Bay Station's Other Desert Cities Record Releases Today

A new record with Bay Station

While I'm more a periodic than routine co-writer, I love collaborating and making something that simply wouldn't exist otherwise. While we started co-writing as part of a challenge, Kwame Copeland and I have since made it an annual undertaking, resulting in a bunch of songs and the Americana band Bay Station. For the past several years, we've spent a lot of time in Joshua Tree writing together, and two years ago, we ended our cross-country tour there...and began a new batch of tunes. When it was time to record the keepers, we decided to record the songs near their source, took the band to Gatos Trail Studio outside of Joshua Tree and recorded the basics (We also played a gig and took a sound bath at The Integratron while we were at it!). Over the next months, we completed the 10 tracks at Lost Monkey Studio in Hayward. We’re pleased with how all those good vibrations added up, and, almost exactly a year after starting the record, we're excited to release Other Deserts Cities this coming Sunday, April 29 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley. It’s a double record-release show with our Bay Station bandmate Steve Waters. If you're in the Bay Area this weekend, please join us!

Wiggle!

New Music from The Welcome Matt: "More Empire Days"

San Francisco's The Welcome Matt is releasing a new album! Check out the video for the first single, the title track "More Empire Days":


Then go get yourself a ticket for his album-release show at Doc's Lab on May 13. 
KC Turner Presents
The Welcome Matt
Special Guests- Guinevere Q / Seth & Erma
Saturday, May 13 - 8pm
at Doc's Lab San Francisco
$15 ADV / All Ages

Today I mourn, tomorrow I march: "Another Test"

Sad day, this inauguration day. I woke up at 4am to a large thunderclap, a low cloud going over our house crackling lightning and thunder, and then a downpour. It felt ominous, and it's taken half a day for me to snap out of a dark mood. In the meantime, the music has gone on. Bay Station has played a couple of fun shows in the past week, and we just shared a song we wrote in response to Black Lives Matter more than a year ago. Today "Another Test" just feels that much more timely. Today I mourn, tomorrow I march.

'Something Special' EP Release August 29 at Awaken Cafe

EP Release Party: Saturday, August 29th, 2015 in Oakland, with Deborah Crooks, Yours Truly, Michele, and Loretta Lynch 

Awaken Cafe

"Something Special" EP Release - 8pm

1429 Broadway (@ 15th Street)

Oakland, CA 94612

Price: $7 adv/$10 dos

I'm so looking forward to playing with the band in celebration of my Something Special  EP. Please join me, Saturday, August 29,  as I showcase songs from the EP on a bill with two of my favorite bands Loretta Lynch and Yours Truly, Michele.

Loretta Lynch: 8pm With dreamy three-part harmonies, raucous, surf-tinged guitar and more than a bit of tongue in cheek, the East Bay Area’s own alt-country outfit Loretta Lynch’s stirring songs reach the shady grove in all of us. A little tear in your beer, a little knife in the back – think "O Brother Where Art Thou" meets the Andrews Sisters’ disreputable cousins at a warehouse hoedown. It’s Americana Noir.

Yours Truly, Michele: 9pm Michele Kappel-Stone began singing onstage as a teenager, when she donned a head-to-toe white leotard and crooned “Sex in Wetsuits” as part of the multi-media avant theater company Impossible Industrial Action. The Baltimore native’s latest venture, Yours Truly, Michele, may best capture the heady mix of influences and experiences she can bring to any party simply by showing up.  With a sound infused with 60s pop and soul and infected by Americana Roots-Rock, YTM can evoke Debbie Harry, Erin McKeown, and Patsy Cline.

Deborah Crook: 10pm Deborah recorded Something Special earlier this year at Lost Monkey Studio in Hayward with Mike Stevens on drums, Kwame Copeland on guitars and Andrew Gibson on bass. The songs on the EP cover such topics as seeking transcendence in the myth of Bigfoot; recovering from a breakup in a 50s era LA Travelodge, and keeping the faith while being lost. Come take a listen!

Hear “India Street: on Soundcloud:

KCDC Your Own Reaction Released!

I'm pleased to announce that the KCDC "Your Own Reaction" Cd is now available worldwide, online via CDBaby, Amazon, iTunes, etc.! We're proud of these songs and had a great time playing them live in Berkeley on Sunday. If you weren't at the show, I hope you'll take a listen and order a copy ...or two or three!

