Having taken advantage of the break in the weather to deliver a load of firewood to my dear friend Pat, I am currently basking in the warm sense of accomplishment, or perhaps that’s the after-effect of the sauna I enjoyed with another friend. Either way, I’m feeling pretty fat and sassy at the moment, gorged […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
Posted inMusic
“Dry” January
I’ve done this gig long enough to know the post-holiday hub is the absolute doldrums when it comes to live music. So, bear with me for the next few weeks, please. It gets better, I promise. On another note, I’d like to mention the tragic passing of Lola Mitchell, aka Gangsta Boo, on New Year’s […]
Posted inMusic
Facing Forward
Well, it’s the end of the line for 2022. Can’t say that I’ll miss this year too much; perhaps its greatest gift is the ease in which I find myself giving it up. Like many years before it, the nightlife is heavily weighted on the hingepoint of the New Year, which falls on a Saturday. […]
Posted inMusic
Happy Happy, Joy Joy
Well, here it is, the first Setlist of winter and the last one whose dates are entirely booked within the year 2022. This has been a rough year for a lot of us. I certainly haven’t enjoyed it much and I look forward to the future as always, thinking about that quote I like to […]
Posted inMusic
Far-Out West
Opossum Sun Trail is a group I have championed for half a decade for their integrity, musicianship and brilliant creative output. So I didn’t want to be too overwrought with the big bag of superlatives I keep stashed for just such an occasion when I reviewed the group’s latest release. But dammit, this one is […]
Posted inMusic
The Slough Man’s Song
This time of year, I like to savor the sun as much as possible, even if it’s perpetually hanging too low in the sky and blinding me as I zip around the landscape in its brief presence. I have a spot I go to, a favorite slough, where I watch the birds in the slow, […]
Posted inMusic
Alive and Kicking
I’ve been thinking about the stage a lot lately, and live music in general. The last time I played a live show (before this year) was Sept. 11, 2017, when I played guitar for a krautrock-influenced jazz group that my friends and I threw together to open for my buddy Mike Dillon’s band. It was […]
Posted inMusic
November Rain
Sixteenth century English poet Thomas Tusser, writing in his book on rural life in Tudor England, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie, gave us perhaps the first written version of the adage “April showers bring May flowers.” Sitting here late at night at the end of the month, listening to the rain come down on […]
Posted inMusic
Thanks
I like it when people get together to share a table, I really do. For years, though, I struggled with Thanksgiving and not just because of the whitewashed history of the holiday. In 1999, when I was 17, my mother died on Thanksgiving night, having succumbed to the cancer that had been eating her away […]
Posted inMusic
All Cats Are Gray
I’d like to think that I have my cats fairly well trained. They are scared of birds and the road, two fears I have worked hard to instill in them since they were little kittens because a) I won’t be allowing bird murder in my home and b) they are asphalt-colored and if one of […]
Posted inMusic
The Curtain Hits the Cast
I woke up on Sunday thinking about writing about the upcoming election, maybe some piece where I ramp up the direness of the results to see if I am actually a modern-day Cassandra or just another crank (probably). Instead, I was greeted by the news that Mimi Parker, one half of my favorite band, had […]
Posted inMusic
Wave of Mutilation
OK, I’ll cop to it: I partied hard for the long Halloween weekend and I am definitely behind the count in every way at the moment, dear reader. Plus, I’ve been taking some Ls in the private life department and, while I have sure found ways to buttress my stiff upper lip lately, I am […]