Great music at Pies and Pints last Sunday. First set was the standard Tom, Colin, Pat, and myself.

Second set was Ronnie Porter, a local singer-songwriter-elvis-impersonator, who played mostly original music. Slowly throughout his set, we trickled up on stage to complete the band. We’ve ended up backing up a lot of solo artists that have come around and each time the band feels a little more natural.

Final set was the same as the first, but with the addition of Jason Stewart. Jason’s normally found playing the banjo, but he played mandolin with us this time because Colin was already on the banjo and it’s always nice to play something new.

This was the first night in a while that all the players were regulars, and the ease at which the music flowed and the system was setup surely showed.

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Played three shows with BLVD Park, including the Owl and Thistle.

Creeping Time played our first show since June! I also joined in with BLVD Park that night at Conor Byrne. The entire room was full, from stage->bar->entry, with the closest folks dancing from the first drop. I love that kind of vibe in the room, with everybody enjoying themselves.

After the Owl and Thistle show, I got talking with a resident fiddle player about how some music just seems to come out easier than others. For him it was the blues. He says he could hear the lines that worked and it took no effort to play them. Playing with BLVD Park has been that way for me. I have never rehearsed with them outside of gigs, but the music comes easy and sticks to you. I’ve really enjoyed that gig recently.

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Madrona

Lots of time passed since last update. Here’s the brief summary of titled entries that were never written out:

• Prosser Scottish Fest with Ockham’s Razor – a really receptive crowd in Eastern Washington. They even let us participate in the anvil toss!
• Music at the Hospitals. While visiting the University of Michigan Hospital, I met a woman who gets paid salary + benefits to visit people’s rooms and play guitar and/or banjo. I had my mandolin with me and we got to play some duets together.
• Schuyler got married.
• Johnny left after awesome final Pies and Pints show (still my favorite P&P show). Steve Mayone stopped through town.
• Georgetown Brewery opened up a new facility. I drank way too much as the food lines were longer than the beer lines. I was thoroughly hungover for the other show that started at 8pm.
• Dune Music. While in Michigan, we attended a concert at the foot of the Dune Climb – part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. Incredible venue, great music.
• Pies and Pints – jaws dropped. All I remember from the night was that everybody was jaw-dropped during the last song. All the players (all 9 of us) and everybody in the crowd. Amazing music.
• Don’t call them Charlatans. Got to play a fun set of music with Brett Joseph’s project @ Tost. Great musicians.
• Dave Delmar got married! Oliver sat on my lap for a couple songs.
• Tom Rooney invited Colin Klein and myself out to Hoquiam to play as a bluegrass group. He left us to play as a bluegrass duo when his other band got double-booked. Somehow we pulled it off.
• Tom toured all of August. I took over playing/booking Pies and Pints. Had some great nights. Covered Grateful Dead’s Reckoning with Pat Ferris and Geoff Kraus, met BLVD Park, TableTop band, standard Bluegrass. Pat, Colin, Geoff, Judd, Kirk, Sam, James, Ken, Jarret, Brian, Jill, Millie.
• A couple recording sessions with James Apollo.
• New job.
• MADRONA MARIA SPALY!!!!!!!
• Home recording. Fatherhood!
• Holidays
• Played lots of great shows with BLVD Park

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Five years of hard living and this dog has finally run its last race. A mic stand beating, mic stand flipping, 3 re-glues, a couple screws, thousands of cataloged miles, countless performances (planned and spontaneous), beatings by children, and more… I tried one final unsuccessful gluing of the headstock last week. When that didn’t work, I called it quits, cut it open to salvage the pickup, and called it goodbye. You’ll be happy to know the pickup is still alive and well in Tom Rooney’s mandolin, thanks to the insanely skilled and accommodating luthier Aaron Andrews. Note that I did the damage to the mandolin. Aaron’s work is much more clean.

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I’m proud to announce some great news. While in Boston, I was privileged enough to play with the band Kingsley Flood. The week before my departure we finished tracking on their debut release, Dust Windows. The album received lots of great feedback and I also got to return to the R-less city to play the release party.

Anyway, Kingsley Flood has since won the Boston Phoenix’s 2010 Boston Music Poll’s Best Roots Act in Boston award! Here’s KF’s take on the award. And here’s a snippet of the writeup: “Their roots cred owes to the masterful fiddle and mandolin playin’ and the whiff of Appalachia found on their debut, Dust Windows, but the music’s sheer exuberance is beyond time or genre.” Now that’s the kind of music I want to make and listen to :)

Though immensely sad to not be playing with these guys anymore, I am extremely ecstatic for the good press they are receiving. Nicest folks you would ever want to meet and the talent pouring out of those guys (and gal) is ridiculous. Here’s a video from the CD release party:

By the way, this is what happens when you get on the Flood’s bad side…

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