"When Matt and I began this adventure, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to pull it off. It was a hugely ambitious dream, to try and tour the entire country and make our living as professional musicians! We could not have done it without the support and encouragement of our friends at True Lemon. We are hugely grateful to have been chosen for this summer's 'Live True' Series. I hope you've enjoyed the blog as much as I've enjoyed sharing this journey with you.

As you can see from the map above, we've covered a lot of ground in our little VW Camper Van! I'm proud to say that we'll have played over one hundred shows this year on our 'True Life Tour!' Here's where we've been and where we're headed. Thanks again to True Lemon and to all of you who've been following our story these past few months.

Feb. 27th - Philadelphia, PA - The Tin Angel
Feb. 28th - Boston, MA - Precinct
March 1st - New York City - The Living Room
March 2nd - Philadelphia, PA - House show
March 3rd - Baltimore, MA - House Show
March 4th - Washington, DC - House Show
March 5th - Charlottesville, VA - The Garage
March 6th - Durham, NC - The Pinhook
March 8th - Charlotte, NC - House Show
March 9th - Athens, GA - Terrapin Brewery
March 9th - Athens, GA - Rye Bar
March 11th - Pascagoula, MS - The Celtic
March 15th - Austin, TX - SXSW
March 20th - Austin, TX - House Show
March 22nd - Ft. Worth, TX - House Show
March 23rd - San Antonio, TX - House Show
March 24th - Dallas, TX - Opening Bell Coffee
March 26th - Starkville, MS - House Show
March 27th - New Orleans - House Show
March 29th - Birmingham, AL - Urban Standard
March 31st - Tallahassee, FL - House Show
April 2nd - Gainesville, FL - House Show
April 3rd - Tampa, FL - WMNF Festival
April 5th - Keystone Heights, FL - House Show
April 7th - Winter Park, FL - House Show
April 8th - Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds
April 9th - Deland, FL - House Show
April 10th - Ormond Beach, FL - Birthplace of Speed Pavilion
April 14th - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - House Show
April 15th - Orlando, FL - Downtown Creedo
April 16th - Quincy, FL - House Show
April 19th - Memphis, TN - House Show
April 20th - Nashville, TN - House Show
April 21st - Knoxville, TN - House Show
April 22nd - Chattanooga, TN - St. Elmo Fire Hall
April 23rd - Starkville, MS - Cotton District Arts Festival
May 5th - Wilmington, NC - House Show
May 7th - Lynchburg, VA - The White Hart Cafe
May 7th - Lynchburg, VA - House Show
May 8th - LaVale, MD - House Show
May 12th - Baltimore, MD - House Show
May 13th - Olney, MD - House Show
May 14th - McLean, VA - House Show
May 15th - Harrisburg, PA - House Show
May 18th - Lancaster, PA - House Show
May 20th - New York City - The Living Room
May 29th - State College, PA - House Show
May 31st - Pittsburgh, PA - The Map Room
June 2nd - Livonia, MI - House Show
June 9th - Macomb, IL - House Show
June 10th - Bluegrass, IA - House Show
June 11th - Madison, WI - House Show
June 15th - Minneapolis, MN - House Show
June 16th - Minneapolis, MN - House Show
June 18th - Westfield, WI - House Show
June 20th - Detroit, MI - House Show
June 22nd - Brownsburg, IN - House Show
June 24th - Columbus, OH - House Show
June 25th - Cincinnati, OH - The Speckled Bird Cooperative
June 29th - Detroit, MI - House Show
June 30th - Chicago, IL - Martyrs'
July 1st - Mokena, IL - House Show
July 5th - Indianapolis, IN - House Show
July 8th - Knoxville, TN - WDVX Blue Plate Special, Radio Show
July 9th - Knoxville, TN - The Cove at Concord Park
July 12th - Asheville, NC - Firestorm Cafe
July 14th - Lexington, KY - Al's Bar
July 15th - Louisville, KY - Green Building Gallery
July 22nd - Chattanooga, TN - St. Elmo Firehall
July 28th - St. Louis, MO - Pop's Blue Moon
July 30th - Kansas City, MO - House Show
Aug. 3rd - Lincoln, NE - House Show
Aug. 6th - Sioux Falls, SD - House Show
Aug. 7th - Cambridge, MN - Block Party
Aug. 8th - Cambridge, MN - House Show
Aug. 11th - Denver, CO - The Walnut Room Pizzeria
Aug. 12th - Broomfield, CO - House Show
Aug. 14th - Salida, CO - Salida Cafe
Aug. 19th - Boise, ID - The District Coffee House
Aug. 20th - Boise, ID - House Show
Aug. 21st - Enterprise, OR - Terminal Gravity Brewery
Aug. 24th - Joseph, OR - Caldera’s
Aug. 25th - Portland, OR - House Show
Aug. 26th - Seattle, WA - House Show
Aug. 27th - Seattle, WA - Laughing Ladies Cafe
Aug. 31st - Langley, BC - House Show
Sept. 2nd - Seattle, WA - Pegasus Coffee House
Sept. 3rd - Seattle, WA - Pegasus Coffee House
Sept. 8th - Tacoma, WA - Mandolin Cafe
Sept. 13th - Portland, WA - Alberta Street Pub
Sept. 10th - Seattle, WA - The Gypsy Cafe
Sept. 15th - Eugene, OR - Luckey’s Bar
Sept. 16th - Hillsboro, OR - Insomnia Coffee Company
Sept. 17th - Lebanon, OR - House Show
Sept. 23rd - Sacramento, CA - House Show
Sept. 24th - Auburn, CA - House Show
Oct. 5th - San Francisco, CA - Bazaar Cafe
Oct. 7th - Oakland, CA - House Show
Oct. 8th - Fresno, CA - House Show
Oct. 15th - Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 16th - Corona, CA - House Show
Oct. 18th - San Luis Obispo, CA - Kreuzberg
Oct. 20th - Santa Margarita, CA - The Porch (Guest Spot)
Oct. 21st - Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 22nd - Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 23rd - Paso Robles, CA - Sculpterra Winery
Oct. 28th - San Diego, CA - TBD
Nov. 12th - Flagstaff, AZ - Vino Loco
Nov. 26th - Flagstaff, AZ - Vino Loco"

