Hello from tour!
I played Wind on Tin on a pipe organ in a church
Hi everyone. Today is a day off! I’m writing to you in a robe from my hotel bed in downtown Portland. I went on a long walk today (gotta get those steps in when you can on tour) and then treated myself to my first ever Voodoo Doughnut experience. I know this was a popular thing to do well over ten years ago, and I’m very late to the party here, but I’ve never had one before and I love being a tourist. When I walked by and there wasn’t a line (I refuse to wait in lines for food), I indulged. And let me tell you…they lived up to the hype! truly wow. I went with bacon maple and “old dirty bastard” (why is it called that?), with my afternoon coffee to get me in the mood for a little substacking today.
My solo tour is in motion and I’m loving it. So far I’ve played Ojai, Seattle, and Portland. There are just 4 shows left - Denver, Boulder, Dallas, and Austin. I’m sad! I love touring in general, and I love touring solo. It’s just me and my boyfriend (aka tour manager). We get fun hotels and fly in or rent a car and drive to the shows. It rules.
And I love playing these songs solo for all of you. If you’ve caught one of these shows you know that it’s a mix of playing music and also a little bit of story time too. When I have my band I don’t want to take up too much time talking between songs, but when it’s just me I really like taking it slow and going deep on some of the stories. It changes the experience of playing the songs for me, also. When I go into a little bit of what a songs really about for me and then I sing the lyrics, it’s pretty powerful.
Last night, I played at a beautiful venue in Portland called The Old Church. It is, in fact, an old church. But now they have shows there and you can drink alcohol in the pews. And - they have a real pipe organ.
When I got there, the sound guy asked me if I wanted to play the organ. At first I thought he was joking. And then he pushed back and genuinely encouraged me to do it. He said “Its a real crowd pleaser” and, “why not?”. I loved that guy.
At first, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off. I’ve never played one and there is a lot of technique involved. But after some trial and error, I realized I could work out a rookie version of the end of Wind on Tin on the organ.
I didn’t want to do the whole song on the pipe organ because it would have been way too long and boring due to my limited pipe organ skills. So I decided to just do the end on the organ and here’s how it all went down.
I saved it for the encore - I came out and played the first half of Wind on Tin on guitar, and then just before the “I heard God” part, I put down the guitar and walked over to the organ and finished the song. It was awkward for the first few seconds because no one knew what was going on, but once I got closer to the organ they figured it out.
And it totally worked! It wasn’t perfect, I definitely messed up a few notes, but who cares. It was a fun wildcard organ ending to Wind on Tin and I’m glad I did it. Kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity! Thank you cool sound man. That was fun.
Tomorrow we fly to Denver and my next shows will be in Colorado and then Texas. I don’t want this tour to end! But all good things do. It’s been so fun to play a lot of the new ones on this run as well, and I keep saying at the shows that my plan is to come back in 2026 with the band and a new album. More on that soon.
That’s all for today! Behind the paywall, I’m sharing a video of last night’s Wind on Tin pipe organ moment, shot by my boyfriend, for my beloved paid subscribers. It felt like Phantom of the Opera! And it’s good to do things that scare us every now and then! Keeps us sharp.
Until next week,
Jess
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