Vision Board

Dan's not done with me yet, oh no. Technically I have kind of...run my Folk Music Grad School course. I hesitate to say that because my work is never done, but I have studied with Dan for a solid 3 years now. I think my progress has been beyond anything I could have hoped for...some of it planned specifically when we started and some of it being surprises that neither of us could have planned. I am a better singer, I am a better guitar player, I am a more developed writer. I just finished my 2nd EP. My income is entirely derived from the music business, in whatever pieced-together fashion...it works. This is a far cry from the slightly clueless county government administrative assistant who walked into Dan's office three years ago. Like I said, there are always new challenges and Next Steps, for me and for Dan. I am currently working with him on his amazing new business, which I will unveil when I write a more specific blog post about it soon. (Vagueries!) He's working on his music and art, too -- and his mentor assigned him the task of a vision board. Of course he told me to do one, too. (Here's a really good post about vision boards from blogger Christine Kane, who is a songwriter-turned-guru...). It was fun to rip apart magazines looking for stuff that applied to my goals. Now, my caveat is that I have two types of magazines lying around: 1. Somewhere along the line I got subscribed to Forbes and have been receiving them for a year without ever paying them a dime. Thank you, Forbes. 2. I buy guitar magazines sometimes but usually because I want an article in them, so I have a hard time cutting those up. Out of the Forbes I found a lot of ads and article titles that seemed to apply. I'd like to make a decent amount of money...a comfortable amount. I don't need a Lear Jet (though I joke that if I am to pick up Lady Gaga for our duet shows, I might need a Lear Jet)...but I'd like a house and some awesome guitars and the ability to not have to stress about cash. So there are those types of goals. And then there are the cut-outs that pertain to travel, because I do love it and won't stop any time soon. And there is the one about being a web phenom, because...well, I like the word phenom. And some iPads and other gadetry because I am a nerd. The only thing I couldn't find a photo of in Forbes was a Grammy, but it's implied. I recommend a vision board just because...it's good to dream a little and hang it on the wall and be reminded why you are working so hard at 6 AM or 1 PM or 2 AM or whenever you work. Now I gotta find a picture of a Lear Jet....

The Essential Dixie Chicks

I won't lie. It's kind of cool that this album being released has a tiny impact on my own working life. If anything, it is something cool for Susan to discuss because see that sticker with the song titles on it? ONE OF THEM IS HERS. Awesome. My Dixie Chicks history is long and not-so-storied. I remember the music video of them sitting on an airport baggage claim spinny thing - their big debut. I don't remember the first time I heard "Wide Open Spaces," though. I owned the album long before I ever heard of Susan (apparently I didn't read liner notes much). I liked that they played their own instruments. I do remember being super excited about buying Fly (their second album) when it came out, so I was a hardcore fan by then...sometime in high school. I didn't see them live until I moved to Austin in 2006 for their Taking The Long Way release tour; it was awesome. I had just moved to town really and didn't know anyone well enough to have a concert buddy yet. It's weird to go to a big show like that by yourself, but then again, I wasn't going to pay attention to anything or anyone but what was happening on stage anyway. As I started to realize how Austin-based much of their circle is...from Terri Hendrix's composition Lil' Jack Slade (also on the Essentials list) to getting to know Lloyd Maines, it made me like them more. They are surrounded by good folks. I am fortunate to be surrounded by some of those good folks, too, all without ever having met any of the DC's themselves. They have continued to be musical pioneers, championing great songwriters and being great songwriters themselves. Sticking to their morals when mob political hysteria got ridiculous. Being all around hard-working creative folk. And for that I will quote Susan and what she says every night at every gig..."Thank you, Dixie Chicks!" Amen.

Jpo Shirt Phenomenon

Well, maybe phenomenon is an overstatement but I gotta say, I am continually shocked and humbled at the number of folks who wear their JPo shirt in exotic and foreign locales like Hawaii and Ireland and Fort Worth. I love it! So much that here is the Flickr stream for all to see. If you want one of your own I am most happy to handle that here at the store!

