wheeeeeeeeee!!!

one door shuts, another opens. i have dropped one band & am a tad sad about it because of some of its fun members & friends, but actually i'm mostly relieved cause i need to make sure i'm in positive environments as much as possible!... the door that has opened means wednesday i get to go play bass with big manny! then wednesday night is a karling & the atomics show w/deke dickerson. then thursday we record, or start to... add to this, dusk devils have gigs & opportunities. finally, my friend down south says he has guys who will back me, if i want to play shows down there... wow! yes, i'm wading in the stream of music, as phil alvin said one must, if one wants to be a part, & the water is not just fine, but wonderful: come on in! my life is incredible, i say, w/o arrogance, but w/wonder. i never dreamed it could go this direction, w/my "sensitive" (wimpy?) temperament & mood struggles. (heck, everyone's got their problems... those just are mine.) i know & meet so many fabulous & talented humans all the time, as well as the occasional untalented & even mean one, as well as many more who are someplace in-between: most of us are a mixed bag, of course, humans "just trying to live," as friends have said. there are bad eggs, for sure, but must remember: "if i knew all, i'd understand all." every bad egg has some kind of bad story, is what i've learned... others are our teachers -- of what we want to be & what we don't want to be, as well as reminders of what we've been & don't want to be again. yes, to've experienced such anger from someone i considered a friend was shocking, but then i had to admit, i've been that person before & could be again. what i reap, i sow. do i believe that? not sure. maybe it's just life... may difficulties be water under the bridge, w/no lingering resentment or anger... our folks didn't raise us that way, &, at least for now, life goes on! so friends, let's play music, make new bonds, treasure loved ones, live life! not sure to whom i'm addressing this, but it's a good sentiment for cultivating a grateful heart, i think: "thank you for what you've given me, & thank you for what you've taken away..." xo to all

karling, cattie, lessons learned, devils, music, travel, friendship, & chuggachuggachugga choochoo

