KC to . . .

OK then.  We have left Kansas City far behind us by this time.  The first day out of KC we drove to Pueblo, CO.  That involved driving across Kansas which always annoys me a little bit.  I could go on a bit about Kansas, but I might bore you.  Suffice to say that they have their socio-political proclivities on billboards across the state.  I can assure you that if I had my socio-political proclivities on billboards almost any place in the United States I might risk being burned at the stake.  I’m pretty sure that’s the direction we’re headed.  Other than that, it’s a boring place so maybe it’s good that they raise my blood pressure a bit with their pre 20^th century slogans and imagery.

We burned right on into Colorado from Kansas.  We stopped at one of those tourist displays alongside the road to Kit Carson, CO where we were going to stay for the night.  While we were there we decided that we had enough energy to press on to Pueblo, CO.  It wasn’t long before we were rolling through these little towns in Eastern Colorado that looked pretty impoverished to me.  Once again I didn’t really get a good look at the towns, just the part that the highway ran through.  They all seemed to have poorly maintained small houses along the highway.  It is February and I think that people haven’t started to come outdoors a lot yet. 

When you are just blowing right through a town you kind of make up stories about the people who live there based upon how you are feeling that day and what you see, which may look different to you on a different day.  It is an anecdotal experience.  You are the blind man and they are the elephant.  We have a hatchback door that keeps coming open while we are driving.  The car sets off an alarm whenever the door comes unlatched and we stop not long after we hear the alarm beeping.  We stopped in a little town in Colorado to latch the door.  There was a rundown building right adjacent to where we stopped.  There was an animal’s nose peeping out from under the door which had about a 3”, or 4” space.  I still don’t think it was a cat, although that was Kristi’s assessment of the situation.

One of the high points of our stay in Kansas City was a visit with Jim Page.  I have known Jim casually for years.  I remember the first real conversation I had with him, probably in the mid-80s at the Ruston Inn when we were at a Victory Open Mike.  We had a discussion about socialism.  I remember that compared to Jim I am a bit wishy washy.  There is something about Jim Page that makes me remember almost every time I am around him, and many times it has been to watch him perform.  I’m not sure it was a “nice” conversation this time as we were discussing the horror of the D.T. presidency.  Kristi and I also had the pleasure of seeing one of Jim’s showcases.  He was in fine form and quite conversational about the subject matter in his songs.  The crowd there loved him and he had a full room.

Meanwhile driving into Colorado we were driving into the sun, mountains in the distance.  We move all of our gear out of the car every night which is sometimes a daunting task after a day of driving.  We spent the night at a motel in Pueblo.  The next day we drove to Walsenburg, CO and stopped for a visit with our old friend, Will Dudley.  Will gave us a brief tour of the town and we got to see firsthand where he lives.  He had shown us pictures of his place before and they looked just like the pictures in person.

Will Dudley 2/2017

Walsenburg, unlike the other little towns we had drifted through, looked to be somewhat more prosperous although Will said that there is no major industry there people seem to be employed to a large extent.  After staying for a couple of hours we got back in the car and drove into serious mountains.  I turned the driving over to Kristi just a little bit out of Walsenburg and she drove us all the way to Bloomfield, New Mexico where we are right now.  On the drive we drove into snowy heights which at one point was over 10,000 feet, pretty high for a major highway to be especially if you are from the the PNW where there aren’t any roads at 10,000 feet. 

We stopped in the little town of Chama, CO.  The main reason we stopped is that we saw a sign for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.  We were familiar with that railroad because JW Sparrow had put it in one of his songs that we used to sing with him.  We stopped, took pictures, drove through lots of snowy landscape which became more and more rugged until finally we came to  stop in Bloomfield, NM, our goal for the day.  Today we went to Chaco Canyon and spent the day kicking around the remains of the Chacoan civilization.  We go back tomorrow for a tour.  There was five miles of the worst road I’ve ever driven.  Maybe I have found myself temporarily on a short piece of bad road, but never 5 miles of it.  I’ll have more to say about this later.

