Milwaukee and Lake Michigan

We had a great time in Milwaukee last night, no surprise. We met a fantastic Couchsurfing couple–Marie and Clinton–who fed us a delicious chicken salad, put us up for the night and came out to see our show at Bremen Cafe. Milwaukee always treats us right. Looking forward to going back soon.

Clinton, Marie, Kate, Bobby

Bobby

Kate

Bremen Cafe

Bremen Cafe

We’ve been working in Nashville and staying with family–Bobby’s sister, Kt and her dog, Ranger. The other day Kt and I decided to take a morning hike that ended up turning into an all day adventure.

It started out with an early trip to The Butter Bean Barn, where Kt was riding and working a client’s horse to keep him in shape. His name is Cooper, and he used to be a racehorse.

Cooper

Kt riding Cooper

I’m not particularly well-versed in equestrian knowledge, at least not yet, but apparently racehorses are prone to having psychological issues, especially once they retire and become “pleasure” horses. It can be difficult to, essentially, “un-train” them to be pasture and trail horses and forget their competitive, “run fast and turn left” days. I find that interesting, and though it brings some ethical questions regarding horse-racing to the surface, those are for another blog…

Rascal

While Kt was working with Cooper, I sat by the fence to watch and take a couple photos. I attracted the attention of a couple curious and hungry friends who apparently thought I might have something for them to eat. No dice, sorry guys. Two old boys, Rascal and Parker, eventually meandered their way over to me, and even though I had nothing to offer besides a good scratch behind the ears, we still made friends.

Me and Parker

Ranger–Kt’s big Grey wolf/German Shepherd/floppy-eared/cuddle bug–had come with us, and was (somewhat) patiently waiting in the car while Kt and I played with horses and talked to Nan–the sweet old ranch grandma who makes her way around on a lawn mower. When we left, Ranger was happy we were back in the car with him and he was being included once again.

Ranger

Our next destination was our hiking trail–a five mile loop called Hidden Springs Trail near Lebanon, TN. It was a good distance away from Nashville, so we were ready to feel away from the city. It was a gorgeous day out, and driving on the backroads thought the country with the windows down was invigorating, and Ranger was loving it too!

At one point we found ourselves following a large utility truck that we couldn’t seem to maneuver around, and suddenly he began to break hard going up a hill and moved over to the left lane. His hazard lights had just come on when we saw the reason he was stopping: seven scrawny, black and white puppies were weaving in and out of the ditch and onto the road, looking for something to eat, I’m sure. We pulled over behind the truck and jumped out to wrangle them all together and get them off the road. The truck driver helped us and as we were talking with him, a man from a nearby house walked up the road to see what was going on, and then Wade, a jogger we had passed on the road earlier, stopped to see if he could help.

Can you see all five?

At this point, we all knew we couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves; they were too little and wouldn’t last long on their own. But who wants to take seven sick and tic-infested puppies? They appeared to be a Boxer/Terrier mix, but there could’ve been a little Pit-bull in them, and as I found out, on this, my day of animal ethics 101, Pit-bulls are banned in most of parts of Tennessee, which brings more ethical questions to the table. It’s already a sad story that’s way too common–a litter of starving puppies, abandoned on the side of the road and left to their own, greatly limited devices–but to make it even more tragic, trying to “help” them may not be what you would picture in your mind as being “helpful”.  If taken to a clinic or shelter in the state of Tennessee, they may be euthanized if it’s suspected they have any Pit-bull in their blood. Plus, if you bring in sick puppies you can will be expected to pay for their treatment.

The truck driver and the nearby neighbor both decided they would take one, so they snatched up the two healthier males of the litter, wished us luck and went on their way. Now it was up to Wade, Kt and me to decide what to do with the remaining five. Wade knew of a nearby clinic that might be able to help them, but he had no way to get them there. We had a car with a big curious dog in the back and nothing in which to contain the puppies and keep them away from Ranger.

There was a dollar store just up the road, so we decided that Wade would wait with the puppies while Kt and I went to get a box for the pups. When we returned with our blue tote, we gathered them up and got them in the front seat, with Ranger all the way in the back, and me in the middle. Wade gave us directions to the clinic and we were on our way.

Unfortunately the clinic could not help us, and it’s understandable why; they can’t take in all the sick and dying animals that people find and want someone else to help. The costs are too high and there are too many sick/dying animals. This animal-ethics-reality-check was getting pretty depressing for me.
However–a ray of hope–the clinic did have the number of a nearby shelter called Country K-9, that we could contact and see what they could do. We decided to call them, and after explaining the situation, we were told they would try and contact one of their foster people and call us back in a few minutes.

As we stood in the waiting room, waiting, I was starting to feel pretty heartsick, because if we couldn’t find a place that would take these little guys, I had no idea what we were going to do with them. I knew we couldn’t keep them, but I couldn’t imagine dumping them off somewhere and hoping that someone would find them and have the resources to care for them. I was also thinking it was a good thing Bobby wasn’t with us, because I knew he would be trying to bring at least one, if not all of them, back to live happily ever after with us. No joke, folks. All of them.
Finally Country K-9 called us back with good news; they had found someone who would take the puppies–hallelujah!!

Once at the shelter, a flock of middle-aged women came out to hush their excited dogs and take a peek at the new arrivals. We spent about twenty minutes chatting with these wonderful ladies, and they “oohed and ahhed” over Ranger, who didn’t hide his satisfaction with being the center of attention.

