Start with the sidemen. As the summer began, Vinnie Ciesielski was looking forward to a tour with Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, with whom the Nashville-based trumpeter was a regular from 1994 through 2001. "It's always been first-class," Ciesielski said. "Lyle stays at great hotels. The venues are always good. The band he's got is phenomenal."

But this year, the Large Band got a little smaller. "I panicked," he admitted. "The road manager and Lyle's manager called and said they couldn't afford it. Taking a horn section would mean taking another bus and they couldn't swing it."

Even if they have to lighten their loads, artists have no choice but to go out to meet and entertain the folks who buy their CDs and T-shirts. That means those who make traveling arrangements are busy figuring out what impact the fuel crisis will have during the indoor season as well as when the monster tours head out again next summer.

"When you've got bands out there that have 17 vehicles, trucks and buses, well, those big acts are paying $15,000 to $20,000 a day in fuel," said Joey Lee, President, 360 Artist Agency, whose clients include Miranda Lambert, Neal McCoy, Ashton Shepherd, Clay Walker and Lee Ann Womack. "Of course, it doesn't hit those bigger acts as hard. Sure, it's costing them more, but they are making half a million dollars a day. It's not stopping them from being able to do business. It's the acts that are out there making $5,000 to $10,000 a day, either the baby acts or the older acts that are trying to keep going, that are being hit hardest.

"By the time the manager takes 15 percent, the agent takes 10 percent, the business manager takes 5 percent, and then you've got the cost of the bus, the driver, the hotel rooms and the band, you can see where five grand doesn't get you very far," Lee summed up.

The number of summer festivals, with their greater attendance and merchandise sales, buffered the fuel crisis somewhat during the summer. Fans save for the stadium events and plan their family budgets around the cash outlays required to travel to and attend shows by Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

As the indoor club and theater season ensues, it will become harder to deal with fuel prices. "It's the loss of disposable income that hurts the club acts," said Nashville-based talent agent Blake McDaniel, who arranges club and theater bookings along the East Coast through Creative Artists Agency for a client list that includes Keith Anderson, Jason Michael Carroll, Emerson Drive, The Lost Trailers, Trent Tomlinson and Phil Stacey. "People start eliminating them from their schedule because now their disposable income is going to gas rather than for a $20 ticket."

McDaniel said this makes it necessary for lower- to mid-level acts to do all they can to keep ticket prices low enough that fans won't feel too strapped to make their shows. "We have to make sure they don't go above the $20 level in the clubs unless the artist can really justify it," he advised. "It's easier to sell out at $10 or $15 a ticket than it is to have $20 tickets and a house half full."

Being on top of expenses will make it easier for these acts to keep a lid on the cost of admission. This applies to headliners as well as opening acts, who may benefit from cutting back on semi trucks, streamlining their stage sets, cutting back on crowd-dazzling special effects and pulling more of their reduced load of gear in 16- foot-to-18- foot trailers behind their buses, while adhering to U.S. Department of Transportation weight limits of 5,000 pounds per trailer.

Sam Mitchell, Safety Director for Diamond Coach, offered a number of additional recommendations, including regular alignment checks and the use of synthetic fluids that "let things work more friction-free. If you keep things cleaner and straighter, you'll keep things moving on down the road and gain a mile or two a gallon over competitors. We are also working closely with Michelin to just as scientifically as possible keep tires inflated to the right pressure to stretch mileage."

These precautions, Mitchell said, enable his company's buses to roll at a - relatively - impressive 7 or 8 miles per gallon.

CAA's McDaniel added that tour sponsors may be asked increasingly to pick up transportation costs. It may be as simple, he suggested, as "somebody paying to wrap a bus [in advertising] or kicking in to pay the gas costs." Another strategy for coping with costs, he suggested, involved more package touring, with several acts on a bill sharing the same backup band. "That way, you have the expenses for one band instead of three, including scaling down the tour to one bus, and the ticket buyer gets three acts for a reasonable price."

Booking agents can also help cut travel costs by keeping mileage in mind as they confirm concert dates. It can be difficult for major acts to do this, since they deal with variables such as not playing in the same town on the same night as a similar superstar. But artists on club tours may have more flexibility in working mileage into their schedules.

"They need to book tours smarter," insisted Gaylon Moore, Owner/President, Music City Coach. "That's been a problem for years. If you book shows in a line, so that you don't have to crisscross and backtrack, you won't have to use up so much unnecessary mileage."

There's another advantage to cutting the drive down from one show to the next. The pay scale for drivers often doubles once you exceed a daily limit stipulated in the rental agreement - for USA Bus Charter, for example, it's 450 miles per day. That, along with DOT regulations that limit drivers to 10-hour shifts followed by at least eight hours of rest, might make it worthwhile to allow for the occasional off-night or performance in a smaller venue.

Optional expenses can be declined too. Some of these are minor though arguably essential to touring artists. Typically Wi-Fi Internet access and satellite TV service cost only $10 to $20 per day, and both can be critically important when you need to stay informed about an incoming storm or traffic problems.

On the other hand, a lot of the budget can be consumed by diesel-powered generators, which are sometimes required for perks such as precise temperature control in different parts of the bus. "I've had bands that run that generator 24 hours a day for weeks while they go on tour," said Chip Huffman, President, Nitetrain Coach Company and a former driver. "But at 50 cents to a dollar more per gallon than regular gasoline . well, you do the math. That's why it's good to look for buses that are set up with inverters, piggyback alternators and other technology that will allow you to run everything from the bus engine."

As for the musicians who get cut from a big road show, they can take a tip from trumpeter Ciesielski, who unpacked his bags on getting the news from Lovett's people and started lining up studio sessions in Nashville. "It actually worked out great," he said. "I'm lucky in that I can make a pretty good living at home . and I got to grow tomatoes in my garden for the first time in years."

© 2008 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

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