Archive of 2007

12/22/07. GW Tavern, Washington Depot, CT
This was a great evening, one of those great gigs you don't forget easily, even if you don't write a journal entry about it. I didn't expect there to be beautiful drunk women dancing to my tunes, taking off their shoes and the bartender coming over to tell them they had to put them on... We met some interesting people tonight, I'm looking forward to playing here again in a few weeks.

12/18/07. The Barking Spider Tavern, Cleveland, OH
I went to school for a year and a half not to far from here, it brought back college memories driving around looking for the club. We found it and I had a great time as the opening act. People here were great, I hope to play here all night soon.

12/15/07. Acoustic Cafe,Winona, MN
Driving out from MT has been as easy as it would have been in the summertime. The roads have been dry and perfect, it's been cold, but no snow or ice, quite nice - but we did see a few cars that had gone off the interstate as well as two semis lying on their sides and a snow plow on its side. This is a college town and it's great to be around a lot of young people. They are still alive, full of potential, fresh... I enjoyed this place, there was a political meeting going on before my show, people excited about the possibility of a change.

9/11/07. Whitefish Farmers Market, Whitefish, MT
This was the third year I played here. It's nice to see the market growing year by year. More vendors spreading out into the park and more people. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor show, my parents were out in MT visiting and it was great to see them join the flow of people milling around. Something happened to my saxophone microphone preamp so that it was acting funny, possibly because I let a couple plug their power cord into my power strip so that they could warm up their tamales that they were selling. I do love tamales.

8/17/07. Jackson Hole Art Fair, Jackson Hole, WY
Driving down here from MT we closed the windows and the vents in the car because the air was full of smoke from all the fires burning. It's been so dry and hot this year - we had 100 degree weather in June. Strangely enough, we drove through some pretty intense storms with heavy rain, lightning, and hail. It was very relaxing to drop down into Jackson with our new rig and no smoke coming from the brakes - a change from last year. It was fun to play the art fair again.

8/17/07. Norris Hot Springs, Norris, MT
This place is great. It is like a 50 by 50 or so pool that they empty nightly and refill the next day full of hot spring water. We got here early and soaked for awhile. I've never been so relaxed before a show... As the sun went down the pool filled up with college kids drinking beers - a good time.

7/20,21&22/07. Arts in the Park, Kalispell, MT
I'm not sure how many years it has been that we have been doing sound here and that I have been playing, 4 maybe? It is a great art fair, really well set up and a good vibe. The music is in the center so the whole fair, almost, can hear it. I had a good time playing this year with a stripped down rig - minimal but tasty.

7/13/07. Eickhardt's, Sandpoint, ID
I've never had a bad night here at Eickhardt's - it's a great place. This was a mellow evening but a good one. It was great to have some friends come out tonight - they made the evening. Some interesting closing time conversations as we were loading the car...

7/13/07. Pend Oreille Winery, Sandpoint, ID
A very sedate gig this time, didn't want to play anything too upbeat, the mood was relaxed to say the least. I enjoyed it.

7/6/07. Molly Brown's Trego, MT
Yes!!! Yes, what a great night this was. It was even better than the last great night we had here. A really good turnout of people, maybe 75 to 100? It was 100 degrees plus today, super hot, but dry, not humid. The dry is better for us humans, but worse for my guitars. My main guitar kept changing it's tuning and volume level for the first set until the evening cooled down. It's so great to have all your friends come out to see you play and a bunch of new faces as well, right here in Trego, MT - an urban moment (because of the diversity of the people there) in a rural place. There was a great vibe to the evening, during my breaks some other musicians got up and played a few songs, Linda kept the evening flowing with her ipod DJ skills... Good food, good drinks, good people, good music... yeah!

6/28/07. Laughing Horse Lodge, Swan Lake, MT
A humid and hot evening here in Montana, that used to be really rare, but is becoming less uncommon what with our planet heating up and all. There was a small but appreciative crowd here (it's a small venue) and I had a good time playing. I have never sweat so much, though. After the third song somebody from the audience gave me a handful of napkins to wipe the sweat from my face. During the second set there was a lightning storm pretty close so i shut down my gear and played acoustic for a few songs. Great food here, it was fun to come back, I think I was here like 5 years ago or so.

