This past tour was unconventional from its inception. When City Winery Philadelphia’s program director, Sean, reached out about CW shows, I wasn’t sure how I could create a “dinner theatre” appropriate set.

About then I received a text message from a friend, Billy, expressing his desire for a slight change in direction to his life’s path: tour management. His gig at Sellersville Theatre gave him experience in event coordination, and he was no stranger to touring having a band of his own. So, when he reached out about tour management - I decided to give him and the City Winery shows a shot.

“Billy’s excited,” Drew, our videographer, noted after our New York debut of the show. It was refreshing, since the realities of tour life are much less glamorous than what is displayed to the audience. “Yeah,” I replied, “it’ll be sad to watch it leave.”

But through long drives in the rain to New England and a hearty trek down south to Atlanta and Nashville — Billy’s excitement continued, asking me questions about certain songs of mine, albums and eras, inspirations and my favorites. His curiosity was a solid indicator for what other fans might be curious about - and set the tone for subtle changes to the set, leading to more focus on the story of how I’d arrived at this place in my own musical adventure.

From my sister introducing me to her high school friend intent on making it in the music business…to a fortuitous phone call the night I’d decided to back away from music and take my teaching degree seriously…to the flight to Atlanta to meet Scooter Braun, which lead to a record deal with Steve Rifkind rooted in nothing more than a rendition of “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” at his SRC employee holiday dinner…the unlikely success of ‘I Love College’ and the equally unlikely discovery of producer Oren Yoel and the challenge we faced in building an album around a polarizing anthem in an effort to reintroduce “Asher Roth.” My story is one with many notable characters and plenty of unexpected results.

It turned out Billy’s curiosity about all of this was in tune with many others in need of something closer to their personal truth. Many of the stories fans told me after each show - about how my work had played a role in their friendships, marriage, birth of a child, personal growth, or provided courage to take a risk - were incredibly validating. I learned that my story about wanting a fresh start - spinning ‘Asher Roth’ into ‘RetroHash’ - is just as relatable as loving college.

When it came to the musical part of the performance, it was a joy to learn my audience was excited by newer offerings. Performing ‘Baby Daddy’ from the elusive side project ‘Tofer Dolan’ garnered a good amount of post show commentary. And ‘Tangerine Girl’ could have just as easily been the starting point of my reintroduction as The Greenhouse Effect Vol. 1’s “Roth Boys”. These were welcomed discoveries as those songs represent my experience in taking risks as well as big steps in working through a period of lost confidence.

I felt rewarded for my own ambitious step into the unknown — saying yes to a story driven show full of newer, lesser known music rather than landing on the obvious; and taking a chance on an inexperienced tour manager in search of something new and exciting.

I can assume Billy and many others felt rewarded as well, learning that our coming of age stories are much more aligned than not. I’m thankful to those who came out to support these intimate dinner performances as well as those who shared their own story with me. I was unable to answer the question “So, what’s next?” when asked in Chicago, but I believe my next story will be even better than the last.

‘til we meet again,

<3

apr