Five years of hard living and this dog has finally run its last race. A mic stand beating, mic stand flipping, 3 re-glues, a couple screws, thousands of cataloged miles, countless performances (planned and spontaneous), beatings by children, and more… I tried one final unsuccessful gluing of the headstock last week. When that didn’t work, I called it quits, cut it open to salvage the pickup, and called it goodbye. You’ll be happy to know the pickup is still alive and well in Tom Rooney’s mandolin, thanks to the insanely skilled and accommodating luthier Aaron Andrews. Note that I did the damage to the mandolin. Aaron’s work is much more clean.

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I’m proud to announce some great news. While in Boston, I was privileged enough to play with the band Kingsley Flood. The week before my departure we finished tracking on their debut release, Dust Windows. The album received lots of great feedback and I also got to return to the R-less city to play the release party.

Anyway, Kingsley Flood has since won the Boston Phoenix’s 2010 Boston Music Poll’s Best Roots Act in Boston award! Here’s KF’s take on the award. And here’s a snippet of the writeup: “Their roots cred owes to the masterful fiddle and mandolin playin’ and the whiff of Appalachia found on their debut, Dust Windows, but the music’s sheer exuberance is beyond time or genre.” Now that’s the kind of music I want to make and listen to :)

Though immensely sad to not be playing with these guys anymore, I am extremely ecstatic for the good press they are receiving. Nicest folks you would ever want to meet and the talent pouring out of those guys (and gal) is ridiculous. Here’s a video from the CD release party:

By the way, this is what happens when you get on the Flood’s bad side…

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Good friend and multi-talented music man, Scott Andrew, just announced an album release by one of his bands, Explone. I remember hearing Scott talking years ago about how much he enjoyed Explone’s sound. And now he’s their bassist.

Scott is always ahead of the game in field-testing new ways of DIY marketing. Whenever the subject of ‘how to market an independently released album’ comes up, the first thing I think is WWSAD. Anyway, Explone has a new record called Dreamers/Lovers. In promoting the release, they are offering a free download of the first single, Michigan, in exchange for a tweet. For those of us without Twitter accounts, this is pretty meaningless. But, alas, you can also just listen to the song on the Explone home page.

As for the single… I was born and raised in Michigan. One of the most stand-out musical experiences from my childhood remains being at the public beaches near the sleeping bear dunes. From all directions people had their boom boxes tuned to the same station, creating the effect that that radio station was just as much an ambient certainty as the waves and seagulls. In my day Asia, Toto, post-Garfunkel Simon, and The Cars ruled the pop airwaves. Patrick Porter, in Explone’s Michigan, recreates that vibe with the chorusey/double-vocals, ultra-clean production, and heavy choruses. Later this summer I’ll be back in northern Michigan and I’ll get to do my own field-testing to see if that tune can transport me back to the days before the national parks took over.

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Showed up at 11:30 to the U-District Farmer’s market with Tom Rooney. It was a lot more busy than the 9am hour I usually go with the family. Upon arrival we ran into Nettlehoney, a bluegrassy group that is friends of ours. We grabbed a nice spot around the corner from them. Shortly after starting to play, Jim Marsh showed up to provide some upright bass. After Nettlehoney finished up, Johnny and Rob came over and joined us. About that time, things were warming up and lots of folks started to stop by and listen, including my buddy Jason.

Overall a really great day. A good variety of tunes, mixing up instruments (we brought along banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, upright bass), and the horrible weather forecast turned out to be wrong!

Highlight of the day was a huge gust of wind that blew in and threatened to blow down some of the tents. Within seconds a huge old-timey bomber flew by at about 1000 feet!

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My family and I have been in Boston for the last week and a half. The trip was partially a family visit and partially a ‘mini-tour’ to celebrate the release of Kingsley Flood’s new CD, Dust Windows. I played with Kingsley Flood during our year in Boston and recorded the CD during the last week before our move back to Seattle.

Please check out the band and the music. Yes, I support the music because I played on the record and love the people in the band. But check their website for the non-biased reviews the album has been getting, and you’ll see that it’s a truly special album.

The last week has been a whirlwind of rehearsals, reunions, new faces, performances, and general awesomeness. In all it felt a lot like summer camp. You know the feeling when you have a week of intense interactions with old friends and new culminating in a final night of raucousness and short-term sentiment? That describes the week to a T.

In brief:

- rehearsals in space sure to be used as a future Saw movie set location

highlight: band from next door comes busting in and declares that our music and energy “made my life!”. Now that’s a strong recommendation
lowlight: billy bob’s roast beef turning George’s stomach into a 2 hour roller coaster ride.

- Boston Herald interview
– 91.5 WMFO radio show appearance

highlight: 45 minutes of performance time! First ‘show’ with KF in almost a year. George’s 1940s announcer radio address.

- impromptu gig at Toad in Cambridge with “Green Monroe” (Chuck Melchin, Adam Cat, and Koopa Sawyer)

highlight: Hanging and playing with those boys.
lowlights: Forgetting to turn on the front of house speakers. Not counting off the songs before starting… sorry guys ;)

- sold-out CD release party @ Middle East in Cambridge. read more here

I could go on and on and tell plenty of stories here, but I’ll let the pictures finish off instead…

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