I’m writing this from an old pub just round the corner from Mr B’s Emporium in Bath. I don’t mean to be so British, but I cant help but mention the weather, as it’s starkly contrasted to our experience Stateside. The rain is pelting on the small windows and the wind somehow manages to shudder their old beams. We’re back in the UK now, not home to Wigtown but to my childhood home, and where Beth and I first met, and with Poppy, started The Bookshop Band. The last few days of the tour saw us driving up from Taos in New Mexico up to Denver and its surrounds in Colorado. We didn’t have even a morsel of spare time, what with driving, concerts, Molly, flying and very occasional little bouts of sleep, hence me finishing off our US tour blog now, once we’re home. 

The drive up into Colorado is stunning. For anyone who hasn’t been here before it’s the huge views, expanses of mountain range following the horizon on an endless plateau which skims out out from all sides of you. The road ploughs endlessly straight for the most part, but occasionally the contours of the land win and your thrown, twisted up through the high passes. While a significant blanket of snow covers many pf the peaks and valleys, the weather is fine and sunny and the roads are ice free. I’m told over and over again that we have been VERY lucky with the weather on our tour. As we near the interstate I’m reminded of this by the miles upon miles of huge wooden snow drift and avalanche defences, at this moment in time pointlessly towering over the road under a balmy heat haze. We’re on our way to meet Megan and Ben, a couple from Denver. Skip back a few months to late 2018 when this US tour was but a flicker on the horizon and we were planning our routes, Megan and Ben had been staying at The Open Book - an AirBnB bookshop where we live which you can rent by the week. We popped in to say hello as we usually do once a week to see who has ventured to Scotland’s Book Town and what part of the world they have come from, and it was a lucky coincidence that these two were not only from Denver, where we knew we’d be passing through on the tour, but also worked for the library service, and therefore were able to initiate a concert at Denver Public Library as part of the tour. That was where we’d be playing tomorrow lunchtime. While in Wigtown Megan and Ben had helped film two new songs in The Bookshop - both up there in the ranks of the most deeply dark and sombre of our entire repertoire, one song inspired by Sebastian Faulks’ Paris Echo, and the other by Graham Norton’s new novel, A Keeper, so we were looking forward to playing them a sunnier side at the concert. They live in a beautiful cool little house on the edge of Denver, half their dining space taken up by a (delicious) home brew coffee stout which they cracked open on our arrival. 

The next morning we headed into town to Denver Public Library, a large building opposite we guessed what was the state house in a wide open architecturally adventurous open square. It is no joke that there was a distinct smell of marijuana that lingered over the whole city - it had been legalised a few months previously. The only stressful part of this entire tour has been the load in, and this was no different trying to negotiate broken lifts, miss-directed corridors, creaking monoliths of doors, multitudes of heavy cases, and all with a recently sleeping baby. Once in place however, it was a joy. The room we were playing in was a wide circle, bookshelves fanning out from its centre. Libraries are wonderful free spaces, catering so much more to their local communities, providing services behind the scenes, off site, as well as a support network and a rare non-commercial safe space within the heart fo the city. Our crowd represented people from all backgrounds and privileges and we were very grateful that  everyone could feel comfortable to come and enjoy a concert there. The sound swirled round the circular rafters, Molly woke mid concert and we could just hear her dancing and singing at the back with Megan. We’d be back in Denver one final time in a couple of days to play a double bill of concerts, at children’s bookshop Second Star To The Right and at the main Tattered Cover bookshop, we told people about these and then packed up to drive out to Evergreen, about an hour back up into the mountains, past Bison Viewpoint. 

That evenings concert was in Hearth Fire Books and Treats - a shop known as much for its books as its position as the region’s premiere frozen yogurt outlet. About a third of the shop was a semi-circular array of dispensers emitting unworldly flavours such as pomegranate and raspberry, cake dough and Oreo flavour, followed by health-food style buckets of marshmallows, Reeses Pieces, broken ginger nuts and lychees. It was, without question, the nicest smelling bookshop we have ever played in. Kappy Kling, the owner, and Lauren plied us with these treats as we set up for the evening, the chairs lineing the chilled and rumbling machines on the wall as well as going back into the more booky part of the shop. All afternoon children dragged their parents in for the yogurt, and then without exception would go off browsing the books while they ate, looking for their next discovery of a read while their parents rummaged in their wallets again. It was a very unique place, it felt very American, and it worked a treat. Lauren brought in her old guitar and so we added a few songs into the set that we didn’t get to play that often, including Curious and Curiouser, our Alice in Wonderland inspired tune, and Bobo and the Cattle, inspired by Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go To The Dog’s Tonight. 

After packing down, Kappy ordered some food and gave us directions to her house, ‘… about 5 miles down the road, past the post office, next right, follow the private road round to the left, right to the end. Be sure to go right to the end.” We drove off into the night. We drove and drove, turned round, tried this turning and that but we could not see the post office at all. Eventually, on spotting a FedEx depot in roughly the right place I decided that that is what Americans call a post office and we turned up the little track just past it. The track wound it’s way up through the trees, onto a ledge overlooking the FedEx depot. As it climbed higher and wound through the trees the road became icier and slipperier. About a mile in the car would simply not go any further. I don’t know how automatics work, but the wheels stopped spinning no matter how hard I pushed the accelerator down and very slowly at the first the car began to slide backwards. In a straight line at first, but then eeking it’s way off to the side, the wrong side. I let it roll. Luckily for us a snow mound on the side halted its roll before too much momentum was achieved. I decided that without doubt the best thing to do was definitely to give it another go as this was, I was absolutely certain, the right way to go. Our takeaway was waiting for us. I let the car slide backwards down the road in a fairly controlled manner until we hit a patch of non-icey track and then I gave it another shot, picking up more speed, until grinding to a halt again at roughly the same place and starting to slide backwards again towards the abyss. I’m sorry there are not photos of videos of this, and I should point out that Molly was not in the car as she had been staying at Kappy’s all afternoon with Kappy’s daughter. I should also say to AVIS, who hired us the car, that we in no way put the car or ourselves in danger and not a single scratch made it’s way onto the car. Eventually I decided it was best to reverse / slide down the entire path back to the main road where we picked up reception again and Kappy informed us that it was indeed the completely wrong road. She had never been up there and wasn’t entirely sure anyone had in a long time. It was a great take way. It would have been worth it. 

