MYSTERY TRAIN: LIVE MUSIC, LEGENDARY TRAINS AND THE GREAT SOUTHWEST

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MYSTERY TRAIN: LIVE MUSIC, LEGENDARY TRAINS AND THE GREAT SOUTHWEST with Stan Ridgway, The Handsome Family and Jill Sobule

November 14-18, 2009
Los Angeles - Albuquerque - Winslow - Grand Canyon - Los Angeles

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about the Mystery Train!

Join your host, the inestimably eccentric and brilliant Stan Ridgway and his friends Jill Sobule and The Handsome Family for The Mystery Train... an unforgettable trip through the wide open spaces of the American Southwest. We will travel in overnight luxury in our own private railroad cars from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, across the Mojave Desert, tracing the lines of Route 66, “the Mother Road,” and then by private motorcoach to the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon, before reboarding our train for the trip home.

And each night there will be plenty of music: informal jams on board and land-based shows with our host musicians. An open mic or two; some world-class meals and memories to last a lifetime! There’s only room for fifty patrons on board... please join us.
Day 1, Saturday, November 14
We board our private section of the storied Southwest Chief at the monumental Art Deco/Mission style Los Angeles Union Station, first opened in 1939. The Southwest Chief is the modern-day incarnation of the famous Santa Fe Super Chief, the “train of the stars” in the 1930’s and 40’s. We have four chartered private cars expressly for our own use - the stunning Overland Trail, a beautifully restored club-lounge car built in 1949 for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and sleepers Pacific Sands (1950, Union Pacific), Salisbury Beach (1954, Boston & Maine) and Palm Leaf (1951, Santa Fe, built for the Super Chief). Each car has a shower, and all private rooms have their own toilet facilities.
During the evening, as the train climbs Cajon Pass, we will mingle in the lounge and watch our train slice through the night. The Southwest Chief heads into the heart of the Mojave Desert through Needles and Barstow, California, through Kingman, Seligman and Flagstaff, Arizona.
Day 2, Sunday, November 15
A leisurely breakfast awaits (fresh fruit, Southwest frittata, freshly grilled chicken sausage, bagels and lox, etc.) as we roll through Navajo Country, past Gallup and the foreboding lava beds around Grants, with arrival in Albuquerque scheduled for noon. We have the afternoon free to explore this fascinating city. In the evening, we provide shuttle service from the train to tonight’s concert and return. Our rail cars serve as our hotel for the night.
Day 3, Monday, November 16
Roots on the Rails Supreme Commander Charlie Hunter will talk about how the Santa Fe Railroad, and its unsung genius, turn-of-the-Century designer Mary Jane Colter have shaped our perceptions of the American West and native culture. We will witness the legendary Dinosaurs along I-40 in Holbrook, AZ and by mid-afternoon, arrive in Winslow, Arizona. Our home for the night is the stunning La Posada Hotel and Gardens, an historic Harvey House, recently reopened to the public. after checking in, we’ll have an open mic, followed by dinner at the renown Turquoise Room Restaurant. And, yes, we are but a block from "the corner" immortalized by the Eagles in "Take It Easy". After dinner, we will enjoy a private evening concert with Stan, Brett, Rennie and Jill.
Day 4, Tuesday, November 17
We depart Winslow for the Grand Canyon! A powerful and inspiring landscape, the Grand Canyon overwhelms our senses through its immense size; 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep. Designated as a national park in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson, its lush forest of Pinyon, Ponderosa Pine and Utah Juniper interspersed with cliff rose, blackbrush and sagebrush provides a stunning backdrop for ravens, eagles, hawks, mule deer and coyote.
In late afternoon we reboard our motorcoach to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we enjoy a final dinner and evening concert. By 8:45, we’ll be at the Flagstaff depot, ready to reboard our private sleeping cars as the Southwest Chief pulls into town. The overnight trip back to Los Angeles will pass quickly, with the lounge area hopping into the wee hours.
Day 5, Wednesday, November 18
Arrival in Los Angeles at Union Station is scheduled for 8:15 am.
Sign up today, by e-mailing Roots on the Rails at trains@sover.net, by calling 866-484-3669 (toll free in the US & Canada) or 802-258-1397.

