Pond Hoppers

With the cost of merchandise taxes and work visas, the hassle of not speaking the native language and the instrument-destroying gauntlet of U.S. Customs, it’s a wonder American bands bother playing overseas.

This month, however, two local groups — the punk/blues duo The Black Diamond Heavies and acoustic/folk trio The Lovell Sisters — are embarking on tours of Western and Northern Europe.

Both bands have performed internationally numerous times since their first trips in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Audiences may not always understand the lyrics, but both bands said foreign reception of their music is sometimes stronger than that of domestic audiences.

“It’s really better in every way,” said Heavies keyboardist John Wesley Myers, who spent about 100 days a year performing abroad in 2007-2008. “The money is better; the reception is better; the hospitality is better. The legalities are kind of a pain sometimes ... but they nowhere near outweigh the good things.”

With several annual tours of Europe and, most recently, Australia, under their belt, the Heavies’ departure Friday for a tour of Western Europe is pretty old hat, Mr. Myers said.

But for The Lovells, their tour of Norway and Sweden later this month is only their third since 2007.

Even with the prospect of an exhausting schedule, freezing weather, 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and the chance of getting hopelessly lost on Scandinavian back roads, the thrill is far from gone, said fiddler Jessica Lovell, the eldest of the three sisters.

“It was like a big adventure,” she said of the band’s tour of Central and Northern Europe last fall. “We got to meet a lot of really cool people, and we can’t wait to go back. I’m getting giddy just talking about it.”

Local rock band The Bohannons and dulcimer player Butch Ross are two more Chattanooga musicians lining up their own international tour dates in the U.K. later this spring and fall.

The Bohannons made their first trip overseas last year supporting the Black Diamond Heavies and were asked to return almost immediately, lead singer Marty Bohannon said.

Mr. Ross has performed numerous times in the U.K., Ireland and Hungary. Even with all the obstacles and red tape to wade through before making an international debut, the experience is worth the hassles, Mr. Ross said.

“The first few times I went over, I can’t say I made a ton of money, but I made enough to cover the cost of getting over there,” he said. “I can’t imagine any other vacation you can say that about. Plus, when you get there, you get to play music.”

Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with local bands who have performed overseas about the best and worst parts of the experience and why more local acts should follow in their footsteps.

THE INTERVIEWEES

* John Wesley Myers (JWM) of The Black Diamond Heavies

* Butch Ross (BR) of ... himself

* Jessica Lovell (JL) of The Lovell Sisters

* Marty Bohannon (MB) of The Bohannons

[These interviews were conducted separately. They are spliced together for continuity’s sake.]

Q: How did you land your first gig in 2005?

JWM: We went to England, and it was kind of two things that happened at the same time. We went back to back. The first time, we went in September and went right back in November. What happened was we were making a little noise here in America, and a promoter in Britain had this promotional business called Not The Same Old Blues Crap, which they since changed to Punk Rock Blues. He was tapped into the scene we were a part of, and he wanted us to come over for a festival he was booking in London for November. We were booking that and planning to go over in November.

I was also playing in with the Lee County Killers, who had a U.K. tour with Ireland and Scotland scheduled for September. The Black Diamond Heavies had to cancel some shows in order for the Lee County Killers to do the tour, so in exchange, they brought the Heavies along as support. We went over for the first time in September supporting the Lee County Killers, which was good because they were already popular over there, and that was totally our crowd. Then, we went right back on our own in November.

BR: I played in England in London at the 12 Bar. That was in 2002. I wanted to do it. I'd come into some money. I had gotten some other gigs where I'd received a ridiculous amount of money, and I wanted to go to England, so I had a friend who did some booking and had her find some international dates and bought plane tickets and went.

The only part of it that was planned was that I had friend in Cambridge, so I booked a gig there. It was great. I'd never flown internationally. I was totally flying by myself, and it was terribly daunting, but that was part of it. I wanted to push myself. It was great. I flew over there and had a place to stay and wasn't nervous about that, but when I came back from Ireland, I was like, “I'm just going to fly over and wing it.” I found a place in my guide book called the Dylan Motel, which was a bed and breakfast, so I decided to stay there. It ended up being a half a block away from the club I was playing that night.

