The Dollyrots - Last Exit Before Tolls (by Jay Hale)

When you play in a touring band that is on the road eight months out of the year, the notion of “home life” takes on an entirely different meaning. Just because you rent an apartment doesn’t mean you consider it your home. With this life you choose, your mailing address becomes a post office box across town and your bed transforms into a bench seat in a van or, better yet, a stranger’s floor. When you’re not loading in your gear for the next show or visiting a new city every night, you find yourself going stir crazy; marking off the days on your calendar until the wheels start spinning again and those lines on the highway fade into a soothing blur. At least that’s the case for Kelly Ogden, lead vocalist/bassist for The Dollyrots.

“I feel all weird when I’m here in Los Angeles, actually,” she says. “I never thought I’d be the kind of person that would be OK with living out of a van and waking up somewhere weird on the floor every day but I’ve grown to like it.” And so have her bandmates, guitarist Luis Cabezas and drummer Amy Wood. When the three of them pack the trailer and head off into the horizon, there’s a huge sigh of relief and an overall giddiness for what lies ahead. Will everything go off without a hitch? Of course not, but there in lies the adventure.

Regardless of the season or the weather, when you hit the road for weeks on end, you need to keep your wits about you or tempers start to flare, punches get thrown and band members make a B-line for the Greyhound station in a huff. The Boy Scouts always say “Be Prepared” and while that motto works well when a scout master is making a pass at you, the same goes for an independent rock band on tour. Those who don’t plan ahead and can’t improvise on the fly won’t survive. Winging it just happens to be The Dollyrots’ forte.

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