Archive of 2006

12/21/06. Coffee-Works, Voorhees, NJ
We braved New Jersey traffic to get here, it's amazing how much traffic there is on the east coast. Got gas off the garden state parkway, had to wait in line for fifteen minutes. There were about 12 gas pumps going and four lines of cars. Quite a change of pace from MT. The gig went well here tonight in Voorhees, 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia. Thanks to Robin for getting me the gig.

11/10/06. Club Cigar, Great Falls, MT
We are on our way east in our new musical travelling rig and luckily got this gig pretty short notice. This is a great bar, kind of old style western, with history, ya know? A kinda unexpected mix of people ( I mean that in a good way) here in the bar. Some good moments here tonight, playing for the people.

10/31/06. Club Central, Whitefish, MT
Halloween in Whitefish, usually quite a good time. The bars are packed with people in various stages of altered consciousness and most people dress up, so it can be quite surreal. Tonight was a great night, I was a pirate, along with approximately 45% of the people down here tonight, hey, it's an easy costume if you don't have time to put together a better one. I played saxophones, with my full rig of electronics, with Shapeshifter3 and a DJ and MC. Linda sounded it up, so we sounded good and it's a lot of fun playing for dancing vampires, wookies, geishas, witches, cowboys etc etc and of course, more pirates.

9/30/06. The Belton Chalet, West Glacier, MT
Had a great time here at the Belton... there was a real good feeling in the room. A very vocal audience not afraid to shout out what they wanted to hear, not afraid to sing along out loud with me at times.

8/31/06. The Moontime, Couer D' Alene, ID
It's been a few years since I have played here, it was nice to come back. It was a good night. When we were unloading our gear into our room after the gig we somehow spaced out a speaker and left it by the car at 1 am or whatever it was. We were super lucky that some good people saw us unloading and knew which room we were in and knocked on the door at 2 am or whatever to let us know about the speaker sitting there in the parking lot. Yeah, I definitely belive most of humanity is good. If you never watched the news or read the paper, what a wonderful world it would appear to be, well, way better, anyway.

08/26/06. Private Party, Near Columbia Falls, MT
A 60th surprise birthday party in a beautiful spot. No electricity so I brought a solar panel and battery bank for power. It was a good party, good people good food good time.

08/25/06. WLGC Restaurant, Whitefish, MT
Played out on the deck one last time before summer ends. The days are getting short. It was a good night, nothing too eventful happened.

08/18/06. Art Fair, Jackson Hole, WY
A nice 10 hour drive down here, it was nice to see the desert again. We ate at a Sonic -southwestern fast food chai- so Linda was psyched as her past is full of Sonic goodness. We spent the night in a campground -Jackson motels are damn expensive and all booked up- and didn't sleep at all, the highway was nearby and someone was snoring pretty darn loud. We are so used to the quiet of the Montana forest that loud audio keeps us awake. The art fair was fun, although it wasn't set up as well as the Kalispell one. In Jackson, the music stage is on the outskirts of all the booths, so you get way less people coming by to listen than you should. In Kalispell, the stage is in the center, so everyone at all the booths can hear. We have some video of our smoking brakes as we descended into the Hole. We had to stop and let them cool before continuing, a super steep road. Yes, we were slightly concerned about dying a brakeless death, but we made it okay. We decided to leave right after the gig and drive home ( we got home at 4:30 am) cause we weren't sure how many good brakings we might have left and it's way easier to drive at night with less traffic. I think I used the brakes like 5 times on the way back, in 600 miles - of course most of that was interstate. I would downshift and take squealing turns rather than touch the brakes... Linda was laughing at me. We missed a turn off for a state hwy. a few times so I just rolled until we slowed down long enough to pull a uturn, hilarious...

08/11/06. Eickhardt's, Sandpoint, ID
Always great to be back at this fine european feeling pub in a pretty sweet western town. The evening started out super mellow as many people were at the music festival, David Gray was playing, I believe. The evening picked up and it turned into a great night and I got to rock out. Saw an old friend that I hadn't seen in a few years, I love when that happens. We had to wait on the highway for an hour cause there was an accident and they had to get the dead people and wreckage off the road. We passed 3 bad wrecks on the way here today, all with fatalities.

The next day we stayed all day in a motel in Bonner's Ferry and just watched tv and relaxed all day... and made microwave food for lunch. It's been like over a decade since I have made food in a microwave. It was like a surreal vacation for us. Then we went back to Eichardt's the next night and I played saxophone with Shapeshifter 3, a fun time.

08/05/06. Jeff and Adele's wedding, Glacier Park, MT
Super fine weather for a wedding in the park. The bride and groom arrived on different boats from the lake. A little bit of confusion on my part as to when to start Here Comes the Bride, but oh well, these things happen. It was fun playing with a band at the reception, later, especially with a great jazz guitarist who sat in with the band. He made a little travel guitar sound kickass, played Jimi H's Little Wing note for note...

