Dissonance - Chapter 17

Brent had, in fact, tried to cancel our show in Lexington as well. Thankfully, Kent, who was incredibly pissed when he’d heard what Brent tried to do, managed to talk to them before they found someone to replace us. Seth had been right when he’d said this just proved that getting rid of Brent was the right move. We were all annoyed at losing the Louisville gig since, aside from when we opened for Linda Chapman, that had been one of the best venues we’d seen for music, but at least it was over. The drama Brent had been causing since we started this leg of the tour was over, and we could get back to focusing on just playing Music.

In addition to fixing our show in Lexington, Kent called as we were driving to Lexington to let me know we had a show in Ashville the following Saturday. On top of that, he’d arranged for the Citizen-Time’s entertainment reporter to be at the show and then interview me the next day, which was exciting. I’d done a few radio spots so far on the tour, but that had just been calling into the radio station and talking to them for a few minutes to promote the tour. I guess those were considered interviews, but they were live on the air and went by so fast that it was hard to think of them like that.

This was an actual interview with someone who was going to watch our show and then ask a bunch of questions about us, which at least felt a lot more special. Kent was specific that I was being interviewed and not the entire band, which was probably going to cause more problems with Marco, but I’d deal with that when we got to it. Marco was still important to the band and I liked him, but he was going to have to figure out if he could deal with how things were or not. I was through coddling him, making decisions based on if it was going to annoy him or not. I’d do as much as I could to make sure the rest of the band was included in things and always give them credit, but Seth and Lyla had come to terms with our contract, and it was time Marco did as well.

I’d been surprised that Kent had gone out of his way to set up this additional show and the press for us. Brent hadn’t mentioned anything about it and had only talked about setting up shows in the Midwest, so I was pretty sure this hadn’t been something he’d been working on. My only guess was Kent felt bad about what had happened with the last show and everything else Brent had been up to, and called around to set up something else for us to make up for it. Although I didn’t blame him or the label for Brent, I did appreciate the effort.

The Lexington show itself went off well. The venue was more like the one we’d played in Raleigh or Nashville than the one we’d missed in Louisville, but that was okay. Having traveled with Dad, I knew the kinds of gigs a band like ours got, what with having no name appeal to draw in customers. Some catered more to music than to customers drinking than others, but they were all at least as much a bar as a music venue.

At least this one didn’t have a basement green room that required us to climb down rickety stairs with our equipment while we waited to set up. The crowd was small, which was expected for a Sunday show, but they were into the music.

We sold about the same volume of merch that we’d sold at several of the last show, which meant we were still behind on our sales thanks to missing an entire gig. Hanna wasn’t worried, because we had the extra gig that Kent set up, so we could make it up, but that had a wrinkle too. Hanna was planning on going back to Raleigh the day before the new gig, so she could spend time getting used to UNC before her classes started. Professor Cross had also asked to see both her original presentation for the merch creation and the spreadsheets she’d been keeping on sales, and she was looking forward to getting his input into it.

That meant she wasn’t going to be available to work the merch table. Kat had been with her the entire time and knew how to do it as well as she did, but she’d had Hanna there as a safety net. Trying to set me up with random girls aside, Kat had made a lot of progress over the summer, and the three of us agreed that it would be a good chance for her to challenge herself. We were going to be back a full week before the gig and Kat had an appointment with her shrink, and agreed to run the idea past her, just to be sure.

If things did break bad, Hanna was only a phone call away and would make sure she was available the night of the show. It wasn’t like she was going to be alone. I’d be there to help her, or at least encourage her, and Lyla would help work the table, at least until she decided who she was going to hit on.

We finished up the show, packed up our remaining merch and headed to the hotel for some sleep before the drive back to Wellsville. The extra gig aside, our first tour was in the bag. It hadn’t been without its challenges. We’d both gained and lost a tour manager in the process, played to both our largest and smallest audience, and had our first friction in the band. We weren’t clear by any means, but we’d survived all of those challenges and come out the other side.

***

It felt weird being back home. Nothing had changed, except for Dad being around the trailer all the time, but it still felt completely different. Everything was smaller than it had been. What was weird, I hadn’t felt like that with our previous stop home. Of course, we had a gig to focus on and I had Dad’s sudden reemergence that could have distracted me enough to not feel the change.

It was all psychological, of course. As the week passed, everything started feeling normal again and neither Hanna nor Kat seemed to think it was that big of a deal. I guess the only reason it struck me was, not having a hometown growing up, I hadn’t considered what leaving the hometown would be like.

