Virgin Islands Part 1

Times are good! The festival kicked off today and the all the remaining gigs are on St. John. So far Zach has played four gigs - two in St. John and two over on St. Thomas at Island Time Pub and Hull Bay Hideaway. We've worked out all the kinks and now it's smooth sailing in St. John as we build up to the 4th of July gig at local favorite, The Beach Bar.

We arrived in St. John on the 25th and chilled out for the evening in our prized hotel, the St. John Inn. The town of St. John is so small, full of friends and open-minded people looking for a good time. The bars, inns, markets and music are all located on the beach or within a 5 minute walk of it. Zach's first two gigs went well and as we left for St. Thomas, we were all pleased with our move to Gallow's Point Resort. Now we're living like kings; now we can relax.

After only a couple days in St. John, we felt as if we knew everyone in town, or would by the end of our vacation. I thought I'd break this trip in two blogs since I have a pretty good feeling the beginning of this trip will be vastly different than the end. We settled into our spot, played four shows that have gotten better each night, and are ready for the festival that's running in town all week long!

The beginning of the trip went well besides parts of the first gig at Rhumblines and our living space. We were staying at the St. John Inn which was conveniently placed in the downtown, but didn't offer us enough space after we stored the PA system following the show. We were all really excited for the show at Rhumblines since Zach hadn't played out in a quite a few days. The staff was out of this world and made us feel welcome as we settled in for our first of 10 shows while we're here on the islands. We switched to the Gallow's Point Resort after a couple days and ever since, we've been on cloud 9.

Gallow's Point is the bomb! We feel like four bachelors in paradise. My buddy Jerome came down from Maine to join us; Jerome is the ZD street team coordinator and helps keep the website up to date. The music scene down here in St. John is ready for live music when it passes through, but that's rare. Coupled with the small town vibe and great venues for tunes, we're all pumped to be here! Just playing four shows, we've started to see lots of familiar faces and smiles as we pass through town. Now we're in St. John for a string of gigs leading up to the huge bash on the 4th of July at The Beach Bar. There is a festival in town which runs two weeks and operates all day and night, bringing constant live music, dancing, drinking, shopping and good eats. Zach is playing at the two hottest spots on the 3rd and 4th of July and we've been told to prepare for paradise. Haha, two weeks in the Virgin Islands with a festival coinciding, ending on the 4th of July, yeah right...

Two days ago was my favorite gig at St. Thomas' original beach bar, Hull Bay Hideaway. We stuffed five people and all Zach's gear (including PA) into a small jeep and took the half hour drive to Hull Bay. We arrived 3 hours early to the gig and enjoyed swimming in the ocean and taking in the sites. We were happy as could be when we saw all the games - pool, darts, horseshoes, ping pong and more. We're all super competitive over here in camp so we decided to start a new competition. Race to 50 wins in any game; winner stays on. Quarters, ping pong, pool, any game. Right now Jeremy has a 2 point lead with 4 wins, but that'll change.

The Hull Bay Hideaway gig was different, but good different. Early in the day we lounged in the ocean and played ping pong with a bunch of mothers around us, smiling and waving. Sweet, a Mom show! I don't mean this is any way, so don't read into it - it's just shows with parents are bad ass. They don't care what they look like, they just wanna dance. The men eventually loosen up enough to kick out a leg here and there, then the old couples come out and it's a full on party. That right there is what makes me so happy when I'm at music. I have this gift of hearing and feeling music to this insanely intense level, but the one thing that makes me happier than anything is when people let go and dance. Seeing the people that we're standing against the wall get dowwwwwwwwwn - nothing in the world makes me happier! One thing that we did notice about the crowd was that all these ladies would dance so hard, the whole crowd could only last two songs then there would be a couple song break. A few new friends came over from the last two shows, so we enjoyed our time with them and look forward to hanging out with them and many more new friends over the next week.

As I said before, we're now back on St. John for the rest our time down here and are ready to kill it. Just like always, we're recording every show Zach plays and have the Sunshine album in hand. The buzz is being spread throughout Cruz Bay and we're looking forward to large crowds as we wrap up our last gigs on the island. Stay tuned for the follow up to this when we get back to the States...