Representing about two years of focused work, from the time Kwame and I challenged one another to co-write an album, to recording the basics of 10 songs at Lost Monkey Studio, to overdubbing, working out the vocal parts and the artwork, and mixing the tracks, the disc represents more than the production cycle: it's actually the result of about a century of combined experience of scribbling in notebooks, practicing scales, playing shows, etc. et. al. by the individuals that form the band and who helped produce the CD. When the box of KCDC Cds finally arrived on our doorstep a month or so back, we took one out and sat a moment with it, looking at the credits, awed and grateful for how much expertise came with each name  (be it design, audio engineering, playing specific instruments, writing, listening) and the day-by-day process that led to a finished result.  It was humbling to hold the finished product, a marker on the path that has taken us through all sorts of terrain of collaboration and consensus and expression, and satisfying. We'd seen these songs through.

 On the surface, KCDC's debut CD "Your Own Reaction" is a guitar-driven batch of California-made roots music played by a veteran group of musicians who appreciate a good riff and an infectious beat. But really, the 10 songs on "Your Own Reaction" are about putting your heart on the line, surrendering to love and taking responsibility for your actions. It's meant for listeners who love real instruments and authentic writing; listeners who are seeking out truth and beauty in their lives and think this world deserves the best they've got. Recorded with band mates drummer Mike Stevens and bassist Andrew Gibson at Stevens’ Lost Monkey Studios in Hayward, CA, and co-produced by Crooks, Copeland and Stevens, the album is a truly collaborative effort. Mastering by Ken Lee; design by Harper Design Group.

Calendar Check: September 14 KCDC CD Release @ The Starry Plough

I'm feeling jazzed: September is shaping up to be one of harvest in these parts as KCDC releases its debut CD and I play a slew of shows around the Bay Area in a variety of configurations (solo, duo, trio, full band!).
The big show of the month is the Your Own Reaction CD release on September 14, 2014 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley. Please come help celebrate this new recording, my collaborative, somewhat rock 'n roll project with Kwame Copeland. We had a great time putting these songs together, and are eager to share them with you. For the live show, we've bolstered the band with Steve Waters on guitar, Andrew Gibson on bass and Whitney Jacobson on drums to play songs from the new CD (in addition to previews of new KCDC songs and material from our respective catalogs). Plus we're sharing the show with Seattle's very cool alt-country/roots act Joy Mills & Tom Parker. I believe this show will be a hoot: It's free, all-ages, and early (4-7pm), the Starry Plough is an extremely convivial place to hear music and we'll have the new CDs (and other merch) available for you to take-home. All the details (as well as a preview of another KCDC tune 'What to Say') follow!

LISTEN TO 'What to Say (Come Here)" from the new KCDC CD (click link or view in browser if player doesn't appear)

Project completion: Keeping Balls Rolling and Shows Going Amid Chaos

I pretty much run my life on projects. I didn't consciously plan this, but over time I've seen the pattern. There's always something in the works: a show, a poem, a song, a tour, a recording...a blog post. It's how I create order and meaning for myself, even as I know things run on their own time, despite my intention and bunch of calendar entries, and the world may perceive things very differently than I do.  I can't really tell what and how my project habit will add up to in the end, but I do know I feel happiest when I know I've made something — which I hope will be of some value — that wouldn't have happened without my efforts.
Such was the case for Saturday night's show, a showcase for six songwriters, three of whom would play in the round on stage at once. I've been doing these songwriter showcases every few months for the past couple years, rounding up five other artists and playing myself. It's not a unique formula —playing-in-the-round, one song at a time, is a fairly traditional way of sharing a bill — and we knew the venue well. But I started to freak a little when two artists had yet to arrive five minutes before showtime. I sent the first three artists up to begin and began texting and emailing the others. One confirmed straight away they'd be late due to a contentious commute. One artist (who I'd learn was not feeling well the next day) would not show.  My mind racing, I scrapped the intended order and made a game plan to swap out an artist every time they'd completed a turn of three songs. Amid the shuffle, I sat down and played my songs,  too anxious about how the whole evening was being received to feel nervous about my own performance (Perhaps that was the hidden benefit?).
In any case,  it all was fine. More than fine. The other artists were relaxed (and good at what they were doing) and the audience enjoyed themselves. Food and drink kept coming out of the kitchen, new connections were being made, and by the end of the evening I was enjoying myself as well. We'd done it.
Yesterday, we came home to a box of our newly-pressed KCDC "Your Own Reaction" CD. We first wrote these songs as a songwriting challenge in February 2013. We recorded them in September that year, and we've been overdubbing and then mixing up until a month ago as schedules allowed. We haven't been hurried or anxious about this project but we've kept it going, scheduling rehearsals, working with engineers and graphic designers and learning parts amid work and other projects and, in the case of our co-producer, a pregnancy and birth.  September of this year, we'll release the music officially and have a show.
There will be more to do between now and then, but yesterday, we turned over the CDs in our hands to check it all read correctly, then popped one into the stereo to make sure it played. We had run into a friend on our way home so we gave him one, too.  We felt pleased with our musical efforts. I noticed when I woke up this morning, I'd slept better than I had in weeks. Chaos and meaningless averted... for the moment!

