Tiny Fan Hands

My friend Josh just informed me that his daughter Lily is a big fan of Track No. 4 on For & Against. I like to get at them young. :) Also, that track is called "Drive Around," so when she's 16...watch out, Josh.

A little Ritalin

Must. Focus. And. Do. Work. Pretty excited to go home to New Mexico for the holiday, but it's not the holiday yet and I gotta get stuff done. A little focus for all our Friday mornings pre-Thanksgiving! Katie sings on this one and adds that just right ambient tension to the vocals. Yay Katie! Ritalin by janapochop

Birthday (Observed)

My birthday was on Monday this week, but we had a house concert scheduled at our friends Amy and Cheryl's house on Sunday, so we kind of just made Sunday a birthday day as well. We used some of my stickers for a birthday sash until I tripped on it. I'm clutzy. Susan drew me a cake. It was good but chalky. My friends Katie Lessley and Havilah came all the way from Austin to hang out and sing! Because it was my birthday and that means I'm special and can demand things, I had Susan and Katie and Havilah come up and sing on a couple of tunes with me. It was pretty smokin' spectacular. One day I will afford them all as my permanent band and we will tour in a Prevost and take the folk world by storm. Wait, folk artists and Prevosts don't usually mix. We might have to sell out a little, girls. It's ok, the bus will be fancy. Cuteness! Who doesn't want a Susan Gibson show for their birthday? Who doesn't know what I'm talking about? Thanks to everyone at the house concert and to my buddies for singing and to Amy and Cheryl for hosting us all! On my real birthday I worked and Katie made me pasta (yessss!) and I went to bed early, haha. Too much excitement for this old 28-year-old. Bring me my lap afghan.

H-Town!

We had a swell time in Houston this weekend. Susan played in Boerne (San Antonio) on Thursday and then we just hoofed it to our friends in Tomball (north Houston) so we could wake up where we needed to be instead of waking up somewhere we didn't need to be. Always a good rule of thumb. The Gene Simmons of folk. We caffeinated up and headed to KPFT for "Wide Open Spaces" with Roark, the coolest DJ on the planet. His show is named after that one song that Susan wrote you may have heard of it, so that's cool. If you check out their Facebook Fan Page you can see all the videos from the interview. The static and the blur: an interpretation. Photo by Melissa Noble! Then we killed some time in a park whereupon I laptopped on a picnic table and it was a lovely day. Then we headed over to the house of some fine friends who made us DINNER oh my that is always a perk. Thanks Nancy Jane, Leslie, and Jim! Nancy Jane, Susan, Leslie, and moi...songwriter girls unite! THEN we headed to an awesome concert series called Heights Live! right in the middle Houston. These folks have created a listening room in the fellowship hall of a church, and then in the set intermission they SERVE PIE. Um hello? Folk music and pie? The version of Susan's "Perfect World" that we did all Vaudeville style when Susan's arm was broken was requested, so I got my strum on. It's been so long since we have done it that was I was hoping I didn't forget it, but the I realized Susan has the hard part and all I have to do is...strum. So that was fun. I'm glad she has 2 arms again, though. And then we drove to Dallas. Thank you, Houston, for your kind hospitality! And check out Heights Live if you're in the area...great folks. And listen to KPFT, too.

Photo Perfect

Photo copyright 2010 by Machelle Dunlop The idea of getting photos taken scares the daylights out of me. I think I feel kind of unnatural when I know I'm supposed to pose but look natural but not think about it but "this has to go on a poster." So I put off photos for a while. Luckily, my friend and awesome photographer Machelle Dunlop came to my rescue. We worked together at the county government back when I first moved to town, and I was the admin/singer-songwriter down the hall and she was the admin/photographer and we BOTH quit the government grind and she takes photos and I play music. It's pretty fun to think about. Since I know and love Machelle, and since she is so good at making folks comfortable, I had a great time hanging out with her last month and taking some photos around Austin. She had scouted this awesome bush in the middle of an empty parking lot, and it looks like we're in some foreign land...there's a bit of it on the right of this photo. Photo copyright 2010 by Machelle Dunlop I won't give away what this structure is that I'm standing in, but I will say we probably trespassed for the half hour we were there, haha. I really enjoyed watching Machelle work because she thinks like a photographer...songwriters are observant folk but it's different when one's art is so visual. Machelle saw cool textures in walls and trees and investigated what looked to me like empty parking lots and suburban dullness that turned up lots of great little locales for photos. Photo copyright 2010 by Machelle Dunlop So there we go. I'm stll trying to re-design my website to where I'm happy with it (now I'm picky) and I can't wait to integrate these shots. Here's one more, it's metaphorical for all the traveling this year! Photo copyright 2010 by Machelle Dunlop

