Happening upon random, quintessential New York moments is always fun. Where else in the world do you just stumble across a swing band on a subway platform wailing away on their sax and trumpets while willing observers enthusiastically participate by dancing?

Inspiration often strikes in the seemingly unlikeliest of places. What I love about these guys is that, not only were they terribly talented musicians, but they were the perfect example of a phenomenon unique to our current slice of history. They’re a great representation of how many people nowadays find their niche in referencing a rich history of decades past in their own personal way. Like something out of a different time period yet updated and modern. From food to music to fashion – we live in a time of fusion.

Especially in the fashion blogging world, we see daily examples of people putting their own personal spin on the classics – from the outfits bloggers post, to the most successful and coveted designs the industry currently has to offer – anything that is able to embody that timeless chic while attaining a new level of freshness is a sign of the times.

Do any of you strive for that in your life and personal style?

Here’s our full performance in Paris from last week in a beautiful 5 camera shoot in high-def!

Last night we appeared on “Late Night with Joey Reynolds” which was broadcast on NBC. We performed “Out Drinking” from our upcoming album.

It was a good hang. We’d been on Joey’ radio show about three or four times and he invited us down. It fas fun to be filming at the NASDAQ building right in Times Sq. We’d walked by that studio many many times always wondering what kind of things got filmed in there and now we know!

We drove up to Baby Hand’s mom’s cabin up near a town called Meadows of Dan so we could be within striking distance of Floyd, VA. Just before we got there we hit another BBQ joint on the Blue Ridge. “Two by Two BBQ” was the name. It was good. So good that we needed to decide who had the best BBQ that we had on our trip.

• The Federal, Durham
• The Blue Note Grill, Durham
• Hog Heaven, Durham
• Cook Out, Greensboro
• Stamey’s, Greensboro
• Two by Two BBQ, Floyd, VA

Yes that’s a lot of BBQ. Here are the results in a few categories:

Best Flavor and Textured Meat: Two By Two BBQ! It was fresh, sweet, moist, well spiced and melted in your mouth. That’s some fine pig. Well done!

Best Sauce: Stamey’s Long time Greensboro stand-by did have some good quality stuff. Their sauce was the best we had on the trip. Vinegar for sure but great spices and not too sweet with a nice pepper thing going on and good. Also there slaw rocked!! Different, delicious.

Best Atmosphere: Blue Note Grill Hard to find location. Nothing but pick-up trucks in the parking lot. Bluegrass Band on stage shredding when we arrived. Packed with folks. Super friendly waiters and waitresses. We met the Mom who runs it. She made sure we ate her bread pudding. It’s like the crack of bread puddings! My eyes are rolling back in my head as I even think about it. Post traumatic sugar bliss. It was killing!!

It was a fun couple of sets there at the dogtown. I don’t know why I appreciate it so much but I really do like it when the really old folks get up and dance. I’m talking the over 80 crowd. That makes me so happy and feel great. Firstly, because to be 80 and to still want to dance is a beautiful thing in and of itself. Secondly, that we should be providing the soundtrack to that volition makes me proud.

Good people. Great dancers. Good vibes. Fun show. That was basically the tenor of this whole trip. Amen. We had a wonderful time. The hope is that we made a good enough impression that we’ll be asked back again for bigger and better. I am sure we are on the right track!

The very last Baby Hands fact of the trip: Baby Hands really kicked some ass getting this tour together. He booked all of the shows. He hooked us up with all kinds of local resources from his friends and families. He did the in person hard-sell for the band in Floyd to get us that gig. He was able to hang in close proximity to three other very large personality people for 10 days straight without cracking! And he played some great Bass along the way! Baby Hands delivers. There’s your fact of the day.

Yesterday did have some highlights. After a lunch at the best BBQ in Greensboro – Stameys – we sat in as guest presenters at a world music class at University of North Carolina Greensboro. Remember Crystal Bright that we met at the flat iron a few days back. She was the professor. There were about 60 kids in the class scattered throughout this 200 seat auditorium. We came in and did our thing. Walking on chairs and singing greasy songs. They loved it. The most interesting question was about the song writing process. All the usual things but boredom came up as a big motivator for creativity. When we get bored with the was we are doing things we’ll come up with something new or a new song entirely. I like that as a human impulse: when things get stale, just change it up. Blow away what was previously decided upon as a restriction or limitation.

