Modern day troubadours

Like medieval troubadours, a Los Angeles country band returned to a Washington County bed-and-breakfast for a concert Friday evening. It was the 10th day of a cross-country trip that will end Aug. 23 back in southern California.

Their travels will take them through Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas.

What makes them different? Most nights they are staying for free in exchange for playing a concert.

On Friday, the Pasadena Poets played at the So Dear To My Heart bed-and-breakfast located between Ainsworth and Crawfordsville. It was a return trip for the band, which played there last year.

Band member Jake Kelly started off the show telling the 30-plus people gathered on the lawn Friday evening they were in for a “kick-ass country show.”

The crowd was larger than just those gathered at the bed-and-breakfast. The performance was livestreamed on the band’s Facebook page.

It started last summer, according to Kelly Kidd, one of the two band members.

The band — then called the Pasadena Playboys — found all of their shows in 2020 were canceled due to COVID-19.

“They took all of our stages away,” Kidd said.

Out of work, Kidd and band mate Jake Kelly came up with the idea to travel across the country playing concert in exchange for a night’s lodging.

The idea was “to help each other out.” Small inns had all of their reservations canceled like the band had all of its shows canceled.

“It was different, out-of-the-box thinking,” Kidd said. “We were reaching a community that won’t go to a show” due to fear of COVID-19.

When Kidd called So Dear To My Heart owner Brenda Edgar with the offer, she thought it might be a scam. It wasn’t.

Kidd and Kelly showed up with their friend Caitlin Eadie, who was billed as a special guest. Edgar, not sure if the band would show up, didn’t tell many people about it last year.

Kidd and Kelly found a kindred spirit in Edgar.

“Brenda has the right kind of spirit,” Kidd said, adding hosting traveling musicians is not for everybody who owns a small inn.

This year, Eadie returned as a special guest. She was joined by Iowa City resident Spike Belcher who had played in bands with Kidd in Los Angeles and drove down to the bed-and-breakfast to reunite and sit in on a few songs.

Belcher brought his own cheering section — his parents and a couple of close friends — who were right up next to the stage, an old wooden farm wagon.

Last year’s tour was haphazard. The band learned as it traveled across the country. The concerts were all outdoors — as they still are this year — and the audience can spread out on the lawns of the inns where they play.

This year is different. The number of dates doubled, and there are some county fair appearances that are paid gigs for the band, a definite financial boost.

And there is merchandise this year — T-shirts, hats and fanny packs. To go along with the concert name — The American Motel Tour 2021 — the band is selling Dirt motel toiletries, shampoo, conditioner and body lotion. “Dirt” is the name of one of the band’s songs.

The tour itinerary is printed on a door hanger, the concert dates on one side and on the other it says: “Do not disturb, I partied all night with The Pasadena Poets.”

At the bed-and-breakfast, the band took two of the five rooms, Edgar said. The rest of were filled by guests who came for the show.

“I fix them a full breakfast in the morning,” she said.

This bed-and-breakfast is a dream come true for Edgar. She bought the home on Old White Way in 2007, but she had visited there even before she was born. Her mother went to the house, then owned by family friends, for a baby shower.

“From the time I remember, I wanted to live here,” Edgar said.

The concert — both last year and this — was something Edgar wanted to do for the community.

“It does my heart good,” she said.

Those who want to see the concert can go to the livestream on the band’s Facebook page: facebook.com/thepasadenapoets.