Monday February 1, 2010 - US40 towards Gallup, NM
I'm travelling with the California Guitar Trio this week as a guest and opener at some of their south west shows. So far we played together at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano last Friday and at Acoustic Music San Diego on Saturday. Both shows were very well attended and very well received. I've been quite slow about taking pictures for the site so far, but will change that as we go along. Yesterday was technically a day off, but Bert and I did a little more work for our own album. He redid his guitar parts for a piece called "Don't Look Back" which has gone through a few variations so far. We already had a version that was "quite good," but I'm confident we've made it even better now.
Today is a drive day from San Diego to Gallup, NM. We've been on the road since about 10am. Looks like it'll be about a 12 hour travel day. But it's been fun. Although I see Bert often enough it's been awhile since I've gotten to spend time with Paul and Hideyo. We've been sharing music DVDs and CDs in the van, chatting about gear, restaurants and the like. With a little over an hour to go now, Paul is driving, Bert is watching a live Led Zeppelin DVD, Hideyo appears to be napping and I'm tying here and trying to take pictures of an amazing looking orange moon rise (pretty much impossible in a bouncy van, but I'm hoping to at least get something artsy and interesting out of the attempt!
Saturday December 5, 2009 - Encinitas, CA
Bert Lams left early this morning, heading home after about a week of recording here in Encinitas. We managed to get two new pieces up and running to round out the album we're doing plus I think about three or four little improv bits with some wild sounds that we might include for fun it they seem to fit. We're hoping to have this album in hand early next year.
Today though I'm playing catch up with all the "domestic" chores I've been ignoring for about six weeks now. First on the list.. a tire inspection and rotation. Turns out I've actually put about 34,000 miles on these tires in roughly two years. Not bad.. next year maybe we can try for more!
Saturday November 28, 2009 - Encinitas, CA
Today we took a slight break from recording and worked to get some photos done with our friends Gary and Jill from Tourbuslive.com Gary takes outstanding live photos, and they were interested in expanding their scope a bit so we spent the afternoon together driving around Encinitas to a few different locations. Last night I actually tried to go scout some out. It's always tricky trying to find places that look interesting but are still accessible (and where you won't get run over). We're waiting now to see the full batch of pics, but in the meantime, they sent us some samples to check out.
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some quick sample shots from Gary and Jill of tourbuslive.com
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Tuesday November 24, 2009 - Hwy 101 from Santa Cruz to LA to Encinitas
Today was a drive day for us. With all the shows done our only task today was to get back to Encinitas where Bert and I will be working on our album for the next few days. We managed to arrange to meet up with Emmett and Yuta Chapman for dinner in LA (though traffic in Santa Barbara made us quite late) and actually made a very quick tour of the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the way down too. It's the kind of place you could probably spend a full day in, just watching the critters, but we still managed to glance at all of them before piling back in the car.
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Jelly!
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The bit on the left is actually a type of Sea Horse (Leafy Sea Dragon)
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A giant tidepool and a bit of the bay
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A lifesized Giant Clam replica (but they don't always come with Lamses)
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Monday November 23, 2009 - Santa Cruz, CA
Tonight we played at the home of our friends Neil and Polly. Neil is a great drummer and drum teacher who works a lot in the area. They actually hosted the two of us a few years ago, and in-between have also played host to some Stick events as well. Polly is an artist who works with glass and the whole house is decorated with some (often) wild design and craft work. Neil joined us for two pieces playing his hand held Zen drum which was fun. I had to smile a bit though as our collective volume went up a bit when he joined us. You would expect that with acoustic drums for sure, but somehow I guess his electronic Zen drum (with a volume knob built in) was real enough to take us in the same direction!
Sunday November 22, 2009 - Santa Rosa, CA
I must say it's good to be back in California sunshine! We had a simple sunny drive today and an afternoon living room concert with our friends Nancy and Larry. Nancy is a terrific flute player and she joined us for a version of The Marsh. Afterwards she and Larry served us and several of their friends dinner. It felt like an early Thanksgiving (except for it being Lasagna maybe!)
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an early Thanksgiving Lasagna (or the table for it at least!)
