On The Final Days – Goodbye Girls, We’re Goin’ To Boston

Well folks, we’ve successfully completed our Rhythm Road tour and boy has it been a life-changing experience.  We are just now sitting down in the hotel to have a beer and reflect on the last five weeks before we travel back home tomorrow.  The past couple of days in Seoul have been so full of action that we’ve hardly had any time to write down our thoughts, but I’ll try to do my best to sum it all up.

Yesterday we had an amazing exchange with some phenomenal Korean traditional musicians on the lawn of the Ambassador’s residence here in Seoul.  The residence is the oldest foreign owned property in the country, which is a testament to how strong the connection is between our two countries, and I am honored to say that we all feel like we are part of that relationship now.  We got an opportunity to ask lots of questions about the Raga-esque forms of traditional Korean music and eventually we were able to join in and play with them.  They were some of the most incredible musicians we came across on the tour and they quickly latched on to our music and played along with us as well.  Afterward we all had an incredible lunch inside the Ambassador’s house and we left completely satisfied both musically and culinarily.

We then went down to the TBS radio station (the english-speaking channel here in seoul) and played some tunes and answered some questions on Steve and Sam’s show.  Even though we were running late because we did not want our exchange with the Korean musicians to end, we got into the studio just in the nick of time and had a great time playing live on the radio.

After a few hours of freshening up, we went down to the Chonnyon Dongan Do (“For a Thousand Years”) one of the most famous jazz clubs in downtown Seoul to play a concert.  Although we didn’t know what to expect from a jazz-loving audience, they were very lively and seemed to love the Earth-string sound.  They especially enjoyed “You Are My Sunshine” and “The Tennessee Waltz” which are both very popular songs in Korea.

Today was another full day of music, and it started with a performance at the Korean National Folk Museum.  After getting to check out some of the galleries, we played in the front hall of the museum for anyone who wanted to listen.  We had a terrific audience and everyone seemed to really enjoy hearing bluegrass and old-time music for the first time.

This Evening we had our final performance at the Seoul Dream Forrest and it was truly a special one.  We played for 90 minutes and really got to finish out  the Rhythm Road with a bang!  We dedicated our performance to Daniel Pearl and Eric gave a heart-wrenching rendition of his beautiful original gospel tune, “Take Me Under.”  It was a great vibe getting to play our final show for lots of happy families picnicking under an almost full moon, and it was an experience I’m sure we’ll all remember for a long time.  We appropriately played the oldtime tune “Goodbye Girls, I’m Goin’ to Boston” as well as the Wood Brothers’ “One More Day.”  The audience response might have been the warmest of the whole tour and everybody was feeding off of their energy.

Although it is a little sad that we are finished with this epic journey, we are all ready to go home and be with our friends and family, and we are honored to have been a part of this incredible experience.

Thanks for reading!

-Sam

P.S.

We would like to give a very special thanks to Brian, Yoon, Maria, and Dae-Yun from the U.S embassy here in Seoul, and our amazing drivers Mr. Jeong and Mr. Che for making our experience here in Korea truly spectacular!