Bay Area New Music O'Rama: Desira, Garibaldi, Heartache Sisters & The Welcome Matt Debut CDs & Singles This Week

Bay Area musicians are packing a big punch this week as a quartet of local acts celebrate the release of new recording efforts. I've either shared shows with or happily applauded performances by these artists, who represent the full spectrum of songwriterly tendencies and deserve many ears.

Jeff Desira is eagerly anticipating his CD-release party at Amnesia on July 19th, 8pm, for "Weathervane." Produced by Scott Mickelson and mastered by Michael Romanowsk, expect some quality hook-laden tunes. (He'll be part of the Alameda Songwriter's Roundup on July 26).

While I was up playing in Oregon, Katie Garibaldi celebrated the release of her new — and seventh (!) — CD "Follow Your Heart," a collection of pop and country-tinged tunes recorded with great care at Tiny Telephone and featuring the string work of Magik Magik Orchestra

The Heartache Sisters are hard not to love with their multi-instrumentalist cool, sweet harmonies and Americana style. They've just debuted two new singles — Please Be Kind and Living Machine _ which can be found across the Inter webs. I also highly recommend seeing them live if you're in Fresno, Pasadena or Oakland in the coming weeks. Check their tour schedule for a date near you.

I recently interviewed The Welcome Matt about "POP JUNK FLUFF & HYPE," which is packed with memorable lines and is officially released July 16. This music rocks.

Good stuff all around, I say. Get ye to iTunes quick!

New Moon in June

“And the sun and the moon sometimes argue over who will tuck me in at night. If you think I am having more fun than anyone on this planet, you are absolutely correct.”
― Hafiz
There is no excuse for not writing (or blogging as the case may be), there is just not writing. Just like everything, you are either doing it or you're not. Not writing, though, doesn't necessarily mean you aren't creating value in other ways.  I haven't been at the keyboard much this week, which has been concerned with music and yoga in other spheres of this great big world. Speaking of spheres, it's the New Moon today. Time to start something new, plant some seeds, celebrate you're alive.*
You might also take a listen to the latest from. Kris Delmhorst. She  has a great new album out Blood Test.

*“There is a wonderful sparkle to the New Moon in Cancer at 5 degrees on June 27th, 2014. Something feels refreshing and even inspiring even if you can’t quiet verbalize what it is. Soak in the fabulous energy now as new moon phase tends to symbolize a fresh new start…” —Dipali Desai at Celestial Space Astrology.

New Music: KCDC Preview

In the interest of both creative challenge and ego erosion, my partner Kwame Copeland and I took the RPM Challenge, aka co-write-an-album-in-a-month, in February 2013. Employing an Allen Ginsburgian/Beat Poet/first-thought-best-thought approach to writing, we sat down and wrote a song together every day for two weeks. It was a pretty straightforward effort: we threw whatever we had against the wall and kept what stuck, culling the results to songs we found interesting enough to complete.  After the RPM Challenge ended, we kept going with most of the material, rallying a rhythm section and recording the basics of what has turned out to be an eclectic batch of tunes that dips into country, latin, post-punk, straight-ahead rock as well as balladry. Over the past several months we've been completing overdubs and mixing the tracks with Mike Stevens at Lost Monkey Studio...and we're just about finished with KCDC 1.0 (in the middle of recording and mixing songs from RPM 2013 we did the RPM Challenge again in 2014, so yes, there will be a second collection). It's been an organic and refreshing project, a departure in many cases from our individual work, and we've had a lot of fun. We'll be releasing the first KCDC collection of songs sometime this summer. In the meantime, here's a preview of the intro track, Go Through That Door:

Read.Eat.Listen: Pick Me Up

You know the holidays are over when the cat pulls down the Christmas lights and the (living, Norfolk Pine) tree and the house has succumbed to the winter bug of the season. Well then!
Read:  Poetry Foundation. A campaign to 'flood Facebook with poetry' circluating this weekend just as I was being laid low pulled me out of a big wallow. I spent a few happy hours revisiting poets and discovering some new ones.  Here's one from a new-to-me poet Heather Christle.