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Saturday November 21, 2009 - Upper Lake, CA
Tonights show in Upper Lake was a real treat. My dad lives in Lake county and for several years now has been helping to promote us there. He's sounding more and more like a professional promoter and this time found a wonderful spot for us. Bernard B. and his wife have been working for years to rennovate three old buildings in downtown Upper Lake, CA. They have a hotel, a restaurant (made from an old tavern) and a third building used for meetings and concerts. He's been doing a music series there maybe once a month but was willing to book us outside of his normal schedule. Thanks to a bit of local press and my Dad and Bernard working to spread the word, we wound up with an overflow crowd. Bernard actually got permission from the fire marshall to add a few more seats and still had a waiting list of people in case of cancellations. It was really a great atmosphere and we had some amazing food to boot!
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Tallman Hotel (by night) in Upperlake, CA
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a quick audience shot by the Stick player
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Getting to Upper Lake today though we had a bit of a scary drive again as we wound through the mountains from Bend. I think in normal conditions it's about a 7.5 hour drive but it actually took us closer to ten hours. Good thing we left early! An early morning stop for Internet and coffee told us that the weather looked clear but the roads were frozen over in places and all drivers were required to carry chains. We stopped at a local tire store and bought a set just in case, and were off. The weather stayed clear the whole time but the road conditions were bad in places. We actually passed two different scary wrecks with overturned cars. Normally if we have a ten hour drive, we would never plan to play the same day. The welcome we received in Upper Lake though and the great food and atmosphere really seemed to energize us again and we had a great show.
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Icy roads from Bend to Upper Lake...
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...but Carrie is still happy!
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Friday November 20 - Bend, OR
We had a pretty harrowing drive today from Eugene to Bend. Friends were warning me that the mountain passes might be snowy, but the locals in Eugene seemed to think we'd be fine. Most of the drive was just a bit rainy, but as we got up to about 3000 feet in elevation there was a fair amount of snowing going on. It was tense driving for maybe an hour or so but we made it through without too much slipping around and thankfully didn't see any accidents either.
Tonight we had a great time playing at The Breedlove Guitar Factory in Bend. Bert and CGT play their guitars and they'd been thinking about using their showroom at Bend for something of a "house concert" style music series. I guess we were the first event they'd done of this sort, but they did it very well. Jason, one of the main luthiers there gave us a tour of the facility including a sneak peak of Bert's new-in-the-works guitar and his mother got into the act by making all sorts of hor dourves for all the guests.
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Breelove Guitar Factory
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guitar maker Jason has great taste in CDs!
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Thursday November 19, 2009 - Eugene, OR
We've just checked into one of the few hotels we're using for this trip and have a little time to relax before heading to the venue. It's a fun but "funky" one tonight; Cozmic Pizza here in Eugene. I think the last time I was there was on a trip with Jerry Marotta and Erik Wollo. CGT played there too before, though I'm actually not sure if I was there with them or not. Hmm.. Tonight we're opening for a duo called Lynx and Janover. The connection there is that they're friends with our friend Jarrod who is a great (and wild!) local percussionist who will also be joining us for a few pieces.
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load in time at Cozmic Pizza
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merch girl Carrie loves being photographed
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Cozmic Pizza: act 2 (Lynx and Jannover)
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Thursday November 19, 2009 - Portland, OR
Very fun show last night at the home of Darin and Laura S. They hosted us once before on a NW trip maybe three years ago and have had a few other house concerts in-between our visits. So they're pros now! They and their family were incredibly welcoming hosts, taking care of everything from Bert's laundry to homemade waffles this morning. Last night we "debuted" a brand new piece.. I'm not sure if we're convinced on the form with it yet, but we managed to get it into a playable shape and gave it a go last night for the first time. During the day we managed a quick visit to downtown Portland and a giant bookstore called Powells. Pretty amazing place. I found a little paperback copy of John Lennon's first two books filled with his funny little stories and drawings.
Tuesday November 17, 2009 - Seattle/Kirkland, WA
We had our only day off of this little tour today. We rehearsed a bit in the morning and in the afternoon went to visit friends of mine who have a Pro Audio shop here before picking up Bert's wife Carrie at the airport. The three of us then headed to check out Seattle's "Pike's Place" Market where you'll find everything from fish and fruit vendors to shops for gems and comic books.