The next day we were headed north west of Denver to Boulder - a town once know as a hippie enclave but now more associated with the university there. We swung by Denver to a friend of a friend of a friend’s house, who had offered not only to put us up after the show in Boulder Books but to look after Molly that evening while we played. We could not have done the tour without kind offers like these, from people we didn’t know ourselves but who were so open and giving in their hospitality and help. There were so many offers on the tour we couldn’t take them all up, but are so grateful to all of them. Boulder Books is a huge shop boasting not only a finely curated book selection and a cool array of literary inspired T-shirts and pin badge paraphernalia, but also a huge ballroom of books, where we’d be playing. The space reminded us of a cross between Daunt Books in Marylebone, and Shaun Bythell’s living room in his Wigtown Bookshop (you can see it here in the background of this video), lined with pots of grasses, lamps and mirrors. After a brief spell of inevitable shopping where Beth found her Goldfinch outfit for her Lost Words tour (which she starts tonight in the UK!) we played to a very fine looking audience in possibly the most glamorous room on tour. It was appropriate then that in the audience were some good friends of Jackie Morris, who magnificently illustrated The Lost Words, a book bringing back to life nature words that have been recently removed from the Oxford Children’s Dictionary, co-created with Robert Macfarlane.

Our final day in Denver was the big double bill. First up was Second Star To The Right - a bookshop lauded by Nic Bottomley of Mr B’s for it’s amazing customer service - he recounted going in there a few years previously during an earlier American Booksellers’ conference with no intention of buying anything and leaving with almost $100 of children’s books. They had recently moved to a new location in town, and Dea and Marc (who were putting us up that night) told us about their grand expansion plans. The shop looked great - very colourful inside and out. Multitudes of friendly staff were there to help us set up. Parents and children swarmed in once the doors were opened and we sung our way through as children-a-friendly set as we could muster. The books are not always kid friendly, for example Glow by Ned Beauman, which isn’t really suitable for anyone under the age of 30 - but the song always goes down well. It’s a treat to play for children and parents, and we really hope that we’ll get the opportunity to write some more songs inspired by children’s books this year - especially as we read so many of them with Molly - or rather she reads to us. 

Last up was Tattered Cover - the main Colfax Avenue branch, which used to be a theatre. You can see the huge tall prop cavern above what once was the stage, the music section in the orchestra’s pit. We were in the basement, following on (we like to think) from Michelle Obama who had been there a couple of weeks previously. A lovely lady Joanne helped us through all the set up downstairs in their author’s area, and Lauren from Second Star came to look after Molly while we set up, which was a godsend as we were all getting a little tired by that point. Joanne had put out about 50 seats, which felt like a good audience size in the space, but then about 30 mins before we were due to start she rushed down with a few helpers and stacks more chairs to say that they had just heard that there was likely to be double that number. Len - the new(ish) owner of Tattered Cover turned up just before we went on with his two boys. What a lovely guy! Turned out he had dropped out of college to be in a punk band, and he really wanted his children to come and hear us, as the word buzzing around the booksellers’ was that “we were not to be missed”. He apologised that they’d have to leave halfway through, but gave us a huge intro-puff to the audience, encouraging their donations mid way through. It was a lovely way to start a gig. There were faces from pretty much all our other concerts in Colorado in the audience, a few from the library, Megan and Ben and a host of others. Old and young. We relished the experience and ended up playing for almost two hours, the book covers piling up in front of us as we dropped them down after each song. The space we were playing in held a sense of all the other authors that had appeared their over the years. It was an honour and pleasure to be a part of that. 

The pack-down that evening at Marc and Dea’s was epic - rearranging all our stuff into cases ready distributed for both weight and fragility. Our hand luggage items each weighed about 20kg (the airlines never weigh them!), our pram and car-seat bags were stuffed with jumpers and nappies, our instrument cases with pants and bras.  I finally printed off our boarding passes and went to bed at 3am. The alarm was set for 3.30am. Oh the joy.

This was the final challenge of the tour - only an hour or so leeway to drop off the hire car and for United get us to Brooklyn in time for our final concert - at WORD. The storms had abated in New York and United sailed in a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

WORD bookstore reminded us of Pages of Hackney in London - one of the first bookshops we’d played in outside Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights all those years ago. A super cool store owned by Christine who had been the ABA board member to first mention The Bookshop Band at their planning meeting for the Winter Institute - so we owe her many thanks for her part in making this whole tour happen. There were many faces from the recent past - Ollie who had lent us cases and jack leads in Queens a couple of weeks earlier, Rudy - the television executive from ABC who wanted to pitch a show idea to us (which he did after the concert!), Maya, the daughter of our friend Margi in Wigtown, and her son, and Oren - the head of the ABA, with his grandson. Just as our voices finally gave out, we finished the US tour with the ghostly Thirteen Chairs in inspired by Dave Shelton’s book, which drops to a whisper at the end. After all the gigs, all the travelling, all the (lack of) sleep, it was an appropriate way to go out. We finished about 15 minutes before the Super Bowl started. Exhausted but so so happy - with how things had gone, for all the new friends we had made and for all the opportunities that felt like they were on the horizon waiting to be grabbed once we had caught our breath - none of which existed before we’d set foot in America. 

Our final hours were spent at Kate and Tom’s house in Hoboken - the owner of Little City Books, where we had first stayed upon our arrival. We watched the last few minutes of the Super Bowl, ate and drank (a little), and relaxed. I don’t think we slept so well as we did that night. Back in a familiar place with only a little sightseeing the next day before catching our flight back home. We’d promised Molly at the start that we would do something for her - as all the tour had been focused around us and the band. It had been decided on those first days that we would go and see some animals at Central Park Zoo. Molly remembered and awoke chanting “animals, animals”. We caught the ferry over to Manhattan and spent the last hours in America walking up the huge streets, past epic crossroads where you can almost see the curvature of the Earth, to the zoo where Molly feasted her senses meeting penguins, red panda’s, grizzly bears and puffins for the first time in her life. 

The rain has stopped here in Bath now. I think the warmth of the pub may have even dried out my coat, so I’m going to pay up, go outside and see what the next chapter is going to be. 

Thank you for joining us on our adventures and we wish you all the best with your own, what ever they may be. 

