NW Mini-tour Postcard: Bend, Redmond & Ashland or Bust

Portland is cooler than ever: Here I'm waiting for the free piano seat on Alberta St. to open after enjoying the best gluten-free cinnamon roll from Back to Eden bakery and a fine coffee from Caffe Vita

I'm truly hooked on the open road, big skies, and opportunities to play songs for new people, which is why I set out on hours-long drives even when plans go awry, tech goes wonky and the temperature averages 95 degrees. Some snaps from the latest trip North and back

Big Sky on the way to Bend, Oregon. Bend is beautiful and boasts another good stage in Volcanic Theater Pub

The amazing Horse Tail Falls along the Columbia River. I didn't take a dip but wished I had later.

The dear Sue Quigley who shared the bill with us at the awesome listening room that is SoulFood Coffeehouse in Redmond, Washington

My trusty Desio Guitar awaiting its orders for the day

Little Bird Spring Tour: NorCal & So Oregon

We're hitting the road for a 3-show run in Nor Cal & So Oregon. Have friends along our route? Please send them our way!

Thursday, April 17th, 2014
NAKED LOUNGE
8:30pm
1500 Q St Sacramento CA 95811 USA with Calling Tempo and High Alive

Friday, April 18th, 2014
SELF & SOUL CENTER
Self & Soul House Concert - 7:30pm
9820A Wagner Creek Road Talent OR 97540
Price: $13 adv/15-20 door An acoustic house concert at this special Oregon venue."Self & Soul Center is a 25-acre biodynamic nature preserve and garden on year-round Wagner Creek. This land, infused with beauty and creative collaboration, is a healing container for personal and group renewal."
http://www.selfsoulcenter.org/special-events/
Call for more info: 541-708-0178

Saturday, April 19th, 2014
REDWOOD CURTAIN BREWING COMPANY
550 S G St. Arcata Ca 95521

Little Bird Tour NW Lands

We woke up in Oregon Tuesday to ice-covered windshields and frozen fog. It was 26 degrees and time to head back home. Cold and gray was the weather flavor of the tour, but we didn't get snow and enjoyed much warmth from the locals during our travels. Special thanks go to Ellen at KSKQ in Ashland for having us on the show, Oberon's for the hospitality and warm cider, Patricia & Scott in Ashland & Gail & John in Corvallis for hosting us, songbird Jean Mann for sharing a bill at the gem of a listening room in Redmond, Soulfood Coffeehouse, Thene at Metronome in Tacoma, the Copeland clan in West Seattle, Willow & the Embers, as well as Tracy at Twilight Gallery. The adventure in touring isn't just in the playing, it's in the people you meet and places you experience. I always return from such trips with my mind expanded. We got home Tuesday afternoon to 75-degree weather, perfect conditions to put ones feet in the sand (we had nothing to do with the stray Christmas tree).

Oberon's mulled wine and hot cider on a freeeeezing night.

Jean Mann!

The SoulFood listening room

the scene at Metronome in Tacoma

post-game music at Twilight Gallery

Home is where the beached tree is?

Stations of the Bean: NW Coffee (so far)

What self-respecting tour of the northwest would neglect conspicuous coffee consumption? Not this one. Despite giving up coffee for most of December, I'm back on the bean here in Oregon. Yes, the  Little Bird tour has thus far been fueled by some delicious locally-roasted coffee beverages. Some highlights from our trip thus far: 

Limestone Coffee in Medford, OR. Seriously third-wave in Southern OR. Yes, they have almond milk if you're into non-dairy espresso drinks, which they did a fine job with, but the winner was their selection of nuanced pour-over coffee features. Every cup is ground to order. http://www.limestonecoffee.com/

Good Bean, Jacksonville, OR. Not far from Medford is this little food, wine and coffee-savvy burg. Hot-air roasted beans from the region's original roaster did not disappoint in the java department, as Good Bean served up a truly exemplary latte made with hazelnut milk. Their beans are proudly served throughout the region's other cafes and restaurants, as well. http://www.goodbean.com/

Noble Coffee, Ashland, OR. Aw, how nice to walk into a place and see a Gibraltar on the menu! Having lived next to Blue Bottle's kiosk in Hayes Valley, SF, during this drink's nascency, I've a soft spot in my heart for this barista-brainchild of a beverage. We happened into this Ashland roasters Railroad District 'temple to coffee' after our radio gig at KSKQ and felt instantly at ease (and warm! It's 30 degrees here). Organic and artisanally crafted, Noble's Gibraltar more than lived up to Blue Bottle's original. http://www.noblecoffeeroasting.com 

Road Views: 101 N to OR

Of course, half the fun of touring is the sight-seeing along the road. Despite encroaching malls and chains, the Northwest stills retains its unique regional vibe, dominated by the big redwood trees that - thankfully - still cover much of the North Coast. Traveling from Arcata to Oregon was a real visual treat as we wound through a wide swath of national forest land. Alas no Bigfoot, but, lo, Paul Bunyan, Babe, giant wooden fish and 'It's A Burl' gallery which felt a bit like visiting Middle Earth. We enjoyed a day off in Medford and are cued up for a radio spot in Ashland 1/15 on KSKQ 89.5 FM 1-3pm before our gigs in Ashland & Corvallis. 

