so grateful

truly a gift, enjoy this heartwarming 6 min, 34 seconds...

All I Ask...Don't Tell Anybody The Secrets...

it had been almost 10 years since i'd seen lucinda williams. right around the time car wheels on a gravel road came out (GREAT GREAT GREAT album~ go buy it, if you are slightly interested in lucinda).

it was just never really in my flow to catch her since that one night at the catalyst in santa cruz, nearly ten years ago...until this past monday at the fillmore.

she started the show with a delicate solo acoustic guitar song, "passionate kisses". it was adorable. and the words "delicate" and "adorable" don't normally go with "lucinda williams" but that night, it was just that.

i was surprised by so many songs off car wheels...so i was super happy! and the songs i didn't know were amazing as well.

another great surprise was watching chuck prophet SHRED on guitar for the encore. damn, he is NO JOKE> my first time seeing him play. i'd heard his name, but had never seen in him action. SERIOUS!!! super stoked i went to the show!!!
here's a link to her profile on the lost highway website

"Be On My Side...I'll Be On Your Side"

such ridiculousness

Traveling On A High Frequency~ again!

robert plant, t-bone burnett (w/ his lovely wife), and elvis costello are posing with jay blakesberg's TRAVELING ON A HIGH FREQUENCY book, back in early October, when they were all here for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. robert plant was freaking out about a moby grape pic that was in the book. (photo above also snapped by jay)

last night was jay's SF book release party at the Independent. the scene was bubbling & loud & excited!!! by the time i arrived, there were probably about 150 people milling about the room, or sitting at tables w candles, watching a screen with a slideshow of shots all from TOAHF. it was hard to take your eyes of it, frankly!!! UNREAL. over 300 people clocked in throughout the event.

i've been fortunate enough to see this project from the very wee early stages of it, and to see it all POP last night was so satisfying!!! jay is one of the hardest working people i've ever known. AND NICE!!! and he LOVES his music. i'm so thrilled for him, and my best wish to him is to continue Traveling On A High Frequency!!! you are really doin' it, jay!!!

order TOAHF here, which also comes in limited edition (i wouldn't be surprised if those sell out by next week, the NYC book release party) here's the invite to that~ tell whoever you know in NYC to go!!!
(here's a link to my previous post about the book).

EVERGREEN

happy birthday neal!!!

the stars aligned, and made it possible for me to catch this awesome night of music at the nokia theater...turns out neal casal was sitting in with phil & friends on the saturday night after his halloween gig at the apollo theater, and also the night before he left for cardinals tour/promo stuff in the UK.

AND it was the eve of neal's 40th birthday!!! wow!!! seriously, what a way to close out a decade and ring in a new one!!!

the show was great, neal was amazing, and i was very very happy to see phil & friends back at their annual residency of the nokia theater. as sterile and futuristic as some think that place is, i actually really love it.

neal sang lead vocals on he's gone and ship of fools~ check it out here, on LMA.

major thanks to i.Gene Dulyn for the photos! contact i.Gene at: photoplus@frontiernet.net for more info.

cardinals, apollo theater, 10/31/08

great gig. very clean night of music from the cardinals, much like 2007's halloween, but not quite as jammy, believe it or not. i adored that 2007 halloween show.

the apollo theater was cool~ the lighting on this night was particularly LOVELY (thanks dee!!!) it really was. i wish i had a good pic of it, but the staff was pretty intense about no photography.

i was sorta trying to get my groove on from so many diff spots, because these days its so hard to DANCE in these lovely "uptight" seeming theaters, with so many in the crowd conflicted by, "i wanna dance but no one else is, now i'm pissed someone else is standing in front of me" vibe...

favorite parts of the show: last 5 songs in the first set, jam in freeway, & crossed out name. GREAT stuff.

my first time seeing ryan play using that enormous amp~ it was so cartoon!!!

The Clinch Mob, 10/30/08

awesome night of music in the bowery, at the R BAR...

i thought i was going to see a danny clinch photo exhibit. when i realized it was his band, i was stoked! walked in and ran into my friend pete levin, who was playing keyboards that night with danny. we got properly adjusted, and the show started.

smokin'! they were rockin'! i run downstairs to use the ladies room, and on my way back up, i tripped UP the stairs~ boy was that embarrassing, but much to my surprise, i sorta ran right into phil lesh, who was carrying his bass!!! i was like, "woah, things are about to get freaky in here!!!"

so yeah, phil started playing...then jackie greene showed up...they sat in for about 15-20 minutes...probably about 100 people in the VERY groovy, not TOO hip place...it was a blast~ GO PETE!!!