Renton, WA: Lindbergh High School (plus Commission News)

Though I can name many different musi-performance roles I embrace regularly and eagerly, this one caught me a bit off-guard: sole speaker at a school Veteran's Day assembly. Yes, you are correct: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of my country's armed services.

WW Band organ/keys player Brian Hoskins spends his days teaching choir (brilliantly!) in the Renton schools. A few years ago, his middle school kids premiered--and later reprised (audio/video)--my choral arrangement of "Carry On," a wonderful experience for me and nice tribute to the late Don Shawe, a World War II veteran and the song's inspiration. Many of those kids are now at Lindbergh, and Brian's Ad Astra choir chose to perform the piece (they all apparently remember it!) as their selection for the school's Veteran's Day assemblies. I, of course, happily agreed to accompany the group and perhaps say a few words about Don.

Somewhere in between, however, I became not just a component of the Leadership Class' program, but the featured speaker! So Don's life and words got center stage for a few moments this morning, along with my 'this is one story--every veteran and servicemember has his/her own (as do their families!)' disclaimer. So it goes...

Thanks to Brian and the kids for getting it up on its legs with such scant notice. I will never tire of hearing that many voices sing my song! (And honor Don and those whom his experiences represent...) And I will get to experience it all over again next spring as the LHS Ad Astra group has commissioned me to compose a new, original work for them to premiere! (More details coming soon.) Honored, excited...and ready to get to work am I!

Renton, WA: Sartori Education Center

A little forum on songwriting for Sartori's Creative Writing Class, taught by a former guitar student. Came in ready to play a bunch of examples to illustrate various ideas, comparisons, etc., but was pleased to forgo such a performance-heavy approach in favor of honest discussion. Also enjoyed sharing my own notes from a songwriting master class with Texas legend Eric Taylor (so accomplished that he can get away with being a Texas songwriter and only having two names), lending my voice to his thoughts and observations as they resonated with me. Hope I get to see/hear some of the songs the class produces!

Tukwila, WA: Cascade View Elementary School (March 15 & 16)

More innocent questions from the younger kids, though "Are you rich?" seems to transcend age... Kudos to Amanda for packing me a sack lunch both days!

Renton, WA: Nelsen Middle School 'Impact' Day

Nice that musician made the cut here at Nelsen, and honored to be asked. Maybe should've gone a little more media-heavy, though I made a conscious choice to try to show just how many music careers exist between here and what you'' see on the Grammys this weekend (rather than impress with audio/video). Favorite question: "Are you married?" Easy, ladies...

2009 Gig Archive

2009: Stickin’ around, makin’ a record...

Date	City	Venue

12/17/09	Bellevue, WA	Crossroads
10/17/09	Pasco, WA	Three Rivers Folklife Society Opening for Bill Staines
10/11/09	Charlottesville, VA	Private Wedding
10/8/09	New York, NY	Googie’s Lounge
10/3/09	Everett, WA	KSER Sound Adventure Aboard the Schooner Adventuress
9/24/09	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
9/12/09	Seattle, WA	The L.A.B. at Seattle Drum School
9/6/09	Richland, WA	Tumbleweed Music Festival
8/4/09	Seattle, WA	Maple Leaf Lutheran Church
8/2/09	Seattle, WA	Westside UU Congregation
7/24/09	Mercer Island, WA	Youth Theatre Northwest (Faculty Showcase)
July 18-19	Seattle, WA	Sound Transit Link Light Rail Launch
6/4/09	Kent, WA	Sunnycrest Elementary School
5/28/09	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
May 23-24	Seattle, WA	Northwest Folklife Festival
5/22/09	Bellevue, WA	KBCS 91.3-FM Interview/Performance
4/28/09	Edmonds, WA	Driftwood Players (Full-Band)
4/11/09	Everett, WA	House Concert
4/10/09	Bellevue, WA	Crossroads
3/20/09	Seattle, WA	Q Cafe
2/12/09	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
1/29/09	Bellevue, WA	Crossroads
1/8/09	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
1/3/09	Seattle, WA	House Concert

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Performance Notes

Thu., December 17, 2009
Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

Nice to close out a more reclusive, close-to-home year on a home-court gig. Looking forward to hitting it harder in 2010 with a new record!

Sat., October 17, 2009
Pasco, WA: Three Rivers Folklife Society (Opening for Bill Staines)

When I was very young, I refused to go to sleep until my folks had spun both sides of The Whistle of the Jay, and I still remember my father helping a 7-year-old me gather up all of my stuffed animals to take to a Bill Staines concert, where we sat in the back and held them up appropriately (yes, appropriately!) during the verses of “All God’s Critters.” How delightful (for me), then, that Bill couldn’t go on until I’d done my 25 minutes! A special evening for yours truly...

Thu., October 8, 2009
New York, NY: Googie’s Lounge (Above The Living Room)

Through my Northwest Home work—and general disposition—I’ve developed an acute defensiveness toward the prevailing New York ‘how could anyone live anywhere else?’ attitude: many are where they are for a reason, I counter, and their lives matter! But...this city really is unlike any other place imaginable (or not; further proof, Brooklyn-based friend Pat Wictor remarks, that the ‘NY-is-the-only-way’ approach is absurd). And Googie’s is a great little songwriter spot on up-and-coming Ludlow Street! Feels good to stretch out a little (and road-test some new tunes) after a largely close-to-home year thus far.

Sat., October 3, 2009
Everett, WA: KSER Sound Adventure - Aboard the Schooner Adventuress

What a day for a sail! (And not like last time, when the breeze howled at the dock and then died once we made our way out into the sound...) And kind fun to play for a very captive audience—little chance anyone’ll jump ship—but hard to shout down the wind.

Sat., September 12, 2009
Seattle, WA: SDS L.A.B.

The Seattle Drum School’s L.A.B. (‘Little Auditorium in the Back’) is a cool space, and it’s nice to be part of a ‘songwriter’ evening that’s not full of the usual suspects (much as I love ’em)—and probably good for me to learn a Neil Young tune, too (everyone had to do one). Particularly enjoyed Mary Lydia Ryan’s piano stylings, and always nice to hang with Steve Mason; additional co-bill props to Sarah Burgess, Judd Wasserman, and Zach Moss, who’ll be great fun to watch as time keeps marching on.

