The Back Pockets tour log: Pt. 1 (Mon., March 14)

• Jhoni Jackson

Drummer Billy Mitchell, who’s easily frontwoman Emily Kempf’s organizational counterpart, set a meeting time of 10 a.m. We’re all supposed to load in at Thunderbox by 11 a.m. and head to Memphis. Emily shows up closer to departure time in her folk-art-covered minivan while the rest of a stripped-down version of the band—bassist Adam Bruneau and violinist Lam Nguyen, among others—are mostly merry-making while she tries to sort through supplies, which range from instruments to empty water jugs to wigs to shiny dresses. A discarded TV is a temptation for Adam when Billy’s bats surface, and the band’s wheelchair, acquired during their winter tour, is never without a laughing occupant.

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Mermaids’ Matt McCalvin stopped by the space to pick up some gear and compliments the band on their bus. It’s a Greyhound reject of sorts, now painted sky blue with clouds. Inside, there are three bunk lofts and random decorations hanging from the ceiling railings. A canvas tote with a Dalai Lama quote—the one about the true meaning of life—hangs behind the driver’s seat. A duplicate on a scroll that’s flutist Heather Buzzard’s hangs on the opposite side.
After a brief runaround getting cars parked safely for the week and a blow to a Moreland Ave. street sign, we’re finally leaving Atlanta.

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Hours later, while in traffic in on 20-west near Alabama (or literally in Alabama—it’s hard to tell), Otis Redding’s version of “A Change is Gonna Come” plays on the bus boombox. Billy tells that story about how Sam Cooke wrote the song to challenge Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which Cooke thought should have been written by a black man. Emily honks the horn in frustration of the snail-paced traffic—and it breaks. It starts honking sporadically, oddly in tune with a faster-paced Redding song.

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“I’m panicking!” she yells.