Pursuits

It is not that you want

to be the one to make prints

in the untrampled snow

It is that you want

to be in the snow

without having touched it

to be of  the snow

not beginning

Everywhere commerce

dictates the shapes

that move you along

that seat you at the table

far from the snow

far from the act

of not touching

It only gets worse

A girl’s gotta eat

And your hunger’s

not even your own
          —By Heather Christle 

Eat: (Drink). Wellness Shots via Tashenna Lawson MindbodyGreen. Simple, strong and bracing.
Here’s how to make a basic wellness shot:

• Juice ½-1 whole lemon
• Juice 1-inch piece of ginger
• Add a dash or two of cayenne pepper

Knock it back at the onset of a cold, or just when you feel like a little pick-me-up is in order. You’ll feel the effects fairly quickly. "

Listen: The always excellent Rosanne Cash's new CD "The River & The Thread" is scheduled for release January 14, 2014. Impeccable and literate, she never fails to inspire. NPR is previewing the CD on First Listen for the next few days and you can hear full tracks via SoundCloud and other sites. She'll be touring extensively, including a 4-day residency at SFJazz in April! Here's 'A Feather's Not a Bird'

"Little Bird" Takes Flight CD RELEASE SHOWS

I'm very pleased to report that my new CD "Little Bird" — 11 new tunes produced by Art Khu — is complete. While it is being released everywhere Nov 5, 2013, I'll have copies on hand at all of these shows which will be showcasing the material on the recording. Come help me celebrate and pick up a copy!

Upcoming Dates

Friday, October 25th, 2013

The Driskill Hotel

Live @ The Driskill - 6pm-8pm

604 Brazos St Austin TX 78701 US (800) 252-9367

 http://www.driskillhotel.com/live-entertainment.php

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

Renaissance Hotel

MEOW Con - 7pm

Austin TX USA

Showcasing at MEOW Con
http://sched.co/18tYKYe

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Cedar Street

Original Showcase - 10pm

208 W. 4th St. Austin TX 78701 US 512-495-9669

Price: $5

More info tba.

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

Boom Boom Room

First Tuesday with JRo Project - 9:30pm

1601 Fillmore San Francisco CA 94115 US 415-673-8000

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

The Lost Church

Aireene Espiritu & The Hobos, Deborah Crooks - 8pm

65 Capp St San Francisco CA 94141 USA

Price: $12

Wonderful venue! Aireene & The Hobos! This is will be another great night of music!

- See more at: http://www.deborahcrooks.com/shows/#sthash.aH6wXVk9.dpuf

Upcoming Dates

Friday, October 25th, 2013

The Driskill Hotel

Live @ The Driskill - 6pm-8pm

604 Brazos St Austin TX 78701 US (800) 252-9367

 http://www.driskillhotel.com/live-entertainment.php

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

Renaissance Hotel

MEOW Con - 7pm

Austin TX USA

Showcasing at MEOW Con
http://sched.co/18tYKYe

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Cedar Street

Original Showcase - 10pm

208 W. 4th St. Austin TX 78701 US 512-495-9669

Price: $5

More info tba.

- See more at: http://www.deborahcrooks.com/shows/#sthash.aH6wXVk9.dpuf

Upcoming Dates

Friday, October 25th, 2013

The Driskill Hotel

Live @ The Driskill - 6pm-8pm

604 Brazos St Austin TX 78701 US (800) 252-9367

 http://www.driskillhotel.com/live-entertainment.php

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

Renaissance Hotel

MEOW Con - 7pm

Austin TX USA

Showcasing at MEOW Con
http://sched.co/18tYKYe

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Cedar Street

Original Showcase - 10pm

208 W. 4th St. Austin TX 78701 US 512-495-9669

Price: $5

More info tba.

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

Boom Boom Room

First Tuesday with JRo Project - 9:30pm

1601 Fillmore San Francisco CA 94115 US 415-673-8000

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

The Lost Church

Aireene Espiritu & The Hobos, Deborah Crooks - 8pm

65 Capp St San Francisco CA 94141 USA

Price: $12

Wonderful venue! Aireene & The Hobos! This is will be another great night of music!