And now, if you’ll indulge me a moment while I step up on my soapbox…  Country K-9 is the animal shelter that took in these five little starving pups, and they have helped hundreds of other animals recover their health and find homes. Luckily, I happened to be a part of a story with a happy ending, which I am very grateful for, but I’m sure we all realize this isn’t always the case. At the risk of sounding like one of those horribly sad commercials with awful pictures of unhealthy and unhappy animals with droopy, teary eyes–if you can donate anything to them or any animal shelter, I know they could use it and I, personally, would be very grateful to you. I know everybody everywhere needs a little help, but if you’re searching for an organization to devote a little of your time and/or money to, may I suggest your local animal shelter? You can donate to Country K-9 or check out their website by clicking here. Thank you! End soapbox.

The Trailhead

At last we were on our way to our Hidden Springs Trail! Having just done our part as good citizens of the world by helping a few helpless creatures, Kt and I were feeling particularly buoyant and joyful. A happy but restless Ranger was smelling the air out of every window he could, alternating driver side and passenger side so as not to miss out anything, of course. 

Kt and the Horse Trail

We parked at the trailhead and geared up for our five miles. The trail itself was beautiful, and the time of year was perfect—the undergrowth wasn’t too out of control, the leaves were just approaching their mature size, and the greens were SO GREEN! The weather was partly cloudy and in the low eighties with some humidity, and as I mentioned before, the moisture in the region was abundant so there were a few pesky bugs here and there and more than a few bloody thirsty ticks that were eagerly waiting to catch a ride and a free lunch. Savages!

Kt and Ranger

Despite the lurking parasites, we had an AWESOME hike, and Ranger agreed. We stumbled upon dark caves, discovered beautiful open meadows, and of course, found the hidden springs. Kt and I managed to make it out of the woods without one nasty tick bite, but poor Ranger was not so lucky. He didn’t have it too bad though, and he thoroughly enjoyed all the time and effort that was spent on him as we scoured through his thick, coarse coat, searching for the uninvited.

checking for ticks near a hidden spring…

It was a fantastic day of eye-opening animal adventures, and I’m looking forward to the next one, whenever it comes along.

Thanks for reading, remember to love your animals and take care of them, and keep passing on the love.

Saturday night had lasted well into Sunday morning, so when nine bells rang and woke us up, we were a bit bleary-eyed and hung over. But nothing cures a hang over like feasting on Mexican food, so another round of Curra’s Grill was ordered, devoured, and it’s medicinal qualities absorbed. Thank you Jorge! Curra’s Grill is always a good idea.

We two shows that Sunday, both of them short 45 minute sets. The first show was that afternoon at a little coffee place called, Flipnotics. We had been to Flipnotics before during one of our trips to Austin, and we thought it would be a great place to play, plus we had our drummer Joel and our steel player Thomas with us, so we were feeling good and ready to knock some socks off.

If you can recall back a few blogs, I mentioned our friends from Amarillo, TX who were in town for SXSW–Turbine Toolshed; we had run into them at our show at Bar Mirabeau, saw them perform at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters, bumped into them on the street on our way to see Ghostwolf, and then they showed up at Flipnotics that Sunday afternoon to see our show.  It is so much fun making friends on the road–I love it!

The show went incredibly well, and I loved the sound of the room. By this time we had played with Thomas and Joel a number of times and had spent a few days together, so the energy and communication between us was great. The room was smaller in size, and it filled up with bodies as our show went on. Even our Couchsurfing host, Walter, was in attendance and acting as our back up sound guy. (We had a few minor difficulties, but Walter used to be a sound guy/roadie, so it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.)

Besides an intrusive fly landing in my ice tea, the show was a blast, and I remember being energized when it was over.  Lots of great people and energy (and a couple flies) were buzzing and bouncing around the room, and we made a bunch of friends that day. Speaking of friends, our buddy from Turbine Toolshed, Eddie, posted this video of us performing Days Gone By…check it out! Thanks Eddie!

Later that afternoon we were in for a great surprise! My good friend from college, Julie–now all grown up and married and living the dream–was in town with her husband.  They were coming through Austin on a tour of their own and were stopping on Sunday for the last day of the festival. We decided to meet downtown and catch up over a beer or two. Bobby and I met Julie and Andrew at Bar Louie, and spent a couple hours talking shop. Julie and Andrew have their own band, Har-di-Har, out of Cedar Falls, Iowa and they have some fantastic stuff! I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing them live yet, but check out their website; they have some great stuff going on and I couldn’t be happier for their success!

Our final show for the day and the SXSW festival, was at an ancient bar called Red Eyed Fly. This bar has been around for decades; you can tell just by walking inside that if these walls could talk, they’d have some pretty interesting stories to tell. In fact, Bobby spotted a picture above the bar of Dimebag Darrell–former guitarist for Pantera–performing on the stage we were about to take. We asked the bartender and he confirmed this, which sent Bobby’s head reeling. Dimebag Darrell as I’ve mentioned in the past, is one of Bobby’s heroes, so performing our music on the same stage that a young Dimebag Darrell performed on, is a pretty cool experience…more so for Bobby since Pantera was never really my cup of tea, but still…

So in honor of Bobby’s deceased guitar idol, we tore it up! Or as much as we could without a drummer. We had our buddy Thomas on pedal steel with us, and Julie and Andrew came down to see us perform. The show was a lot of fun, and before I knew it our set time was up and the “curtain came down,” as they say.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s festival, and can’t wait to keep adding more to our sound.  Thank you for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed the series, and as always, and keep shining!

Some sweet graffiti in downtown Austin.

Saturday. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to say, it was another beautiful day. The gods of SXSW were smiling on all of us and granted an entire week of sunny, gorgeous days and dry, warm nights. We slept in on Saturday like we did most days that week, since nothing began until noon at the earliest, especially in a festival town full of musicians.

We had one show that afternoon, back at Bar Mirabeau–the same venue we had played on Thursday afternoon with much success. The staff we now considered new friends of ours, and they were all smiles when we walked back through the door; and who doesn’t love to see a smiling face?

