November Video Blog

Fortunate

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. Gather at the table with loved ones and remember that we are fortunate! Live at Artz Ribhouse 11.12.08 with Susan Gibson and Marian Brackney.

A Baking Moment

You can't tell by the overexposed image but that is a PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONE and yes, sometimes I bake things. Tasted good. I have my Thanksgiving table offering ready.

The Early Year available on iTunes

Buy The Early Year on iTunes. Already have it and dig it? Tell the world! Write a review for iTunes and share the love. You can also review The Early Year on CD Baby or on Amazon...a few sentences from you can make a big difference! That makes for extra candy in your stocking. Fer reals.

Empty Bowls, Happy Hearts, and a Tired J-Po

Jana+Susan at Artz courtesy of Ted. From Canada! Oh Sunday evening. I just did laundry with my neighbor and we ate Chinese food on his tailgate while we waited for the clothes to dry. See, it's November in Austin and it feels like June and you can do things like that while you wait at the laundromat. Anyway, it was nice to chill for a minute because it was a heck of a weekend. Lots of playing music and watching music...I can't complain. Thursday was Jo's Coffee downtown with Kimbo, who is always a joy to share the stage with because her songs are so good and so is she. We didn't freeze too much, and our new buddy Ted from Canada came by and took photos. I met Ted at Artz last week when I played there and he is visiting Austin to soak in the music because...he loves music. How awesome is that? He also takes great photos and much of what you will see below is courtesy of Ted. Jana+Kimbo...yep, Ted. Friday I opened for Susan and Shelley King in Tomball, TX at a great venue called Main Street Crossing. Lovely people and our hosts made us FRENCH TOAST for breakfast and I about fainted from delicious overload. It's the little things, folks. Saturday we jetted back from Tomball and I ran over to Ruta Maya for Red Leaf School of Music's Fall show. I performed a few and watched all of our adult and youth bands do GREAT jobs. So cool to work for Red Leaf with a community of such awesome people! Melissa took this photo and I hope she doesn't mind I stole it. ;) Today was the Empty Bowl Benefit at the Mexican American Cultural Center. I went to help Susan with carrying stuff (because that's what I do), but she was cool enough to get me up for a couple of songs. And I ate soup. Nifty. Who left the red shoes with the sound board? Photo from Ted! All the dogs came on the Susan bus for the soup party. Now it's almost time for Monday. Whew.

Live from Tomball, TX

Susan Gibson and Shelley King are songswapping at Main Street Crossing in Tomball, TX rightthisveryminute, and Susan just told the crowd that I had already probably blogged about them.  So I took that as a challenge and I plan to show this to her when they take their set break.  BOOYAH, Suz. She's actually singing the song we co-wrote together right now.  :) And the show is great!

Life's A Song 2008

Well this took me a while. I seem to be wandering between solid internet connections all the time, and it took me 3 days to get 13 photos uploaded to Flickr properly. There's no excuse. Needless to say, the Life's A Song workshop with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines was a great experience and I met and re-met a lot of great folks this year. Not a bad way to spend a birthday, either. I got play some of my new tunes for Terri that are possibilities for EP 2, and the feedback was definitely useful. The jams were awesome, even if it got cold enough to make us move inside and away from the campfire. I didn't think it got cold in Port Aransas. (In my mind if you drive that far to a coast, you're pretty close to Jamaica. My mind isn't very geographically accurate, however). Here's some photos...and while you look, go to Terri's Myspace page and listen to her new tunes! Some from her new retrospective album and some from her Christmas EP. "Bring 'Em All In" has been a favorite of mine at live shows for quite some time... Cruising around Port A... Lloyd and the dobro go together like PB&J. Campfire Jam! Inside jam! Terri harmonicas it up. I recorded "Switzerland" with Lloyd being his kickbutt producer self. So there you go. If you have any interest at all in the craft of songwriting, I encourage you to attend a workshop like this...get yourself on the list for Life's A Song or check some of the other ones across the country. They're good for you.

Monkey. File.

My job of Merch Girl has kind of branched out into what I'll just call "Monkey" although Susan usually attached an adjective to the front of that which rhymes with "fit" and I take as a term of endearment. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, and this week we spent a lot of time filing things. It made me want to go home and file a bunch of my own stuff...but I'd probably need to hire a Fit Monkey of my own. Yesterday morning before a filing frenzy, Susan had a radio inteview on KGSR to play a song and talk about her performance this weekend at the Empty Bowl Benefit. More on that in a future post (but go to the benefit!). We had to be at KGSR kinda early...which means we had to be up even earlier. Coffee was in order.

A recap from a while ago.

It's been a busy one, as usual...and I've been remiss on making videos or even filming much. Here's some random bits from October and early November...more coming soon! Promise.

