Random thoughts and why I love KFOG

Today was a glorious waste of time… much needed…

It started with a trip to a city far away to buy a CD… KFOG (local radio station, KFOG.com )releases a “Live from the Archives” CD every year… at least for the last 16 years… there was a Warriors CD before but that doesn’t count… (It does if you have it, and I do). The CD is based on otherwise unreleased live tracks collected by the radio station… (that would be KFOG 104.5 San Francisco… a really good radio station…)

I have them all, (and the warrior's CD) bought when released… Today they released number 16… They sell them though Peet’s Coffee.. (a really good local coffee place)…

Normally I would go to my local Peets and pick up the CD… but that was before last year… Last year T and I were not home for the release… We were on our way to a cruse to celebrate our anniversary… We left our daughter at home to feed the animals (we have too many animals) and take care of things…. including purchasing the KFOG CD…

Steph took her responsibility seriously… She went to the Redwood City Peet’s and hung out with Annalisa…. KFOG midday DJ…. She called us as we were boarding a cruise ship… and put Annalisa on the phone… So, on vacation, DJ on your favorite radio station calls you… Too cool…

Shift to December… I won tickets to the KFOG Christmas concert… The Pretenders and Amos Lee… Great concert… made better because my “free” tickets were in the last row of the balcony… and Amos Lee’s manager had (much better) tickets to give away… and we got there early to see Amos Lee, and as a result were given much better tickets on the floor…

Annalisa was there… we ran into her… she recognized Steph…

So, today they released the new CD… Annalisa was at the Saratoga store… So I drove to Saratoga… Annalisa remembered Steph (again) told her co-worker “she is a big fan of Mat Nathanson (true, and Mat Nathanson has a track on this years CD) She also remembered that we talked last year on release date… I love this radio station (really for the music, but damn, they know who their fans are too) Disclaimer: Annalisa is recently married… I am happily married… this is about music… (but Annalisa is cute…) Annalisa signed Steph's CD... Mine too...

Done with buying the CD I made another stop in the South Bay (aka San Jose) then was stuck in a major traffic jam… a truck had overturned and burned on the freeway… upside, I got to listen to the whole thing… downside… traffic…

I visited my local used book pusher… (B street Books in San Mateo) He got me for 9 books… a really good hit… its reading time ….

Checked in with T at the studio (Aanrakru Glass http://www.bayareastainedglass.com/ )
She was working on a Peacock window for me… we went to dinner at the local sushi joint… Sushi Sam’s… (http://www.sushisams.com/) I had the chef’s choice sashimi… (at the recommendation of a fellow glass artist....) It was spectacular… yellow fin, amber fin, octopus, maguro and toro tuna, Really really good…

Tomorrow is our anniversary… Our 29th anniversary…

We will do something… not sure what yet…

Bye

Radio Musings... my daily music

Most morning I get up early, and turn on the radio, KFOG, 104.5

This am, early, the daughter (Steph) and I went to the Epic Roast House for the KFOG birthday party… We got up early, and were rewarded with the front table…  It is KFOG's 30th... accidentally I was listening when they changed formats... I was at the mother-in-laws who likes "Easy listening" which was their previous format... Her (the mother in law) has her easy listening station on when... Rock this town was played, changing the face of SF radio, and upsetting the mother-in-law... All was good...

Back to the Epic Roast House... There was good food, good drinks, and like minded folks nearby….