We also saw/heard, as we walked out onto the patio with our gear in hand, one of the strangest acts I have ever seen. For propriety’s sake, and out of respect for fellow musicians I’ll omit the band name–mostly because I can’t remember it and also because I’m not entirely certain they considered themselves an organized “band” with a name in the first place.  Three musicians were on stage; a woman playing keyboard and singing, another woman seated on the ground with a microphone, and a man in the back on an electric drum set. I don’t need to go into detail, but lets just say, if they rehearsed together, it wasn’t obvious, and though each of them seemed to be giving it their all, when I looked around to see how they were being received I only saw bewilderment and/or disinterest, and maybe a little bit of what I’ve read described as “contact embarrassment”. (Interesting tidbit: the English language does not have a word for the experience of feeling embarrassed for someone else. Hmm. We should get on that. Any suggestions?) The cherry on top was when they covered, “Love Song”, by Sara Bareilles. I hope I’m not coming across as a snob, though I might be acting like it a bit; but honestly, you can’t like everything you hear, and this was just…kinda…terrible.

I might also be slightly biased because the aforementioned nameless trio arrived late, set up slowly, and played over their time allotment so everyone behind them was also backed up about an hour. Our long set of one hour and forty-five minutes was shortened to an hour to help compensate for the time lost, and there was another act appearing before us. Coincidently, and here is where the universe plays crazy tricks on us–the act going on right before us was our friend and Couchsurfing host from Dallas, Tommie, who performs under the name TipTop Tommie.

TipTop Tommie

We met Tommie and his girlfriend, Courtney, on our first trip to Dallas last fall. They responded to our Couchsurfing request for a host in Dallas and we have stayed with them a couple of times since then. They are truly excellent people and a ton of fun to hang out with, so seeing them there in Austin at Bar Mirabeau, with Tommie performing the set before ours, was a little coincidental. On the other hand, we had been helping each other find SXSW venues since January and we shared many of the same Austin contacts, so it may not have been that far fetched. Regardless, it was a great surprise to see them both hanging on the patio with all their friends.

Tommie is a rapper and writes his own mixes that he raps to and a few of his buddies jump up and rap with him. His performance was short-lived, but fun to watch and complete with a bubble machine and a Mexican mojito in hand.

After Tommie’s performance and over two hours after we first walked through the door, it was finally time for us to set up, and “as quickly as possible” was the name of the game. In record time we had Bobby’s guitar tuned and my keyboard set up, vocals checked, plus a cajon and pedal steel guitar balanced in the mix. Our set shrank to just forty-five minutes, but we made the most of it. Naturally sounding more polished and together than our first performance on Thursday, the songs flowed out; the vocals were sweet, the rhythms were solid, the “anticipations” and “stops” in the songs were all there, and it felt great. We brought a few patrons out of the restaurant and onto the patio, which is always a good sign; and feeling. Before I knew it, our time was up, and the next band was standing nearby with their equipment in hand, ready to take our place.

The delay in our show time messed with our evening plans a little bit, and we had to scrap a couple of venues/artists we were hoping to go see.  I wasn’t super happy about it, but what can you do? It’s SXSW where you have to roll with the punches and remember to say, “yes” to the moment.  So we set our sights on Ghostwolf; an alternative rock band from California, I think. Bobby knows their guitar player, so in the spirit of supporting friends and their music, we wanted to go see their show. It was a bit of a walk, so we quickly made our way towards the South Congress Bridge. Of course, along the way we ran into the kids from Turbine Toolshed, and hastily made plans to meet up later that night, but we had to keep moving if we were going to catch any of Ghostwolf. As we made our way across the bridge, we found ourselves  weaving our way through droves of people heading back to 6th Street…not a good sign. When we got to the stage we were too late, the show was over. But we were able to touch base with Bobby’s friend, Evan, so the trip was worth it. Plus, on the way back to 6th Street, we got this pretty cool pic of the city:

Austin night skyline

The night ended with a trip down 6th Street to meet up with our friends, Dan Johnson and his lovely girl, Carley. But in order to get to the bar they were at, we had to walk several blocks east on 6th, which was one of the most absurd experiences of the entire week. Saturday night of SXSW, this city street in Austin was literally packed from one side to the other, and let me be clear so you can imagine the ridiculousness of the situation–from one building to the building on the other side of the street–with humans seeking music, booze, entertainment, and other things. Similar to other festivals, people were decked out in costumes, masks, or barely anything at all. It proved surprisingly difficult for Bobby and I just to stay together, much less navigate our way through the shifting current of bodies…I actually felt pretty claustrophobic a couple times and had to force my way through the mob to get out.  All I could think about was how if anyone panicked, or if there were a real reason for everyone to suddenly “get out”, we’d all be in big trouble. Next time, we’re taking 7th Street!

One of the bands at one of the bars, Saturday night.

Once we finally got off 6th and found our friends, we had a fantastically fun night of bar-hopping and line-jumping. We didn’t see any huge names since they were impossible to get in to see at this point, and did you hear the PRINCE did a secret show for an audience of 300 people? Lucky so-and-sos. Regardless, we painted the town Saturday night and pulled out all the stops for the last “official” night of SXSW. We had two shows on Sunday, so we weren’t going anywhere until Monday, but we still partied like it was our last night! By the time we finally hit the hay, the early birds were just beginning to greet the day. Sunday had already begun, but we were just wrapping up Saturday. In the next 24 hours, we would perform two shows, reunite with a couple Iowa friends, and little did we know, Dimebag Darrell–former Pantera guitarist, rock star martyr, and one of Bobby’s heroes–would in a way, be a part of our last show in Austin.

Thanks for reading!

Curra’s Grill is an excellent choice if you’re ever in Austin, TX looking for some fantastic Mexican food. The self-proclaimed (and appropriately so) “Mother of all Mex” serves heaping plates of food for a reasonable price all day long; and breakfast too. They have blue corn tortilla shells that, one of the chefs explained to Bobby and I, are made from actual blue corn from Mexico, instead of the imitation stuff you find in stores; who knew? Huge, hand-painted murals of Mexican and Texan folklore scenes cover the walls inside and out, and a bright blue roof beckons to hungry commuters and passers-by.

The small parking lot in front of the restaurant is a lawsuit just waiting to happen; it’s always packed with people backing out, pulling in, and is designed in such a way that it provides plenty of blind-spots and difficult maneuvers for hungry and sometimes impatient patrons–and since space is limited, you can imagine the ferocity with which some drivers pursue the last open parking spot. Scary. My advice: park on the street. That said, once you have parked and make your way inside, you are greatly rewarded for your efforts, and Jorge makes sure of it.

I think Bobby should be able to ride a horse and play guitar like this guy…

Jorge is the owner, manager, and booking agent for Curra’s Grill; we met him last year when he booked us for an unofficial SXSW show. He was happy to have us back this year and we were excited to have a ‘repeat’ venue in Austin for our second SXSW appearance. Our show was during Friday lunch hours: 11-2pm, and this particular Friday was a beautiful one. The sun was out, and it was a breezy 70-something degree day, so standing in the sun felt great! It actually felt a little too great, as I would realize later…

Joel Fadness, our drummer for SXSW, was joining us and once we were all set up, the show went very smoothly. It’s always a challenge playing outdoors, because acoustics don’t really exist in this setting. We were playing out by the front door, so the building itself was behind us, and the roof overhang provided a little bit of a shell, but since we usually don’t play with monitors, as was the case this particular Friday, it can be difficult to hear yourself and how your fitting in the mix. Regardless, I remember the show went well, and lots of people popped over to look at our merchandise and leave a card or an email address.

I also remember taking a bathroom break and being shocked when I looked in the mirror and saw my suddenly strawberry skin! My face was fine, since I had been oh-so smart and remembered my sunscreen lotion, but I neglected to realize my short-sleeve scoop-necked dress would leave my chest and arms vulnerable to the southern sun. Brilliant, Dietz, well done (no pun intended). The good news is…I’m tan? Ok, not really, I just cooked myself and looked pretty ridiculous for the rest of the weekend. Lucky for me, mother nature knows best and aloe plants THRIVE in Texas, so it didn’t last as long as it might have in other geographical locations. C’est la vie. But next time kids, remember your sunscreen.

That afternoon, after our show and marvelous Mexican feast, we made our way to Mozart’s Coffee Roasters–the venue that our newfound friend Eddie, told us he would be performing that day with Turbine Toolshed and Dan Johnson. We arrived in time to see their last set, and were very happy we did! They have a great combo and dynamic energy, and you can tell from first glance that everyone up there on stage is lovin’ what they are up to. Dan Johnson, our Amarillo Couchsurfing host and fantastic friend, played a few songs on his own, and a few in duet with a wonderfully sparkly girl, Maggie Burt. She has a killer set of pipes on her, and even though she was suffering from the same thing I had that day–a sundress with no sunscreen–she was awesome, and I heard an underlying power in her voice that I wanted to hear more of. It was good stuff.

Turbine Toolshed with Dan Johnson

Later that night, we had a show at an Austin coffee bar called, Kickbutt Coffee. Joel wouldn’t be able to join us for this show, but Thomas, our pedal steel player, was looking forward to sitting in with us. We arrived with plenty of time to set up and get ready, and everything went very smoothly. Kickbutt Coffee had hired a sound guy for the duration of SXSW, so the mix was great, set up and tear down were easy-peasy, and Thomas’ girlfriend, Jamie, joined us on stage with her flute for a couple songs and we all had a blast. It was a much shorter set–we only played for an hour–and time flies when you’re having fun. 

Friday night we decided to take it easy and turn in early. We had three shows left that weekend, and we were definitely feeling tired, (and sunburned) so back to the house on Rainbow Bend we went. Saturday afternoon had one show on the books for us, and we wanted to be tip-top for Saturday night, the last “official” night of SXSW, when all the crazies come out and the biggest shows are happening. More on all that later…

Thanks for reading!

Joel, our drummer, had arrived at Walter and Catherine’s house on Rainbow Bend the night before, (Wednesday). We were all playing music and partying on the back porch when Joel walked in with his cajon and sat down and started playing. Now this morning, Joel was already downtown making bank by busking in the streets….probably long before I got out of bed. Joel is one of those energizer-bunny people you meet; usually up and at ‘em before the rest of the house, always cheerful, and can frequently be seen hauling, pushing, pulling and/or carrying lots of percussion equipment around with him. He has this big cart that helps him accomplish this, and loading, unloading and driving this cart appears to be as much fun as moving day. Despite this, and any other snags that might come along, Joel is always the happy guy; usually crackin’-wise and keeping everybody on their toes. Joel would be playing percussion for us that Thursday afternoon at Bar Mirabeau, and even though we hadn’t had a chance to practice with him since the last time he joined us on stage in Albuquerque back in November, we felt confident the show would go well and be fun.

Thomas, our pedal steel player who we had rehearsed with on Tuesday night, was going to play with us also, and I was excited to hear what it would all sound like together on stage, and maybe just a tiny bit nervous. I wasn’t nervous like, I’m going to forget my part or I had stage fright or anything like that, but nervous in the way that I wanted it to all sound like it belonged together. Since we had played with pedal steel and percussion back around Christmastime 2012, I had been missing the back up band; the  intricacy and fullness of sound you experience with more instruments, and the support and energy generated in larger ensembles. I knew this was asking a lot for the first time all four of us were actually playing together, but I wanted our first show of SXSW to set the bar high; I also knew we could do it. We just had to listen to each other and play our instruments the we all knew how to and everything would fall into place.

Bar Mirabeau told us they had rented a sound system, but had no sound guy or girl. Thinking that we were going to be assembling the rented PA ourselves, we arrived about two hours before the show to leave plenty of time to address any confusion and/or assembly issues that might need to be remedied. It turned out they had someone to put it all together, but the sound during the actual show would be up to the artists to control and tweak. Cool. Deal. Now all that was left to do was chow down some fantastic grub and relax before it was time to take the stage. 
Thomas and Joel both arrived early as well, so we had a chance to all eat, drink and get comfortable before the show.

It was a beautiful day to be in the shade, and luckily their patio had plenty of it. The stage, however, was a different story. The southern-hanging sun was casting its fiery rays at an angle the stage canopy couldn’t block, so I was glad I had remembered my sunscreen. My black keyboard was feeling the heat, and Thomas’ pedal steel was too–the strings kept coiling tighter around the tuning pegs as they warmed up and would ‘go sharp’. Luckily, Thomas is a professional, and was prepared for this, so no problem.
We were the first act of the evening, scheduled for 4:00pm, and we had an entire hour and forty-five minutes to play–which is a wonderfully long time for a festival slot–we weren’t complaining!

A view of the street and stream off of Bar Mirabeau’s patio.

The first song of our set was Run Away from our album, The Up State, and hearing the pedal steel swell up and sing behind me, while the drums swung the beat and tied us all together, was like hearing the song for the first time all over again, and it was so invigorating! It took a few songs before everything really locked in place and we all started “dancing around the same fire hydrant”, to quote one of my favorite college professors.

We played through all of our original material before our time was up, and each song felt more alive than the one before, and I was having a GREAT time. This version of Statue of Liberty was sounding almost complete to me, and I could actually hear the potential ‘chomping at the bit’ through Joel’s solitary cymbal. By the end of the show I was grinning ear to ear.

By the time we had packed up and drove our gear back to the house on Rainbow Bend, the sun was setting behind the trees at the top of the hill. Bobby and I decided to go back downtown to check out the action, so we headed east through the park, away from the sinking sun and toward the darkening streets of Austin.

We popped back into Bar Mirabeau to grab a beer and return a little of the business we had earned that afternoon. When we went to pay for our drinks, however, the bartender told us we hadn’t come close to using up our band tab, so the drinks were on the house. Heck yes!

The band that played after us had finished with their set and were enjoying their own tab, and we all got to talking. Chelsey was the only girl in their trio, and we were getting along famously while the bartender kept filling my Blue Moon pint glass; I was a happy girl.

Everything seemed to be very serendipitous at that point in the night: we had landed this show at the last minute, the venue was so accommodating and generous, our show was a blast and came together with very little rehearsal, and we were making fast friends with everybody.

Just then a guy at the bar next to us leaned over and asked,
“Hey…did you guys just play a show in Amarillo last week?”

Small world, right? He introduced himself as Eddie and told us he saw our show at The 806 in Amarillo the week before. How random that he would be here in Austin, at Bar Mirabeau, then would recognize us, and say something? Turned out Eddie also knew our Amarillo Couchsurfing friend and fellow musician, Dan Johnson, and was attending SXSW to play the mandolin with Dan and another band called, Turbine Toolshed. Crazy small world! We exchanged gig dates and times and agreed we’d tried to see each others’ shows, but like I said earlier, at SXSW, there are no guarantees; you just have to say “yes” and go with the flow.

We spent the rest of the night going with the flow and popping in and out of a couple bars and checking out the bands. I was about ready to turn into a pumpkin by this point though, and it wasn’t long before we started the walk back to the Rainbow house. Friday was approaching fast and we were going to be playing two shows; the weekend was just getting started, so sleep was imperative. The rest of the weekend only gets more interesting…so come back for more of our SXSW stories soon!

Fiona; Walter & Catherine’s pretty puppy

Walter found our request on Couchsurfing and invited us to stay with them just as I was beginning to panic about where we would possibly find a safe, comfortable place to keep ourselves and all our stuff while in Austin. If you’ve been to any festival, anywhere, you understand how important it is to at the very least, have a comfortable and safe “home base” to rest and keep your things. If it also has a shower and a place to cook food and/or provides any privacy–major bonus. We struck gold with Walter and Catherine when they invited us to stay with them in their beautiful five bedroom palace on Rainbow Bend.

Walter and Catherine generously opened up their home to several bands coming to town for SXSW, and it was a busy bustling hub of music and musicians all week. We met a couple of very sweet girls from Finland who were attending a lot of private parties and performed electronic music. Whiskey Social, a band of five members stayed at the house and had several shows during the week as well. Our sit in drummer and friend, Joel and his buddy Jason, came and crashed on a couple of the houses many couches, and another band of four also took up residency at the beautiful and humming household. We were one of the first groups of guests to arrive, (on Sunday) so as the week went on, the trip to the kitchen every morning would present new faces or more sleeping bodies scattered around the house. We were so lucky that all the people we shared a living space with were lovely, kind people; especially our hosts!

Catherine’s copy

So like I said, we arrived on Sunday at the big house on Rainbow Bend, and spent the first night having dinner with our gracious hosts. Walter makes his own wine, and loves to cook on his big grill on the back patio, so we had a fantastic feast and a nice relaxing night to prepare for the upcoming week of performing and partying. Catherine is a big Paul McCartney fan, and once we got talking about music, she went and found her deluxe edition of RAM, one of McCartney’s solo albums he wrote with Linda McCartney before he formed Wings. Anyway, the cool coincidence is that this album was the one Bobby and I listened to while driving along the coast on Highway 1 back in November. How cool is that?

