Welcome to SANDS ACROSS AMERICA, 2018. Over the course of this wonderful summer the Sand Family toured the country near and far, focusing most of our attention on cities along the Mississippi River, from the Headwaters at Minnesota’s Lake Itasca all the way south to New Orleans. On the way we dove headfirst into American music, from the soulful Stax records in Memphis to the Mississippi Delta blues, from New Orleans jazz to the Grand Ole Opry — Nashville’s cathedral of country.
(Miss us this summer? Did we see you on the road in 2018? Maybe you caught us in 2016, 2017 or 2019.)
JUNE 14 (Thursday)
We started the summer with preview shows at two libraries in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania:
JUNE 28 (Thursday)
On the road at last. Starting in East Montpelier, VT, with our biggest fans.
JUNE 29 (Friday)
Montpelier, Vermont (Beth Jacob synagogue)
JUNE 30 (Saturday)
Travel from Vermont to Ontario — cubing across Canada.
JULY 1 (Sunday)
In Hamilton, Ontario, with our musical hero riot nrrrd.
JULY 2 (Monday)
Travel from Toronto to Traverse City, MI
JULY 3 (Tuesday)
Traverse City, MI — CHERRY FESTIVAL. Here we are jamming at Main Street music store:
JULY 4 (Wednesday)
Munising, MI, for the 4th.
JULY 5 (Thursday)
Spring Lake, MN
JULY 6 (Friday)
Spring Lake => Twin Cities: Solved the 5 x 5!
JULY 7 (Saturday)
In the Twin Cities
JULY 8 (Sunday)
In the Twin Cities
JULY 9 (Monday)
At Painter Park in Minneapolis:
JULY 10 (Tuesday)
A concert at the public library in Omro, Wisconsin
JULY 11 (Wednesday)
Three Wisconsin library concerts in a day. First, Ripon:
Next, Wautoma:
Last but certainly not least, Wild Rose.
JULY 13 (Friday)
Madison, WI
JULY 14 (Saturday)
In Milwaukee with Julie Thompson:
JULY 15 (Sunday)
Madison WI — Two concerts at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Church:
In this shot we’re singing, not praying:
And in this shot we just made slime.
JULY 16 (Monday)
An assembly for more than 250 kids in the Oconomowoc, WI, summer school.
JUNE 17 (Tuesday)
Madison => Naperville, IL
JULY 18 (Wednesday)
In Naperville, Il, at DuPage Children’s Museum:
JUNE 19 (Thusrday)
Concert at Naperville’s Beth Shalom synagogue.
JULY 20 (Friday)
At Urbana Parks and Recreation concert at the Lake House we met our favorite fan EVER. We were finishing a triumphant version of “Gili Gio” — all audience members with their own instruments in hand — when the boy in this video, the one with a yellow drum, expressed his joy by . . . well, you’ll see.
Here is photo documentation, step by step. Especially note the exasperated mom.
At the Urbana, Illinois, summer arts camp:
JULY 21 (Saturday)
At Urbana’s inspiring Free Library:
JULY 22 (Sunday)
In St. Louis in the studio with master musicians, including icon Benjamin Kaplan:
JULY 23 (Monday)
In Cape Girardeau, Missouri:
JULY 24 (Tuesday)
In Memphis we grooved at Stax Records:
JULY 25 (Wednesday)
At the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
JULY 26 (Thursday)
In Jackson, MS
JULY 27 (Friday)
Jackson => New Orleans
JULY 28 (Saturday)
What better place for a musical family to land than at New Orleans’ Preservation Hall?
JULY 29 (Sunday)
Concert at the New Orleans main library
JULY 30 (Monday)
Two New Orelans library concerts, first at Mid-City Library, then at the Keller branch. Here we are at Mid-City:
We were fortunate to be featured in the New Orleans Advocate.
JULY 31 (Tuesday)
In New Orleans on Frenchmen Street:
AUGUST 1 (Wednesday)
New Orleans=> Montgomery, AL
AUGUST 2 (Thursday)
Montgomery=> Nashville
AUGUST 3 (Friday)
Whooping it up on Nashville’s Broadway:
Sands at the Grand Ole Opry:
AUGUST 4 (Saturday)
Concert at the Murfreesboro Wild Arts Day:
AUGUST 5 (Sunday)
Leaving Nashville for Asheville.
AUGUST 6 (Monday)
A well-deserved tubing break in Asheville.
AUGUST 7 (Tuesday)
More Asheville.
AUGUST 8 (Wednesday)
Asheville => Greensboro
AUGUST 9 (Thursday)
A show at Greensboro, NC’s Bnai Shalom Day Camp.
AUGUST 10 (Friday)
Concert at the Charlottesville, Virginia, Gordon Avenue library
AUGUST 11 (Saturday)
Concert at the Charlottesville, Virginia Northside Branch. Our concert coincided with the 1st anniversary of the 2017 Unite the Right march. Our concerts over the weekend were on the “Resilient Charlottesville” list of peaceful and positive events.
AUGUST 12 (Sunday)
House party Northern Virginia, then home to Philadelphia:
See you next summer!