Let's move to Asheville

We just finished up our last shows in the States before we head off to the U.S. Virgin Islands for 8 shows in 10 days. Our short run through the South consisted of four shows in three days, performing twice in Asheville, NC. I love Asheville; I’d never been, but always wanted to visit. Last summer I applied for an internship at a Landscape Architecture firm where they let you pick the office you want to work in. Being the music lover that I am, I chose Asheville, but unfortunately wasn’t selected. When we pulled into Asheville on Friday night I had dreams of going down the rock waterslide and disc golfing; none of which came true.

As we pulled up, there was a band performing right outside The Emerald Lounge that was part of the Downtown After Five Concert Series. Asheville is a musically rich town, with loads of good eats, art/culture and all the mountains and hiking trails you could ever want. “Hippies” and dreadlocks are a common site, which left Jeremy and I grinning ear to ear as we walked around town before the gig. Currently living down the road from Northampton, Massachusetts, I’ve learned to love all the eccentric folks, street performers and small little hippie shops that no one knows about. Since confirming the date a few months ago, Asheville has been the stop I’ve been looking forward to the most this summer. Our plan was initially to spend the night in Asheville so we could play the next day since our drive to Knoxville that night was only a couple hours. As stated before, we weren’t able to do so as Zach performed a 1.5 hour set at Summer Solstice in Asheville the next day.

The Emerald Lounge gig was a lot of fun and had a great turnout. One of our new friends from Bonnaroo came out to see us in Asheville and continued on the road with us for the next couple shows. She worked merch with Jeremy as well as running around taking pictures. Thanks for all your help Jen. The show was solid from start to finish, but naturally hit its peak half way through the second set. Trippin’ On The Bassline was the highlight of the night for me, and started a run of 11 songs that ended the show with a bang. Thoughts Of Yesterday lead into a crowd favorite, Wormtown. Twisty Twisty followed which segued into Savannah, a song that shows some of Zach’s strong song writing skills as well as his ability to perfectly layer a song to form a slow, yet funky composition that keeps the crowd moving from the first note. Jeremy’s favorite Into The Morning Into The Night was a standard dance party, as was Fresh Street. One of my all time favorites, Most People Never Heard Real Music capped the set, with an encore of You Don’t Even Love The Girl and Mama Don’t Think. I know I just listed off songs, and for those of you who don’t know the songs, this paragraph must render itself pretty meaningless, but maybe that will urge you to buy the show. Any show we play, you can either purchase at the show, or contact me through the Zach Deputy website and I can get you all squared away with a link to download the show.

As a whole the show was a lot of fun, but Jeremy and I got a little extra treat when the sound engineer offered to let us run lights for the night. Ever since my days following Dave Matthews Band, I geek out hard over lights. Fenton Williams, DMB’s lighting engineering is one of the best in the business and growing up watching those lights really tied the whole show together for me. After DMB, I began to find the jamband scene, which was soon followed by the underground scene and a real grassroots movement. Falling down the tier of bands, the lights and production of their respective shows fell too. This made me even more grateful for what I had experienced in the 40+ DMB shows I caught over the years. I loved finding smaller, unknown bands as I could see something in them that no one has seen yet, but there were still no lights, and lights are a huge part of any show. DMB was eventually replaced as my favorite band in 2006 by Umphrey’s McGee. Umphrey’s was slowly moving up the jamband totem pole, but always had lackluster lighting until 2009. Then came Jeff Waful. Jeff Waful, forming lighting engineer for moe., is a GOD and was welcomed by the Umphrey’s family with welcome arms. I find myself just starring at Jeff during shows, wondering what’s going on in his head as his paints the venue with the colors that compliment the peaks and valleys of the music. I’ve met Jeff several times and maybe someday I’ll be able to sit down with him and really pick his brain. Until then, I split time running lights with Jeremy for Zach at The Emerald Lounge in Asheville, NC. As much fun as it was to run lights, Jeremy has a real talent and strong interest in developing that part of his career so I let him take the reins for the majority of the show. Don’t get me wrong, I was the happiest kid in the world when I was on those lights, but Jeremy did a great job synching up the lights with Zach’s music - so I just enjoyed it from back off the room with DP in hand. Before I move on, I just want to thank everyone that is following this blog – you wouldn’t believe how many people buy Jeremy and I Diet Pepsi and Red Bull. You guys are amazing; we’re all creating quite the community. Next time, come find Jeremy or I and we’ll get you your drink of choice, it’s only fair.

