks called Carolina Crossing that felt like our own momma was in the kitchen cooking for us. It gave us the strength to make the journey, and we arrived back in New Orleans just at the strike of midnight.