Rosalie was doing “Acoustic Sunrise”… Her husband was there… (we, Steph and I) met him (her husband, not Shawn) at a concert in the play space many years ago… Shawn Mullins… Latter I win tickets to his (Shawn, not the husband) GAMH show…  Tina and I go, and are now regulars at the ”Music Hall”

This morning, Annalisa was there, later in the morning… we got hugs… Steph made a connection at a Live from the Archives roll out some years ago… she was buying CDs for the two of us, as I and the lovely Tina were on vacation… I received a phone call while boarding a cruise ship in Tampa… from Annalisa…  I bet your favorite DJ doesn’t call you while you are on vacation… mine does…  I am spoiled.  Steph and Annalisa talked about Steph’s love, infatuation with singer Matt Nathinson…

Since we (Annalisa, Steph and I) have met at a “Concert for Kids”… the Pretenders and Amos Lee….  I won tickets on KFOG, in the last 2^nd to the last row… then once seated, early, was upgraded by Amos Lee’s manager to a much better seat… At intermission Annalisa saw, recognized Steph… Dad (aka me) was introduced…  It is kind of good when your radio heroes know who you are… it is unexpected… it is good…

I have seen her at since Live from the Archives roll outs… once without Steph (who was in Maryland…) since with Steph…  a couple of times… she remembers us… this is not expected… One CD was signed in a  faux Matt signature…   Steph is the girl who likes Matt… 

Today, we have a front row table… We drink Mimosas… corn chowder, apples empanadas, French toast, lots of food… all good… No, great… we need to go here for lunch… we are impressed….

Today, Annalisa arrives, sees us, gives us hugs…  Our radio station or at least the mid day DJ, loves us… 

Then, late in the broadcast, a surprise… Annalisa is leaving the station, the mid day role… there is a ceremony… Rosalie, Annalisa, Rene… handing off the role… the mid day, including 10 at 10…. From Rosalie, to Annalisa, to Rene… the spirit of Dave Morey is there, in the room… There are tears…  Dennis, the program manager is there… this is not a firing… it is a transition… Dennis will be blamed…  He always will be, deserved or not… this time not… Rene talks to us… 

It is weird and unexpected when the staff at “your” radio station are friends, or at least folks you know…

After the broadcast, Steph and I go up to say goodbye… To Annalisa…  Annalisa comes around the table for hugs…   It is unexpected…  We walk away… Annalisa calls to Steph… You will get your Matt some day (Matt Nathinson) Steph calls  back… There is the wife issue (sadly Matt is married…) …   All laugh… 

Annalisa’s sign off…  On Friday…

Last song: What a wonderful world by Johnnie Ramon.  Annalisa then said "I love you" and left….She  realized “just like many of my past boyfriends did to me.”

Through the day we listen… to friends… to music…  And hope Annalisa has  better boyfriends…

Happy Birthday KFOG, good luck Annalisa… 

PS… new information… Annalisa will start as the morning DJ on KFOX…  as someone on her Facebook page said, X is the new G…  Steph programmed one of Klinger the Jeep’s radio buttons… for KFOX…  KFOG still has button No. 6, but KFOX now own’s No. 5…

A tale of two (or three Daves) and music, and broken guitars and airplanes…. and trains….

Sometime in 2008 or so, Canadian folk musican Dave Carroll lost his Taylor guitar to the United Airlines baggage monkeys…  Well, he didn’t lose it, but after they were through (or threw) with it it wasn’t much good, at least as a musical instrument… 

United was not (at least initially) sympathetic… That loss led to three songs (start with “United Breaks Guitars”…. Search from there)  and a line of airline proof guitar cases…  The first song has something like 16 million downloads… likely many more…  

I may have blogged about it… in 2009… 4 years ago…  I may have I mentioned how much I dislike United Airlines… I pay extra to avoid United Airlines… 

Fast Forward… I have a favorite radio station… KFOG… For a big commercial radio station they are surprisingly local and accessible…  I may have blogged about them too…  More than once… including several posts about the retirement of long time DJ Dave Morey… an icon of Bay Area radio… the father of 10 at 10… the first DJ back on September 16^th 1984 when the station, at least the rock version was born… Back in December 2008, (December 19^th, 2008) Dave retired… Steph and I waved “Fogheads Love Dave” signs at the Christmas concert… I noted his last song on the blog (this blog)… plus the songs played by Annalisa afterward…  (Steph and Annalisa got to know each other… at a Live from the Archives release…  Annalisa called me, while I was boarding a ship… in Tampa, headed for Central America)… we may have seen Annalisa since… even since she left KFOG…. There are blog posts about that too)  

