Chapter 5: Louisiana

For my first venture to the Deep South, I decided to do things differently. All my previous Gather Hear Tours had itineraries that were meticulously researched and planned. It takes a huge amount of time to research an entire state and dig up locally beloved, concert-friendly community gathering spaces. It’s essentially a Google Maps treasure hunt.

For Louisiana, I really had no idea where to start looking. The south is foreign to me. The weight of its heavy and dark history, its own unique culture - I didn’t know how they would intersect with my form of music making, much less in a state like Louisiana, which comes with its own exceptionally rich and complex heritage.

It felt wrong for me to pre-plan the journey, as a foreigner in more ways than one. So I came up with an idea: do a tour with no plans. I would just show up, source a piano and van, and then let the people I met and land I encountered dictate where I would head to and where I would play. Sure, it had the possibility to be an epic failure, but best case scenario, I would get to know Louisiana and Louisianans in a way I never could’ve otherwise. 

This tour was accompanied by Joel Wolpert and Daniel Pettrow.