Ben, Beth and of course, Molly
The Bookshop Band

Our journey to Taos started with a meeting in Bumble Bees carpark in the dark with the saint of a guy who fixed our tenor ukulele. He glued and clamped it together with elastic bands and tape. We said goodbye to Hugh with some Tacos in our tummies and got on the road to Taos. Before we knew it, we were on the winding mountain roads into Taos and had arrived at the Historic Taos Inn. Mark, our ‘fixer’ for Taos was waiting outside the inn. We knew this was going to be a more relaxed couple of days with his help. There had been a lot of snow in the last couple of weeks and although the roads and paths were clear, much of it remained. We got the key to our room and with Molly asleep, Ben went for a drink with Mark and I went to bed. The next day started with breakfast over the road which happened to be next to our first gig venue - Op Cit Books. My breakfast was a Eggs Benedict Taos Style full of hot green chillies. We did a FaceTime with Molly’s best friend back home, Miles, and they blew kisses to each other. Very sweet!

We met Mark and he took us on a tour of where we would be playing including SOMAS where we were to play the following night. He took us to the radio station in Taos and had a chat to DJ Mike and played a couple of songs to help promote the gig the next day. We then went to Mark’s house to do some long overdue washing. Clean clothes! Clean pants! He lives in a small adobe abode as part of a complex of similar houses, all local red brick adobe. With the snow, sun and icicles hanging outside the house, it seemed an idealic home on the edge of Taos. Inside we saw some of his own artwork and got more of a sense of his style and interesting pilgrim-like life.

After that, we had a little wander past a few shops up to a local cafe that made lovely salads, soups and smoothies. We met a few of Mark’s friends and clients - he is mostly working as an artist consultant and there was a nice buzz in the place.

A little later, we were loading our gear into Op Cit Books. They had a lovely space upstairs in the shop with a couple of sofas and room to put some chairs out. We were lucky enough to be borrowing some equipment including a PA and a guitar from an extremely helpful man called Joe. Joe’s mother Margaret was on hand to look after Molly and they went for a roam in Taos and found a great play area and some other children. Once we were set up and sound checked, people started arriving and we had a full audience. They were very responsive as we had found with many of our gigs over here and they laughed in all the right places! We met a couple with a toddler around the same age as Molly and they were thinking of moving to Scotland for a year. I said they should come to Wigtown! After a rewarding gig and a chat to a few people, we headed back to the Taos in for the Open Mic night - Kate and Billy’s Medicine Show. We had a slot booked for 8.15 which gave us enough time to have some dinner and listen to some of the other acts. The first was two young boys doing a mixture of rock/indie covers and some original material. They had just moved from Miami and reminded me of my brother Barney when he was that age. Molly loved them and kept going to the front to rock out! There were a couple of great blues guitarists and singers and once we had finished our enchiladas we were due to go on. It was really nice to play to a different audience and although it wasn’t completely quiet, it worked well and we met some interesting people. All the participants from the night were invited to jam for a song at the end and it was a really fun night. Molly also had a great time but a late night and this is a poem inspired by the night that followed…

The mouse, The Molly and The Snore

If we hadn’t left the Reeses bloomin Pieces on the floor
There might not be a Mouse and there might not be a Snore

A rustle in a wrapper woke the Mother of the Molly
And the Molly gently stirring kicked her daddy in the tummy

The mother found a torch to see what beast was near
But couldn’t see the thing so her heart was full of fear

Wondering what animals live wild in snowy Taos?
A spider, a raccoon, a snake or little mouse? 

The second time it happened I was quicker with the light
A little mouse was running fast til it was out of sight

With comfort that it wasn’t a creature full of poison
The Mother closed her eyes and tried to block out all the noises.

Molly woke soon after wanting milk from Mother’s breast
The Mother had to wait a little longer for her rest.

The Molly had her fill at last she wanted milk no more
No peace yet though for Mother though as now it was The Snore 

That rumbled and vibrated but not quite regular
Enough to sooth to sleep an agitated Ma

The Mouse was now enjoying jumping in another bag
Mother was too tired and had nearly lost her rag 

So when the Mouse woke Molly and the Molly woke the Snore
The Mother asked the Snore to check the Mouse upon the floor

The Snore shook the bag and surely gave the Mouse a shock
And he put the bag up high singing hickory dickory dock

He crawled back into bed and although the Mouse was quiet
The Snore returned soon after with it’s own little riot

By now Mama was hungry but didn’t want to move
It didn’t seem an option not even for some food  

Then some fool from England dared to call a phone
Right under the pillow that Ma’s head was on

Then there was the Itch just as everyone was still
I couldn’t reach my foot, the chance of that was nil

Although the room was nice at the Inn at snowy Taos
Sleep was much reduced by Snore, Molly and Mouse

If I hadn’t been awake this poem really would not be 
Written between the hours of one AM and three

If it wasn’t for leaving Reeses Pieces on the floor
There might not be a Mouse and there might not be a Snore

There would of course be Molly and Molly’s Daddy too
But maybe we would sleep as little babies do.

So feeling a bit worse for wear the next day, we went back to our breakfast place and I went for something with less chillies in! 

We then transferred our stuff from Op Cit Books to SOMAS, not too far away, and had the help of Joe to set up. SOMAS is a great community project - not only a shop but somewhere people can go to do writing workshops, events and meet other keen literary people. They have just bought the building outright which is brilliant for a project like that

Mark had helped to set this one up for us. 

After an early lunch, Mark took us out to Taos Pueblo where we had a guided tour around the Indian Pueblo village. We learned about their persecution from non-natives and the government over hundreds of years and saw the buildings that they lived in. At the moment, they have won back some of their land and only they are allowed into certain parts of the mountain behind and have access to pure water and the lake up there. They have environmental jobs within the Pueblo that keep the water safe. They have no electricity and live a very humble and peaceful life. They seemed very generous and open with their time and knowledge and we were able to look round some of the small shops after the tour. Mark told us that at Christmas they invite the town to come and share a tradition where they light many bonfires and celebrate their mixed religion - partly the old religion of the Pueblo and partly Catholic. Looking up at the mountain, I could see a crouching bear in the patterns the snow had left. There are bears, mountain lions, foxes, elk, rabbits and many other wild animals up there apparently. I’m glad we only got the mouse but I would love to see a bear!

Molly slept through the whole tour and when we got back into Taos we had a look round the shops - mostly art and jewellery. Molly slept through all this as well and I was ready to take her out the sling when she woke. We had been invited to Margaret (Molly’s babysitter and Joe’s mother) and John’s for an early dinner before the gig. They had a beautiful house just outside Taos where the snow was still quite deep. It was very homely and we had a tasty meal with clams and pasta, salad and a fruit pie with ice-cream. Yum. It was also a chance to sit and chat with Joe and he was full of ideas for our future tours of America. 