Mono Culture then Kansas City, MO

Traveling across the country through the same states for what I think is a third time is interesting as my impressions are different each time with the slightly different routes we follow, and slightly different towns we are in.   Bozeman was interesting for the obvious growth that it is experiencing.  All of the towns that we have been in are experiencing American monoculture in one way or another, possibly with the exception of Cascade, Idaho which I suspect has too low a population to interest the captains of monoculture.  The same big box stores are commanding commerce in almost all of the significant population areas these days.  You see Office Depot, Home Depot, Staples, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Lowes, Safeway, Walmart, Walgreen’s – you get the picture – everywhere you go.

Missoula and Bozeman Montana however are fully monocultural towns, although both of them have downtown areas with homegrown businesses that are still very much active.  I don’t know how much longer that will last.  They do have some charm in their downtowns though, and those parts of town seem to be the center of entertainment and culture that is unique to their area.  We thought that Bozeman in particular seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.  There is much new construction happening, and there are mega malls galore done with an architecture that seems to reflect how Bozeman wants to see itself.

Unlike cities on the coasts these small cities have wide open spaces between them.  Missoula is the larger of the two at 69,000.  Bozeman has a population of around 39,000.  I would say that Bozeman is growing the fastest but that is an anecdotal opinion based upon driving around and seeing all of the new construction.  Both towns are college towns and have a lot of bars and entertainment.  We have always lived in the shadow of the megalopolis, with the exception of the years we lived in Alaska.  These towns probably have a little in common with Alaskan towns, the main difference being that you can just drive on out to a major city in a day or so from any of them whereas in Alaska there are many towns that require a plane ticket to get to anyplace significant (not that there are any destinations on earth that are truly insignificant)

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The other notable thought about our travel this time is that we followed I-90 to Sioux Falls, then turned right and took I-29 pretty much the rest of the way south to Kansas City.  The last time we made this trip we drove down through Kadoka, Valentine, Broken Bow straight south.  We drove through a much different part of the state of South Dakota this time.  Following I-90 looked a good deal more prosperous with large agro-farms, and tourist industry all along the route.

I know that this is all anecdotal and I wonder how much of my impressions are driven by weather, road conditions, what I ate the day we traveled, who is driving etc.  I know that when I’m driving I don’t see as much.  I am focused on the road ahead of me and arriving at my destination in one piece.  Last year we had Gen Obata with us who was quite willing to drive, and we were quite willing to allow him to do this.  That meant that I saw a lot more of what is alongside the road than I did this time, although for this last stretch Kristi and I traded off approximately every four hours.

Some years when we have had more time we have stopped at the tourist attractions (traps) along the way.  We have been to Wall Drugs, Mitchell’s Corn Palace (would love to see that again), and I’m not sure what else but surely there was something else along the way.   Mostly we have been rushing through from destination to destination.  Yesterday we drove out of the snow  completely.  It was the longest drive all the way from Rapid City, SD to Kansas City,  MO.  By the time we got to KC we were truly exhausted having played a two hour set the night before and getting out of Rapid City around 8:30 am.  We are at an America Extended Stay motel in KC.

We played at a couple of retirement homes while staying out in Red Bridge Extended Stay.  They were enthused about us, and it’s nice to get a little bit of money to augment our travel funds.  We have also gotten used to the grocery stores here and have kind of gotten a routine together.  It is interesting walking around in a neighborhood and not having any idea who lives in the houses, or if there is a difference between life in KC, or life in Tacoma, WA. 

Extended Stay America

Extended Stay America doesn’t provide maid service, so it’s a little different from the average motel.  Also the continental breakfast is truly as continental as you can get.  In the Red Bridge neighborhood the muffins were almost always gone, and if not gone there were few of them left  by the time I got to them, which wasn’t really all that late.  They always had lots of coffee though and they have these little packets of oatmeal that you just pour hot water in.  The first time I took the garbage out I was down by the front desk and I asked the receptionist where to put the garbage.  She said, “Put it in the trash room”.  I asked “where’s that?” and she pointed.  When I moved in the direction she pointed she said, no over there, I changed course and, “no over there” stress growing in her voice.  Then it was “see the sign?  Over there.”  I finally found it.  There was a closet with two garbage cans.  I brought towels down one day and the washer was on the fritz and they had no replacement wash cloths.  She said they’d have them later, but it was only about the fourth time we inquired, and late at night before we actually replaced our wash cloths.  We had never stayed at a “self-service” motel before.  They have kitchenettes with a hot plate and a microwave.  They usually have a regular sized refrigerator too, which is nice.  In order to get eating, and cooking utensils you have to ask at the front desk.  They’ll give you all the basic stuff you need to cook a meat and consume it.  Not any more than that though.  When we had more room when we traveled (in the “big white van”) we carried a full set of cooking implements and eating utensils.  We just don’t have the room to do that anymore, but we still improvise out cooking techniques to the equipment available to accomplish what we set out to do.