The Last October Weekend

Oh it's good to be back in Texas. I liked the Southeast. But I like seeing folks I know at the shows and that does not happen in states where I've never been before. We traveled to Navasota, Houston, and Port Aransas this past weekend. Port A might be one of of my favorite places ever...it has the lovely Third Coast Theater, lots of pastel houses on the beach, and even more nice folks that come to the show than pastel houses. Third Coast is where Terri Hendrix hosts her songwriting workshop every year, and so my first few times in Port A were spent in songwriting bliss. Large poster-sized photos of the artists that play there line the walls, and of course The Boss is up there...so it's even more cool to return to the workshop scene in a work capacity for Susan. I should have made her pose next to her giant portrait. No, I shouldn't have. One thing that maybe I haven't shared is that when I am feeling punchy, which is most of the time because hey, life is good - I burst into spontaneous accents. Not around everyone. Actually, usually just in the car...so that means Susan and the dogs get the brunt of my accents. My favorites are my old-somewhat-New Yorker-cranky-man and my British. Not together, though I have tried to mesh them with disastrous results. Anyway, this weekend was so fun I was in accent-mode the whole time. Wot? On Sunday we made it home in time to see porterdavis at Gruene Hall. It has been too long since I have seen Dan the Producer play, and what better place then Gruene? They rocked it. Today was a recovery day which was problematic because it was also Monday, and I was expected to start a new work week. I am bad at spacing things out. Holding out for a week off at Thanksgiving! And...onward.

It's For & Against Day!

Um, whew. The EP is here. In Austin, anyway. It's being delivered to Red Leaf and I am not there yet. I should get there so I can have it and so UPS doesn't have to mess around. The tracking numbers claim it is HERE, though! In honor of that, here's a ghetto music video montage. Because a purposefully ghetto video is better than an accidentally ghetto video, if you ask me. Thanks so Dan, Katie, Suz, Emily, and David for making this happen - and thanks to all who have and will buy this little EP!

Tour Recap

Sloooow! I am slow! The thing about this tour, being our second to Montana in 3 months, is that while it was fun and the scenery was gorgeous, it was kind of the same thing as last time except I was not hunting for ceramic pigs. So there's that. We did get to detour through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park this time, which was amazing even if it was raining when we got to Old Faithful. It started downpouring and while I like me a geyser, I like being dry. So we saw the geyser but not geysering. Still super cool. Still took a geeky photo in front of it. This is Yukon the cat who lives at The It Club in Butte, MT. He owned the place, and sat on the merchandise bag some of the night. We were best friends by the time the gig was over. I almost snuck him in the trailer. In Saratoga, WY, Susan stopped by Big Brothers, Big Sisters to talk to the kids about songwriting. She's a natural teacher along with her natural entertaining, so I think everyone had a great time! In Taos at Michael Hearne's Big Barndance Festival, Susan and Don Richmond ripped it up on stage. My buddy Dave was there as the official photographer, so I figured I'd paparazzi him. Sorry, Dave, your fans demanded it! And then there was the Amarillo show with Gary Wayne! He was a member of the Groobees with Susan, and he is one of my favorite guitarists ever ever ever. Also he's hysterical. And a nice guy. On the trip home we had 5 gigs in 5 days, and I preferred it that way. I was pretty proud of my booking that leap frogged us from northern Wyoming to Luckenbach, TX in 5 days without any horrific drives. Each day was about 5-6 hours long for driving, which is doable when you have energy drinks in bulk. Yes, it was good.