We left Molly in the capable hands of Margaret and John and went back into town to SOMAS. We had plenty of time to finish getting ready as we had already soundchecked. Many people had already booked tickets for this gig and we had a lot of people walking up too. The place was rammed and I think they had to stop letting people in! The gigs are made by the people in the audience as we are encouraged by their responses. I had been very tired (from the Mouse night) and this really helped to carry me through the concert. We played Brave New World and were told that the ‘savage world’ in the book by Aldous Huxley was actually Taos Pueblo where we had been that day. So amazing to be able to picture that and the lyrics in the song - ‘Oh these mountains/My eyes are bored’ were the mountains we could see from the town. 

We were very fond of Taos and would like to come back with a bit more time to get to know the town. We stayed in a different place just out of town that belonged to a couple who had been at the gig. It was a lovely spacious place and we were promised a bath with a whirl pool bubbles! We got there pretty late and Molly was still awake. The night was again quite disturbed with her teething but we didn’t have to rush off in the morning so took it easy before setting off on our next adventure to Denver.

We arrived in Albuquerque for the American Booksellers’ Associations (ABA) annual conference, the Winter Institute, which sees all the independent booksellers of America congregating for 5 days to exchange ideas, attend workshops and meet new authors. We’d been invited to perform on the back of our New York Times review 6 months earlier, and the ABA had been instrumental in getting us over to the states, as the petitioners for our visa. Our whole tour had been arranged around this conference. 

Albuquerque is a deserter town. We were staying Downtown in one of the high rise hotels next to the conference centre, but we did also get the chance to walk around and explore the old town, where the heights of the buildings quickly drop into single or double story places, many Spanish and Adobe in style, with views of the mountains that frame the town through the gaps between houses. You get the impression that it’s not an especially prosperous city, but that everything has been done with a care and pride in the place to make it beautiful where they can. The houses are decorated, beautiful bright pastel colours, little details on the buildings, stunning graffiti. Even the spaghetti junction of bridges are beautifully built, clad in the deep red clay of the buildings - a million miles from the metal monoliths of New York and New Jersey.  The Old Town of Albuquerque was a few miles walk from where we were staying - most of the shops filled with Native Indian art and foods, flag and beautiful colours adorning the trees, fairly lights poised for dusk. 

We arrived back into town with Nic from our Durango trip, piled out our mountains of equipment and baby stuff onto the hotel lobby, checked in and headed straight up to a reception the conference runs for all it’s international guests. The first people we met were Oren and Joy, the two heads of the ABA who we’d been talking to for months and had followed us through all the trials and tribulations about the visa. I hadn’t realised it was Oren when he reached out to shake my hand, other wise I would have gone straight in for the hug. It was so great to finally be there. 

There was a big British contingent at the Winter Institute, with a few faces we’d met before. Meryl from the British Booksellers’ Association, Nic of course from Mr Bs, Tim from Booka Books in Oswestry, and Nigel, Christine, Adrian and Kerry from Gardners / AMS who had sponsored the tour, as well as a host of other booksellers we would get to know over the next few days. We all had a celebratory arrival dinner in a restaurant that served “pre-contact” food. I had roast Elk.

Our first performance wasn’t until the following evening. We’d tried to set it up that we’d have a couple of focused performances over the course of the conference as we don’t work well when you have a bustling unfocused crowd, we’re just not loud enough. We were a bit worried that none of the shows at the ABA were going to be this, but our hearts lifted when we saw the first stage, a couple of hundred seats laid out theatre style in the most stunning of tinted Moroccan glass walled rooms, beautiful light lilting down from the sides. There was even a fountain in the middle. It was pretty nerve wracking setting up, purely as we felt a wait of expectation from the audience (if they came) abut us. We’d have Oren and Joy there from the ABA who had never heard us, as well as our sponsors, who again had never heard us live either. Would they actually  like us? 

When the time came the seats began to fill up. In fact they all filled up, and booksellers from across the US lined the sides and the balcony too. It was a packed, focused concert, the sound was great and we relaxed immediately into playing as the smiling faces gave back everything to us. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it. Nigel from Gardners gave Nic Bottomley a hug, Oren came over at the end and look relived and proud that we’d all managed to get us out here to play, and our guestbook immediately started filling up with bookshop after bookshop asking us to come and take a trip out to their own bookstores. From that moment we knew we were going to have a really great time over the next 5 days. 

Next up was a concert out in a local Albuquerque shop called Bookworks, a lovely shop centred around an enormous fire in a small run of shops about 5 miles in the sub-burbs - beautiful Adobe houses, dusty with the mountain in the background.  It was a Wednesday lunchtime show, so we weren’t expecting great crowds, but around 25 people showed up in the end. Lots of children too. Beth managed to get Molly asleep about 2 minutes before we were due to play so we put her in the far corner of the bookshop and began, pulling out a few songs we hadn’t played for ages, like Declaration Two, inspired by Caroline, by Cornelius Medvei - about a man’s obsession with a donkey. In the audience we had a few friends of my parents, people who had seen us written up in Forbes Magazine, and people who had read about it in the local press. 

The next show was to be at 7.45am in the breakfast room. This was actually our biggest appearance at the conference, as the room holds 1200 people and we were going to be followed by Margaret Atwood. The sound system was bizarre - just speakers scattered about the ceiling, and again we were worried it was going to be a thousand people noisily eating breakfast when we played. We had hoped to write a new song inspired by A Handmaid’s Tale but we simply did not have enough time. Beth made a start though. On the morning Oren opened the event, said a few words about how the ABA had responded to The New York Time’s challenge to get us out to America, and then invited Nic up to introduce us. It was the biggest audience we were ever going to play to, it was amazing. Full, 1200 people, all watching and listening. Nic had three minutes to introduce us, and we had 10 minutes to fill. We’d rehearsed the night before what we were going to say / play - We Are The Foxes / Thirteen Chairs and then get everyone singing along for Smog Over London. Nic described it as The Bookshop Band’s 11 minute super bowl half time show. We left the talking to him, and dived straight into the music. The sound filled the room, the weird ceiling speakers were perfect and Beth managed to get everyone singing and swaying along to Smog Over London, which was an awesome sight from our perspective on stage. After we’d finished the guestbook continued to fill up with bookshops, we sold a bunch of our commemorative tour T-Towels and we were getting pretty low on CD stock. 