For the Folk Alliance International Conference we moved into an Extended Stay America just a couple of miles from Westin Crown Center.  The room has a bigger bed and a slightly different layout.  Everything else seems basically the same though.  It is reasonably quiet given the location (throbbing heart of the metropolis).  We had negotiated Westin Crown Center last year and so were fairly used to the layout.  We had gotten lost in the bowels of the parking garage early in the morning.  We simply couldn’t find the car and I think we walked a mile in the garage and were in a state of pure panic before we did find it.  We had some help in the end.  The help was semi-competent.  Kristi was absolutely terrified this year that we would lose the car again.  They close the mall off from the hotel late at night and when they do the most convenient access is also lost so you end up entering the parking area from a different location.  I really still don’t know how to exactly explain it, but it’s like a puzzle especially at 3 am when you are totally tired out from a day of doing FAI.

Billy Bragg at KC Folk Festival

I can tell you that everything worked out fine this year, but Kristi didn’t really want to stay around any later than she felt she had to each day.  I did it her way.  We did see a lot of great music.

Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton with Kristi Nebel

                                                                                 

We're at day five of Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City.  I don't expect to be forgiven for name-dropping nor for getting all gooey over my folk idols.  I have not led a life blessed by near-encounters with the famous, possibly because I'm from Spokane, not San Franciso, Nashville, New York, or Los Angeles, nor have I lived anywhere near those places.  Nor have I gone chasing after such experiences.  I do know people who can regale with the best of raconteurs of their experiences with famous people.  If you frequently find yourself in certain places you can have a reasonable expectation of a life like Forest Gump, I figure.  I just have to record this little incident for myself so I can look back on it as it's remarkable to me.  I'm a big fan of Tom Paxton.  I've sung along with his songs for much of my life and even played one of them dozens of times onstage.  "Wasn't that a Party" was a barrom hit for bands such as ours to play for drunks on a nightly basis.  "Here's to You, My Rambling Boy" is one I loved early on in my adolescence.  More recently in our tours of British folk clubs his songs pop up frequently among singers because he has earned legions of admirers everywhere we go there.   "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound", and "The Last Thing on My Mind" live on yet after all these years among lovers of folksinging.  So last year I was thrilled to spot him at Folk Alliance International and had my photo taken with him to shamelesslly show off to my friends on Facebook (many of whom are British).  Tonight we were watching Iain Matthews (formerly of Fairport Convention fame), and someone behind us tapped Steve on the shoulder and said familiarly, "You're not the kind of guy to wear that big black cowboy hat.  Seems like you should have a white one!"  I know Steve was floored to see it was Tom Paxton.  Tom in the past year announced his 63rd recording “Boat In The Water,” and recently hit the road with special guests Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer in the UK in January 2017.  We aren't actually pals with him, but had exactly one conversation in our lives with him, last year at Folk Alliance International.  This wasn't a good chance to talk because the concert was about to begin.  I had just enough time to lean over my seat and ask him if he still remembered Rob Folsom, a mutual friend who was his concert promoter in Tacoma.  He said "Of course!  Rob Folsom, yes!"  I told him that we'd seen Rob at an open mic last year, had a really nice time with him, and Rob played the most perfect set of music I'd ever seen from him.  Then Rob went home and died in his sleep.  Tom took that in.  Then he said, "That's how I'd like to go."  Then the concert started and after a few songs from "Plainsong", Tom disappeared.  I'm still scratching my head over how he managed to remember us at all, and decided to seek out Steve in a crowd for some familiar gentle joking.  But I'm tickled pink.  And the concert was great.

