The Ditty Bops tour America by bike
If you spent any time on the highways of America this summer and you were extremely lucky, you might’ve bumped into Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald, the LA-based duo known as the Ditty Bops, biking along, followed by a gaggle of fans and a biodiesel van packed full of instruments, gear and art supplies.
“I couldn’t stomach the idea of getting in the van again for 10 hours a day,” said Abby over e-mail. Most musicians would’ve gritted their teeth and gotten into their cramped touring van, or stayed at home and let their careers go fallow. But the Ditty Bops, eager to promote their sophomore album Moon Over the Freeway, are both avid cyclists. So they got out their bikes, packed their panniers, and hit the road.
“We wanted to find a way to incorporate touring into our lives instead of have it be in opposition to the way we like to live. We love to ride bikes and so we thought, let’s tour that way,” Amanda explained.
If you’ve never listened to the Ditty Bops imagine a chirpy mixture of 1920s and 30s jazz standards, folk music and torch songs. A Ditty Bops album can cite influences as diverse as Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell to Django Reinhardt and the Andrews Sisters. But it’s on stage that the Ditty Bops shine.
For Amanda, performing is in her blood; her parents were in a travelling circus. Her mother taught her how to play dulcimer when she was five and her fire-breathing, stilt-walking dad still works as an entertainer and has been known to take part in Ditty Bops shows. Abby is responsible for many of the illustrations and art work that decorate the band’s albums, liner notes, show posters and live shows.
The Bops originally formed because, “we wanted to have a fun music project that encompassed skits and costumes and whatever we could throw into the mix,” Amanda explained. This “fun music project” comes to life when you see the duo play live. Amanda can be found on mandolin and washboard while her musical and romantic partner Abby plucks away at the guitar – but it doesn’t end there.
A Ditty Bops show is often spruced up by themes like Hawaiian, or Under the Sea. The visual palette of their Kansas City show was a tip of the hat to the Wizard of Oz. Throw in puppets, marching bands, and hand-drawn sets and backdrops and you’re never quite sure what you’ll get out of a Ditty Bops show. It was the strength of their vaudeville-like live show and their seamless blending of historically disparate musical genres that netted them a deal with Warner Records in 2004. Their self-titled debut followed soon after. And two years later the Ditty Bops don’t just have another album but a hugely successful tour by bike under their belts.
“Riding bikes has been a great way to see this beautiful country. We’re taking the time to see it instead of passing it all by in our van. Every city we’ve gone through has been so much cooler when we’ve explored them by bike,” Amanda adds.
Fortunately, over the last few months the two Angelenos kept a meticulous tour blog, detailing the neurotic bed and breakfast owners encountered, friends made, sunburns acquired and animals encountered on their trip.
An average day on the tour (and there really was no such thing as an average day from what we could garner) could’ve featured pigging out on chocolate peanut butter soycream smoothies in Utah, watching US Air Force jets drop bombs in Texas, finding the geographic centre of the United States in Kansas, and coping with their share of flats, sunburns, heat exhaustion, angry farm dogs, and more. All of this was lovingly captured in writing, photos, videos and in the “Rumble Strip” a series of hand-drawn comics that captured some of the duo’s best moments on the road.
And while both were cycling veterans – Abby DeWald, 27 has been cycling since her university days at UC Davis while Amanda Barrett, 28 started when she moved back from New York City six years ago – the cross-country trek marked the first time that either woman had toured long distances.
Now with the tour officially over, the Ditty Bops have the equally hard task of adjusting back to “normal life.” For Amanda the tour has given her a new-found appreciation for biking in their hometown of Los Angeles. “Since we started training for this bike tour, I’ve seen how much smaller that big city is. You can ride to ‘far away’ places in almost the same time it would take you to drive, because traffic is so bad,” she explained.
In the last installment of the “Rumble Strip” Abby even jokes about seeing a hypnotherapist so she can stop pedalling in her sleep. And while another tour by bicycle probably isn’t in the works quite yet, the Ditty Bops haven’t quite got cycling out of their brains. They’re putting the finishing touches on their 2007 Bicycle Bikini Calendar, a sequel to the saucy, retro-inspired calendar they put out last year. Some of this summer’s adventures will undoubtedly be an inspiration.
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