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Yarn: How did you first discover Yarn?

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    Seeing earlbny's post about seeing Yarn's 'Empty Pockets' CD release party at Rockwood Music Hall made wonder, "How did he first come to hear/see Yarn?"


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    I first came across Yarn while searching Live Music Archive for Tim Carbone recordings, and I found "Tim Carbone & Friends" at Fountain House. Yarn & Timmy shared the stage for several songs, and hearing all those Yarn originals, I thought, "Damn, these guys are GOOD!!!


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    So, what's your Yarn discovery story?
    • CommentAuthorearlbny
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2017
     
    My friend Laurel introduced me to the band. One day she decided she needed a change. A complete makeover. So she sold her house in New Mexico and moved to NYC. When she got here she began looking for things to do. She wound up in Brooklyn at some music fest or something like that. While walking around she heard this sound coming out of a building. It stopped her in her tracks. She walked in and was completely blown away. During the bands set she started talking to the lady standing next to her. She was foaming at the mouth talking about Andrew and his Electric Mandolin which she called a mini guitar. When she asked the lady if she's seen the band before she said yes. More times then you can count. It turned out that my friend was talking to Andrews wife. They hit it off. Nikki told my friend that the band is going to have a residency coming up at Hill Country BBQ. My friend got home and immediately called me to rave about the band. My 1st thoughts were all over the place. I thought they were too Country for my taste. Then she told me they were from Brooklyn. Now I was totally confused. So the band is not some cowboy hat wearing band from Nashville? They must be some hipster band. They are not a hipster band. So as an excuse to hang out with my friend I made my way to hill country and saw my 1st Yarn show. Once I saw them live the stars aligned and everything clicked. I totally got the band and was completely hooked from the 1st note.The only songs they played that I knew were Dead Flowers, Knockin on Heavens Door and I Know you Rider. From that moment on my life was completely changed forever. As soon as I got home from the show I logged onto the Ryan Adams Archive website to rave about my new musical discovery. Little did I know Reckless had also opened up a thread about the band. We then merged the 2 threads and continued to talk about the band. Reckless then asked me if I was interested in creating the 5 Guitars message board. I have zero experience in building websites let alone message boards. So I passed. Reckless then found someone else who was able to do it. Then the 5G message board was born. I listen to a lot of music. some of my favorite bands have come and go in my life yet Yarn is here for the long haul. When I used to see the band play on Wednesday nights they used to give out free shots at midnight. Some nights it was me, My friend, the band and the bartender. Now look how far they've come. That pretty much sums up my story. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
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      CommentAuthorbadlab
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2017
     
    'Hadn't been out to see much live music for a few years after kids were born. Night before my birthday a buddy says he has a band he knows I would love. So I go with him down to the Double Door in Charlotte to celebrate my birthday and check out the band called Yarn. 1st song was the 1st time they played Tired of Everything. That songs stays with me till this day. Just loved how even without knowing a song you pretty much knew it by the time it was over. The band was amazingly full of talent, wonderful lyrics and well played music. It was a match made in heaven for me. They played near my house a few months later and I brought along about a dozen people to that show and from that point on if Yarn was in the area I was there.Met a lot of really cool people through the band, had the band play at our house and stay when they needed lodging. Hell even when they weren't close we road tripped to see them as far away as NYC! I consider the Grateful Dead the first act in my musical journey, Gov't Mule was act 2, and Yarn is my act three. Sure hoping this act goes on forever. Cheers.
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    Damn, guys! Great backstories to your Yarn-story. Thanks for sharing.
  5.  
    So, not very dramatic for me.

    I was out of a bad marriage and was starting to go out and see live music for the first time in many years. I would then (just as I do now) look for bands coming through and playing at the local club. Yarn was frequently playing at Clementine's Cafe in Harrisonburg, where I lived at the time. So, looked them up on Youtube, decided to go. Ended up really enjoying it and started catching them pretty much every time they came through town. That was fall of 2009. I think 11/21/2009.

    I really liked them the first time I saw them, but it wasn't as if I instantly thought they were the best thing I'd ever seen. That grew slowly. They were just another band that I liked to catch when they came through town, so I saw them pretty frequently. And gradually they came to take over my playlist.