JL: The first time we went over our tour manager wanted to book Chris Thile. So he went to his Myspace page and saw some sort of link or reference to us on his page. He tried Chris Thile's management and couldn't get through so he called our agent and booked us. He said he enjoyed our Myspace page, and we were like, “This could be really great, really cool.” So he took that leap of faith and brought us over and split the airfare with the gig in Northern Ireland we were already scheduled to play.

The fact that we had already had a gig in Northern Ireland helped. That last tour, he arranged all the gigs in five different countries. There was also one in Sweden, which last minute didn't happen, which was fine since that gave us an off day. I think it's really tricky, and this is something we're figuring out: that people are so important. There have been so many people who helped us so we can do what we're doing. You can't take that for granted, all the people who will give their time and energy to help you come, get place, survive once you're there and have fun while you're there.

MB: It was great. We were support for the Black Diamond Heavies. It was pretty awesome. We flew overnight into London, Gatwick, which was pretty amazing. We met the driver right away and spent the first day going around London gathering gear. The Heavies own equipment over there. We played the first show that night at the Sheep's Walk in Leytonstone, a northern London suburb. Our longest drive was luckily just about five hours because England is the size of Alabama.

We had a lot of time to sight see. With us being the support act, it was no way to get rich, for sure, but we broke even. The best parts were the local food and local color and people in different pubs. They take their pubs pretty serious. It's sometimes a family tradition to frequent specific pubs. Everywhere we went, we were treated extremely nice, especially by the promoters who hosted us. Our driver was part driver, part roadie, part tour guide. He took us to all the scenic spots along the way. The highlight to me was the Dirty Water Club in London, which is pretty famous. A few days after we played, the Sonics had a three-night sold out date. It's also famous for the White Stripes and Billy Childish.

Q: Do you think Chattanoogans would be surprised that local bands are playing overseas like this?

JWM: I think people maybe would be a little surprised. They don't realize what's out there. The demographic in Chattanooga is a little different. Taking it overseas, it's received differently. If it's in your backyard it seems more common and doesn't stand out much. You take it over far away from home, from where it's from, and it's different.

BR: Yeah, I think it would surprise them. It's hard for me to say because I moved here already having done it, so nobody would be surprised to find that out about me because you already know that when you meet me. I would say yeah, absolutely, because I even remember myself being surprised when I found out the Bohannons were going over with the Black Diamond Heavies last year.

JL: You know, I'm not sure. We know people in the area that wish us well and like to hear about how it went and that we made it back with everyone safe and sound, but I think people would be surprised how well music from our part of the world is received in foreign countries, and how many bands there are like ours out there. We saw a Czech Republic and French and Norwegian bluegrass bands that would do their stage banter in their language and then kick off “I'm sittin' on top of the world” in English. That was completely normal. For us, that was really amazing, to see how this music can bring people together for jam sessions all over the world.

MB: Yeah, I think it would. I think it would be surprising to people how easy it can be if you're involved with the right people. It might not be lucrative, at least for awhile. Once you're on their economy, you can feed four guys for eight pounds a day. It wasn't hard. I think people will be surprised by how easy it is, if you're involved with the right people. I don't think you can get on Myspace and book a tour as easy it is as you can domestically, but you can find the promoters. We didn't have a CD at the time, but we had a demo, and we were able to get those out, which is one of the things affording us a trip back. After the shows, we were asked back almost instantly.

Q: Are there any drawbacks to foreign tours?

JWM: Nothing major. It's really better in every way. The money is better, the reception is better, the hospitality is better. The legalities are kind of a pain sometimes - dealing with customs and getting gear over there. I'm having to ship a piano over to Paris right now, and it's a big, old hassle that I'm having to deal with. There are some little things like that, but they nowhere near outweigh the good things.

BR: The most difficult part of the experience, and this wasn't terribly daunting, was getting around. I didn't have a car, so in order to fly back home, I got up and left Cambridge and had to take a bus to a train to a subway to a train to get to the airport. Coordinating those things was difficult. Still, they have a great public transportation system, so it was really just doing the research, which wasn't “hard.”

