GREAT Banjo's Finale
Monday, March 30, 2009

Oh man, what a pleasure it was to do a month long residency at Banjo Jim's. The last one was the best. Such an honor to look out in the crowd and see so many of MY favorite musicians staring back at ME. Roscoe was there, so was Charlene and her band (Charlene came up and sang a couple with me, which is always such a treat), Mike from The Izzys came out, so did my great friend Alex Battles. Lindy Loo and CW were there. So was Butch from the New Heathens. Add some old friends and a foxy girlfriend and I was a happy dude.
Singing with Charlene.

Hope to have a video of a song from the show to post on YouTube very soon...

Thanks to Banjo Drina for booking me for the month, (and thanks to both her and her hubby Dave for coming out to listen).

Really is a treat and an honor to play your own songs to good people. Thanks to YOU for reading this blog!

OK, back to mixing the New Heathens record (I'm sitting on the studio couch listening to playbacks as I type this!)

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Better link...
Friday, March 27, 2009

To that Bernard Fowler video.

Check it out.

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Bernard Fowler Video

Note the mug on screen at 3:41.

This is Bernard Fowler, who has sung backup for the Stones since the mid-1980s and performs with his own band, Tackhead, who are badass. This was from a fun video shoot back in January, when I got to spend the day hanging out with Bernard, singing with him and listening to his stories.

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Dregs
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

In a little bit of a funk right now and last night's gig didn't help. I won't go into specifics, but it was a last minute thing, basement bar, lotsa' covers, six people watching and no money. Everybody I was with partied a little hard for a Wednesday and I wasn't feeling it ("Hey man wanna' buy some..." "No thanks.") So I cut out around 3 a.m., bummed that I wasn't cool enough to have fun in that scene, miffed at myself for being bored with it.

It's easy to do a lot of bummer gigs in New York. So many joints to play, so many people trying to use your juice to make them money. It's common to lose energy, burn out and get disillusioned. I'm still struggling to find a good balance for myself.

I will say, my solo acoustic residency at Banjo Jim's has been a real pleasure. It's so nice to play my own music for good people, in a good room that I have great associations with. Looking forward to Friday. Sorry that it's the last one. For now

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Two Gigs & a CAR-sage.
Monday, March 23, 2009

Had a pretty fun weekend starting with my Banjo Jim's Happy Hour set on Friday night. I'm really loving that gig.

Saturday, after my friend Randy Lee and his wife Sharease's baby shower I had a cool gig up at Bar Nine in Hell's Kitchen. I was also invited to a birthday party at the same time, and the rule of the party was that everybody had to wear a corsage. There would even, they said, be a prize given for best "CAR-sage."

Aided by the Frankenraisin, and a little tempera paint I entered...

And I won.

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Required Decemberists Reading
Thursday, March 19, 2009

Colin Meloy


Any Decemberists fans out there?

Here's a pretty good profile I wrote about Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. I wrote it for a magazine published by my alma matter, the University of Montana. (I expect to see a story in Mojo Magazine in five or 10 years that attempts to copy this.)

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Perfect Game for Alex Battles.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Check out this really great video my friend Alex Battles made for his song, "A Perfect Game for Lenny Barker."

Did you hear, a lady got shot with an arrow in the Bronx?

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One Extreme to the Other
Sunday, March 15, 2009

The second weekly installment of my happy hour residency at Banjo Jim's went really good. Thanks again to Charlene for coming to sing with me. Played a bunch of new songs, plus some songs off the first Heathens record that I haven't done for a while.

On Saturday I got together with The Goods, the band I hooked up with a couple months after moving to New York in 2001. We played hard for a bunch of years and then tapered off as various members moved out of the city and bred and I tried make something happen with original music. We did a "reunion show" at the Bitter End on Bleecker Street Saturday night, played the same Stones and Marshall Tucker covers that we've done for seven years, and about 150 people turned out (about 10 times more than my OWN shows draw!) It was a good time and for a song I got my Michelle Pfeiffer on and sang while writhing on top of a grand piano.

Don't ask about the details. Suffice to say it was the opposite extreme of what I did at Banjo's on Friday night, just trying to put my own songs across with nothing but my voice and an acoustic guitar.

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Photo Booth Fun at the Lakeside Lounge
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Me & Brandy last night at the Monks of Doom show at Lakeside.

Note: Brandy's the only one who can rock a leopard-print hat in front of a zebra-print background.

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El Almacen: My Favorite New Restaurant
Thursday, March 5, 2009

Friends, I want to tell you about my new favorite restaurant, El Almacen, at 557 Driggs Ave, right outside the exit on first subway stop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

This brand new Argentine cafe is comfortable, romantic, fun, the food is off the charts and it's amazing for the price (particularly as it's BYOB until they get a liquor license).

I want to show you some photos of food, folks and fun at El Almacen, so scroll down and you'll get an idea of what a meal is like there.

This is Diego, a native of Buenos Aires, wonderful dude and co-owner of the restaurant.

Here's a snap of a plate of fine meats, olives, pickles, nuts & mustard that you can snack on while deciding what to eat.

Appetizers could be chips & guacamole...

...or empanadas...

...or a spinach salad with beets and flakes of cheese...

This is what said salad looks like being made.

I'll pause here between courses to introduce you to Eduardo (on the right), one of the waiters there.

OK, main course. My favorite is the tilapia with sweet potatoes and pine nuts.

But the beef is good enough for me to renounce vegetarianism.

As is the chicken.

The specials change daily.

I want to include a couple shots that suggest the vibe at El Almacen, which is just so fun and awfully friendly. Here's Diego, serving up the love.

The waitstaff has a good time.

But the diners have a better time (note: actual diners!)


And dessert? You bet. Check out the flan. Wow.

And the churros y chocolate.

Full disclosure: sometimes around closing time spontaneous singalongs have been known to break out.

What do the regulars have to say about El Almacen?

Yep.

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Mac is Back!
Monday, March 2, 2009

True believers.

Hey! That's Brandy Wood and me with Ian McClagan from the Faces. Ian, of course, tickled the ivories for the Stones, Rod Stewart and Bruce Springsteen. Tonight he did an in-store gig at Virgin Megastore and rocked the rooster out of tunes off his new record...

...Which, incidentally, is being released by the record label 2 Minutes 59 Records, which was started by my friend Abe Bradshaw. I met Abe in October 2001, about a month after I moved to New York City. He was one of my first friends, I'm happy we're still friends, and I'm psyched that the label he started is releasing such cool music.

By the way, check out the recent Ian McClagan post by my favorite musician blogger, Terry Anderson. (Note Chip Robinson and I have the exact same expression. Ha.)

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Buffalo Scoop

Note, dear readers, that you read it here first when the Montana Senate passed a misguided bill that would prevent overflow, brucellosis-free buffalo from Yellowstone National Park to be transplanted to two Native American reservations in the state.

Montana newspapers are finally reporting the story.

I hope some of you out there will join me in sending a few e-mails or making a few calls to some folks in the Montana House and Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has not ruled out making the bill law.

Looking forward to seeing Ian McClagan and the one-year anniversary of Shayni Rae's Truckstop tonight.

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