Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Saturday October 24, 2026 - Newport, KY

Road Blog
October 24, 2026
Newport, Kentucky

Saturday morning was rough on count of the late night and excessive partying on Friday night. I rallied on shitty motel lobby coffee and met the boys more or less on time at the van. We headed into Knoxville because I couldn’t figure out how to use Google Maps and landed at a Bojangles that was 10 miles in the opposite direction than we wanted to go. JakeE Jacob got his usually biscuit, Troy got one too, and I got a 3-piece chicken on the bone with dirty rice and Cajun pintos combo. It was great, albeit greasy and salty AF. Skids adequately greased, we hit the interstate and headed north.

We listened to some Gillian Welch, Robbie Fulks, and Goddamn Wrecks, being pretty worn out on the Pink Floyd. Troy crashed out in the back and I rode shotgun with JakeE driving as we noted that roadkill doesn’t really seem to be a thing west of the Mississippi River. East, there’s carcasses and piles of guts everywhere - endless deer, raccoons, coyotes, opossums... But why? Are the animals smarter in the west? Do they have more room to roam so they aren’t crossing roads as often? Do they clean the kills up quicker? There seems to also be less shredded tires. A little bit of all that? We don’t know, but it's an obvious thing when to traverse it in a couple weeks.

We stopped at Buc-ee's (AGAIN), which is a place I don’t like one bit, but again (go back a few blogs if you missed it) the fresh jerky bar RULES. I stocked up for home and replenished my gummy bear inventory for the drive tomorrow. They also have cheap gas, so we topped off the tank. As I walked out there were a couple Kentucky fellas who looked ridden hard and put away wet with a plastic bin full of very young puppies. These fellas didn’t look like the “Let’s get Ruby spayed” type, more like the “let’s set up camp in front of Buc-ees and see if we can get rid of `em.” Type. “They’re fruhee.” One of them told me. “You'cn just take `un.” I texted Troopergirl22 a photo and “PLLEEAAASSSEEEE!?!?!?!?!” and she pretended not to see it.

We checked into our dive motel in Cincinnati for a couple hours of downtime and a phone call home. It’s been a long 12 days and we we’re all ready to be back there. JakeE crashed out, Troy took a shower, and I got caught up on some computer work. I mentioned that there’s a Hofbrauhaus in Newport and JakeE and Troy were receptive to the idea. We were seated in the giant beer hall a couple tables over from Polka Cola, who were rockin’ the joint and taking requests. We got a round of German beers and JakeE, in vintage JakeE fashion, got a full liter of dunkel. His exhausted, mentally-fried mood lifted a bit at he started working on it. Then….they went into The Chicken Song and encouraged everyone to stand on their benches and dance along. Now, I’d rather get a root canal with a rusty screwdriver than do The Chicken Dance, but JakeE thought “Challenge excepted,” grabbed his gallon and a half of beer, and unceremoniously stood on the bench and Chicken Danced the living hell out of the Chicken Dance. Oh, there is video, and rest assured that it shall surface when the time is right.

The boys got salads, which I was like “whatever, posers.” And because the fried chicken I ate for breakfast just didn't fill the fried food quota of the day, I got the Bauern Schnitzel - Breaded Pork Cutlet fried crisp and golden brown, topped with Black Forest Ham, Swiss Cheese and their Signature Hausmade Bier Cheese, served with German Potato Salad and Fried Cabbage, but I subbed spatzel for the cabbage because all-carbs-no-vegetables had gotten me that far. It’s a campy, schmaltzy place, but the food and beer is amazing, and seeing JakeE come alive was well worth it.

We loaded into The Southgate House Revival where the School of Rock concert was just letting out. We met Adam Lee, who was managing the venue, and who Jake new and I knew a bit from shows years ago. Ava was tending bar and watching Hocus Pocus II. She was a sweetheart and rooting us on when there was no one else there to do so. Southgate House Revival is a on old church converted into a venue with a big hall, a smaller hall upstairs, and a lounge, where we played. I’ve played there several times and always did well in the lounge, at least `til yesterday. It's a really great place just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

We went on around 10:30 to a mostly empty room and played a couple songs for the staff. A couple other people wandered in and got drinks, and my friend Chris from Lexington showed up and took a seat front and center. This was my first Kentucky show since my brother NP Presley died in June, and we’ve been playing one of his songs every night on tour. Turns out Chris had just gotten a tattoo of that song title and one of Nate’s graphics on his forearm. He was a bit misty as we played it, and I was glad that he was there to hear it. He posted a video and I’ll link to it in the comments. We did about an hour, which was probably pushing it a bit, sold a little merch, said our so-longs, and drove back to the dive motel northeast of Cincinnati where the boys crashed out pretty quick while I did some business work and started the blog.

Southgate House remains a great room, and the bad night was not my usual experience there. The staff was awesome, it was one of our best performances, and seeing Chris and Adam was great, but one thing people tell me about these blogs is that they appreciate the honesty, and that I don’t sugar coat the down nights, so here we are, friends. It was a bummer that the run had to end on that low note. Not the worst show of the tour, but near the bottom in terms of attendance. Hopefully they’ll give us another chance in a year or two, because it’s a special venue. Part of the gig is not getting too high after the great nights and too low after the shitty ones, so we’ll live to fight another day.

Anxious to get back home and to all the things waiting for us, we hit the road at 7:30am, just as the sun rose over the Ohio farmlands to the east. Getting up early blows, but I do love a good sunrise, and we’ve seen a few on this run. Quick McDonalds stop (Egg McMuffin, sub extra ham [they call it “steak” in their system] for the egg) and a large coffee and it was up I-75 with my shuffle still on the “I”s since Missouri, currently Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.”

We continued to ponder the excessive road kills in the Midwest, the good, the bad, and the ugly of the tour, the tornado of post-tour Tucos our wives were about to have land in their worlds, and general busting balls and other nonsense. We crossed the Ohio-Michigan line around 10:40am, dropped JakeE off in Ann Arbor, then Troy’s wife Jette was chatting with TrooperGirl22, who was out raking leaves at our place in her Central Michigan University sweatshirt. We had a quick chat, loaded Troy’s drums into his van, and they’re off to home in the city before the insanity of a Lions game and the Jonas Brothers concert across the street makes getting around difficult later today.

It’s great to be home, and it’s great to have another one of these longer runs in the books. Live, independent music at this level is very clearly never been worth less to the general public, more difficult to sustain, and more work to reach even a few people, and it’s getting worse every year. We’re so grateful to the ones who make it out, catch part of a set, buy a piece of merch, or just welcome us to their town. As always, it was a monumental amount of work to plan, book, promote, advance, and execute, but I live for the shows and the travel and the camaraderie. The time away from home is tough, but it also makes the time at home more special, and this may come a surprise to some of you, but I can be a bit of a handful at times, so it’s good for TrooperGirl22 to have the house to herself for a bit too.

3693 miles/11 states/11 days/12 shows/3 bags of gummy bears/4 sunrises/12 tanks of gas/2 mountain ranges/10 days of sunshine/1 day of rain/13 Pink Floyd albums/1 Whitesnake playlist.

One more run this year, to Champaign, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh in December. `til then, thanks for reading, go see a show, and watch this space for some exciting news in the coming weeks. And for all that has ever mattered, get out and VOTE please, so this goddamn insanity can have some sort of cheap-ass band aid to stop it at least a little bit `til we figure out what’s next. Xx