Riding surreal party waves

It’s been a whopper. A non-stopper. And it’s still going strong. The party that began in February in Arizona hasn’t stopped. We’ve gone continental. We’re branching out. The party has since popped up in the North Pole, Germany, Spain, Italy, to name but a few. There was a period there of 30 days when the party was in 13 different countries.

It’s taken on many forms and formats.

Seeds are growing into trees.

A forest of music, gigs, recording, films, albums, parties…

None of this makes sense, I know.

But right after the cowboy wedding in Arizona, it was straight into a European tour with old friends, Jolie Holland, Mike Coykendall, and Peasoup Anders Pedersen.

I still haven’t processed exactly what happened on that tour.

Haven’t had time to think about it.

Because right after that, any normal person would go home, right?

But fate had other plans for me.

The sacred clock placed me in London to join another tour, this time with Giant Sand and a crew of brothers and sisters who had also been on their own party since the cowboy wedding.

A few days playing and recording and trying to make sense of how we all ended up in London on the same night without trying… and, somehow, we all ended up in the same flight to Dublin, where we decompressed over a night of some well-deserved Guinness before they all flew back to Arizona to continue the party there (but before leaving, making plans to pick up where we left off soon).

So what now for me?

Home like any normal person?

No.

More guests from the Arizona party were arriving in Ireland in a matter of days to continue the cowboy wedding that happened three months and two tours ago.

Now the party is in the form of M Ward, and tour number three.

But this was more like a vacation.

A few gigs around Ireland and a bit of recording, with days off in between to drink wee pints and attempt to play golf.

It was all capped off with a session in McCann’s, the way all good tours should end.

But right in the midst of it all, none other than the Arizona cowboy wedding groom arrived with a hurricane of activity, and we screened his movie in a secret cinema which was like a time warp.

Then it was off to find locations for another upcoming movie and writing scripts and gathering crew and cast from all over the globe.

The party was still going strong four months after it began.

And it still is.

I haven’t even had time to think about it, but I have an album or two to release.

A movie to finish.

Another one to start. More touring.

I’m saying yes to every crazy idea that’s thrown at me.

Catching the curveballs that get flung.

Whatever whirlwind happened in Arizona, it hasn’t stopped spreading.

It’s picking up speed.

I’m riding this surreal wave and seeing where it takes me.