It was Monday morning and I was having coffee (hot chocolate actually, I never drink coffee) with a bunch of friends at my local coffee shop, when a very pretty girl walks by and smiles at me and I was compelled to smile back. Neither says a word, we keep on our separate ways. Day continues on and ends as normal.

Tuesday morning, same coffee shop, with very much the same group of friends. The pretty girl comes in again, smiles, I smile back, and this time I raise the bet and say “hello”. Dear reader, we have made progress, and I have confirmed that she is still very pretty. Day continues on and ends as normal.

Wednesday morning, same coffee shop, most of the same friends are around me talking about cars and welding and very manly things. I’m listening in, but also reading the LA Times. I’m not much of a welder. Pretty girl comes in, gets her coffee, sits down at a table. I decide to leave my guy friends to talk about their automotive tools and what-not, and instead see if this girl is interesting at all. Well, I sit down and introduce myself (trust me, I did this in the right order, in case introducing myself ruined an opportunity to sit down), and then the Universe revealed part of its plan. It turns out she’s Canadian and a singer-songwriter, just visiting Venice Beach, and we have a ton of other things in common. Well, at this point I have to find out if she’s any good at playing music. We agreed to meet up later at my studio and play some tunes.

Early that evening we meet at my studio play some songs for each other, and it’s all very good, she’s a fantastic singer and songwriter, and maybe I’m not so bad either. The Universe whispers in my ear, and I asked her if she wants to come and play a college radio show up at UC Davis with me the next day, I then give her the details and she figures it sounds like a good idea. Phew!, if I had to drive up to UC Davis on my own I probably would have just driven off the side of the road in boredom.

[Dear reader, if you are a young female (or even male), let me please encourage you to never go on a road trip (in a van, no less) with some guy you just met the day before. This was a very particular occasion arranged by the very same powers that make it so I don't accidentally step off a curb in front of a large speeding truck. It I wasn't me, and she wasn't her, it could have ended disastrously.]

Anyway, we had a brilliant time, telling stories and laughing all the way there and back, with a fun performance at a really cool college radio station in between. We got lost a few times, almost crashed twice (don’t tell Alanna, I don’t think she noticed, but I’m a terrible driver) I broke a guitar string, dodged zombies, and we were able to find a delicious chocolate shake after the show at about 2AM. Mission accomplished. She got to play a surprise radio show, and I didn’t have to commit suicide on a mind-numbing never-ending drive.

Go check out her music, her name is Alanna Clarke, and she’s pretty great:

http://www.alannaclarke.com

We’re talking about planning a little tour together early next year, we’ll see what the Universe has to say about that.

Talk to you soon.

Love,

SJ

Love,

SJ

We went in and recorded the songs together in Seattle, Washington. The sessions were a lot of fun, we had tons of freedom to record the songs how we wanted them to sound and we just fell in to a groove and recorded very quickly and easily. I can’t wait for you guys to hear the songs, I’ll see if I can find some videos to post of the sessions also.

Love,

SJ

So much happened in seven days, I’ll never be able to describe the whole tour in a blog. Overall, it was an exciting adventure for all of us.

Most importantly, I have to tell you how awesome my band is, I dearly love them. Not only are they great musicians, but they really stepped up and pitched in to make this tour happen. I very often like to do impossible tasks with too little time, and Gabriel, Emma, and Luca were there right behind me doing whatever they could to help and it’s because of them that the tour was so successful. They rock from top to bottom.

Next, we are also very indebted to the folks that helped us get the heck out of town and offered encouragement from home. Just knowing that they were home keeping track of where we were and how we were doing and cheering us on helped give us tons of confidence. Thank you!

And then to all the folks we met on the road, at shows, at pubs, on the streets, cafés, gas stations, etc., and came out to connect with our music, you’re the reason why we packed that SUV to the point where we were all smashed in and drove too many hours in a day without knowing where we would be sleeping, eating, showering, peeing or pooping. We love playing music for you, plain and simple. We LOVE it.

It was really great to get out of LA for a week and meet and play for folks in NorCal and Oregon. I really like what they have going on in their towns and cities. The vibe they create is laid back, fun, kind, the food and beer is delicious, the scenery is gorgeous with all the trees, mountains, and rivers, and they really value music in their lives. The venues we played were friendly, professional, and committed to getting good music for their patrons. LA venues can learn a lot from the venues up north.

NorCal and Oregon, we’re coming back soon. I promise. We love your beer, we love your little hippie enclaves, we love your food, we love your vibe.

See you soon!