- See more at: http://www.deborahcrooks.com/shows/#sthash.aH6wXVk9.dpuf

Friday, October 25th, 2013
The Driskill Hotel
Live @ The Driskill - 6pm-8pm
604 Brazos St Austin TX 78701 US (800) 252-9367
 http://www.driskillhotel.com/live-entertainment.php

Saturday, October 26th, 2013
Renaissance Hotel
MEOW Con - 7pm
Austin TX USA
Showcasing at MEOW Con"
Conference of Women in music
Renaissance Hotel
Austin, CO
http://sched.co/18tYKYe

Sunday, October 27th, 2013
Cedar Street
Celebration of Women in Music Showcase - 10pm
208 W. 4th St. Austin TX 78701 US 512-495-9669
Price: $5
FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/416819101753092/?source=1

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
Boom Boom Room
First Tuesday with JRo Project - 9:30pm
1601 Fillmore San Francisco CA 94115

Thursday, November 14th, 2013
The Lost Church
Aireene Espiritu & The Hobos, Deborah Crooks - 8pm
65 Capp St San Francisco CA 94141 USA
Price: $12
All-acoustic set!

Friday, November 15th, 2013
Armando's
Happy Hour & A Half - 4:30pm
Martinez CA 94553 US

Preorder CDs til Nov 5 @ http://bit.ly/1d8bUjJ

Upcoming Dates

Friday, October 25th, 2013

The Driskill Hotel

Live @ The Driskill - 6pm-8pm

604 Brazos St Austin TX 78701 US (800) 252-9367

 http://www.driskillhotel.com/live-entertainment.php

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

Renaissance Hotel

MEOW Con - 7pm

Austin TX USA

Showcasing at MEOW Con
http://sched.co/18tYKYe

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Cedar Street

Original Showcase - 10pm

208 W. 4th St. Austin TX 78701 US 512-495-9669

Price: $5

More info tba.

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

Boom Boom Room

First Tuesday with JRo Project - 9:30pm

1601 Fillmore San Francisco CA 94115 US 415-673-8000

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

The Lost Church

Aireene Espiritu & The Hobos, Deborah Crooks - 8pm

65 Capp St San Francisco CA 94141 USA

Price: $12

Wonderful venue! Aireene & The Hobos! This is will be another great night of music!

- See more at: http://www.deborahcrooks.com/shows/#sthash.aH6wXVk9.dpuf

Read.Eat.Listen: Coastal

Read: I pre-ordered Linda Rondstadt's memoir "Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir" so it was delivered to my Kindle App as soon as it was released on Sept 17 and I'm just about done with it. Smart, funny, and detailed about her amazing music career, she writes candidly about her roots growing up in a musical family in Arizona, following her musical muse to LA and seeing her musical career take in the 70s off despite crooked managers, drugged out or drunk musicians, and contrasting visions between label and artist. And then never stopping following her erudite muse which took her all over the musical map...until she recently had to stop singing due to Parkinson's disease. She's a great singer, a savvy song-picker and had an amazing career. Every paragraph of this book is chock-full of big names from nearly every genre of music you can imagine — from rock to opera, cajun to standards — and insider knowledge.
Eat: It finally feels a little like fall around here, which is apt given the equinox, so there's a pumpkin in the oven, and I think it's going to be soup.
Listen: Of course, I'm listening to a bunch of Linda Ronstadt now but a current band got in the mix, albeit they have a retro sound. Best Coast has newer music coming out but I'm grooving on this 2012 effort.

Little Bird fledging, Blurb Lyric-book

As I'm in finish-up-the-CD mode and getting Indiegogo backer rewards out, I set to collecting all the lyrics from my recorded songs into one place. I chose to make a Blurb book which was pretty fun and mostly easy (a more graphics-arts-minded person might have had a better time with some of the spacing). In any case, I got the first iteration in the mail this week, the same day I was going over artwork for the CD, which will be released Nov. 5.  Yes, I'm excited!

Song Lyrics Recordings 2008-2013 by Deborah Crooks  

preliminary disc cover design ideas

Read.Eat.Listen: On the gig

Playing National Music Day Popup Parklets for a Cause, photo by Local Music Vibe

Read: Honestly, it seems like I've been reading Google Maps more than anything lately,  getting to the various gigs this month, not to mention planning out our upcoming trip to and through the Southwest, Colorado and Wyoming. But between the scrolling, I've reread a book that meant a lot to me when I read it nearly 20 years ago "Long Quiet Highway" by Natalie Goldberg, about the practice of writing, the practice of Zen, and generally waking up. Goldberg, of course, is famous for helping other write, and so her prose is especially accessible. Rereading books is like touching base with old friends, and I can see now how this book planted a seed in me of searching for meaning and of learning to be an artist and finding and maintaining a practice.