KFOG has a recording studio in the station… they invite artists into the studio to record tracks both for general radio play, but also for inclusion in their annual “Live from the Archives” CD…  They invite listeners in… 20 at a time… to the recording sessions… either via email, or by being “caller No 10” (it is not always caller no 10… but you get the idea)  over the years, I have been caller No 10 4 times… once, they changed the date… and I had to pass, but, I have been in the studio three times…

Most recently… last week…Steph and I were there to see folk singer David (aka Dave) Wilcox…  Steph and I were at the Studio at 8:30 am… on a Thursday… into the studio by 9:00…  It was a great session… conversations and introductions then 5 songs, then conversation, then one more song… for Rosalie… DJ… host… person who gave me tickets… (for I was caller No 10... )

We discovered that Dave Wilcox has a different airline/guitar strategy…a airline proof guitar… no wood, all carbon fiber… nearly indestructible… you can hand it to baggage monkeys with confidence, Indestructible… the coackroach approach… He says it it is a good guitar… not a wonderful rich lively guitar… but a good guitar… and you can hand it to baggage monkeys… 

Then, he sang a song about worn things… before, he talked about  a ride on a cable car… and how he appreciated the well used character of the car… chipped and worn paint… a patina…  not worn out, but well and long used…  Equated this to a guitar… no a carbon fiber guitar… a wooden guitar…

The tale of the cable car spoke to a personal experience… My hobby is rebuilding old, wooden railroad cars….I have a bit or experience with cable cars, and the men who today maintain them.   Today, in a shop south of a street formerly called Army, three men build and rebuild cable cars for the Municipal Railway of San Francisco… building new cable cars of wood, pulled together with iron rods… 

A few years ago, I tuned a wooden passenger car… a wooden car held together with iron rods… as I tightened rods, the car straightened… sags disappeared…  It was magical… I have spent the last three years researching, trying to find a 19^th century reference to what happened when I tightend the various rods holding the car in tension… much like tuning a guitar…

The cable car guys I have talked to tell me a new cable car isn’t right for about 10 years… it’s too tight at first… too rigid… it needs to break in… get loose, and get lively…

It seems a cable car, a wooden railroad car is much like a good guitar… It is alive… The use, and cracks add to the beast…  we could make it “better” out of iron and graphite… but it wouldn’t be as lively… as alive…

I will stick to wood…

Music… a sound track for my life…

I find myself following music… much like a follow the yellow line down the center of a road… occasionally leaving the road to follow some interesting path…  dodging dead skunks and armadillos…  It is a journey of connections, events, people and influences…

 Like music, I rarely sit in silence…  the radio(KFOG) is playing in the background in the early morning… later it may be the TV instead, not so much to watch, but as background noise…  Late at night, I generally shift to CD’s or vinyl… in the car it is the radio, mostly music, but NPR and who ever might have the best traffic report…  At work when at my desk it is KFOG again…  I look for concerts, buy CD’s sometimes downloads… 

We (Tina and I) recently attended a house concert, Mike Compton playing mandolin…  We attend a lot of house concerts, small venue concerts…  Our favorite is ”Acoustic Tune ups and Joe’s Garage”… If it is a stand up show (Slim’s or the Fillmore) Steph joins me in place of the lovely Tina… she is beyond stand up venues…  If neither is available I will go by myself…  Recently I spent three days in the redwoods listening  to music at the Kate Wolf Festival by myself (with several  thousand of my new friends) The pull of the music is strong…

If I attend a concert, I generally visit the “merch table” and pick up a CD or two, occasionally a t-shirt…  The CD’s generally from the earlier acts… I probably have the current CD’s from the headliners already.  Over the next weeks I listen to the CD’s… getting to know the group… some continue in the rotation, some are filed in the CD shelf’s, rarely to surface…  