Heavy Lifting

This photo has nothing to do with this post. Wheeew! When you're a workaholic, getting out of town for a mini-vacation is a test of conscience and will. I survived summer camp at Red Leaf, where all the campers kicked butt at their show and all of us staffers breathed a sigh of relief. Being in one locale for 3 weeks, 8 hours a day was weird. Some days I liked it. Some days I wondered why the scenery didn't change like it usually does out the window. This weekend I saw Terri Hendrix play at the Cactus Cafe, always a fantastic show. I took about 8 photos and 1 turned out, which is on par for my ratio. Tomorrow I fly to California for aforementioned vacation and tomorrow night I will be watching Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter tear it up in Saratoga. Pretty excited. But first? We drive to Houston and play tonight! I love me some Main Street Crossing in Tomball...

Album Artwork

Emily Shirley, my favoritest graphic designer who rocked the artwork on The Early Year is working on the art for For & Against, and she came up with a pretty cool idea for it. It involves giving me homework, but when your homework is to DOODLE, I'm ok with that. So I've been doodling things that may or may not have anything to do with the songs on the EP. (Most of them do). It's been fun! For kicks, I did a little word art, too...looks a little something like this:

Kerrville Folk Festival Pt. 1

First of all, my friend Ashley informed me that this weekend (May 29th to be exact) was my 4th anniversary of moving to Texas. I'm glad she keeps track for me, because I had forgotten. I spent the anniversary in style, for sure... Festival preparation: lots of water, sunglasses, Gold Bond Medicated Powder (it makes you all tingly!). Check. The Kerrville Folk Festival is in its 39th year and is pretty much The End All of Folk Festivals. Thousands of people camp for the 3-week festival, and tons of great artists play. It's also home to one of the most elite songwriting competitions, New Folk, which Susan judged this year. Can you see how she's judging you through the camera lens? I had a pretty great time for the 2 days we were there. After New Folk, Sara Hickman took the stage for the children's show, which made you want to get up and dance to tunes like "Pirate Tae Kwan Do" ("AAARRRRR! HI-YAH!"). Saturday night on the main stage we saw Producer Dan and his smokin' band porterdavis. So great! They brought the grit, in case there was soo much tie-dye and patchouli in the air. Sunday was another round of New Folk judging. So interesting to watch the process and then compare our picks to the judges. I think they did a great job and it was fun to see all 32 contestants one after the other. That night was a big one, as Terri Hendrix was playing and then the Indigo Girls made their Kerrville debut. So I was wandering around and found Terri before her set, and was put on harmonica duty for the night to make sure her harps made it onstage. She and Lloyd play about 46 different instruments so it was going to be, as Terri put it, a "melee" of a set change. Terri introduced me to Amy Ray, folk royalty, and I said hi and tried to be chill. Cool like my Gold Bond Medicated Powder. After a while I just had to say something to Amy...and I will never forget what I finally said. "Excuse me, do you know where Terri is?" Haha. Smooth. She was very nice. Terri and Lloyd rocked their set; the Kerrville crowd is very devoted to the Hendrix Experience. Then the Indigo Girls shared the stage with Lloyd for a bunch of tunes and Terri also played harmonica on quite a few and sang. I was so proud and thrilled. When they launched into "Galileo" and "Closer to Fine," which everybody knows and sings along to, and are some of the cornerstone tunes of the modern singer-songwriter pantheon, I got a little verklempt. Not a bad way to mark four years here. We stayed up until about 4 AM wandering the camp sites and playing guitar and watching the jams. And now my sleep schedule is most decidedly off. I have just enough time to recover until Part 2 of Kerrville in June 11th, when Susan takes the main stage for her set! Life's good and I am fortunate for the company I keep.

Katie Sings!

Finally getting around to editing some old recording footage...yay Katie!

