Liz Tormes' Tour Diary, Part 3

The singer-songwriter's final days in Ireland hold plenty of surprises

By Liz Tormes
Published: April 29th, 2008 | 2:30pm

Singer-songwriter Liz Tormes has been compared to Neko Case, Sam Phillips, and Nina Nastasia for her melodic song arrangements and haunting vocals. The Nashville native and New York transplant has just released her critically acclaimed album Limelight and will be touring sporadically in support of it in the upcoming year.

Throughout April 2008, Tormes has agreed to take us on her first tour of Ireland. Check venuszine.com for weekly updates as Tormes chronicles her adventures and gives us insight into the pros and cons of going it alone across the pond.

Friday Afternoon, April 11, 2008 — No Gigs Today
The flight to Galway was really rough. It was a prop plane, so I was prepared for some bumps. I can be a nervous flier and I would have been scared myself if I weren’t so amused by the girl across the aisle grasping onto the seat in front of her with one hand and the bottom of her seat with the other hand. "Fookin’ hell, fookin’ hell,” she said. Poor girl.

I was met at the airport by an Irish Musician I had met 13 years ago when we both lived in Nashville, Tennessee. He recently tracked me down on the Internet and offered to put me up for a few of my days in Northern Ireland. He also offered to shuttle me to some of the gigs, as the bus and train routes between the Republic and Northern Irelandare indirect. The jetlag had finally started to set in and I was craving some peace and quiet, but it was not in my cards. The Musician is quite a prolific and animated storyteller, even for an Irishman. I've been having trouble sleeping while over here, and oddly enough, I think it's because it’s too quiet. In NYC, I always have to sleep with some white noise. There’s no white noise here.

We drove for a couple hours and the Musician wanted to stop for a drink. We stopped at a great little pub and ran into a pal of the Musician's. He told his friend I was on tour. His friend mentioned that he's a musician as well and when I asked him what he played, he replied "pre-historic instruments". I laughed, thinking what a funny sense of humor the Irish have, but he was serious!

He explained he played instruments made from bones and horns, dating back 100,000+ years. And wouldn't you know it – there was a cow horn behind the bar. They had found it years ago while they were doing some renovations on the building, so the barman took it off the hook and handed it to the gentleman. He studied it for a minute, and then announced what key it would be in before giving it a go. And he was right.

Saturday, April 12, 2008 — Radio, Radio
Today we drove to Belfast. I did an interview with Cherrie McIlwaine of BBC Radio Ulster. She had been playing some of the tracks off my record and invited me on her show. She was lovely. We later stopped for lunch. I realized I didn't have the proper currency: pounds in Northern Ireland, euros in the Republic of Ireland. It gets really confusing when you’re close to the border, since there are no signs signaling that you have crossed into another country. I finally found an ATM that worked; but from that point on, I always seemed to have the wrong currency on me.

After soundcheck, I was able to get free Wi-Fi, so I caught up on e-mails until the battery died. That has been the most stressful part of the trip, successfully connecting to the Internet. Also, I will make sure that the next time I come to Europe I bring a U.K. adapter for each device. I've been using one adapter for the laptop, my international cell phone, my effects pedal, etc. — meaning you can only use one item at a time. I treat that thing like gold.

One good thing about touring with Teddy Thompson is the rider in his contract makes sure we always have some snacks and drinks backstage. We don't have anything too fancy, like a bowl of M&M's with all the brown ones picked out, but it's enough that I don't have to worry about running out for dinner.

The show went well. I sold and autographed a few CDs. We then drove one-and-a-half hours back to Strabane, arriving at 2 a.m.

Sunday, April 13, 2008 — Field Tripping
I slept in today. The Musician took me to a little town called Raphoe, where I met some wonderfully funny old gentlemen at a pub and had breakfast and tea while the Musician had whiskey and breakfast. He then took me to Beltony Stone Circle, an ancient stone formation which is older than Stonehenge. We passed a ruined castle that I went to explore. It was a couple hundred feet off the road, just like the old abandoned barns you see as you drive across America. You could walk up and go inside of it. There were bats flying all around inside. Just kidding, but there were gigantic black crows swooping down.

Monday, April 14, 2008 — Blowing up in Galway
I got up at 7:30 a.m. to catch the four-and-a-half-hour bus to Galway. I was playing the Roisin Dubh club that night, which has a two-story, three-bedroom, two-bath apartment that touring bands can stay in. It was a welcome surprise, especially after being in a place which was low on creature comforts.