The best lead me down a road… looking for more related music… googleing (is it spelled google-ing or googl –ing?, what is the rule on the last “e”…  Microsoft word’s dictionary doesn’t know… of course, Google is a competitor… and there for ignored, shunned if possible…).  Back to the blog, I Google the musicians, the back-up musicians, song writers, covers of the same song…  Each can be its own road… with more music, more roads, sometimes alternate paths to follow…

When I find an interesting artist, I sign up for updates at their websites… I occasionally Google them…  I look at their page on Amazon…

I am planning a road trip in a week…  music is important on a road trip… hours driving frequently away from good radio signals… having music available is good… it is a good time to listen to full albums, with limited distractions…  So I Googled several favorite artists… and found some new stuff…  Likely the best is a Guy Clark tribute album “This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark”… it is on in the background while I write this… The album is Guy Clark’s friends, playing Guy Clarks songs…  It has meaning…  I am familiar with them sung by Guy, but the different caring voices let the lyrics sing in a different way… It is likely influencing this blog post… From a song just played, “Stuff That Works”  “I got a woman that I love…. I got a tattoo with her name right through my soul”…  Tina, I love you… 

There are a number of song writers that I follow… Guy Clark, Gram Parsons, Towns Van Sant… I have followed the sound of a Gram Parsons song into a bar on Beale Street… with my daughter, only to find it was the only Gram song the duo knew, but sat happily listening for three beers…  My cousin was playing guitar at a family reunion at Thanksgiving… along the banks of the Merced in Yosemite…  He played one of Gram’s… I said something… he said his favorite was Towns… I don’t think we have talked about music that way in the last 40 years…  It brings us closer…

Back to Mile Compton… I bought three CD’s…  inside one was a postcard… a questionnaire… a survey… with a possible reward of 30 CD’s from his record label if I return it… They are looking for my contact information to add to a mailing list…

Beyond that, under the heading:  “And if you have a minute…” (complete with three dots) were 4 open questions… plus a 4 more multiple choice questions…  the question that got my attention, and lead to this blog post was; “How do you find out about new music?”… (this time my three dots)

I think they get it… The new paradigm… music beyond labels… A&R men… Music for music… But, it calls the question… how do I find out about new (to me) music…  They give me about 4” to answer… not nearly enough…  hence the blog post, the answer to the question.

Among the multiple choice questions is another interesting “thing”…. They offer four alternatives for the question “what kinds of music are you interested in”… among the choices is “Americana”…  A new category trying to define a place between country (and western) and rock and folk… 40 years ago Gram called it “Cosmic American Music”… Houston Jones calls it “High Octane American Music”… Americana works…  In the current mix in the truck’s CD player is a new CD by Chris Doud, “The Story Song”… I found Chris through his participation in the band “Good Time Thrift Store Outfit”…  I bought his CD at the Kate Wolf Festival.

The CD player has now flopped to the Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” … the first single I ever bought… they lead me to Emmy Lou, to Levon Helm… Emmy Lou and Levon lead me to Gram, who lost his battles with his demons before I found him…

Back to Chris… I found Good Time Thrift Store Outfit at a concert at Slim’s… I followed them to the Kate Wolf Festival… Chris is the lead vocalist, co-song writer with WilleTeaTaylor…  Chris has a song, “Guitar Case Sticker”…  about a folk singer (“the good news he’s a great folk singer, the bad news is he is a great folk singer…”) It contains the line “ Americana was created by industry folks to give us  folk singers a second chance”

Back to Mike Compton… I sent the post card with the survey back…  It seemed to matter…

Bye, Randy

Accidental experiments in experimental archeology…

Experimental archaeology (we will just call it EA) is a somewhat controversial field, prone to public stunts. At its core someone tries to duplicate lost technology as accurately as possible to gain insight into the technology.