Monday November 16, 2009 - Kirkland, WA
Tonight we played at the home of Alisha and Pieter, old friends of Bert's who recently moved to the area. I guess maybe I'd actually met Alisha many years ago while touring with CGT through (?) Iowa? Alisha is a great harpist and she did an opening set that I found a bit surprising. Normally when I think of harp I think of Celtic music or maybe classical. Alisha is very into Latin American music written for the harp though which was neat to hear. She's a great player and joined us for an arrangment of The Marsh as well. Their young daughter Alex was a lot of fun too, making sure (very sure) people paid for the CDs they took and always negotiating with her parents for another one of the snacks they were serving to guests.
Sunday November 15, 2009 - Everett, WA
An afternoon show today at the home of Peter and Maggie. Peter used to be a radio host in the area and has one of the largest music collections I've ever seen. We played in their living room which had a really great sound to it with nice wood floors and an unusual shape. The weather was a bit "off" and probably kept a few people away, but we still had a good show and a fun time. Maggie even set Bert up with about 8 free coffee coupons for Starbucks.. only good through tomorrow. I'm not sure even Bert can handle that!
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The stage is set in Evertt, WA
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I can see both sides now
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Saturday November 14, 2009 - Vancouver, BC
Today we played in the homes of our friends Fleurette and Henri. Local Stickist (and good friend) Jim Meyer opened for us at Fleurette's as well. I always love visiting Vancouver, it's such a beautiful (though cold now) place. It was great to hear Jim play. Both his playing and his "chatting" to an audience get more solid and comfortable everytime I visit! Fleurette has really come to embrace the arts in her home as well. She had a local artist's works dislpayed on the walls and a man explained who the artist was and how to get in touch about the art before we played. I was happy to see some of the local Stick folks that I met in May make it out to the show as well! We wound up staying with an old friend of Bert's named Pablo who was on guitar courses with him many years ago. He took very good care of us and actually showed us old photos of the courses in England where another friend of mine, Stickist Jim Reily was attending as well.
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some guy tells a story in Vancouver
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Bert and our amazing hostess Fleurette (Bert is on the right)
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Stop number one in Vancouver
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We had a looong experience at the border yesterday trying to get across. I'm a little hesitant to even write about it because one of the things they did was to print out whatever they found on the internet that mentioned us and our house concert tour. I have a feeling whatever I write here might be presented to me in print the next time I try to visit Canada, but.. it was an interesting story to tell. I think the fact that this tour is mostly house concerts poses an unusual situation for border issues. Three years ago we did a trip like this and were told at the time that as long as where we were playing wasn't a place whose primary business was selling alcohol, we didn't need work visas. So.. with that in mind, this time we did what we did last time and tried to go in through the normal entry line. We had several hours of questioning, during which I was sniffed over by a dog, and had every part of my pockets, socks, waistline and wallet searched (not to mention the car). It was wild... they actually asked about my criminal history (I had a speeding ticket maybe seven years ago and a parking ticket maybe 3 years ago). They went on to ask if I'd ever been in jail, under house arrest, etc. (not even close!) They even asked if we had any child porn on our laptops and may have gone through them as well when they searched the car. They first told us we weren't going to be let in because they didn't think we were telling them the full story.. then they seemed to relent and said they'd give us a "pass" this one time. They wound up sending us back to the US and told us to go through the commercial entry port with all the semi-trucks because we had about 90 CDs with us. So.. that's what we did. I think we learned a good lesson here maybe. When the normal line sees two musicians with a bunch of gear and 90 CDs, they must think it's "big business" trying to come in under cover or something. When we went to the commercial line though it seemed we were so small compared to the semi-trucks and their cargos that the agent couldn't understand how we even make money doing what we do and didn't hassle us much at all. So.. next time straight to the commercial line I guess!
Thursday November 12, 2009 - I5 and more I5
Yesterday I started the long drive from Encinitas, CA to Seattle and Canada. Actually on Wednesday I left about 2:30 pm to arrive about 11:30 pm at the Sacramento airport and pick up Bert. We then drove about 30 mins north to a motel and spent the night. Our goal the next day was to then make it from Sacramento to Seattle in time to see some friends play in a guitar show called "Tuning The Air." We woke up early and were driving by 7am. We made it to Seattle and the venue at 7:30pm, just in time for the 8pm show! I'm really glad we made the effort though and the show is great. Definitley something for guitar fans to check out, especially if you only have a 12 hour drive to get there!
