12/6/06
After a good-sized wait, Wes’ new Songs to Get You From Here to There album arrives, offering twelve original songs at home on the road.
11/7/06
The Concert Chorus at Nelsen Middle School in Renton, WA, premiers Wes’ own choral arrangement of “Carry On” to honor Veteran’s Day. Wes performs with the choir.
9/2/06
“Carry On” wins the Tumbleweed Music Festival Songwriting Contest in Richland, WA.
| Date | City | Venue |
|---|
| 1/15/06 | Moscow, ID | Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse |
| Feb. 10-14 | Austin, TX | Folk Alliance Seattle Sounds |
| 2/24/06 | Mercer Island, WA | Youth Theatre Northwest with Reilly & Maloney |
| 2/25/06 | Oak Harbor, WA | Whidbey Playhouse with Reilly & Maloney |
| 2/26/06 | Everett, WA | Puget’s Sound with Reilly & Maloney |
| 3/25/06 | Moscow, ID | Mikey’s |
| 5/26/06 | Bellevue, WA | KBCS 91.3-FM |
| 5/26/06 | Seattle, WA | Northwest Folklife Festival |
| 5/27/06 | Seattle, WA | Northwest Folklife Festival |
| 5/28/06 | Seattle, WA | Northwest Folklife Festival with David Maloney |
| 6/4/06 | Everett, WA | KSER Adventure on the Sound |
| 6/21/06 | Sacramento, CA | Luna’s Cafe |
| 6/25/06 | Roseville, CA | Placer County Fair |
| 6/27/06 | Everett, WA | KSER 90.7-FM |
| 7/1/06 | Seattle, WA | Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival |
| 7/9/06 | Bellevue, WA | SEAFAIR Marathon |
| 7/16/06 | Moscow, ID | Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse |
| 7/28/06 | Bothell, WA | Park at Bothell Landing with Reilly & Maloney |
| 8/2/06 | Duvall, WA | McCormick Park with Reilly & Maloney |
| Sept. 2-3 | Richland, WA | Tumbleweed Music Festival Songwriting Contest Winner |
| 10/14/06 | Seattle, WA | Haller Lake Arts / Puget’s Sound |
| 11/3/06 | Ellensburg, WA | Hal Holmes Center with Reilly & Maloney |
| 11/4/06 | Kennewick, WA | Three Rivers Folklife Society |
| 11/5/06 | Seattle, WA | Seattle Folklore Society with Reilly & Maloney |
| Nov. 7-8 | Renton, WA | Nelsen Middle School |
| 12/8/06 | Everett, WA | House Concert |
Sun., January 15, 2006
Moscow, ID: Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse (Gospel Sunday...reprise)
Another ‘regular gig’ in-the-making...especially if they let us do it twice a year! Dad and I are reprising last year’s service (with a new addition or two) for the Martin Luther King celebration. No summer potluck this time (just some good discussion), but rumor has it that Rosauers in Moscow may have Moon Pies...
February 10-14, 2006
Austin, TX: Folk Alliance
So much I could write about the 18th International Folk Alliance Conference—overstimulating as usual, but 180° different from the last one of these I did (which is good!). Suffice it to say for now, at least, (I’ll maybe add more stories later...), that to be in Austin when the story broke that our beloved Vice President had shot—in the face—a man from the Texas capital was worth the trip alone.
Sat., March 25, 2006
Moscow, ID: Mikey’s (Benefit for Palouse Peace Coalition)
PPC has been doing some good work in the home-region, and I’m happy to play this benefit at a favorite old haunt. Nice crowd.
Fri., May 26, 2006
Bellevue, WA: KBCS 91.3-FM
“Lunch With Folks” host John Sincock couldn’t get Folklife ‘headliners’ Jay Ungar & Molly Mason on the show, so the interview-call fell to me (plugging tonight’s set)—not bad company for finishing second...
