The Pacific Northwest is doing that thing where it hints at Summer, granting us 3 or 4 days of glorious sunshine and heat, before skulking back into the damp grey. Soon enough, soon enough.
Arc has been out for a while now and the response has been great. I'm thankful for all of the positive feedback. We had a listening party at Tune Hi-Fi to celebrate it's release, and even though it was all friends, I still found myself getting anxious leading up to the party, as this would be my first time playing it for anyone outside of the small circle who listened while it was in progress. What if it's not as good as I think? What if people don't get it? Thankfully, it turned out to be a treat to hear it on a great stereo with several new sets of ears in the room.
I took a trip to Portland and had a great visit with guitar building genius Saul Koll. We spent a while talking about two significant guitars: David Torn's Tornado #1, and Big Red, my custom Jazzmasterish/Pawn Shop explosion. I shot some video and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to extract something meaningful from it in the not too distant future.
While I was in Portland, I also saw Autolux play. They're one of my favorite bands, and they absolutely killed. It was SO. GOOD. Their new record Pussy's Dead is on constant rotation right now. You should listen to it.
Speaking of live shows, you may have noticed that I've added a LIVE page to my website where you can find out when and where I'll be playing. There's a fun show coming up Portland with guitar ensemble Cerberus, where I'll get to explore the outer edges of my live improvisations. It should be an evening of delightfully subversive guitar. My residency at Storyville continues, and I'm looking at booking some East Coast shows in the Fall, so stay tuned.
I recently acquired this beautiful guitar built by Seattle's own Eric Daw. Eric has been doing restorations and repairs at Emerald City Guitars for many years and builds great instruments under the name Pin Up Guitars. He also has a podcast that I listen to without fail called The Fret Files.
And...speaking of podcasts, here's a few that I have been deep into in recent months: Tanis, The Luthierist Podcast, Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, and The Rich Roll Podcast. Listen and enjoy.
That is all for now. Be well.