Sun., September 6, 2009
Richland, WA: Tumbleweed Music Festival

The ‘lucky’ 13th Tumbleweed festival, with a theme of Superstition to boot—figures it’d dump rain on the evening concert...in the desert (steppe...). Stays dry enough for my set, but plenty-windy; and there’s enough flat surface area on the back of an acoustic guitar (or, perhaps, significant dearth of available shielding material on the player’s bean-pole body) to catch the gusts pretty well a la a sail. Nice to be back on the buddy-system for a weekend with Joe Jencks, hear a great winning song from Mike Murray (who took home a trophy hand-made by yours truly), learn a very effective way to deal with hecklers from Tom Lewis, and visit with old and new friends alike. RIP, John F. Perry (1943-2009)—thanks for all you’ve done.

(From my post to the FAR-West list-serv earlier this year:)

The FAR-West community lost a gem with the passing of John Perry (66) last Friday, co-founder (along with his wife, Micki, and others) of Three Rivers Folklife Society in SE Washington State. Like any of us, John was a wonderfully complicated fellow, a folkie as folky as they come with a distinguished career as a nuclear engineer for the Navy and then local power companies. I could list a host of accomplishments and names in tribute, but I'd rather share an endearing memory and some personal thanks: What's remarkable about the vast, 'non-Seattle' expanse of Washington State known to most merely as 'Eastern Washington' is just how far away from the popular Northwest image of rain-in-your-Starbucks these communities lie: distance; climate; politics; life... I grew up in one of these towns--not near *anything*--and determined local citizens with a 'why not?' vision were the only reason I could be exposed to live music as a child. Under John's watch the Tumbleweed Music Festival (www.3rfs.org/tmf.htm) in Richland, WA, has grown to attract performers from across the country (without sacrificing a close, local feel), built a reputation for its splendid treatment of artists, and almost single-handedly revived a songwriting scene that had been spinning its wheels in places. John hand-made the trophies presented to the winners of the festival's annual songwriting contest, which feature striking copper-wire tumbleweed sculptures in a style John learned from his father-in-law. I will never forget John attending the house concert panel at the 2007 FAR-West conference. As the discussion began to wind down and artists looked for subtle ways to be seen by the panel, John started asking some pretty pointed questions about how certain templates might apply in more rural, conservative settings. He certainly violated the atmosphere of gentle-schmooze, and his style might not have won him any points, but his thesis deserves repeating: do not assume any community is less vital because it is less known. RIP, friend -

Sun., August 2, 2009
Seattle, WA: Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation

It’s not every day that one gets to contribute songs to a service with the sermon “Spiritual Practice: From Twitter to Prayer”...in a Masonic Lodge, no less! Can’t make it east to kick off the second decade of Gospel Sundays, so I suppose this is the next-best place to be...

July 18-19, 2009
Seattle, WA: Sound Transit Link Light Rail Launch (Rainier Beach Station)

I remember when ‘Light Rail coming in 2009’ seemed an eternity off, but here we are (and here I am singing at the opening). And come another ten or so years, the landscaping vision in place down MLK is likely to pay off handsomely as the trees fill out. For the time being, however, the sight of a scrawny songwriter inching slowly east to follow the shade of a scrawny Henderson Plaza tree as each afternoon dwindled must’ve been worth a chuckle or two... Nice to pass the musical time withAmanda and Erin , and really neat to finally ride the train when my four sets finally wound down—riding a subway through Seattle feels like I’m in a completely different city taking in new views!

May 23-24, 2009
Seattle, WA: Northwest Folklife Festival

Folklife has asked me to be ‘Community Coordinator’ for singer/songwriters at this year’s festival, a task which—after all requisite cat-herding jokes—I have enthusiastically embraced. What makes songwriter music different from anything else one might encounter at the festival (and one can certainly encounter most everything else here!) is that it is original music, so rather than host a performance of select individuals for my community’s ‘show,’ my crack-coalition has created events in the form of open, unamplified Emerald City Song Circles where anyone is welcome to share an original song (just as anyone is welcome to just come and listen!). Our hope is that this becomes a recurring way to celebrate local songwriting, and I think we’re well on our way. (I also had a normal set...and ended up on aTV promo from the local FOX affiliate...)

Tue., April 28, 2009
Edmonds, WA: Driftwood Players

Kinda nice to run the full outfit out there on a stage with some elbow-room. And a few choice prop-room finds really tied the set together...

Sat., April 11, 2009
Everett, WA: House Concert

Backing Nancy K. Dillon (good friend) and the UK’s Ian Lang (fast becoming good friend) tonight—sideman gigs don’t usually make it onto here (don’t know what I’d say in a dozen annual Reilly & Maloney entries...), but this one was so fun and new that it made the self-indulgent cut.

Fri., April 10, 2009
Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

Excited that Crossroads is trying a songwriters in-the-round format with one of its weekend dates, and can’t think of a better group with which to (half-)circle than Messrs. Larry Murante (New CD!), Orville Johnson, & Brad Warren—though, if the format sticks and Crossroads wants to do this again (I hope it does!...judging from several comments, folk dig it), we’ll have to get a female or two involved!

Fri., March 20, 2009
Seattle, WA: Q Cafe

Victory Music has long been a custodian of and presence in the local acoustic music community, and for the first time in quite a while it has released a new compilation of works from Northwest songwriters and artists: A Northwest Acoustic Celebration (Vols. 1 & 2). My tune “Carry On” appears on Vol. 1, so I’m joining many of the stellar other artists for a release concert tonight. Nice hall, nice crowd, and always fun to drag Erin along—the Vol. 2 concert’ll be April 17!

Thu., January 29, 2009
Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

It just works here. You wouldn’t think it would, but it does. And I love it! Good place to road-test some new tunes and keep the organization’s efforts humming.

Sat., January 3, 2009
Seattle, WA: House Concert

Joining Joe Jencks at the last minute for a pleasant gathering to kick off 2009 with potluck and song!

