take your friends to work

Just a couple weekends ago which feels like 400 years given the reality of our reality, I was thrilled to get the band back together for a show at Lagunitas in Petaluma. We were the surprise headliners for the NPR’s Tiny Desk Tour. This year’s winner is Ruby Ibarra. She and her band and her mission are amazing, it is always a gift to witness her.

I haven’t played a full band show in a long while, could it be since last year’s Newport Folk Festival? Preparing for a one-off after a long time of no shows is typically one day’s rehearsal and then rehearsing backstage and cramming right up until you have to go on. Sometimes in the thick of things I am tired and a bit stressed and very loopy and have to do the running man to keep up energy and remember joy and loose limbs. It helps very much to have bandmates with whom I am totally at ease and can be.. whatever I am in these moments.

Micayla Grace: Bass, Alex Guy: Strings and Keys, Henry Hung: Trumpet, Jason Slota: Drums, Claire Calderón: Vocals

If you made it to the end of video above you heard Alex Guy (string player extraordinaire and one of my favorite people in the history of time to tour with) hint at a seagull call. She is REMARKABLY good at mimicking seagulls. I’ve been touring with Alex since 2010 but did not meet her alter seagull until after soundcheck one day in Madison, WI in 2022:

If you made it to the end of video above you saw that I doubled over laughing after having gotten up from falling to the ground laughing.

This is us rehearsing Holy Roller because I remembered to bring my banjo:

** I found this oversized blue trench coat at Out of the Closet in Brooklyn for five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS.

some show:

photos by Vita Hewitt Visuals

Sending my best.

xx

t