Flagship story 02 · December 1–6, 2011
The founding guitarist remembers Taylor Burns getting the call in a Nashville parking lot. Five weeks later, the band was opening for Paul Simon and traveling in a Ford E-350 with a small Route 66 trailer.
Evidence and scope · case study
Both the founding guitarist memoir versions date the call to October 27, 2011, when Taylor Burns learned that the band would open the final leg of Paul Simon's tour. Five weeks later, the band was still traveling in a Ford E-350 with a small Route 66 trailer - the chapter's clearest measure of scale.
7 sources · case study
Durham · December 1
The empty room
After soundcheck at the Durham Performing Arts Center, the founding guitarist turned the camera toward himself. Behind him, the theater is lit and empty.
He remembers arriving at the 3,000-seat theater in the band's gray van, being directed toward the tour buses, and watching Paul Simon and his musicians work through soundcheck with patience and restraint.
- Supported by
- Confirmed date and venue
- Still open
- Set list and production record missing
Evidence notes
After soundcheck at the Durham Performing Arts Center, the founding guitarist turned the camera toward himself. Behind him, the theater is lit and empty. The audience has not arrived; the night is still possibility rather than memory.
Across both memoir versions, the founding guitarist remembers arriving at the 3,000-seat theater in the band's gray van, being directed toward the tour buses, and watching Paul Simon and his musicians work through soundcheck with unusual patience and restraint.
The date and venue are supported by the project's firsthand record, Paul Simon's official event page, and DPAC's event history. The memoir adds an attributed participant account; the opening set list and production documents have not yet entered the archive.
5 sources · section evidence
Duluth · December 2
The scale of the next world
The Wild Feathers' Ford E-350 and Route 66 trailer fill the foreground. A tour bus sits directly behind them.
The founding guitarist remembers those buses making a larger professional life suddenly seem possible.
- Supported by
- Photograph, firsthand caption, official tour schedule
- Still open
- Opening set and venue records missing
Evidence notes
The van photograph does not need mythology. The Wild Feathers' Ford E-350 and Route 66 trailer fill the foreground. A tour bus sits directly behind them. The difference in size is the story the frame can prove.
The project's firsthand context goes further: the buses made a larger professional life suddenly visible. That interpretation belongs to memory and is preserved as such, not converted into neutral fact.
3 sources · section evidence
Duluth · December 3 · 2:00 a.m.
After the show
Hours after the Duluth performance, six people gathered around a green sofa and a hotel Christmas tree: Ricky Young, Haylee Morphew Young, Taylor Burns, Cody Huggins, Jonny Perdue, and the founding guitarist.
The hotel and photographer remain unidentified.
- Supported by
- Firsthand identification
- Still open
- Hotel and photographer unknown
Evidence notes
Hours after the Duluth performance, six people gathered around a green sofa and a hotel Christmas tree: Ricky Young, Haylee Morphew Young, Taylor Burns, Cody Huggins, Jonny Perdue, and the founding guitarist.
The caption supplies the people, city, and time. The hotel and photographer remain unidentified. The frame is valuable precisely because it is not a stage photograph: it records the social life around the work.
1 source · section evidence
On the road · exact date unknown
Where a body would fit
Legs, shoes, upholstery, and just enough space to sleep inside the van. The photograph comes from the December 1–6 run; the exact night and city remain unknown.
- Supported by
- Date range confirmed by firsthand context
- Still open
- Exact date, place, people, and photographer unknown
Evidence notes
One photograph reduces touring to legs, shoes, upholstery, and the small negotiations required to sleep inside a van. The starter record places it somewhere within the December 1–6 run, but gives no exact date or city.
That missing information remains visible. The image can document physical closeness and improvised rest without being assigned to the wrong night.
2 sources · section evidence
Hollywood · December 6
The closing night
After the Hollywood show, the founding guitarist stands between his father and Paul Simon. It was the closing night of Simon's tour and the fifth night of The Wild Feathers' opening run.
In his memoir, the founding guitarist places the photograph after a backstage conversation in which Simon urged the band to study the Everly Brothers. His father had flown in for the final show.
- Supported by
- Date, venue, and closing-night status confirmed
- Still open
- Photographer credit and final privacy review remain open
Evidence notes
The final image is modest in size and direct in purpose: the founding guitarist stands between his father and Paul Simon after the Hollywood show. Paul Simon's official archive describes the concert as the closing night of his tour; the starter archive identifies it as the fifth and final night of The Wild Feathers' opening run.
The memoir places the photograph after a backstage conversation in which Simon urged the band to study the Everly Brothers. The founding guitarist’s father had flown in for the final show, joining the songwriter whose records he played at home and the son who had learned from them.
The photographer remains unknown. Supplied-image publication permission is documented, while the final credit and privacy review remain under active review.
4 sources · section evidence
Research still open
The story stops where the evidence stops.
- Locate opening set lists, itineraries, settlement sheets, call sheets, and correspondence for all five nights.
- Add participant accounts beyond the founding guitarist’s memoir, including the band, crew, and people identified in the Duluth photograph.
- Identify photographers and complete final credit and privacy review for every image.
- Identify the hotel in the December 3 group photograph and the people visible in the van-sleeping image.
- Locate earlier-generation files where only small or metadata-stripped JPEGs survive.