July 1st, 2009
I’ve been keeping busy with Crunk Roost and a slew of small design projects in between shows and writing new songs. Here’s a few newer projects I’ve been working on.
.
.
.
.
.
1. The Jet Rodriguez found me on myspace and liked my art enough to hire me for his debut album art! I’ve been listening to the tracks from the album on repeat while I draw. Very good stuff and he lives all the way out in Michigan! Crazy. Check out some of the songs from the album on myspace.
2.Yep, Josh Ritter. I like him and was happy to make this poster for the Red Room. www.redrm.net
3. My sweet friend Margaret Glaspy lives in Boston and possesses one of the most beautifully unique voices I’ve ever heard. This is a little sticker/cd cover project we’ve been working on and aren’t quite finished yet. But I’m excited about it. www.myspace.com/margaretglaspy
4. Another Boston project, a show that Margaret’s playing and some other folk acts. Fun to work on these projects for music scene’s outside Spokane!
even more new work on my flickr photo stream. Check it out!
June 26th, 2009
Zac and I are twins, it’s true. We’ve grown up doing everything together from being homeschooled, playing basketball, taking piano lessons, learning to play guitar, playing church music, going to hard core shows, starting bands, to now drinking whiskey together at the swinging doors by our house. Zac gets Makers Mark and I get Jameson. Zac’s always been the talented one and I’ve always been the disciplined one. His musical skills have forever surpassed mine in prowess and I have here and there maybe appeared as good because of my dedication.
These days he’s beating me at both. He practices 3-6 hours a day, takes guitar lessons, gigs every weekend for several hours at a time with his blues band and when he’s not doing those things he’s sitting at his laptop watching youtube videos of Danny Gatton. He wants to be the best his fingers, mind, body and soul will allow him to be. And there’s no doubt his endless research and habitual gear shopping routine has led him to some of the most amazing guitar tone that can be mustered out of six strings.
I post this today because Zac just did some recording with his blues band. Kory Kruckenberg (VU.recording), who made my newest album, came over for a weekend to do live sessions with Zac and the Booze Fighters. Kory is a genius and was able to capture the high energy, equisite tones and down ‘n dirty vibe that the Booze Fighters possess and still make the album sound like studio work. It’s really good stuff. Neither Zac, nor I grew up singing, in fact we were both deathly afraid of it. It has taken a lot of work and encouragement to get us to sing in front of people, Zac more recently. I’m really proud of how far him, David and Alex have come as a team. I think they are stellar.
Check out the tracks on their myspace. I think Born Under a Bad Sign is my favorite new one they have up. It’s super dirty. And they have a sweet gig this week opening for Robin Trower at the Knitting Factory where you should be able to pick up a hard copy of the new songs.
June 22nd, 2009
I added a few new pages to my site that I thought would be informative and beneficial. LINKS and BOOKING. Check em out.
June 17th, 2009
Summer is rolling by quickly already and I’ve got a really fun tour coming up in July that hopefully all you northwesterners can make it out to. I’m playing 7 shows with Scott Ryan from LA and his band. Scott is the brother of my really cool, amazing, nice, talented, fine-looking drummer, Caleb Ingersoll (I really like him if you couldn’t tell), who is also the manager/booker at the Red Room in Kennewick. Caleb and Scotty were raised in a very musical family and have grown up playing in bands since Junior High. Scotty has a really great backing band who are all coming up to perform the July shows with him and Caleb. I am lucky enough to have them learn some of my songs for the tour, making it a full band outing for Scott and myself. These shows should be awesome and we have some great local support/headliners in Spokane, Seattle and Portland.