Fri., May 26, 2006
Seattle, WA: Northwest Folklife Festival
“What kind of music does this stage usually feature?” asks Gerhardt, the amicable emcee for the McCaw Hall Cafe Impromptu stage this evening, who, it appears, can somehow sense that I’m the type who knows what’s coming in environs such as this. “Um, ‘white-people’ music,” is my cheeky-but-overly-honest reply. In stitches, Gerhardt decides against working that into his shtick. So begins another year of singer/songwriter stages at Fabulous Folklife...
Sat., May 27, 2006
Seattle, WA: Northwest Folklife Festival
There may be a certain irony to my hosting a “Live Music in the Community” panel discussion—for which a number of articulate and qualified members of the ‘community’ hold an open discussion about how to sustain our venues—in front of precious few souls. But it’s early!...and it appears it might rain... Deep thanks to John and Micki Perry (Three Rivers Folklife Society), Sandy MacDonald (Seattle Folklore Society/KBCS-FM), Reggie Garrett, and Joshua Powell (The Vera Project) for their participation.
Sun., June 4, 2006
Everett, WA (Posession Sound): KSER Adventure on the Sound
My good friends at KSER 90.7-FM have asked me to appear on this benefit cruise aboard the stunning schooner Adventuress. A short set singing is gravy to get to wander the deck (and below!) of this 74-foot beauty, built in 1913. The whole Sound Experience crew do a nice job with we community-radio-types, and I learn upon disembarking that one of the hands is an old colleague of my mother’s, well-disguised in the out-of-context encounter: big boat, small world...!
Wed., June 21, 2006
Sacramento, CA: Luna’s Cafe
TSA has had a thing for me lately. I don’t mind the searching of my beat-up blue duffel bag every trip, but slicing the cord on my cell-phone charger in two (quite cleanly...)??
Luna’s is a nice little spot in downtown Sacramento, though I realize we’re in trouble when the posse splitting the bill with me pulls up its second pickup with the full drum kit. Pleasant, supportive turnout, though, and Scott Rodell & co. prove a fun pairing...especially given the double-‘Dell’-bill angle.
Sun., June 25, 2006
Roseville, CA: Placer County Fair
105°-weather is a tough sell for most, but throwing a heavy canopy on top and asking a fellow to sing three sets on a dusty beer-garden stage with competing-activity loudspeakers on either side makes for quite the scene... But you gotta love a fair.
Tues., June 27, 2006
Everett, WA: KSER 90.7-FM
Phone’s ringin’, dude. “Are you back in Seattle,” asks KSER Music Director (and charming citizen) Ann McCoy; I answered that I was. “Wanna come on the radio with me tomorrow?” Can’t turn that down. Ann is always a hoot—anyone listening the time I was on with Jencks and she suggested that Joe called me ‘Wishbone Wes’ (his blues-sideman name for me...that he’d just thought up) because I had “that microphone jammed between [my] legs”?—but she’s also thoughtful and attentive in ways that frequently lead to great interviews. I enjoyed the chance to talk about my specific style of guitar playing and the ways in which I use it to fill space as a solo performer, something I don’t get to do much in the standard ‘where-you-playing-next?-okay-sing-us-a-song’ visits. Once again, thank goodness for KSER!
Sat., July 1, 2006
Seattle, WA: Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival
After last Sunday’s fair-sweltering, the low-80s-clear-with-light-lakefront-breeze setting for today’s set is confrontationally pleasant (Larry Murante, performing later in the day, will threaten to ‘never leave this stage!’ in the middle of his performance...which itself was awfully pleasant, too). And I’m getting some fun interactions with passerby-listeners: one fellow takes me aside (an awkward undertaking when I’m onstage performing) after“Happiness Fulfilled” (the ode to Virgin-Mary Gilled-Cheese) to share that he and a buddy had sold a Cheeto resembling baby-Jesus to GoldenPalace.com, buyer of the famed sandwich (the Cheeto, it appears, sold for more than 1,000-times less $$...). And another gal working with boats nearby really gives me looks during“Ballad of the Whitman Greeks” —a song that often gets quizzical attention in festival environments where folk-in-motion may not have heard the intro—turns out she’s a Whitman grad herself. An utterly comfortable day!
