May Second Saturdays at Jingletown Jazz Room

I'm looking forward to being a part of this "a showcase and meeting place for all things Oakland-made." Aka Ale Industries' Second Saturdays event featuring  local artists, local food trucks and food vendors, local bands and musicians (this week, moui as well as King Cajon & The Country Gentlemen", art vendor markets highlighting artists and local. Plus Ale Industries is all about its East Oakland-made, BioEnergy beers! Stop by, 3098 E. 10th St. Oakland, CA 94601 from 12-10pm. 
We'll be playing at 5pm.

Ode to Pliny

"I have a big inner life. My struggle is how to organize it." -- Baz Luhrmann  New York Times 2/9/14

Rainy day here. Rainy days. As California basks in belatedly falling rain and snow, I'm happy to be warm at home, reading the Sunday paper, recovering from my venture into beer tourism.

 I'm not a big drinker and, when it comes to alcohol consumption of any kind, I'm more apt to have a nice glass of red wine. However, my SO has a high regard for IPAs and enough interest in craft beer to brew up a batch at home from time to time. So when another friend who is likewise partnered to a beer lover invited us along to enjoy Russian River Brewing Company's annual release of its renowned Triple IPA 'Pliny the Younger,' we said sure. 

As the event showed up increasingly in the press, it dawned on us that the Pliny the Younger release was a very big deal among beer drinkers. Expensive and time-consuming to brew, Pliny the Younger is considered one of the very best tasting beers in the world, but is only available at the Santa Rosa pub for two weeks each year (with very limited shipments elsewhere). People from all over the country (world?) — we'd meet a woman from Texas who flew in and got up at 5 in the morning to get in line — gather in Santa Rosa each February to consume the rich beer. And so I found myself rising early Saturday to join my friends and the gathering throngs to await our turn to taste Pliny.

The drenching rain didn't keep the crowds away and it was late afternoon by the time we were let inside Russian River Brewing Company.
 Inside the brewery, it was nearly standing room only, shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-elbow, as the capacity crowd toasted glasses and sipped on the golden ale.  The pub serves an extensive list of other highly regarded and artful brews, including Pliny the Elder,  all year, but it was Pliny the Younger's day.
"Are you leaving?" I asked a man getting up from an adjacent bar stool, hoping to secure more perches for my party. 
"No," he said, looking at me aghast. "I'm staying 'til they close. 
Eventually, we got a table to sip and further consider this year's Pliny over pizza and pub sandwiches. 
Was it all that? I'm hardly the best judge, but I will say it was the smoothest, most drinkable beer I've tasted.

We're again participating in the RPM (write an album in a month) Challenge this month. I don't know this Ode to Pliny will make the KCDC 2.0 cut, but this is what appeared today:

Ode to Pliny the Younger

What you'll do for a fine craft beer 

Why wait in the rain in a soggy chair

As Triple IPA is a strong and special thing

May alter your reality, may make you sing

Oh Pliny the Younger, you sneaky little thing

Oh Pliny the Younger, 

Oh Pliny the Younger, 

Hoppy, smooth, a beer so right

We waited for hours

And now everyone's a little tight

We stood outside though the rain did fall

What folks will do for rare alcohol 

The cops came, the merchants swore

But we all bought T-shirts 

From The Pliny the Younger store

Oh Pliny the Younger, 

Oh Pliny the Younger, 

Hoppy, smooth, a beer so right

We waited for ours 

Then off we went in the night

Will you do it again? Some won't some will

Fly from all over to get their fill

Maybe if there's another sort of inebriation

Perhaps a quadruple IPA creation?

---KCDC 2/9/14

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

Today in Petaluma: An afternoon of live music at Lagunitas Taproom

3/23 Live @ The Plough & Stars: Secret Town and Deborah Crooks

Last minute-ish add to the March calendar, we'll be playing in support of our friends in Secret Town at SF's favorite Irish pub, The Plough and Stars. Sure it's a week after St. Patrick's day but why let that stop you? Come lift a glass and enjoy live Americana music. Cheers!

Full Moon Muse: Movies, Blues & Beer

That kind of sums up my weekend which was graced with a good movie, hearing some fine blues at Speiskammer by Howell Devine and playing a sunkissed gig at the Lagunitas Taproom in Petaluma. It always takes me a day or two to get back to the world after a weekend like that.
RE: the movie. Have you seen the latest Wes Anderson flic Moonrise Kingdom? It will take you back to your 10-12 year old self, when you're not-quite-grown-up but still a kid and have started to get big clues that there's more going on around you than you thought and that you have a choice in some matters. Especially if you like somewhat fantastic books. Anyhow, if you haven't seen, today's day of the  "Full Buck Moon" may just be a perfect opportunity. RE: The Moon, from Farmer's Almanac: "July is the month of the Full Buck Moon. Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month."