Here I am tonight with Tish Hinojosa directly after her concert.

Andy Roberts and Ian Matthews started Plainsong in 1972 before fanning out into their own careers with Pink Floyd and Fairport Convention, then reunited recently.  This concert was part of a project to rearrange and revive the songwriting of Richard Farina.  They breathed new life into Farina's songs with their tight harmonies and new grooves and with predictably expert guitar work on tunes that seemed to predict the violent death of this fine creative spirit.  The songs took me back to a place in my life when his poetic lyrics touched my rebellious youthfulness.  I was hoping to get a photo with Iain Matthews but haven't had the nerve to interrupt him in the halls here while he chats with others.  Tonight he sat next to Steve at the concert we attended of Tish Hinojosa, but I was unable to catch him before he darted away.  I did catch Tish though as you can see.  She played a lovely concert all by herself, featuring her appealingly melodic songwriting.  She proudly announced that her CD, "Culture Swing" has been named one of the 50 greatest Texas singer-songwriter albums by the Houston Chronicle.

Here's Steve today waiting outside the room for our interview with KC Cafe Radio.

We had an information table at the event all four days, allowing us to meet and mingle with folk deejays, some of whom we've known now for many years from airplay given to our previous recordings.  We gave away plenty of our promotional materials and met a couple of concert presenters who expressed interest in our music; one Scotsman, Rob Ellen, is familiar with our folk musician friends in Fife, Davey and Mary Stewart. And we had fun "chilling" with our friends from Seattle, Rick Ruskin and Jim Page.  We all compared notes from the late-night guerilla showcases that left everyone red-eyed from lack of sleep.  Today we had an interview on KC Cafe Radio with deejay Kathy Forste, who has by now crossed paths with us several times from Folk Alliances and become a friend.  Her interest is in singer songwriters and her programming reflects this. Folk Alliance shamelessly promotes the idea of developing relationships in the world of folk music, and this works out to be an enjoyable aspect of the experience for us.

Vance Gilbert

Here's someone you should catch if ever you can: Vance Gilbert, a truly great singer with some razor-sharp humor routines between his songs.

The event ends tomorrow with a "Folk Festival" featuring among others, the music of Billy Bragg.  His political messages are particularly germaine to the theme of this year, "Forbidden Folk", which Sonny Ochs still openly calls protest music.  The theme was chosen before the election, but many are saying this is the perfect time for creative juices to flow and for the music of protest to find a new audience.  Of course we couldn't be happier about that in spite of all this new administration is doing to make us unhappy.


                                                                           

Tom Paxton @ Phil Ochs tribute
We did finally on the last day of FAI run into him again and he did indeed perform.  This was part of a Phil Ochs tribute during which he shared a story of his friendship with Ochs and sang (still in fine form) "There But For Fortune" by Phil Ochs.

Bozeman and The Boss

Downtown Bozeman, Montana

We have not been accustomed to getting up and out early.  It is not that we are such late sleepers as we wake up early enough, and we get out of bed early enough (8am).  We just don’t get saddled up and underway in short order tending to actually get moving more around the 10am hour.  We are in Missoula, Montana at present.  We arrived here on Monday night, will play here today, then it’s on to Bozeman.  It has been snowing lightly since last night.  There has been a pickup truck in the parking lot here plowing the snow.  I don’t think it’s more than a few inches, and it is dry snow (I think).  That’s what I mean.  I haven’t actually been outdoors yet, and probably won’t be for a while.

