The Elephant in the Room

This isn't a post about events at work as might be suggested by the title.  This is a post about how I was invited to explore the music of a band who is going to be playing at he the Wild Buffalo in Bellingham WA at 9:45 pm on Thursday, September 16th . There is promotional work to be done; there are posters to hang; there is word to get out.  So it was that I found myself up to my earlobes this weekend in the music of Elephant Revival.

I first heard the Elephant Revival on Sue DuMond's Gleanings Lopez Island radio show that is streamed through KLOI on Tuesday evenings and I asked her about them.  She waxed poetic about the band and then someone yelled "Squirrel!" and I was off on to the next thing...until this weekend.

Elephant Revival hail from Colorado.  I've never been to Colorado.  I think DeVotchKa likes it there so it must be fabulous and everything DeVotchKa does makes me a little light headed.  What is beautiful about Elephant Revival is not the Colorado Rockies, though I DO hear a hint of that country Rocky Mountain High whispering through the pines on a few tunes.  It would be understating what I've been hearing in their music to isolate their sound by a location as there is some sweet layering of musicianship and genres at work.   Here is a taste of what I have been spending the weekend enjoying:



The press says that Elephant Revival transcends folk.  I have not heard enough of a panoply their work at this juncture to say but I do hear Celtic, country, folk, bluegrass and a touch of tribal melding into their sound.  I look forward to being able to define this clearer after seeing them play live. Of course, they have violin and I've a weakness for this instrument.  My name is Cile (no last names please) and I love me some fiddle, God help me. The fiddle player, Bridget Law, in this band is wunderbar and when added to the rest of the pachyderm, well...there is something lovely at work whether you call it transcendent or not!

An elephant is like a rope; an elephant is like a wall; an elephant is like a fan; an elephant is like a pillar...on and on it goes.  This Elephant Revival will be like whatever will touch us in time and space and they invite us to listen.  We may even transcend to being able to recognize the elephant in the room.

See you at the show.

video credit: mystic111mike
photo credit: Anne Stavely

Hamell on Trial into the Great White North

It was the perfect night to celebrate Nancy and Jim La Hatt's 40 year anniversary with Hamell on Trial at the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern in Bellingham, WA.  I hope my elder readers enjoy this video as an example of what was enjoyed last night.  It seemed appropriate for the occasion...



I have to envy this person hosting such a talent in their living room.  House concerts are indeed the saving grace of many musicians who choose not to perform as trained circus acts supported by sponsors.

Ed Hamell is headed to Anchorage so I want to post this for my Alaska chums (the pals and music enthusiasts - not the fish) in case they are knocking around Anchorage or Palmer in search of the real deal this weekend [Saturday, September 11th and Sunday the 12th].  Check out his website, keep an eye on his touring schedule and enjoy him if you get the opportunity.  I certainly had a great time. He's not for everyone but he may be more for Alaska than one might suspect!

Thanks Jim and Nancy for sticking it out and making marriage look so easy at your 40 year mark and thanks, Ed Hamell, for stopping in Bellingham.  I hope your trial goes well in Anchortown and Palmer you don't get the hangin' judge.

Subdued Stringband Jamboree ~ Year 10

The blackberries are ripening and it is soon to be Subdued Stringband Jamboree time again.  Fri-Sat, August 13th and 14th.  I wait all year for this local festival.  I love it.  It is year 10 this year and the line up is stellar, as par.  I've only been to the last 6 jams but it is such a thing with me now that if I could not go, well, I'd have to kill myself. There are about 15 other sacrifices before that one to make, so I think my life is relatively safe but you get my drift.  Still, if you live around here you are crazy not to go.  That's just all there is to it.  It's 7 miles east of town, its inexpensive, its fun and its family oriented...did I mention it was FUN?   These are some of the nicest musicians and music lovers to walk the planet and they converge here annually like it's a calling.  The music they play goes all day.  It also goes all night as people visit and jam at campfires situated across the log show grounds.  You can come for a day to play or stay and revel in the merriment by camping.  I camp and though I try and stay up all night, I end up falling asleep to live music and the soft sounds of people laughing and enjoying themselves.  Then I begin snoring and everyone moves 50 feet from my tent so they can hear themselves sing.

If you don't live around here then, well...I know you all live in swell places but this weekend, I feel sorry for you... this weekend you are missing the most joyful noise in the greatest place on earth.  You can ameliorate your loss by looking at this slide-show of last year's fun.  If you are still irreparably unrequited and if you would like to look at prior years from THAT there are pictures of those years on the Flickr site too.  (I thinking here that I have turned into one of those people I used to make fun of who would drag their friends through boring slide shows of their trip to Italy!) and if you still cannot brave the future without partaking of this musical extravaganza, make it a point to join me next year.  It is the second weekend in August.  I will take your picture.

Geezerville picture credit:  Nancy La Hatt.

Boy Howdy! Carrie Elkin is in town!

News FLASH!!!!

Carrie has agreed to return to Bellingham after her gig in Portland on Saturday to play here once more.  She will be playing at Vartanyan Estate Winery, 1628 Huntley Rd., Bellingham this Sunday, August 1, 6 to 8pm.  The show is $8.00 dollars [and it all goes to Carrie]. If you missed her at the tavern, you missed a lot.  Here is the opportunity to see and hear her perform in an entirely different venue.  Don't miss this opportunity.  You won't be sorry. Directions are here.

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Carrie Elkin is a singer/songwriter who hails from Austin, Texas.  She's on the road and she's here!  I know her music from hearing her perform  Whole Wheat Radio Concerts on-line and hearing her music streamed there. I've heard enough to confirm that she has a spirited and joyously infectious presence not to be missed.  She is a gem of a song writer and performer. Do not miss her should she pass through your town.  Here is her tour schedule.  I suggest you get on Carrie's mailing list or friend  her on Facebook to make sure you do not miss her.  

 

For those of you here in Bellingham-town, do yourself a favor and get thee to the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern, 902 State St.  Wednesday, July 28th.  The music starts at 9:30pm and that cold, refreshing beer [No Crap on Tap] awaits you as soon as you cross the threshold!  Sure you can stay home and watch another rerun of CSI with a can of Bud or you could do something for yourself and the health of traveling troubadours all across this great land in supporting artists who live and work where the rubber meets the road. Treat yourself to an earful of great talent and do some friendly canoodling with your like-minded music lovers in the bargain. It's summer.  Come on out and play.

Here's a listen to Carrie singing "Questions about Angels".

Cr Avery ~ Quakin' not Slurred

For some reason my local berg has been host to artist CR Avery on a lunar cycle of late. Perhaps you are tired of listening to me wax perpetually about this man's talent and ability to claim a room but it is my blog and my party, so....

I'm not sure how he stakes his claim. I don't want to know. I just want to be there when he happens because to see CR Avery ply his trade is to go to a happening in the good old fashioned sense of the word. Everything is somehow tolerable and worth it by the end of the show and with the kind of psychic weight lifting we've been doing lately, that is no small blessing.

CR's show can be something on league with a spiritual revival meeting one minute and a monster truck show the next- neither of which is going to appeal to every one - but let's just say for those of you who like your spoken word shaken and quakin' not stirred and blurred, you should not miss CR Avery at the Green Frog Accoustic Tavern, this Tuesday night, June 15th, 9:30pm...and if that is not doable then know that it is rumored he will be gracing the main stage of the Subdued Stringband Jamboree in August. If you miss that too you'd miss Mt. Baker on a clear day...you are a clown.

Sometimes CR performs alone...sometimes he has his band "The Boomchasers" with him and sometimes he has the magnificent Noah Walker in tow as in this video clip I shot winter of 2008.





Though this is a better example:





See you there.

You Can Leave the Light On

I don't draw much anymore so when the opportunity presented itself to contribute art to a local arts organization, Allied Arts here in Bellingham, I was a little apprehensive. I decided I would try. The task was to decorate donated lampshades to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the arts in education programs the organization supports in the community. I had some paper that was given to me a few years back and I thought I would draw on that to make a design for the light to enhance when turned on. I'm pretty much a one-trick pony when it comes to visual art. I draw abstract pen drawings on just about anything. This time, a lampshade.

I've never taken my interest in drawing with pen and ink any further than doodling. Consequently I'm not trained as an artist so this is a risky situation when I take on making something someone else is going to put in their home. It crosses my mind, "Will this burn someone's house down, strapping me to them artistically and karmically like Ahab shackled to Moby Dick?" (but perhaps I read too much John Irving)...I have no idea what will work and what is archive quality, let alone what's flammable! In spite of this I decided to try it, using my artistically inclined friends to help when I'd get stuck. Aye, there's the rub....no training...

No doubt, when you attend any school that is going to have you manually wrestling with any medium, one of the first things they are going to tell you is, "tie your hair back". It never occurred to me that I should consider my unruly mane before I undertook an art project. Consequently my lampshade has embedded in a seam for all time a genetic thread to the artist, a long streaming hair from my ponytail. I considered withdrawing my donation when I discovered this after I lacquered the entire shade (of course it would be at the very end that I find it). I then found the original pleated voile covering that I removed to decorate the shade and it occurred to me that maybe if I covered the shade with a negligee it would disguise the blemish. It occurred to me that there is some other word for a garment that is thrown over a negligee but I could not recall it. My muse using Google eventually came to my rescue with the word I sought: a "peignoir"... which is a garment worn by a woman to brush out her hair to keep the all the hair from sneaking about into unwanted places while she's grooming. No kidding... So I took the cover and designed a little removable peignoir for the shade, which covers up the special present in the seam, should that be disconcerting to the lampshade owner.

I imagine partnered people putting the peignoir on the lamp as a discreet sign to let each other know when one or the other might be inclined to " change the oil in the Buick" or something....I've heard that couples sometimes create special messages for each other....As for myself, I prefer the universal means of non-verbal communicating to the world. I turn my porch light off when I don't want to be tricked or treated.

So here is my imperfect offering. I took a lot of pictures because, frankly, I was kind of surprised that I could draw at all and I suspect that this ability will be lost to me in the somewhat near future...plus I'm happy the way it turned out. I hope that someone else likes it and Allied Arts makes some money by selling it.

"You Can Leave the Light On;
Enlightenment with Peignoir"


Peignoir: A long outer garment for women frequently sheer and made of chiffon or other translucent fabrics. The word comes from the french peignoir, to comb the hair describing a garment worn while brushing one's hair, originally referring to a dressing gown or bathrobe.

I can't wait until the first Friday Art Walk this weekend when I get to see all the artists ideas in a room together. It is always pretty amazing where creative people will run to with an idea when given the opportunity. Hope to see you there.