Well That Was Awesome

I flew in last night after taking a plane from San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley. Today I drove to Luckenbach for Susan's gig, which is about as far away from Silicon Valley as you can get. While I was drooling over the fact that Google and Apple were headquartered mere miles away, it was nice to kick back in Texas under a giant oak tree and watch The Boss and her hawt band. Hawt in the heat. My mini-vacation to see Mary Chapin Carpenter was excellent. I left my laptop at home (gasp!) and was instructed not to do any work for 2 days for gawdsakes. (I mostly succeeded but maybe I did a little booking, maybe I did). I flew in and was picked up by my buddy Heidi, a fellow Mary Chapin fan, who has always been my tour guide extraordinaire in the Bay Area. The first show was at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, a gorgeous hilly, sprawling, EXPENSIVE little town. Grapes and technology will do that to a community, I can tell. The venue was stunning, and the music was stunninger (ha). Shawn Colvin was on the bill as well (weird, I didn't see her on my Southwest flight from Austin) and started the night off with a solo set. Then MCC came and rocked our faces off. It got kind of chilly, so much so that we could see the bands' breath onstage when they sang. I did not mind because I knew back in Austin it was 102 or something stupid like that. The second night was at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa, a bit north of San Francisco. We drove through the city in some fog, making for a gorgeous if obstructed bridge view. Heidi had scored me awesome seats both nights, and photography was allowed thank goodness. Video was not, and I felt the oppressive stare of the ushers both nights so all I managed was about 5 different 3-second clips huddled in fear behind the chair. Which is fine, although I'm pretty sure appearing in one of my homemade videos would launch MCC to fame and fortune. Oh, wait. Nevermind. The music...ah, the music. You know, Mary Chapin was the first artist I latched onto as a young kid looking for musical greatness, and she has held steady in my book of the best ever since. I truly believe she is one of America's greatest songwriters, period. Fight me in the alley if you disgaree. So anyway, the last time I saw her was 5 years ago when I was in college, still unsure about the musician life but thinking it would be horrifically awesome to be a touring musician. So when I saw her 5 years ago everything was magic and mystical and electric. This time it was not that, but not on a bad way. Judging by Mary Chapin's tweets, the tour life for those guys - which consists of riding on a Prevost bus - is not much different than what we get to do in a Sprinter van (or an Element, as the case currently may be). It's not mystical in that I know the band has worked their butts off musically to be consumate pros at what they do. Nor is it magic to imagine how they got the venue or set everything up...that stuff's all pretty much how you do it on any level of touring. You drive, you play, you sleep, you drive. (Although I think on a big tour bus someone else drives all night and you wake up at the next city...awesome). So what this means is that instead of being ridiculously shocked that this was all happening in front of me, this time I got to focus on the music. Helped considerably by the 3rd row seats (again, thank you, Heidi!), I was able to see nuances and facial expressions and chord fingerings and all that good stuff. Very very very cool. Mary Chapin is, for one, a phenomenal fingerstyle guitar player. You know how some people start chording a song and then talk over their playing to introduce it? That's kind of hard. It's like tapping your foot in time for 3 minutes while telling a story. I have done it to some success and also messed it up entirely. Both nights MCC finger-picked the gorgeous pattern to "I Have a Need For Solitude" (Youtube is here) while telling a fairly long introduction to the tune, without missing a beat. My eyes crossed because it looks simple BUT IT IS SO NOT SIMPLE! My new goal is to get that good at finger-picking something. Anything. Check in with me in 7 years. Other stuff like watching one of my main guitar influences (I refuse to use the term "guitar hero" anymore, oops I just did), John Jennings, tear it up -- but then also seeing what scales he was using for some songs or what chord forms...that was awesome. There's a musical language being spoken by these great players that I am not fluent in, but starting to understand common phrases and techniques. That made me happy, too. Ultimately, I enjoyed the stage presence and songwriting of someone who, while I've only met her briefly once, is one of the main people responsible for getting me going along my path. While there are much more active mentors in my life now like a Dan or a Susan or a Terri, when you're 15 and sitting in your room with an electric guitar wondering what you're playing it for, you need motivation, and I was fortunate enough to latch on to Mary Chapin at an early part of my musical growth. I had a good example set early. And THAT, dear readers, is why I flew 2000 miles for a concert. Amen.

In Case You Needed The Reminder...

Impulse

Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and do something spontaneous. My biggest hurdle in deciding to take my friend Heidi's offer of 2 spare tickets to 2 Mary Chapin Carpenter shows in California in 2 weeks was whether I wanted to coordinate the travel for myself. I coordinate travel for a living, so doing it for fun made me go "eck." But I have a flight and I am excited! I haven't seen my No. 1 musical influence live since 2005. I am well overdue.

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.

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.

