City: Davenport, IA
Distance travelled: 1067 miles
Total distance: 7,178 miles
Theatre: Adler Theatre

It certainly was a shock to the system turning up in Davenport after the warm weather we had in New Mexico.  I don’t think the thermometer crept above freezing the entire time we were there.

However, we made the most of it.  Tony and I found a great little cafe called Cafe De Marie to eat in.  We got the warmest and most enthusiastic welcome as we walked in the door of any cafe I have ever been in.  It was a lovely family owned place with great food and excellent coffee.  Marie took great care of us and we went back a couple of times especially to see them.  We even signed the guest book!

The Shows were great but we really tried not to spend too much time outdoors lest we freeze to death.  We were even fortunate enough to have a walkway which connected out hotel to the theatre!  Also, apparently Davenport is the the place where chiropractic treatment was invented!

The highlight for our time there was coming across Daytrotter.  Tony Aguirre, our guitar player in the show, came across FutureAppleTree Studio Too in Rock Island, IL, and gave the guys a call to see if we could take a look around.  We were met by Sean, the owner and shown around by him and his engineer Mike.  we really had no idea what to expect and we astonished to find out about what they did.

Daytrotter.com is a website which features almost 5000 sessions recorded by Sean and Mike in their studio in Rock Island and also in studios in Nashville and London.  Some of my favourite artists have recorded for them including Justin Townes Earle, Iron and Wine and Amos Lee as well as legends like Carly Simon and Glen Campbell…and we were fortunate enough to do a session

The basis of the Daytrotter sessions is that you record live on to tape.  We were chatting with Mike and saying how cool it would be if we could record there and he invited us to come back after the show and do a session.  We jumped at the chance and went straight back to the hotel to let the other guys know and learn some songs!

We decided to record 2 of my songs, something I was very proud of.  We returned after the show armed with our instruments and bunch of beer and threw ourselves into it.   Check out the post about the session here.

All in all Davenport was a great success!!