The next day we gigged in Asheville again at Summer Solstice Festival before heading to Knoxville for a show at World Grotto that night. Being a college town in summer, Knoxville wasn’t the most happening place in the world, but that didn’t stop us for getting all sorts of funky. We loaded in and had plenty of time to eat and wander around before the show. World Grotto faces on Market Square where Sundown On The City takes place, the city’s weekly summer concert series. We just missed a monster of a show, performed on Thursday where Toubab Krewe opened for The Wailers. Zach will be performing his only opening gig of the summer when he opens for The Wailers at Brown Foreman Amphitheater at Waterfont Park in Louisville, Kentucky on July 24th. Hopefully some of you will make the drive to Louisville; the location is absolutely gorgeous!

Market Square in Knoxville was full of street performers, people watchers and kids playing in the fountain. I ventured down to a man made stream in the park during set break to take a bit of a rest and enjoy some time to myself. Zach played a solid show in what was one of the most unique venues I’ve seen. The venue looked like you were in a cave and offered stadium seating with cushions and pillows for those who wanted to enjoy the music at a different pace. Zach’s version of Patty Wagon Funk and Getting Stinky wrapped up the first set on a high note. The second set was solid through and through, but highlights were the set opener Lincoln Continental and the set closing segue of Let’s Get In On > Sunshine > Gimme Something That’s Real.

The end of the night was different to say the least, but we all made it back to the hotel where we then proceeded to sleep until 7 PM. Catching up on some sleep was welcomed by all, and now we’re enjoying our drive through downtown Atlanta on our way to Zach’s house where we will spend the next couple days preparing the Bonnaroo Box Set and getting ready for our trip the U.S. Virgin Islands. My advice to you: get in the plane, it’ll be worth it, I swear!

Wow, I actually LOVED Bonnaroo

I never thought that I would say I loved Bonnaroo, but damn did I soak up every single second of it. I never quite understood why people would go to Bonnaroo, the Wal-Mart of festivals, when you could go to Wormtown Music Festival in Greenfield, MA or other small scale festivals that are offered every summer. There's something to be said about small festivals - every corner you turn, your bumping into a friend or making a new one that you know you'll see back at the main stage in an hour. On the complete other end of the spectrum is Bonnaroo. Over 100,000 people and a ticket price reaching up towards $300. And for what? Hour long walks from your campsite to the stage, which when you get there leaves you no views of the performance cause you can't get within 100 yards? Or clusterfucks of people walking between stages, waiting for food/bathrooms/showers or just forming a crowd on shakedown street? The good thing about it all is that you can find anything you want. I want music, boat loads of new people to meet and dance with, and the opportunity to walk into the sea of tents in search of the unknown. I love you Bonnaroo, I really do.

Ok, so we all know how it ended - Zach played 24 sets, totaling 147 songs, in 4 days and everyone absolutely ate it up! Now let's back track. Jeremy, Zach and I pondered taking the RV up to the festival, but decided to stick with our box truck since the RV is huge and so is the price of the parking passes for it. We got into Manchester, TN Wednesday night only to find out that the festival was on lock down and we couldn't get in until Thursday morning. We played in the Wal-Mart parking lot, got some Wendy's and chilled by the empty pool at the hotel, meeting some fellow Mainers and enjoying one another's company. In the morning I woke up to find two girls tenting out next to our room, so I invited them in. Turns out one of them, Samantha, goes to school with me at UMass and doesn't know it now, but will be joining my friends and I for TONS of music when we get back to the Northampton area. After finding out that we couldn't bring our box truck down to the vending area, the Wormtown van came to pick us up and shuffle two loads of gear, including our stranded girls, to the festival. It's kind of hard to explain what exactly we were doing at Bonnaroo. Zach wasn't on the Bonnaroo lineup, but was instead performing in a crowded vending/camping area right on main shakedown. We were staged under the Wormtown Trading Company tent which also saw two of my favorite acts perform - Jeff Bujak and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad.