"We are making our way West and it feels so good! Here’s a picture of me LIVING TRUE in Utah. I am super friggin’ excited about the next two and a half months and I have two requests for you:

1. I have never spent any real time on the West Coast and so I’m eager for advice! Do you have amazing places that you know of that I should visit? Please email me at kelley@kelleymcrae.com.
2. Do you live on the West Coast? Come see a show! Do you have friends that live on the West Coast? Send them to a show! The current dates are below (dates will continue to be added!) and you can find all the details about our shows HERE.

The Great VW Camper Van - LIVE TRUE - Tour!

Aug. 19th - Boise, ID - The District Coffee House
Aug. 20th - Boise, ID - House Show
Aug. 21st - Enterprise, OR - Terminal Gravity Brewery
Aug. 24th - Joseph, OR - Caldera’s
Aug. 25th - Portland, OR - House Show
Aug. 26th - Seattle, WA - House Show
Aug. 27th - Seattle, WA - Laughing Ladies Cafe
Aug. 31st - Langley, BC - House Show
Sept. 2nd - Seattle, WA - Pegasus Coffee House
Sept. 3rd - Seattle, WA - Pegasus Coffee House
Sept. 8th - Tacoma, WA - Mandolin Cafe
Sept. 13th - Portland, WA - Venue TBD
Sept. 10th - Seattle, WA - The Gypsy Cafe
Sept. 15th - Eugene, OR - Luckey’s Bar
Sept. 16th - Hillsboro, OR - Insomnia Coffee Company
Sept. 17th - Lebanon, OR - House Show
Sept. 23rd - Sacramento, CA - House Show
Sept. 24th - Auburn, CA - House Show
Oct. 5th - San Francisco, CA - Bazaar Cafe
Oct. 7th - Oakland, CA - House Show
Oct. 15th -  Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 16th - Corona, CA - House Show
Oct. 18th - San Luis Obispo, CA - Kreuzberg
Oct. 20th - Santa Margarita, CA - The Porch (Guest Spot)
Oct. 21st - Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 22nd - Los Angeles, CA - House Show
Oct. 23rd - Paso Robles, CA - Sculpterra Winery
Oct. 28th - San Diego, CA - TBD

And it’s not to late to request a HOUSE SHOW!"  

"These past few weeks have been a BLUR! Here are some fun highlights:

I promised you pics from our photo shoot with the amazing DuckDuck Collective in Lynchburg, VA. HERE they are!


In Knoxville, TN we got to play one of my favorite shows, the Blue Plate Special on WDVX. Six days a week in downtown Knoxville, they have a live lunch show that is open to the public, broadcast live on WDVX and streamed live on the website. How awesome is that? We got to play with the Dovekins, a rad band out of Colorado, whose song ‘Riverweeds’ I’ve been listening to obsessively. You can hear it HERE from their Daytrotter session.



Our time in Knoxville also happened to coincide with Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chamber’s performance at the beautiful Bijou Theater. It was an awesome show. Her Dad, Bill Chambers, plays guitar with her and is a great songwriter in his own right. I got to know him when I was first writing songs and he’s been a great listening board and a loyal encouragement all these years. We’ve really been enjoying his latest album, Drifting South, check it out HERE.



A couple Friday’s ago we got to return to one of our favorite spots on the tour, The St. Elmo Fire Hall in Chattanooga, TN. So many lovely people came out, including Tianna from Color Cloud Hammocks. Before the show, she gave me a ‘True Lemon colored’ hammock so that I can blissfully nap my way across the Western half of this country over the next 3 months! I am PUMPED. And last but not least, a HUGE thanks to Emerson, who promoted the show and provided wine and a gorgeous spread of food.



We also played a house show while in Kansas City and Aaron, our host, has written a great blog post about it! Check it out HERE. Thanks, Aaron!"  

"Back in April, we had a show in DeLand, FL that turned out to be one of my favorites of the tour. It was a warm spring night, there was delicious free BBQ, great musicians on the bill, little hippy children dancing around a fire and a cool community of folks having a good time.

