November 10, 2009 - It has been a week in Seattle - being told by the folks in Cache Creek that the car will be delayed, delayed, delayed. It's a bit frustrating - wanting to head out. Also found out that I bruised the bones in both feet during the accident so have to take it a bit easier to give them time to heal... Still, hanging out with Brother Paul is good, and I've gotten a bit of writing done (as well as many games of Jewel Quest!). I did get the word that the car may be done by Monday - and that means I will likely be playing at Dunn Brothers in Stillwater, MN on the 20th - (won't make it to Chicago I think for Keith's reading - too hard a haul). No pithy post-election observations to offer, no witty review of world events. Just a touch of impatience to head out and play some more music... (a Happy Birthday to my Brother Nick today!)
Fron Austin to Cheyenne, Wyoming
November 2, 2009 - After a day at a Juvenile Justice conference and visiting a number of friends there, I raced from Austin (within the speed limit for those wondering) to get to Seattle to meet a friend for my birthday on Friday (B day was Halloween) and ended up getting caught in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the worst blizzard in 13 years. The roads closed, I found myself in the Laredo Hotel (at least I think that was the name). If I can I'll post a photo from the outside of the room. Snow drifts blocked the hotel room door and, when I opened it, the snow stayed in a berm about a foot high which I stepped over to get my luggage into the room. After killing a cockroach, I settled on to the bed and began to search for alternate routes out of Cheyenne. But the roads I 80 and I 25 - were both closed. A friend suggested I look at some of the smaller routes, so the next morning I tried heading out US 85. No one on the road, huge blowing drifts and white out conditions made for a great chapter in the adventure book! Using back roads I got to 85 (the freeway access was closed) and managed to get around the north end of the storm before roads were closed that far up (Douglas, WY) and had clear blue skies through Montana and clear sailing to Seattle. On time for a Fridayarrival, I headed to downtown and three days to relax for my birthday. Saturday was a day spa and massage where I managed to burn my arm in the sauna and throw my back out on the massage table, but always looking for that silver lining, I noted that the burn was in the shape of a heart - boding well for the coming years! OK, not really. It was a burn. I spent Halloween at Kell's drinking Guinness, watching strange costumes fill the place up and having a great conversation! After that, it was wine tasting North of Seattle with my brother Paul driving, then finally settling in to rest and a World Series game that night. Through all of this I ended up discovering that the insurance company has elected to repair my car, so now I need to figure out how to get to Cache Creek when it is done. And, when will that be? Ahh, that remains as the unanswered question.
Artz
October 26, 2009 - So the thirty minutes at Artz was great - Christie and Andy Garbe (who also, along with their dogs Scout and Gromit, are putting me up) brought out their friends and family, Buddy Gill - an old friend from political days, Swafo (great new CD out), Cynthia and Laurie from the Kerrville Festival all madeit out as well - 14 on top of the usual crowd in all. Afterwards Paul Barkerinvited me to join he and other friends at Donn's Depot where their Monday performer - Chris Gage - asked me to play a few songs. It was a great night, played well, music was well received and I was touched by the generosity of my Texas compatriots. No news on the car definitively yet, though it looks as though it may be totaled by State Farm. Waiting to hear... Tired tonight, need to sleep, but looking forward to more adventure...
This is a photo from Austin at Donn's Depot, Shot by Winker
Worthington, MN
October 25, 2009 - Missed writing for a while, but been busy... Played in Worthington, MN on Friday night (thanks again Bruce Boldt and Ivan Harris!) at BenLee's. Allison at the Three Stones (massage Therapist) gave me a quick chair massage before the show (very, very good) to help release a bit of the soreness from that accident and then she and her husband Devin showed up for the show. The music went well, small but enthusiastic crowd - had a great time! That gig had followed a trip across country in a rental car from Seattle to Spearfish, SD (where I visited old friends Kay Jorgensen and her brother Joe), and then to Minnesota. Left from there to Texas on Saturday morning and made it south of Dallas on my way to a brief stop at Conroe county and the Camp C.A.L.M. folks (later today) then Austin tonight. Lot of time to think on the road - writing new music and thinking about some poems. Need to head out now, but hope after all of the running around I can slow down a bit and reflect here. Having a great time though, and the road is before me still.
Upcoming trips
October 18, 2009 - Over a month off of the notes here as I continued to plan my break from Alaska and my music plans for October and my coming year. Trips to Michigan, Kentucky and North Carolina in September followed by a great last Alaska concert at Side Street Espresso culminating in a small gathering and farewells to my friends (Sarah S., Sarah K., June S., Julia H., George Gee and so many others) at my house on the 1st of October - the day I headed out to New York City with my good friend Poet Keith Liles (his first visit to that grand city!). He spent a week and a day in the City while I popped down to DC for a House Concert hosted by my Sister-in-law Deborah Bonito and a meeting of the Reclaiming Futures folk I have worked with in the past. The House concert was great - sound provided by my friend Steve Spellman who bailed me out at the last minute (He owns the Guitar Shopin DC). Had a nice reconnection and dinner with my friend Emily and friends Laura M., Winston (my ever-traveling friend) his brother Peter, Becky J. and so many others. Then it was back to New York and Springsteen shutting down Giants Stadium (thanks to my friend Justin Goldspink and his sister Sophie). Keith and I stopped in Seattle on the flight back to visit my Brother Paul, then were back in Anchorage on the 12th in time for me to finish packing up my car heading out on the big move.
