It’s been too long. Without even meaning to, I took some serious time away from online promotional activities. I went a whole month without making a single Instagram post—can you imagine? In this day and age? Worse, it’s been three months since my last blog post. I might not be cut out for the music business—I’m too busy playing music!
So what's this big news? I'm glad you asked.
And we're celebrating with a big show at the Tractor Tavern!
I will freely admit to being giddy as hell. I have an album coming out! I get to headline at the Tractor! And on a bill with Kate Dinsmore and The Cosmic Shuffle! Holy freakin' crap!
January 7th happens to be my birthday, so this email also serves as an invitation to my birthday party. What do you say, can you make it? Mark your calendar, and get those tickets in advance. They go on sale tomorrow morning.
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There are opportunities to come hear me before then, if you like. Take a look at my calendar for a list. Here are two that are coming up this weekend:
Saturday, November 9th @ Osteria La Spiga - 8:00 to 10:30
I'm playing with bassist Ev Stern and drummer Jeb Mack. I LOVE playing with these guys. They're deep listeners and musical explorers. We have a special chemistry. Come see what I mean!
Sunday, November 10th @ Vito's - 6:00 to 9:00
I'll be playing solo piano for the Vito's dinner crowd. It's a warm atmosphere and folks make great requests and tip generously. Stay afterward for the phenomenal Ron Weinstein trio.
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*I use the word "my" loosely.
True, I've been captain of this ship. Not to mention financier. It's my name on the album, rather than a band name, for specific reasons. There's the sheer amount of unglamorous, behind-the-scenes labor I've put in, for one thing. These are songs that I wrote, and my hope is that they represent a unique expression straight from my soul.
And. Left to my own devices, I'd be pretty useless. This album simply would not exist.
Of course there are the vast and unquantifiable contributions of family, teachers, friends, over all my years of living. What is any of us in isolation? We know this, though I believe it can never be said enough.
On a much more immediate level, though, this album is the creative project not of one artist but of nearly a dozen. I've got my usual collaborators: bassist Ryan Donnelly, and drummers Remy Morritt and William Mapp. (Hmm... it appears I gravitate toward musicians with two sets of double consonants in their names.) But I also have horn players, backup vocalists, probably a guitarist (some details remain unconfirmed), and an incredible audio engineer.
I will tell you more about these hard-working, talented folks in subsequent emails. All of them have given time, love, and labor to this project. To the extent that I can afford it, I've tried to make sure they've been compensated for their work. This is crucial. But were they to have demanded what they're actually worth, I could not have afforded to undertake this project. It's that simple.
When a team assembles to help you turn a vision into reality, it is a powerful, humbling, and exciting experience. I've had smaller versions of that experience in the past, but this is by far the biggest.
I can't wait to share the result with you in just two months. You, too, are a part of this! Every musician needs an audience. When the time comes, I hope you'll buy the album and share it with whomever you think might enjoy it.
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Normally, I'd write another fifteen or twenty paragraphs about my recent experiences and the thoughts they've stirred. But I'm busy, dammit! I'm in the middle of making a record!
So instead I'll just leave you with some photographs from an October fishing trip with my good friend Peter. You may remember Peter from another blog post of mine a year ago; we met biking in Humboldt County. It's a pretty good story.
This time we started out in Portland and meandered back to Seattle in my trusty white minivan, Beatrix. We visited a friend of mine and friends of his; we explored the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge; we got soaked in the ceaseless rains of the Olympic Peninsula; we tried our luck fishing upwards of thirty different streams, and caught one tiny rainbow trout. It was glorious.