THE PERFORMERS:

STAN RIDGWAY TRIO
www.StanRidgway.com
"The most compelling portrait of American life to appear in rock 'n' roll since Bruce Springsteen's ‘Nebraska.’"
- Greil Marcus, on Stan Ridgway’s ‘The Big Heat.’
Stan Ridgway is a true original. From his early days with L.A.'s Wall Of Voodoo through his fascinating solo career, Ridgway has created an inimitable body of deeply American work.
"I’ve always liked tall tales, urban myths and ghost stories," Ridgway says. "I like a strong protagonist, as well as a story that unfolds with drama, color and detail. A song should take you away for awhile and into another world."
Raised in L.A., Ridgway began his love affair with Southwestern gothic as front man of vanguard electro-art punks Wall of Voodoo, who scored a surprise hit with the early MTV staple, “Mexican Radio.” A mad scientist of sound and vision, Ridgway possesses a style unparalleled, at least in our known universe. He craftily sets his dark materials to off-kilter and eerie melodies that echo the uneasy action of a cast of characters on the brink. His tales often take place in the microcosmic miasma of L.A. and its outer desert, where his creations try to wrest meaning from the beautiful catastrophe of their lives.
Ridgway will be accompanied on the Mystery Train by Pietra Wexstun on keyboards and vocals and Rick King on guitar, bass and vocals. Wexstun and Ridgway have lived and worked in tandem for more than 30 years; her keyboard and vocal sounds are perfectly in tune with his not-so-typical stories of proverbial American tragedy and triumph.
"At the end of the day I really consider myself just an inventor, or like a link in a chain," Ridgway says. "Music and songs are an obsession for me. To see it and tell it your own way is the challenge. That’s the last true, honest place to be."

THE HANDSOME FAMILY
www.HandsomeFamily.com
"This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back haunting, primal and strangely heroic."
- The London Times
Country music is supposed to tell stories, and nobody tells better, creepier stories than The Handsome Family.
Brett Sparks writes the music, and his wife Rennie writes the lyrics. Together, they create dystopian portraits of murderous families, failed love affairs, despondent and hopeless humanity, and restless spirits. But these dark and dreary tales are usually packaged in a wash of prettily plucked banjo and guitar trills.
In 2001, the duo left Chicago for the sunnier climes of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they've continued to perfect their lyrical and musical stew.
On Honey Moon, The Handsome Family’s eighth studio release, lovers kiss in dripping wet caves and call to each other from trembling mountain peaks. They sigh on windy drawbridges and weep silver puddles in the street. The disc celebrates the duo's twentieth year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast with some of the dark and mysterious themes of their previous seven releases. The Handsome Family consider their songs Romantic in the 19th century sense of the word: full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature’s mysteries.
Their songs have been covered by many artists, including Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, The Sadies, Sally Timms and Cerys Matthews.

JILL SOBULE
www.JillSobule.com
"Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant ... grown-up music for an adolescent age."
- Jon Pareles, The New York Times
Jill Sobule belongs to a rare breed of artists. Her work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. Over five albums and a decade of recording, the Denver-born songwriter has tackled such topics as the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, reproduction, the French Resistance Movement and love found, love lost, love wished for and love taken away.
Jill's subtle intelligence and skillful light-handedness permeate her work. No sloganeering flag-and-fist waving here, but rather story songs about human beings, from her nineties hits 'I Kissed A Girl' and 'Supermodel' to her beautifully nuanced contemporary material.
"‘I Kissed A Girl’ was a double-edged sword," Sobule says. "It was perceived as a novelty, but on the other hand it was the first song with an overtly gay topic to be aired on Top 40 radio. I am quite proud of that."
Jill divides her time between a busy touring schedule and a dizzying variety of other projects. She has played the role of political troubadour for NPR stations across the country and for Air America Radio. She also served as songwriter/composer for the hit Nickelodeon network show ‘Unfabulous’ during that show's three-season run. She composed the music for the off-Broadway show Prozak and the Platypus and co-starred in the Eric Schaeffer film ‘Mind Over Matter.’
To see Jill live and in concert is a rare treat. It is on stage that she is most comfortable, most powerful, and where the delicacy and range of her work can be best appreciated. She entertains, amuses, provokes, and takes her audiences on an emotional roller coaster, from comedy to pathos in a few bars of music. To have her on the Mystery Train will be to take a ride with a true master of song.

