(Photo Gallery at the source)
Back in 2010, I began sharing an inside look at life on the road inside of a HANSON tour with Paper readers and my good friends in the Paper family. This selection continues that humble tradition.
The tour that we just finished before the holidays was called the Roots and Rock n Roll Tour. This run of shows was focused on our musical influences and designed to give a special experience for fans with two consecutive concerts in each city. It also gave us a chance to record some of our favorite cover tunes both old and new for a special tour EP. This tour was another good excuse to appease my love of photographic journaling, set amidst the background of the urban trail.
Taking us to just 10 major cities, from NY to LA, hitting Dallas, San Fran, Chicago, Atlanta and Portland, the Roots and Rock N Roll Tour was great on many levels, complete with incredible sold out shows, after show dance parties with a short DJ set by yours truly and the premiere of our craft beer for the first time in many new places. It was a welcomed energy surge for us and the fans (I hope). Having been two years since our last tour, many of our most devout supporters practically toured with us, joining multiple concerts and camping out each night to ensure front row status.
Road existence is a mix of circus life and escapist glamour, emergency room triage and a family road trip (with extended relatives) — it’s not for everyone, but it is everything for those with itchy feet. In the pics you see a bit of the circus with street musicians, and dance parties, a bit of the emergency room triage merged with family roadtrip, as we waited roadside, when the band bus (uncommonly) was afflicted with flat-tire-itus and placed us in a This Is Spinal Tap moment. Throughout the photos you’ll find peppered in city skylines and some quiet hang time between destinations (and a visit to PaperRadio with Mr. Mickey and Drew), plus some pics of our one mile barefoot walks raising funds for our campaign to fight extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa. In fact this tour brought some of the best walk events ever involving thousands of barefoot soles, something that made the tour that much more gratifying.
It’s virtually impossible to capture it all, but hopefully this selection give’s you a bit of a unique perspective on our circus of friends, and troubadours through the lens of this photo maven wannabe.
Photos by Taylor Hanson unless otherwise noted
Soo excited to be going to Btti 2017! Celebrating Hanson 20 in style