Fare Thee Well, Sprinter

Last month we cleaned out the Sprinter van, as it was also a casualty in Susan's accident that broke her arm (which a splint on now and is doing well). Unfortunately, as Susan put it...while the arm is fixable the van isn't. Sigh. I only had about a year and a half as full-on van passenger (and even graduated to driver sometimes), but I saw a lot of the country from its giant windows, and dropped a lot of stuff in the wheel well that I had to contort myself to claim (evidence here). Susan had quite a few years with it, and it was big enough in personality that the only name it needed was "The Van." Everyone knew when we had arrived at the gig, and many times people even knew when we were en route to the gig. The Van was hard to miss. People are always curious about that type of vehicle when you pull up in it and pile out with 3 dogs, 3 girls, a PA system, 2 - 4 guitars, a banjo, merch...and makeup. "Do you all LIVE in that?" No. "Do you all sleep in it?" No, just Susan and her dogs. "Is that a couch?" Yes. "What kind of gas mileage?" 26. Booyah! The next touring vehicle option? For now it's an Element, but it doesn't hold both gear and dogs. So I'm sure Susan will know it when she sees it. And it will become just as big a part of her road life as this Sprinter has been. And the miles put on the next one will be filled with just as much laughter, music, talk radio, dog water spills, dashboard knickknack collections, and teeth-clenching to get to the gig on time as The Van had. And very time I see a Fed-Ex van, I'll feel a little nostalgic.

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.

Hope Diamond

UniTunes in Houston

Ok, so I've been in a cave prepping for the big gig on Saturday night, whereupon it was Susan's return to the stage, cast in tow, and I was playing guitar for her. Which is a big deal because she is one of my favorite musicians on the planet. We shared the show with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. Who, as most of you know, are two of my other favorite musicians on the planet. Eek. Except by the time we were driving to the gig we had prepared up the wazoo and I wasn't nervous because when you do your homework you don't have to be. So there was that. We started off with our musical theater number, a 3 handed, 2 personed, 1 guitarred version of "Perfect World." After that we sailed through the set. Susan is a champ and picked up some harmonica prowess and also got good with a shaker. I imagine by the time she gets her cast off she'll be proficient at about 14 new instruments because she's good like that. Terri joined us for "Lovely When You Cry" and my own "For and Against" which was NIFTY... and then Lloyd came onstage too and we had a grand time finishing out the set. And then we got up to sing with Terri on her set for "Hole In My Pocket" and "Wind Me Up." And then it was over. And I was glad I did my homework. Thanks to Susan for the shot as her guitar player. Dang. Dan the Producer once told me about a basketball coach who would make his team run laps after they won games, because the best reward for a job done well is to keep working on what you do. So it's back to the geetar and charts today. More shows this weekend! Tomball, Marble Falls, and Luckenbach oh my!

Good from the Other

Um, ok. So to lighten up the mood from that last post, I gotta say...whoa. When I was a spunky bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 23-year-old...a whole 4 years ago, I packed up and moved to Austin to see about the music business based on a few things, but one of the main ones being that both Susan Gibson and Terri Hendrix hung around the Central Texas area and used it as their home base. I figured there was good stuff in the water if those two chose to be here. And here we are, 2010 and the next show on the books for me is playing guitar for Susan while she gives her broken arm a rest, and she happens to be sharing the bill with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. So I'm going to stop blogging now and go practice guitar. Lucky for me, I've been playing a bunch of these Susan tunes for a while, and I picked up a big chunk of my strumming style from her. Luck = Preparation + Opportunity. Life is weird and wonderful.

