Friday evening:
Karl + Breep + a 5 hour drive = Lots of laughs, good conversation and suh.weet music.
The latter includes, but is not limited to selections from the following categories/albums:
"Oh, the Lovely Ladies" :
The Cardigans: Long Gone Before Daylight
Dahlia: Emotion Cycles
The Cranberries' first (and best) album: Everybody else is doing it
so why can't we?
Nikka Costa: Everybody's Got Their Somethin'
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
"Songs You Have To Shake Your Ass To":
Timbaland: Shock Value
Brandy: Afrodisiac
Pussycat Dolls' 'Buttons' (don't judge me for this one, please)
"'Hecka 90's":
'Just Another Day' by Jon Secada (yeah, that's right)
Silverchair: Neon Ballroom (Daniel Johns was sexy as hell when he was sickly thin and wore makeup. Is there something wrong with me?)
"Country(ish) Favorites"
Dixie Chicks: Home
Alison Krauss's: Forget About It
All 3 Nickel Creek albums
Mindy Smith: One Moment More
"Old Skool Country We Would Never Admit to Liking"
Faith Hill: Take Me As I Am
Joe Diffie's 'John Deere Green"
"OMG Karlee, You Need to Hear This":
Michael Miller: When We Come To
Gillian Welch: Time (The Revelater)
Patty Griffin's 'Rain'
We got into town after nightfall. The last 10 minutes of the car ride were spent trying to remember the song "Hit'em up Style" by Blu Cantrell. With our recall-of-useless-information-and-bad-music abilities combined, we got the melody and most of the words to this ridiculously bad song.
We pulled up to Karli's beautiful house, peeled ourselves out of the seats and greeted her with a fit of laughter brought on by Blu Cantrell's "profound" lyrics, slight delirium, the joy of regaining mobility after 5 hours in a car and the excitement of seeing her smiling face in the flesh after weeks of anticipation. After a trip to the airport to pick up her good friend/practically sister, Jamie, we sat around the house singing.
Saturday:
The morning was cold. It bit my face.
We picked up the girls' friend Trent and headed to a downtown cafe. I liked being in a car with reunited friends. I liked their faces when they looked at each other. It made me miss my boys.
(Nothing to start a day like a Pumpkin Latte and Fleetwood Mac)
The afternoon consisted mostly of hauling gear to the Empyrean (sweet coffeehouse/venue), setting up, practicing, drinking more coffee and walking around the neighboring area.
Karli
Karlee
Caroline (Karli's good friend and band mate.. a doll and hilariously funny)
Karlee and I went to the Library and I got a headache from looking at one of those books where a word or picture pops out if you stare at it long enough. I saw Spiderman's head.
Karli's mom made us chili and bomb-ass cornbread for dinner. I like her parents, Rob and Robbi. Her whole family is wonderful. Kind and generous and close-knit with a heart for God. Its nice to be reminded those kind of families still exist.
The show Saturday night at Empyrean was amazing. It was packed (over 100 people as far as I know), the sound was great, the crowd was attentive and I felt good about our set. We filled ears with lovelorn songs and harmony. Karlee (G) adds so much heart to my songs. It makes me smile to look over at her playing. Every time.
Dave Dupey brought his adorable girlfriend Keri to the show and Karlee and I sat with them for Karli's set. The trip up would have been worth it to just see her play. A solid 7 piece band, Karli's lovely voice and soaring melodies broke my heart over and over again. Beautiful textures (slide guitar, banjo, rhodes, glockenspiel) and lush 3 part harmonies. Hot damn!
It was SO beautiful.
I. almost. died.
I snagged this photo of the audience from Karli's page. You can see me in the middle... swooning:
Back at the house we finished with wine and cigarettes on the back porch in the cold, crisp night. Perfect.
Sunday:
In the morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and went to Karli's church, New Community, where her dad pastors. We played my song "The Carpenter's Son" during the offering both services. It was good times.
Reluctantly, we went back to the house, gathered our things and headed back to Ptown:
Brilliant orange and yellow trees overhung the quaint neighborhood streets and the highway drive back home offered beautiful scenery.. Rolling golden hills flecked with all the autumn colors; pale skies and glowing clouds, sun rays pouring through them and touching down. We watched the sky turn pink and orange as the sun sank.
We sang our hearts out to Karli's new album "Bitter Blue" on the way home. One song in particular, "Whiskey Flowers", we played over and over and over again, clutching our hearts and practically weeping at every chorus.
It was as good a weekend as I hoped it would be. And went by too fast, as expected.
2 comments:
your swoon is highlighted by a halo of light. perfect.
i just reread this and cried a little bit. you described everything so beautifully. what a memorable weekend. i will never forget it. sigh.
(thanks for all the flattering too. i'm blushing and crying at the same time, hehehe.)
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