There is a good (many wiki pages aren’t very good, this one is, and is footnoted… I probably will write about my love of footnotes some day…) (I bet you can’t wait) wiki page on the EA at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_archaeology .

I realized my wood splitting is in fact an EA experiment… I am learning how much time and effort it took to heat a 19th century home… Yesterday I spent close to 20% of my time tending the gathering wood, splitting it, and tending fires. And the damn house was still cold… Similarly, a few times a year we light the house with oil lamps and candles… again, it takes significant time to fill the lamps, trim the wicks, clean shades and light everything. It takes lots of lamp oil (more than a gallon a day). It rapidly becomes obvious that they didn’t light the house much… a couple of lamps maybe, only in the rooms they were using.

10 years ago I lead a crew that built a wooden railroad flatcar during Railfair 99 in Sacramento. Usually we rebuild 19th century narrow gauge cars… this one was a 20th century standard gauge car. All the parts were heavier and larger. Heavy enough that they likely would have needed mechanical help to lift beams into place… This wasn’t true of the narrow gauge cars… there was no part which couldn’t be lifted by 6 men…

The draft gear took as long as building the rest of the car on our last narrow gauge project… The Sacramento car had iron bolsters… like the draft gear it was much slower work…

This says a great deal about the infrastructure needed to support the technology, something I wouldn’t have understood if I hadn’t built a couple of railroad cars with 19th century technology.

On other subjects, three people have asked what Dave’s last song was… (You can listen to his last show at www.kfog.com) He came on for a moment after 10 at 10 only said it wasn’t a Beatles song… then played Friends by Elton John…

Friends was followed by without commercial or other interruptions….
I left My heart in San Francisco - Tony Bennet
Hello Good bye - the Beatles
You didn’t have to love me but you did – Sam & Dave?
I always turn the car around – OAR
Love is the seventh wave – Police

Only then did Annalisa come on… In typical KFOG fashion no one has said anything about the set…

Morning observations

First an update on the stove… I got really dirty taking the stove apart. The stove problem turned out to be a piece of fiberglass insulation used to seal the flue… So in a sense the solution to the problem had become the problem… too often true.

It continues to be cold and rainy... . Snow has been visible on the hills… At work I continue to spilt fire wood, now because I need the wood.

I have added a slide show to the blog… (of course you probably have already realized that) The first photos are from a trip to Peru a couple of years ago… It’s a spectacular place, with layer after layer of culture, archeology, and color…

A local morning radio DJ, Dave Morey, is retiring today… (http://kfog.com/ ) It seems strange but it seems like a funeral, shared by a large but undefined community… For myself, and many of us listening to the radio is really a solo activity, in the morning with my coffee as I read the paper or check email, in the car, but it seems like everyone I know is talking about Dave… the solo activity has evolved into a greater community…

Off to work..

Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas… Where ever Christmas finds you… Our son is in Everett on board his destroyer… He gets New Years off. One nephew is in Germeny, in the Army. We will miss them but take comfort in knowing they are safe.

It that time, time to start Christmas dinner…

But first a report on the state of the “Christmas Retail world”… It’s not good… I did a bit of last minute shopping this A.M.… nothing we couldn’t live without, but stuff we generally buy… I went to three stores… Target, Home Depot, and Trader Joes… lots of parking available, no lines… Trader Joes wasn’t as busy as a typical Saturday.