I again managed to avoid dad, who was always in the trailer, watching TV or in their room. He stayed for my Nashville show but went home after and had continued our truce, but it still seemed the smart move to limit our contact as much as possible.

Mom didn’t love it, and had made some comments about repairing my relationship with dad, but at least for this week I had an excuse. This was Hanna’s last week home before she went to college and Kat and I wanted to spend as much time together before she left, which even mom couldn’t argue with. All week I got up early and went to their house for breakfast, and stayed there until well after dinner. Her mom had already accepted me as a more or less permanent fixture and even made it clear I was welcome there any time even after Hanna was gone. Of course, Kat was still living there, so I had a reason to visit, but it felt good to have a second home to fall back on.

When Friday morning rolled around we helped her load all of her stuff in the car and waited while her mom said goodbye. We’d been gone most of the summer and now her daughter was leaving until Thanksgiving, so Kat and I gave them some space. True, she wasn’t going out of state and, at least until the dorms opened, she was staying with her aunt, but it was still a big moment.

Finally, they hugged and her mom went back inside, leaving the three of us.

“So this is it,” I said when we got back to her car.

“I guess so,” Hanna said.

“Earlier this week, I was thinking how strange everything in town felt now that we’re back. That went away, but I swear, this place really is going to be different now.”

“You’ll survive.”

“I’m serious. This was the first place I ever settled down, and I really hated it that first month, before school started. I didn’t know anyone and everything seemed so … I don’t know, boring, I guess. Just when I was thinking this couldn’t be worse, I had that run-in with Aaron, ended up in the hospital, and knew we’d made a mistake coming here. Then I met you and your mom, and we became friends. Since then, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Now you’re going off to college, and it’s going to be so strange.”

“You won’t be completely alone. You still have Kat,” Hanna said, nodding to the other girl.

“True,” I said. “It’s still not going to be the same.”

“It won’t,” Kat said.

“Things change. In two years, you’re off to college and then you’re going to be a huge rock star and won’t have any time for us anyway.”

“You know that would never happen.”

“What, you don’t think you’re going to get famous?”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Although I also wouldn’t jinx any success by being dumb enough to say I was going to be famous or popular out loud.”

“Smart. Seriously though. You’ll be fine, and I’ll miss you guys just as much.”

“Psh,” Kat said, making a throw-away gesture at the same time. “You’ll be too busy with all the college boys.”

“When have you ever known me to go boy crazy?”

The thing was, Kat had known Hanna when she’d been, basically a different person. Given her incredible physique and … pliable nature, Kat had made her way into the popular group early in her Freshman year, which was the height of Hanna’s drinking and partying days, before the rape that changed her. Although she wasn’t the same person she’d been back then, she couldn’t exactly say she’d never been boy-crazy, which explained the skeptical look Kat gave her.

“Recently,” Hanna added, seeing the look. “Seriously, I’m going to miss you two a lot, but I’m not going all that far and I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Besides, Chapel Hill’s almost close enough for you to play a Saturday night show in the area, so I might even see you before then.”

“I’ll make sure to point out to whoever manages our shows next that we’d like to have more in that area,” I said.

“Good. And don’t let your dad throw you off too much. You’ve done really amazing this last year, and I’d hate to see something like this throw you off your game.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said.

We both knew I couldn’t really control that, since a lot of it depended on what he ended up doing, but so far keeping a hands-off approach to him had worked out. He’d talked to Brent and tried to sell me on the dropping out of school thing, but backed down when I said no and hadn’t pushed for anything else.

“Ok, I gotta get going,” Hanna said, looking at her watch.

“I’ll miss you,” I said.

I was getting a little misty, and felt stupid because I didn’t normally break down like that. I’d known she was going for a while and we’d maximized our time all week because of it, but now that the time was here, it was really hitting him. Kat was straight out crying, tears streaming down her cheeks and occasionally sniffling, but she was also a crier so no one thought that was weird.

“I’ll miss you too,” she said, pulling me into a crushing hug. “I was so annoyed when Mom made me go get you that job last year, and now I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like without my best friend.”

“Me either.”

“I love you Charlie,” she said, pressing her head tight against mine, not letting go of the hug.

“I love you too,” I said.

We both really cared for each other, but hadn’t said that until just now. I meant it, but it was strange. Although I hadn’t really had one yet, I knew it wasn’t a romantic love and it wasn’t like how I loved my mother. It was its own thing, maybe how I’d feel about a sister, if I’d had one. I was glad I’d told her I loved her before she left, though.