Sun., July 9, 2006
Bellevue, WA: SEAFAIR Marathon
I thought I was being so clever arranging “Running On Empty” and “Born to Run” for my appearance this (early!) morning at the SEAFAIR Marathon (“Born to Run” is tough for solo voice/guitar...!), but when the contract specifies your performance location as a four-block stretch of road (“Look for the orange traffic cone...”), one ought to keep expectations in check. To be sure, there were plenty of other distractions—including intermittent traffic going up the other side of the road (and let’s not forget the focus and stamina it takes to get 8+ miles into a marathon!)—but I think I coulda played anything for the hour and received the same response (which was exhaustedly-cheerful when it wasn’t sweatily-apathetic)...
Sun., July 16, 2006
Moscow, ID: Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse (8th-annual Gospel Sunday!)
After eight years, how you improve a comforting summer ritual of singing and chicken-potluck? Why, with mini-Moon Pies and Pecan Tarts, of course! (Some great guest combos and inspired solo selections help, too...)
September 2-3, 2006
Richland, WA: Tumbleweed Music Festival Songwriting Contest Winner
In 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner published his famous essay entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” in which he proclaimed that the American frontier was, for all intents and purposes, closed. “To the frontier,” he wrote, “the American intellect owes its striking characteristics.” But now, 113 years later, true closure has come to the subject with my discovery of the, um, closure of Richland’s marvelously tonk-ish Frontier Tavern. Progression, we remember, does not always bring progress.
The rest of the festival, of course, is its usual, delightful self. The folk at Three Rivers Folklife Society really know how to offer an event accessible to all: good food, company, and tunes abound as the mighty Columbia rolls along nearby. To have been selected to perform with such a particularly deep field in the Songwriting Contest is itself an honor, and to emerge as the winner, with “Carry On” judged the top song on the subject of community, makes for a truly great weekend.
October 14, 2006
Seattle, WA: Haller Lake Community Club (Haller Lake Arts / Puget’s Sound)
I’ve admired Larry Murante’s singing and writing for years, and it’s a treat to share an evening with such a talented and heralded performer. Also fun to collaborate: I think we may have respectively peaked with our guitar-and-djembe rendition of A-ha’s ‘classic’“Take On Me.”
November 4, 2006
Kennewick, WA: Three Rivers Folklife Society
Fun to return and play a quick opening set here after Tumbleweed in the cozy (and revamped) Highland Grange Hall, and back R&M intermittently the rest of the evening. Also great to catch a quick visit with John and Micki Perry, go-getters and lifeblood of the Tri-Cities’ Three Rivers Folklife Society.
November 7-8, 2006
Renton, WA: Nelsen Middle School
Earlier this year my good friend Brian Hoskins, choir director at Nelsen Middle School in Renton (and organ player on Songs To Get You From Here To There), asked me to arrange “Carry On” for his concert chorus, with the idea that we would perform as part of the school’s efforts to honor Veteran’s Day. And finally, after weeks of working with the kids (and arranging the song before that, fun and challenging exercise well outside my usual work-realm), the performance date has come. STGYFHTT cellist Amanda Larson and I will be the only accompanyment—unless you count the complimentary slide show put together by Nelsen’s multimedia classes, featuring this picture of Don Shawe, the song’s inspiration—and, I must admit, it’s a real kick to hear ~70 voices singing my song!
The response is overwhelmingly positive—also nice!—though I’m still unable to shake the subtle-but-persistent worry that the ‘wrong’ hands might someday find this song: the narrative of Don’s experiences as a B-17 bomber pilot in World War II is decidedly not a these-colors-don’t-run offering. Many gracious interactions follow, as do three more performances for the Nelsen Veteran’s Day Assemblies the next morning. Brian has done remarkable work with his program (I told the largely-parent crowd this, repeatedly), and it’s truly been an honor to do this!
December 8, 2006
Everett, WA: House Concert with Joe Jencks
Haven’t seen Joe since our Austin collaboration, and I’m glad that we can squeeze tonight’s event into his visit—my first with the NEW CD in hand! Ed Bremer, a great KSER personality and advocate, and his wife Lucia expertly host an awfully pleasant evening of song and visit.