    When I met my wife, in 2014, she fell in love with Yarn too. I wasn't travelling to a lot of shows out of town before then (Yarn or other shows) but she and I travel a lot to see shows. She's seen Yarn a bit over 20 times and I'm a bit over 40.
  6.  
    For me,I was and still am struggling in a horrible marriage and I began to immerse myself in music. I was using Pandora to find new names and Abilene came on. Kinda had a mellow feel and I decided to look them up on Youtube. Liked their stuff, so did some searching and discovered they were going to play at the Buffalo Rose in Golden, CO in less than a month. That was my first Yarn show live. Needless to say, I had what my friend called "The Epiphany" and Ive been hooked since. I've only been a fan for just over 2 years but I spread the gospel of Yarn to everyone I know. I really don't listen to much else except the 200GB of live shows. Ive been able to see them multiple times in Colorado, Washington and most recently Key West and the other FL dates. These guys have changed my life.
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    I'm a deadhead vet with 15 years of shows under my belt when the unthinkable happened and Jerry died. Spent 10 years wasting my time on the leftovers but ultimately, Lesh and Weir ain't much without the big guy. Then I got turned onto Ryan Adams and started seeing his Cardinals every chance I could. I modded at Ryanadamsarchive.com and taped lots of shows. Ryan did a run of three shows at the Town Hall in NYC in December of '06 and on that run something happened. Night one 12/4 cooked. The second night was ok and then on the third night he had one of his melt-downs. Then he came out that spring in '07 with the red cave shit where the stage was unlit and he crouched under his hoodie and he started to write and sing shitty songs. So by the end of 08, I was losing interest. Cardinalogy was the final nail in the coffin and I can barely listen to the little asshole today. Then one day my buddy Kevin said that there was this band he wanted to check out playing near Hartford. They were taper friendly and even said we could videotape. I was still into archiving music so I brought along my video rig on 4/3/09.

    .....by song 4 Music's Only Outlaw, I was hooked.

    Met Tous and Tat Tous that night as they kindly shared their table for me to tape and never looked back. I lost track after counting out to about 70 shows and tonight in Albany, I'll be adding another!

    Later that spring, Kevin helped us launch this site. Sadly, facebook.....that's FUCKING Facebook took over the internet and message boards became less popular. We don't get that much traffic here but I enjoy the fact the what does get posted here is from us die-hards so thanks to all of you guys for keeping it going.

    ....and thanks to Yarn. The only band that continues to surprise at nearly every single show I see~
    • CommentAuthorearlbny
    • CommentTimeMar 16th 2017 edited
     
    Great stories everyone. I will add to what Reckless said. Last night I saw Yarn in NYC. 4 out of the 1st 5 songs played were brand new. I can't think of any band or artist right now who does that? Unlike some bands who might play one new song and struggle to get through it Yarn played the songs like they've been in the bands catalog for years. Yarn continues to bring it hard every single night. Whether they are playing for an hour or 4 hrs in front of 1 person or a full house. Some bands start off strong and then go through a dry spell. Some are able climb out of it and others fade into the night sky. Not Yarn. They have over 100+ original songs and not one bad song.

    My friend David saw his 1st Dead show in 65. He's told me that he can't bring himself to see any members of the Dead play without Jerry. It's just not the same. He respects what they currently do. It makes him sad. He misses Jerry every single day.
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      CommentAuthortous
    • CommentTimeMar 17th 2017
     
    Went to the Main Pub(e) in Manchester, CT to see Girls, Guns and Glory. We'd seen them a few times and liked the sound. Well, what the fuck...they're opening? Who the fuck is Yarn?

    Enjoyed the GGG set and meet RC who sets up a fucking recording rig like it's the goddam Dead. What the fuck is gong on here?

    Yarn starts playing and...damn...they're pretty good. People in the back of the club are shouting out requests. People in the front are bobbing up and down playing air guitar and air mando.

    They say they're from NYC and they've brought some fans with them...what the fuck kind of bar band has fans following them to a shithole in Manchester-fucking-Connecticut?

    They play MOL and holy shit...it's epiphany time.

    The rest is Yarntory. Seen them in clubs, bars and roadhouses from Portland, ME to Raleigh, NC.

