From the Pacific Northwest

The last thing Jim Portillo said to me as he left for work this morning was "let's see that blog sometime!" I'd better get to it!

I've been staying with Jim and with Carl Allen, both fine musicians and good friends. I met Carl in Phoenix, Arizona, last time I was there. Carl lives in Seattle, Washington. He was touring in Arizona with his music partner Bill Murlin, of Portland, Oregon. They are The Wanderers, a Pacific Northwest institution in folk music.

The Wanderers web site: http://www.thewanderersfolk.com

Carl and I hit it off very well, and he invited me to come out to Seattle, where he lives, meet some folks, and play some shows this fall. So I did that.

As I wrote here in an earlier entry, the trip to Seattle from Nebraska was not exactly without incident. The fuel pump on my van died on Interstate 80 just east of Hastings, Nebraska. AAA towed the van to the home of my friends Larry and Karen Doran, in McCool Junction, Nebraska, near York. My friend Bob Raine drove all the way from Logan, Iowa to fetch me and take me to the Omaha airport to catch my flight to the west. Larry Doran undertook getting my van fixed while I was away. That is now done, the Pacific Northwest tour is a done thing, and this afternoon I will journey back to Omaha to continue with my music there. Larry Doran will pick me up at Omaha airport later today. Larry, Karen, Bob... all true friends. I am blessed to have such wonderful friends.

I've made many new friends and I have had a great time in the far northwest of the USA. Carl Allen has been a wonderful host, running me all over the Seattle area to show me the sights and a multitude of interesting places in the more bohemian quarters of Seattle. He also drove us to all of the shows we did up and down the countryside. He's an amazing guy and I have enjoyed our time together immensely. I stayed with Carl during the first half of my visit to the Pacific northwest.

One of the first people Carl introduced me to in Seattle was Jim Portillo, who became a good friend too---one of those people I'll keep in touch with, as I will with Carl. More about Jim later.

On September 15, the Wednesday after I arrived in Seattle, Carl and I picked up Jim and we went out to make music at the Couth Buzzard Bookstore, a classic independent bookstore and an acoustic music mainstay in the area. Carl Allen has a fine smooth voice and a fondness for the folk music of the 1960's, which he performs like the show business veteran he is. Carl plays guitar, tenor guitar, and harmonica. Jim Portillo, I discovered that night at the bookstore, is a strong baritone singer as well, and a talented tickler of his big Santa Cruz guitar.

After hanging out for a couple of days, going to a jam session one evening, running around Seattle, Carl and I boarded a ferry on Saturday, September 18, and crossed rain-swept Puget Sound to Orcas Island. I'd already discovered that natural scenery in the coastal Pacific northwest is stunningly beautiful. A steep, winding park trail near Carl's apartment, where I'd started taking my morning walk, was just gorgeous: huge trees, deep green tangled vegetation. The journey by sea to Orcas Island, though, exceeded all expectations. Words fail to adequately describe the beauty of the scenes of that passage!

On Orcas we were generously hosted by Bill Buchan and his lady, Katherine. Bill had arranged an evening concert for Carl and me at a community hall. Carl opened and I did my show for enthusiastic and appreciative islanders. The next day, Sunday, we boarded another ferry and sailed to smaller Shaw Island, where we did an afternoon concert for a packed house of very appreciative island folks. This one was especially fun. That evening we sailed back to Orcas where we had a great music party at Bill Buchan's place. Met a very good picker, Carl ???. Maybe I'll connect with him again on a future trip out here.

Returning from the islands, we continued to have good fun every day. I was using a fine Huss and Dalton guitar lent to me by Carl Allen. The action on it was high for my style of playing, so we took it to Dusty Strings, an excellent acoustic music store in the very cool Fremont area of Seattle, for adjustments. A tech there fixed it right up. I found some picks I liked. We sampled the pleasures of numerous fine guitars. I met one of the owners of the shop, and we talked about my doing a seminar or two there in the future. Part of the purpose of the trip was to meet and greet such folks, preparing the way for future ventures in the area.

People ask me how I am able to book so many shows in so many places around the world. That's done by meeting folks, like I met Carl Allen, then visiting an area to do a few modest gigs, meet musicians, and so forth, and prepare the way for more ambitious things in the future.

Among the best shows I played in the Pacific northwest was a very fine house concert at the Stewart Hendrickson residence in Seattle. Stewart and his wife were perfect, experienced house concert hosts. The show and the socializing couldn't have gone better! Carl opened the program with his great vintage folk material. I did more of my own songs than I usually do, and they were very well received. My daughter-in-love Rebecca Truax has been after me to do more of my own songs, so I did.

I was delighted that Carl's two beautiful granddaughters, Sophie and Mattea, were in attendance at the Hendrickson concert, with their mother and their aunt. Very cool. Earlier in the week Carl and I had had lunch with the aunt, a delightful lady named Melody, and then one evening we'd visited with the granddaughters at their home, with their parents---Carl's son Casey and the girls' mother Natalie, and some other relatives. Had a big Mexican feast and made some music. Enjoyed the bright, talented, well-behaved kids.

By the time we did Hendrickson show I had discovered that Jim Portillo is a first-rate backup guitarist for "fiddle" tunes, swing instrumentals, and so forth---so I was able to do some hot mandolin pieces and a guitar instrumental or two with Jim backing. We are going to be doing lots more of that kind of thing when I get back here next time.

Jim is a very fine person. During the second half of my time in the Pacific northwest I stayed with him in his Seattle apartment. We enjoyed a number of late-night music sessions and some long talks about many things. Jim has a strong personality and lot of soul, and I highly value having become friends with him.

One night we had a big jam session at Jim's place that was among the highlights of my time here. Lots of good pickers and songwriters attended. Got to meet Jim's talented and outrageously gorgeous music partner Shannon. The two of them make beautiful music together and are embarking on a performing career together.

Did some other shows along the way, and then Carl, Jim, and I wound up the tour the other night at a really nice wine bar called Washington Sips, in the tourist town of LaConner, north of Seattle. We had a very nice performance space and warm attentive audiences all evening. Good pay, too. I'll do that one again!

Everything considered, my short exploratory tour in the Pacific Northwest was quite successful. I had many good times. A city is a city, but overall I am coming away with a good impression of Seattle. There are some very cool areas (notably one called Fremont) where interesting things are going on and interesting people are found. There are lots of bookstores. The Dusty Strings acoustic music shop is great. There are some very nice parks. Good places to eat. Everything is very pricey compared to many other places, and the TEN percent sales tax is inexcusable---but quality seems generally good. Traffic and traffic management are terrible. Not as bad as really bad places like Phoenix, Arizona, but not good.

The natural world surrounding the city is fabulously beautiful. Makes me wish for more time to explore. The mountains, Puget Sound, the islands, all gorgeous. climate is very wet, with rain most days, fog, and so on...but the air bracing and clean-seeming. Not icy cold.

I'm already planning to come back, play more music, see more, meet more people, expand in Oregon and other areas of Washington, next summer.

Thanks Carl, Jim, and everyone else! It was a blast. Now... on to the airport and back to Nebraska!!