2008 Gig Archive

2008: Still Ramblin’

Date	City	Venue

12/5/08	Seattle, WA	Columbia City BeatWalk
11/15/08	Boise, ID	House Concert
11/11/08	Seattle, WA	Musicquarium Lounge @ the Triple Door (Full-Band)
11/2/08	Seattle, WA	Dusty Strings (Mandolin Workshops)
10/30/08	Bellevue, WA	Crossroads
Oct. 24-26	Mesa, AZ	FAR-West
10/13/08	Lake Forest, IL	Lake Forest College Guest Lecture: World Music Survey
10/12/08	Chicago, IL	Uncommon Ground
10/12/08	Clarklake, MI	Universalist Unitarian Church of East Liberty
10/5/08	Big Rapids, MI	House Concert
10/4/08	Saginaw, MI	White Crow Conservatory
9/26/08	Seattle, WA	Conor Byrne Pub (Full-Band)
Aug. 30-31	Richland, WA	Tumbleweed Music Festival
8/5/08	Seattle, WA	National Night Out: Block Party
7/20/08	Moscow, ID	Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse 10th-Annual Gospel Sunday
7/2/08	Seattle, WA	Musicquarium Lounge @ the Triple Door (Full-Band)
6/20/08	Seldovia, AK	Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival
5/22-28/08	Kerrville, TX	Kerrville Folk Festival
5/17/08	Renton, WA	Carco Theatre
5/8/08	Seattle, WA	Conor Byrne Pub (Full-Band)
5/8/08	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
4/20/08	Oysterville, WA	Oysterville House Concert
4/19/08	Bellevue, WA	Crossroads (Full-Band)
4/12/08	Pioneer, CA	Log Cabin House Concert
4/11/08	Nevada City, CA	KVMR Interview
4/9/08	Oakland, CA	Strings
4/6/08	Campbell, CA	TrueWind House Concert
3/27/08	Seattle, WA	Seattle Children’s Museum
3/22/08	Seattle, WA	Seattle Folklore Society
3/21/08	Portland, OR	Portland FolkMusic Society
2/3/08	Seattle, WA	Dusty Strings (Mandolin Workshops)
1/26/08	Maple Ridge, BC	Candlelight House Concert Series
1/20/08	Moscow, ID	Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse
1/12/08	Seattle, WA	House Concert

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Performance Notes

Fri., December 5, 2008
Seattle, WA: Columbia City BeatWalk

A few years ago friends of mine had a baby, who emerged with an awfully-full head of sandy hair that at times seemed to showcase frosted tips. People often asked my friends which stylist they used for their newborn... If they had needed to go somewhere to trick out the little guy, though, they might’ve wanted to check out this place, my venue tonight for the fabulous first-Friday BeatWalk event. Holiday displays (buy! buy!) have displaced us (brought Dave and Erin along) from the front window, but there’s nice space in the back—only catch (aside from low visibility): one of the items for sale in the store is the classic egg-shaker, and the kids on hand’ve found ’em (more snare, Dave...).

Sat., November 15, 2008
Boise, ID: House Concert

A house concert just as it should be: good folk (& good food!) filling a good room. Great hosting helps, too...!

Tue., November 11, 2008
Seattle, WA: Musicquarium Lounge @ the Triple Door

Could get used to food/drink/company this good; might try...

Thu., October 30, 2008
Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

I suppose this is a good economy to have work (especially in my field), but I’ve been worried my scrambling around will lead to a slip-up sooner or later, and tonight it happens: I can certainly get by without the forgotten tuner, and could get creative without capos (capoes?) if I had to, but I didn’t askAmanda to come all this way not to be able to play the songs in her keys... Thank goodness this’un starts on the early side (and traffic wasn’t bad!), and perhaps the two new capo(e)s I now own will live in my car’s ashtry near the extra cable, mic stand, guitar stand, and D-I that travel with me after having at one time or another been a ‘forgotten item.’ Otherwise, nice show/crowd...!

October 24-26, 2008
Mesa, AZ: FAR-West Folk Alliance Conference

Ah, the Hustle. Gotta show up now just to remind folk that I’m still around and at it. Kept plenty-busy this time running the Puget’s Sound Presents showcase room, playing numerous others, backing the versatile Rain Perry and former Leonard Cohen vocalist Julie Christensen (who also had original Stone Poneys member Kenny Edwards in tow—that was a fun collaboration!), stealing some baseball time with delightful roommate Pat Wictor, and avoiding the Crossroads Gun Club gathering happening concurrently. Not a lotta time left over for sleep...

Did learn this to pass along, however: if you’re gonna run from one showcase to another, flouncing into the second just a bit late to back up another singer, make sure the folder of charts you have is really full of your charts and some a similar manila folder full of someone else’s e-mail printouts. Just FYI.

Sun., October 12, 2008
Chicago, IL: Uncommon Ground

Seriously? 85° & sunny...in Chicago?? With co-bills bailing left and right (is it me?), couldn’t ask for better last-minute luck than FARM-fatigued (Sandy) Andina & (Stephen Lee) Rich. And the guilty friends making up for a half-dozen years of blowing me off by driving from Lansing (where a mutual friend just got hitched) to catch the show doesn’t hurt, either... Nice room (is an annual visit now tradition??), sound, and crowd—I’m content! (UG records and streams shows there—check out the ‘Radio’ links if you like...)

Sun., October 12, 2008
Clarklake, MI: Universalist Unitarian Church of East Liberty

“Almost too nice for church,” one woman says to me slyly while soaking in a ray or two on the stoop before the service. Hard to find strong fits with the Association Sunday plug—though community, as ever, abounds and folk’re willing to go with me—so what’s the harm in plugging my dear Reverend-cousin’s own work here? Now, off down the road...

Sun., October 5, 2008
Big Rapids, MI: House Concert

It’s a delightful family affair again, with one young removed-cousin wishing it were her show. Great visit, potluck, and after-excursion to the family farm...

Sat., October 4, 2008
Saginaw, MI: White Crow Conservatory

Ominous to see a road sign pronouncing Flint, MI, “CLOSED” on the drive up (perhaps it referred only to a stretch of I-475...couldn’t snap a pic in time, though we’ll see how the ones of the giant, in-transit pumpkins turn out). I do love neat spaces, and the White Crow is certainly that!—converted church with stage, studio, teaching spaces, in-house store, and fearless cat. Veeerry mellow pace to the evening.