Later the wife and I went to the mall… again, lots of parking, few lines… we bought her a couple of pairs of shoes on drastic sale, 80% off, as Mervyns closes for good…

At least the local non-chain super market had lines…

Back to dinner… The Roast Beast is in the oven… the Yorkshire pudding batter is made and resting in the fridge with the salad dressing, sauce for the shrimp salad and horseradish sauce… I will prep the asparagus next, then plate the spinach salad and the shrimp… Tina is making pies, two Pecan chocolate pies, one for us tonight, the other for tomorrow at her brothers… she is also making a pumpkin chiffon for tomorrow…

The fire is lit. Music is on (Kfog, of course)

Tina is feeding the extra pumpkin to the feral cats, they seem to enjoy it but the house cats could care less…

Steph is walking dogs, the first bottle of wine is gone… Life is ok…

A note on the continuing report on Dave Morey’s last day… I have it on good authority that Friends was Dave’s last song… those that followed were Annalisa’s tribute…

May your Christmas be all you hoped it would be… Randy

The Christmas Color lithograph from Louis Prang & Co. c. 1862 was lifted from the Beyond the Exhibition blog. (ah, back to the footnote issue) bye again, Randy

Our cars, they define us...

With the Escape’s big anniversary, I seem to be stuck on writing about cars… Always an appropriate topic for those of us from California…

I drive a stick shift car. (The Escape… If you read this blog you know about THE Escape… It has become an old friend, beyond a car or truck or ….) I had to special order the Escape, with its 5 speed trans, 4 cylinder engine, 4 wheel drive, and high trim…

My wife drives a stick shift car. (A Mazda 3) It was hard to find a stick shift non turbo Mazda 3… I see a trend developing… It has 50 series tires... (if you don't know what that means, you will not understand)

My daughter drives a stick shift car. (Toyota Corolla, a 6 speed… its cool, a 6 speed…) We bought it used… from a Googler who was transferred to Zurich… his lost, our gain… He was French… not American… this may explain the transmission…. the trend continues…

My son drives a stick shift jeep. ( a jeep is different that a car… really, and Jeeps define a stick shift concept, abet not by choice) ….and there is a motorcycle too…

There are two Fiat 850 Spyders (Spyders is not a misspelling, it’s Italian) in the side yard, a 1969 in poor shape bought in 1976, named the Rat, and a 1971, bought in 2005, about half way through a full fame off (a difficult concept for a unibody car, but a good description of the work undertaken) named Red Molly, both with stick shifts… (4 speeds, old school) They don’t currently run, but we are working on that. Our, (Tina and I) fist date was in the Rat, Tina learned how to drive in the Rat of the 850’s… this might explain things…

We (our family) all drive… this is different that pointing a car… we participate in the experience… we are involved… We understand the shifting of gears… we are involved in the process of driving.

By now I am ranting… Sometimes I rant too easily, too often… I apologize.

Cars have become too easy… get in, turn the key, go… the car chooses the gear… the car knows if you are too close… the car is in control, because we are not. I want to choose when to shift, what RPM (they, the unwashed, unknowing they, don’t know what RPM is, or why they should know) I guess it’s ok to use the phone, or maybe not… The CHP may want to weigh into that one…

I (and apparently the rest of the family ) prefer to be more involved… First gear, its all right, Second gear, its all right, Third gear, its all right, Faster, its all right, (apologies to the Beach Boys… of course, Grandma Erma was the Little Old Lady from Pasadena, so it may be hereditary)

I also like to choose my music… particularly when driving (I like, no love KFOG our local radio station but they are an exception…) Mostly I choose my own CD’s to listen to… I carry 40 or 50 CD’s at any time…

I also carry equipment… two jacks… a tow rope… a shovel and an axe… I know how to get unstuck (usually.) Sometimes there is a come along and a block and tackle (with manila rope, really old school.) Brian’s jeep has a wench… He has bigger tires, better for most difficult roads, but difficult on the freeway at high speeds… ask about “death rattle” some time. I spent 500 miles in the jeep a freeway speed once…) I also carry a jumper cables… a jump box, wrenches and other tools… Three gallons of water, some motor oil and brake fluid… It’s all about being self reliant… Oh, yes, I also carry a AAA card… just in case.