Another year older...

And wearing a wiser t-shirt. More workshop today! Much fun and much learned so far!

And so it begins...

Yeah, I get to spend my birthday with Terri and Lloyd and a bunch of fun people. Score!

To Port A!

Time for the Life's A Song workshop, folks. My good buddy Kate Hearne and I are going to drive down to Port Aransas in oh, about 20 minutes and get our songwriting on. Very excited! Reports from the scene, of course. I have all my cables wrapped and chargeable items charged.

Yak Yak Yak

Katie took this shot of Dan and I both holding our elbows at 93 degree angles chatting in the car. No, we weren't talking to each other.

JP Project No. 3

Whew. Dan, Katie, and I are back in our respective places tonight in Austin after a fun and whirlwind trip back to the homeland. Albuquerque, while gorgeous year-round, is especially gorgeous in the fall. Leaves actually change color there, and I got to wear a hoodie a lot. Woot! Our annual house concert that my business partner Josh and I organize was a great time...we can't believe it's the 3rd year we've pulled this off. We're getting streamlined with it and Josh is pretty awesome about organizing a party for 60 people. I was so glad to see everyone and catch up with everyone's lives. It's also neat to catch everyone up on my life in Austin and to introduce them to some of my favorite Texans, too. Dan packs me in. Three people. Six guitars. We all fit! Breathe in and buckle down. Making good time. A little pre-show gathering. Dan and Katie discuss...coffee? Katie was the awesomest Merch Girl ever. Look at that display. So I'm full on mom's rhubarb pie and some green chile as well (not at the same time). Good stuff. If you were there, thanks for coming! If you're in Albuquerque and want to come next year, let me know. Who knows who will show up as the special guest. This is another busy week...Friday brings the Life's A Song Workshop weekend with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. SO. EXCITED. I happen to have a birthday over the weekend, as well, and I can't think of a better way to spend it than in Port Aransas with a bunch of songwriters. Bring it! After I sleep for 8 hours...

Packingpackingpacking

Mr. Daniel Barrett and Miss Katie Lessley and I are heading to New Mexico tomorrow so we can do a house concert on Friday night and I am so excited but in the meantime I have 8 things to finish and I have not started packing and when I pack I pack a lot of cables and wires and I need to make sure I can charge anything that needs charging when I am in ABQ and so I decided to blog this sentence instead.

VOTE! Caffeine! Viva Democracy!

I just had a Diet Coke chased by a fabulous cup of free Starbucks brew. Just go in and tell them you voted. No, really. This is a free country and you can celebrate it by drinking free caffeine. The Poli Sci nerd in me is coming out today. Looking forward to exit poll analysis and electoral vote estimations. Hope your lines weren't too long and your chads are not hanging. Oh yeah, insert something about folk music here.

Merch Girl Contest Winners!

Phil and his awesomeness have announced the winners of the Merch Girl T-shirt Slogan Contest...go to his blog to see the results. I'm pasting a few of my favorites below...with 100+ entries there were a lot of funny ones. Some of you know me too well. Some of you are very literary...or just nerdy. My commentary in italics. Add your own in the comments if you think you can match these fine people. The ides of Merch. (Makes a history major happy). Merch: you didn’t bring any of your own…buy some of mine. Merching: great for padding a resume. I’d even sell you the shirt off my back (for $20 extra). (I always layer so it's not a big deal). Merch Girls Make Change “Where’s My Masking TAPE!!!” - merch girl (A real quote...said with much panic). Merch Girl of Venice. JPo and SuSang: A perfect Merch. Merch Girl: the cheapest thing in the van. Merch Girl: starved for attention and saltines since 1982. Merch Girl takes backseat to the PUPPPIES!!! Merch “No, I don’t have change for a 100" Gurl (I have been asked this! And I did it) Merch Girl- Will work for Diet Coke (Amen. And I do). Merch Gurls-The Coolest Person in the Bar (Thank you). Masking Tape - $2.00 Drink From the bar- $ 3.00 Truck stop dinner- $6.99 Being A Merch Girl- Priceless Merchin’ Magic Isn’t as easy as this Merch gurl Makes it appear! This Merch Gurl Makes Music AND Money! Merch Girls > Groupies Merch girls wheel and deal, then wine and dine. Merch girls wake up the band. The merch girl is a very sophisticated navigation system. (But Susan has discovered I'm not as accurate as her GPS). Merch girls fund the tour. Merch girls smell better than the band. (Hey I didn't say it). Merch girls are the opening act. Merch girls are also the closing act. Merch girls rarely offer discounts. (NEVER. EVER.) The Merch Girl: don’t leave home without her. In soviet Russia, the merch sells the merch girl. (This made me laaaugh). Saving the world from bad music one CD at a time. You want to swipe it where?