Fri., September 26, 2008
Seattle, WA: Conor Byrne Pub

Well, I feel bad about this: I put a photo of the wrong “Boston to Austin” group on the poster—but hey, no one else made a poster... These B2A gals make a fine co-bill, as does the velvet-voiced, improv-skilled Robert (Sarazin) Blake, an old chum of Amanda’s...speaking of whom, after finally memorizing her new last name re: on-stage reciting, gotta start over with Erin. Interesting crowd/room tonight, but after so many Thursdays here we wanted to see what we might be missing.

August 30-31, 2008
Richland, WA: Tumbleweed Music Festival

In my family, it only takes once for something to become a tradition (in fact, I’d wager we have some ‘traditions’ that we’ve never actually carried out), so mychoice of shirt this year is an obvious one. And though they tried their darndest to get me double-time Saturday when the performer scheduled before me cut it close re: arrival time—and then effectively yelled “psych!” when the stage-power went out just as I was to go on (the blender from the smoothie-hut overloaded the breaker, I later hear...thought about announcing “smoothies on me!” during select others’ sets just for grins)—the extra slot comes Sunday when a projected no-show really doesn’t show... Nice to get at least as many positive comments on the performances themselves as the emcee work this year (I think folk’re just really used to bad emceeing at folk festivals...). Still a favorite event of mine.

Sun., July 20, 2008
Moscow, ID: Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse 10th-Annual Gospel Sunday!

Can’t believe they’ve let us do this for ten years! I’ve never seen a crowd so big for any UUCP summer service (others concur), and though Dad and I’ll happily claim it, I’m sure it owes for to the imminent departures of one-time UUCP Music Director Cathy Green and Gospel Sunday Celebrant (and co-founder) The Rev. and newly-Doctored (maybe newly-‘Doctorated’—no plastic surgery involved...) Tami Moore, headed to Oklahoma...along with the Sonics... Love it when they come to sing!

Wed., July 2, 2008
Seattle, WA: Musicquarium Lounge @ the Triple Door

The best-laid plans... Drew up two sets tonight, plus a special five-song attention-grabber to insert whenever the mainstage show let out, but in hindsight I recognize two fatal assumptions: one, that we would have ample time/space to set-up; and two, that the esteemed mainstage headliner would not wrap before we were even underway (or all assembled for that matter...though nice of him to stick around for some of the set!). Once we settled some—which likely took me longer thaneveryone else given my personal makeup and the fact that I’d just come from a memorial service (R.I.P., Jim; glad to have known you)—’twas a nice evening in a fun room with a good (if occasionally over-enthusiastic) crowd. Whew!

Fri., June 20, 2008
Seldovia, AK: Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival

People come to Seattle and remark: “Wow!—water and mountains everywhere!” But all through my first twenty-four hours here in Alaska I find myself exclaiming: “WOW!—water and mountains everywhere!!” What a neat, unpretentious event in a marvelous setting (as billed) where one can walk anywhere (even to the airport to hop a John Deere ‘bush-plane’ back across the bay) and a tremendous community feel (even before a ton of family showed up!). Can’t wait for my next excuse to head back!...though the daylight plays with the sleep schedule quite a bit...

Sat., May 17, 2008
Renton, WA: Carco Theatre: Nelsen Middle School Concert Chorus Guest Composers Concert

My problem is that I don’t exaggerate like others do. I don’t drop ‘-est’ tags on everything, proclaiming each item I encounter in daily life the best, worst, or most-incredible thing ever, yet people shrug off my judicious superlatives as bombast or white noise just the same, assuming I’m like them in that respect (I’m not). I have, as folk point out regularly, a pretty good understanding of the English language, and if I need to use particular words—especially in writing—I will...so pay careful attention: whatBrian Hoskins is doing with his choir program at Nelsen Middle School is nothing short of remarkable and unlike any other comparable outfit in the region and likely beyond. What other middle school director is commissioning original works from internationally-renowned composers, flying others across the country (twice!) to deliver Gospel goods to people who need to be told, tackling works last seen by the Seattle Men’s Chorus...and premiering works by a local singer/songwriter who thinks he tells it like it is better than you do (he does)? What other seventh-grader gets to sing at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre without American Idol-style humiliation? What a gift to the community and to the lives of these students and families!!

A treat to hang with Pete Malinverni, Jody Sandhaus, Scott Warrender—and, of course, the kids!! Amanda joins for “Carry On”.

And a big raspberry to the punk(s) who bashed in the window of Pete’s and Jody’s rental car...

Thu., May 8, 2008
Seattle, WA: Conor Byrne Pub

Again, if I could get these folks insurance (and convince ’em that their own abundant, additional undertakings should take a back seat) then I’d conscript all to WW band life full-time. Alas... Alicia opens with a set of her own and then the full outfit takes it the rest of the way for a nice house (and one local celebrity-type—who might’ve proved helpful at the other in-town attraction this evening) kept up past bedtime on an almost-springlike Thursday in the Northwest-People’s Republic. I’m happy to bring this group in any time; wonder if the film turned out...

Sun., April 20, 2008
Oysterville, WA: Oysterville House Concert

The entire community of Oysterville lies on the Register of National Historic Districts (and has since 1976), and my host (Oysterville gentry herself) has much to do with the town’s present presence and preservation (say that three times fast). Great crowd, enthusiasm, and all-around gig, and I much enjoyed the walking tour (Sydney and Nyel live in No. 13, across from the church) and visit afterward. I eagerly await a return: ‘Oysterville’ is not just a clever name.

(Those’re some massive piles of oyster shells on the drive in. And I couldn’t help thinking of The Fog at times while strolling around...)

Sat., April 19, 2008
Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

The Crossroads contract reminds performers that “our audience takes offense to comments like ‘I can’t believe I’m playing a mall’ and other put-downs of the venue”—which is perfectly appropriate given the wonderful,previously-espoused live-music-model-in-unlikely-setting this particular mall has maintained for sixteen years—but you try keeping your cheeky, in-the-knowrhythm section in line for two full sets...on Brian’s birthday, no less! Good crowd as usual, and fun to debut a few new numbers/arrangements: Bon Jovi was meant to take the form of an acoustic waltz...

