Visiting K2 In NCarolina ~ GR8 Fall Visit With Hikes, Birds, Family, Food, & Theater 14Oct26-19Oct26

Kala and I headed to NCarolina to visit Karla & Kevin. We arrived Wednesday night, visited briefly, and rested for the onslaught.

Thursday morning we headed to a local lake and hiked around it on a very nice day. We lunched at Wongs' Tacos, "so Wong it's right" ~ tasty. Afterward we went to Sylvan Waterfowl park. The bird sanctuary was an awesome several acre park with a number of large cages of keen birds from around the world. We returned to Raleigh in time to dine at Pickled Onion and watch the TNF thriller where Broncos bested the Seahawks. I found the tasty Surf Wax hazy from Burial ~ my favored brewer in NCarolina.

Friday we enjoyed a great tapas dinner at Mateo's in Durham's foodie area near the excellent Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC). We then went to the fabulous musical Maybe Happy Ending. This show was very good ~ happy story/book, cute, very funny, well sung and acted by all the actors and it used a set that was the coolest thing I've ever seen. So fun ~ highly recommended, as is DPAC, sound was excellent.

Saturday featured rain all day so we chose to largely veg in front of TVs for college football games. We even ate in and enjoyed Karla's charcuterie plate with a nice Amarone wine K2 wanted us to try. Great wine and great games not always won by the "good guys."

Sunday was again a football day ~ it's "Holy Day" for these fantasy football fans. Before all that though we did go to a very cool craft art cooperative called Cedar Ck gallery. We met Kyle at the shop to visit and have him pick some birthday gifts for his new house in Durham. We even saw some glass blowing and making demos. It was great to see Kyle as it's been a minute, and we were fortunate to meet his partner Isaiah. Afterward we ate at the Carolina Ale House, with a hundred TVs blasting NFL games; I do mean blasting. Back at the nice new K2 home in Raleigh we completed our watch-fest and enjoyed good pizza.

Monday we went to Crooked Hammock Alehouse after the women completed some more Jari estate work. We played weird card game and setback before going to the airport. The return home to COS was not fun with mechanical issues making our plane late to arrive in RDU, cascading to an assured missed connection in DEN to get home. We booked a rental car for a drive instead of flight and found out how to make righteous claims and unwind from other stuff. Admin load but we got home at 1:30am fine. Great visit with K3.

Matt's 32nd ~ F1 & Ikea Build Then Brew Stop & Sushi Den 11Oct26 & 13Oct26

Kala, Letha & I headed early to Matt's on Sunday for the Singapore Grand Prix and a hang in Denver. The race was decent but a smidge boring ~ Max officially is back in the hunt to reel in the Mercedes team. We followed up with brunch at the bagel spot and then a trip to Ikea to pick out a gift dresser for Matt's apartment. We had a pretty good time all-hands-on to build the dresser and listen to Russian pop.

We also went back to Denver on Tue the 13th and grabbed Matt for a beer and great sushi dinner at Sushi Den. Letha met us at the restaurant. It was great sushi and a very nice sake.

Oct26 Music Appreciation ~ Legends And Future Ones Deliver 09Oct26

Legends past, current and future... MA Oct26 has it all from just recent drops.

• Sara Bareilles “Still Crying” OV 31Jul26 ~ What a voice. Let’s go country ballad.
  
• Jaid Joice @ The Portchlight “Devil Won’t” 12Sep26 ~ Introducing Swamp-Rock; cool southern voice accompanied by a nice resonator guitar choice. Very cool one woman show.
  
• Norah Jones & Linda Perry @ NJ’s Playing Along 22Sep26 ~ I’m agog with Linda Perry; dropping a skyrocketing career as bandleader of 4 Non-Blondes to getting behind the panel to engineer and produce many hits for others. Of course Norah Jones is cool but even she is a smidge in awe. Hey Linda.
  
• Punch Brothers @ Back Porch “New Bike” 24Sep26 ~ New album drops soon. It'd be hard to find a finer American string band.
  
• Watchhouse covers “Strawberry Wine” @ Geen Mtn Fest 24Sep26 ~ Always brilliant; here with a keen cover that’s not sad.
  
