What a year
One year ago tomorrow Will Scherer and I were doing a sound check at our friends farm with Bonnie Paine prepping for another Farm Concert that would have happened in late March. It was a beautiful day and the atrium on the farm was filled with moist warm aromatic air, the fig trees were starting to fruit and Bonnie picked up my old house guitar and plugged into my favorite little amp and played us a brand new song. We were mesmerized. Later that week I called Bonnie and we hemmed and hawed about weather this whole pandemic shenanigans would get in the way of our fun....it was a tough call, but we decided to cancel the show based on what little knowledge we knew at that time of the forthcoming world shut down. Many months later that guitar ended up playing its last notes around 1 AM just before exploding into a million teeny little matchstick sized splinters in Jamestown in an accident involving a hippy school bus, whisky and a friend jumping through the emergency exit of said school bus. I slept that night in the back of the school bus next to seat 2C where the innards of my old favorite guitar still lay. A few months later I was back on the farm doing some putting around and cleaning up after having cancelled our season of Farm Concerts and Gregory Isakov came by...I pointed out my favorite little 1950's National amp and started to profess my love for it's warm creamy tone and warbling tremolo....Gregory took it home that day. A few months ago he shoots me a text saying "hey man...about that amp...sorry for the incredibly long borrow..but I can stop playing it and if it's cool I'd like to finish my new album with it if you don't mind"...
It's funny how some things find new lives, and some things fade away never to return. This whole experience with finding new life among the wreckage and watching other things come to their end at this fast pace is new to me. It's like a lifetime worth of experiences distilled into a high proof distillate.
Yesterday I walked the empty aisles of Alfalfa's in Boulder. We were able to purchase a bunch of things from the store including an espresso machine and some displays that will live another life at Moxie. It was both sad to bear witness to the empty store and somehow nice to know that we will continue to make delicious coffee with the Alfalfa's espresso machine, likely to many of the very same folks for years to come.
We also stopped by E-town Hall and received the full tour of what must be the sweetest music venue and recording studio in the world. What Nick has done with E-Town for the past 30 years is nothing short of amazing. When I think about these blog/ updates that I send out it occurred to me how much they have been influenced by the 100 + E-Town shows I've seen. Music, community, environmental activism....I'm pretty sure that while sitting in The Boulder Theater as a 18, 19, 20 year old Nick planted a whole bunch of seeds deep down there in my soul. My record collection reflects that as well. Many of my favorite musicians now were first heard at E-Town. Thanks Nick for pouring your heart out not only to Boulder but across the globe through the radio waves for 30 years!
Just in case you are hungry...we'll be announcing our St Patty's Day menu in the next day or two. Lots of nomtastic naturally tinted green treats. Stay tuned.
Oh yeah, and Boulder Valley School District people....your children will be eating some crazy delicious Lemon Cake with Strawberry Drizzle AND made with locally grown wheat! The final recipe actually has 75% (not 100) whole grain, and the majority of that was orgically grown by Sarah and Michael Jone's of Jone's Organic Farm in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Thanks to BVSD, Colorado Grain Chain and the Jones family for making this possible.
And just to keep loving on Billy Strings, we snapped this pic backstage at E-Town Hall. Here's a Tuesday Double Coupon with both Billy showing us his roses and Sarah Jarosz making sourdough!!!
Nick Forster's "Teach Me One Thing" (episode 3) - Billy Strings
Nick Forster's "Teach Me One Thing" (episode 4) - Sarah Jarosz