On the 13th day, Splendor All Around came home. Or at least, home for me. I stopped living on the road in a giant blue bus with a dozen other musicians, I stopped playing shows every night. There were a few more concerts in the East Bay, and the bus hosted some trick-or-treaters and their parents on Halloween. But I slept in my own bed, made out with my boyfriend, ate food I cooked myself, and I did things -- some of them unspeakably boring -- for the money.
I also started counting the days til the next Splendor tour, which, incidentally, starts this tomorrow.
We’re calling the Gas Cap Tour a “tour” even though we’re only going as far north as Mendocino, as far south as Los Gatos. The truth is that between tours, Splendor keeps busy. We organize local shows about once a month, and our community of artists, venues, and audiences keeps growing. To celebrate this abundance we’re throwing a 9-day music festival on wheels, taking the bus on a lap around our own backyard:
Friday 7/28 -- Blackberry Jam (Mendocino)
Saturday 7/29 -- The Old Rail Road (Marin)
Sunday 7/30 -- Empress Vintage (Berkeley)
Monday 7/31 -- ???
Tuesday 8/1 -- ???
Wednesday 8/2 -- Grizzly Peak (Berkeley)
Thursday 8/3 -- Women of Splendor (Oakland)
Friday 8/4 -- Visual Art Night (First Fridays Oakland)
Saturday 8/5 -- (Fremont)
Sunday 8/6 -- (Los Gatos)
We’ll be updating the list above with details when we have them. The two dates with ??? next to them aren't booked yet. If you’re free one of those nights and want to host a Splendor show -- or if you know someone who does -- please reach out!
Here’s the short list of who we are, this time around. Like I mentioned above, the tour isn't fully booked yet, so expect a few surprises. But the lineup is already looking stellar. We’re even being joined by a few very special traveling acts:
Pancho Morris/Deep Strange * Rain and Left * Rebecca Marcyes * Oil Derek (VA) * Rosie Cima * Mikayla McVey * Big Kitty * Dave Deporis * Jake Mazonson * Ed Masuga * Walktell * Teddy Lee Wilder * Ghost City Music * Maddy Streicek * Davin Marco * GUMS * Salami Rose Joe Louis * Desiree Cannon * Annachristie (Joshua Tree) * Luke Travis/The Snowmen of Summer * Katie Eberle * Katie Wheeler-Dubin * Danny Vitali * Little Arcs * Dillon Morris * Wiley Rogers * Jeremy Yingling * Claire Rabkin * Angela Hope * Whitney Freedman * Adam Richman * and more
I’m Rosie Cima, singer-songwriter and sometimes Splendor scribe, and I’ll be documenting the pants off this puppy. Last time around this was a long form blog, this time I’m going to keep things short and timely, while maintaining my commitment to Truth and Beauty. I've invited the other minds in our brilliant little hive to pitch in as they feel inspired, so expect some other voices here. You're invited to contribute too! If you have content that you think we should put on the blog, either send it my way (rosiecimamusic@gmail.com), or check out those social media links at the bottom and tag us.
Let’s have some fun! Here’s a flyer, by the one and only Angela Hope, to get you pumped.
