Bellevue, WA: Crossroads

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a curious choice for St. Patrick's Day entertainment...though my latest Bushwick Book Club offering, based on Shel Silverstein's poem "The Bagpipe Who Didn't Say No" and set to premiere at this coming weekend's events, has a bit of an Irish-y groove (probably should've been more Scottish...) and gets rushed into service. And I am wearing a green shirt. Crossroads, however, is the kind of place that might attract a crowd looking for not-the-usual-green-beer-and-pub-jams, and as such it's a fine fit as ever. Plus who can resist the chance to drop the non-profit's name and visit with sound guru Bob Conger?

Plugging Away

Seattle, WA: Century Ballroom (Bushwick Book Club - High Fidelity)

Over the last, oh, 10-or-so years if you told me I'd one day play The Stranger's famed (but conceived and promoted differently this year...) Valentine's Day show, I'd've called the bluff. Similarly, if you'd let me know I'd crack the Century stage, a holy grail of dance scene-age, I'd similarly scoff. Yet such is the magic of The Bushwick Book Club that here I am doing both.

Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is the charge this month (the book, unlike the John Cusack movie, takes place in London), and I've got a little waltz. [VIDEO] And a few people even dance!

Next month: Town Hall! (Seriously.)

Photos: Wade Trenbeath

Seattle: University of Washington

As I mention from time to time, this coming spring marks the 10th anniversary of the Project that really kicked off my involvement in the local music community and scene. This being the case, I recently made efforts to reconnect with the University of Washington's Mary Gates Endowment for Students, which lovingly awarded me its inaugural Venture Fellowship to aid in my efforts. The foundation asked me to speak (and sing) at this year's welcome event for new scholars--heck, Bill Gates, Sr., opened for me (in a manipulative manner of speaking)--and I gladly accepted.

Here's my 'official' account, complete with the entire text of my remarks. (For the full effect, read the speech and then watch this...!)

Uniontown, WA: Dahmen Barn

And sometimes it all comes together... I've admittedly viewed this trip with the band as a bit of an exercise in vanity--I really wanted to bring the whole outfit over for a hometown release, and was willing to be impractical in doing so. But turnout, space, response, performance, taco-buffet at the nearby Churchyard Inn B&B, you name it...all fantastic! Faces I haven't seen in years (and lots of 'em!) materialize inside the much-loved and much-used Artisan Barn (Dad had a hand in the wonderful restoration!), and it's a all tribute to so many things across so many different times. I joke about my the band's largely-fabricated "You're taking us where??" response, but my gratitude at their making the trip is real and tremendous. If this isn't success, I don't know what is...

Spokane, WA: nYne Bar & Bistro

I have wanted to take the full WW Band on the road--particularly toward the homeregion hinterlands--for years, and this weekend it finally comes together. I find myself wishing we were all 20 and happy to just throw-in and buy a van, heedless of careers, family, life... Of course, I wouldn't have the players I have now at 20--nor the relationships (among bandmates, I've known Drummer Dave for the shortest amount of time: 9 years)--but I suppose that's the trade. At any rate, I'm thrilled to offer 10-months-late CD Release events in Eastern Washington this weekend...and pleased that local media is as excited as I am.

nYne is an interesting spot: women's sports bar by day; club by night. The dance floor under the basketball hoop is a nice touch, but the promoter immediately begins covering it with seats (I guess we're not a dance band tonight). But wait, the cowboys are waltzing anyway... And the space is working splendidly!

Never enough time to see and visit properly with all the old friends and familiar faces, but touched to have 'em come out. Also a joy to have a band's-worth of foils...foils who play brilliantly, mind you, even if their post-gig meal plans don't always line up with mine... Great opening set from Mark Ward.

At 20, I stayed up this late every night!

Leavenworth, WA: Leavenworth Community Coffeehouse

This is such a great model for a community live-music series: 16 years strong. And, though I've certainly been through town in intervening moments, it's been an embarrassing seven years since I appeared under the Coffeehouse banner-proper. This is also a nice spot to kick of the spate of 'Project' 10th-Anniversary shows that will appear this year, as I celebrate the passage of a decade by highlighting and celebrating many of those songs and communities. (Choice line tonight from My Northwest Home: "Hard times have hit us too, you know, but see how we move on / When our logging towns go belly-up they go Bavarian.") Many more to come!

Seattle folk think I'm nuts for booking this gig this time of year, but I love the Bavarian Paradise in winter...though, to be fair, this town has stunning scenery to offer in all seasons. And though the evening's black-ice onset likely keeps some folk in, I lodge no complaints: how could I, when I'm waking up to this view (plus snow) from the Barn Beach Reserve's cozy River Room? Or this, from Icicle Ridge later that next morning?: