Ye Olde Alma Mater

I took a minute to stop and take some photos at UNM since I am home for Thanksgiving. The University of New Mexico is one of the prettiest campuses I have been on (if you like adobe)...Fall is the best time! Where I went for financial aid stuff... The main drag The Honors Building where I took a Gallows Humor class

Tour Tour Tour

Oh hi. We left home last Friday and it's Friday already and here we are in Taos, NM. We have quite a bit of road ahead of us still, so it's been a good little jaunt up here. Taos is, as I have stated, where I will live when I retire if not before. Today we sat in the park in the shade and it was considerably cooler in the shade than the sun. This does not happen in Texas. Sorry, Texas. We spent a day in Amarillo with Susan's niece and nephew and went to the Discovery Center, one of those science museums where you can touch everything and learn stuff. I learned that black holes do something to you called "spaghettification." It just made me hungry. Inside a giant bubble! The Old Blinking Light in Taos is one of my favorite venues to visit because the people are great, the food is awesome, the view is stellar...too much good stuff all together. I bought an OBL hoodie even though it's not really hoodie weather yet. But we're going to Montana and I'm ready. Susan had quite a few adoring fans at the show, and something that doesn't happen very often...a percentage of them were under the age of 5. These kids had a great time. This little guy even brought his guitar to jam with Susan. He did great and will probably be headlining before we know it. Just remember us when we need backstage passes, dude. Today we go to Red River and then north to Colorado. The longer drives begin!

All Nite Drive Part 5

It is most decidedly daytime now.

Texas Box Guitars

Maybe I'll call it "The Burqueño." How New Mexican of me. Ok, this is the COOLEST. Dan the Producer has had a Texas Box Guitar for at least over a year now, and I have been drooling over it because: a) it's a guitar b) it's got a license plate on it, which not only looks cool, but to me is a geographical reference, which I love (see also why I collect ceramic state truck stop pigs and hang maps on my wall for aesthetics). When I moved this summer for the 47th time in 4 years, I found my old New Mexico license plate in a stack of crap and pondered what I could do with it that would be cool because I wasn't going to get rid of my first ever license plate. Then the lightning bolt struck me, 2+2 came together (4), and I emailed Walter Morgan at Texas Box Guitars. Walter is the COOLEST, and he came by the music school to check on Dan's guitar (and Dan) and to show me the options for mine. We decided a black box would make the bright yellow stand out the most, and away Walter went to his magical guitar shop in Dripping Springs while I was driving around the country last month. Probably the 2nd email I sent when we were back in town this weekend was to Walter to see when I could pick it up. As opposed to most other guitar buying experiences I've had, which has either been in a music store or on Craigslist, this was super enjoyable. Where else do you go to pick up a guitar made just for you and get offered a Coke and chat with the maker (and Walter's awesome better half, Susan) at their kitchen table? So fun. It's a 4 string slide guitar, right now I've tuned it to open G, and Walter installs a pickup that sounds great. Love at first note! I'm going to have to study up on slide techniques this summer...I wish I knew someone who worked at a music school. Hm. I suggest you all go check out Texas Box Guitars' website...they are super reasonably priced and if you have a plate that's just hanging around your house, this is a great way to make use of it. The quote on TBG's website? "You can never have too many guitars." So true.

Day 2 and 3

Sunrise somewhere in West Texas. All right so this counts for 2 blogs, since we did our Houston to Taos drive and if I wasn't driving, I was sleeping or talking deliriously to Susan about something silly. It was surprisingly...not bad. We totaled it at 22 hours total, including a stop in Fort Worth to pick up our friends Amy and Cheryl, and a 1.5 hour stopover in Amarillo...since we left Houston at about 10 PM on Sunday and got to Taos at 7 PM (8 PM TX time) on Monday. The gig started at 7, but luckily Susan is a pro at putting on makeup while I negotiate mountain passes from Cimarron to Taos. Gorgeous! Happy to be in New Mexico! Silly videos forthcoming. Onward.

Time Machine: Freshman Year of College

Scene of the class: Keller Hall This article is not one I remember reading back then, because I just showed up to class one day and didn't know what to expect. This was when I was a freshman in college and the class Susan performed in was my Music Appreciation 139 class. Thanks for my awesome current job, Professor Kostur, wherever you are... Dixie Chicks writer finds her own space - Albuquerque Journal November 02, 2001 Byline: Kevin Hopper FOR THE JOURNAL "I'm Susan the-girl-who-wrote-'Wide-Open-Spaces' Gibson now. Until I do something else." So says Susan Gibson talking about her place in the country/folk music industry and what she has to overcome now that she is on her own. The "Wide Open Spaces" she refers to is the smash hit Gibson wrote for the Dixie Chicks' 1998 debut album of the same name. The album went on to sell 11 million copies and gather many top awards, including a Grammy for Country Album Of The Year. While her song propelled the Dixie Chicks toward country greatness and became a bona fide commercial success, the Amarillo native's own music, which until recently has largely been made with her band the Groobees, tends to stick a little closer to the ground. "I feel really good about 'Wide Open Spaces' and its commercialness," Gibson said in a recent telephone interview. "And I feel good about the Dixie Chicks doing it, but the fact that that seems to be what you have to emulate in order to find a place (in the music industry), I don't like that." The Groobees split up in May, and rather than take an extended and much-deserved hiatus, Gibson has hit the road and will perform a number of gigs in Albuquerque, starting tonight with a performance at Kellys Brewing. She plays Saturday at Tractor Brewing Company in Las Lunas and again in Albuquerque Sunday at Johnny's Restaurant. In addition to that, Gibson is taking time to drop by music appreciation class at the University of New Mexico this morning. "I'm still kind of in the midst of extricating from the Groobees, but I felt compelled, even if it was for my own good, to (continue performing)," Gibson said. "It would have been easy to find a lot of reasons to take a break. It was important for me to not quit just because the Groobees did." Gibson is due in the studio in early March and shows a strong interest in breaking away from both the Groobees and her status of "the girl who wrote 'Wide Open Spaces.' '' The 29-year-old Gibson said she respects folk-legend-in-the-making Ani DiFranco and ideally would like to pattern her career after DiFranco's. Gibson's resolve to form a new identity will probably come to her much easier than most other artists. She's already got a country hit and a stable of Groobee songs that display her songwriting abilities. Unfortunately, she has to deal with an industry that molds and shapes artists as it sees fit. Gibson again alluded to DiFranco and her ability to be seemingly in total control of her own destiny. "The number one thing that Ani DiFranco does is believe what she says and stands by her guns," Gibson stated emphatically. "I mean, that's No. 1. That's human."

Panhandle Hauntings

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I like it because I think it's one of the least commercialized holidays, in that you can only up-sell someone so much on a cornucopia. I had a great time in Amarillo, hanging out at the Nat Ballroom for a live taping that will be part of the new Root 66 series...it is a TV show brainstormed by a collective of very talented Albuquerque filmmakers, musicians, and such. They asked Susan to film an episode, and no better place than in her hometown. When we rolled into the venue I knew my friend Matt Jones, a great singer-songwriter also from the ABQ area code, would be there. What I didn't know is that my buddy Josh was riding along with Matt. Josh and I used to be intern together at PBS in Albuquerque...and NEITHER of us knew that our former boss at KNME, Tony, was part of the crew that day. So it was a very impromptu and fun reunion. Tony even interviewed Susan, weird collision of worlds. Former boss interviews current boss. The show was awesome, all of the artists including Matt and Susan and Jenn Grinels and Rodney Branigan did great. Afterwards, they wanted to film some intro footage in the boiler room in the basement of the ballroom...which is a terribly old building (I mean, it has a BOILER ROOM for crying out loud), and this basement was the spookiest place I have ever been in. Apparently there are ghosts in this place as it used to be a gambling hall and a swimming pool at various times in its life, among other things. The floor was dirt and had rusted metal things laying around, there were cobwebs all over and nails poking through the ceiling from the floorboards above us. You would never catch me down there alone. SSSSHHHHH!!!! Luckily, we were there with about 10 people and a floodlight for the camera, so I felt pretty safe from the ghosties. Susan filmed a hysterical intro reminiscent of Scooby Doo or the like. Then we hightailed it upstairs again, to not disturb the spirits. You never know what you'll run into with this crazy job.

Two Hometowns

So Susan's got a song called "Two Hometowns" which, taken out of context, applies to our trip this past weekend. The first stop was Amarillo, her old stomping grounds, where she played at the Golden Light and I witnessed something I thought I'd never see: a partial Groobees reunion. I first found Susan through the Groobees records because that's all that was available my freshman year of college. She hadn't quite released the solo record yet, I don't think. So I had every song memorized, and was a big fan of the band as a unit. Gary Thomason, the guitarist in the band, lives in Amarillo so he played with Susan at the Golden Light this weekend. He is amazing. He can play anything and he hops around like a 7-year-old on Pop Rocks and Dr. Pepper. It's awesome to see. They were joined for a tune by Todd Hall, the Groobees drummer, hence the "reunion," hence my fangirl glee. If you can get yourself a used copy of any Groobees CD, do so. They sound great. Then it was off to my hometown of Albuquerque for the yearly house concert we deem "The JP Project," whereupon my friends from all walks of life show up and we have a reunion of our own. A lot of them know Susan by now, so as the special guest there was some familiarity but also a lot of hilarity because we do things like talk in British accents and I collect ceramic pigs and she puts change in them for my 401k plan. It was another great show and it's nice all those folks have stuck with me since moving to Texas, which...well, I'll say it...most New Mexicans hate Texas, haha. They tolerate the transplants who come back for green chile, though. We kidnapped our friends Amy and Kate and took them along to show them the views and make them haul our gear. They are impressively accommodating! Kate also plays a mean guitar, so we made her play for her bottled water. You never know what will happen or what hitchhikers you'll pick up. And now my tasks involve a lot of booking for next year and paperwork and web site work and yadda yadda. I will probably take a break on my birthday and sleep. Oh yeah, we're working on EP 2 this week, too! More on that, too....

NYC Tomorrow

Land of Mañana = chile. It REALLY does not seem like it is time for us to go to New York City already. This tour was in the wee planning stages this summer and all of the sudden here we are, autumn on the east coast. I'm pretty excited. I'm pretty freaked out at our train schedule on Friday to get from NYC to Phoenixville, PA outside Philadelphia: - Leave West 125th Street Station: Take the A train from 125 Street station heading Downtown / to Far Rockaway - Get off at 34 Street - Penn Station - Take the NJ Transit - Northeast Corridor Line from New York - Penn Station heading to Trenton - Get off at TRENTON - Take the R7 Line from Trenton station heading to Chestnut Hill East - Get off at 30th Street – PHILADELPHIA - From 30th Street Station Take Bus 125 to Valley Forge - - Get off at KING OF PRUSSIA PLAZA – Take Bus 139 to Philadelphia Premium Outlet/Limerick - Arrive at MAIN ST BRIDGE ST, PHOENIXVILLE stop That is just FRIDAY. I think the other days have a lot less hopping around. But really. I grew up in New Mexico, where the few buses that did run were late all the time. Land of Mañana is what we called it. So this is slightly new. Between now and then we need to figure out how Susan and I are going to pack all our clothes into one bag. Egads. And then get to the airport. And then take off. And then land in New. York. City. Sweeeet!

August Recap...

