Fri Nov 27th, 2009 4:15pm
Los Angeles Union Station

I just hopped the Gold Line down from Pasadena and I'm waiting for my Amtrak train to Irvine in about an hour. I came down a little early so I could switch some tickets around. Amtrak is so awesome, I had two tickets I didn't use on my way to Seattle and they let me pay for my ticket from Columbus WI to Grand Rapids MI next weekend with the tickets I didn't use last week. They treat unused tickets just like cash for up to a year after the initial reservation date. Can you imagine an airline doing that? Amtrak rules.

Anyways, I'm heading down to Santa Ana a day early to hang out with an old friend from high school who has since gone on to become quite a painter. I'm excited to see her paintings in person rather than just the facebook photos. Her husband and daughter are also musicians, so she said we all get to play songs together tonight as well. :-)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I spent it with my brother Aleck, his partner Catherine, and my parents. Aleck flew my folks out for the week when he heard I was coming out on tour and booked a little family getaway in the high desert in a tiny little town (built around a hot springs resort) called Tecopa CA. We soaked in the healing waters, listened for spirits, watched the twinkling stars, and met interesting people like Cynthia who runs a hostel and manages China Ranch and Carlo who is fixing up a railroad tie house as his escape from his sex photography business in Las Vegas. We also met a guy named John who opened a one-arm bistro in Tecopa after working as a chef in Las Vegas for 20 years. Tecopa is so wild, you can't drink the water, it's like you're in Mexico. 90 minutes from Vegas, 40 minutes from Pahrump NV (google it, lol), Tecopa is loaded with odd fish and spiritual sojourners. Like any ignorant hubristic yankee would do I took an 8-mile walk with only enough water for maybe two miles and have had slight cramping in my left hand ever since. I haven't been drinking anywhere near enough water on this trip, that's for sure, and it really showed when I was up in the high desert. :-)

Night before last (Wed) I had a gig outside Palm Springs in a place called Rattlesnake Jakes. It's a newly opened restaurant bar made from a converted Moose Lodge, and had that same low-ceiling look a lot of Moose Lodge buildings have (I'm a Moose member by the way, so I've seen a few, lol). Since it was the night before Thanksgiving the crowd was a little sparse, but it was a cool gig. It was hosted by a fellow named Steve Lester and he was a fairly accomplished Travis style finger picker. Nice baritone voice. My uptempo songs were a pretty major shift from his set, but the audience was into it so it was fun. The high lite of the night was when a guy who runs a small radio station in Inglewood told me "You've reminded me that music is FUN." How cool is that?

Aleck and I took a back way into the Morongo valley on Hwy 247 out of Victorville and we managed to hit much of it right at sunset which was spectacular trip through the desert leading into the Joshua Tree National Forest. Sunset light in the desert mountains really is an incredibly special sight.

All told with some impromptu concerts up in Tecopa and the Morongo Valley show I made some new fans, set up some concerts for my next tour through in April, and sold a few more shirts and CDs. I'm almost out of shirts and CDs actually, looks like I'll have just enough to get home. Next tour through I'll need to have some shipped to specific points I think. I've definitely made some new fans on this tour.

Last Saturday night I played a fun Songwriter Showcase gig in San Dimas (a suburb of LA) that my friend Steve Guiles hosts the 3rd Saturday of each month. Saw some really great music, Steve was great, my friend Billy Sea came up from San Diego and he was super fun, and another friend from the FAWM/50/90 camp Jacob Morales also played and has a wonderful voice. The pleasant surprise of the night was a trio named WAtoCA that had a beguiling innocense and fabulous harmonies to go with guitar, banjo, uke, and cello. I'm definitely planning to play a gig with them in April when I come back through.

The last couple of days I've been sort of freaking out about this annual songwriters gig in Grand Rapids MI Dec 6th, my last show of the tour. I have to write a new "holiday" themed song for it, which is fine, no worries, but I also have to perform a traditional holiday song! I've always been a bit challenged by cover songs to be honest, so picking a song has been pretty darn difficult for me so far. I finally picked one last night, and now I have a week to rehearse it well enough to perform it in front of 600 people, lol. Ah, the pressure. I picked Harry Connick's uptempo number "(It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus" and it has four or five verses, two bridges, and a chorus, as wordy a story song as I could have picked probably unless I'd done Dylan or something. :-)

OK, train is boarding, I need to pack up. Mission Viejo here I come. back soon. -Charlie