“Call us when you get there?”

“And every week after,” She said, letting go of me and going to Kat to hug her.

It hadn’t been all that long ago that the two girls had hated each other, but the summer together they’d really bonded. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Hanna hugged Kat tight before letting her go and getting into her car. We stood in the driveway, waving as she pulled out and headed east.

“Just us now,” Kat said, wiping her cheek.

“We’ll manage,” I said, putting an arm around her.

***

Kent did good with the Ashville show. It wasn’t like Linda’s show, but it was the biggest venue we’d played on our own. It was this large brick building where the front had kind of a step pyramid shape on the top called The Slice. It had this huge wooden dance floor, or area for people to just stand and listen to music, plus tables along the periphery and a full bar opposite the stage.

From what I found looking it up, it held just over fifteen hundred people, which was much bigger than the small clubs we’d been playing by quite a bit. We didn’t get a sellout crowd, but Kent had put some work into getting us mentioned on the radio all week and I’d even called into two drive-time shows for a few minutes. The club itself also did a lot of marketing, and the building was almost two-thirds full, which was still more people than we’d ever played for on our own.

Even Marco was in a good mood when he saw the place as we set up, which was a miracle in itself. Of course, his good mood didn’t last, but it was nice we actually got there for once. The show itself went well. We were all jazzed about the venue and really put ourselves into the performance, and the audience responded. Again, they seemed to respond best to the more rock, faster-paced songs. The more we played, the more I realized I needed to do more of either high-paced country pop or stuff that bordered pop and rock, since those did the best, and back off the ballads, which made up a good chunk of our album.

“Charlie, that guy over there is looking to talk to you,” Kat said when Lyla and I got back to the merch table, which she was manning by herself.

“Did he say what he wanted?” I asked.

He was older than most of the people that watched us play. Since we weren’t an established band, most of the people at our shows were people familiar with the venue looking to have some fun on a weekend, which meant late teens for the eighteen-up clubs to mid-twenties. This guy was easily in his early forties, well outside of the people we normally saw.

“He said he was with the Ashville Herald and he was supposed to meet with you.”

“Maybe Kent set it up. Lyla, Kat’s the only one back here, so you need to stay and help her.”

“Sure,” Lyla said, over her shoulder before turning back to the girl she was talking to.

“Lyla, Come on. You can hit on the pretty girls later.”

“Fine,” Lyla said, leaning closer and whispering something to the girl, who blushed and kind of slid over to lean on the wall, clearly waiting.

You had to hand it to Lyla, she had an amazing track record. She’d been talking to that girl for maybe two minutes before being called away, which was apparently enough time to get this girl to just wait patiently for her. Lyla saw me watching her instead of walking away, and made a shooing motion as she leaned over to talk to a kid looking at one of the shirts. Seeing that it was in hand for the moment, I pushed through the milling people. We’d played for almost two hours, but even after we finished, the crowd hadn’t really thinned out, which was good for us. The more people hung around, the higher the chance of them coming by our merch, which we were getting closer and closer to selling out, which was a testament to how well Hanna had estimated out what we needed.

“They said you were looking for me?” I asked the guy as I got to him.

“I was. I’m Greg Wilson from the Asheville Herald. Someone from your label convinced my editor to send me out to review your show for our summer music roundup in a few weeks. I wanted to ask you a few questions, if you have a minute.”

“Ohh, cool,” I said. “Do you want to step into the back area so we can hear each other?”

Between the piped-in music and hundreds of people talking to each other, we were having to lean really close to each other to be heard.

“Sure,” he said, and waved for me to lead the way.

The back area of the club was also a lot more elaborate than the ones we’d played before. Instead of a store room in the back of a bar, it had a hallway with offices and a nice green room for performers, a lot closer to the setup at the venue we played with House of Grace, if a little smaller.

He sat in one of the straight-back chairs while I flopped down on the small couch in the green room, wiping my sweaty hair back. I don’t think most people realize the kind of workout you get on stage performing for several hours. I always felt like I’d run a marathon afterward.

“So … how does this work?” I asked.

Never having been interviewed before, I wasn't sure how this interview was supposed to go, and was a little nervous.

“First interview?”

“First one like this. I’ve done a few call-ins to radio shows, but those never really feel like interviews.”

