From the Road with Ed Anderson

As I mention here, I’m beginning this week with the first of a series of blog posts written by the very musicians that I try to write about myself. For some reason, I just felt that there needed to be more a proper, written forum for musicians to talk about what it’s really like on the road playing music and what live music is really like from the musicians’ perspective.

The first post is by the very talented frontman behind Backyard Tire Fire (among other things), Ed Anderson, and it’s the proper intro to the series. Stay tuned for more blog posts from Ed in the near future, and email him at ed@backyardtirefire.com if you want to sing him praises…

Hello folks. My name is Ed Anderson and I play guitar (and other things) and sing for the rock & roll band Backyard Tire Fire. Justin asked me to give a musicians perspective of life on the road and I told him I’d do the best I could. The band is based out of Bloomington, IL which is about 2 hours south of the great city of Chicago. Three major interstates run through Bloomington-Normal and there are 2 universities and it is a nice place to call home a few days a week, sometimes. My younger brother Matt plays bass and our good friend Tim Kramp bangs on them drums.

We played about 170 shows last year in Midwest and Southeast and are preparing to do 10,000 miles through June & July. From Atlanta to Seattle and a lot of stops in between, including Wakarusa in Lawrence, KS, High Sierra in Quincy, CA, and 10K Lakes in MN. The band just hired our first Tour Manager/Driver and I’m extremely pleased and eager to give up the drivers seat. When we are home lately, we spend days off the road in the studio. But we just finished up a new record and actually got to set up and practice for the first time in six months last week!

It’s really good for us to be out there right now. We’re building a grassroots buzz and need to be working as hard as we can to get the songs heard. We’re looking forward to a challenging and rewarding summer for sure…

Ed Anderson
Backyard Tire Fire