Eat: Likewise, food prep has likewise gone out the window of late (not sure where we'd be without Harmless Harvest coconut water, Raw Revolution Bars and kale chips. Guess what's going in the cooler?) Furthermore, when you're gigging a lot, you generally eat at the gig or near it. I jokingly say that playing Off the Grid, the round-up of gourmet food trucks, is the best smelling gig I have. I recently had some exceptionally good eats before playing a recent OtG, a We Sushi 'burrito' which swapped out the flour tortilla for seaweed to create something light and yummy, kind of a high-end hand-roll.
Listen:Mavis! Has a lovely new collection "One True Vine", produced by Jeff Tweedy, no less. Here's "I Like the Things About Me"

Read.East.Listen: Pasadena Pastimes

I spent a few days in Pasadena last week on the excuse that my husband was on a longish work trip to the city 10 miles north east of downtown Los Angeles. Over the past few years, I've found Pasadena to be a lovely perch for Southern California visits. Provided you don't want to get to the beach, it provides fairly convenient access to much of LA as well as its own cultural highlights (I didn't get to the Norton Simon Museum this trip, but it's definitely on my radar for my next visit). Pasadena also provides a good perch for birds. As I learned observing the local Alameda peregrines, there's a nesting pair of falcons on the AT&T building smack in the middle of Pasadena. On our way home from dinner, we stopped by to watch the birds on the highest reaches of the building setting up to roost for the night.  Pasadena is very close to Angeles National Forest the San Gabriel Mountains so perhaps it shouldn't come as such a surprise to see such wildness amid the urbanity. Either way, I've been finding it immensely pleasing to see these once-endangered species thriving while surrounded by humanity.

Yes, there are peregrine falcons in this photo

Read: I've been studying up on all my raptors in prep to volunteer at the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory this fall. Glenn Stewart's Eye to Eye with Eagles, Hawks and Falcons isn't on the recommended reading list but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in raptor conservation. Likewise, it will be of interest to anyone who had any association with the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group and its work in the recovery of peregrine (and eagle, and hawk) populations. Stewart, the current director of PBRG, was in on the group's work from the beginning, and offers fascinating accounts of the group's origins, conservation efforts in Idaho, Arizona, California, Alaska and Canada, as well as falconry in general.
Eat: When in Pasadena, it's usually a toss up between Real Food Daily — gourmet vegan with a good wine list to boot — and Green St. Tavern, a cozy restaurant with a menu dictated by the seasons. We were won over by the Green St.'s chef offering of a daily 'pie inspiration' on the dessert menu. Who wouldn't be? (The apple pie was a winner.)
Listen: Most of the music happening on this trip was either rehearsal related (Kwame and I are polishing up some of the tunes we wrote for the most recent RPM Challenge) or on the car stereo (a lot of classic rock and top-40 pop happening on LA radios). Nonetheless, somewhere along the routes of the past few weeks, I've been turned onto Escondido, an Americana band out of Nashville. Check 'em out. 

New Song: Turn the Key

Happy May! Here's another newly recorded song from the upcoming CD:

Read.Eat.Listen: Eat.Listening.Listening.

I confess, I haven't been reading much in the way of books. The newspaper, the occasional blog post, the requisite New Yorker, but a good ole book? Hasn't been happening, sadly. Spring's pull outside, music studio time, yoga studio time, writing, general busy-ness have conspired against it. That said, I've been listening a fair amount. So, today we're skipping the Read in Read.Eat.Listen and getting to Eat.Listen.Listen.  So goes!
Eat: Really drink. Home-made almond milk is the week's best thing in the fridge. So simple (soaked almonds blended with a little salt & vanilla). Maybe I've posted this before? In any case, use it for smoothies, drink it straight up, add a teaspoon of vitamineral green for an easy/yummy green drink.
Listen: I met Matt Baxter a decade a go when producer Roberta Donnay called him in to play guitar on my first recording; Jake Sampson is a local blues singer and bass player I met after moving to Alameda. Matt & Jake released a soulful blues collection "Haunted" recently, and last week I saw them live at High St. Station. These guys got big energy and stellar licks. Check em out.
Listen: San Francisco's own favorite musician, studio owner and truly prolific and passionate artist John Vanderslice just ran an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign for his Dagger Beach album. Lucky contributors go a song written for them and a collection of new tunes and a David Bowie cover album. Generous. Here's a song, 'Overcoat' from his 2011 release "White Wilderness."