Saturday, November 4th, 2006 Paul Sprawl

Once again, Paul Sprawl created one of the most memorable nights I’ve ever experienced, but I think this time, Evansville did just the same for him. I’ve got to tell this story…

Paul, his performance artist wife, and band of amazing musician friends from Nashville were coming to the cabin in a bus. This is not your VW sort of bus, but something that can only be described as a stubby Greyhound sort of thing. There was no way it would get down the driveway to the cabin. So they drove past, turned the corner, and saw a convenient place to make a 3 point turn. The only problem is that at 5:30 on an Indiana Novemer evening, it’s dark outside, and the creek running alongside the road was not readily apparent until the back wheels of the bus dropped off the edge.

The bus blocked traffic in both directions. Guests will start arriving in two hours and I’ve got spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. I turned down the heat on the sauce, and drove to the scene of the situation. There was no way my Dodge Dakota was going to pull a bus out of a ditch. It looked like a hopeless and expensive situation, and to top it off, a police cruiser arrived on the scene.

But this Evansville. Things work differently here. The turn-around spot happened to be where my neighbor, Danny Mark, houses a massive dump truck. The police officer just happens to be a fine jazz bassist. By 6:30, the bus was parked at Danny’s place, the gear was unloaded and moved to the cabin, a jazz bassist was joining the band for the evening, and we were sitting down to a great Italian feast. By the time the guests arrived, you would never know that this was a show that nearly didn’t happen. I’m sure that Paul is telling stories about the amazing people in Evansville, Indiana.