Reservation Blues

Coyote Springs plays their first show at the Tipi Pole Tavern on the Flathead Indian reservation. Victor and Junior get drunk and do not play very well. In the audience are two Flathead sisters named Chess and Checkers Warm Water. Thomas sings his song “Indian Boy Love Song” for Chess and invites her onstage to sing a duet.

After the show, Victor and Junior are passed out in the van, and the sisters invite Thomas to spend the night at their house instead of driving back. Chess tells Thomas about their childhood of extreme poverty on the reservation. Their father played the piano, and music was an important part of their childhood. After their baby brother died, their father began to drink and their mother left. As he listens to Chess talk, Thomas feels he has found someone else who tells stories the way that he does. 

The next day, Thomas asks the girls to join the band. At first they are reluctant, given the way the show went the night before, but when they hear Victor play the guitar sober, they agree to join. Thomas buys a keyboard for them to play.