I’m heading to Colorado with my family right after the tour and will play some shows there (solo) in Mid-July. AND…shortly after that I get to open for the Cave Singers, with whom I’ve been infatuated with since January when I saw them play at the Doug Fir. So, a busy July coming up…
Full band shows…
JULY 4th – River of Fire – Kennewick
JULY 5th – The Red Room – Kennewick, WA
JULY 6th – The IKE Box – Salem, OR
JULY 7th – Mississippi Studios w/ Ezra Carey – Portland, OR
JULY 8th – Comet Tavern w/ The Beautiful Clarks – Seattle, WA
JULY 9th – House of Paine w/ Tony Kevin – Marysville, WA
JULY 10th – Downtown Crossing – Sandpoint, ID
JULY 11th – Empyrean w/ Widower – Spokane, WA
Solo shows…
JULY 16th – The Meadowlark (solo show) – Denver, CO
JULY 17th – Everyday Joe’s (solo show) – Ft. Collins, CO
JULY 24th – Empyrean w/ the Cave Singers – Spokane, WA
Oh, I almost forgot! June isn’t even over yet! haha, I have some cool shows coming up in Spokane. Rocket Market on Sunday, June 21st (Father’s Day). Every song will be dedicated to my dad and your dad and my grandpa! Emma Hill from Portland and Brittain Ashford will be playing too. Show starts at 6pm. June 27th I have a full band show at Empyrean and June 29th is a free show at Zola that I’m playing solo…catch some new songs at that one!
Phew…that’s it. Eat some pears, sit in the rain, read a book, check out the latest issue of crunk roost and give your dad a big hug or a nice phone call.
June 16th, 2009
On the way to Seattle last Friday I was in the car with Kaylee Cole and Dane Ueland, two of my friends and favorite Spokane musicians. In the other car that was traveling with us was Kevin Long and Kimberly Wescott, two other wonderful Spokane musicians and great songwriters. It was a really fun group and I felt like we were about to take the coast by storm. I mean, check us out…we are the coolest.
We broke for Friday evening to play shows in separate venues, Kaylee and her band at the Sunset, and me at the Q Cafe with Noah Gundersen and Garage Voice. Both shows were really well attended and my show felt particularly nostalgic. The first time I played in Seattle was at the Q, with Garage Voice…and Noah even happened to be there. That same week was the first time I had even met him and his sister Abby. It was such a joy to be a part of the show this weekend with them and see their progress and development in the music listening community in Seattle. Not to mention their development as musicians. There was 150 people there or so and I hardly knew anyone, so the crowd was most definitely in support of their hard work and amazing talent. Noah even got a great little write-up in the Seattle Weekly that helped promo the show. The evening was full of amazing performances, special guest appearances and enthusiastic fans. I was so proud of Abby, Noah’s sister, who is only 17 and has been non-stop touring this year with him playing fiddle and singing. She has improved so much and it was so fun watching her new found confidence on stage at the show.
Kaylee and Dane picked me up later and we drove to Kaylee’s hometown, near Anacortes. Next day we woke up late, ate breakfast in the breakfast nook at her parents house and walked to the water. It was so nice to be near the ocean and in a small town. I didn’t even check my email all weekend because there was no wireless internet!
We played a show at the Bay View Community Hall that night for a group of about 30 people who were mostly related to, or grew up with Kaylee. It was simple, peaceful show that ended a simple, peaceful day. It’s always fun seeing the family and surroundings that a close friend grew up in. You learn so much about why they are the person they are and you appreciate their unique qualities so much more.
Overall it was a really fun weekend. Dane, Kaylee, Kimmy and Kevin are all really talented and fun to hang out with and it seemed empowering for all of us to get out of Spokane and show the world a little bit of what he have to offer over here on this side of the mountains…as it always is.
June 4th, 2009
I’ve done some design work for a local business that creates custom greeting cards for holidays, events and they even do some fancy invitations. Ryan and Heidi, the couple that started Mango Ink are good friends and some of my favorite people. They have a great project going, teaming with awesome photographers, green products and chic designs. Tomorrow (Friday, June 5th) they are having a promo event at another cool local business, CUES. CUES is probably Spokane’s hippest boutique, in my humble opinion. If only I had a real job, I might shop there. Until then, it’s Value Village for me. (:
Mango is offering 20% off gift cards, CUES is offering 20% off clothes. There’s mango martinis and I’m playing music! So, this should be a fun event. It goes from 4pm to 7pm. Stop by, listen to some tunes, shop around and grab a drink!
