Daytrotter | Free Songs: The Long Winters

Daytrotter | The Long Winters: Putting Days To Bed, But Not Before An Interrogation Or Two

Can you explain to me the band’s interest in the history of southern Illinois (was it Mormons or Jesuits?)?

John Roderick: On our spring tour we all passed around Under the Banner of Heaven, the history of early Mormons and fringe Mormonism by Jon Krakauer. It was a topic of discussion in the van, so when I saw that Nauvoo, Ill., was on our way to the Daytrotter session, we just had to make a stop. We visited the jail house in nearby Carthage where Joseph Smith was killed, and then stopped by the surviving Community of Christ settlement in Nauvoo proper. It made us a little late for our Daytrotter session, but sometimes you’ve got to make detours to see cool things. A week later we were in Salt Lake City and we were all thinking about it. We went and had lunch in Brigham Young’s old house in SLC, which I don’t think anyone would have agreed to do if we hadn’t been to Nauvoo the week before.

Do you make a point of making many educational detours on tour? What have been the cream?

JR: Yeah, it’s important to do. The Interstate highways can turn into a featureless blur, and so can the clubs and hotels, but the detours always stand out.