27 Ain't So Bad

It's been a Heaping good time, in fact. My birthday was on Sunday, but I'll work backwards because I am still buzzing from the Imogen Heap show last night at La Zona Rosa in Austin. I don't recall what led me to Imogen in college, but I've had her "Speak for Yourself" album for several years, and she just recently followed that up with "Ellipse"...hence she's on tour again. I saw her at La Zona Rosa in 2006, and it was a momentous show for me. That kind of technology onstage is rare in my folk world. Also she wore a pink feathery dress and had crazy hair and hopped around a lot. I was right up by the stage so I got quite the eardrum pounding. It was awesome. So "Ellipse" is out and I love it though have not internalized it all yet because Imogen is complicated musics (while outwardly very fun and accessible...smart), and luckily Austin was a stop on the tour. This time I got there kind of late to be in the front without being one of those jerks I hate at shows who nose their way up to the front even though they just walked in...so I scouted out the highest point in the back of the venue (which was still small enough for me to see facial expressions and everything). It was a great vantage point compared to my last show, because this time I could see the whole stage, her multiple gear set-ups, the band, etc. Good choice. She rocked it. I won't go into glowing descriptions of individual songs. She managed to get the audience involved in 3-part harmony in a round for the encore on "Just For Now." Impressive and always a crapshoot with audience participation. She explained to us that she had microphones strategically placed everywhere, like ON HER WRISTS, so she could play all her percussive doodads and not have to walk to a microphone. She played the KEYTAR. Heck yes. Afterwards I walked all the way to my car, said goodbye to some friends, and then had a flash of groupie-dom and went back over to the front of the venue where the tour bus was parked, and where about 30-40 people were hanging out. After 10 minutes of standing, Imogen came out and I decided to get my iPhone cover signed because her music lives on my iPod...and I had no CD cover with me, haha. And someone took a dark and slightly blurry iPhone photo. The least prepared I have been for a celebrity encounter EVER. Which makes sense because I was pretty good at that stuff in high school and college -- meeting the artists and having a photo taken and all that. And then somewhere in the past 3 years, probably after the privilege of some of my favorite artists becoming my good friends, I stopped caring about the autographs and the tour busses. This was neat, though...a tiny unremarkable chat amongst a sea of people (she apologized for the rude girl who had cut in front of me moments before...haha), a signature, a photo with one of my Top Fives. I guess we all need to be a fangirl sometimes (or fanboy...you can be a fanboy too). I'll value the show and the interaction, though already the signature on the iPhone case is rubbing away, and I don't think I'll shellack it on. It was there and it will be gone but I'll have the picture to remember it by, and the mp3s to blast through my stereo on the many more miles of road to come. A face to a name is always nice.

porterdavis rocks.

So I don't mean to rub it in or anything, that maybe I have a copy of the new porterdavis CD and it's not out until September 1st. But I mean, if I were gonna rub it in, I'd point out that it is fantastic and you should pre-order yours. So you can have one too. Look how pretty it is. Dan wrote some great tunes and picked some great tunes..."Grass Growing Through Concrete" below is on the record. Czech it. And Eliza Gilkyson sings background vocals on a track, too. Yay! So proud. I hope Dan still produces my records when he's busy flying around being on Letterman and playing at Bonnaroo and stuff. Don't forget us little people!

Joys of the Song Circle

That post title sounds a little...counterculture, haha. So raise your hand if you know what a song circle is! I'll wait. This is part of a circle. It is a full circle. You just see the semi-circle. Time for school. The folk singer scene has this thing called a "song circle" that I've become uber familiar with since moving to Texas. I had taken part in "jams" in college, though they seem to differ a bit. Song circles are pretty acoustic and folk based. I had the fun of hanging out in two of these circles this past week -- one after the Jpo Trio's fun gig at the Thursday Night Music Club at the Faust Hotel in New Braunfels. It was our first time there, and from the minute we drove up to the awesome old hotel I knew we were in for a good time. The folks at the TNMC (because I'm a lazy typer) were generous enough to have us play last week, and then after the festivities they turned off the PA, circled the chairs, and we all went around the circle with our guitars and played tunes. Some were covers and some were originals, but usually by the 2nd chorus we were all singing along with the words regardless. Then on Sunday after our outdoor house concert in Fort Worth (for which, might I add, the 105 temperature of Saturday cooled down to a lovely, cloudy, high 80's for us which seemed like the ARCTIC and we loved it)...we circled yet again and had us a time. I have grown from an absolute fear of these situations to a true love for them. The first few times you play these you're worried about impressing or picking the right tune or whatever. And it's scary to jump in with a solo on someone else's song you might be hearing for the first time. However, I've learned there's no better place to learn and experiment than a song circle...people are generally just there to share music they love with kind folks. I've gotten a lot of chord theory practice done over campfires and song circles in the past year, some on the fly soloing training (and might I add, I am STILL so in the training stages), and as evidenced above, I even get to play drums sometimes. Badly, I'm sure...but now I really want a fancy box to hit. Guilda seems to approve, since she remained sitting next to me and didn't remove herself from the percussion next to her. So let's review the benefits of song circles, shall we? 1. Nice people. 2. New songs heard. 3. Low pressure place to try new musical things. 4. Good times. Try a song circle! Just follow a singer-songwriter around for a while and you'll find one.