Our path everyday through Pease Park

Another great aspect of our house on the Rainbow, was that getting to downtown Austin–to 6th Street where all the action was happening–was literally a walk through the park; Pease Park. We had a twenty or twenty five minute walk through the beautiful city park that took us along Shoal Creek, through a large grove of trees, over and under bridges and led us directly to 6th Street.

We discovered this on Monday, on our way into Austin for our first day of adventure and exploration. Our schedule was open from Monday-Wednesday, and then we had six shows from Thursday-Sunday. (In an effort to keep this blog from becoming a novel, I’ll talk about our first three days of the festival here, and tell you about the rest later.)

MONDAY of SXSW was an eventful day, full of anticipation, disappointment, surprises, and lots of BEER–I mean, when in Rome…right? It all started with a rumor we heard that The Flaming Lips were going to be playing a secret show at this unsuspecting venue–the Museum of Human Achievement. The deal was, if you wore a costume, you could get in cheap, and if you brought a functioning string of twinkle lights, you could get in cheaper. It definitely sounded like the makings of a Lips show, and we always travel with functioning twinkle lights, (who doesn’t?) so we popped into the dollar store, created our $3 costumes, and grabbed two bundles of twinkle lights out of our stage lighting suitcase before we began our long trek to find the museum.

Shoal Creek and my shoe

I’ve already told you about the whimsical walk to downtown Austin, but the Museum of Human Achievement was another forty minutes from downtown, so we prepared ourselves for a bit of a haul. Of course, we stopped in a couple bars along the way to have a beer and listen to the bands for a bit, and take a break from walking.

The beautiful thing about SXSW, is that if you go to the right place at the right time, you can find incredible deals. Free beer, free margaritas, free sandwiches, free frozen treats, free water, everything you need can be found if you are willing to walk and have good timing. On the flip side of that, you can find all of the above for incredibly marked up prices anywhere at any point in time. We found a food truck alley that had a little of both, and after $5 empanadas and a couple free frozen fruit bars, we were feeling good and ready to walk.

We committed to our walk away from the downtown commotion, and headed east to find the museum we were searching for. The potential sighting of The Flaming Lips gave us the motivation to make the 40 minute walk, and the anticipation of a great party put a little pep in our step.

After about thirty minutes of walking however, my pep was fading a little and my legs and my bladder were protesting this march. Just then we happened upon a little mom and pop taco shop–Marcelino Pan y Vino. They let us use their facilities and we bought one of their breakfast tacos to share…wow! Delicious, cheap, and right on time. Good stuff!

We finally made it to the museum, which was more of a small warehouse, and realized we were plenty early, maybe too early–there were no lines, no costumes in sight, not even a crowd gathering, and my heart sank a little. The crew inside the warehouse was finishing up their pizza and setting up the stage for the evening’s upcoming shows. The door guy told us that the bands would be starting in a bit, and the party was BYOB, and also there was no water provided. My heart sank a little more. Based on the information we were gathering and then the fact that we had to provide our own beverages–which would mean more walking and money–we started questioning the likelihood that The Flaming Lips would be making an appearance.

We decided to wait a little bit and hang around the area if we could, before making a decision whether to walk all the way back downtown or stick around and see what happened. Google maps showed us a nearby brewery called, Live Oak Brewery, so we walked a few blocks south to find it. All this walking was starting to get to my feet a little, but Bobby kept me distracted by answering my questions and educating me on the ways of the NFL draft–to be honest, I’ve never followed football or any sport that closely, so its all Greek to me. Nevertheless, you might hear about my fantasy football league this fall…

Live Oak kegs

It wasn’t long before we found Live Oak Brewery, and as we approached the building it became clear this was not a bar and brewery, just the brewery. Doh! More bad news! I pulled on the door handle to find it was locked and felt the disappointment starting to churn in my stomach with my breakfast taco. No beer? No costume party? No Flaming Lips? What next? This day was dangerously close to turning into a huge bummer.

Just then the door to the brewery opened, and a sweet lady popped out to say,

“I’m sorry, we’re not a bar, and we can’t sell the beer here, but we can tell you where you can find some Live Oak beer if you’d like?”

We chatted a bit and she started naming some bars, when a guy came around the corner, introduced himself as Chris and said,

“Hey guys, it’s your lucky day. I’ll give you a tour of the brewery and we have some samples for you to try.”

Live Oak brewing tanks

Sweet! Just what we wanted to hear! He took us around the back into the big brewing room with the giant stainless steel tanks. The smell of barley and hops filled our noses as Chris poured us both a healthy “sample” of their HefeWeizen beer. After the day’s events this beer hit the spot. For the next 2-3 hours we listened to Chris explain the brewing process, had every question answered, and sampled all six of the beers they had tapped…some were so nice we sampled them twice. My favorite one surprised me a little bit–it was a delicious doppelbock beer they called Liberator. I’m not one for dark beers most of the time, but this tasty concoction had about seven flavors swimming through it, one of them chocolate. Mmmmm…..beer.

Needless to say, it was a good thing we were walking back to downtown Austin because by the time we left Live Oak Brewery, we were feeling no pain, whatsoever. Chris is a top notch fellow, and I look forward to the day our paths cross again. He has big plans for Live Oak, to build a bar/venue on their property and host parties, etc. Best of luck with everything, Chris!

We stumbled walked back to downtown feeling very lucky. Even though it had become obvious we had been fooled by the rumor mill about The Flaming Lips show, we met Chris, got a private brewery tour and pretty much drank for free all afternoon. Two thumbs up!