i want to write, i want to write, i want to want to want to write...full of cereal, laying-around-with-dogs, zapped from long phone conversations today (usually i eschew phone, but am so glad i answered it cause sometimes friends reach out & i'm so glad i was there)... geez; there's so much to write about, too... argh. ok, here goes: went to france, led by b, to whom i'm grateful for organizing the trip, even w/times of disconcerting roughness. experienced w/france, she led us four to paris, where we got to stay in center of town in a gorgeous historical apartment, near louvre, tuillieries, not far from the seine. i got the apartment loft for several days, turning it over to fabi when she arrived. went jogging at palais royale. little kids chased me & giggled cause people in paris don't really jog, esp females. went to a rockabilly-swing music show @ the moulin rouge. pianist fabian was awesome, but i don't speak french. oh well. fabi danced w/a boy dressed like a ww2 soldier. he later showed up @ the attignat fest looking like an extra from guys & dolls. a beautiful kid, blue-eyed, dark-haired. french people generally are beautiful. became object of adoration of a sweet young guy named lucien, who also didn't speak english. it was puzzling... i was flattered & scared. he even jumped metro trains to come back & try to get me to go have coffee w/him. i was glad the other "girls" were there. onward. made friends w/eccentric, free-spirited, fun, willful laurie; i was grateful for her kindness. saw a hushed medieval village, perouges, where maybe i had some deja-vu. visited many stunning churches & cathedrals; i'm not religious, but i am dialed to be high, & the beautiful things of this world, such as catholic palaces of worship, stir my soul & aesthetic pleasure, not to mention remind me of our dear departed grandma, who was devout. took beautiful bullet trains: paris to lyon, paris to rennes. walked & walked & walked & walked. got to know the metro system. smoked galoise cigarettes & went on adventures w/laurie. fell in love w/wearing scarves, which immediately dress up & girly-fy any outfit (tho french men wear them, too, as well as color, & look terrific). fell in love w/french bread, &, to my detriment, perhaps, butter. went to the rocks at carnac, the cairn at gavrinis (i bumped my head inside the latter). made the pilgrimage to mont san michel, walking there & back in torrential rain & wind. had 90% incredible meals & desserts & coffees, including one particularly amazing feast after our attignat rockabilly fest show, an ultra-rave-up during which i played not just w/cattie ness, but with paris's hot rocks trio, who called me up to sit in w/them! back to the feast: after we played, the club owners heaped the table w/breads, cheeses, meats, pickles, butter, water, &, at end, trays of coffee w/steamed milk & sugar... it was not just beautiful, but so delicious! i also couldn't help falling in love w/the ultra-rockin' hot-rocks trio: red dennis, baby-faced, tough-guy ted w/whom i'll chat more next time, when i can speak french; intellectual, accomplished, well-dressed alexis, stoic til he discusses american music, & then his serious eyes glimmer w/yearning; & generous, full-of-life, trilingual francis, laughing, friendly, w/louis prima's ursine bearing & gerard depardieu's flirty burr of a voice... i was so smitten w/francis, but then met his wife & was just as smitten w/her. what a lovely couple! on our last night, they treated us to raclette @ their cheerful vintage-decored pad on the edges of paris, & what a beautiful time that was, chatting warmly in our pidgin french-spanish & english (only francis is fluent in all), listening to gypsy jazz & rockabilly, admiring their proximity to both the music university & concert park, & eating this amazing raclette, which is a dish of melted cheese & potatoes... well, there's so much more i could write, such as about all the swell musicians i got to meet & watch at the attignat festival, as well as its fervent, friendly, innocent-in-their-joy fans, & other places we went, things we saw, etc etc etc... will try to post pix sometimes soon. upon return home, i hung out w/my dear family, then had a gig w/karling as well as dusk devils at rockwell's trouts in bakersfield. the funnest [sic] parts were our ramrod dusk devils set, sans bassist cause robbie was up on the mtn, during which the small crowd laughed & laughed & smiled & cheered & oh, how i so love that feeling... then karling came up & she & i sang "let's have a party" collins kids-style, which was quite pleasing & silly & fun for me, & i believe for her, too... two days later we had the barndance in burbank at which we bulled our way thru our short rockin DDs set, then karling's, then got to hang out all eve w/legends of the american music scene, most excitingly for me, of course, phil alvin, who was typically amazing in his part of the show...the hollywood borracho crowd of jonny whiteside, raucous walter, groovy rednecks' tex, & brian hogan were fun, dave stuckey & marty rifkin friendly & musically amazing; other than these folks, i mostly visited w/skip edwards (THE fantastic house pianist) & art fein, art & i drawn in from the patio goggle-eyed by a super-rockin sound that turned out to be 3 bad jacks. they were green-bay-rockin-50s caliber that night! another highlight was how much fun bassist robbie had at the show, so, so excited to meet his hero rosie flores as well as many pretty girls (robbie is a young looker)... we had a terrific bd party for dad in bakersfield next day, & the following i was able to head back to the mountains w/the doggies, now just sitting here cooling my heels & waiting for the next show, which won't be til next week... that's about it for now. likely time for another dog-nap, which unlike a catnap, can stretch the whole dang day.. this lazy, lovely weather's just ripe for it. love to anyone still reading. may i suggest finding now some transcendentalist poems? or maybe a good-rockin tune or twenty...

home is where the heart is; "i keep right on believing / in a foo-oo-oo-ool's paradise" :)

yes, dat's me, in a quote from a cochran bros song we'll sing tomorrow at the barndance (mention at bottom)... well, the weed-whacker's broken, & i could really use it to clear away 3 wks of growth that came up while i was gone... guess the weeds didn't get word to stop growing! taking a little break & spose would like to write about my trip to beautiful france & the friends i made, adventures had, sights seen, music enjoyed, then yesterday's gig w/dusk devils (slamming!) & karling & atomics (mom & dad slow-danced! i messed up 2x cause i was trying not to cry)... it was in general a wonderful trip, & i got to have some dear & lovely experiences, but still am jetlagged, so that's it for now except here's an action shot of karling & i from the gig we did the night before i left for france... i like it :) more later; love to all, & i mean it. :)

ps - tomorrow we play at ronnie mack's barn dance for the gene & eddie tribute show... 7:30 dusk devils; 7:45 karling & the atomics... so many big names'll be there, including phil alvin, rosie flores, big sandy, dave & deke, eddie nichols, buzz campbell, ray campi, russell scott, & many many more... :) i can't wait! here's electric earl's listing for it: http://www.electricearl.com/BDance.html