The vehicles are not just objects… they are the magic carpets to other places… other places across town, across rough county… down country roads… to other places, some obscure. The music will follow us…

Randy

P.S. I have changed the mission statement for the blog (lower left) I am letting the blog be what it wants’ to be…

P.P.S. Today is the last day of summer… I am not ready… it hasn’t been hot… I haven’t had a chance to slow down…

Following the music…

I like music… but not the top not 40, pop crap (I said it) not the stuff on network TV, not American Idol or The Voice… Not the stuff found on TV or found at Target and Wal-Mart…

I like concerts… I like to spend time on the Web finding bands, music that looks interesting…

Within music, artists list “influences”… the artist that they find inspiring… Artists recorded music written by others…  It becomes a road map, a sometimes vague road map, but a path to follow.

Defining my likes is a bit difficult..  Graham Parsons called it Cosmic American Music, Houston Jones calls it High Octane American Music.  Its somewhere between traditional (not Nashville) country and rock…  It is sometimes called Folk… but not Kumbuya folk…  It is a challenge to fine in a record store (if you can find a record store…  Here in the best place to live in the world, San Francisco’s Bay Area we have several good stores to choose from… If you don’t live here, you have my condolences…)… much of what is called “Rock” is good for me as well…

At one time, my choices would have been defined by the “recording industry” with labels, signed artists, A&R men and radio stations, occasionally accepting Payola to play the corporately chosen music…

Modern technology is challenging the definition of who is in charge of the media… the delivery system… the music…

Cheap computers, mixing soft-wear, The Internet, The Web, especially Youtube blew that all to hell…  Any band with a couple of songs, a point of view, a mike and a computer can build a web site… upload songs to My Space, videos to You Tube… and create a presence…  The label is not needed… the Eagles don’t have a record contract… Contracts are not needed…

So, you may have to hunt to find music… I have a good radio station… KFOG… They have stumbled recently, but still have the best play list … they do 10 at 10 every day at 10:00 am… 10 songs from one year… they have Acoustic Sunrise on Sunday morning, Acoustic Sunrise Sunday evening…  they play music with a point of view… (and when I write the program director an email he answers… he cares) They pay stuff beyond the top 40 crap…. (crap is my point of view… defining much of commercial music)….

So, currently I am following several paths… Early this year the daughter and I attended a concert at Slims… a local club… we found the Comatose Brothers and the Good Time Thrift Store Outfit…  I am hooked on both groups, particularly The Outfit’s The Burden of Sea Captains  Big Jim’s Guitar, and Tow-truck…

Separately, a staff member, a young woman a bit younger than my daughter, suggested I look at  Nicki Bluhme… following her lead I find “Van Sessions” covers (other people’s songs) recorded while driving to concerts… I look to her regular work… She is married to a musician, Nick Blume, of the Mother Hips… on my radar, but not generally following… they have a side project “Broke Down In Bakersfield”  they call it Baskerville sound, but to me it sounds like Gram’s Cosmic American Music. They cover Gram Parson’s Luxury Liner… (40 tons of steel) Now I am following… and hooked… badly.

Broke Down In Bakersfield is playing the Kate Wolfe festival… so is Good Time Thrift Store Outfit (they have a song, Tow Truck, about a driving from Oakdale to Jacksonville Florida… my son is driving to Jacksonville from San Mateo early next week… connections are everywhere…) and Comatose Brothers… And Richard Thompson, one time part of Freeport Convention….. and Blame Sally (The lovely Tina and I have seen them more than once… we really like them, and strangely, the lovely Tina bears a strong resemblance to Rene, of the Sallies…  We are now off track, but much of my musical journey is off track)  local girl band, just too good…  Connections, connections, connections…

So, I will go to Laytonville, to Black Oak Forest, to camp and listen to music the last weekend of the month…  I will enjoy the music, enjoy the place… Tina will be off watching gymnastics… Steph studying for finals…It will be therapeutic…  Sitting, listening, camping under the black oaks… 

Oh, and in a couple of days, I will be at Slim's again, to see the Indigo Girls... Live music... 

Randy