The Launching of Gather Hear Louisiana
(A rough start)
April 15 & 16, 2022
New Orleans
Defeated by the heavier-than-expected piano, reconsidering all my life choices
Here we were in Louisiana, Gather Hear’s first time in the deep south. I was filled with equal parts excitement and dread for this incredibly weird ordeal I decided to put myself through. There was so much to worry about, but I focused on the first order of business: Find a piano.
I've used electro-acoustic hybrid pianos for past tours, which never go out of tune (since they plug in and make sound digitally) and are a bit lighter than real pianos. But I was dead set on using a real piano for this tour: I missed performing with acoustic sound, and I was tired of all the tech requirements of a plugged-in instrument. How bad could it REALLY be to move around an upright piano…right?
I lined up seven piano viewings all around New Orleans utilizing Facebook Marketplace. My maximum budget was $500. As I tried out each piano, playing for 3-5 minutes, most sellers would stay near me and listen. These moments were more intimate than I had anticipated. One man had lost his father recently; the piano had belonged to his late mom, and he wanted to talk about her and show me all her artwork. Another man was disabled and couldn't bend his arms; he lived alone and I had to help him clear off the large pile of things that had accumulated on the piano. There was a stay-at-home dad with an autistic son, and the son yelled "Good job!!!" multiple times as I was leaving. In the end, I chose to buy a Kimball upright off of James, a young New Orleans musician who was moving out to hit the road indefinitely.
with James and his friend in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans
As soon as we woke up, we fetched the UHaul, got supplies at Lowe’s, and got to James'. We laid the piano on its back to outfit it with 4-inch wheels. Joel - my filmmaker, travel buddy, indispensable right hand man, the creator of the Gather Hear Utah film - quickly made a ramp, already drenched in sweat in the Louisiana humidity. I’m not sure why he chose to wear pants instead of shorts.
Only as we were getting ready to load in the piano did we realize that the height of the piano plus the added height of wheels might not clear the van. It was *extremely* lucky that it made it in with an inch to spare, and only once we took the piano lid off. However, the tight ceiling space put the piano at a weird angle that didn’t work with the ramp. A nightmare unfolded in front of us as the ramp slowly but surely slipped away from the piano, and we almost ended up crushed by the 350lbs piano toppling on top of us. Once we muscled it in, I sat on the floor of the van for a while, drenched in sweat with my head in my palms. I reconsidered following through with this tour, and wondered out loud if it was all a terrible idea.
Luckily, Joel is extremely resourceful - a woodworker and former farmer, he rebuilt the ramp to fit the van and piano better. We had a celebratory beer and left New Orleans to drive to the easternmost point of Louisiana. I had chosen this as the first place to go in Louisiana because 1. It looked cool on the map, way out on the spit in the water 2. I had read the book Bayou Farewell, which details the terrifying rate that coastal land is disappearing in Louisiana (one football field size parcel of land is lost EVERY DAY), and its devastating environmental impact, and 3. I naively hoped I could encounter some old school Cajun fishermen out there.
Exhausted from the day’s efforts, I decided to park the van and practice for a little bit to get used to the new piano instead of trying to perform. There was hardly anyone to be seen in this corner of Louisiana anyway - I’m not sure what I was expecting. Well, to be honest, the preparation for this tour mainly consisted of training myself to NOT expect anything. To go in with an open mind, fearless, open to any possibilities or doors that might open up. This was because I knew that the journey that would unfold would be anything beyond what I could imagine, and I didn’t want the possibilities to be hindered by the limitations of my imagination.We camped next to the Mississippi River, where we spent a restless night fighting mosquitos under the full moon.