Once downtown, the parties were beginning to liven up and draw bigger crowds. We popped in and out of a few bars, found some cheap snacks, and finally staggered back to the house to collapse into a deep sleep. It was an exhausting, but blissful first day of SXSW, and there was plenty of partying left to do in the upcoming days.

TUESDAY morning came late, and we took our time coming to life. Tuesday was the day we were going to meet and rehearse with our pedal steel player, Thomas. We put an ad on craigslist for musicians who would be willing to join us for any of the shows they could, and Thomas quickly replied and expressed interest. Our meeting wasn’t until 7pm, however, so we made our way downtown on Tuesday afternoon to see what there was to see.

We spent a few hours milling around, and found dollar burgers at what has become one of our favorite Austin bars–Bar Louie. They had a great deal for each day of the festival, and Tuesday’s special was $1 burgers…yes, please! Cheap and delicious.

While walking around we found a bar that had a seven piece band performing, and they were rocking out. They had three brass players, and Bobby and I both commented on how well balanced they were. Check out The Buster Duanes, they are solid!

Tuesday night we went to find Thomas and his pedal steel, and were greatly rewarded for doing so! Thomas is a really great guy, and he did his homework. He had practiced all our original songs, and was ready to go as soon as we got to his house. Those kind of rehearsals are so much fun, and adding the pedal steel to our sound gives me goosebumps. We had a blast and before I knew it, several hours had passed, and we needed to get going, but we left feeling great about our upcoming shows and excited to see what kind of ensemble we could put together for our six “SouthBy” shows.

WEDNESDAY morning we woke to find salmon omelets being made in the kitchen, and could smell pork being smoked on Walter’s grill outside. Whiskey Social had arrived early Wednesday morning, and this was the day that all the guests Walter and Catherine would be hosting for SXSW would be arriving if they hadn’t already. Since it would be the last night before all the “official” showcases began, Walter wanted to host a big party on his back patio and have everyone meet everyone.

Looking forward to the party that night, and the arrival of our friend and drummer, Joel, we set out on our stroll through the park todowntown Austin.

The Ahlalas

Once downtown we were anticipating a party with free beer, so we got in line to enter a showcase happening at a bar I can’t recall the name of right now…we went in and out of so many places it’s hard to keep them all straight. Unfortunately we were too late for free beer, but we did get to see a great band called, The Ahlalas. I can’t find much on them besides their Facebook page, but if you ever get a chance to see/hear them, go for it! They have a cool 70′s surfer sound that is becoming popular, and they do a great job with their show. We had fun watching them, and then soaked up a little more of SXSW on our last totally free day.

We made it back to the house on Rainbow Bend just in time for the feast that was about to begin, and contributed our quinoa salad to the sides. As the night went on, we ate, drank, met all our housemates, and made merry. Whenever you put a bunch of musicians together and feed/booze them up, it doesn’t take much to convince them to jam on a few tunes together. All of the sudden there were three guitars, a ukulele, a cajon, a tambourine and several voices making a big circle of music. It’s such a great way to meet and make fast friends. I loved every minute of it, and I know Bobby did too. Except maybe for the part where Bobby fell off the back of the patio, in his chair, guitar in hand–but it was one of the more graceful falls I’ve seen. It was about a two to three foot drop off the edge of the patio into the small shrubs and flowers behind him. When he sat down and leaned back, the patio brick did not extend as far behind him as he thought, and suddenly he was gone, his guitar held up above him as he sacrificed his body–his elbow specifically–and did a sort of backwards somersault out of the shrubs and into the grass. Scary, but well executed, I must say.

Wednesday night was wonderful, and had me very excited for the next four days of the festival. We had six shows scheduled between Thursday and Sunday, and we were ready to impress Austin. In my next blog I’ll tell you all about the four crazy days that followed, and the surprises they brought with them. Thanks for reading!

Our sweet smelling mango tree kept our noses overwhelmed all the way to Amarillo, Texas where we had a show at The 806. We’ve played here a few times before, and it’s always been a good time where we meet other great musicians, and this show was no exception.

We met a couple of solo artists from Austin, who were heading the direction we just came from–northwest to the Rocky Mountains, and away from the insanity that is SXSW, when 400,000 partiers descend on their hometown and make life as usual…impossible. So I can’t blame them, but I am sad we won’t get to see them when we are in Austin, because these two are really sweet, and great musicians! Christy Hays and Ben Ballinger are their names, and you should all check them out and let me know what you think.

We also met a guy named Phillipe, who performs under the name “Hip Hatchet“. Another talented solo artist on tour and worthy of googling, he’s from Portland and is heading to Austin, so I’m looking forward to bumping into him at the Portland Party at SXSW.

One of the best parts of meeting other touring musicians is not only the friendship/camaraderie that is built, but also the networking potential we provide each other with. Christy, Ben and Phillipe have all offered to set up and swap shows with us in Austin, Portland, and Boulder. It’s fun having friends in cities all over the country and knowing you’re going to see a familiar face when you get where you’re going. Couchsurfing does the same thing, so a large part of what we do involves making new friends and visiting old ones. No complaints here!

Speaking of old friends, we’re now on our way to see a couple in Dallas, where we have a show at Opening Bell Coffee. The fun continues! Keep shining friends, and I’ll keep you posted!