Reporting on the past is easy to a point. All seemed to be going according to plan - with the highway before me, I knew I had more than enough time to catch my gigs in Portland and Brookings, Oregon. So with my car, my few possessions, some contract work and music before me I headed into a change of pace that promised I hoped revelation, understanding and awakening. In a way all of this has happened in the past few days and now there are few clear plans and a little bit of a sense of liberation. A brilliant encounter with a huge black bear in the middle of the night after a stop for a soak at Liard Hot Springs were highlights from the Alcan, but after Ft. St. John it all seemed to be settling into a well-known and perhaps comforting pattern. All that was dashed South of Cache Creek.
Earlier in the day I'd heard from my planned primary contract - the work I do that allows me to both continue to do the public service I enjoy and allows me the opportunity to music as well - The contract was not going to happen. Untethered from income suddenly, I actually saw it as an opportunity to focus more on my music and writing and truly beginning to take the leap I often talked about, but which I always managed to cushion. No cushion here. Still with my car and my music plans in tow I was ready to forge forward. Three hours later the car was gone. Wrecked in an accident south of Cache Creek. Faced with a choice on a curvy stretch of the Fraser River Canyon highway between a cliff, a semi and a retaining wall, after overcompensating on a curve, I chose the wall and snapped my tire rods and crashed the driver side of my car. Alive, but stuck in a fairly desolate area of Canada I kept traffic moving while waiting for the tow truck. With the help of the driver and the RCMP I found my way back to Cache Creek and Robbie's Hotel and a night of sleep as I tried to figure out my next step. The only thing I really knew as I fell a sleep is that for the first time in years I had no plan.
The next day - with no rental company in Cache Creek, I realized I had to get to the next closest town - Kamloops for a car. My Brother Paul went to work from Seattle in trying to find a rental for me while i contacted my insurance agent (kudos to State Farm for providing great service so far!). While talking to Denis from Montreal - the proprietor of Robbie's about my dilemma, he volunteered to give me a ride into Kamloops. A few minutes later and a knock on the door and Denis hands me a modified WWI helmet and with a smile says "Hope on the Harley - its just like a car". I learn that it is like a car - without a windshield. Arriving in Kamloops I find Paul has set me up with a U Haul and I'm back on the road with a farewell to Denis and my stuff loaded into the U haul. Leaving my car behind for insurance agents to determine its fate (to be or not to be totaled.... that is their question).
After an overnight in Seattle at Paul's and a short visit with my friends Jerry and Terry Holder, it was off to Artichoke Music for their songwriters showcase. It was a great evening joined by friends Valerie from Anchorage, Eric McEuen who set up the gig for me and Dan Lowe - who has helped me out in the past. It was a great night - I was last up of five and the audience reacted well - I think I'll be invited back in March to play... I wove in the tale of the demise of my car and it all seemed to go quite well.
Following an overnight in Coburg, I was off to Centre Stage in Brookings - a gig that my friend Howly Slim guided me to and that Kim Banfield and Perry Devine run. Joined by friends Fred and Susan formerly from Anchorage, now living in Trail, OR., it was another great evening. A small audience, but singer/songwriter's that appreciated the music. It was an evening worth remembering - and a place to which I will return in March also.
Now in Salem and needing to sleep before tomorrow's taping of Tom May's River City Folk.... GO to his web site to figure out when the show will air!
Thoughts and comments? e mail me at cwrecord@alaska.net
National Museum of Dance
August 24, 2009 - Garden concert, two gigs at the National Museum of Dance, an amazingly wonderful crowd in Morrisville Vermont, a great birthday show for Tim Mason at the Burren (thanks for joining us on bass Tom Bianchi!) and today a radio show in Provincetown (WOMR) and a great concert at the Cape Cod Cultural Center. Ten dates in ten days. The tour is done. I wasn't always in the best of moods on the trip, but thanks to Tim and Shannon, things improved. A lunch with the charming Morgan tomorrow and then a long trip home... Playing Thursday for twenty minutes in Anchorage at Out North (around 7) and then relaxing for a bit before the final concert (for a while) in Alaska - September 24th at Side Street Espresso (Mark those calendars, get those tickets!) Was able to complete a sonnet, two songs and a lot of therapy on the trip... Tomorrow I'll share the company of my good friends Keith and Sarah and just... build a fence. : - ) I did manage to carve my initials in wet concrete while on this tour - always a good thing to do!
Kate
August 21, 2009 - Getting ready for the Garden Concert - only severe thunderstorms are forcing it inside! A melancholy day - first draft of a sonnet to post:
Kate (revised 8/24)
She stood with the quiet grace of a dancer
Feet slightly turned - halfway between being
And un-being... listening, eyes seeing
a man with yearning words, for, by chance, her...
Eyes closed now - she saw a young girl spinning,
Round and round as his words sang counterpoint
Tutu floating in a a ballet - a joint
collaboration: song, dance. Beginning...
For when she was young her magic danced free
Though time had long stolen that sweet belief
Now awoken, an unburdened motif -
Of movement, sound, and possibility...
But when the sound dies, will she still recall,
That she believed in magic after all?
I am a bit undone today. The radio on the 19th (WBKM - Listen to the show here) was great, though the heat here is draining.
Colchester, VT
August 17, 2009 - Rushed up to Colchester VT this morning to film our 1/2 hour Television show for Rik Palieri's Songwriter's Notebook at LCATV. Rebecca Padola did a great job of producing the piece - now we just have to figure out how to post it! Four hours up, a great lunch with Rik and Tim's partner in crime (and wife) Shannon before dropping her off at a retreat outside of Montpelier and four hours back to Boston. I'm tired but thinking about things - I was struck by a sign in the restaurant we stopped in: "Things happen for a reason - Just Believe". So I was thinking about that on my way into the restroom where I was confronted by another sign: "Employees must always wash their hands". Just proving that there is little to be discerned if you base your life on reading signs. Seven more events to go (we added two just today). No more for tonight - its late...