 EL CANTADOR plays 92ZEWs American Dream Music Festival  In December of 2006, long time friends and former band mates Heath Underwood and Sean Murphy began tracking original songs at Sean's parents recording studio (Backdoor Studios). Finding the process inspiring and artistically fulfilling, they invited bass player/graphic artist Johnny Gwin to help form a band and released their first EP "Orange" in the spring of 2007. The fourth member position of the band has taken on several different talents and personalities, but in the early part of summer 2008, violin/vocalist, Melody Duncan joined El Cantador on stage and has remained an integral part of the group. The band continued to play shows both in their hometown of Mobile, Alabama and in the Southeast to new faces and welcoming crowds. By October, a second EP entitled "The Ground" was released with a stream of tour dates and continued radio play of the tracks "O'Captain" and "No Surprise" |
  EL CANTADOR - NASHVILLE to CHARLESTON
Day 1
Our Van "El Burro" had to get new shoes and shocks and we got on the road. Hit the strongest, fastest thunderstorm i have ever seen. We played a great home-like lounge called Kimbro's Picking Parlor (no connection to Will Kimbrough). Will's and Brinton's place is a great venue and they are super hospitable. We have officially released Dinner & A Show CD and the wonderful folks of Tennesee have been nice enough to take a few off our hands. El Burro likes to be fed. Small but loud crowd listened and Brinton got us up and closed the show with us playing a shaky but spirited KEEP ON ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD to close the nite. Stayed with The Shotgun Lover boys in Nashville...fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. Day 2_FANFAIR 2009 & THE BIZ-QUITS & The BEASTIE BOYS We had lunch at The Pied Piper and headed to the CMA FanFair 2009 on Music City Row. WOW, 30,000 country music fans hanging out meeting their Country Music heroes. It was great. Got a farmers tan and bought a bunch of Nashville stuff for the next El Cantador mystery bag. Plus, I found an old Government Cheese (Tommy Womack) album at a used record store. SCORE!!!!!! Some Hatch Show Print stuff, a Charlie Pride postcard and some George Jones playing cards. Melody went on the GREAT BOOT HUNT but never found the Ostrich boots she wanted. Sean just went thru the whole day texting and updating his Facebook Status. He really needs to LIVE IN THE MOMENT. Oh Sean. Here are the best Tshirts I saw: 1. There is too much Blood in my alcohol system 2. COUNTRY MUSIC is the reason why I wake up every afternoon. 3. Don't blame me I voted for Willy. Great event, so glad we got to experience that and I think I bumped into Bo Bice and Bucky from the third American Idol. I am not sure but I think Lee Ann Rimes mite have pinched Heath's bottom when we were walking down Music CIty Row. Ok, last nite we found ourselves in the middle of a huge Facebook rumor. Here is the background story: This is Bonnaroo weekend. Last year Metallica played a show at THE BASEMENT (the venue we played last nite) before thier Bonnaroo show. So this year the rumor was that the Beastie Boys were going to play their this year. We show up at the venue and 40 people are waiting in line. The place is abuzz with energy and a lot of "I heard this" and "I heard that". El Cantador and Shotgun Lover went about our business of setting up. The crowd grew and the first band CASSINO opened the show. Beautiful sound and nice songs. Check them out. We took the stage 2nd and other than some small Bass Technical issues had a good show. The crowd was huge and I think we won over a few. Shotgun Lover killed their set and more people poured into THE BASEMENT. Long story: Mike D and the boys never actually showed up even though some girl had already made HATCH style posters for the show. Wish I would have got one. Sorry the crowd was dissappointed about the Beasties but luckily for us and Shotgun Lover we had a bunch of new ears listening to us. We even managed to sell a nice amount of CDs. SIDENOTE: Mike Grimes owns and runs sounds at THE BASEMENT (also has the great GRIMEYS's Record Store on the 2nd floor above the basement). Well finding out we were from Mobile he starts to talk about his friend WILL KIMBROUGH from Mobile and their old band THE BIS-Quits. Now I never put this together: GRIMEY is Mike Grimes from the BisQuits. I LOVE THIS RECORD. I MEAN LOVE THIS RECORD. Mike Grimes was the bass player on this record and here he is right in front of me. The Bisquits is probably one of my top ten fav records. So I made a bit of an ass of myself and fawned over him until Heath told me to back off "your creeping him out". Back to Nathan and Andrews place and stayed up singing Ryan Adams songs and finally went to dreamland (sleep not the restaurant). And it was great seeing the LEGENDARY BLOUNT FLOYD. He is dreamy. SHOTGUN LOVER rocks!!!!!!! Day 3 - GOODBYE TO FRIENDS & GETTING A LITTLE BITCHY NASHVILLE > CHATTANOOGA 2.5 HOURS in EL TRAVELER Left our blood brothers SHOTGUN LOVER at their HQ and arrived at RIVERBEND in Chattanooga, TN. Played 2 sets. Johnny got bitchy and Sean heckled drunks on the street. Heath plotted El Cantador world domination and Melody went swimming in her dress at the MOTOR LODGE in Calhoun, Ga. ROAD TUNES: Wilco (The Album) Wilco - Ashes of American Flags The Bis-Quits Emmylou Harris - Retrospective DAY 4 - LOST TOWELS, TACO BOY, BULLETS AND TIN ROOFS CALHOUN GA > CHARLESTON, SC - 6 HOURS in El Traveler Left my trusty travel towel in the Motor Lodge, accused Melody of losing my FLIP camera & missed the opportunity to see THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES. (Check their story out at www.radioliberty.com/stone ROAD TUNES: The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray Minor Threat - Complete Recordings The Monkees Ryan Adams - Demolition Wess Floyd & The Daisy Cutters - Blood Sworn Enemies Delta Spirit Audio Book: A Longway Down by Nick Hornby (Disc 1) Arrived in South Carolina. Went to Folly Beach. Ate at TACO BOY (www.tacoboy.net). Cool place. Great tacos. Fat Tire and Fruity cocktails. Good times and didn't get a parking boot on EL Traveler. Arrived at Tin Roof and loaded in. Cool place. Great staff. Awesome Gene Wilder mural on the wall and cold PBRs. Two piece local band, The Bullets, opened up. Lead singer looked and sounded like a young Iggy Pop. Played a 1.5 set. Good show no epic moments but solid. Best SURPRISE of the night was Eric Sternberg and Meghan Griffin who just moved to Savannah, Ga from Mobile showed up to see us. Great to see them again and it was wonderful to see familiar facesin a foriegn town. Love ya Eric & Megan. Load up and Melody decided she wanted to drive all the way home. DAY 4 - TRUCKER COFFEE & THE ENDLESS HIGHWAY CHARLESTON, SC > MOBILE, AL - 10 HOURS in El Traveler With Melody Speedracer behind the wheel and me sitting CHEWY we cranked Hedwig & The Angry Inch and eventually restarted the audio book: A LONG WAY DOWN and El Cantador was on our way home. After my second cup of Trucker Coffee (good lord what do they put in that stuff) and with the moon shinin' brightand the lines on the highway mesmerizing us we made pretty good time. Sean and Heath out cold in the O'Captain chairs in the back. I fought off Mr. Sandman to keep Melody company for as long as I could. Fortunately for me Nick Hornby's book kept Melody awake and focused for 8 hours.(Its a sad and satirical look at 4 suicidal uncommon friends who meet on a rooftop in London. I thought it was very good. Heath was not so entertained by it. Sean missed the whole thing.) Other than Melody's impressive ability to drive forever without a break, we had a safe drama free nite on the highway. Arrived in Mobile at 12 noon and unloaded and went on our merry way. I love my bandmates but some alone time will be nice, and luckily next weekend we get to do it again next weekend. ROAD TUNES: Mitch Hedberg - stand up comedy SUMMARY: 5 DAYS 4 Shows 1749 Miles Driven 8 Fill Ups 6 Sets Played 20 CDs Sold 1 music hero met (Mike Grimes) 1 Lost Towel 1000 laughs 10 frowns 3 Insults yelled out the window Tons of new friends 1 great mini tour 
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