Back in the Bay Area: Live music in SF, Walnut Creek & Pacifica

 I'm just back from a couple weeks of travel and gigs in Southern CA, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. What fun it was to play in new — and incredibly beautiful — places. We had a great time and...it's great to be home! I spent the day cleaning up the garden and am jazzed to see I haven't missed all my sunflowers blooming.  Now, I'm looking forward to playing several local shows over the next couple weeks, starting tonight in San Francisco at Brainwash Cafe. I've played here a lot over the years and it's a casual hangout in SOMA where you can get some food, listen to live music...and do your laundry! Katie Garibaldi is hosting so it's sure to be a positive, happy event. More details on upcoming events follows.

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Brainwash

Kareneycopia Music Showcase - 7-9:30pm

1122 Folsom
San Francisco California 94103
US 415-255-4866

A weekly free showcase of various acoustic music artists. With Katie Garibaldi.

Saturday, July 20th, 2013

Pyramid Alehouse

Unfiltered Music Series - 1pm

1410 Locust Ave.
Walnut Creek California 94596
US (925) 946-1520

Back in Pyramid's beer garden for an afternoon show!

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

Surf Spot

Deborah Crooks @ Surf Spot - 2-5pm

4627 Pacific Coast Highway,
Pacifica California 945044
US

Full band show in Pacifica! 

Playing out & abouts: SF, Oakland, Walnut Creek

One of the best parts of performing is the variety of venues and people you meet. It's been a busy few weeks of shows about the Bay Area (including one coming up today, see below), we played radio stations and restaurants, brewpubs and cafes, art schools and a drawing room of a mansion. I love this kind of schedule, which is like being a bird flying about from rooftop to tree limb: your perspective, and your experience, is ever changing. The restless traveler feeds on this this: plus it makes coming up that much more

Scenes from the Bread & Roses Volunteer Appreciate Party

welcome, even if you haven't left town...which I'll do soon enough. But for now, I'm getting the set together for

Singing to wine lovers at KC Turner's Acoustic Bistro Series

an early evening at Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek. If you're in the greater East Bay, come on out to Pyramid's beer garden. We're playing 6-9. Check the calendar for more....

The first of my summer dates at Pyramid Alehouse's Unfiltered Music Series dates is 5/26/13

Scrub Jays on Mother's Day

My mom passed away eight years ago, so on Mother's Day, I send salutations to moms I know, rather than my own. But it's not that I forget her: as time passes, I only miss my mom more. This past Sunday, I had an afternoon radio spot scheduled for KKUP 91.5, chatting with DJ (and tireless supporter of independent musicians) Don Campau. Given the day, I was making sure to include a song, that's part tribute to both my mother and my grandmother ("Grandma Mission Blues" below) in the set list.
My morning's preparation, however, was interrupted by the sound of squawking outside the living room window. Peering into our side yard, I saw not a bird but a very interested cat— my neighbor's generally docile feline — crouching near the gardening table, twitching its tail. After running outside and yelling at the cat, I saw a frightened, just-fledged scrub jay hopping under the table. Of course, it was just as scared of the large humans trying to help it get away as it was of the cat. But, whether due to cat-inflicted injury (it had a little blood on the side of it's mouth) or lack of skill, it couldn't fly up and out of the yard.  I picked it up and it struggled out of my hands to perch on my finger and I attempted to get it in a tree but no-go. Meanwhile, the cat came around the side of the porch, waiting to take over. After a bit more kerfuffle, we got the bird into a well-ventilated crate and set to finding the nearest Wildlife Rescue Hospital, which turned out to be 20 miles away in Walnut Creek, adjacent to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum.
Scrub Jays — as are most corvids — are among the smartest animals on the planet,  possessing accurate memory and an ability to plan ahead for the future (!). As a kid, I used to feed the jays the 'crusts' of my Wonder Bread peanut butter sandwiches (not recommended) and they quickly learned to wait in the oak trees near a bird feeder each day at lunchtime.
After about 10 minutes in the car, I noticed our rescued jay looking more alert and peering out of the crate and around the car. A good sign. Hopefully, it recovers well and will remember as much how to stay clear of cats as the relative comfort of the interiors of VWs.
The staff at Lindsay Wildlife Hospital promptly whisked the jay through a door from which came the sounds of lots of other birds. As they took down our information and assigned our delivery a number (we can check on its status in a few days) a few other folks came in with shoeboxes and jars containing rescued creatures. The wildlife hospital  is set up to take in animals 7 days a week, starting at 9am, and they're keeping busy: during the first week of May, they took in nearly 250 critters.  Turns out Lindsay's facility is one of the oldest and largest wildlife rehabilitation centers in the country, and largely dependent on volunteers and donations. Hopefully, I won't have to take any more animals there this year, but I'm definitely happy to give them some support. Find out more at http://wildlife-museum.org/hospital.