I am toward the end of a very busy weekend. Today was the big July 4th Parade in Mendocino. My first as a resident. We arrived around 10:30 and met up with Butch Kwan. Lonna positioned herself right by the bathroom while Butch and I went over and performed for a while on Main Street. We used the same location as out last visit - in front of what used to be the Irish Store. We played for about an hour to some good response. Butch is the first person I have worked with where we literally stop traffic most times we play on the street. Toward the end of it, another local guitar player (a fellow named Garth - carrying a brass resonator guitar) showed up. He sat in with us on our last few tunes, while Butch played violin.
I then left them to go get my stuff together for the parade. I used the Lyon & Healy oak guitar - I seem to use it for everything these days. I installed an undersaddle transducer a few months ago, and it really works great where I need more than acoustic reinforcement.
I believe the reception I got today was the best one yet of the three or four times I have done this event. I imagine it was related to the rise in my local reputation as of late (having a "local legend" for a partner is raising my level of recognition), coupled with the fact that I am becoming a regular face at the parade.
After the parade we went over and hung out at Friendship park. They had live music, including an appearance by Steven Bates playing guitar in one of the ensembles. That guy is a monster!
Last night we played in two different locations. Tamara Baxman put on a concert at the Alders. It was pretty sparsely attended, but we had fun just the same. We went on first so that we could get out of there to attend a jam session up at the Jug Handle Farm house. A group of bluegrass folks from the Bay Area were here for a camping trip, and held jams all three nights. Butch had heard about it on Friday and went up there. He told me about it afterward, so we decided to go back last night. In fact, I would consider going back up there tonight if I didn't have a sunburned face to care for. We stayed for a couple of hours and I surprised Butch with my familiarity with a lot of the standard bluegrass repetoire.
I talked to some of the out of town folks afterward and we managed to find mutual acquaintances among the Bay Area bluegrass crowd. One guy mentioned that Larry Chung was supposed to have come, but had to drop out at the last minute. That's just as well - I never got the impression that he had any use for me. There are some folks in bluegrass who really don't like it when "non-bluegrass" players try and join their fun. "Bluegrass Nazis" is how one acquaintance refers to them. The vast majority of the bluegrass players I've met, however, are friendly and open to just about anything in the realm of "old timey" music.
Tomorrow night I am scheduled to guest host the monthly Open Mic at Headlands. Bob Dease went out of town to visit his family and asked me to run the show in his place. I am hoping that a few of my new friends will show up. I mentioned it to Antonia Lamb today, and to Gino and also to Garth. Butch has already said he will come and play.
WOW! Last night was fun. I guest hosted the Open Mic at Headlands. Butch came down and rocked out with me for a few tunes. Also, local legend, Antonia Lamb graced our stage and delivered some tasty banjo pickin' along with a great voice and some very witty, and sometimes profound original lyrics. Rosalina was there with her "Island Music" and Darin "Darn" Choate, with his country western sensibilities. Steve Moore, a recent arrival from Alaska, presented his original pop-rock tunes and James Gordon did as well. MYQ came over from Caspar to perform some spoken word. All in all it was a pretty good show, with Antonia as the highlight. Butch and me weren't bad either.
I got a chance to tell Antonia the story about how I first heard of her. I was in the Gallery Book Store for the first time about 4 or 5 years ago and there was a CD playing on the sound system as I walked in. I spotted the local artists CD rack and started going through the disks. I picked one up - it was Antonia's "Amazing Tracks" album. As I was looking at it, a lady leaned toward me and said, "That's the CD that's playing now." - or something like that. By coincidence, the first CD I actually looked at was the one on the stereo at that moment!
Now I don't have another official gig at Headlands until September.
Butch went out of town on Thursday and won't be back until this coming weekend - so I was on my own if I wanted to play out. I did two open mics this weekend.
The College of the Redwoods has their OM on the second Friday of each month. This is a program that existed previously and was abandoned, then reinstated recently. They have a nice performance setup - a black heavy drape backdrop, professional lighting, a good sound system with people who know what they are doing. The audience (so far) has been other performers, who range from any kind of music to poetry and other spoken word perfomances. In that little room, it feels like a big crowd... James Gordon and Steve Moore were both at this one as well. Gino was there and sat in with me at the end of my set.
Saturday night, Lonna and I attended the Mendocino Theater Co. production of the The Tempest. MyQ was in it - in the male engenue role. He was very good.
The other Open Mic was at the Caspar Inn - Human's OM there is all right. They are also well set up. Their OM night sound has gotten better since the first of the year. I saw MyQ at the Inn and surprised him by telling him I'd seen his performance the night before.
I opened both shows with my psuedo-John Fahey instrumental. It always seems to work with every crowd.
Last weekend was a busy one. Oliver & Kwan played a wedding on Saturday then we went to a jam session party that evening and jammed with members of Rogerwood. We were both exhausted by the end of the evening. Then Sunday we were booked for the Mendocino Summer Art Fair.
