Humboldt Highs, Eugene Lows
October 10th, 2009
Happy Monday! It is a gorgeous day in Chico, CA and we don’t have a show tonight, so having a mellow morning with new friends. Last night was a lovely house show in Chico set up by Erin Lizardo — a great folk artist from these parts. We took turns playing songs with Erin, The Red Ribbon Brigade and a new band called Harlowe and the Great North Woods, who blew us away with their first song — violin, viola, oboe and five guys singing in harmony… Hoping we have a chance to host all of these folks in Portland some time soon.
We drove to Chico yesterday from Freshwater, CA. It’s a gorgeous, curvy drive through the mountains, and I slept through most of it, my head wobbling side to side with each turn. Staying up til 3 in the morning stuffing envelopes a couple nights before we left for tour has meant that both me and my fella are catching up on a lot of sleep in the car. We also forgot our CD player and our car radio only works intermittently, so it has been a very peaceful environment in our car… sometimes to the detriment of wakeful driving : 0
My band COME GATHER ROUND US been to the Eureka/Arcata area a bunch of times to play, sometimes as part of Eureka ArtsAlive, and sometimes at house shows put on by our good friend Mark in a beautiful, sleepy former hippie commune in Freshwater. Playing at Mosgo’s was the first gig I’d played in a venue in Arcata, and it was the first time in solo-artist guise. The local radio station KHUM gave me some hype, which is awesome. Also Ray, the booker at Mosgo’s, booked a local teenage phenom to open the show, and she brought loads of devoted friends. So it was a packed house, and I really enjoyed it. Great sound too.
Day before, we’d rushed into an in-store at CD world in Eugene right when we were supposed to start playing. There were a few folks there waiting — the crowd swelled to 10 at a highpoint — and the sound guy had never done sound before, so we got started with only a touch of blood curdling feedback to prepare peeps for the mellow folk we were bringing. It is often hard to get an atmosphere going under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the a music store, and this was no exception. The people were super nice, but we only sold 2 CDs, and apparently, we have to get in touch with them at some point in the future to receive the rich $14 recompense for our performance : )
I was lucky to have met a fella named John a month or two back (when playing the bike music festival) who lives at the Sheila Jackson Coop on campus in Eugene, so we had a nice place to stay with a huge communal kitchen. Supplemented some delicious roasted veggies brought from our garden (eggplant, green pepper) with brown rice and delicious morrocan lentils we found in the fridge – yum yum yum. Also some marionberry pie from Shari’s.
Driving part of the way to San Luis Obispo a little later today, and we hope to find a grotty roadside motel to hole away in for the evening… hoping for a movie of the week…