Margaret Atwood then went on stage, and the first thing she said to all the bookshop owners of America was “I love that band, they’re great. If I had a bookshop I’d buy all their CDs to sell. I’m going to get one now in fact”. Boom!! After the event Beth and Molly managed to say hi and give her a copy of Curious and Curiouser. Magical moment. 

Over the next couple of days we did a few afternoon slots in front of an enormous glass front fire that put out now heat (weird) in the main lobby of the convention centre, as well as a pop-up or two next to the Gardners / AMS stand. We met so many booksellers from all over the US, such a positive and warm response that we both felt that this would not be our one and only trip to America. So many other bookshops to play in!

After the final night’s closing celebrations where we said our goodbyes and thank-yous to Oren and Joy for looking after us so well at the ABA  we headed for a wrap party show at Title Wave Books Revisited - a second hand bookshop way out past Nob Hill in Albuquerque. A real hub of the community bookstore, founded almost by accident and with a particular emphasis on homeschooling literature and support. Leslie and her daughter were there to greet us, had laid out the chairs and borrowed some amps from the nearby studio. People piled in and it was a full house again, further bolstered by the 15 or so British contingent who turned up a few songs in and hung out behind the counter watching the show. Nic Bottomley played with Molly round the corner in the horror section of the bookshop, and we really enjoyed playing to such a responsive audience. Someone had brought an acoustic guitar along too, so we played a few songs we hadn’t played often on tour yet, like our Alice In Wonderland-inspired song, and Bobo and the Cattle, inspired by Alexandra Fullers’ account of her childhood in Don’t Let’s Go To The Dog’s Tonight. We placed Molly by the donations pot at the end and packed up as people gave us recommendations for the next day. Whitesands was a place about 1.5 hours drive in the wrong direction, a desert covered in gypsum which unique acoustic properties said one man - you can whisper to someone hundreds of meters away and they will hear it clearly. We were put off though by another guy who said that area was one of the original nuclear bomb testing sites, and was best visited in April when the radioactivity dropped a little. Rebel Doughnuts sounded amazing too but alas we wouldn’t have time. 

 It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, it’s had been a wonderful to meet people many of whom I’m sure we’ll meet again one day. But tomorrow we were hiring (scary!) a car and headed up to Sante Fe for the final week-long leg of the tour.

Woke at 3.30am. Bundled all our stuff and Molly into the lift and shuffled/shuttled it to the taxi. Weather warnings of rain, ice and snow had been rumoured for New York. We were heading in the right direction to escape the minus temperatures expected on Monday. Our first flight was to Chicago and luckily Molly had fallen asleep in the taxi and didn’t wake up til we were well on our way there. I also had a little snooze on the plane. When we got to Chicago, Ben was eager to get to our next gate asap as the timing was tight for the transfer. We walked as fast as we could! We had forgotten that there was a time change so it turned out we had an extra hour til our next flight to Albuquerque. For some reason I fancied popcorn for breakfast so I went off to find some. Ben bought a muffin and some sweet pastry treats so my birthday breakfast was pretty special and American. There was snow in Chicago. As we flew down to Albuquerque on the next flight, I was intrigued by the circular fields down below. I hadn’t seen farming in that way and it looked like a maze of many corn circles. The landscape was changing and getting more red-orange as we were above the desert areas of New Mexico. When we landed it felt like we were in a totally different country and surroundings. We got off the flight and a few minutes later were greeted by Nic of Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. It was so nice to see a familiar face in a new city. We were to see more of those this week! After retrieving our many bags, we eventually found our way to the car park (after a few wrong turnings and extra lifts and elevators. We started packing the (reasonably sized) car but it was soon apparent that it was going to be a tight squeeze. Ben was optimistic but Nic less so. Even with removing clothes from various bags it wasn’t going to be a spacious, comfortable journey to Durango. The decision was made to go and get a bigger car so Molly and I went back to the airport (or Sunport as it’s known in Albuquerque) restaurant to have a birthday lunch. We ordered a very tasty shrimp salad in a huge tortilla. Molly got an extra tortilla for being cuter. She’s so useful sometimes. Within half an hour, Ben and Nic were back with the new bigger car. We picked up some snacks for the car and found our way (more easily this time and with less stuff) back to the car park. Durango here we come! We knew we were cutting it fine to get to Maria’s Bookshop for a 6pm gig but we were going to try! Somewhere along the way we messaged ahead to say it would be a bit more relaxed if we could play at 7.

We were in awe of the landscape. Of the colours, textures, natural formations and structures. This was a land we’d never seen before. Once out of Albuquerque we drove for miles without seeing any sign of a settlement. We didn’t see many cars either. It was an endless beautiful desert with a road in the middle. The first small settlement we spotted had a tiny wigwam and a few huts. It was possible that there were more. of these away from the road and as we went on, we saw a few more Pueblo villages. The bigger towns we passed through were Bernalillo, Cuba and Bloomfield where there were more signs of life and even a gas station. The hire car was filled up when we got it so we didn’t have to worry too much. The scenery started to change from desert colours to more rocky ground and we were seeing more mountainous areas in the distance with snow on top. We were entering Colarado.

At some point I spotted this huge white thing on the horizon. I wasn’t sure if it was the moon but it was a few minutes before we saw it again and sure enough it was the biggest moon I’d ever seen rising. It wasn’t far to Durango now and as it got dark we saw a collection of lights in the distance. The road didn’t seem to be going towards them but as we were quite high now (6000ft?), the road was more windy and we ended up heading back towards the lights. Durango looked pretty with the snow in twilight.

