They say that if it’s really something good, it won’t be easy. Well, this whole thing must be Awesome.

We got set back a whole day by generator problems on the RV, and then we had a scare when the whole vehicle was filled with a noxious burning smell. After pulling over to have it checked out (with no success), Jon realized that it was just a tiny fuse that burned out. This rendered us without AC until we find a replacement fuse, but that’s OK. Missing the first night of the retreat in the Gorge, though, is a drag.

Before the tour started, we ran into so many hangups it started to become a running joke. Things got so bottlenecked at the end that Jon actually stayed up the entire last night getting the EP ready to send off to print. At around 72 hours with zero sleep, your head starts to take on the look of a strange potato, an Jon’s was no exception. This happens sometimes in the music biz; I have lots of memories of sunrises I should not have been awake to see… but not the night before driving 1,000 miles. (He has slept since… a bit.)

And even before all that, the various financial, logistical and schedule-related problems that delayed the beginning of our project, the details of which I will mercifully spare you, started to resemble those dreams where you’re running as fast as you can in 5 ft. of water. I wonder if my wife feels like she married one of those amateur inventor guys – ‘When I finish this Cold Fusion reactor…’

But this seems to be the way of things. I watched a talk by a dying professor who said this (paraphrasing, sorry): “The barriers are not there to stop you. The barriers are there to filter out all but those who really want it.”

Well, whatever it is, we really really want it. ‘It’ isn’t the same ‘it’ that I wanted when I was 20 (well, some of it wouldn’t be bad), but as we get more and more focused on reaching people with this music, a few barriers are no match for JB and the Next Movement team.

TOUR!

As I write this, I’m sitting in a moving RV somewhere in central California at night. It’s a 1988 Dolphin, in pretty good shape but, you know, 1988. I remember 1988. I was 17.

The effect when we hit a slight rough patch of road is eerily similar to what I experienced in the Northridge earthquake. It will be a few days before I really believe that a vehicle this size won’t break apart every time it starts moving, but I’m sure we’ll gain each other’s trust in time. Like the Millennium Falcon.

So here we are. This is my first attempt at a full-on solo tour, my first collaboration with Jon Rezin and Next Movement Records, my first time releasing material that simply says ‘JB Eckl’ on the front with no apologies. Call me a late bloomer. But better late than never.

The idea behind the tour is to play intimate concerts, mostly in people’s living rooms, with the simple goal of cultivating a real relationship with enough music lovers to develop a sustainable touring circuit up & down the West Coast. It’s just me, an acoustic guitar and a small sound system, and people sitting 3 feet away – a huge contrast to my days touring the world with WAR, with an awesome 8-piece band and giant festival crowds. This is all about digging deep and letting the songs speak, trusting myself 100%.

The first week out will be spent preparing and spending time with my people in the Northwest. It starts with a retreat I’ve been going to every year in the Columbia Gorge, one of my favorite spots on Earth. The perfect way to set the tone spiritually, singing and camping all weekend with a bunch of young folks out in the boonies. After that, we dive in – some 10 to 15 shows in 3 weeks’ time.

I’ll be posting the details of this whole adventure here, every chance I get. Jon and I are travelling with our wives and kids, all in one house on wheels, into the unknown… the chances of it being boring & uneventful are slim-to-none.

See you on the road!
JB