When we first got to the festival, it was pure madness. Not quite sure where we were setting up, how long we were staying there (we were originally going to perform all over the festival grounds), having people come ask questions, figuring out places to set up camp - all the while trying to make a show happen - was lots of fun. I like to juggle a thousand things at once and that's what we had to do. The first performance of the festival was around 4:00 PM on Thursday and was a great kickoff to the weekend. In Centeroo there were only three stages going, so having Zach perform outside in the camping area was great. Crowds started to form after only the first couple of songs and by the end of the first set there were upwards of 300 people at Zach's stage. Mark, Zach and I enjoyed a nice laugh after the first set, realizing that things were going to work out just fine. I broke off after the first set to explore Centeroo and see the general layout of the festival. I found myself at the Fuse tent making vinyl spin art - something that I will be implementing at my festivals in the future. It was what it sounds like - put a vinyl record in a box and let it spin and just pour paint on it. I like how it came out, and would much rather have vinyl art than a t-shirt any day.

Logistically, Bonnaroo is a small city and damn is it run perfectly. Everywhere I looked I was finding fresh new ideas for both art and vending, as well as staging areas, FOH, tour bus parking, recycling and speaker systems. Bonnaroo has been going on for a long time and it shows. We were lucky enough to come through the vending entrance, skipping over all the cars in line on the first day that stretched back over 20 miles on the interstate. Going through the vending entrance afforded me the opportunity to see some alternative ways to bring people into the festival, the roads they used, the parcels of land they leased, and the arrangement of parking. This was a great festival for me. I was able to sleep on main shakedown so the walk to Centeroo was 5 minutes at the longest, and was able to see an amazingly eclectic lineup of music as well as see how this monster of a festival is run.

We had a new arrival on the merch table in the form of Zach’s new CD. The slated release for Sunshine is July 28, but got 900 copies for a soft release at Bonnaroo. Since this was a guerilla-style marketing event, we weren’t getting paid and knew we had to focus on merchandise sales. Luckily enough for us and all those in attendance, we were recording every single set of music at the festival. 30 minutes after each set, there was a CD available for purchase to take home and spread around to your friends. These Zach Deputy Lives are the topic of much conversation in ZD camp. Trying to stay fresh, coming up with new, progressive ideas and figuring out ways to spread the music farther each time. We have lots of great ideas that you will all see soon enough.

On Thursday, Zach performed three sets before having to shut him down for the last time due to some large incoming storms. Jeremy and I had to breakdown and cover up the stage multiple times, leaving us absolutely exhausted after only day one. But c’mon, I’ve never too tired for some of that good ol’ drum and bass. So I grabbed some waters (taking a break from the Diet Pepsi for the festival) and beboped over to Centeroo for some late night action. As soon as I got there I bumped into one of my very good friends from Chicago, Abby, who I had stayed with after Summercamp as I waited to jump on tour with Zach in Cincinnati. Abby and I had a blast at the late night dance party. There were sofas and chairs, surrounded by Xboxes and lava lamps for those who were feeling tired, but for those who weren’t, the music went until 5 in the morning. The highlight of the late night for me was the silent disco next door, though. There was a large tent for the DJ and ragers, but everyone in attendance had headphones on. This was a lot of fun for those watching, as you just see people wiggling and then all of a sudden they break out screaming and clapping. There were no more headphones left when I got there, but that didn’t stop me from jumping on the crowd’s groove and dancing with some new friends for a little before it ended. I hope some of you got the chance to experience it.

After heavy rains that night, the Wormtown booth purchased a tractor trailer load of hay, which when stacked next to the stage provided a great vantage point of Zach. Zach performed six sets on Friday, none better than the bubble set. I’m not joking when I say this could go down in ZD history as one of the best sets ever performed. I’m really working hard to archive things so everyone can enjoy this music in the future. This set will get looked back upon and enjoyed for a very long time. An improv, Bubbles, opened the set followed by So Fine and Let’s Roll. I Wanna Know, The Way You Make Me Feel and When No One’s Looking followed before the house came down. A new tune, Fifth Street, was the climax of the show before I got my request of the always danceable Magic Carpet Ride > Sex Machine > Magic Carpet Ride sandwich. Good times!