Yay Terri!

Yeah, those are my buddies Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines jamming with the Indigo Girls in Austin last Thursday...and Terri gets to sing her own VERSE! Yay! That is the ultimate in folk music cred right there, to sing "Closer to Fine" with the Girls. Terri's opening for them all weekend...so cool.

TV, Faces, Solos, Songs, all that stuff

Barrel. Stare. Whew! It's Sunday already. I am staring straight down the barrel of a lot of things. No wonder my eyes seem so squinty. At the end of the barrel: - My first live TV appearance looms on Tuesday. I'll be performing with the girls from my Monday night songwriting class at Red Leaf...Emily and Melissa and I had a stellar practice today and I am pumped. If you would have asked me yesterday I would have been freaked out. Now I know we're just going to play music and have fun like we always do, except it will be really early in the morning. In a TV studio. (FOX 7 here in Austin...I think they put these things online, too). - We get to play hot Gibson guitars because Gibson is sponsoring our Red Leaf showcase on April 5th...and since we're going to be on TV we might as well all be playing hot Gibson guitars, right? The two I will switch between I am pretty sure total more in worth than my car. This is what it's like to be a rock star? I'll take it. Photos will come. But for now, can you say...Gibson Hummingbird? Mmmhmmm. (I told you it was worth more than my car). - Dan has been drilling into me the next level of guitar soloing for about...oh, 6 years now. Or a couple months. Or more. And I take things and I ruminate on them and sometimes they don't pop out until they're really. I'm a really super awesome incubator. Sometimes that frustrates people, mainly myself. But anyway...I've been working on it and at practice this afternoon I had a breakthrough guitar moment...or hour...or whatever. I sang along with the notes and made faces and it works. I hope it's not too John Mayer-esque. Yes, I will make faces on TV if that's what I have to do to get the solo out the best I can. - I have also been booking up a storm for The Boss. There were holes in the calendar for April and May and the thing about booking is that the more time goes by, the harder it is to book the dates closest to you. Which means you have to be ON IT. And knock on as many doors as you can until someone says yes. I've also been tackling booking a Pacific Northwest tour for the whole month of June. Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California...here we come. (Drop me venue names or places to play if y'all have them!) We're coming for YOU. - The weird thing is I get into this strange creative flow state when I am working on this booking job...because it's utilizing my history major brain to search out venues and research if they're good or not. It feeds my obsessions with maps because routing is key. It makes my big picture brain work hard to figure in timing, routing, money, and dates. I guess what I mean to say is I like it. Who knew I got a history degree to book shows better? I guess that's a pretty long barrel. Boom!

Friday SXSW

Blisters on feet. I think I walked 78 miles up and down 6th Street. But it was all good. I awoke in a Tori daze and wondered whether I should even try topping that...but I got my butt downtown just in time to see Lisa Hannigan take the stage at BD Reilly's Full Irish Breakfast party. I think some of the real magic of SXSW happens at these day parties that kind of lump people together in tight venues based on things like...being from Ireland. Anyway, I was familiar with Lisa from her days touring with Damien Rice and I had just purchased her album, Sea Sew, last week. The album is amazing and the live show was amazinger. She had her full band with her and the whole package was inspiring. She sings with joy. Period. That's all I want. Then I found myself uncharacteristically without a plan...so I wandered in and out of several parties and scored some free stuff. I found myself back at La Zona Rosa and caught part of Gomez's set. And then I took a photo of the fence. There's crap strewn all over Austin right now, from show flyers to CDs to wristbands. In 3 years there will be no CD demos at SXSW and people will just hand out download cards. It'll save plastic and trees and space in my bag. At that point my eyes started glazing over from live music overload so I decided to head up north to my own gig with my good friend Emily Shirley. It was her gig and she let me crash it. So much fun to play with her, and she adds some sweet bass and harmonies to my tunes, too. Then it was back downtown to see Elizabeth Wills play her official showcase at Mother Egan's. It was kickbutt as always. I had fun taking photos. And then...I hoofed it over to the Victorian Room at the Driskill Hotel. Samantha Crane and the Midnight Shivers were playing and I enjoyed them quite a bit. Lucy Wainright Roche took the stage at 12:15 AM...and she was wonderful. I play her song Chicago (on Myspace for your listening pleasure) quite a bit because it's just so singable. And then I went home and slept like a rock again.