Right now it’s time for me to try to get ready for action.   We played at a retirement home called “Grizzly Peak” that we played with Gen (Cosmo's Dream) last year.  We had gotten out of the motel room by noon so when we finished our gig we headed for the freeway (I-90) and Bozeman in a light snowstorm.  The speed limits here are high enough that you will be unlikely to get a ticket for speeding.  It’s more likely that you’ll get a ticket for not getting out of the way fast enough.  The speed limit in town on arterials was 45 mph.  The freeway is 75 mph, and 80 mph a little further down the road.  I guess there may have been a stretch that was 65.  In the snow I didn’t get much over 80.  Temperatures in Missoula, and quite a long way out were below freezing.  There was a coat of snow and ice on the road but not too slippery so I was passing everything on the highway.  I’ve always figured Kristi and I have just been lucky in all of our years on icy highways.  We hit a patch of ice and the car started to just fishtail a little bit.  You know the feeling?  I can remember a time when panic would have set in at such a prospect but there were no cars around us so I had complete use of the roadway there.  It only lasted seconds, less than a minute certainly.  The car did drift around the road a bit as I was regaining control then we were through it and off to the races again.  It wasn’t too long after that that the road became bare and dry and remained so until we pulled into Bozeman.  I was glad we got into town before the weather cooled as it does up here in the 4-5000 foot altitudes. 

The last time we were in Bozeman with Cosmo's Dream we were booked at Norris Hot Springs.  We arrived in town early enough to take a nap and then we drove out to Norris, set up, played, and came back to the house where we were staying slept, got up and left Bozeman without seeing anything in the town.   We drove to Rapid City, South Dakota the next day.  We’ll only go to Billings after we play on Friday (tomorrow) night.  We’ll at least see a little of Bozeman while we are here.  It is much warmer today than yesterday and predicted to stay like this for awhile.  It will actually be sunny on Friday, and Saturday which will make for nice driving. 

Cold Smoke Coffeehouse

We have just been out to see where we will be playing this afternoon and tomorrow.  At the coffeehouse we were billed as “Kristi Nebel”.  Now I’m sure some of you will find this either funny, or you will think that of course they billed us as Kristi Nebel because she is pretty damned good.  I understand that, however, I’m not sure how they would feel if she showed up by herself and tried to accompany herself on just her bass guitar.  She would no longer be an original act if she didn’t sing any of the songs that I’ve written.  It is such a humble booking in the first place with absolutely no publicity that I’ve found.  It is a coffeehouse that is situated in a mall that you are not going to walk to.  The young lady to whom we spoke there seemed surprised that Kristi would want to share her humble  billing with an “accompanist”.  It’s not that we haven’t  been down this road before, and I generally don’t really care if it is a private booking like a party, or a retirement home, etc.  In this case we are playing this little coffeehouse simply because that was the only booking we found and it is intended to give us an opportunity to introduce ourselves into the Bozeman marketplace.  It all seems a bit foolish, not very well done etc.  Perhaps I have never perceived reality as it is.   On the other hand, four fingers and a thumb.

Laundromat Bison Sculpture

I hate it when someone refers to this tour as a “vacation” because I can assure you that a vacation would be considerably different in form than what we are doing.  Maybe my life is a vacation.  I believe, however, that if this is a vacation I’d rather work for an honest living than take a vacation.  This is,an adventure.  My goals are quite modest.   My belief is that at this time of life they need to be.  I want us to have at least a year playing concert venues that have 100 or more seats.  This includes house concerts (which may be smaller but are a greater opportunity to actually communicate.  Of course I have to accomplish this before I die by accident, or by natural occurrence.

Bozeman shop window full of signs

 On the way here we have been listening to “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen.  He started playing the guitar while he was pre-pubescent.  I found myself comparing notes all the way through the book, and occasionally he would say something about the nuts and bolts of being a performer and Kristi would perk up suddenly with delight that there was someone else in the world who could understand the life that we have chosen for ourselves.  In many regards, it doesn’t matter if you are a rock star, or a lounge musician the life is very similar.  I can’t say that I’m entirely unhappy with the humility of our position in the world of music.  We have been in a world in which we had to make a living, as humble a living as it may have been.  It has been a world of adventure and wild creativity.  We have rolled the dice, and although we have not been big winners, we are still in the game

.We did discover when we went to the UK that we had some value to someone.  We had a couple of years where we played a significant number of festivals, and we have played some significant folk, and acoustic clubs there as well.  On one hand I like the songs I have written.  I enjoy singing them, and people respond positively to them.  On the other hand I have often felt flattered, surprised at how well we have been received.  We have made all the mistakes you can make as musicians over the years.  I think we make fewer these days but I’m sure we’ll trip a few times more before we reach the end of our journey.