“They aren’t, but I know they’re good for you guys to promote shows. Don’t worry about it, that'll be easy. I’ll ask a few questions so I can have background info on you and your band for the article. I might quote some of your answers, but we won’t just print the entire thing, so it’s okay to take your time thinking about it. I’d also suggest answering in full questions, because I can’t do much with yes’s and no’s, and the more I have to work with, the better I can write about you for the article.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said.

The ‘answer in complete questions’ part was actually good advice, because I could see myself just giving yes or no to every question, to keep from sticking my foot in my mouth. It made sense thought that, if I wanted the article to be good, I needed to give him something to work with. And a good article would be good press for our album.

“Your genre of music is interesting. You seem to jump around pop, classic rock and country a lot without landing squarely in any one specifically. How’d you end up with that kind of sound?”

“I guess I came to it naturally. My Dad’s a musician and pretty much only played classic rock, so that’s what I learned to play and heard growing up. Until a few years ago, my Mom and I traveled with him as he played gigs along the east coast, and a lot of the other musicians played both contemporary and classic country, so I heard a lot of that too. When I started writing my own music, it just felt natural to use stuff from both, along with the more popular music my friends and I listen to for fun. It wasn’t a plan, that’s for sure. Now that I have an album coming out and am not just playing local shows, I think it might be a problem, actually. It’s going to make it hard to get traction in any one category.”

“So you’re thinking of changing it? Maybe switching to something more mainstream? If you picked one of the genres, which would you go with?”

“I don’t know. I still have a love for all three, so I don’t think I’ll drop any of them entirely. If I had to pick one specifically, I guess it would be pop, since there can be more variation than if I settled on country or rock.”

“You think so? Pop-country was really big in the nineties and southern rock is basically a melding of rock and country.”

“True, and my first time on stage was playing with a blues band in Wellsville, so on paper, southern rock seems like it would be right up my alley, but it just never felt right. If I had to guess now, I still think I might fit in better in pop than either of the other genres, but who knows? The only thing I’m really sure about is I need to lean in more to high-intensity music rather than ballads.”

“I did notice that about your set. You seem to have a lot of slower, more emotional songs. It sounds like that might not have been on purpose?”

“It wasn’t. Country Roads was the first song I wrote and it covered a lot of the things I was feeling, being in a new town, trying to figure things out. From there, I just started to write from the heart, which I guess leads to those kinds of songs.”

“So you think you’re next album, you’re going to change the tone?”

“I wouldn’t say that, and it’s a little early to start talking about a next album when our first one doesn’t come out until next month. What I would say is I want to start thinking about what I want to be presenting to people. Writing songs for myself, which is how this really started, is one thing, but that isn’t the same thing as trying to entertain other people. Instead of just writing what’s on my mind or in my heart, I need to think about the entire package I might be presenting. I also need to bring in my bandmates more. We’d only formed as a band a few months before we got our shot at a contract, and the way it worked out, I kind of took the lead in all of this, but one of the songs that gets the best reaction in person is One Night Stand, which was written by Lyla Grant, our base player. I think the reason people respond to it is because it’s just fun. That’s what I think we, as a band, need to do more. Remember it doesn’t have to be serious all the time. People want to have fun when they listen to music.”

“That’s true. Talking about your band, in my research I found MAC Records specifically contracted with you and not the entire band. That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it?”

“I’m just a kid who started playing in a local club, so you’d probably be the better person to answer what’s weird or not in the music industry. I think a lot of it happened from some of the connections I kind of stumbled into through friends and part of it was, like I said, because we’re a new group. We made sure that anything the band makes gets paid to a company that pays each of us equally. Not one of us is the star of the show. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my bandmates.”

“But the marque has your name on it. Charlie Nelson and the Wild Cats, not just the Wild Cats.”

“That’s because we’re touring under MAC’s banner, so they stipulate how we market ourselves. If you look at our merch, which we got to do on our own, for now at least, you’ll see none of it has my name on it, only The Wild Cats.”

“Fair enough. Well, I think that should do it. The article is mostly going to be a review of the show, but you gave me some interesting stuff to fill it out with.”

“Good. Did you enjoy the show?”

“Trying to get a sneak peek at my review?”

“I wasn’t … sorry, I didn’t realize that wasn’t something we normally asked the interviewer.”

“I’m messing with you Charlie. You can always ask. Yeah, I enjoyed it and I think you’ve got a lot of promise as a new artist. The rest, you’ll have to pick up a copy of the newspaper to find out.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, standing up and shaking his hand.