Scene Maker Q&A: Meet Angel, the bus that takes SimpleGifts to its Minnesota holiday concerts

Veteran Twin Cities guitarist Billy McLaughlin feels his bus, Angel, is so essential that he considers her another member of his band.

Angel will accompany McLaughlin’s group, SimpleGifts, on its 11-show Christmastide Holiday Tour this season, from St. Michael (on Saturday) to Marine on St. Croix (Dec. 21-23). The group of 13 plays mostly acoustic hymns and carols but no Santa Claus or Frosty the Snowman ditties.

“This is traditional music from the church world predominantly,” McLaughlin said. “These melodies and chord progressions are treated with modern sensibilities. I play a lot of weird guitar chords and the gals have just found this three-part harmony thing.”

SimpleGifts has been doing a holiday show for more than 20 years and has put out six CDs. Angel has been along for the entire ride.

Sitting on the bus in a Bloomington repair shop, McLaughlin explained all about the 1969 GMC vehicle — customized with eight bunks and a shower-equipped bathroom — that he’s owned since 1996. Here are excerpts.

Q: What’s new for this holiday tour?

A: Each year is a different animal. If anything, I’ve shortened the show a bit. Last year, we code-named one of the shows “Simplepalooza” and told people that like a Grateful Dead show, it might go four hours. So the set list is different every year. We’re steady with our personnel from the year before except [bassist] Enrique Toussaint is out for about half the dates because he’s off on a tour with Paul Anka to China.

Q: What’s been your biggest holiday tour?

A: Our highest was 22 shows in 26 days one year. Most of the people who started with this group didn’t have kids. Now we have moms with kids who want to be home for the holidays.

Q: What is Angel’s role in your tour?

A: To combat what happens when people drive separately and don’t share time together. Angel’s role is utilitarian for bringing equipment. That would require several minivans; this way we can load everything on the bus. People spend time together. It’s a living room. Yes, people are very busy and they show up one by one in their cars and you lose that sense of why do we do this together. It’s kind of a family.

Q: How did you find Angel?

A: For my very first guitar lesson, I rode the city bus from Dupont and 50th [in south Minneapolis] to B.A. Rose Music in Edina. The bus pulled up and the doors opened and it was the drummer from my brother’s rock band who was the youngest driver on MTC. Danny Bury. Danny and I stayed in contact. When I’d seen enough accidents on the highway and realized I don’t want to die in a van with a trailer, Danny helped me find this bus. And he nicknamed her Angel. She has been so trustworthy.

Q: Who drives the bus?

A: Danny drove for me for 25 years. The guy who picks me up to take me to my first guitar lesson ends up being my driver. Angel has been all over the country, every state but Maine, Vermont and Connecticut but not Alaska and Hawaii, of course.

Q: Danny isn’t driving for you anymore. Did you have to get a special bus driver’s license to drive it?

A: The difficult part was not being afraid to drive it. It took Danny two years to convince me I could do it. If you own the bus and it has a sink and a bathroom and a plate that says RV, you don’t have to have a special license. I’m responsible as the owner and driver. The insurance is not RV insurance because I’m a business. I’ve always carried commercial insurance.

Q: What’s the longest trip you’ve taken with Angel?

A: I’d be out in 50 cities in 70 days.

Q: Do you rent it to other groups?

A: Greazy Meal would take it to go down to Chicago [in the late ‘90s]. I recently drove the Scarlet Goodbye, Danny Murphy’s new group with Jeff Arundel, to Mankato.

Q: Does this make sense, business-wise?

A: Yes, it’s more expensive. Think: The efficiency per tonnage. This is the smartest way to get around.

Q: What kind of mileage do you get?

A: Six-and-a-half miles a gallon. But if 13 people drive by themselves and the lighting guy is driving a truck, this is way more efficient. It doesn’t sound like it, but do the math.

When I bought this bus, diesel was cheaper than regular gas. There was an efficiency factor. I’m 165 gallons [tank]. I can go almost 1,000 miles on one tank. It’s about $600 to fill it up.

Q: How about an oil change?

A: Eight-and-a-half gallons. I’m a maintenance/safety guy. So we do that [oil change] as part of annual inspection. That’s about $1,000 a year to do that and the tune-ups.

Q: Where do you park it?

A: I live on White Bear Avenue, which has no restriction. The couple I bought my home from [in White Bear Lake] had a 36-foot RV parked all the time. Angel is parked in my driveway.

Q: How many miles does it have on?

A: I bought it with 3.5 million miles on it. We put, in 28 years, over 500,000 more.

Q: Rust?

A: Parts of the bus underneath need to be taken care of. The engine back there was designed for the World War II Tiger tank of the U.S. military. Parts of the bus have had rust abatement or replacements. Over time, everything has been replaced. These front windows are $600 a pop. We decided to not put too much money into the exterior because when you’re parked in downtown Cleveland or downtown Detroit or downtown Chicago and when you’re a little bit on the beat-up side, no one is looking in your windows.

Q: How do you deal with mechanical problems on the road?

A: It was tougher before cellphones. There is a yellow pages of bus repair places all over the country. Or I call JD [Dickenson, co-owner of C&J Bus Repair in Bloomington]; he knows everybody in the business. The social network of repair places. The best places for bus facilities are Vegas and Nashville. There’s no computers on this bus.

Q: Was this an investment or a simple gift to yourself, pun intended?

A: It’s the smartest thing I ever bought related to my music career from the standpoint of relationships with the people you’re making music with onstage. To make sure people get home safe at the end of the day. It’s part of the band. It would be tough for me to say this bus is not a band member in a way.