Bozeman Laundromat

The Bozeman Bison sculpture was just outside this laundromat.  It was one of the best laundromats I've been in, and I've been in more than a few.  There was a full time attendant with all the coins one would need, free wi fi with fairly new machines of varying sizes to fit all circumstances.  The place was clean and the attendant swept the floor while we were there.  I think he was probably the owner and he made me feel like being the owner of a laundromat would not be such a bad deal.

We're Not In South Dakota Anymore, Toto

We're up to day fourteen of thirty-three now. We've driven 2,424 miles and played nine gigs so far.  What a difference a day makes.  I’m sorry;  I’ve had this lifelong impulse to break into old song lyrics when the circumstances befit them.  It’s probably a disease afflicting those destined to be musicians.  We’ve made it all the way to our destination, Kansas City, after  the  longest leg in our travel days.  (And no, "We're goin' to Kansas City" isn't one of those old songs spinning though my mind; that one's a bit too obvious).

I always make these tour management decisions and then have to torment over the thorniest issues ahead.  It takes me back to previous travel days of varied marathon magnitudes as measures of our durability over these lo many years of touring.  The years of traveling in the far north included some 14-hour drives over mountainous ice and snow in Canada and Alaska.  The most recent object of worry to me was complicated not by weather but by all the congested vagaries and unpredictability of British roads, and was likewise considered by locals to be totally inadvisable.  But of course that never stops us.  We made  it in September from Glasgow to Southampton in one day, taking ten hours.  Steve drove that solo with me wimping out in the passenger seat, serving only to feed him sandwiches and keep him awake.  Today we did the fair thing, trading seats behind the wheel every two hours of the ten, allowing us perfect intervals to fill the gas tank.  As compared to jet-lagged British driving, it was a breeze.  In the vast untrammeled, open spaces of our wonderful interstate highways across the Great American Desert (that to me includes the Rocky Mountains), one can feel safe driving 85 miles an hour and that’s exactly what I did yesterday and today for six hours.  Please don’t accuse me of ethnocentricity in using that moniker, “the Great American Desert”.  It was once common nomenclature on maps of the United States and isn’t far from the truth though mighty changes were ahead with the coming of irrigation.

Weather is not small talk in this era of extreme changes.  So from a distance of travel I see reporting of it to be influenced by the money of demographics.   As you may know, we toured to Portland, Oregon five weeks ago and our arrival coincided with an overnight fall of a foot of snow.  It caused great and quietly polite, civilized disruption.  It didn’t cause national news that I know of.   Funny that a city roughly ten times the size of it’s namesake in Maine got no attention while that city, which can count on yearly pile-ups of snow, is part of all I hear about in my mid-western travels.  For that matter, all the repeated heavy blanketing of snow in these great Midwestern states haven’t made comparable national news to the East Coast “blizzards” of 2017 simply because, I believe, there aren’t enough people here to warrant much attention.  I’d say, in fact, any attention at all except from local news.  

Rapid City, South Dakota was a great pleasure to arrive to from Billings. We had driven by bright moonlight on newly dried roads to Billings after playing a booking in Bozeman.  The melting snow had turned side-roads and parking lots to treacherous black ice when the sun set in Montana.  The first two hours in the Rockies dogged us with flurries and then real stick-to-the-road snowfall for two hours.  Then it mercifully quit and hasn’t returned.  Skies today were blue and roads perfect.

 Wyoming inspired me last year to wax rhapsodic on the ugliness of it's abandoned trailer towns and fracking cylinders.  I take it back this year.  It looks much better with a coat of snow to outline it's lovely contours and to coat the aforementioned squalor.   And, to be fair, Steve reminded me that I-90 circumvents the most beautiful vistas in Wyoming.

Rapid City is now over seven hundred miles back in our history with sweet memories as gifts along with a paycheck yet to be deposited.   Our return to the Firehouse Winery went even better than last year’s performance though we missed Gen Obata’s contributions to our music. We had a respectable turnout of folks who were totally attentive as well as appreciative of our music. 

