Photo by OopeyMason: Wols and Golden Arrow Holy Face

When you think of tours, you think of vans packed with equipment, long highway miles, and undernourished sweaty musicians scrimping every penny to make the tour come close to breaking even. Golden Arrow Holy Face/Wols (David Feil and Amye McCarther, respectively) decided to try something a little more modest and a little more down-home. As they were working with legendary engineer Frank Davis and plotting a tour to support their upcoming releases, the idea came to them to do a porch tour -- spending a day playing music from porch to porch. And why not? The duo’s folk stylings is a perfect complement to the mild and breezy spring weather we’ve had lately, as well as that lovely architectural feature we call a porch, which is made for sittin’, drinkin’, and hangin’ out. We sat down with Amye McCarther at Antidote and discussed Saturday's tour.

29-95: Explain the Holy/Wols collaboration.

McCarther: Holy Wols is a collaboration between myself (Wols) and David Feil (Golden Arrow Holy Face). In the past I've written mostly spare, open compositions to be improvised over when I performed live with an assortment of other musicians. The songs I wrote were anything from surf jams to folk ballads to sleepy pop songs. Golden Arrow Holy Face is David's country/folk project and his solo recordings are vivid and complex. Holy Wols is the intersection of the two projects.

I met David when he was playing in Black Snakes & Kangaroo(?) in 2005. Black Snakes & Kangaroo(?) was a sort of noise/vaudeville act with lots of debauchery mixed in. At the time he was living next door to Jeff Williams (of BS&K? and a current Wols collaborator) and we all liked to sit around drinking and playing music on the stoop. Four years later we're back in Houston playing on the stoop again.

29-95: You have been recording music with Frank Davis the first of which is a split 7” that will be released soon. How is working with Frank and how did you guys meet?

McCarther: Frank is enthusiastic and unpredictable and adorable. He's like a walking storybook of Texas '60s and '70s rock n roll. He's also bright as fuck. The funny thing is I'd rather be listening to Frank's music than my own most days.

How'd we meet? Sundry afternoons drinking beers and ginger ale up at the warehouse. At the time, Will Adams (former Wols member) was Frank's occasional “smart labor" and I'd tag along out of curiosity 'cause I knew he'd produced Mayo Thompson's solo record. After Will left to go on tour with Jana Hunter, I kept going back to visit Frank on my own.

29-95: What's the idea behind the porch tour? How did the idea come about?

McCarther: The idea came organically. I think we were playing on our friend's big porch over in Harrisburg and trying to plot a tour for the summer. The fact that we'd rather be playing on porches for our friends than in venues for strangers occurred to us kind of simultaneously, I think. So we started hitting people up for porches, promising to croon and swoon and stomp our feets.

29-95: How can people keep up with you guys on Saturday and what should they bring with them?

McCarther: We're distributing little hand-drawn maps at the usual places: Sound Exchange., Antidote, Kaboom, Cactus, Big Star. We also have a Google Map that details the route and the times we expect to be playing.

We're hoping that people will take advantage of nice weather and ride their bikes around with us or walk. Some of our hosts will be playing bartender at their respective houses which is super cool of them but we're also suggesting that people bring their own bevs, picnics, whatever. I'll probably have a thermos of bourbon Arnold Palmer.

29-95: Will you play the same sets at each porch?

McCarther: No, we're playing different sets at each stop. David has been working on a Laplands Cycle to release early this summer so we'll play one set that emphasizes that song cycle and probably one that has the new ballads I've been writing. I think we might save the foot-stompin' and hollerin' tunes for the end when we're all a little boozy. Of course, we'll also be playing the songs from the 7" we recorded at Frank's.

29-95: Is this a one-shot porch tour or will you be doing this again?

McCarther: If all goes well, we'll be planning a Montrose porch tour as well.

29-95: I hear you guys are playing out in Marfa. Is that also on someone's porch? What's the scoop?

McCarther: We've been asked to play the Mystic Valley Music & Arts Festival which is happening in conjunction with the Marfa Film Festival May 7-9. We'll probably know if we can confirm the show in a couple days. If we play it we'll be out in the desert which I'm way into.

29-95: Any other shows coming up?

McCarther: We're playing at Brasil and Avant Garden in May. Anyone who missed the show we played recently with Jeff Williams doing solo acoustic stuff should really come to the Avant Garden show. His acoustic songs are so brilliantly crafted.

Saturday, starting at 2:30 p.m. Free.