Wednesday October 7, 2009 - JFK airport, New York
Flying home today after a few days spent in and around Pittsburgh, PA. On Sunday, myself, Greg Howard and Dave Brosky taught and performed at a one day Stick seminar and concert. The venue was great. Called "Cefalo's" it was a converted church now set up as something of a jazz style club. During the day the three of us traded off teaching the main group, and doing private lessons. Then at 5pm we started setup for the show. That part felt a little cramped on timing, with some weird hums noises and probably mis-labeled cables causing us some issues before hand. We got it together though and started just a few minutes after the scheduled start time of 7pm. This was the first time I'd done a Stick seminar that was only 1 day and it had a very different feel to it. Usually with two days, by the middle of day two, everyone is looking a bit "saturated" with information.. but not so much with this format. Though on the flip side, I felt like some of the ideas I presented would have been nice to work on a bit more together. With music, presenting ideas and really digesting them are two very different things. Hmmmm...
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Cefalo's.. not your usual music club
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professor Brosky leads the group
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photographers
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The traditional group shot
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Sunday September 13, 2009 - San Diego, CA
We've spent the past week working pretty diligently on our studio album together. On Tuesday Ben Moore, a great local engineer came over to help us with the setup. Bert was keen to try to essentially use our live setup for some of the pieces, since we'd just played in that sonic setting for three weeks. It was a bit of a challenge, the question being how can we hear ourselves from the live sound system without that sound influencing the mics on Bert's guitar. In the end I think Ben helped figure out a way to do it that was surprisingly good. Our approach was then to use this "live" setup for pieces that felt like maybe they wanted that "feel" and use a more conventional studio setup (with headphones) for pieces that seemed to work best that way.
Today we ent back to the real "live" world for one more show; an art evcnt called Artwalk On The Bay in downtown San Diego. Gorgeous setting, and I really enjoyed playing for the crowds of art enthusiasts.
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out of the studio and out of doors
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what the really cheap seats saw
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Sunday September 6, 2009 - Sedona, AZ
Today we had another long drive and what Bert keeps referring to as our final show of the tour (though actually there's one more in San Diego next weekend). It was our second visit to Sedona, AZ (the first about a year ago) and the place is of course as stunning as ever. We played outdoors at our friend Ken's home and the setting was just ideal. Bright stars overhead, a beautiful red rock home and garden and a quiet atmosphere. Great!
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Stuck in Traffic in Sedona (really, we were!)
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Sedona House concert
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Saturday Sept. 5, 2009 - Santa Fe, NM
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a quick drive through tour of Santa Fe
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Tonight we played in Santa Fe, NM. We had a fantastic write up in the local paper but unfortunately there was also a major event happening downtown at the same time that probably drew a lot of the attention away. But we still had fun, met some nice people and got to go to a late dinner downtown at a place called the Atomic Cafe. I ordered the "Atomic Pie" which was basically Frito chips covered in very spicy chili with onions and lots of Santa Fe green chilis. Here's the bizarre part... somehow I managed to get a bit of chili into my eye! I guess it must have been on my finger or something, but wow... not recommended for good times. The burning stopped after maybe 30 minutes where I just looked overly emotional.
Friday Sept 4, 2009 - Denver, CO
A relatively short drive today from Boulder to Denver. We're staying and playing at the "Plus Gallery"; a modern art gallery right downtown. Karen and Ivar are old friends of CGT and it was a great setting for us. They were helped with promotion and such by Rob M. too who created some really nice promotional materials. Visual art and the music we do definitely go together! I also had a chance to reconnect with my friend Lorne Bregitzer who went to Berklee the same time I did. Lorne is a fantastic audio engineer and was very helpful when I first started setting up my own studio a long long time ago. It was fun to learn he's now a published author as well (check out "Secrets of Recording") Thanks to Lorne we also played in the morning at the University of Colorado, Denver where he teaches recording. It was a great recital hall with a lot of very curious students. I was happy that they were not only curious about our instruments, but also the music we do and recoginzed it as being something a bit unusual on a musical level.
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the Plus Gallery is ready for us! (audience view)
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... and musicians' view
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I remembered to take a pic of the audience! (just post encore)
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my shower in Denver, (with a nice view of downtown!)