We’re not in South Dakota now, Toto.  It’s downright balmy here and time to break out the short sleeved shirts.  Kansas City has NO SNOW, HALLELUJAH!  I might add that every welcome of a comfortable bed feels heaven-sent in our long,wintry days of travel.  To quote Steve's song,"they're the angels of the road".  Kristi

The Snow Must Go On

Photo taken by the reporter assigned from the McCall Star Newspaper, Gary Ertter.  What you’re not seeing here are my soggy snow shoes.

The snow must go on.  These were the words repeatedly spoken by Steve Herzog, director of the Valley Home Companion Show in Cascade, Idaho.  The show survived slogging slush, four feet of accumulated banks in all directions, and all manner of relentless varied sorts of frozen falling precipitation.  The snow fell overnight and simultaneously melted.  Then it rose and melted again, all the time continuing to fall.  But the towns-folk showed up nonetheless to see all their relatives and friends perform.  The refrains of Joplin rags still resound in my memories of the big show, as performed by two tenuous teenagers and one capable adult.   A pretty, terrified girl fumbled her way through Maple Leaf Rag on the piano.  All three nights when she at long last made the finish line a group of relieved siblings squealed their relief as the audience roared approval.We get this lovely opportunity as voyeurs of small-town  life to have a second-hand temporary induction in our invitation to be involved in the big show of the year.  We’ve now done it twice which lends to us a bit more depth of insight into the intertwined strands of families and talents contributing in a mixed combination of big and smaller abilities.  As well we get in return a greater sense of acknowledgement of our own contributions, making us feel almost as if we belong to the community for this brief time. The flirtation with community is sweet from this distance of a one-week yearly involvement in Cascade, Idaho.  These kind folks give us the gift of feeling, as touring artists, that we’re among the bigger fish in a slushy pond.

Kristi

Spokane to a Valley Home Companion

It is Saturday, February 4^th.  We’ ve been here for a few days now.  We arrived on Wednesday after a taxing day’s drive through fog and snow.  There was nothing really difficult about the drive but it was only our second of the tour and we are still getting used to winter driving.  We are in Cascade, ID with our friends the Gilmours.

Our first stop was Spokane.  Truthfully, I don’t remember much of the drive to Spokane but suffice to say we arrived as planned and we stayed in an Air BnB the first night there.  I do remember that Kristi drove the second half of the trip there.  I slept through some of the second half of the drive.  When one begins on a journey like this there is no routine.  Then slowly routine will fall into place to one extent or another. 

A friend called on “day two” and she asked about the Air BnB, commented about her preferences and I told her that we bought a frozen pizza that we heated up for dinner there which explained why we like accomodations with cooking facilities.   There was quite a bit of snow in Spokane, not unusual at this time of year, and it was in the teens at night.  Day two was Tuesday and we had two retirement homes to play that day.  We  were out of the Air BnB by 11am (checkout time) and footloose and fancy free in Spokane.  What to do in the throbbing heart of winter in Spokane?  Well, go shopping of course.  So we did that and managed to kill the right amount of time, however, we also managed to visit the new plaque that had been installed in Riverfront Park in Kristi’s fathers’ honor.  It is on a concrete bench by a walking bridge across the Spokane River that he designed.

The two retirement homes were a delight to play as they were very appreciative.  The money from these helps to pay for the considerable expense of this trip.  At the second gig Kristi’s friend Stuart from her high school days met us.  We went out to dinner at Red Robin and both of us enjoyed Stuart’s company.  After dinner we drove to his house in the cold February night.  One of the highlights of the night for me was hearing about an uncle of Stuarts’ who was an artist from Missoula Montana.  He showed us a book of his uncle’s work which was mostly done in his eighties.  I was impressed by the quality, and intellect displayed in the work.  We also  had a nice chat with Stuarts’ partner, Tim who is an opera singer.  They have an opera company that runs non profit in Spokane.  It was really inspirational to spend time with them.