In the evening we drove down to Chapel Hill. We all liked the cave a lot. It was located 452 ½ on Franklin street. The half is important. It’s a narrow stairway between a fancy restaurant and a chi-chi boutique. Down the stairs it is full-on dive bar. A hold out against the gentrification, mall-ification, (Boston-ification?) of that stretch of Chapel Hill’s college town. The Cave has a blasted, irregular floors, lumpy ceilings strung with cheesy lights, a pin ball machine in the back and a sweet old payphone. A crappy sound system that wound up being almost the best sound we’ve had the whole trip. The place was full but with room for dancing. Tony at the bar was super friendly and fun. An old drunk at the bar paid for every single round of beers and then put a big bill in the collection hat. It reminded my of the Nines or the Chariot in good old Ithaca. Rooms like that are like gravy on a plate for Tin Pan. It was fun and we met a whole bunch of cool folks.

The baby hands fun fact of the day: Thanksgiving Morning, 1993. Baby Hands’ mom was really into primitive living skills: skinning animals, tee-pees, purifying water, weaving, making tools, etc… One day in his teens, Baby Hands was driving around with his older brother. About eighty feet up ahead, a squirrel was trying to cross the street and did that super fast squirrel-tail, triple-fake and wound up getting clipped in the head by the car in front of Hands and his bro. In brotherly unison, they decided to call mom on her bluff and bring her this squirrel as a gift for the kitchen table. MBF (Mom of Baby Hands) was not at all freaked out, to her credit. She raised the ante. For Thanksgiving that year she served the squirrel along with a salad. Thanks, Mom!

He has had an infatuation with the brass for almost a year now. He started with a trumpet but his arms are just too short to play with a plunger mute. He moved to the cornet as it is a little stubbier. He never really found his voice or any real enthusiasm about it. Then came the French Horn. Since he purchased his first horn (he has FOUR of them I think) he has not turned back. He practices every day. I’m a brass player and have been since I was 8 years old. I know how hard it is to do and how long it takes to develop muscles and tone. The French Horn is way harder than the trumpet. My point, Hyde is making amazing progress. Every time when we’ve been doing our meditations this week he has been impressing me with what he can do. A four octave range! Nice. Geeking out in brass land.

In the afternoon we swing by Greensboro college to sit in with the jazz big band. Peter knew the professor and we met the tenor player and one of the singers the night before at the Flatiron. It was like a sight reading workshop for me. Fun to hang out. It was like a time machine trip to be playing third trumpet (the regular guy was out or something so I took his stand). More interesting was to see Jennifer and Sara from the night before being school musicians. It’s a small town I guess. You keep bumping into the same people.

In the evening we went over to Guilford college for our performance at the coffee shop. We had dinner in the college commissary. We were joking with the students who make the burritos and it was a real fun interaction. Stefan like olives. To an absurd extent. As in, “OH YEAH!!!! THEY HAVE OLIVES!!!!! YES!!!” So he got a burrito with everything and when it came to the olive part he kept asking for more olives. Eventually this burrito was so big, the guy had to get out another tortilla to wrap the thing up. Stefan met us upstairs in a quiet room where we were eating and revealed this monstrosity. It was bigger than the man’s head. He was able to eat about a fifth of it.

The show: Thanks mostly to the girl who performed before us, there was a strong full crowd of listeners. We did our thing and had a good time. Some local swing dancers had heard about the show. Thanks, Ben. I’ll assume you are responsible. Well done again! We did shake that thing and eventually got everyone dancing along to the Shy Tuna. So silly and yet I love it.

Guilford is Baby Hands’ alma mater. He knew where everything was, knew several of the professors, showed us his dormitory building. He seemed to be relishing in the bizarreness of being back on campus. After the show, a little crowd gathered around the merch table and we were hanging out. The girls there were being especially flirty with Clifton and Hands. Clifton garnered a wedding proposal. Hands garnered the above photo… The Baby Hands fun fact of the day is geared specifically to Guilford College Ladies: Hands was a freshman at Guilford College in 1996. You were five years old at the time. Just sayin’.