After the show, I was selling CD's and talking to the people who had come out to the show. One of the guys asked about our VW Van and I told him our story of selling everything, letting go of our home and hitting the road. He got this big smile on his face and said "Oh! You're a cut-away!" To which I replied something to the effect of "Whaa??" He explained that he was a professional skydiver and that they call people who decide to step out into a new way of life 'cut-aways.' The reason they call them cut-aways is because when you're skydiving and your main parachute malfunctions, you 'cutaway,' releasing it in preparation for using your backup parachute. He said that people who stepped out of their comfort zones and took the risk to live a truer life were cutting away an old way of living that didn't work anymore.

I have thought about that conversation so much since then. I love the idea of these parachutes. The "broken parachute," which for me was a life that had become stuck in a rut of false security and fear, and the "backup parachute," which for me is this scrappy, patchwork parachute made up of all these different pieces: the fans that have generously opened their homes to host shows, the friends who have fed and sheltered us, the woman in Cincinnati who gave us a hundred dollar bill in an envelope along with a note that said "the world will be saved by beauty," our families who have offered endless encouragement, the people who have come out to shows and given generously...the list goes on and on. It's a crazy looking parachute, and it probably shouldn't even work, but somehow it does.

We have been on the road now for five months. We have driven 17,000 miles and played 73 shows. And if I've learned anything about what it means to be a cut-away it is this: If you have a dream, don't wait for anyone to hand it to you. Be bold to make all the little choices along the way that will bring you closer to that dream - the hundreds and thousands of little choices and sacrifices. And then when the moment comes and you know you're supposed to cut-away, have faith that a crazy looking parachute, one that you probably would never have imagined or designed or even wished for, is going to come and is going to work beautifully."

"(Especially when you’ve put 16,000 miles on the poor van in about four months!) About two weeks ago, we woke up in Cincinnati and the van wouldn’t move at all. Thankfully, we happened to be staying with friends who had a driveway and tools we could borrow. We also happened to be hanging out with Kevin, Matt’s shop-mate from Brooklyn who, like Matt, can fix pretty much anything. Here’s a video of them getting the tour back on the road!!"

"Before we left Brooklyn, my friend Ed gave me a flip cam (thank you, ED!) and made me promise to record our adventures on the road. I’ve been recording over the last four months (wow, I’ve been living in a van for four months!) and I hope to keep it up through the next few months as we make our way out to the west coast. Matt took some of what we have so far and created this awesome tour video!!

One note about the video: Before we left on this adventure back in February , we christened the van with all our friends in Brooklyn. We named the van Proč Ne, which is Czech for “Why not?” — as in ‘why not sell everything and live in a van so we can play music all the time, travel the country and meet amazing people!!’ So when you hear people toasting 'Proč Ne' in the video, it will make a lot more sense now!

I hope you enjoy the video."

"The heart of ‘The Great VW Camper Van Tour’ is the house show. We will probably end up doing around 150 shows this year, and 100 of those shows will be in the living rooms, backyards, front porches, back porches, decks, carports and sun rooms of people all over the US - from Philadelphia to San Diego. And most of these shows will be hosted by (and attended by!) brave folks who have never done anything like it before and are taking a chance by opening up their homes and inviting their friends over for a totally new experience. I love that. I love that people are willing to take a risk for live music and for community. And without fail, these are very special nights. We leave having met incredible people and the feedback we get is overwhelmingly positive and generous. I love my job.

But the thing is, it’s not always easy to explain a house show - why it works, why it’s different and what the spirit of the night is. Thankfully, the talented photographer Danica Myers has just made that job a little easier. She hosted a show for us last week in Minneapolis and ended up taking some gorgeous pictures of the whole night: before the show hanging out, during the show - shots of Matt and I and people in the audience - and shots of hanging out after the show getting to know people. I love these pictures because they capture the spirit of joy, intimacy, and community that can happen during these nights. So now I’ll shut up and let the photos speak for themselves."

"We’re excited to be spending the next month in the Midwest, playing shows in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Check out our schedule at www.kelleymcrae.com/shows. If you’re interested in coming to one of the house shows, please email me at kelley@kelleymcrae.com and I can check availability. We’ve spent the last few days in Prophetstown, IL in the house where Matt grew up. It’s so quiet and beautiful. The picture above is Matt hard at work on the van, which tends to happen whenever we’re in a place for more than one day - Rotating the tires, adjusting the brakes, adjusting the idle, changing the O2 sensor in an Auto Zone parking lot - ya know, the usual. Needless to say, I’m pretty pumped that the man not only knows how to shred, but can help keep our home moving."

“We had an incredible time Friday night in New York City at one of our favorite venues, The Living Room. The venue was absolutely packed and full of love! We’ve played 50 shows and driven 11,000 miles since we were last in New York and it’s been a joy to come home to such a warm reception and total encouragement. We played two new songs, which is always fun. We haven’t had as much time to write on the road as I had hoped, but one of the songs is completely born from this new adventure and I hope there are more where it came from!