Saturday was a day full of sunshine and dancing at the Wormtown tent. You could tell the buzz about Zach was being spread throughout the festival as the crowds were getting larger and larger. Since we didn’t have solidified set times, there were quite a few people that would linger around in hopes that the funky dance party would soon start. For those of you who purchased the entire 24 disc package, you will greatly enjoy some songs that you either won’t ever hear again or that will eventually evolve into songs that Zach keeps in his catalog. After the first couple sets and having people ask what the difference was between each disc, we decided that there would be no repeats throughout the weekend. Trying not to repeat any songs, Zach would sprinkle in some grooves that he was feeling – add some vocals and a couple solos and you have a well structured song. Some of my favorite moments throughout the festival were these deep grooves he was feeling, so my suggestion to you is buy the box set. After an overwhelming response, we are going to create a Bonnaroo Box Set with over 24 hours of music. As I type this I have my headphones on, combing over the stacks of CDs, making sure every song is titled and trying to dwindle it all down to 6-8 songs so we can create a podcast on the website for those of you who weren’t in attendance.

Back to Saturday night – the night that never ended. I had an hour to go see as many late nights as I could before Zach started up at 2:00 AM. I raged Nine Inch Nails for bit, and then headed over to moe. for 20 minutes. I decided to pass by Ben Harper and MGMT on my way back to shakedown because they weren’t sounding too hot. Zach played a nice, fatty late night which ended just shy of 7 in the morning. This night was epic for two reasons – the infamous Wormtown jello shot party and the Haystack Hoedown. Trapper was in the crowd passing out jello shots, putting Wormtown’s total of jello shots given out to over 290,000. Wormtown has been doing a good service for a long time! Being able to share this experience with Wormtown is something that is really hard to put into words. Duck, Trapper, Mark, Debbie, Jess, Long Hair and Jay have a GREAT time selling merch and dancing all the while. During Haystack Hoedown there wasn’t one person in the crowd or at the Wormtown booth standing still. The crowd had about 200 people in it and they stirred up one of the biggest frenzies I’ve seen. Hay flying everywhere, people screaming at the top of their lungs, Zach killing it – I was home. I couldn’t help but start laughing uncontrollably as I danced barefoot in the hay, dosie-doing with a cute little mama to my favorite form of funk performed by one of my good friends.



For those of you who don’t know me, I’m tall and like space, so I dance in the back. This is great for two reasons: 1.) dancing space and 2.) seeing people’s faces as they walk up. For those of you who have seen Zach, you understand what his music is all about. It’s warm, inviting music, connecting fans and friends. He has the wow factor. At Bonnaroo, I loved being able to dance in the back and watch people walk up from shakedown and see the “what the hell is this funkkky stuff?” on their faces. Then I have the privilege of telling them that he is performing all weekend long, recording every single second of music. After music ended, Jeremy, little Jean Cleary from New Hampshire and I finally got to explore the rest of the festival grounds. We took a nice long walk in search of pirate flags to steal. Before you get mad, this is common practice at festivals. If you have a pirate flag, you’re asking for it. The rules of the game are simple – if you have a flag, you must fly it and you must be ninja to steal it; if you fight over it, it loses its appeal. Jen, Jeremy and I walked around til 11 in the morning in search of pirate flags, spotted quite a few and strategized for the next night when we would take them. The Wormtown booth had three flags, we needed to defend them as well as gather more. Jeremy and I had a ball strategizing while looking at the flags, going all ninja style around the camps to see who sleeps where, in what direction and what the best plan of attack is. Sad thing is Zach played so late on Sunday that we didn’t get to steal the flags, but we’re just crafting our skills for all the other festivals we’ll be at this summer.

I just want to end this by putting out a big thank you to everyone. Thank you to Mark and everyone at Wormtown for making this happen as well as all the old and new fans for turning out. Thank you so much to the girls, Brit and Samantha, for helping out in any and every way possible; I’m glad our paths crossed. Also thank you so much to Gideon and Jason for your help, it doesn’t go unnoticed and we all greatly appreciate any help you can and do give. We are all one big happy family, seeing what needs to be done and doing it. Everyone surrounding us can see the big picture; a stable foundation created through grassroots style marketing and performance is the best way to build any career. You guys are all part of this and I’m so happy to be sharing it with all of you!