LR Steve, Kristi, Stuart

We got out of bed early on Wednesday.  We didn’t stay for breakfast as we had planned.  We felt uncertain about the roads, how much travel time we’d need to get here to Cascade and just got in the car and started driving.  In Spokane it was sunny and clear.  Very soon though it became foggy and remained so with a few breaks all the way into Idaho.  There were places where there was ice and snow on the road, but generally the roads were clear.  All the same, it was winter driving with a higher level of stress than other times of the year simply because of a greater level of uncertainty.  There is a feeling that goes along with this that doesn’t allow for being a tourist, and a decreased appreciation for the country that you are traveling through.  I experience a single mindedness about such drives.  I am driving for one reason, and that is to arrive at my destination. 

David and Susan live on a road that is off of the beaten path, although I’m surprised here at how much traffic there actually is in spite of it being out of town about ten miles, and about a mile off of the highway.  At other times of the year there is a pond in front of the house and there are always mountains to be seen in the near distance.  You are never surprised to see a fox or coyote loping across one of the fields, or deer wandering down the road.  It is dead quiet except for the sound of birds and the wind rustling through the trees.  Maybe it’s the quiet that made it difficult to sleep here?

I’m used to the roaring sound of a city by this time.  The quiet is quite foreign to me.

The neighbor's new garage 

View out our bedroom door

David at the front door

It is always good to spend time with David and Susan as there is never any lapse in stimulating conversation, good humor, and fine company.  They are both accomplished in the kitchen as well and their home is spacious and comfortable.  We are here to play music though, and as with the winter driving the music is my focus at all times.  We played a concert to a small crowd on Thursday night then were the opening act for a local show at the Roxy theater in town on Friday.  We’ll be playing that show tonight and Sunday afternoon.

The show is a takeoff of “A Prairie Home Companion”.  Steve Herzog, who heads up the circus, calls it “A Valley Home Companion”.  I think Steve has a lot of fun with it, and it allows everyone who does anything entertaining to have a spot in the sun.  There is a lot of community involvement.  The Roxy is owned by one of the local policemen, Jason, who runs the sound.  It is a typical small movie theater with an excellent sound system, lighting, and plenty of seating for a town the size of Cascade (population 902). 

Our first contact with the show was on Wednesday evening after we had just arrived.  We attended a dress rehearsal at which Steve had fantasized that we would sit in with the “home band” and create a musical miracle.  Instead we found that we were superfluous at best and would simply do our performances starting the show and at the appropriate place inserted into the show.  We were in Cascade last year with our good friend and brother in arms, Gen Obata so people were a little familiar with us.  We are beginning to feel like we are a small part of Cascade, and I think that the folks here feel the same about us.

Today it is alternately raining and snowing.  The snow is melting.  Not to get too excited though as we can pretty much count on it getting cold again, and the snow being refreshed with an icy layer underneath from the warming.  Last night it was very wet on the streets of Cascade, and just below freezing when we got out of the show.  When we went to the soundcheck in the afternoon we realized that we might want to wear our “big” shoes at night.  We did change shoes to come into town.  The trip into, and from town was notable in that there was a huge influx of traffic on the highway going to Winter Festival in McCall.  I guess it’s a pretty exciting time. 

The internet has been off here all through yesterday, and we haven’t been listening to the news at all.  David and Susan listen to the local NPR station in their bedroom so we get occasional reports of what is happening in the rest of the world.  Sometimes it is even good news.

Susan and David (Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer)

The concert and the first Valley Home Companion were very good.  That is, the audience was friendly, responsive, and makes us look forward to the performances that are yet to be.  It is, as I had thought, a good precursor to the rest of our tour.   We have some songs that are relatively new to us that we are performing.  They are songs that we have started recording, but have not yet finished.  We have some other songs that we have worked on a bit, but haven’t quite learned yet that I am anxious to get into our repertoire.

The Historical Roxy Theater in Cascade, ID

We are going into Cascade for lunch, eschewing the good restaurants of McCall for fear of the large crowds that will be there.  David and Susan say that there will be no parking in McCall and if the traffic we have seen in the last 24 hours is any indication they are exactly right.  They have a large stock of experience with these things by now.  

After the Saturday night show we went to the home of Steve and Leslie Herzog.  They had some friends from Nampa and we exchanged stories.  We saw three does on the road on our way to David and Susan's house last night.  We are looking forward to a continuation of our “big” adventure.  You take care and we’ll see you when we are there.  Steve N.