For this series of articles, our writer Ty Maxwell will be documenting his tour of the Northeast, spanning from August 6th to September 8th. Maxwell will be writing reflections and insights into the process of booking and executing a DIY tour as an independent artist, the relationships that enable the whole enterprise, and the general day-to-day experience: the minutiae, difficulties and triumphs involved in touring as a solo musician.
Day One: Wednesday, August 6th, 2025 – Abyssinia Upstairs (Philadelphia, PA) with Pontiac Flare, Star Moles and Beets Blog
The day begins early, so early it’s still dark.
For whatever reason – probably some hidden nervous energy in my skeleton, all the anticipation of impending travel and art action – I woke up around 6 AM, which was just as well, because it gave me plenty of time to pack up my car for the whole day’s worth of missions and tasks. (I wouldn’t be coming back here until bed o’clock.) First: doctor’s appointment (I’m responsible); second: recording studio, from 9-5; third, straight to Abyssinia for my tour kick-off show, with other locals Pontiac Flare (solo, no band), Star Moles (same), and western Massachusetts’ own Beets Blog (also solo!). I would be accompanied by my dear friend Dashielle Flach on Casio keyboard for three songs, but otherwise playing solo as well. For the uninitiated, my project is called Thank You Thank You.
I arrived at the studio promptly at 9, with two coffees, one for me, one for my friend and engineer/musician/producer Lucas Knapp. We worked, with short breaks, all the way through until 5, mostly mixing and editing some recordings of new music I’ve been chipping away at off and on all year. (The great Will Henriksen, fiddler and mandolinist in Florry, swung by for a couple hours to figure out some improvised string arrangements.) We worked on five songs in various states of completion throughout the day – some instrumental, some with singing – and when I left I was buzzing with the progress and changes we’d made. These recordings are elaborate, each track with multiple musicians involved and dense thickets of sound; I’m thrilled with how they’re shaping up.
Pulling up to Abyssinia early to load in and eat some chicken tibs, it hit me how interesting it would feel to sing some of these new songs on tour, more or less completely solo. Would I try to conjure the feeling of full-band arrangements all by myself, or would I go in the opposite direction, presenting the songs consciously as miniatures, as minimalist treatments of the same sculptures? Would I be imagining the fuller sound we’re getting in the studio, with drums and bass and strings and keys and whatever else, and would the listeners’ imaginations be running wild like mine? Or would I do everything I could in each town to try to rope local musicians into improvising over my songs, like my friend Chad often has?
Fast-forwarding to the show itself, I got to wondering whether or not the folks I was sharing the bill with – Nathan aka Pontiac Flare, Emily aka Star Moles, Taggie aka Beets Blog – were feeling similarly about presenting their songs in such a stripped-down way, not to mention in the intimacy and bareness of that upstairs-at-Abyssinia room. (Speaking of which: what happened to that full-size Elvira cardboard cutout?! I miss her!) All three are, as recording artists, elaborate arrangers of their own songs. The show was sparsely attended, but everyone who came stayed for all four sets, with close-to-pindrop quiet attention. Part of me wished we all had the manpower and the funds and the space and the sound system to present those more lush, more involved, more intricate arrangements of our songs, but none of that mattered when I was listening to each set. The moment itself triumphed, the real bested the imagined.
And yet: after, I couldn’t help thinking, wait until they hear the recordings!
Day Two: Thursday, August 7th, 2025 – Sultan Room Rooftop (Brooklyn, NY) with Miles Hewitt, Ok Cowgirl
It’s so obvious that it hardly needs to be said: one of the most special and meaningful things about music is the way it brings people together. That goes as much for the people who listen to it, the ones who show up and buy tickets and support the artists with their time and energy and attention, as it does for the performers themselves. We all know and see and feel the connection between bandmates, the telepathy and active listening and responsiveness and tightness between them as they rock a crowd. But what can’t always be sensed except maybe by the keenest of observers is the connective tissue between artists sharing a bill together — if there even is any, beyond the simple fact of each band taking their turn on the carousel. Sometimes there’s no prior link: I’ve played so many shows with people I’d never met before and never saw again, which is not unpleasant but maybe lacks a little in the meaning department. But I’m thinking today about the series of events that led to me sharing the stage with Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and poet Miles Hewitt and the NY band Ok Cowgirl, and it feels cool and sweet to share a little of that backstory with you today. (Future entries in this ongoing tour diary will be a little more me-centric and grounded in the present, but it feels appropriate to take this tangential turn given that this show was an exception to the rule of my tour: it was a true opening slot with a true headliner, at a venue that made me submit a W9 and fill out an Airtable survey. The rest of this will be way more DIY.)
Last year, the label Ruination Records, responsible for releasing much of my favorite music coming out these days, put out an instrumental double single of mine: the A-side, ten-minute-plus, ornate composition “After You Gave Me This,” composed for eleven musicians; the B-side, its nocturnal inverse, the minimal and droning “There’s No Telling." I like to say it’s sort of fake classical. I write this to convey that Miles Hewitt – himself a fine purveyor of lyric-driven guitar music – heard it and liked it, which led to the kind of wonderful mutual-admiration, signal-boosting-and-intel-sharing internet relationships that I think is inarguably one of the only things social media is truly good for. Though if you’re as actively scheming (musically) as I am, there are many such online buddies, and they don’t always turn IRL.
Fast forward to earlier this year, late February: I was in NYC and hit up Hewitt to let him know I’d be going to see Philly stalwarts 22o Halo at Nightclub 101 if he wanted to come and finally meet up! The 6’4” Hewitt forced a lot of neck craning on me, which is the only complaint I’ll lob regarding the pleasure of his company while we chatted at the bar. (I hopped up on a stool for this reason alone.) But the real moment that linked us for life came later. We ended up chatting with another Music Website writer, and she asked us who our favorite bands were; when it was his turn, Hewitt shared (I’m paraphrasing): “Honestly – and I know this is maybe too obvious – but my answer is: The Beatles...” In a turn of events so kismet it’s still ridiculously beautiful to me, my friend, the great songwriter Claire Ozmun, had earlier that day invited me to her friend’s apartment for a literal “Beatles night” – just a gaggle of a baker’s dozen plus musicians literally sitting in a circle playing Beatles songs all night, no big deal, if I was free or whatever. She texted the address. I texted back:
May I bring my friend Miles who LOVES the Beatles
She responded:
Yes for sure
If theyre ready to lock in
We might not have enough guitars
So Hewitt and I dipped, left Manhattan to go to the Beatles party, and, by all accounts, by the end of it – by the end of “I’m So Tired” and “Across The Universe” and “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” and everything else that came up – we were BEATLES BROTHERS FOR LIFE. Turns out Hewitt knows a lot of their songs by heart, and turns out I kind of do too. So goes the cliché that one thing leads to another, and that’s why we shared the bill last night: two pals, one really tall and the other firmly average in that regard, like the movie Twins but way less extreme of a physical discrepancy. This is all to say: the show at Sultan Room was Hewitts’-and-band’s night, and I was just happy to be there, to open up the show – which was so fun and lovely, up there on the roof with perfect weather and immaculate vibes – and to celebrate this new... forgive me, buddy, had to do it... Miles-tone in our friendship.