Sat., April 12, 2008
Pioneer, CA: Log Cabin House Concert

Not much one can do when the whole town has the flu... Still, sometimes the connection one makes to those in modest house-concert attendance—especially in such a strikingly-comfortable setting—is worth more than trying in front of scores in a noisy barroom. Fun, woodsy conversation before and after (learned about the Miner’s Cat), and figured this would be as good a time as any to attempt this forgotten chestnut, recovered a few days earlier whilst visiting an old friend who had unearthed a film from 2002.

Wed., April 9, 2008
Oakland/Emeryville, CA: Strings

What a cool model!: like other societies, etc., Strings members for their dues get great live music in a fabulous space and the chance to visit with one another at the regular events, hosted for fifteen years by one Joey Lent. Splitting a bill with Doug Blumer—late of The Westerleys and a truly great songwriter/entertainer/personality/presence—and pleased to be doing just that; nice pairing and fun night. These folk came to sing!

Sun., April 6, 2008
Campbell (San Jose), CA: TrueWind House Concert

If the spirit and benevolence it takes to host a house concert aren’t asking enough by themselves, TrueWind hosts Bev Barnett & Greg Newlon are doing it mid-remodel...and hosting a potluck and post-concert song-circle too! (Well, the potluck helps when you have no operable kitchen...) Nice in-the-round grouping/sharing, but the highlight comes after when the gathering becomes an episode of This is Your Life ambushing co-bill Ginny Mitchell, who finally discovers that the amiable gentleman who has sat right in front of her all night is in fact the very fellow whose dubious cover band played her eighth-grade graduation thirty-plus years ago and whom she has been trying to track down for more than a year. Love it. And better than thelast time I was in-area.

Sat., March 22, 2008
Seattle, WA: Seattle Folklore Society

Night Two with the fearsome foursome. Happy to pull double-, producer/performer duty, though glad to do it on the back end. Got all into road-mode and now I find myself back after ~26 hours.

Fri., March 21, 2008
Portland, OR: Portland FolkMusic Society

PFS and my cronies with Seattle Folklore Society have collaborated some with bookings this season, and this month comes a special Portland/Seattle songwriters in-the-round billing in both cities: me; Val D’Alessio; Dan’l McIlhenny; and Joni Laurence. Always interesting to trace the musi-conversational thread in ITR settings—didn’t think we’d stay on goats for two full passes...

Sat., January 26, 2008
Maple Ridge, BC: Candlelight House Concert Series

Yes, greater-Vancouver is effectively tropical Canada, but I still think all Canadians should know how to drive in the snow as a requirement for citizenship (though it is really coming down). Still, some hearty souls make it out to Pam Southwell’s welcoming abode—likely winding (or sliding) their respective ways there more efficiently than me (how many darned Dewdney Trunk Roads are there?!)—and a nice night is had by all.

Sun., January 20, 2008
Moscow, ID: Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse

Another Gospel-y MLK service with Rev. Jim-Bob at UUCP. Got a title this time: Guest Soloist (with the choir).

Sat., January 12, 2008
Seattle, WA: House Concert

Took away from the recent FAR-West conference the sense that house concert presenters want some video content...so I thought I’d film one. Thanks to Dustin Patterson (camera) and Alicia Healey (sound):

More HERE

2006 Gig Archive

2006: Lotta time in the studio...

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

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Performance Notes

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.

2004 Gig Archive

2004: Mostly close to home...

Date	City	Venue

11/19/04	Seattle, WA	Best of the Northwest Holiday Craft Fair
10/24/04	Seattle, WA	Bethany Presbyterian Church
10/21/04	Lacey, WA	Panorama City
9/18/04	Seattle, WA	Olympic Hills Elementary School
9/4-5/04	Richland, WA	Tumbleweed Music Festival
8/20/04	Seattle, WA	Puget’s Sound Meadowbrook Series
8/1/04	Moscow, ID	Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse
7/22/04	Seattle, WA	Conor Byrne’s Pub
5/29/04	Seattle, WA	Northwest Folklife Festival
5/3/04	Seattle, WA	Hop Vine Pub
4/30/04	Seattle, WA	Best of the Northwest Spring Craft Fair
4/23/04	Seattle, WA	Richard Hugo House
4/18/04	Spokane, WA	Nacho Celtic Hour
4/13/04	Vancouver, WA	Washington State University- Vancouver
3/28/04	West Seattle, WA	West Seattle Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
2/26-8/04	San Diego, CA	Folk Alliance Seattle Sounds Showcase
2/6/04	Leavenworth, WA	Leavenworth Community Coffeehouse
1/23/04	Seattle, WA	USA Songwriting Competition Showcase

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Performance Notes

November 19, 2004
Seattle, WA: Best of the Northwest Holiday Craft Fair

After what must have been a flourishing set at the spring event in April, Adam Carlson has brought me back for the Best of the Northwest Holiday Craft Fair at the old Naval Station by Sand Point Magnuson Park (in the cavernous airplane hanger again!). Pleasant place to spend an hour on a brisk November Friday, playing a sort of ‘paid practice’ gig for luncheaters doing their respective parts to keep that economy humming this holiday season.

October 24, 2004
Seattle, WA: Bethany Presbyterian Church: Sunday Nights in the Parlor (SNiP)

Chris Glanister does a tremendous amount of sound/technical work to maintain both Puget’s Sound concert series, and tonight I’m excited to play for the series he co-produces, Sunday Nights in the Parlor (SNiP) at historic Bethany Presbyterian Church on Queen Anne Hill. The fourth-Sunday series features a musician and an artist each month, and tonight I share the room with the appealing, local-color photography of Eric Stern, an accomplished Seattle doctor and professor. The room is cozy, the cookies and coffee ample, and crowd favorable—and willing to sing!—as I strum along, enjoying the sight of Chris relaxing somewhere other than behind the mixing console. Chris adds pre-planned vocals and whistles to several tunes, and his wife, Jan, joins for the final two participatory numbers: “How Can I Keep From Singing?” and “Name of the Lord is Music.” Fun to find yet more instances of comfortable community music!