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Kings Recital Hall (CU Denver)
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Monday Sept. 1, 2009 - Erie (Boulder), CO
Today started what is sort of the last "leg" of the tour. The first leg was marked by only a few long drives (discounting my solo trip from San Diego to Austin of course). But for the last few, we have hours to drive every day between shows. Yesterday we made the trek from Kansas City to Boulder, CO where today we played in a great little club house. The show was hosted by Bert's longtime friends Jon, Bonnie and Elaine and also featured guitarist Michael de Lalla opening with a solo acoustic guitar set that was quite nice. After the concert we went back to Jon's home and he put on Tom Waitts' version of "Waltzing Matilda" which prompted me to play Emmett Chapman's version of it for Jon. Jon is a serious lover of unusual music and fell in love with Emmett's album right away which was fun.
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the room is ready (Boulder, CO)
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guitarists talk shop
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The road to Colorado (I took about 410 pics trying to catch the lightning.. nope)
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Sunday August 30 - Kansas City, MO
Our second night of two in the Kansas City area tonight. During the day we made a quick (one hour) tour of the downtown World War I Museum. I'm not sure what the connection is to Kasas City, but this is apparently the US' main memorial for the War. I came away feeling a little more informed about the history of the war, but as confused as ever as to how it ever really happened.
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walking to the WWI museum
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view from the tower
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part of one exhibit
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This evening.. something significantly more cheerful, a lovely outdoor house concert. People came with folding chairs, positioned in a semi circle around us in a nice big backyard lawn area surrounded by trees. Actually trees and tree climbing was part of the pre show fun. It got a little dark at the end of the show, but was still ok. Playing the trickier pieces is always a bit more scary when you can't see what you're doing! ;-)
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nice woodsy setting for our MO concert
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working towards the best view for the show
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Saturday Aug. 29, 2009 - Kansas City, MO
Tonight was the first of two nights we're playing in the Kansas City area. It's a great area, but rather confusing geographically as it seemed we were staying right on the border between Kansas and Missouri. Anytime we drove anywhere I had no idea what state we were in. The show tonight was very well organised by Stephen and Jennifer and complete with lanards and (a first for us I think) beers custom brewed/bottled for the event!
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Bert Lams: photographer
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What the fuss was about.. custom brewed beer for the show!
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Friday Aug. 28, 2009 - Wichita, KS
I've stolen another photo from Bert's diary at cgtrio.com. Once again I was apparently too distracted to get many pics.. probably from the extra gear stuff again. But I did take one of Bert in his quarters for the night. Tonight's show was put together in large part by Brian White, an old CGT fan/friend and was in a great little room with a very attentive audience. We had some extra time upon arrival and played a bit with speaker placement which was a good thing. A funny little half wall was probably sucking up a lot of the sound where we first placed things. Sometimes a little change makes a big difference! We've become experts now at helping to rearrange living rooms for the best possible sound and visuals! ;-)
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Bert and friends
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live in Wichita! (photo stolen from Bert's diary at cgtrio.com)
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Thursday Aug. 27, 2009 - Oklahoma City, OK
The things I'm taking pictures of seem to be getting more and more random. In fact I almost didn't take any today! Probably because I was either driving or, once we were at the venue and set up, I was playing with my other new toys; a little portable recording setup and a video camera! Of course that stuff is quite a bit harder to go through and sort, upload, etc.. so for today so far just words mostly (and one really dirty car window picture of downtown Oklahoma City as we drove by!).
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driving to downtown OK City
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The show tonight was in a venue called The Blue Door, pretty close to downtown Oklahoma City. I'd actually been there once before opening for CGT many years ago. It's a wildly funky place, but the owner is dedicated to just booking "good music." The plain concrete slab floor has a giant crack in it and folding chairs for the audience to sit in. One side of the building is actually held upright with external support beams and the other leans inward a bit. But... he gets a lot of well know musicians coming through because he's a great host for them! We were told they'll be doing some work on the building soon... but not too much. Just enough to keep it "safe."
Wednesday Aug. 26 - Dallas, TX
Tonight was our final show in Texas for this trip. Appropriately enough, it was a living room concert, with a giant "TEXAS" sign right above us and some fantasic BBQ after the show (which included something that was a first for me; beans with sausages and jalapenos!) April and her family took great care of us.
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more TX barbeque! (beans with sausage and jalapenos!)
