3TO tour report – episode 5

Steve Dilling has agreed to share the ups and downs, in and outs of a long IIIrd Tyme Out road trip with our readers. They will be traveling from coast to coast, and back again, this first two weeks of April. Here is his fifth report.

IIIrd Tyme Out with Bill and Maria Nadauld in Carson City, NevadaDay 10 (4/12/09) of our trip has us leaving Reno, Nevada headed over to Carson City, Nevada.  Looks like Russell is the ‚Äòbig winner’ in Reno.  I was hopeful, but it just didn’t happen.

We arrived at the Brewery Performing Arts Center around 3:00 p.m.  We were a little early, so we just hung out around the theater checking out the sights.  Carson City is the capital of Nevada and seems to be a nice, quiet little town.  We got loaded in @ 4:00 and immediately got our sound check out of the way.  Mimi, who was the green room hostess, fixed up a delicious dinner that consisted of BBQ ribs, chicken and all the ‚Äòfixins’!  I would have sworn I was back in North Carolina!  It was so good!

We got ready for the show and, after a fine performance by the opening act, Wild Horse Drive, we took the stage around 8:15 p.m.  Again, like most of the shows on this trip, we had many in the audience who had never seen us in person, so it was a chance to make new fans.  Not to mention, they hadn’t heard all of my old jokes.  We did 2 sets with a ‚Äòmeet and greet’ in between.  The people who attended were very appreciative and the promoter, John Procaccino, was a delight to work with and he wants us to come back as soon as we can.

After the show, Justen and I had a chance to visit with John and get the scoop on the pro wrestling ranks as he has done all of the staging and lighting for WCW and WWE.  We loaded the bus and pulled out around midnight with Jack driving. Donnie and Edgar stayed up riding shotgun.  It was a relatively quiet night with everyone else pretty much going to bed early.  Wayne stayed up riding shotgun with Jack.  We arrived in Winnemucca, Nevada around 3:00 a.m. and pulled over for the night.

Day 11 (4/13/09) started with Russell pulling out around 6:00 a.m. with a 5 hour commute up to Boise, Idaho. Justen got up to ride with Russell to keep him company. That is a rare occurrence when Justen gets out of bed that early. I understand that Russell bought his breakfast as a reward.

I woke up around 8:00 a.m. to find us in Oregon in a pretty hard snowstorm.  It was a surprise to see this as I had been wearing shorts the day before.  In this part of the country the weather can change in a matter of hours.  We finally ran out of the snow, crossed over the mountains and came down into Boise.

On this day, we were performing at the special events center on the campus of Boise State University.  We arrived at noon, loaded in and were ready to go.  Russell laid back down to catch up on some needed sleep while the other guys checked out Boise.

Wayne and myself had to conduct a mandolin and banjo workshop, respectively, that was hosted by our promoters, Dennis Stokes, Bryan Haken and Sara Gomez.  These workshops started at 2:00 p.m.  My workshop was co-hosted by my good friend and noted banjo builder, Will Williams.  He and his band were booked to open the show for us later that night.  I had about 10 people to work with and it was a delight to be a part of this.  Everyone there was in the beginning stages and were so eager to learn.  I enjoyed them all.

Steve and Donnie on the Idaho State University football fieldWayne’s workshope had seven people, and he had a very eager class as well.  Our workshop’s ended at 4:00 and it was time for me to have some fun.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am a sports enthusiast and we just happened to be right next door to the Boise State athletic facility.  The Boise State Broncos have one of the most famous football fields in the country.  The turf on the field is blue and orange, which are the school’s colors.  Donnie and I were able to go over and go down on the field.  This is a beautiful stadium and it was a thrill for us to be right on the 50 yard line!  Thanks to Bryan and Dennis for arranging this.

We got back over to the theater for sound check at 5:00 p.m.  Sound check took a little longer than we expected because the in-house system was using wireless microphones, something we don’t work with very much.  After dinner, we took the stage around 8:00 p.m. to a good size audience that, like our other shows, had many who had never seen us perform live.  Still, they knew our music, as was evident during our shows, because they shouted requests for songs we have recorded all evening long and it was our pleasure to answer as many of them as we could.  We did two sets with a ‚Äòmeet and greet’ in between and met many of the nice fans we have in the Boise area.  We are already making plans to return in the future.

We loaded up and got on the road at 11:00 p.m.  We stopped at a Wal-Mart Supercenter to pick up some supplies for the bus and were on to Laporte, Colorado for our next show.  We encountered some issues on the way to Laporte.  I will tell you about that in my next report.

Steve Dilling banjo workshop in Boise, Idaho        Wayne Benson workshop in Boise, Idaho      Justen Haynes, Russell Moore and Steve Dilling with Boise, Idaho promoters Dennis Stokes (left) and Bryan Haken