October 21, 2004
Lacey, WA: Panorama City Retirement Community

Panorama City Retirement Community is a spacious estate in Lacey with a tremendous amount of on-site resources for its residents—travel, financial, recreation, etc. The story, as I understand it, is that a resident caught the Seattle Post-Intelligencer story that ran this summer and walked into the office, paper-in-hand, to request that Panorama City hire me. &nbspSo here I am, the entertainment for the monthly birthday celebration!

Everyone’s good to me as I quickly set up and accept an invitation to join a table (near the back by the bar and TV so I can keep an eye on NLCS Game 7!) for the dinner. True to senior from, the meal—which’d begun at 5pm—winds down shortly past six and, just as I’m starting to set up a CD/info display, the emcee announces me! Guess I’m on... It’s fun to play some of my songs for this attentive and appreciative crowd and its generational perspective (ages range from late-50s to 103!), and I’m touched by many of the friendly and thorough responses afterward (we end early, too...in time for me to catch the last three outs). Many suggest I come back, and It’d be my pleasure!

September 18, 2004
Seattle, WA: Olympic Hills Elementary School

A li’l appearance at Visions Toward Tomorrow, a community event sponsored by the City of Seattle’s North District Council, North District Stewardship, & Department of Neighborhoods—a bunch o’ committed and well-meaning folk.

September 4-5, 2004
Richland, WA: Tumbleweed Music Festival

Richland’s Tumbleweed Music Festival, organized by the Tri-Cities’ Three Rivers Folklife Society (three cheers for John and Micki Perry!!), is one of my favorite annual folk-rituals. Whether relaxing in the generous performers’ hospitality area (which, as usual, includes free massages in the instrument-check room!) or scurrying to one’s next engagement, Tumbleweed maintains a feeling of openhanded comfort—a true performer’s festival (though audiences enjoying a sunny holiday weekend in a lovely riverfront park surrounded by good music and community seem content, too)!

Saturday begins (‘performance’-wise) with John Nelson and me helping Nancy K. Dillon with her harmony workshop. I take a considerable amount of grief throughout the day for being the “First Alternate” in the songwriting contest—a title the festival has published! (‘Eleventh-best song out of ten,’ I tell many...) Though Nancy, whose taken-squarely-from-behind picture will appear in tomorrow’s newspaper (we chide her about the photos the paper wouldn’t touch that you can find at Folkbutts.com), had sliced her finger earlier in the week, no one bails from the contest and I keep my ‘Alternate’ status. (I was unsuccessful in my attempt to hire someone to hide behind a dumpster with a tire iron and strike another contestant in the knee; and the intense psychological warfare that I employ during the contest—“You feeling okay?! You suuure?? ’Cause if you’re not, you know, I can step in...you should rest, it’s a long festival... ”—fails me as well.) Joe Jencks secures his Tumbleweed dynasty with a second consecutive win, barring him from future contests and promoting him to ‘Judge’ status.

I’m on as ‘Wes’ shortly after the famous Performer-Brunch on Sunday, and I’m pleased to see a nice noon-time crowd gather, many of them discovering Wes for the first time (and liking it!—as several share with me after the set). Joe joins me for the first three songs, before shuffling off (in true Tumbleweed spirit) to join another act for the last few songs of her concurrent set. A later workshop on “Inland Northwest Historical Songs” produces a wonderful in-the-round that could have lasted another hour-plus, and I’m glad to be a part of the regional celebration. My on-stage duties conclude with a guest-mandolin spot during John’s set, and another Tumbleweed Festival winds itself down in another tornado of contentedness.

August 20, 2004
Seattle, WA: Puget’s Sound: Meadowbrook Series

I’ve really enjoyed putting this show together with Joe Jencks, a Seattle expatriate now living in Cleveland (not to mention a tremendous singer and gifted songwriter); as much work as it’s been coordinating all of the various particulars, it’s been fun watching this come together. I’ve also really enjoyed the chance to learn some of Joe’s songs, teach him some of mine, and play together, and (as I told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) I can’t think of a better person to help me celebrate the start of the second Puget’s Sound season than Joe, who shares my vision of community through music in a comfortable, compatible way. In fact, we spend a considerable portion of time discussing this in a live, on-air interview with Puget’s Sound partner KSER-Everett in the morning—bless the heart and soul of community radio!! (KBCS also had us on yesterday.) [Note to those keeping score: Though Joe is not technically a ‘local act’ anymore, he qualifies for this appearance in a Puget’s Sound series because we had not originally planned for an August show and he is thus not taking another truly-local act’s slot...much as I would not have allowed myself this appearance under different circumstances.]

The show itself draws a nice-sized, animated crowd that enjoys Joe’s and my efforts to make the evening more than merely two white-guys-with-guitars separately playing their own music. The highlight for me comes in the middle of “Ballad of the Whitman Greeks” as a siren screams by outside just after I’ve delivered the line: “None of his laws would land coeds in jail.” Serendipity... Joe is truly a remarkable performer, and I’m pleased to have been part of such a pleasant evening...and one that will likely yield future co-performances. Stay tuned!

August 1, 2004
Moscow, ID: Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse (Gospel Sunday!!)

Now in its sixth year, Gospel Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse in Moscow, ID, and its prodigious hosts—‘Reverend’ Jim-Bob (my father, Jim Weddell) and his faithful sidekick Tami ‘Faye’ Moore—have become quite the annual spectacle one choice summer Sunday a year in my hometown Palouse hills. (They’re even playing out some!—the UU church in Coeur d’Alene, ID, had ’em up earlier this year...) The Gospel-uninitiated feel more comfortable each time (the first time Dad, a failed Southern Methodist, called for a spirited “Amen!” in this setting many years ago you could hear crickets...), everyone sings along, and more often than not the clapping falls on the two-and-four beats! I’ll lend my musical facilities to this wonderful, feel-good event any time!