Love,

SJ

First off, if you haven’t ever been to Portland, you have to go to Powell’s Books. It’s the biggest bookstore I’ve ever seen, it pretty much takes up a city block. They have everything, including free WiFi for me to update our tour journal right now.

We also found a great toy store which kept us occupied for about an hour with great stuff. Pictures attached.

The highlights of the day were our shows of course though. We had only planned one show at the Goodfoot Pub, which was a full set in-between a really great open mic night. The other players were much better than you’d see at any open mic in Los Angeles. After that show we hung out and met a bunch of cool folks and had some delicious local micro-brew beers and a slice of pizza that almost convinced me to only eat pizza for the rest of my life.

We then hightailed it over to another pub a few miles a way that we heard was having a great jam session that night. It was better than great, it was magical. The pub was called the Pub At The End Of The Universe. The layout of the place was so interesting with odd little rooms that led into each other and each one had really laid back folks just hanging out. Everyone was so friendly and eager to hear about Venice and I was interested to hear about what they all have going on in Portland. it was 1AM on a Monday night, and the place was packed with neighborhood folks just out for a good night. So good.

Oh, and the pub also had a delicious veggie lasagna with garlic bread and more micro-brews. Yes, I had two dinners.

Talk to you tomorrow, I hope the beginning of your Summer has been as fun as ours.

Cheers!

SJ

It started off with me waking up before everyone else and making tea. And when I say “making tea”, I mean “almost burning down our host’s home”. Fortunately, Gabriel woke up and saw the smoke coming off the stove and saved the day. The tea was still lovely.

We packed the SUV to head up from San Francisco to go to Portland. It was an 11 hour drive, and we saw some beautiful rivers, lakes, mountains, volcanoes, etc. Luca made more room in the back so we didn’t have to hear him complain as much. However, the Italian football team tied with New Zealand (congrats to all my Kiwi friends, great match!) and was despondent for the next couple of hours. We’re sure Italy will come back in the next match for a win…

We arrived in Portland and hung out at the venue for a bit. They had a vending machine for musicians with guitar strings, drum sticks, guitar cables, etc etc. Super cool. They also had Galaga, pinball machines, and really great local folks. Some of the other folks playing that night were exceptionally weird and wonderful (including a performance piece about the first monkey in space from the perspective of the monkey). The venue (Slabtown) asked us to come back and play a residency there and considering how much we really like Portland it sounds very very tempting.

Totally exhausted from the drive and the show we rolled back to the motel. Gabriel and I pretended to be a gay couple and then sneaked Emma and Luca in after so we didn’t have to pay extra. Touring on the cheap is not for the faint of heart.

We’re getting much tighter as a band, playing our derriers off, and having a lot of fun, which is exactly why we’re here.

Tomorrow we have the day off from traveling so we’ll have some time to explore Portland before our show that night.

All the best,

SJ

Emma should never be allowed to parallel park, unless of course we have an extra 3 hours to kill.

The crowd at the Brain Wash was really fun, dancing, grooving, drunk, young, old, just cool. After the show we headed out and Gabriel ate a whole pizza by himself. We’ll be heading out to by some larger pants for him tomorrow.

Sorry I don’t have more pictures, we had some technical difficulties with our camera. But we’ll definitely take more tomorrow on our way to Portland, Oregon.

Talk to you tomorrow!

SJ

PS. If you want to check out when/where we’re playing on this tour, go here: http://www.sjatr.com/shows

We arrived in Berkeley and immediately headed over to Rasputin’s Record Shop and Amoeba Records. I spent about 2 hours going through the $1 vinyl bins. Oh man, they had some super good stuff.

We got to the venue and met some of the locals, super cool folks. One of my favourites was John, a gentleman that looked like an older version of my brother, he even acted a bit like him. He’s one of those guys that’s at the bar every night, playing darts and generally holding the walls up. The show at the Starry Plough was brilliant. It was Paul McCartney’s birthday so we made sure that we rocked ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ for a bit. The crowd was awesome and they made us feel like we were home.

After milling about after the show meeting folks and signing CDs etc., we headed over to Emma’s Aunt’s house, our host family for the Bay Area shows. Her little daughters drew a super cute welcome sign and put it up on the door for us. They were all lovely and super cool. They had chickens and mice and a dog and hermit crabs and fish. We had eggs for breakfast the next day laid by their chickens, really cool.

We’re getting ready for our Day 2 show, will update more soon.

Wish us luck!

Best,

SJ

Minutes before they took us back to the asylum.

Live at the Venice Bistro, May 2009

Live at the Coach House (opening for Colin Hay)

Live at the Venice Bistro (May 2009)

photo by Bruce Buckley

photo by Mark Okoh

photo by Mark Okoh