Carolina Road Tour Update #1: Sunny Southern California

Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road perform at a private function on their west coast tour (2/24/20)

As we mentioned last week, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road are touring now in California, and have promised to send us regular reports with photos from the west coast. Here is Lorraine’s first installment.

I said at the outset, this was going to be fun, and our first two stops certainly did not disappoint. 

Good news… 5 musicians, luggage, and instruments arrived in Los Angeles at nearly the same time. The bad news… one of our lot, has been injured in a freak accident involving a high block wall, and low hanging citrus. It’s a long story.

One of the things I like best are the people in and around bluegrass music, and the lengths they will go to entirely on their own to “make things happen.” Two of these people are Mark Shutts and Keith Barnacastle. You call for tour support, they do the heavy lifting and deliver the goods.

I’ve played a lot of interesting venues, but never a metal fabrication shop, until Friday night that is. Mark Shutts opened his shop, and invited his enthusiastic bluegrass friends, and we all had a spectacularly good time. For bluegrass fans within driving distance of Huntington Beach (CA), make a point to attend one of Mark’s shows. The next Shutts Fab concert is March 11th, featuring Sideline. Good to see CBA’s “Danny Hootenany” too.

Last night’s show, a private event in Palm Springs was hosted by bluegrass entrepreneur and Bluegrass Standard editor, Keith Barnacastle. We provided a little music, and Keith provided a feast fit for a head of state. The scenery was stunning, the conversation lively, and the night will be one I’ll long remember.

It would be impossible to thank Mark and Keith enough for their hospitality and all they have done and continue to do, not only for Carolina Road, but for the greater bluegrass community as a whole. Finer folks do not exist.

We leave Palm Springs for San Diego to play tonight for the San Diego Bluegrass Society, then on to Long Beach, to jump onboard the Danny Stewart cruise to Mexico. Stay tuned, more to come soon…

Lorraine Jordan, on the road on the left coast