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Road Snacks #1

Because I don’t hardly blog anymore, I turned the email newsletter for my ice cream shop into kind of a blog where sure I talk about ice cream a good amount, but I also tell stories about when I was a tour manager for a band, document how terribly hostile Intuit is towards their business customer base, and share internet ephemera my customers might not have seen. It’s been feeling a little stale lately, because after three years I think I finally told all my tour stories so I wanted to do something new.

The new thing is Road Snacks, a semi-regular feature where an ice cream shop interviews a touring musician asking questions about the food situation on tour. I think it’s changed a lot and probably not too much since I was doing it. The first interview ran today featuring Cary Ann Hearst from the Charleston band Shovels & Rope, who is great. Click through to read the whole thing. If you’d like to sign up for the newsletter, you can do that here, and we’ll see if it’s interesting even if you don’t live in Boston.

How has eating on tour changed for you since you first started touring?

Eating definitely changes! We used to just eat pizza everyday after the show, but that will kill you eventually so we changed! Everyone watching their water and their fiber intake. It’s wild - we pop vitamins now. But in Indy the other night a man made us pizza in his shop after the show. Sam’s Square Pies?! The best pizza I have ever had. Detroit Style. We literally wrapped and froze individual pieces so that we wouldn’t waste a slice of the 30lbs of pie - thanks Jeff!

It’s 12:30am and you’re at the gas station before a five hour drive to the next city. What snacky treat(s) are you grabbing and why?

My trash snacks from the gas station are an Arizona Green Tea in a can, pork rinds, a bag of lemon heads and pack of bubble gum. We get a gallon of water and fill our canteens. I need a mix of sweet and savory - and since we only get the opportunity to indulge those trashy snack instincts every once in a while I indulge and then remember not to do that once my blood sugar crashes.

Jason doesn’t know it yet, but I’m probably gonna ask if I can run the interviews here, too.

Discussion  9 comments

Josh Fischel

"Trash snacks" is the perfect term for it—you're prioritizing staying awake while driving, and being either alone or at least in the driver's seat gives you the privacy or the excuse to indulge a craving. Mine are Diet Dr. Pepper and a King Size Reese's Peanut Butter Big Cup, preferably filled with Reese's Pieces or potato chips. Mangia!

Aaron CohenMOD

I used to go with a 20 oz coke and hostess cupcakes because it seemed like the biggest bang for the buck calorie-wise.

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Lisa S.

I would love to hear this interview with Neko Case!

Aaron CohenMOD

Maybe if Neko schedules a show in Boston I'll send a note!

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Matt Grieser

Hey! I’m from Indy and Sam’s Square Pie is super good!

Aaron CohenMOD

Oh cool!

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Wade M

Read the whole thing, absolutely perfect, although I may be biased as a Shovels & Rope fan. I immediately recognized the lyric you used for the newsletter title, and from that point on vividly heard Cary Ann Hearst's voice in my head as I read her answers to your questions. So good. Let's just make a decision as a group before Jason gets back that your interviews become a regular feature here, sound good?

Aaron CohenMOD

Haha, thanks for reading. Hope you get to see them on this tour!

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Isah

Recurring Road Snacks upvote! Loved this!

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