We pulled up to Marias Bookshop a few minutes after Molly had fallen asleep. As we were a bit late, the shop had found a last minute support from a local ukulele festival contact. He seemed to be keeping the crowd happy and as we walked into the Maria’s there was laughter and a set of ukulele covers from Leonard Cohen to The Jungle Book. We piled our stuff and us into the back room where we were welcomed by Peter and Andrea and their staff who gave us water and offered help. We were quite dehydrated and much higher up than we’re used to. We got everything out the cases and put Molly in the capable hands of Andrea. Molly was still asleep in her car seat. When the ukulele guy had finished we had about 10 minutes to get everything plugged in and set up. Once we were sitting down and the hired in film crew had been informed about which songs to film, we actually had a chance to view the shop and the crowd. It was a great view. The shop was all wooden with a canoe on the ceiling and some old boots and skis. It also had a lot of books and cool merchandise. The crowd had been nicely warmed up and were smiling at us in anticipation. Peter introduced Nic and pronounced Bottomley in his best English accent. I wouldn’t recognise that as an english accent! Nic then introduced us as he had done many times before at Mr B’s and we started our set with Once Upon a Time. This always gives the audience a chance to engage from the start and to see if they can spot all the first lines of books that appear in the song. I think this crowd got three or four. About three quarters of the way through, Molly woke up. I was worried that she would want mummy and daddy but after crying for a short time (she had woken up in another strange place to strange people) she saw Nic and heard her parents playing. Andrea brought her into the shop and Molly was calm and even enjoyed our gig for the first time! She apparently clapped along in time to Faith in Weather which isn’t in a regular timing! Andrea and her baby whispering was to come in handy later in the week. Although we were completely shattered and I was slightly spacey with the altitude, we had a really wonderful gig. Everyone there was kind, enthusiastic, sympathetic and they all sang happy birthday to me at the end of the gig. I’d almost forgotten that it was my birthday. The day seemed to be going on and on! We were looking forward to an explore of the town the next day but now it was time to get back to Peter and Andrea’s. We said goodnight, left most of our belongings in the shop and I got into Andrea’s car and Ben into Peter’s as Nic was staying in a hotel. Once a the lovely house surrounded by snow, Molly found Marbles the cat and was entertained by following her up the stairs where we met Andrea and Peter’s daughter Lydia. She was very patient with Molly and so was the black cat! We hadn’t eaten any dinner so when Ben and Peter got back, not only did Peter make us cheesy toast with local green chillies on, but there was a birthday cake with candles too! This birthday was the longest birthday I’d ever had! It was definitely longer than 24 hours and we’d been awake for most of it! To top it all off, we had a clear sky enabling us a perfect view of the eclipsed Blood Wolf Super Moon. What a treat.

The three of us shared a sofa bed and had the best night’s sleep! After showers and a homemade muffin, we ventured into the snow to feed the chickens. Molly found two eggs in the hen house then we went down towards the train track where there was due to be a train. It was the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad originally laid in 1882. As it was Martin Luther King Day (21st January), the train wasn’t running but the track was a sight to see and you could stand right on the tracks! We tried pulling Molly along in the sled as the snow was pretty deep (I lost my feet a few times and the snow went over my boots!) but she wasn’t that keen. She discovered some ice and slipped over a couple of times! Past the railroad was the river that flows through Durango. I believe it’s the Animas River. There were geese on the water. Peter told us of the recent wildfire that had reduced the wildlife and fish in the river. It was only just making a comeback after a year or so of being pretty empty. It was a controversial subject locally as there was speculation that it had been started by the train. 

We stomped through the snow back to the house and got ready to go into town for some breakfast and to fix Ben’s phone that had a screen issue and had frozen. We popped back into the shop then headed to a place called Carvers to meet Nic. They’d stopped doping breakfast (it was after 11) and it was a wait for food so we found another place (via Nash the phone genius). We ended up at Steamworks Brewing Company and ordered a beer - they brew their own and we didn’t have a birthday drink the night before! I also had a hot chocolate and we ordered some (very) spicy buffalo wings to start and had a great brunch between us. Molly did her usual thing of socialising with everyone and I liked the fact that there were monkey nut shells on the floor by the tables that people had purposefully dropped and presumably would be swept up later. Nic found me a very appropriate birthday card at Marias and I felt like it was my birthday all over again!

We wondered back to the shop and had a little browse and bought a few (tiny) things before loading up the hire car. We hadn’t left much time to stop on the way back as we had to get to the Indian Pueblo Centre in Albuquerque for the opening reception of the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute. We admired the scenery. Nic thought he saw a wolf, we saw lots of tumbleweed (after getting very excited about the first tumbleweed and failing to get good photos/videos), and it was incredibly windy. We thought there might have been more snow but we think there was just more on that side of the rocks. We were trying to get back to Albuquerque without having to fill up the car (so we could fill it up before taking it back to the airport) but we had to stop at a rare gas station on the way back. We were on the look out for cool/funny signs and came across a number of them. We also played a game where we had to spot number plates from different states. Maybe by the end we will have all of them! So far (from that trip only) we have New Mexico, Florida, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Minasota. We got back in time for the reception and Nic did a heroic job and took the car back to the airport after dropping us at the hotel where we then got the shuttle bus to the Indian Pueblo Centre.

Molly woke up at 5am. This was our big double bill day in New York and it had started a little early. Ben and Molly went down for breakfast  while Beth caught up on a couple of hours having been feeding much of the night. Today we were meeting Beth’s old babysitter who had moved to New York in 2004. Jared is a systems and product designer, and Beth thought he might be a good person to take some photos of us in Manhattan before our show at the New York Public Library branch. We took a taxi (luxury) in with all our stuff, only to be turfed out a few blocks away from our destination (not so luxurious) due to two big marches blocking off traffic from that part of Manhattan. Luckily we’d ditched the dodgy suitcase from the night before in favour of the easy wheeler.  The road closures meant we had some great photos though, standing in the middle of a deserted road outside Radio City.  

Jared took us to Bill’s Bar and Burger where we had our first real all American burger. Jared was saying that the burger industry is very competitive now, so the standards are very high. Ours were very tasty, and Ben had a massive milkshake which was perhaps not a great idea just before the gig at 2pm. 

We’d set up earlier so were quite relaxed - normally we’re still plugging in wires just before we start, but not today. We knew there would be a few familiar faces there, but didn’t quite know how many. When we got back to the library’s theatre the first person we met was Danielle who had flown in especially from Nashville Tennessee. Beth was the first person she’d met when she came over for one semester to Bath Spa University in 2001. She now has tea-time everyday at 3pm based on that first meeting and the cup of tea she had with Beth. Next up we met Kathy and Fred who were running The Open Book AirBnB bookshop for the week when we first moved to Wigtown in January 2017. They have their own bookshop in America and had gone to run the bookshop in Wigtown for their holiday.  There was an illustrator called Sonja who we met in Oxfordshire, who had just arrived in the US to start a printing residency in Philadelphia (via NY) and her aunt. Maya - who is the daughter of one of our great friends in Wigtown, Margi (who would also be babysitting Molly later). Beth’s uncles first girlfriend, Barbara, a friend of Beth’s brother Dom, and finally another Wigtown resident Hope, literally flying down to the stairs to greet us. The theatre was full of friendly faces from all over and the concert was a joy. The librarian said that she might have to turn us down if it was too loud, it was a library after all, so we cranked it up anyway and luckily no one complained. I guess filling a library with book-inspired songs was OK. There was a guy who came up to Beth afterwards who said he was trying to work but we just “kept on singing”, so he’d decided to come and listen anyway. Speaking to Beth afterwards he said that he works with marital arts choreography and he thought that our music would suit an idea he had - that could be interesting. 