• Broken Compass Bluegrass @ Rocky Mountain Highway 28Sep26 ~ Just a spectacular NorCal string band showing what can be done; speed counts. Love this band.
  
• Natalie Merchant @ Paste 28Sep26 ~ Beyond 10,000 Maniacs she’s a legend with all the pipes and writing in tact. And she's giving back with stories to tell. Wow.
  
• Humbird “Morning When It Comes” @ Someone's Back Yard 02Oct26 ~ MN woman is a killer songwriter with a new album; here’s the title track in "somebody’s" back yard. Awesome with her long time collab on bass and her keen vocals.
  
• Nicole Atkins “Singing In The Mirror” OV 05Oct26 ~ Nicole is a great singer/songwriter: “They’re coming for your soul to sell it for parts.”
  
• Allison Brown,  Del McCoury & Dan Tyminski With Steve Martin "Old Town Road" 08Oct26 -Literal legends w/ Steve Martin sing a classic; always welcome here.
  
• The Interrupters “Warrior Spirit” OV 08Oct26 ~ ‘Cause it’s been 4 years! Wow… welcome back warriors.
  
  
  

Fall Classic Golf @ Flying Horse ~ Not Playin' To A Thirteen 03Oct26

Wilks, TK, and I met our host Yoho at Flying Horse on a spectacular fall day in the Rockies (including a dusting on Pike's Peak). This was to be the 3rd gathering of this unvarnished foursome for a classic golf outing at Jim's club, and so it was. We had a glorious time despite the entirely untrained game of the Coffins this season. So much fun ~ thanks Jim; thanks Wilks & Matt for coming down; thanks weather gods for sharing splendor.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers Concert @ Gothic Denver ~ Awesome Setlist But Weak Sound 02Oct26

Arrive & Dine... Matt, Jim, & I headed to dinner at The Barn South Broadway on our way to the Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers concert at the Gothic Theater in that 'hood. It was fine for pre-game beers and some bar food. We rolled the Porsches on a clear night and parked close to everything for walking. The queue wasn't too big at 7:15pm but was full of fans. Roger Clyne again provided a great show of southwest tunes to an educated and appreciative crowd. We found our way to a good rail spot near center above the mosh pit (or was it good?).

Chris Day Band... Chris Day opened the show with a 45 min set of stuff I'd not heard; he was not dissimilar from Clyne but the sound sucked from the Gothic floor frankly. Boomy and devoid of mid-range, we couldn't understand his songs. We agreed we'd give Roger two songs and move up to the balconies if the situation continued... it did.

Gothic Sound Issues... The Gothic sound has never been my favorite in town and tonight again produced concern. Sure it was loud, my watch said it was a "loud environment" and I was in danger of hearing loss with 10 minutes of exposure. I used my keen  titanium ear plugs (supposedly just reduces dBs but are flat across the spectrum) for much of the Chris Day set. The issue is that the mids are just not sufficient in the mix and the bass and the low-end dominates and make it boomy and unintelligible. I might be resonances as well. Whatever, we moved the the 3rd balcony and stood behind and between the balcony rail folks. They knew something as I could withstand the errors more readily up there. I cuffed my ears to hear the vocals but it was passable and didn't require too much attenuation. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous and pretty intimate place for music ~ but it needs work.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers... This band and its predecessors with Roger (The Refreshments) are and have been for 30 years a favorite of mine. Jim has now absorbed some of that enthusiasm and Matt is a flat out fan. Matt & I sang a ton of songs ~ he was 2 yrs old when "Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Bouncy" dropped, but he knew them all; good exposure from dad I suppose, but he did need to adopt it for his own. The show tonight was bookends with some splash. They played a number of cuts from the "original album" FFB&B along with cuts from the latest album "Hell For Breakfast." Roger Clyne is a fine vocalist and decent guitar player, but we come for the decades of southwestern-inspired irreverent song-writing and some searing guitar licks from his lead. The crowd was amazing tonight; at least ~50% of the folks knew most of Clyne's songs and sang and bounced and drove fists in the air with enthusiasm. This was good and our new spot in the balcony was serviceable for audio. So ultimately the setlist was great, and the band's playing was likely excellent, but the sound left us wanting for clarity. Fine night with fam and friends though.

