Louisville, Kentucky singer-songwriter/cellist Ben Sollee just kicked off his Ditch the Van Tour. What makes the tour so special and noteworthy is that Ben, along with friends/bandmates, is touring via bicycle instead of a van. Although the tour is all about traveling on two wheels, riding with no support vehicles, Ben admits that there are times when other modes of transportation are necessary to make the tour possible. "With the train we can keep a show that next day," he says. "If we didn’t do this we’d be treading water, and, like I said, we can’t afford to do that any more than any other business."
Ben explains that the tour is more than just a way to be environmentally friendly.
This tour is not about going “green,” even though it will have a smaller over all carbon footprint than a more traditional tour by van. Instead, its about re-humanizing the pace of the road. The bicycles provide the limitation on a local level. However, we have to be real. I have a family and we all have bills to pay so we can’t afford for this tour to be a musical vacation by bicycle. And, it’s important to us to demonstrate that biking to our business can be financially sustainable. We want biking to be a compelling choice to other businesses and artists. So, through some trial and error we’ve discovered a few things.The entire trip is being filmed. After the jump, watch the inaugural video and see if Ben and co. will be hitting your town on the tour.