After packing down we jumped in a taxi to BookCulture in Queens, and set up in their downstairs children’s room. There were cushions on the floor and a few chairs out and it felt like it’d be a relaxing low key gig. Tons of children came in, which was really lovely - so nice to have them there. We wished Molly could come to the shows too, but often she demands our attention when we need to be playing, hence us organising babysitters while we play. We had a few more friends and friends of friends show up. The brother of Clayton Blizzard, an awesome songwriter and performer we knew through Poppy Pitt came, and Oliver Wright, who played in his band Halcyon Glow at the first EyeFest festival I organised with my friends in Bath. It turned out to be a really full show, lots of children running around (we pulled out a song or two that we felt was too rude for little ears, or rather their parents). 

About a third of the way into the gig Maya, who was looking after Molly that evening, turned up with Molly. We were so happy. Molly really enjoyed the gig, Maya took her round, playing with some of the toys and animals in the shop. It was so nice to have her there. 

After the gig we hung out with Maya, had some food at The Paper Factory Hotel, and listened into people’s comments about the impending mega storm due to hit New York. Temperatures due to plummet, snow storms approaching, and wondering whether or not we’d make it to Durango the next day. We had leave the hotel at 4am, fly to 2 hours to Chicago, fly 3 hours to Albuquerque, jump in a car with Nick Bottomley from Mr Bs who’d flown out for the ABA conference, drive for 4 hours north, through the mountains to Maria’s Bookshop, and get there in time to play at 6.30pm. Everything had to run perfectly for it to work, and the storm approaches. 

Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Hope Molly sleeps. 

Woke up with a mild hangover from the whisky and MacGuffin Beer. We didn’t have a lot but the beer was 12%! Or maybe we were feeling the big pizza pie (When the moon hits your eye like a…’) that we had when we got back from the gig. Or maybe it was just the jet lag.

Molly woke up even earlier so it was Ben’s turn to get up while I snoozed til 7. We had a big day ahead of us - the cello needed to be picked up now the bridge was straightened, we needed to pack all our belongings, do a radio show, and we needed to get to Short Stories in Madison for our gig.

Ben and Molly headed in to New York to collect the cello and I did the packing. We didn’t have to get everything too compact as we were getting a lift with our new friend Kip in her Subaru  First though, we had a last minute radio show to appear on in Jersey City. Lynn Mullen Aka DJ Trouble had seen our gig at Little City Books and had invited us to talk on her show. As we walked into the building, we were told that the back of the building was being bulldozed but we could get upstairs to the studio. Luckily, Molly was in a deep sleep and as we chatted to DJ Trouble, she was in the next room causing no trouble. It was a relaxed and very cool show.  It was Françoise Hardy, the French singer-songwriter’s birthday that day so she was featured quite heavily. Three of our songs were played of the Curious and Curiouser album and apparently we were heard in one of our favourite bookshops in Ireland - Sheela na Gig in Cloughjordan.

We got back to Kate’s and managed to get everything in to Kip’s car. We set off to Madison. We were quite glad that Kip was driving and not us. The roads are very confusing for a British driver!

Arriving at Short Stories, we were welcomed by a sign outside and a large poster of our tour on the door, some tea and big smiles from Meryll, Robert, Phyllis and James the sound guy. Then we caught a glimpse of the space we were to play in. It was going to be a nice gig. Short Stories is a Community Book Hub Launched as a social entrepreneurship venture by Barb Short and her daughters in 2014 and Kickstarted by the community. It’s not just a bookshop. They put on many events including concerts, children’s story time, art exhibitions, open mics,  workshops and books clubs. It  has a coffee shop and is a real independent centre for arts in the community. 

The building has been renovated and stripped back to the original brickwork. It used to be a camping shop but when it became empty, Barb had a vision for what kind of place they wanted it to be. It’s a spacious bookshop selling all things books and more. They even had socks and tea-towels (or dish towels as they are called here!) We offered our Bookshop Band Tour ’T-Towels’ to the mix. Up a couple of steps was a large multi-use space and where we were to play.

We had ample time to set up and Kip looked after Molly while we did. They got on very well, reading books and counting chairs!

We had a raised stage (for the second night in a row!) and our backdrop was the brickwork of the building with a cute wooden door. There was a piano on the stage that Ben threatened to play and in front of us to our left was a very convincing tree reaching all the way up to the ceiling. This felt especially relevant during Curious and Curiouser, our Alice in Wonderland song.  

Once we had finished setting up, we were told that Barb was staying with her mum that night so we had her whole house to ourselves, Having been in New York and New Jersey, the houses in Madison were now how I imagined typical American houses to be. Detached, each a slightly different style with large porches. I was questioning why we don’t have large porches in the UK. 

We had a bit of a late lunch, got ourselves gig ready and met our babysitter. Molly seemed very happy with Krysten so we left with little concern. 

Once back at Short Stories, our audience was starting to arrive and the place was buzzing. It was clear that this place had a sense of community and that many people knew each other. We even had three or four children in the audience - one the same age as Molly. It was lovely watching them responding to the music. I think they particularly enjoyed You Make The Best Plans Thomas about the beheading of Ann Boleyn!  

It was a lovely experience and we are loving the American audiences. They make us feel very at home and are making many suggestions for other bookshops and other places to play. 

We drank cocoa at the end instead of whisky.

We woke up this morning to a light smattering of snow. Molly wanted to build a snow man so we made a very small one. 

The shelves were all pushed back to reveal a seriously good PA and stage in the shop - how many bookshops have that? We unpacked our bags, trying to locate all the disparate wires and gadgets we’d collected over the last few months in an effort to scale down everything to fit on the plane, within the luggage allowance of two cases. Mini guitar stands, clip on mics, thinner and shorter XLRs. We had set ourselves the extra challenge, supported by an extra grant from Creative Scotland, of trying to record as many of our concerts as possible which will culminate in the release of a best-of-tour album on our return. All this meant that we were sound checking right up until the last minute as the audience started to arrive and fill up the shop. It’s pretty nerve wracking plugging in wires, dealing with booms and rumbles, in a new country for the first time with the band, a weight of expectation on your shoulders. What will they think? Will they like it? Can I get it to sound good in time? Please please nothing go wrong. 