Here we are. Here I am, here you are anyway. I'm in Albuquerque...not being a merch girl in Colorado. I quit the tour in a fit of frustration over a lost bag of Skittles in the van last Thursday. Just kidding. While I love touring with Susan, I have another job in Austin that must be attended to at the music school. It's good for me to have both, and I am fortunate enough to have both jobs let me be flexible with where I am at any given moment. I fly back to Austin tomorrow and Susan stays on the road for another 2 weeks. The first two weeks went fairly smoothly besides the gaping wounds on my feet (mostly healing well, one is still gaping and hurts right now...but it was the worst one so it's taking longer heal. Skin is pretty awesome, growing back over itself and stuff). We played at the Rhythms on the Rio Festival in South Fork, CO last weekend. We drove all night from Fort Collins to get there (translation: Susan drove all night while we slept and I took the last half hour drive in the morning so she could go to bed and sleep a bit before the festival). We stopped at a rest stop somewhere in CO at 3:30 AM and let me just say this...if you are a creepy dude, or any dude at all, or any creep at all...never ask 3 girls in a van at a rest area to jump start your truck at 3:30 AM. Ask a guy. Or call the cops. Or just wait for daylight. We left in a hurry and I'm sure creepy guy got a jump start...just not from us. Shudder. It was the first annual and went really well for a giant production like that in its first year. The scenery was awesome, the people were great. Susan played a great set and won a lot of new fans. I played what is called a "tweener" set between bands while Great American Taxi set up their gear. It's weird to play solo at a big festival. I felt like an ant on the big stage, but it was fun nonetheless. Even ants have fun. Then it was off to Taos, NM for two nights at the Old Blinking Light. The 2nd night we were lucky enough to be outside, and the view was gorgeous. Sunsets rock here. I have thought it for a while but really, mark my words, I am retiring in Taos in an adobe house. I can't wait. I want to retire when I'm 32. A few days in Albuquerque are good for meeting up with people I haven't talked to face-to-face in a while. I get to be a bridesmaid in my friend Jamie's wedding, so I tried on the dress today. I hope I don't trip in its fanciness - it will be a fun wedding! Currently listening to the new Imogen Heap album...she's brilliant as usual. My wound will continue to gape for a while. In exactly a month I'll be flying to New York City. Things swim in my head.

I Heart Taos

It is soooo nice to be back in New Mexico and get to be here a couple of days. We're staying at a resort near the venue (sometimes...ok many times...we luck out with where we get to stay) and the smells and sights of the sage and skies and mountains are good for whatever ails. This morning Susan and I headed over to KTAO and did an interview about the show tonight, and Susan played a second time on the afternoon show. The KTAO studio is gorgeous and perhaps where I want my retirement home to be. I don't know if they'd sell me the whole station so I could live in it, and I could only probably pay them $45 for it, but I can ask. Hank the dog helped Susan out with her interview...too bad he didn't hop in the van with us. Time to go set up at the Old Blinking Light! They have awesome green chile stew. Yesssss.

Things to Do in the Van

A hint of the salsa song...and various hijinx...

Hometown Tour

What an intensely fun weekend that is now over and it's already Wednesday. How did that happen? We started off last Thursday in Lubbock with a show at La Diosa, a fancy wine bar downtown. I had only ever driven through Lubbock previously, one trip involving college bud Beth and I taking way too long to get through town and we're not sure why, and another involving college bud Jamie and I taking way too long to get through town and we're not sure why. We're tried straight through and we've tried the loops, which makes me believe that Lubbock has what we have termed "The Lubbock Time Warp." Thankfully we stopped there and weren't just passing through. The next day it was off to Albuquerque for my hometown show at The Source. I think the door people laughed because everyone that came through the gate was someone I had to scream at and hug. I also was so busy talking that I TOOK NO PHOTOS. Dangit. We did score some salsa from the lovely folks at El Pinto (who Twitter, too)...Jim was cool enough to come to the show and bring us a 6-pack. We were the hit of every place we went to after that because we always came bearing salsa. Thanks, Jim! Since we knew El Pinto would be representing that night, Susan and I set up the Mac between the front seats, I pulled out my guitar and crunched into the passenger seat, and we wrote a very clever El Pinto jingle (if I do say so myself). The Albuquerqueans seemed to dig it a lot, so we're going to get a solid recording...because stuff like that needs to be shared, haha. What else are you going to do on a 6 hour drive except write songs in the passenger seat? Then it was off to Susan's hometown of Amarillo for a gig at her old stomping grounds, OHMS Cafe. It's a fancy wine bar now (it was a more laid back cafe when she was an employee there), and I had some of the best food ever. It's nice to break the convenience store streak for dinner. One neat thing to arise from the whole trip is that Susan is playing banjo onstage more (she is a killer banjo player) and I get to come up and be the back up guitarist for a few tunes each night. When there is a banjo vibe, anyway. (So far both wine bars have required a banjo, just so people don't think they're going to an uppity show). It's been awesome, and I didn't even implode when we played "Wayside" for the first time onstage with no rehearsal beforehand. It helps that I used to wear those Groobees records out in college. Nifty. We've got our June tour almost all wrapped up in terms of logistics, I'm performing at the Ballad Tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival tomorrow, and we leave for Montana/Idaho/Wyoming/Colorado/Northern NM in a couple weeks. I need a nap!