We played the wedding acoustically, kind of standing up against a tree, then plugged in for the jam that night. On Sunday we had my C-1000 mics because Bob borrowed them for the 2 days of the show. I managed to get a recording of that entire set.
We have two more outdoor events coming up. "Surf Fest" is August 14. We are scheduled to appear at 5 PM. Butch tells me this is put on by an old surfer dude who has a mansion full of 50's and 60's memorabilia across the road from Russian Gulch park. Then on September 5th, the 7th Annual North Coast Jam Fest will take place at the Jughandle Farm. The next day the Walkin' Blues man will march in the Paul Bunyan Days Parade on Main Street, right here in Ft. Bragg.
Tonight I played at the College of the Redwoods Open Mic. Mary and Neil do a real nice job there, with professional lighting and sound. Butch was supposed to come, but John Smith's father passed away last night - so Butch had to drive him to Santa Rosa, to catch a bius to the airport tonight. I played around a little with Windy & Warm - kind of ragged. Then I did Honeysuckle Rose before bringing Gino on for a couple of blues tunes. It was a short night because not many folks showed up.
Last weekend Oliver & Kwan played an unscheduled show at the Caspar World Folk Festival. Two, actually - we went out there on Saturday afternoon and did a stand up out in the market area for a half hour or so. While we were there we heard that an act for one of the Sunday concerts had canceled. Butch grabbed my arm and the next thing you know we were in front of the festival organizer booking aourselves into the empty slot! We played Sunday at noon - actually we opened the show. I got a fairly good recording of it, even. The crowd was one of the largest we've played for so far, and they were very receptive. Later, The Sunday Bunch (Antonia Lamb, John Chamberlin, Lenny Lax, etc.), played and also Foxglove. It was a great afternoon of music.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we are appearing at a private event called "Surf Fest" at a mansion just off highway 1 near Russian Gulch. I am taking my electric gear since Butch says there is always an electric jam there.
On Saturday, Oliver & Kwan appeared at Surf Fest 2004. A private festival held on the estate of a mock-tudor mansion just north of Russian Gulch.
Broken Star was there to open the show and really sounding a lot tighter than I remember from last time I saw them. Saucy was also on the bill.
We were more or less the stars of the afternoon. First we got up around 4:30 and played 45 minute set of our acoustic stuff to very good response. We did all our new material. Little Blind Fish, Thing Called Love, Johnny B Goode Reggea, etc., and pulled it off. We took a short break to eat, then a bass player/vocalist named Happ Scott wanted to jam, so we got back on stage with our electric guitars. We had a drummer and a sax player for a while. Then we coaxed George Cordes from Broken Star back on stage and really rocked out for about an hour. That guy is a top-knotch drummer!
Now we have some time off - our next scheduled gig is Jam Fest on September 4th. We are going to try and get our demo together in the meantime.
A few things happened in the last few weeks since that last entry.
We performed at Jam Fest Labor Day weekend for a crowd of a hundred or so and again pretty much were the stars of the afternoon. We did about 30 minutes including a blues jam with Gino at the end. We were very well received and had a great time. Our friends from Richmond - the Mocks - came up for the weekend and so got to catch our act. That was nice.
On Monday of that week, the Paul Bunyan Days Parade happened with the participation of the Walkin' Blues Man! I saw several friends and acquaintances in the crowd. By coincidence, I ended up walking behind a float made to look like the Skunk Train's "Old Number 45" engine. I sang my song about the Skunk Train and it was the perfect compliment.
Last week we finished our club demo. A "live in the studio" CD with 5 cuts including some cover tunes. It came out pretty good, good stereo imaging, strong guitar presence, sparkling vocals - all in all a good effort - and an accurate representation of what we do in live performance. One of Fred Mock's photos taken at Jam Fest ended up on the cover. Butch wants to take one over to the Caspar Inn and try and get on there.
Tonight (actually last night - Tuesday), we played at Headlands. Butch and I did our duo thing for most of the show - with a couple of strategic appearances by Jammin' Gino. For once I actually got a handle on Gino's volume. I did a sound check with him and dialed him back until I could just hear him clearly when he really screamed. It worked perfectly - his volume was just right. I recorded the 2nd and 3rd sets tonight (the 1st didn't take for some reason), and got what could well be the basis for a live album. I have 5 almost perfect takes of original songs: Barclay House Blues, Sunny Days, Jazz Thing (instr), Elmo's Back Room and My Mama Ain't Me. I also have several really amazing takes of cover tunes: Thing Called Love, Little Blind Fish, 52 Vincent, Trail Rider's Lament, California Blues, Outskirts of Town, plus a couple others. I believe I have at least 2 other worthy original cuts on a previous recording we made Headlands - a 7 song album wouldn't be out of the question...though ten would be better.