The house I had been crashing in was very much a bachelor pad and chaotic at times. There were no working lights in the bathroom or my bedroom, save for a tiny candle in each. It was still very cold for April and the house was — from an American perspective — freezing! Forget about jumping in the shower at a moment’s notice. The water needed to be heated up about 30 minutes before it would work, as did the heating for the house. It makes for hilarious stories when you get back home but can be pure misery while you are living it.

I had a look around Galway, stopped by an Internet café so that I could get free Wi-Fi, and then took off for soundcheck. Afterwards, I went back to the apartment to take advantage of the shower and wash my hair. Later, as I unpacked my hairdryer, I realized the adapter was at the venue with my effect pedal. Crap! I threw on a hat and ran to the venue to get it. In the middle of drying my hair, there was a big spark and the dryer cut off; I had blown the adapter. Double crap! I thought, of all the things I needed the adapter for: two cell phones, the laptop, the effects pedal, and my hairstyling appliances, I knew it would be very difficult to find another one. Thankfully, the venue had a U.S.compatible power strip for my pedal, so the gig was not affected. Not so, my hair.

Tonight was the last of the shows with Teddy. It's been great to play in front of his audience.

Comments

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ohanlon (over 2 years)
I am 'the musician'in this article and have lots to say about it,but I will think about it a bit before I let you all know some more about Liz's trip to Ireland,it should be interesting for you to hear about it from an Irish perspective. More soon, Peter O'Hanlon.

ohanlon (over 2 years)
Hello, 'the musician' friend? here again. I will now point out what is true and what is not true about Liz's account of her time in Ireland and my house.First I will let you know a little bit about myself. I have worked as a pro musician for over thirty years and have worked with many of Irelands top artists including Van Morrison, I met Liz when I was living in Nashville in the early 90's, she was Greg Garings girlfriend, I was in his band, Liz and my wife were good friends. Back then Liz never sang or played a note so you can imagine my supprise when I discovered she had an album out. So, I contacted her and told her that if she came to Ireland I would help her to get some stuff together. Liz informed me a short time later that she was coming over to support Teddy Thompson, so I got to work on it. It was me who sent out cd's and managed to set up the Cherrie Mc Ilwain show with the BBC in Belfast and the Mark Patterson show in Derry, in her diary Liz says it was an agent that set up these shows,not true. I saved her a lot of time and misery sorting out the travel arrangements and drove 4 hours to pick her up in Galway and drove her back to Strabane taking a detour through some of the most beautiful landscapes in Ireland. I got Liz the only airplay she had over here and set up the only real paying gig of the tour. I done all these things to try and help her establish somethings that could lead to better things in the future. My house is a three bedroom cattage in a real nice part of town, I converted two rooms for recording leaving one bedroom which I gave to Liz while I slept on a campbed in the livingroom. The bathroom light was not working but there was a bedside light in the bedroom, I bought it a few days before Liz arrived, along with expensive linen sheets and a new duvet cover, I even put flowers in her room. The heating system in my house is the same as any house in Ireland, we dont waste energy by having hot water 24/7, Liz complained that it was freezing and miserable but she could have a good laugh with her friends back in the land of plenty. Liz has put all this out there in the public domain and I find it all a bit rude and ungrateful to say the least. I will admit I was drinking a lot at the time and have been sober for almost a year now but it does not excuse the way that Liz decided to portray the situation, she got to the shows on time and all went according to plan. Maybe she had nothing much to say and was trying to make her little tour seem tough and heroic, you see here's the point, why come to Ireland on a shoestring budget and then complain about the conditions. I have toured all over America and Europe and found little to bitch about appart from the usual discomforts that are part of traveling anywhere in the world but then I was on paying tours. I found Liz's diary when I was looking at images of Strabane on google, I have to say I find the whole idea of these diarys to be ridiculous and no real artist would be lowered to such a cheap form of self promotion. My message to Liz is simple, come back when you can afford it. Ireland is a tough place for a New Yorker. Pete O'Hanlon.

vanman (over 2 years)
just a small comment to say that this musician is regarded in ireland, for having an ego much beyond his talent , any comments should be treated with conempt, a drunken a**hole

soulman51 (over 2 years)
Me and my wife caught Liz's show @ Whelan's in Dublin last year. We heard her singing live on RTE Radio 1 and when we found out she was opening for Richard Thompsons son, we got tickets. Show was grand. She played good venues on the tour, doubtful she did the shows for free as speculated in previous post. My son's a touring musician too, so I can't imagine she's come from America to play for free. Looking forward to seeing her again. I'd put flowers in her bedroom, too!

starsky (over 2 years)
@ o'hanlon: seems like she was making an observation, not compliaining, since it does take the water awhile to heat up here! ans seems like she was doing you a favor not writing your name, but you go and announce yourself and your life story! talk about a chaep form of self promotion. idiot.