3/5/12 11:33am 43.2 miles

Day one. The sun is out and shining bright, but the temperature is anything but warm. It’s one of those days when you look out the window and think it must be beautiful, and then you walk outside and the icy air hits your skin and you instantly regret not bringing your gloves. The forecast says sunny and dry; hopefully it stays that way.
Amarillo,Texas is the destination today. We won’t be back to Colorado until mid June, which seems like an incredibly long time, but with the way time has been passing and the days get swept away, it will be here before I know it. The next three months will keep us very busy, and we keep getting busier all the time–picking up shows and filling in gaps in the calendar. Tomorrow is the first show of our tour, at The 806 in Amarillo. After that we will head to Dallas, San Antonio, and finally Austin, where we will be hanging out for a week and soaking up SXSW. I can’t wait. We have six shows in four days, and we have some musicians joining us; a pedal steel player and a drummer. I’m looking forward to a great time. Last year was the first time either of us (Bobby and I) had been to SXSW, and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. This was before we had discovered the full potential of Couchsurfing, so our limited resources kept our experience of SXSW brief and at a distance. That said, I remember we left the festival last year feeling like we just barely got a taste of what it had to offer, and knew we wanted to be in Austin for the entirety of the SXSW 2013–which is now upon us! Like I said before, I can’t wait!

Stay tuned for lots more blogs coming up, and follow us on Facebook. Thanks for reading and keep shining!

We spent a total of about 14 hours in Amarillo, TX, but we had so much fun it felt like 5. We had a great time meeting our Couchsurfing host, playing at The 806, and scarfing down more of our favorite southwestern cuisine–TACOS!
We drove into town around 7:30pm on Wednesday night, and went straight to our venue–our favorite Amarillo coffee bar–The 806. You may have read about The 806 in my past blogs, but in case you haven’t, it’s a rad little coffee bar that hosts live music a few times a week. Wednesday nights they usually have an open mic, and this Wednesday night was no exception.
We walked into a pretty empty house, but it was still early, and the open mic wouldn’t start for another hour or two, so we grabbed some of their “messy tacos” (so messy, so tasty!) and found a quiet corner to surf the web while we waited for the time to pass.
While we were making a mess with taco meat and hot sauce at the back corner table we had chosen, our Couchsurfing host, Dan, stopped in to welcome us to town and make sure we were all set and had something to eat. Our contented food-coma expressions and the greasy, wadded up napkins on the table gave him all the information he was seeking, so we shook hands and chatted a bit.

A tabletop at The 806…remind you of anything?

Dan is another excellent example of the kind of Couchsurfing host you can’t plan for, but feel so lucky to find when you do; a sort of kindred spirit. It’s just like anything else in life–some people you have instant, effortless connections with, others are great friends too, but not in the same way. He’s the typical host you’ll meet on Couchsurfing–they go out of their way to take care of you and make sure your visit is as comfortable and convenient as possible. But beyond that, we discovered over the course of the evening that Dan possesses a love of music that is much like ours–we have similar tastes, opinions, and ambitions.
A gentleman and a cowboy from head to toe, when Dan showed up in his white cowboy hat, dirty jeans and dusty boots, he couldn’t have been kinder to us. He explained he’d come straight from the ranch he’d been working on all day, but after he touched base with us, he was heading home to clean up and said he’d be back for our show later that night. He said he had checked out our music online and really liked what he heard, so he was looking forward to hearing us play. You just can’t ask for a better instant friend.
Open mic started a little after 9:00pm, and by the time 10:00 rolled around we were on stage, singing our songs. We always have a good crowd at The 806, where the patrons will sip their drinks and look up and listen. I find that I don’t open my eyes during shows much anymore, because it helps me stay focused and in the moment, and making eye contact with anyone in the audience can so easily pull me out of my concentration. There are moments, however, when I find my eyes open and though I don’t look directly at anyone, you can tell if people are at least interested in what you’re doing, and at The 806, people always seem interested. This doesn’t only happen at The 806, but sometimes when you’re an out of town duo, playing on a weeknight for tips, people don’t always notice or pay attention. It’s just part of the game at this point, especially when we’re on the road, and we realize that, but it makes the music so much more fun to play when you know it’s being heard and received by someone. So thanks 806 patrons!
Speaking of people interested in what you’re doing…Dan showed up to the show a few songs into our set, and brought with him a very pretty and sweet lady, Carly. They stayed and listened and sipped their drinks till our show was over and we were ready to head out the door to follow them back to Dan’s place.
It was late when we got to Dan’s house, and the temperature had dropped considerably since we’d left Dallas that morning, so we hurriedly brought in our fragile gear and all sat down at Dan’s large and beautiful dining room table. Bobby and I had planned on hitting the hay early because knew we had a long drive back to Boulder the next day, but we just couldn’t tear ourselves away from the conversation that was happening at that table, even as the clock on the wall chimed to signal the end of one day and beginning of the next.
Turns out, Dan is a man with connections, and a jack of all trades sort of guy. He’s always been a musician and a fan of what we agree is good music, but being a dad kept him busy for several years and his music took a back seat, until recently. We talked about writing, recording, good country music vs. bad country music, life as a musician, life on the road, and throughout the night we kept stumbling over our mutual loves and obscure interests. We talked about the old goodies…Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Lucinda Williams, and John Prine, among others; and then some more recent artists…like Hayes Carll, Susan Gibson, Wilco, and even, These Mad Dogs of Glory–who, if you’ll remember from a recent blog, we just played with at The Scoot Inn in Austin!
Dan and Carly became lifelong friends very quickly, and we couldn’t have had more fun getting to know these two! They have connections in Amarillo and we can’t wait to go back and play some of their favorite spots and hang out some more. What a crazy, blessed life we live.

We’re now on our way HOME; heading back to Boulder, and we’re only a couple hours away. I know we’re both road-weary, and ready to be back and stay in one place for a while. The whole month of February we will be stationary, but not really. The challenge for this short month is to regroup, reorganize, book the spring and summer, and write as many songs as possible. I’m going to keep blogging, so keep checking back for more, and thanks for reading, as always.