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last night in Texas (Dallas)
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Wednesday Aug. 26, I-35N towards Dallas, TX
Bert is behind the wheel.. so I have a little time to catch up on e-mail and photos and such. After 10 days, we've now finished off our run of shows in Austin and Houston. Pretty amazing really.. typically on tours you wind up driving maybe 2-6 hours a day and playing the same night. The fact that we got to spend over a week in one city is a real benefit to the house concert format. Yesterday we had lunch with Pat Mastelotto and Michael Bernier who are working on the new Stickmen record at Pat's house. We got a quick sneak preview of some of the pieces which are pretty wild. It was fun to see Pat's place finally too.
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Pat's happy place
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The $600 piano
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sheet music... Pat style
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Earlier we all ate lunch at the Salt Lick, a BBQ restaurant near where we were staying. Acually for Bert and I it was our third time there over the course of the last week. The menu is more or less a choice between whether you want just one plate of meat or all you can eat "family style." I tried that one day.. but didn't give too impressive a performance. So I reverted to just a plate today.
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The Salt Lick BBQ at work
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And finally at night, we had our last show in Austin (of 8!) at the Cactus Cafe. Suzanne Olsen joined us for two pieces again and many of our friends we'd seen throughout the week came again. It was neat to see the venue as I've heard several stories about it. A great way to close out our Austin visit!
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The stage is set (Cactus Cafe, Austin)
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Monday Aug. 24, Austin, TX
We're back in Austin for a few more days after one night and two shows in Houston. Since the second show was in the afternoon on Sunday, we opted to drive back to our friend Bruce's in Austin that night to be set and ready for the next few days. Having stayed at Bruce's for several days last week it really is strating to feel a bit like "home" now. Though.. we did find a dead critter in the garage this morning that made us cringe (and run for our cameras!):
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garage visitor...
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Tonight we played another show hosted by the Oleson family, this time in the home of Suzanne's grandparents. The had a nice old home that worked very well for us and it was great to hear Suzanne open again. She'll be sitting in with us one more time tongight at the Cactus Cafe.
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a quick soundcheck rehearsal
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Yesterday we spent the day in Houston, with Bert and I joining the masses for a "tax free" shopping weekend at a giant mall. Apparently it's something Texas does to help people out with back to school shopping. Then, we did a small show for some good friends, hosted by Tim and Tamy. I actually missed getting any photos, but Tamy had a brand new camera and was quite busy with it during our performance. I'll have to see if I can steal some photos!
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in Houston (photo by Tamy, posted by Bert, stolen by Tom)
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(again from Tamy, stolen from Bert's diary at: bertlams.blogspot.com
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Saturday Aug. 22, 2009 - Houston, TX
We had a great show tonight at the "Oxford Hall" in Houston, thanks in large part to our friend Ricardo who helped set it up, promote it, and did a great opening set. The venue was actually built by its owner behind his house and I guess is used for all sorts of local events. For us it was a nice intimate space and we had a very generous audience. Afterwards we went out to a late dinner with Ricardo and had some good Mexican food.
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Bert welcomes everyone to Oxford Hall
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Ricardo Rodriguez opens at Oxford Hall
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Two other guys play at Oxford Hall
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This morning we say goodbye to Bruce who has been hosting us since we arrived here in Austin. Though we'll be back next week for a few more days here, Bruce will actually be out of town. He took ridiculously good care of us, letting us use his home, his car, his equipment and making (more than once) elaborate breakfast. We'll miss seeing him again when we (again) use his house next week! Bye Bruce, thanks!
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another fantastic "Bruce-fast"
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one last photo op with Bruce
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Friday Aug 21, 2009 - Austin, TX
Last night we played at the home of Stick Player "Stokes" in Jonestown, TX. Definitely one of the most remote homes we've been to, but a great home. We got a little lost on the way there as the final stretch of the drive was on totally unpaved "roads" and the gps took us past the property. We finally hit a stretch where the car was sliding out a little and the "road" ahead was looking even less hospitable so we made a phone call to sort things out and I did a very very slow U-turn. The show itself was great with a very welcoming group of people mostly from the families church I think. I missed getting a picture of one of the home's more unique features; a firepole sliding from a loft down to the main room!
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...reallly doesn't look like the right road anymore
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there it is!