PRICE:

$2,089 per person. Price includes semi-private berth space on board 11/14, 15 and 17, bedding, towels, late-night snack, breakfast, beverage service (sodas, coffee/tea, beer, wine) on board; all motorcoach travel and National Park admissions; lunches 11/16-17; hotel and buffet dinner in Winslow 11/16, dinner in Flagstaff 11/17 and admission to all music events. Private room on train with own toilet and sink $329.00 additional per person. Optional single supplement of $80.00 for solo travelers desiring their own hotel room in Winslow (otherwise, we will pair you with another trip member). Deluxe option (only four of this option available): single occupancy of two person “double bedroom” on board, best available room in Winslow, $1,250.00 additional ($3339.00 total).
Alternate itinerary $1789.00. If you join us in Albuquerque, we’ll provide concert in Albuquerque on 11/15, then motorcoach, meals and music as per standard itinerary 11/16-17. On 11/17, we will provide hotel in Flagstaff and coach-class travel on Amtrak’s SOUTHWEST CHIEF on 11/18 from Flagstaff (dp. 5:06 am) to Albuquerque (ar. 12:12 pm).
A $300 USD per person nonrefundable deposit by credit card required to hold space. 2% discount on total price if you prepay in entirety or provide us with monthly postdated checks, sent at time of sign-up. Payments outside of deposit are refundable until 60 days prior to departure. Reservations are transferable. Private rail car itinerary is limited to 53 patrons. Itinerary above is subject to change. Liability release signature required. Payment schedules happily accommodated.

The Fine Print: The payment of a deposit or any part or full payment for a reservation shall constitute consent to all the provisions contained herein. Flying Under Radar, LLC shall not be held responsible for property loss or damage and/or any damages resulting from illness, personal injuries or death which may be sustained by reason of, or while engaged on, any trip or tour whether due to the ownership, maintenance, use, operation or control of any vehicle, hotel, common carrier or any other conveyance used in carrying out these tours. We can assume no liability due to any cause whatsoever whether caused by failure or delay or other irregularity, acts or omissions occurring during a tour under which the means of transportation or other service thereby is offered or supplied by owners, operators or public carriers for whom Flying Under Radar, LLC acts only as agent. Flying Under Radar, LLC reserves the right (at its discretion) to alter or omit any part of the itinerary, or change any reservation, feature and/or means of conveyance without notice or for any reason whatsoever and without allowance or refund and with extra costs, if any, resulting therefrom paid by the passengers. Lineup subject to change. We reserve the right to cancel any tour prior to departure, in which case payment will be refunded without further obligation on our part. Flying Under Radar, LLC shall not be responsible for any injury to person (whether or not resulting in death) or damage to property. Flying Under Radar, LLC strongly urges individual passengers to obtain appropriate insurance coverage. Baggage is at the owner's risk entirely. The transportation companies concerned are not to be held responsible for any act, omission or event during the time passengers are not aboard their carriers or conveyances. The passenger contract in use by the carriers concerned (when issued) shall constitute the sole contract between the transportation companies and the purchaser of these tours and/or passage. By accepting the ticket the passenger also agrees to its terms and conditions. By forwarding of deposit, the passenger certifies that he/she does not have any mental, physical or other condition or disability that would create a hazard for him/herself or other passengers. Flying Under Radar, LLC reserves the right to cancel or withdraw any person as a member of the tour at any time.