JL: The cost of getting there is a good one, but probably, to be honest, the biggest problem we had was getting from place to place. We took our Garmin GPS with us, and we survived. That Garmin - if we didn't have it, I don't know what we would have done because a lot of the roads are just very different. For us, especially as much driving as we were doing on these winding back roads, you'd get there and not have much time for sound check so it was really crucial to have the Garmin to help us out. Even if you couldn't pronounce the name of the street, you could see the picture of yourself turning right, so it was like, “OK.” On our Garmin, it was just this pink trail we were following. We haven't had any major trouble with navigating, but if we didn't have the Garmin, we would be in trouble. If we had paper maps, we would either get horribly lost and never find our way home or we would kill each other. Those are the only two options.

MB: Customs, man. We were detained at every airport. At two airports, we were individually searched and x-rayed. I don't know how this works, but I assume we got marked by one of the ticket takers because we had nothing but trouble, whether it was entering London, leaving London back through Charlotte, Cincinnati, Chattanooga, every airport. Of course, that could have been some profiling on their part. That was the biggest hang up.

Q: What is it about going overseas that surprised you the most?

JWM: I was a little blown away by their affinity for American culture, specifically American roots culture. In France, I got turned on to more American music that I'd never heard of from the '60s and '70s, but it's well known over there. I was really blown away by that. The reception and generosity and hospitality they have shown us overwhelms me a little bit, too. They're really appreciative of you coming over there.

BR: Um … most of it. (Laughs.) Being exposed to the culture. The thing I remember taking away from it was that because I flew in on a red eye and took a train from Victoria Station, I got myself in the wrong stairwell at 8:30 on a Monday morning in Victoria Station, which is one of the largest train stations there. I was going down the staircase that was up-only, and this was when I discovered that Americans and their stuff take up a lot of space. (Laughs.) I think of myself as a light packer. I had my guitar, a rolling case and a backpack, but I got on the train, and four people couldn't sit down on the train because of all my crap.

JL: Once you're over there, the countryside of Norway is amazing. There should be an IMAX film about it so people can see how pretty it is. And the people are extremely nice. With the three of us being from the south, they look very similar, so you always end up seeing people you think you recognize. In Denmark, we didn't feel that way. That was really interesting. In Norway, everyone had a familiar-looking face, and pretty much everyone spoke English well, which made it much easier for us to interface. We got to meet a lot of really cool people, and we can't wait to go back. I'm getting giddy just talking about it.

MB: The biggest surprise didn't dawn on me until I was actually talking to people that I realized it was nice to be treated as a novelty. It was nice to be from somewhere else for once. It's an interesting position to be in. It was towards the end of the Bush administration, and they were very interested in politics, especially since we're from the South. They have some misconceptions, and it was good to straighten that out in my own words. You feel like a great injustice is being done based on a generalization. It was interesting to say my side of the story to people. It was good. There should be no paranoia about international travel, especially to Western Europe.

Q: Would you encourage other local bands to take that plunge and perform overseas?

JWM: By all means I would, if for no other reason than that music is a vehicle you can use to see the world. That's all we're doing. (Laughs.) It's so well received. It's almost hard to lose money, really. You can do it and not only break even but maybe make a couple of bills.

BR: Absolutely I would. If you get out of town enough that you're going up to New York, than you might as well. Here's the thing, the first few times I went over, I can't say I made a ton of money, but I made enough to cover the cost of getting over there, and I can't imagine any other vacation you can say that about. Plus, when you get there, you get to play music.

JL: I think it's a trick because you have to have someone who's willing to show you around. We couldn't have done it without having our Norwegian tour manager who brought us over, took a lot of risk and helped spread the word. I wouldn't have known who to call over there to set up the shows. Specifically for bluegrass, there's the Bluegrass European Union, which is a good resource. I know there's a World of Bluegrass-type event in Europe, so there are ways for bluegrass bands to get involved. It's kind of hard without someone helping you get your foot in the door. That was our experience anyway.

MB: I certainly would. I love Chattanooga, and I love to be an artist here, and there are plenty of bands that I think it's just a matter of time before they get there.