March 21, 2008 - Spring is a great thing - felt heat in the sun yesterday and attacked my driveway with the pick and shovel... Remodel nearing its close... back at home after a GLORIUS week of music. The combination of the SLOFolks concerts (thank you, thank you, thank you Elisabeth) and being joined by my good friend and mouth harp player Rolfe Buzzell and his partner Sharon Holland made it memorable in Morro Bay (thanks to Coalesce Books) and the Green Acres Lavender Farm - where we were also joined by the fine stylings of Claudia Russell and her fabulous band - Bruce Kaplan on mandolin and guitar, Mark Petrella on base. I slipped down to LA and, in the house built by his grandfather, saw Severin Browne and a number of my LA friends (hey Dana!), Severin's wife Melinda had a house concert/revue - great acts like Dan McFeely, Severin and so many others.... playing standards and original music. Quite cool. At the end of the night I played a few songs in the chapel with Dave Morrison, and Jaynee Thorne - that was cool. Also saw the dungeon... another story, that.... Drove up to Santa Barbara that night where I stayed at my good friend Anne Bussone's apt. - she was generous to put up with, er... put up Rolfe, Sharon and I in Santa Margarita at her house when we played up near San Luis earlier in the weekend. Came down to Kulak's on Laurel Canyon Blvd. for a great open mic night ( I was #34 - essentially last, but it went well... Saw fellow Alaskan Marian Callthere - she did a great a cappella song (her accompanist had already returned to AK, she was heading out at 3 am). From there it was off to Garret Swayne's MSSS and a really good night of music on the bill (again) with Jeff Gold. Rolfe and Sharon joined me again and a number of friends showed up - Russ and Julie Paris, Bruce Grossman, Tim O'Gara (love that CD), Michael Doman (can't wait for that cd!), Gene Lippmann and so many more. Always a great time. I usually get to stay and listen as the night goes on, but an airplane to New Jersey was calling so it was off for an 11 pm flight all night. Returned from Jersey on Friday (after sleeping in Seattle airport) and headed up to Whole Wheat Radio in my old stomping grounds of Talkeetna on Saturday..... What a night that was.... Lots of folks online, and the local crowd made it happen. The music flowed and at the end I even read a few... Jim Kloss and Esther Golton were the best of hosts (okay and Beta too) and the next day we did a long talk on politics, philosophy and music - a great radio conversation while eating breakfast - loved it. EVERYONE needs to listen to Whole Wheat.
As I drove back to Anchorage that morning, I couldn't help but think about how cool people are on the road, how important playing for a few or even a lot of folks is - in New Jersey I wrote a song for their Juvenile Justice Commission - and I thought about how much I love being able to do this. Not possible with out all of you....