    Preaching to the choir, I know....
    • CommentAuthorBrouche
    • CommentTimeMar 17th 2017
     
    Pretty simple story..4/22/2010. Hopped told me about a band called Yarn he thought I'd like. I asked if we'd have a sweater knitted by the end of the set. Needless to say I was hooked. Well over a 100 shows later and so glad Hopped told me to go. It was a Thursday night and the first night of Shakori, a pretty well attended local fest, and there might have been 15 of us there including 3 or 4 people that had driven down from Roanoke, VA. There was a drunk couple that came in late and the girl had this horrible cackle of a laugh and she proceeded to laugh all over the quieter parts of songs. Luckily I there is a recording to help me remember the night.
    All that being said, it's great to go back and listen to those old recordings. You can tell that "he that must not be named" really wanted to be there and loved playing the songs.
    https://archive.org/details/yarn2010-04-22.CA-14.flac16/yarn2010-04-22-CA-14t18.flac
    • CommentAuthorStoney
    • CommentTimeMar 19th 2017
     
    We were lucky to have, for a brief period, a local radio station that was dedicated to Americana music and one of the DJs was working Yarn. My husband would always listen at work and he loved the music and Blake’s vocals from the get go. Yarn played the radio station, and then a couple of local shows... he always wanted to go, but I was wrapped up in raising my kids, taking care of elderly relatives, and all the stuff that goes along with that. I was pretty much in a slump, far from my good friends, living a “perfect on the outside, screaming on the inside” isolated life. Something in me was lost in the routine of daily life. I had backed out of the shows he wanted to see, I guess looking back, you would say I was clinically depressed- I was just going through the motions. I knew my husband was into this band, so finally, guilt ridden, I rallied, called some friends, packed up my kids and we caught them at a local venue. It happened to fall on my son’s birthday. Blake dedicated a song for him... (somewhere buried deep in this message board is a story from that night.)
    Everyone I brought loved them including me. (except the kids, who had to be little shits at that age and rebel against all things “parent”... It was kind of funny when I finally got the “We confess, we really do like Yarn... actually we like them a lot” )
    My expanding group of Yarn fan friends would hit the shows when they came around, and I have to say, it was depressing. (not the music, the setting) We’d roll in drunk as monkeys, and sometimes be the only ones there. Since I was the sober driver and everyone else was passing out, it was like having a private concert. And those boys never, ever, ever mailed it in. They played like they were playing to stadium-- it upset me that they weren’t playing a stadium, cause I felt that the songs and the music were worthy of that kind of crowd. When I finally gave in and did the facebook thing, I saw after one of those hard nights, they had posted a photo of where they spent the night: someone’s crappy basement floor. I knew they probably didn’t make enough at the door the night before to put gas in their tank. After that, I told myself, if they were ever in the area I would open my doors to them. In doing that, I found out that not only are these guys great musicians, they are good, kind people as well. I love to see and hear how much they really, truly, enjoy the people around them, each and every one of their fans- even socially awkward fuck-ups like me get treated with such kindness. I know their life on the road is so hard on them, but I also know that the gift of their music makes life easier on every level for so many of us, and I truly can’t thank them enough for the joy they bring. I marvel at the fact that Blake can write a song that can hook you the first time you hear it... that his songs have a depth of understanding of human nature and all it’s complexities... Songs with intelligence and a sense of humor... songs that touch upon all the frailties of life...all perfectly orchestrated by amazing, incredibly talented, hardworking musicians.... perfect songs to compliment the highest of highs and the lowest of lows...
    and he does it over and over again....
    If all that weren’t enough, I also get the pleasure of meeting some of you crazy Yarniacs as well.
    So that’s my story...
    I’m hoping that we all live happily ever after.
  12.  
    Love it, Stoney! Great Yarn-story, beautifully stated, and spot on about how kind and true friends the boys in Yarn are to their fans.

    Where do you live, Stoney? See you at Crawfish Fest?
    • CommentAuthorStoney
    • CommentTimeMar 19th 2017 edited
     
    I'm in Pennsylvania.
    That crawfish fest looks like the makings of a great time. Thanks for calling it to my attention. Too early to tell if I can make it, but it sure will go on the calendar! Thanks
    • CommentAuthorStoney
    • CommentTimeMar 20th 2017
     
    So in all my ramblings I forgot to mention that no matter what state of mind I was in when I came to a show, I always left happy. I think they should have T-shirts that say:
    YARN
    Medicinal Music
    All the benefits of Anti-Depressants * Without the Harmful side effects

    Happy Spring Everybody!

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