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Thursday Aug 20, 2009 - Austin, TX
We played outdoors tonight which proved to be a little bit of a challenge for my gear. But, I got it all running after a little glitch early on and things went smoothly from there. The setting was basically an outdoor party in a large backyard and the audience was a bit more vocal than we often have in living rooms, but it was fun. Somehow by the end we'd gotten so loud that Bert's guitar started feeding back.. but the audience made us play two encores, so by the end we were winging it a bit and the feedback actually worked in a strange sort of "Hendrix" way. Our host Lanny said he actually hosts groups in his yard during South by South West, a large music festival held in Austin every year. Wild!
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before the show...
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...and during
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Wednesday Aug 19, 2009 - Austin, TX
Tonight we played a house concert at some new friends' home in the northern part of Austin. Suzanne Olson, a great local mandolin player and current Berklee student joined us for a few pieces and did a nice opening set which was a fun twist. It was also fun for me to chat Berklee with her a bit, especially since just afew weeks ago I was helping the school out with their Berklee in LA program. Suzanne will also be joining us next week for a few shows which will be fun. After the show, I got to "geek out" a little on some fun vintage music gear. Our host actually owns one of the original Moog pedal bass synths, something I've heard on records from groups like Genesis and the Police for years, but.. my first time getting to try one out in person!
Tuesday Aug 18, 2009 - Austin, TX
We had our third show tonight at the home of some great CGT fans/friends. They actually had a whole display case set up with CGT CDs for everyone to admire. I have to think though that they just had that set up for our visit.. but maybe it's really like that all the time? Hmmm.. They also had some really nice collections of rocks, gems and meteor fragments and (shhh) a secret room in the house that among other things stored a very very old Gibson mandolin. Very nice!
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The stage is set
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...as is the CD display!
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Monday August 17, 2009 - Austin, TX
This morning started with a trip to the local Toyota service center as we discovered a strange grinding noise coming from one of my wheels last night. Boo. So, the morning was eaten up a bit by that plus lunch, camera shopping, etc.. but there's still time! We've been rehearshing and refining a new piece every morning, which has been made easier by staying in one house with our friend Bruce. Bert and I had a laugh today as we were busy smacking out some loud odd rhythms in my little headphone/laptop setup and Bruce soundly snored away contendly behind us (probably just catching up from his long day as brisket maker and show host the day before).
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Music to snore by ;-)
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Tonight we played at the home of Paul Murray, a long time guitar craft player. He and a friend did an opening set that mixed bits of "league-ish" instrumentals along with a Tears for Fears cover (vocal!) and a Beatles song for a very nice ecclectic mix. At the end of our set, they joined us and we did two pieces together, Miserlou the old surf guitar classic and one of Bert's old league compositions; Asturias.
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The stage is set at the Murray household
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An encore with more and more guitars!
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Sunday August 16, 2009 - Austin, TX
Bert Lams and I had our first show of about a three week south west tour tonight. Our friend Bruce did an amazing job of organizing for us. He owns a giant "smoker" that he actually tows behind his car. He had to get up at 4am, and tow it to the church where we were playing and then started cooking the brisket for the event. Needless to say with that level of commitment by the chef, dinner was awesome. Bert and I are working in another new piece at the moment which had its debut. It went ok I think, but I still feel like it wants to evolve and develop a bit more.
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show #1 in Austin
(photo probably by Bruce, stolen from Bert's diary at bertlams.blogspot.com) |
(again, probably by Bruce, definitely stolen by Tom from bertlams.blogspot.com )
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Bruce's smoker (at rest)
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Monday July 27, 2009 - Encinitas, CA
A slow morning after an inspiring evening last night at the Coach House opening for Paula Cole. I've now heard Paula five times over the last maybe twelve years. She's always fantastic which always keeps me coming back, but last night was maybe the most artistically impressive show I've ever heard her do. Her set opened with a lot of material from her very first album and it set a tone for the show to me that felt like this was Paula get back to basics, back maybe to being a true artist doing whatever she felt she should be doing. It was magical.. and she pulled in the audience to an almost totally focused and attentive quietness. Using words to describe music is sometimes an injustice. My friend Jen Knight who is herself an excellent vocalist (and Berklee grad) left saying "I had no idea she was that good live.. I want to hear her again now and bring 30 people next time!) I hope to hear her again soon!
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Paula Cole and some guy
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