Fall 2025 Tour Wrap

It’s been a busy autumn, and we’re heading into THS’s annual Massive Nights celebration. It’s been busy enough that I’ve had a difficulty finding time to reflect on it all and share some thoughts.

I’m actually very grateful for that. In fact, I’m feeling lucky. I was fortunate to tour with two different unique musical arrangements in the past two months. Both were thrilling and wildly satisfying.

In October, I assembled with Nelson Ny-Devereaux, Ethan Elseth, and Joe Strachan for a tour with newly minted The Band of Forgiveness. We had rehearsed in Minneapolis in September and I was excited to show the world what we had put together - very cool arrangements of songs from Always Been as well as the rest of the catalog. We kicked it off in Millersville PA at Phantom Power. It was a fun start - I even ran into some folks I hadn’t seen since early THS shows at the Lizard Lounge in Lancaster PA. The show went really well and the ensemble picked up steam as we went through DC and Pittsburgh.

The fourth show we visited Mountain Stage, which is one of my favorite places to play and visit. It’s a syndicated radio show that’s recorded Sunday nights in a charming theater in Charleston WV. I’ve done it four times, I think, and it’s always a tour highlight. The people there are incredible, the house band is fantastic, and the musical guests are top notch. The list of prior performers is deep and impressive - from REM to John Prine to Indigo Girls to Warren Zevon to Emmylou Harris to etc etc etc. This was the first time we “headlined” the night (or at least played last and longest). Afterwards we headed over to the nearby bar The Empty Glass for the legendary after party, where some of us sat in with the house band for a bit, as per tradition. Stellar evening.

Onwards to Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Columbus - all of them brilliant and the band sounding better and better. The early evening show in Columbus at the Rhumba Cafe was a memorable one, really had a nice vibe there. After a drive day we hit Buffalo, Toronto, Homer NY, Woodstock and finished strong in NYC. All were fantastic from where I sat.

Throughout the tour the other guys watched a horror movie back at the hotel pretty much every night, which was a pretty serious commitment to the genre for October. We were also working under the clock, Nelson’s wife gave birth to a beautiful daughter just days after we returned from the tour.

The great thing about The Band of Forgiveness tour is that it’s not over: I will be bringing this fantastic band to Dublin, Manchester and London in January and then we will be joining the Mountain Goats for some dates in October 2026. I really think this is an incredible musical configuration and I’m so psyched to be sharing it with the world next year as well.

With the wrap of the Band of Forgiveness tour, my fall was not over. A week after the NYC show, I headed to Portland to rehearse for my tour with Patterson Hood. Patterson himself was coming from Europe and his flight got messed up so we ended up on the same flight from JFK to PDX.

Once in Portland we met with our tour co-horts: Henry Barbe and Ben Hackett. I knew Henry as the Truckers front of house sound guy, and also as the son of David Barbe, who has recorded most of DBTs record and also played bass in Sugar with Bob Mould. Pretty great pedigree.

I had seen Patterson’s solo band The Sensurrounders at the Mercury Lounge in March 2025 and after the show we convened for some drinks at 2A. That evening, we dreamed up this tour. Patterson suggested we bring an additional musician to accompany us, and I told him I had just been really impressed by Ben Hackett from the Sensurrounders. Ben played both wind instrument and synths, and added a ton of varied awesome sounds. Luckily, as the tour plan came together, Ben agreed to join us.

We kicked it off with a two night stand in Seattle at the excellent Tractor Tavern, which I’d never played before but loved. As we played the shows, we made small adjustments to the set and it started to really come together. We headed back down to Portland for an amazing show at the Aladdin Theater. I love spending time in Portland.

The good times continued. I played my first show ever in Bend OR, I took my first ever Waymo ride in San Francisco. In SF we played a fun Monday night show at The Chapel, a room I particularly love. Onwards to Santa Cruz, first time in over a decade. Then a great one in LA at the Lodge Room where we had some excellent songwriter visitors - Kevin Morby and MJ Lenderman, who told me that he has a Lifter Puller song (“Hardware”) on his show playlist. That’s a pretty deep cut, I gotta say. Down to San Diego where we had a pleasant early evening show at the Belly Up. Then over to Phoenix at the super cool Musical Instrument Museum. My father and a bunch of his friends were there for that one, which felt great.

After two days off, we met up in Santa Fe for a special show. For this one show only, we were joined by Alejandro Escovedo. Alejandro is an American treasure, a great and soulful singer and songwriter, and I was beyond psyched to be playing with him. The Lensic Performing Arts Center is an incredible looking theater and by soundcheck I knew we were in for something special.

For the show, we set up three abreast, and just went down the line playing a song each. Scott Danbom, who plays regularly with Alejandro and also is a member of Centro-Matic, happened to be in town and joined us for the show, playing keys and fiddle. So much of it was off the cuff, but it worked beautifully. Of course, Alejandro had amazing stories to share, including one about his band The Nuns opening the last Sex Pistols show, and later being at the Chelsea Hotel with Sid Vicious around the time the shit went down. Just a magic night. I came off stage beaming and even got to visit with a very cool audience member after the show - artistic legend Terry Allen.

We had another great show at the Kessler Theater in Dallas, great room, and then finished big in Austin TX at the 04 Center, where Scott Danbom played with us again, and a mess of friends were in the audience. A thrilling end to a beautiful tour.

Huge thanks to Patterson, Ben and Henry for making it such an amazing trip. It was a tour that really reaffirmed for me the power of music and the joy of friendship. I talked throughout the show about my journey from massive DBT fan to Patterson’s friend, and there were nights that I found myself marveling at the idea of being on stage singing my songs with him.

I appreciate all who came out to the shows this fall. 2025 was an incredible year, thanks for making it so.

Now, onward to the most wonderful time of the year….the 10th annual THS Massive Nights celebration! Feeling blessed.

Stay Positive

CF