Austin Lucas Invites Friends On ‘Minimum Overdrive’ Tour
New West recording artist Austin Lucas has just announced a string of new tour dates across the United States and a few stops in Canada, but this won’t be your garden variety Austin Lucas tour. Joining him on stage in acoustic collaborations will be mandolin extraordinaire Jayke Orvis, Jon Snodgrass (aka the “guy with the glasses’ from Drag The River), Canadian singer/songwriter Northcote, and Caleb Caudle for select dates.
“It’s just a play on worlds because most of us are kind of rocker dudes but we play obviously different degrees of roots music,” Austin Lucas says of the tour’s “Minimum Overdrive” name. “So I just thought it’s a funny name with all acoustic guitars because there’s no amps or drums, but I feel like we can still bring the rock atmosphere.”
Austin says Minimum Overdrive patrons can expect maximum collaboration.
“It’s definitely going to be the kind of tour where everybody is collaborating with each other, and playing on each other’s songs. Especially Jayke and I are going to be doing a lot of stuff as a duo, playing each other’s songs. Basically the tour started because Jayke and I had been talking about doing a tour together for about the last six months. And we decided if we were going to do dates together, we wanted to do as much stuff where we were playing together, doing sort of a Bill Monroe and Doc Watson type of duo. I mean obviously we are not as good as those guys, but those Smithsonian Folkways albums have always been dear to my heart and Jayke’s heart as well, and we just wanted to do a two-man duo thing. So we’re going to split it up to where we both do duo stuff together, play each other’s songs, and then we’ll both be collaborating with Jon Snodgrass, with Northcote, and with Caleb Caudle when Caleb’s on the tour.”
Austin Lucas has already toured extensively with Jon Snodgrass from Jon’s years in Drag The River. “Bringing John on was a really good idea because I knew that John and I have a lot of songs in our pocket that we can play together. I wanted to bring people on that I really respected, and knew I would have a good time collaborating with.”
“To be honest with you, I didn’t really think about if other people would have a good time with anybody else on the tour,” Austin says. “Very selfishly, I just wanted to bring people out that I really like and respect and want to play with. We are going to do all sorts of different things. We’re just going to play it by ear. I think all of use are ‘fly by the seat of our pants’ performers anyway, so I think what we’re really focusing on is just making sure all of us get an ample amount of time on stage, and we’re just doing what’s comfortable.”
Minimum Overdrive Tour Dates:
Wed/Oct-01 Detroit, MI Small’s
Tues/Oct-2 Toronto, ON The Cave at Lees Place
Wed/Oct-3 Montreal, QC Divan Orange
Sat/Oct-04 Philly PA Milkboy
Sun/Oct-05 Asbury Park, NJ Asbury Lanes
Mon/Oct-06 Boston MA Great Scott
Tue/Oct-07 Brooklyn NY St. Vitus
Wed/Oct-08 Richmond, VA Strange Matter
Thu/Oct-09 Durham, NC Motorco
Fri/Oct-10 Atlanta, GA Eddie’s Attic
Sun/Oct-12 Orlando Will’s Pub
Tue/Oct-14 Dallas, TX Gas Monkey
Wed/Oct-15 Austin, TX Mohawk
Fri/Oct-17 Albuquerque, NM Low Spirits
Sat/Oct-18 Phoenix, AZ Last Exit
Sun/Oct-19 Santa Ana, CA Constellation Room
Tue/Oct-21 San Fransisco, CA Thee Parkside
Thu/Oct-23 Portland, OR Dante’s
Fri/Oct-24 Seattle, WA El Corazon Lounge
Sat/Oct-25 Missoula, MT The Palace
Sun/Oct-26 Boise, ID The Shredder
Tue/Oct-28 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
Wed/Oct-29 Wichita, KS Lizard Lounge
Thu/Oct-30 St. Louis, MO Demo
Fri/Oct-31 Minneapolis, MN Nether Bar
Sat/Nov-01 Chicago, IL Township
Sun/Nov-02 Milwaukee, WI Linnemans
August 21, 2014 @ 6:22 pm
Glad to see you cover this, Trigger! I caught him live for the first time earlier this year and had a damn fine time. I’m looking forward to this show even more than last one.
August 21, 2014 @ 7:25 pm
Looks like a really cool tour. Intense, too. 27 shows in in 33 days. I got to see Austin last year in Northern VA, but have never seen Jayke Orvis. Looks like the closest show to me is in Richmond, VA, about 2 hours away. During the week, too. Oh, well.
August 21, 2014 @ 10:05 pm
Man, I can’t wait. I’m a huge fan of Austin and John Snodgrass.
August 22, 2014 @ 5:48 am
That sounds fantastic ….. wonder if we could persuade him to do some similar UK dates?
August 22, 2014 @ 6:35 am
Here’s my dilemma. Austin Lucas is playing Atlanta on the same night as Sturgill Simpson. GAAAAHHHHH!!!
August 22, 2014 @ 7:33 am
I cannot imagine a tour this size playing at Nether Bar in Mpls…that place holds about 50 people, and the last time I played there with a band we couldn’t even see half of the audience cause there’s a huge pillar right in front of the stage. But, that’s what makes musicians like this great if you ask me. They’ll play anywhere if there’s an audience for them.
August 22, 2014 @ 9:38 am
This is great news. I had heard some chatter that Jayke might be retiring from music so it is a pleasure to see he’s involved. And they’ll be in town on birthday so “Happy birthday to me!!!” Jayke is an awesome cat.
And I while I was in Noiseland here in MPLS picking up an order of my CDs they had a copy of the vinyl versions they manufactured of the new Justin Townes Earle album “Single Mothers” on display (not for sale, just display). Gonna be a great fall.
August 22, 2014 @ 6:41 pm
say..what’s the story with the Noiseland cd’s?
August 25, 2014 @ 6:32 am
Noiseland is a CD, file, and vinyl reproduction outfit here in MPLS and they duped another order of our band’s CDs. Apparently they also did at least the vinyl versions of the new JTE release which I spotted when picking our order.
August 23, 2014 @ 8:53 pm
Alright! Got October 3 set in montreal 🙂
Can’t wait.