3/23/07. Live House Thundersnake, Atsugi, Japan (near Tokyo)
This was my first official gig in Japan, I hope there will be many more to come... Prepare to be confused: The student of a friend of a friend had a relative who owned a music club, livehouse Thundersnake (yeah, it was a rock club) and he got hold of a cd of mine and liked it and wanted to have me come play there. I was thrilled, of course, and we communicated as best we could in english and set up a time for me to play after the first band and before the second band of the evening - both Japanese power pop bands. I had my yamaha traveller guitar, a small amp, a sampler pedal and a vocal mic and that was it, a super bare bones gig for me. I had a great time. The sound people didn't speak much english, but were super cool. The audience there was super attentive and appreciative and it didn't matter that I couldn't really speak to them (I know basically no Japanese) I just played and said "arigato" after each song. Masayuki, the owner, took us out to eat before the show. It was a small place filled with smoke from the individual barbecue grill each table had. We grilled beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetables and then ate it right from the fire. I tried pork stomach (yuck) and Linda actually tried pork bone (soft and tender, she said, must have been from a piglet) and actually liked it... This was a fantastic evening, I hope we can go back and tour Japan in the near future. Look for the live video and pictures from this evening to be posted on our website soon....

1/23/07. Dave and Keiko's House, Spearfish, SD
I normally only write about shows that were paying gigs in this here past shows journal, but I had a really good time playing for a few people at Dave and Keiko's house and I want to remember it. This was just an unplugged acoustic guitar and me and a small but most excellent audience, I'd definitely like to play more house concerts like this one.

1/20/07. The Yardarm Bar and Grille, Racine, WI
We drove through Racine, an interesting looking place and were surprised to pull up near a bunch of sailboats. It looked like the ocean. The Yardarm has french fries called sand dollars and lots of fish etc, so it was very oceanesque, if that's a word. This was a great place to play, lively and warm, with an appreciative crowd. When people dance at a solo show, you know you're in a good place. Wisconsin definitely feels different than other places in the midwest - friendlier, warmer, more fun, whatever.... we liked it a lot.

1/19/07. Hogan Brothers Coffeehouse, Northfield, MN
Northfield is a good town, 2 colleges here and like 4 or 5 coffeeshops on the main street. We didn't go into the other ones, but this was a good one. Cute little stage with a sofa on it, and high backed booths, so I couldn't actually see most of the people that I was playing for.

1/18/07. Normandale Community College, Bloomington, MN
So we got up at 5:30 am this morning, after a few hours of sleep in the presidential (and comfortable) bed. Armed with french bread and muffins we drove to Minneapolis before the sun rose. I played in the cafeteria, it felt like being in school again - got lunch on a tray...

1/17/07. Amazing Grace Bakery, Duluth, MN
We made it up to the north here without any problems, a little snow, a lot of rain, but no major delays. Duluth is a very unusual city - it kinda looks like somewhere in eastern Europe, like Poland, or Romania. I haven't been to those countries, but from photos and films I have seen that's what I'd compare it to. There are lots of bridges and factories, and the buildings are kinda funky, it's not like any other town in the US that I can recall. Not a huge amount of people here tonight, but not too bad either, for a wednesday night. A lot of great musicians have played here, there were lots of their press photos on the walls to look at. Great bread, and food here. Food is so good when it is good. We had stopped to get a steak at a truck stop in Iowa, and you know, it kept us going, it was alright. But here, it was GOOD. Linda and I are ready to be cooking our own good food again after this little tour is over... We spent the night with some fine people in their home and slept in a bed that a few presidents ( Chester A. Arthur , ? and ? I forgot already) had slept in, it was from upstate new york, some place where presidents went for retreats.

1/13/07. Backstage Cafe, Elizabethtown, KY
It's raining down here in the south, rivers are overflowing, houses are being flooded, cars washing away. Well, not here in Etown, but we have passed near some areas on our way up from Florida. It feels like we keep missing interstate closures and ice and freezing rain and snow and heavy rain and a few hours after we passed through Louisville, we saw on the news, from a a motel in Indiana, that a train had derailed and some unknown chemicals that the train cars were carrying had caught on fire and so much black smoke was in the area that schools were being evacuated and planes were being re routed etc etc. We keep watching the weather channel to plan our route, adding extra miles to avoid being caught in the middle of something. It was a fun evening at the Backstage Cafe - a very intimate evening here with some great people. We hope to play here again when we pass through in the future.