Seattle, WA: Columbia City Theater (Bushwick Book Club - Ball Four)

It finally happened: I wrote a baseball song.  After years of 'fielding' inquiries as to whether I had ever married the two great loves of my life, Jim Bouton's seminal book--and my loyalty to The Club--pushed me to it.  And, I must say, I still look pretty good in-uniform...

Photo: Melissa Thompson

Seattle, WA: The Crocodile (Bushwick Book Club - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

Back to the Croc for Bushwick-Oz gig #4 - this time with wizard-emcee!

Oysterville, WA: House Concert

It's been five years since I've played this marvelous series, and I've missed this audience--so engaged, literate, and appreciative!  Given all the literary connections, I structure the afternoon so that the second set will consist entirely of Bushwick Book Club songs, with attendees allowed to vote for fifteen particular books.  Top vote getters: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Slaughterhouse-Five; and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Lowest totals: 1984; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and The Holy Bible--judging from those last two, I know where folk weren't this morning...

Seattle, WA: Central Library (Bushwick Book Club - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)

Most Bushwick shows are one-and-done affairs when it comes to the material (and lineup), so to do a third Oz show (of four!) is uncharted territory.  Fun to see what changes and evolves...and what regresses...

Seattle, WA: Royal Room (Bushwick Book Club - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

And down the river we all go...

Seattle, WA: Fremont Fair

Fremont Fair is always a hoot (especially when the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir makes an appearance!), and I enjoy offering up a few Bushwick Book Club tunes to those hearty Seattleites unafraid of a little drizzle...even if I can't compete with Bucket of Honey's choreographed dance routines...  Thanks to the Fremont Abbey for hosting the stage!

Bellevue, WA: Bellevue Library (Bushwick Book Club - Michael Pollan)

For the initial-conscious: another BWBC KCLS gig, this one being recorded by KBCS for future broadcast.

Seattle, WA: Northwest Folklife Festival

Eight.  That's my number of engagements at Folklife this year: five Saturday (all stacked one after another); three Sunday.  Solo set, Bushwick Book Club, sidemanning with Reilly & Maloney and Nancy K. Dillon, Emerald City Songwriter Circles...  Lotta good music!

Lake Forest Park, WA: Third Place Books (Bushwick Book Club - Michael Pollan)

I'm getting pretty solid on the song, now...

Seattle, WA: Crocodile Cafe (Bushwick Book Club - Michael Pollan)

Anything to reprise Lonesome Dove's cow-or-weed? quiz--fits pretty well with Michael Pollan, if I do say so myself.  Keep Seattle reading, Bushwick Book Club, and keep Seattle grimy, Croc!

Photo: Melissa Thompson

Bookings, Books, & Baseball

Federal Way, WA: Federal Way Library (Bushwick Book Club - Michael Pollan)

As I visit more and more KCLS branches with The Bushwick Book Club, I'm continually impressed by the architecture and setting: this one feels like summer camp in the woods!  Nice to test out my Michael Pollan tune, too, in advance of next month's main show at The Crocodile.

Seattle, WA: Town Hall (Bushwick Book Club - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

Seems like I was just here...  I've moved on to Huck Finn, though, in what will be an ongoing collaboration between Bushwick and Book-It Repertory Theatre.

Seattle, WA: Town Hall (Bushwick Book Club - The Bible)

This is a big one (two nights!) with a lot of moving parts, from Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble and the mixed choir backing up the songwriters to the challenge of Bushwick Book Clubbers writing songs about such revered and potentially-controversial material itself...and performing it at Town Hall!  I drew Adam and Eve, and went hopeful (pre-apple) with a honky-gospel feel.  Kudos to all of the folk involved in pulling off such a big, ambitious, and successful production!

Photo: Melissa Thompson

Auburn, WA: Auburn Library (Bushwick Book Club - Pride & Prejudice)

The Bushwick Book Club is getting back into KCLS shows (there were several in 2011), and this foray comes on the first brilliantly-sunny Saturday of the year.  Figures.  Nice crowd, nonetheless, and fun to re-live parts of this show.  More library shows coming over the next few months!

Seattle, WA: Richard Hugo House (Bushwick Book Club - Ellen Forney's "Lust")

Ellen Forney's Lust--cartoon depictions of kinky on-line personal ads--lies well outside my usual source material, even as those boundaries have shifted and grown from different Bushwick Book Club selections.  But I'm glad for the challenge, and the chance to see how other writers approached this dirty-yet-affectionately-human work.  Plus, Ellen's on-hand...and willing to participate in tonight's quiz: LustLab username or AsSeenOnTV.com product?

Seattle, WA: Fremont Abbey (Bushwick Book Club - A People's History of the United States)

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle does Zinn, part deux (part une here).  This time I've drawn Chapter 25, an eight-page addendum beginning with the 2000 election, running through 9/11 up to the initial bombing of Afghanistan.  Heavy stuff, and tough build a show-closer from it, too!

Good thing we really closed with Neil Diamond's "America."

Photo: Melissa Thompson

Seattle, WA: Jet City Stream

What's this now?--a new, on-line radio station focusing on local artists?  And broadcasting from the old Rainier Brewery?!  How lovely--thanks, Jet City Stream!  Happy to come in with Bushwick Book Club curator Geoff Larson and Left Hand Smoke's Ben Mish to talk about upcoming shows,  etc.  (And congrats to LHS for placing a song on Grey's Anatomy tonight!)

Listen here

Seattle, WA: Annex Theatre

Emmett Montgomery is an inventive local comedian who hosts myriad area events, including the Book Club's 1984 show last September, and he carefully curates his Weird and Awesome shows to be just that.  Glad to be considered one or the other...!

Seattle, WA: The Royal Room (Bushwick Book Club - 2012 Jack Straw Anthology)

Jack Straw Productions is a Seattle non-profit that offers grants and assistance to local musicians, writers, and other artists.  Among its many projects, the organization produces a yearly anthology from its writers program, and The Bushwick Book Club has teamed up this month to offer a show of writer-songwriter pairings, the latter charged with writing a song inspired by the former's contribution to this year's anthology.  Lovely idea, and it comes off swimmingly!

I've drawn Nick Wong, who has contributed an essay about his experiences training in boxing gyms throughout Latin America.  I know very little about boxing, but in recalling how my favorite baseball writings don't deal exclusively with baseball (and I know a ton about baseball)--but rather address the ups and downs of life through the lens and terminology of baseball--I appreciate how Nick's piece does the same via boxing, and I'm excited to learn.  My song, "The Stance," draws from the entirety of the essay, but particularly this passage:

Entering a boxing gym in another country makes you a tourist in two ways. The first being the quite obvious one of being in another country, but the second is a more subtle form of diplomacy. The way you hold your hands, the distance of your stance, whether you lead left hooks off the jab or always follow up with the right hand, is a representation of your school. Essentially, it is your dialect to the language of boxing, and once you announce an intention to fight, the entire ambiance of the gym shifts; people stare as you walk by, silently estimating how you size up in the ring.

I feel very fortunate to have scored this pairing, but then so many serendipitous moments occur through the evening that I imagine it would have happened with anyone--the idea (and individuals producing content) is just that good.

Photos: Melissa Thompson