Finally it was all ready with ten minutes to spare (phew), the PA sounded awesome, everyone was in, Little City Books was full of people. After three months of visa applications, thousands of emails and phone calls, countless ups and downs, and a growing sense of excitement, we were finally here. We were about to start, it was happening, it was real. We’d made it to America, the audience was beaming and so were we. 

Today we’re headed out to Madison New Jersey, about 45 minutes north west of New York, to play at Short Stories and Community Hub. We were going to catch the train, but then a lady came up to us at the end of the concert and offered to drive us. Before we left Wigtown, a friend of ours Ruby had come up to us and given us one bit of advice, which was to let people help. People want to help and we shouldn’t be shy about accepting help. So, we said yes :)

There is snow forecast for Saturday. 

We woke at 4.30 after very little sleep due to a restless Molly and late night packing.

My dad had drawn the short straw at being the one to take us to the airport. At 5.15am we were still playing Tetris with our gear and my dad’s fairly spacious car. I drew the short straw of having to squeeze, really squeeze myself into the middle seat between Molly in her car seat and a cello or some other large piece of luggage.

At 5.30 we set off to Heathrow. Luckily we were early enough to miss the A40 traffic and got there with plenty of time to get our enormous amount of luggage checked in. Dad helped us wheel the two trolleys into the airport then we said goodbye. Once we got rid of the two giant cases, the pushchair, the carseat and guitar, we were only left with two medium sized cases, two hand luggage items, a baby bag, a cello and a toddler. Yes we are travelling light.

We found a good place to have breakfast and Molly had a good run up and down a corridor. It was the first time we’d really sat down together for over a week as I had been away on another project at the start of January.

Right. We’re off to America. It’s actually happening! Ben had spent months organising and arranging this tour but we only had our P3 work visas confirmed (after a nail biting few months and a ton of paper work) just before Christmas so we hadn’t booked flights, accommodation, baby-sitters etc until we were sure we could go. We had to convince the authorities that we were ‘culturally unique’ and when we went for our visa interview the lady behind the desk said ‘Wow! I love books and I love music but I’ve never heard of anything like this before!’ Exactly, we thought. If only she’d received our initial application we’d have had no problem! We are fortunate to have friends in high places and our arguments were backed up by authors such as Phillip Pullman, Dr Robert Macfarlane and Dr Emma Hooper as well as musicians such as Sam Sweeney, Eliza Carthy and centres of folk culture such as Cecil Sharp House.

It’s actually great travelling with a toddler and a cello because you get priority boarding. Typically the cello has the window seat so has to be strapped in upside-down. We boarded this flight - me with Molly, the cello and one bag, and Ben with the rest of the stuff. As we got on, a very friendly steward offered to put the cello in a wardrobe. ‘We have a seat for it’ I said. ‘But do you have a seat for the baby?’ ‘No’ I said. ‘Then let me put it elsewhere and you’ll have more room’. Brilliant! After two trips and a pushchair drop off, Ben arrived at the trio of seats and we made ourselves comfortable. When it was time to fly, there was an announcement about a technical issue with the plane. We were waiting to see if it was a quick fix or if we might have to disembark and get a new flight. After an hour of waiting we all got off.

Much of this trip will rely on the kindness of strangers and here it started. Two women sitting behind us offered to help (by now we had an extra bag from Boots!) One took Molly and a bag and the other took two bags. They walked with us all the way to the departure lounge (better than taking the train as we’d have to go though customs again!) We waited for four hours, by which time Molly had fallen asleep with some window shopping and we’d had another meal. We forgot to use our vouchers that we had been given as we stepped off the plane but made up for it by getting some snacks later.

It was time to board the 16.45 flight to Newark. This time, all was well. Although we only had two seats, it was a bigger plane with less people so the cello sat at the back of the plane and we were by an emergency exit with plenty of space in front of us and the offer of a bassinet for Molly to sleep in.  As she’d recently had a sleep, she was happy playing, reading and socialising for a few hours. She loved the take off, laughing and saying ‘weeeeeeee’ as the plane went faster. She charmed all the stewards and passengers, chatting and singing for them. When she (and we) were worn out, she had some milk and fell asleep on my lap. This was a time to be thankful that I was still breastfeeding. After eight days apart, I wasn’t sure if that would still be a possibility. After Ben transferred her to the bassinet we got quite excited about the prospect of watching a film. I watched The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a fictional historical film set just after WWII about the German occupation of the island and a literary group that formed to give themselves some comfort and sense of community. It was heart warming and felt like a relevant movie to watch at the start of our first Bookshop Band Tour of America.

I got a flutter of excitement after catching the first glimpse of the lights of North America. It was suddenly becoming a reality and the 20 minutes of sleep had revived me. Ben had also been sleeping a while so I didn’t feel too bad when I poked him to say ‘Look! Land! Lights!’ Molly had a few hours of sleep but woke in time for the landing. Unfortunately, one of us had to sit with the cello for take-off and landing (in case it got scared?!) so Ben went to the back while Molly and I sang songs and looked for distractions. She wasn’t that keen on being strapped in, so for the first time on the flight I used our last resort tool - downloads on my phone of ’Sarah and Duck’. She patiently let me borrow the phone to take pictures and a video of us coming into Newark but I had to give it back as she needed to see what happened to the frog…

By now, we had repacked our luggage so that it was more manageable and we put Molly in the sling. We got off the plane and found our way to the visa queue. Molly went between singing Twinkle Twinkle very loudly to wanting to get down and run about. This wasn’t the time so we kept her in the sling until we got through. She made the very serious man at the desk smile by singing so he let us in! We were finally in the US. As we retrieved  the rest of our luggage, Molly had a run about. We got a big trolly and tried to work out how we would get to our accommodation in Hoboken. The easiest but not cheapest option was a yellow cab. We deserved the easiest option we thought.

Although we were a few hours late, Kate was still up and had made us some dinner. The house was spacious, tasteful and came with a Cockapoo called Levi. Kate runs a bookshop in Hoboken called Little City Books where we are playing tonight. She’s a musician and has been more than generous with her hospitality. This is a great place to start our tour and to end today’s blog. It’s time to get outside and explore. We are right by the Hudson River with a view of the city on the other side and there’s a play park at the bottom of the road.

Beth