7/29/06. The Shop, Spokane, WA
It was great to be back here at the Shop - a great vibe is always present here. Tonight I set up in front of a white wall in the parking lot where they project a movie during the summer at dusk. I couldn't resist playing Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, as it's about a parking lot. People kept streaming in, folding chairs in tow, and set up camp there in the parking lot to listen to me and then watch Dead man Don't Wear Plaid, a super funny movie by Carl Reiner and Steve Martin. It was a great night, the weather was perfect, Linda and I had a great time.

7/28/06. WLGCR, Whitefish, MT
Another hot and beautiful day in MT. We set up around 5:30 and we about melted or burned up or something, the sun is damn hot. So hot that we had to cover our gear with stuff, it seemed hot enough to melt solder. It was a mellow evening out on the deck, at one table someone accompanied me with his silverware on a song, I asked him if he was a drummer but he said no, he was just feeling it.

07/21, 22 & 23/06. Hockaday Arts in the Park, Kalispell, MT
Our third year playing here and doing sound, a real good scene with lots of vendors and tents and food and an artistic vibe in the park. I brought my full rig for these three days this year, and it was definitely worth the extra time setting up and breaking down. Linda and I have been experimenting with different stage setups over the years and after various problems and glitches I do believe we have our technical stuff worked out. It was great to play with my own setup on stage and to have total control of my own sound, it makes a huge difference when you sound good to yourself. Most people don't realize how different the sound is on stage than what the audience hears, and how important the sound people are for creating a great show. We really like this show and hope to back next year, hopefully it won't be so hot - it was upper 90's all weekend.

07/15/06. Pend Oreille Winery, Sandpoint, ID
A super hot day outside, perfect for a swim in that giant lake in Sandpoint, right? Wrong, we just learned that they put some nasty chemicals in the lake to kill milfoil, some kind of algae/weed. Signs are up saying it's safe to swim, just don't swallow any water and you'll be fine... or maybe you won't. What a drag, I love this lake, always sorry to hear about humans screwing up more of the earth, this hits pretty close to home, I like to think of the northwest as some of the last large stretches of good clean land ( I know it's been mined and logged and polluted here too, but there is a lot of good land here) with many people aware of that. Whatever, it was fun to play in the winery, super mellow scene, people at the bar getting buzzed on fine locally made wine, yeah.

06/17/06. Lodge at Whitefish Lake, Whitefish, MT
Played a jazz show here with a drummer and a guy playing an 8 string guitar. Kinda fun to be just a saxophonist once in awhile. It's like surfing, somebody else puts together the gig and the music, I just show up and play.

06/16/06. WLGC Restaurant, Whitefish, MT
This started out as a kinda lame evening, but the second set turned out quite alright. Met some interesting people here tonight.

06/13/06. Farmer's Market, Whitefish, MT
It was a fine evening here at the market, always nice to play outside on the street -it reminds me of my streetplaying days. Last year when I played here there were gale force winds, and I guess we bring in the weather because with half an hour left there was lightning in the distance and we lost power cutting the evening a little short.

06/10/06. Molly Brown's Trego, MT
A super evening here, and perhaps my last one as the place is for sale. The place was packed and a real good vibe in the room, thanks to all the good people who came out.

05/26/06. WLGC Restaurant Whitefish, MT
I missed Linda V. on this particular evening, she had something else to do... but it was a good night.

05/12/06. Artwalk Downtown, Coeur D'Alene, Idaho
Played inside of a mall, lots of people on the street outside walking around, as the night went on it got better and better as people passed through the mall. It seems like every time I'm in this town I run into an old friend on the street... it happened once again this time, though we didn't really recognize each other at first. Found some awesome drums at a thrift store that I was totally psyched about, score.

04/07/06. Whitefish Golf Club, Whitefish, MT
Another fine evening here at the WLGCR. I played a Beatles cover, "Across the Universe," that led to some reminiscing about the good old hippie days that I unfortunately wasn't born in time to experience. Maybe they'll come back around again - it seems like everything else in history does... I just hope they come soon.

02/17/06. Scotty's Steakhouse, Kalispell, MT
My first night playing or being here. A nice room, good crowd, hopefully this will get going as a new local venue for acoustic music - I'm told it used to be a wild and crazy dance hall. Met a couple from Calgary who said they've been coming here for 20 years. It was cold, cold, cold tonight, down to -5 or so by midnight. Old school Montana weather, like it used to be pre global warming.

02/10/06. Whitefish Golf Club, Whitefish, MT
After being away from MT for almost 3 months it sure is nice to be back home. Cool looking martini-like drinks made with a little piece of dry ice that bubbles and fizzes and makes the drink smoke, for awhile, anyway. Kinda like Grampa used to drink on the Muensters.