Seattle, WA: Conor Byrne Pub (Bushwick Book Club - The Outsiders)

Reading the book (I watched half the movie in 7th-grade), there was one passage that gave me an acute sense of déjà vu. I was elated to finally trace it to one of the first YouTube videos I ever saw.

In the hours before the show, I played a baseball game in my head between the Greasers and the Socs. The home-team Greasers win, 5-3, with Sodapop pitching a complete game victory. Soc Bob leaves early due to injury; Greaser Johnny does, too, later after laying down a sacrifice. Dally Winston goes 3-for-5 with an RBI, but is caught stealing late.

I didn't write my song about either of these things. Instead, I serenaded the noisy Bushwick crowd in this room with a fabricated history of Windrixville (where Ponyboy and Johnny escape via train-hopping after Johnny stabs Bob) and the doomed hilltop church: "All That's Left Behind."

Seattle, WA: Town Hall / KUOW 94.9-FM NPR

It's a lovely coup for Geoff to score The Bushwick Book Club a spot on KUOW's widely-heard Weekday program (on which I also appeared ~8 years ago for "Songs of the Northwest")--now doing periodic live broadcasts from stunning Town Hall--and alongside Nancy Pearl (alternately here) no less! I'll even survive a 7am call for it. (Someday I'll play here in the PM...)

Fun challenge to try to fit the context of the 'Bagpipe' song into a compressed radio timeline...and also find 2-4 relevant-and-clever lines of something to 'riff' on the News of the Week during the second hour. Fine work, too, from Geoff (of course), Tai Shan, MoZo, Vince Martinez, and Bucket of Honey (on whose Batman-inspired piece I play guitar for the recording used in the new Bushwick compilation CD, which also features said "Bagpipe" from yours truly).

Vashon, WA: Vashon Farmers Market

Some folk do these kinds of gigs all summer...I tend to show up more as a customer. (Look at the size of those carrots...!) Favorite exchange:

Me, to a group of young kids who've been impatient for me to start all through set-up:
"You guys wanna sing one with me?"

The kids--plainly but definitively, on their own respective initiatives without coercion from those among the group:
"Nope."


Feels strange to leave beautiful Vashon mid-afternoon on a gorgeous day like this, but evening work with R&M beckons.

Seattle, WA: Conor Byrne Pub

Things tend to move on Conor Standard Time here, but that's part of the charm. Got the full outfit along for a fun evening with The Half Brothers (love the bluegrass "White Wedding") and Brian Ledford and Cadillac Desert (who came to rock). Glad to be the inaugural Bushwick Book Club ticket giveaway, too...

Seattle, WA: Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival

This thing's been going for 35 years now, with Puget's Sound helping out on the music end for the last several. With the opening of Lake Union Park now, we're taking it farther into the evening on the Fourth-proper, and I've dragged Alicia and Dave with me to get folks in the mood on this pleasant holiday evening. Seeing a British Airways 747 leaving town as we loaded in seems appropriate on today of all days...

Seattle, WA: Fred Wildlife Refuge (Bushwick Book Club - The People's History of the United States)

Walking through this place, with its fresh floor-to-ceiling coat of white paint, one becomes a modern art installation. And Geoff has brought America to it and to us on this Third of July: baseball; barbecue; and plenty of red, white, and blue schwag... Singing the anthem falls to me, and I find the rules of engagement similar to making a toast at a wedding: be (mostly) sober and get-in-and-get-out (don't mention exes, either). My key: A.

We've each been assigned two chapters of Howard Zinn's remarkable work, with me drawing numbers 9 ("Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom") and 10 ("The Other Civil War"). And though the renters featured in the latter are definitely my people, it's the first chapter that becomes the focus of my tune, "Memory and Make-Believe." Some years ago I tried to shake myself out of a dry spell with a revisionist response to the Jamie O'Hara's "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)," made famous by the Judds, polling friends and family for suggestions of things that are better today. The song itself wasn't much of a keeper, but the exercise did get me going, and I found myself taking a different crack at some of the same themes with this tune--particularly the romantic ideal of "Gone With the Wind," and the inherent daydream assumption that, if transported to that time, one would be rich (and white).

Seattle, WA: Auntmama's Storycorner @ Madison Park Starbucks

In a perfect world events like this would happen every night in every coffeeshop in town: an intimate group sharing stories, perhaps on a theme (Father's Day tonight), perhaps with light instrumental underscoring (me!). Auntmama does a great job of finding that comfortable middle ground between casual/impromptu gabbing over coffee and rigid performance (these are 'prepared'--or pre-written--pieces), where the vibe is easy but the quality is high. And, as a story-focused songwriter, I find myself a natural fit among touching and funny offerings from Auntmama, Olubayo Johnson, and Kathya Alexander. Check out Auntmama on KBCS or live (particularly the Rain City Tales & Tunes events)!