July 22, 2004
Seattle, WA: Conor Byrne’s Pub

I’m delighted to see more folk pushing the cause of the local musician—as Eva Tree and Anna Coogan have begun by offering these monthly local-songwriter in-the-rounds at Conor Byrne’s Pub in mighty Ballard—and just as thrilled to accept an invitation to perform for such an event. With me this evening are Puget’s Sound veterans Eva and the peerlessly-passionate Bob Antone, along with Bill Lavoie and Val (why don’t she and her powerful voice ’n’ guitar play out more, darnit!) D’Alessio. We’re good for five times ’round the horseshoe, and the impromptu accompaniments begin almost immediately: Bob adds some of his spirited fiddle to my songs “Every Now and Then a Sunset,” “Left Me With No Choice,” and my new, Washington-focused re-write of “I’ve Been Everywhere,” which continually proves a nice addition as we work out in the sweltering July heat. (There’s a convenient fan right at the foot of the stage, which makes things bearable—but, unlike Eva, I don’t have hair enough to take advantage of its potential ‘singin’-in-the-wind’ visual effect...) Fun times chasing each others’ songs, jumping in, and kicking back with a nicely appreciative (and sweaty) house. Hope Eva and Anna keep these up!

May 29, 2004
Seattle, WA: Northwest Folklife Festival

Memorial Day means camping to some, barbeques to others, boating, sleeping in, working in the yard... In my circles, however, Memorial Day weekend brings the all-consuming, over-stimulating fracas that is the Northwest Folklife Festival. My main set comes on Saturday this year, kicking off the “Life Beyond the Cascades” stage...at 11:00 AM. Hosts Carlos Alden and Dan Maher—both playful musical nemeses from my eastern-Washington past—do their expected and collective worst to incite the emergent, not-yet-drizzled-upon crowd. All in all, this proves a very comfortable way to play Folklife, and I feel good enough to debut my new re-write of Geoff Mack’s great trucking song, “I’ve Been Everywhere,” which exclusively features Washington State place names: I’ve been to Pasco, Tenino, Potholes, Indianola.... It goes over very well, and I wonder if my half-hour on the Fisher Green stage might emerge as one of the more relaxed moments of the weekend...

May 3, 2004
Seattle, WA: Hop Vine Pub

For six years the convivial, kind, and eminently approachable Kurt Myhaver has run the Monday singer/songwriter showcases at the Hop Vine Pub; and now, with a move to Maine imminent, I’m honored that he’s asked me to play the penultimate show (with Steve Key—seen a lot of him lately...though he, too, will be skipping town in a week’s time—and Amy Roberts). Amy opens the show with a nice set of tunes, eventually yielding to Steve, who, as he’s done once before, has asked me to join him on mandolin (we’ve never sat down and really worked through any songs...). His set also finds a nice rhythm and all (including Steve—which is important!) seem to enjoy my on-the-fly accompaniment. My set’s last, and I break out a few that I haven’t tried in a while to close the nice evening of Monday music. Best to you, Kurt!

April 30, 2004
Seattle, WA: Best of the Northwest Spring Craft Fair

While the airplane-hanger site of the 2004 Best of the Northwest Spring Craft Fair at Seattle’s old Sand Point Naval Station is, one must admit, pretty cool, the air inside on this gorgeously hot-’n’-hazy Friday afternoon is not. I had accepted the two-hour slot (from my friend and former UW T.A. turned Contra-danceband-booking-magnate Adam Carlson) thinking that the second hour would be a great chance for my accustomed Friday-afternoon hobbyband (never named, though we briefly toyed with the idea of Hasselbeck) to make its public debut. (The now mostly-defunct ensemble included fellow Pullman-bred Travis Luther, lately of Ultra Find and other projects, and David Bush, another good friend and intermittent collaborator with his hand in at least a half-dozen other musical adventures around town.) With Travis off to Colorado, however, the two hours were mine alone (though the posted schedule wistfully announced the presence of “Wes Weddell & friends”—perhaps the transitory audience took ‘friends’ to mean ‘harmonicas’...).

The set sounds and feels good, many in the non-committal audience respond positively, and the ensuing ice cream bar from Scotty’s Northwest Cuisine is one of the best I’ve ever had. Just another grand spring day in the neighborhood...

April 23, 2004
Seattle, WA: Richard Hugo House (S5)

Having spent so much time of late pushing the cause of the local musician with the Puget’s Sound series and related endeavors, I’m excited to remember the performer and songwriter in me (my real calling, darnit!) with an appearance in mover-and-shaker Steve Key’s S5 series: the Secret Society of Seattle Singer/Songwriters (don’t tell). Steve has done a nice job pairing able local acts with traveling singer/songwriters, and I’m honored to split tonight’s bill with an award-winning Bay-Area gentleman named Christopher Smith.

Steve opens the show with his trademark affability and a few great tunes, soon handing the stage to Christopher for a set of well-crafted songs. I begin to see some why Steve might’ve billed us together—Christopher’s clever wordplay and clear, versatile expressiveness remind me of many of my aspirations when writing. The cafe/bar finally opens, and I go on after a short intermission, playing to a nice, familiar crowd of appreciative listeners and enthusiastic clappers. An emotional and fragile as-yet-untitled song (someone else’s personal story) that’s been over a year in the making makes its debut, allowing me to meet a goal I’d set of having this one done by this evening...which feels pretty good! In fact, the whole durn evening feels pretty good!!

April 18, 2004
Spokane, WA: Nacho Celtic Hour

Three years ago, while deeply immersed in The Project, I appeared on Carlos Alden’s Nacho Celtic Hour, a great weekly radio program on Spokane’s NPR affiliate, KPBX. Carlos interviewed me some, I played a couple of tunes, and then we opened the phones to listeners who might have ideas about local songwriting topics as I used their ideas to write on the fly—‘Folk Radio on the Edge,’ we called it. Knowing I would be in the area over the weekend, Carlos, himself a fine Celtic player (with the Celtic Nots) and songwriter, has invited me back and, after a brunchtime taste of Spokane’s inaugural Dim-Sum enterprise, we again challenge listeners to do their worst/best. The ensuing medley this time includes a probing, Western-identity-soul-searching treatise on folk who move to the Methow Valley (or like areas) looking for that elusive ‘something’ and a showtuney coda remembering grand Lake Missoula and her impact on our landscapes and lives today. Maybe you’ll see part of this again...

April 13, 2004
Vancouver, WA: Washington State University-Vancouver

WSU-Vancouver twice had me down last year—both great visits—to present songs and materials from The Project, and I’m happy to find myself guesting for Susan Tissot’s Senior Public History class once again. This time, however, I’m not battling food poisoning (as I was when I appeared before this class last April!), and the results with regard to my disposition are manifest. It’s rare anymore that I play the entire Northwest Home set, and I enjoy digging out some of the songs I don’t play very frequently (“Row, Row Your Boat, ” “We’ve Got Stories”...), but some of my rhetorical gimmicks suffer from having the lyrics simultaneously on display (like watching a sitcom in closed-captioning—the timing’s lost). I also salt the playlist with some relevant Woody Guthrie (who, Susan tells me, is largely an unknown among her current students; bummer...), James Stevens, etc.

The first musical voyage in the new-used car goes quite smoothly (though I should do something about the carnivorous tape deck; I did a lot of yodeling on the way down...); farewell Blue-Beauty-cum-Dented-Dinghy: you served me well! Also great to see good, old friends and catch up.

March 28, 2004
West Seattle, WA: West Seattle Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

This was supposed to be Steve Key’s gig, but he had to run to Portland on short notice and graciously referred me. After years of experiencing the (Right) Reverend Jim-Bob’s grand UU revivals—my father’s triumphant Unitarian guest-appearances across the Northwest, to the uninitiated—I’m well prepared to address this gathering of delightful, community-minded West Seattleites, and they seemed equally predisposed to welcome me and my two tunes: David Mallett’s masterful “Garden Song” (for the kids); and Josh Ritter’s “Snow is Gone”, a fitting and uplifting spring melody to preface Rev. Peg Boyle Morgan’s service entitled “The Abundance of Invitations.” Many smiling, enthusiastic faces, and a pleasant social hour afterward!

February 26-8, 2004
San Diego, CA: International Folk Alliance Conference - Seattle Sounds Showcase

How does one begin to describe to the uninitiated the over-stimulating fracas that is the annual International Folk Alliance Conference? Or, perhaps more challenging, driving rain in San Diego?? I pause during a quiet Wednesday dinner in San Diego’s Old Town with co-Seattle Sounds-mates John Nelson and Nancy K. Dillon to breathe the fragrant, floral air and enjoy the peace while I have it. By the time I’ve begun putting up posters the next morning, it’s gone and, as I write this, I’m still searching for some of it!

Jenn Adams remarks that the conference is like “kid-in-a-candy-store” time for her, and I wish that my deeply-committed organizing drive allowed for more of that feeling in myself. I come close sharing bawdy jokes (when I ought to be networking with folk-radio DJs!) with Tom Paxton, Steve Seskin, and dear friend David Maloney, but too soon I’m back to fretting over the upcoming Seattle Sounds showcase, which’ll feature thirty individual performance slots and four in-the-round sessions over the course of two late evenings; further, I board a plane for Portland at 6:45 Saturday morning—merely five hours after my last performance!—to drive out to Astoria and attend a relative’s wedding...and I’ll end up wasting my first-ever first-class upgrade (for weight-and-balance purposes, they tell me, though I’m not sure that I’m the best choice given my wiry body-type) fast asleep over the slowly waking western coast.

Despite a pretty major hotel screw-up (not the only one, I hear...and that’s not even counting the serious fire in one of the showcase rooms!) that booted us from our original, advertised room (sigh), the showcasing plods along at its spontaneous and serendipitous best, complete with requite drop-ins, drama, jams, stress, and occasional smiles all around. And good coffee—we take representing Seattle very seriously! More physically and emotionally taxing than last year for a variety of reasons, but I’ll catch back up. And, sometime MUCH later, I’ll also think about whether I want to take this damned thing to Montreal next year...!!

Fri., February 6, 2004
Leavenworth, WA: Leavenworth Community Coffeehouse

I’m starting to think that I could settle in Leavenworth, the little Bavarian hamlet in the Cascade foothills. Behind the faux-Alpine Dairy Queen and Rodeway Inn lies a wonderful, vibrant community of good folk surrounded by stunning mountain and river-valley vistas that are as awesome in today’s heavy snowfall as they are on a clear summer day. Jessica and I have come over the pass the previous night in order to make my early-morning radio spot more doable, and I’m out the door of our delightfully-energetic hosts’ house as the snow’s just starting to pick up. The KOHO studio is always cozy and welcoming (donuts!), and I’m happy to swing by even for the smallest of radio spots, which this morning yields.

With a full, free day looming before the gig, Jess and I set about snow-romping and visiting the wonderful little shops that dot downtown and beyond (the new guitar store, Hi Strung Music, proves to be a real treat!!). After a great home-cooked dinner back at Alex’ and Amanda’s (I love homestays!) I’m off to the Grange Hall for the gig, long a coveted performance by Northwest artists given the Coffeehouse’s loyal following and spirit (one of my inspirational templates for the Puget’s Sound series). Though I hear that audiences have been slower of late, I’m still happy to play to a modest gathering of enthusiastic concertgoers (next time, I’ll have to make sure not to schedule myself opposite a home basketball game at the high school—you’d think I’d’ve figured that out by now given the number of small towns I play... Pleasant weekend, as expected; gonna have to make it back.

Fri., January 23, 2004
Seattle, WA: USA Songwriting Competition Showcase

The true ‘thrust’ of this gig—booked/coordinated entirely via e-mail (not unusual)—has remained somewhat murky in the weeks leading up to it (I’m ‘required’ to provide a certain number of audience members at a showcase for a contest I never entered...), and things don’t exactly come right together as I enter the downtown Borders on this drizzly, traffic-heavy evening. Shea, a personable Borders employee, explains to me that the host for these monthly showcases never comes (?!), but that folk usually pay mild attention. As I begin to fill in the (considerable) blanks in the sound system with pieces I have brought, it appears that neither of the other two musicians scheduled—fellow Seattle Sounds showcaser Kathryn Mostow and Texas refugee Michael Hill—are coming in addition! (Maybe they know something I don’t...or at least learned first!) I really didn’t sign up to play two hours to apathetic book/record-browsers, and I’m ready to burrow full-bore into my grumpy-pants when Kathryn and Michael arrive five minutes past scheduled start time. Friends arrive, too, and we make a perfectly pleasant evening of sharing tunes—proof what groups of good folk can do with a little time, space, and good-will! Coulda been a whole lot worse, but not how I’d hope to kick-off the new performance year... And I don’t imagine I’ll enter the USA Songwriting Competition (a Florida company, I hear...) anytime soon!