(CUES is downtown on Main right next to Starbucks) Hope to see you there!
p.s. guys are welcome too!
June 2nd, 2009
So, Elkfest was bomb as usual. Pickwick blew me away once again. They played this killer brand new song. As my grandpa said the other day to, “put it in the books,” that Obama will soon outlaw the use of gasoline powered lawnmowers; I say, “put these fellas in the books!” And on wikipedia and wherever else, that they will soon takeover the northwest indie music world. I honestly don’t often see touring acts that come through spokane grow as much of a following as pickwick has in just a handful of performances. Zac, Henry and I all agreed that we would fight to be first in line for tryouts if they ever needed a new member.
All the other bands I saw were tremendous, especially Kaylee Cole’s new band setup. I really enjoyed it. Velella Velella was a huge dance party, Booze Fighters were epic and Joel Smith’s plentiful hands were tearing it up. Way to go Spokane!
In other news I’m reading Crime and Punishment, working on new songs, writing and organizing the June issue of Crunk Roost, brushing up on some old classical piano tunes and listening to my new vinyls (death vessel and laura gibson).
There’s been a few more reviews of my album posted on the interweb…here some quotes and links from them…
“She is definitely a songwriter who knows the craft of not only songtelling, but to create a pop song if she needs to, but I feel (and hope) she will perfect her style of music for years to come, to where people will have to come to her to hear her stories, and not go down the Jewel route. The Breaking Of Our Days is the perfect album to cool down the summing of the hot summer days, and will no doubt add a little warmth to the mental winter chills that seem to come at any time of the year.”
- By John Book from the run off groove (scroll down the linked page to find the rest of the review)
I love when an artist sneaks up on me. I put this CD in and a folk singer with her guitar is talking about wearing her heart on her sleeve, “when the leaves fall I’m just playing like a fool.” Then a corner is turned lyrically and musically. “It all seems so good at the time until we make our plans and then change our minds.” First, back-up singers start the call and response, then out of the blue, instruments start dancing around the lyrics that dig deeper and deeper into a soul seeking peace from self-judgment as well as the judgment of those around her. “I do alright on my own in the end.” The flavors of the percussionist and the solo guitar turn this folk song into a full-out psychedelic joy. A beautifully thought-out composition.
Shoutouts for Needle And Thread (“the love you found, you were worried it would make a sound”), and Last Night’s Songs (“I could tell you were alone drowning in the sounds of your dreaming”). I believe you’ll smile with me as the final verse leading to the chorus says “sing with me tonight” because Karli’s melodies make it easy to want to do just that.
- From Eartaste.blogspot.com
May 31st, 2009
this.
May 29th, 2009
Corn Pasta, summer beers, hot sun, kids and crazy folks dancing around, seeing lots of friends and not to mention a whole heck of a lot of good music.
Elkfest continually succeeds to be Spokane’s best independant music outdoor festival, or festival of any kind for that matter. The lineup looks great this year of you ask me, [minus the fact that I'm not playing (; ]. Today I’m heading out to see my brother’s band, the Booze Fighters play and hopefully catch some of the Globes later on. Best part is, it’s free.
As far as Saturday highlights go, Kaylee Cole has a fun new band setup she’s rolling out tomorrow for the first time and the Maldives are back in town. Sunday, my favorite band from Seattle, Pickwick will be playing and also one of the best bands to dance to, Vellella Vellella (or however you spell it) will be performing. Fun times at the Elk! See ya’ll there.
To finish off a great weekend of music I’m playing a show with Laura Gibson and Musee Mecanique on Monday evening at Empyrean. So, load up on corn Pasta and rock n’ Roll this weekend so that come Monday you will be ready for a glass of wine and some indie folk glory to ease you into another work week.
soak up that sun spokane!