Smalltown Gathering Concert @ Riverside Park Salida ~ Fab Friday Lineup Heard Between The Raindrops 26Sep26

Smalltown Gathering @ Riverside Amp... I headed out the Ark to Salida to catch a late season "music" festival.  I'd not been to the Riverpark Amp in Salida ~ It is a completely awesome venue right on the headwaters of the Arkansas River and right in town. So, the location is sweet, and more astounding is that the sound is very solid halfway up a modestly inclined patch of grass. Highly recommended. I was a skosh late (due to BC20X drop off at Salida RV Resort when the check-in office was closed) to grab my bracelet for the WE. Undeterred I contacted a golf cart attendee, parked the RodFthr, and jetted to Riverpark.

Lindsay Lou... Was first on the schedule for the fest' and delivered as always: strong and fun. She's a Berklee kid with great pipes, good writing peppered now with personal insights, and a kid, and a pile of close friends in Nashville and further. I've heard her live to my grin on several occasions and I got there to hear the last 20 min of her set, which was delivered with the awesome Mimi Naja as collaborator... she's a co-leader of Fruition and smokes on strings like the mandolin, and has pretty adjacent vocals to Lindsay, but was harmonically deferential here. The set was stellar and a great Fri kickoff... I didn't go to yoga. I will "always" seek out Lindsay sets, and Naja sets (she's back later this eve).

Slap Dragon... I've heard this killer Nashville alt-jazz group on YT and elsewhere, pretty recently. They call it jazz-grass or groove-grass but they're more of the former and less of the later. Still, completely amazing sound. The jazz-inspired lead contralto Laura Berens (nasty and powerful) and Scott Mulvahill, who brings the groove, met recently ~ results are whack. For the Salida show special lead guitar guest from CO Alex was stellar. This was their CO debut, following their 1st album drop, Mission Statement. Easy to compare Laura with some of my favorite female leads like Anna Moss, Rachel Price, and Sammy Rae... just an amazing vocal instrument on board here. 

Lowdown Brass Band... From Chicago this larger horn band was short at least 1/2 the team due to a traffic accident on 285. Maybe next time boys. Rap & horns were good but... I listened and departed for the keen local fare, rather than the food truck and "bar" at the festival. Tres Litros Clarity of Mind hazy IPA was tasty (later confirmed by local GL as "the choice") and Amicas was, as always, tasty. I said I wanted a beer an a margarita with green chilies and she said they made jalapeño margs; I had to clarify, I wanted pizza with chilies and a beer.

Magoo... - This is a stellar 4 pc acid-grass band from Colorado. Dobro played a “Beard” guitar - I’ve not seen black steel on dobros but Pippus assured me it’s nouveau-nouveau. I've heard Magoo before, notably at the Dillon Amp and howdy what a sound. They crushed us at Smalltown... so good that Joe wanted to share 'shrooms but nah... I gotta drive back to the Salida RV Pk (aka, the 4 Seasons), and maybe elsewhere. Joe was a neighbor center stage 7 rows up; he's a 10x sound engineer for the Grammys and so we knew some shit. Show was astounding with Dead covers and so much more tight to me. Plenty of weed was revealed and gummies seemed out like candy... I had to drive.

Fruition... Now they are something more to stand for here. This is an amazing dark writing ill-definable alt-country, alt-emo, hard-rock band with an amazing front trio throwing best harmonies on lyrics that rip at the heart. They acknowledged this was their "last fest show in CO," despite being a staple for many here, the show was important, and very good. The vocals were clearer here on the upper Ark than even in Dillon, I cupped my ears to delineate the 3 but yeah, so very good on every song. This is a band with remarkable edges 3 ways defined by the songwriters... all are amazing. The show was a stunner.. glad I was here.

Da Boyz & Da Rig... Moontricks are another psychedelic bluegrass band. They too were delayed due to the traffic on 285; it was late and I didn't wait around ~ so I could go see Greg. Here's the BC20X rig I took out to Salida and I stayed at the Salida RV Park (the Four Seasons!); I did not ride but the hitch and rack worked well. After the show I gathered with Greg and Rick at the Poncha Palace and had a beer around the fire ring ~ it got pretty cold for the first time this fall.