Feelin' the Love

Last night we had a benefit to raise some funds for Susan's broken arm bills at Gruene Hall, one of my most favorite places to be, and now luckily, to play. When we knew we had it billed as "Susan and Friends," we'd thought we'd shoot some emails out to a bunch of people we'd like to see and hear, and hope that a couple of them were in town and free to come play the show with us. Turns out, everyone one of Susan's amazing peers that we asked...said yes. Hence we had quite the amazing bill with Patrice Pike, Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros, Tina Mitchell Wilkins, Michael O'Connor, Shelley King, Mark Jungers, Elizabeth Wills, and Carolyn Wonderland. For those of you who are not in the Texas music loop...these people are Texas music GOLD. All of them. The show was amazing. And we had to cram them all into half hour sets, and the amazing thing is after 8 acts over a 4 hour period, we were only running 10 minutes behind schedule. Not only are Susan's people talented, but PUNCTUAL. Be still my task manager heart. Here are some photos...thanks to every one of you all who came, threw some cash in the tip jar, and had a good time. Patrice Walt, Tina, Brian, John, and Bill Michael O! Did I mention it was PACKED? Shelley, Elizabeth, and Suz harmonize... Mark! Shelley and Carolyn and a full house. And now Carolyn has made me want a lapsteel. I need to pick an instrument and stick to it.

South Plains College

We had the honor of going to South Plains College in Levelland, TX at the start of the month so Susan could talk to some of their classes and so we could perform on Thursday Night Live, their monthly student-produced TV show (a la Austin City Limits). This school has the coolest music program ever...it produces working musicians who have studied everything from sound, lighting, arranging, and performing. You can get a degree in BANJO. Heck yes. Our good friend Kate Hearne goes to South Plains, so we hung out with her all day and saw some classes. Susan talked to a couple of class sessions, we played some and then talked about everything from writing to booking gigs to owning your own business. Kate plays on Thursday Night Live like a rock star. We snuck a peek at the backstage dressing rooms for the student performers... This is the girls' room. And this was the boys'. We thought this was funny. Then we had a grand old time playing and afterwards, I snapped this photo of a million little Susans everywhere. I wonder if they could sing in harmony with each other. I don't regret my life path one bit, though if I had known about South Plains when I was college hunting, I might have ended up there. Trade school for musicians, much like my "folk music grad school" at Red Leaf -- gives you such an advantage when you start trying to make a living.

Having a Blast, Kids

Thanks to Winker for the photo! My callouses are AWESOME right now. Thought I would share. I've been cramming and Susan and I have been rehearsing over the past few weeks so that I can play a full gig of her tunes and make them sound decent. So far, it's working. Now, Gibson over there throws in a lot of nuanced little tricks that deceive the casual observer but when you try and play them yourself you realize...Susan is a really awesome guitarist. So I've been picking up some tricks and some I'm just leaving there to lay in the road until her arm is back to strumming because, she does crazy cool stuff and only she can do it. So bow down to the guitarista in a blue cast, please. You can't keep a guitar nerd down, so Suz has been fingerpicking on a Gibson hollowbody electric and it's been super fun. We're all going to come out of this with a lot more music theory in our heads. I love it. My car is now officially the FolkMobile. So over the past few weeks I've gotten to be the right arm on a ton of cool stages with a ton of cool players. When you'd ask what are the venerable venues here in Texas to play, no doubt the names Gruene Hall, Luckenbach, and Saxon Pub would come up. We've played them all this week. When you ask who are some of the coolest, most reputable musicians in Texas these days, you'd probably see Terri Hendrix, Michael O'Connor, Adam Carroll, Mark Jungers, David Carroll, and The Mystiqueros on the list. We've played with them all over the past few weeks, too. Hot dang. Everyone's been so cool and supportive, the gigs have flown by. Except the last half hour in Marble Falls when the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and we all started shivering. But that was fun, too. Thanks to my buddy Havilah for playing with us and selling the merch, too. I haven't figured out how to strum and sell a CD yet. With The Mystiqueros at the Saxon. Terri soundchecking for the Sunday afternoon songswap at Luckenbach. Susan picks with Adam Carroll and Mark Jungers at Gruene Hall. And with all of that, Dan and I still managed to meet to mix some of EP 2. Which is coming along quite nicely and probably in the 80% done zone, not to jinx myself. So fun! That's that...we have a week off or so. I have more songs to learn. The weather is nice. Something called SXSW is happening this week. I might just nap.