Portland: Go west, near east

It's no secret that one of the many great things about Mysore-Style Ashtanga Yoga is the global tribe of Ashtanga practitioners. Visit nearly any place in the world and you can likely scare up at least a couple Ashtangis with whom to share practice. I've found practice groups everywhere from living rooms in Santa Cruz found by word-of-mouth to the most bustling urban capitals. Portland is no different, with at least two established Mysore groups. When I visit Portland, I call up a local I met in India in 2008 to set me in the right direction. This go Karen graciously shepherded me to Near East Yoga, a Northeast Portland studio led by Casey Palmer, which has been going strong for a good number of years. On-point instruction, good vibe, friendly community...what else does an Ashtangi need?

Well... food. We found post practice eats at Bijou Cafe which knows how to make a kick-ass, authentically French omelet. Plus they'll serve with a salad.  Très bon. (Yogis know better than to enter the Voodoo Donuts outpost up the street from Bijou, but I can't tell you how many Portland residents told me about Voodo so I'd be remiss not to mention it. Voodoo is renowned both for wacky flavor combinations as well as anatomically correct donuts. The actual Voodo donut features a pretzel stick stake through it's doughy heart.) Back to Bijou, the cafe not only serves great food but hosts a weekly Supper Jazz series on Friday's. Next time...Visiting on the front end of a week, we missed a whole slew of Portland's musical scene (other than the visiting guitar in the hotel room). Fortunately, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, in the Pearl District, hosts an interesting program of resident and touring artists nearly every night of the week. We enjoyed an early show by a young Portland ensemble on Tuesday in its cozy dinner club listening room. Yes, life is good in Portland.

Portland: Commonality

One thing Portland really has down in a very on-their-sleeve kind of way is the concept that we're all in this together. The notion of "the commons" — shared space, figurative and elemental —is not just about the natural environment, but resounds in the names and practices of numerous, residents, restaurants and buildings. For coffee, there's Public Domain, for beer, the Commons Brewery, and for building there's the brothers Moon who are building their own 'commons,' a self-generating home that meets The Living Building Challenge ('projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements, including net zero energy, waste and water, over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy.') It's inspiring and highly congenial. Last night, we ate at one of Clyde Common restaurant's convivial community tables. Albeit Clyde Common is not the place to go if you're vegan — the menu has more meat liver based offerings than many I've seen and most of the vegetarian items feature dairy (though I've a feeling they'd work with vegans as needed).  What is on the menu is thoughtfully constructed in its open kitchen — the grapefruit in the beet salad is jellied; the greens adorning the broccoli soup, micro; the ice cream on the apple crisp flavored with scotch. Oh yea, it is a bar as much as a restaurant and the liquor list rivals the wine list (from Oregon, Washington and Europe but nada from Cali), complete with imaginatively named house drinks (Pancho & Lefty, Heavy Petting) and barrel aged cocktails. It's just that kind of Portland place, one where of course they want you to be happy because then everyone else will be that much happier.

Three Ps (& a D) in Portland

I'm not here for work or to play, rather I'm in Portland on a bit of a lark while my S.O. works. A wintry, rainy Northwestern city might not be the first choice to visit if you're feeling under the weather, but Portland is hardly a place with which to find fault. Portland really is cool, figuratively as well as literally. As we're staying downtown, I spent my first day in the area and The Pearl District, enjoying some R&R and literary inspiration.
Yoga Pearl: Located, fittingly, in Portland's Pearl District, Early morning Mysore Style Ashtanga class is followed in quick succession by led Hatha and Vinyasa classes with some Yin Yoga and Restorative classes for good measure. The serene studio also boasts a Wellness Center and one of the best smoothie & juice bars in town...

Prasad: I'll go to Pearl for Prasad alone. Veggie bowls, healing elixrs, an extensive juice and smoothie menu. If the Wellness Shot (ginger juice, lemon, cayenne & echinacia straight up) I took doesn't cure me, I don't know what will. Especially since I chased it with Blackberry Kiss smoothie made with Oregon's own Marionberries. Yum and OK, now, I could look at books.

Powell's City of Books: Lest anyone think that no one reads actual books anymore, Powell's City of Books spans a city block and  keeps its shelves stacked high with seemingly every tome known to humankind. The largest independent new and used bookstore in the world has color-coded rooms that help you locate your area of interest. There's also a downloadable app that guides you turn by turn through the stacks if you don't want to ask one of the stores friendly book loving staff. It's hardly my first visit, but...wow, I'll say again. I whiled away a couple of hours here, decided on my purchases while reading them over coffee — they let you bring up to 5 books to browse into the cafe — bought the latest Alice Munro collection and re-remembered about 10 titles I want to/need to read.


Ok, about that D. That would be for Ducks. As in Portland Ducks, who I have to say I haven't been following. Nonetheless, I met self-proclaimed 'the biggest Duck fan' on the planet, a gentleman who was flying back to PDX via AZ where the Portland Ducks took the Fiesta Bowl. The birder in me eclipsed the football 'fan' and had to ask what kind of duck is a Portland Duck? Not a wood or a mallard or a whistling duck but a 'Donald-type Duck' I was told. A Disney Duck, was the general conclusion. In any case, congrats to the Ducks!