Westward Bound

I found Bueno Chile in a grocery store in Austin last week. It was probably an omen that I have to go to Albuquerque this week. Or something. Whew. As evidenced by my photo posting from the road this past weekend...we were around. Lovely house concerts in Houston and San Antonio, and two stops at Buc-ee's, the second time during which I caved in and bought a t-shirt. This truck stop sells everything from cast iron dutch ovens shaped like Texas to silk flower arrangements to pickled quail eggs (I AM NOT LYING). Susan and I did admire a girly cut tee with the Buc-ee's Beaver bedazzled on it in rhinestones, but I went for a more traditional print. This week we go to Lubbock, Amarillo, and ALBUQUERQUE. This is my first show there since November and my first non-house concert there in...two years. It's nice to play at a venue in your hometown, and AMP Concerts happen to be the people that hosted the very first house concert I ever attended, and the artist playing happened to be one Susan Gibson. Weird, huh? The circles that come back around again never cease to amaze me. My Big Giant Accomplishment of the weekend was getting the Boss set up on Twitter. She's going to be a great Tweeter, I can tell already. ...As long as she doesn't tweet embarrassing things her tour monkey does....huh.... Maybe I made a mistake. :)

Settling In

The cheapest gas I have ever purchased. Yeah, I'm young. Las Cruces, NM... I made it back to Texas just in time to play a gig on Friday night. I started the drive from Albuquerque at 5 AM and didn't stop until I got to Tantra Coffee in San Marcos around 7 PM. The half hour drive up to Austin was probably the worst part just because I did not want to get back in the car, but luckily I played at a place of caffeination. I think I made up a new word. This new year brings about some immediate changes and the promise of more. The Big One is I have moved up from the title of Merch Girl to more of a tour and business assistant in Camp Susan. I'm excited to be able to work with such a great person whose music I believe in unequivocally. But I'm still probably going to keep the Merch Girl title because it's so darn cute (right, Phil?). I just finished the first song of 2009 (although it was started back in '08)...we'll see if it sticks and where. I'm making demos in preparation for the next EP...kind of just swapping song orders around and seeing what might work. Also starting a NEW BLOG project...domain name has been purchased. Now I'm just trying to set it all up. More on that sooner. Here's the progression of the sunrise from about 6 AM - 7 AM in Southern New Mexico on Friday....

Georgia O'Keeffe and Making Records

"I know I cannot paint a flower. I cannot paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning, but maybe in terms of paint color I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower of significance to me at that particular time." - Georgia O'Keeffe Perhaps my favorite thing to do in Santa Fe is visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I'm no art critic, and I often don't know what I should be doing or looking at in an art museum...but O'Keeffe's work has always gotten under my skin. Maybe it's because she sought out New Mexico as her artistic home. Maybe it's her ability to paint something I recognize while making me see it for the first time and differently each time after that. Maybe it's just because she's brilliant. The Museum itself is not large at all; you can get through it in 15 minutes if you don't look too closely, or you can take all afternoon. A lot of times there's no glass separating the viewer from O'Keeffe's broad strokes on the canvas. The paint looks fresh. One of the security guards even showed us O'Keeffe's fingerprint hidden in a tiny watercolor of a windmill. He had to shine his flashlight on the glass so we could pick it out; we felt like we were being let in on a secret. While I was looking at the exhibition yesterday, I decided I want to be able to write songs and make records the way O'Keeffe painted. Bold strokes without hesitation. Making life's minutiae important and beautiful. Shedding light on the colors and scenes already surrounding us. Georgia didn't make the mountain she painted multiple times, but she definitely made it her own.

Rules for Christmas in Albuquerque

1. If the weather people say it will snow on a certain day, it won't. 2. If they say the snow that is falling will only be for a little bit, it will snow all day. 3. Any leftovers from Christmas dinner must be garnished with green chile. 4. Ideally post-holiday breakfasts involve some sort of red chile smothered over something. What the something ends up being is inconsequential if it is covered in chile. Flakes! And I don't mean dandruff!

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.

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.