Hometown Tour

What an intensely fun weekend that is now over and it's already Wednesday. How did that happen? We started off last Thursday in Lubbock with a show at La Diosa, a fancy wine bar downtown. I had only ever driven through Lubbock previously, one trip involving college bud Beth and I taking way too long to get through town and we're not sure why, and another involving college bud Jamie and I taking way too long to get through town and we're not sure why. We're tried straight through and we've tried the loops, which makes me believe that Lubbock has what we have termed "The Lubbock Time Warp." Thankfully we stopped there and weren't just passing through. The next day it was off to Albuquerque for my hometown show at The Source. I think the door people laughed because everyone that came through the gate was someone I had to scream at and hug. I also was so busy talking that I TOOK NO PHOTOS. Dangit. We did score some salsa from the lovely folks at El Pinto (who Twitter, too)...Jim was cool enough to come to the show and bring us a 6-pack. We were the hit of every place we went to after that because we always came bearing salsa. Thanks, Jim! Since we knew El Pinto would be representing that night, Susan and I set up the Mac between the front seats, I pulled out my guitar and crunched into the passenger seat, and we wrote a very clever El Pinto jingle (if I do say so myself). The Albuquerqueans seemed to dig it a lot, so we're going to get a solid recording...because stuff like that needs to be shared, haha. What else are you going to do on a 6 hour drive except write songs in the passenger seat? Then it was off to Susan's hometown of Amarillo for a gig at her old stomping grounds, OHMS Cafe. It's a fancy wine bar now (it was a more laid back cafe when she was an employee there), and I had some of the best food ever. It's nice to break the convenience store streak for dinner. One neat thing to arise from the whole trip is that Susan is playing banjo onstage more (she is a killer banjo player) and I get to come up and be the back up guitarist for a few tunes each night. When there is a banjo vibe, anyway. (So far both wine bars have required a banjo, just so people don't think they're going to an uppity show). It's been awesome, and I didn't even implode when we played "Wayside" for the first time onstage with no rehearsal beforehand. It helps that I used to wear those Groobees records out in college. Nifty. We've got our June tour almost all wrapped up in terms of logistics, I'm performing at the Ballad Tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival tomorrow, and we leave for Montana/Idaho/Wyoming/Colorado/Northern NM in a couple weeks. I need a nap!

Rules for Christmas in Albuquerque

1. If the weather people say it will snow on a certain day, it won't. 2. If they say the snow that is falling will only be for a little bit, it will snow all day. 3. Any leftovers from Christmas dinner must be garnished with green chile. 4. Ideally post-holiday breakfasts involve some sort of red chile smothered over something. What the something ends up being is inconsequential if it is covered in chile. Flakes! And I don't mean dandruff!

San Angelo to Switzerland

I'm off to be Merch Girl in San Angelo tonight, kids. In the meantime...here's a tune too new to be on EP 1, but I am pretty set on having it on the next record. It's my $20,000 History/Poli Sci degree at work! Switzerland from janapochop on Vimeo.

Vitamin D

I brought my camera, and I took some cool photos hiking in the foothills of the Sandia mountains today...but I neglected to bring the cable that will allow me to put those photos on my computer. Hence, fascinating accounts of hiking escapades (or not) will not be available until I am back in Austin. Until then, I give you a shot from mum's camera...Luther the tabby basking in the sun. My kind of activity.

Et cetera

Yes, I realize my photos have disintegrated into "look what I can do with stock effects!" land. But it's fun. This post, like most of the things I do, was brought to you by Starbucks. Note the new old logo on the cup. I like it. Notes: - Today is my last day at the county job. Thanks, county! Clover power. - My Chile Rant seems to have sparked a lot of hometown love over on Duke City Fix. I'm glad to know I'm not alone. (Warning: for you people not from Nuevo Mexico, there's some "out-of-stater" mocking...but come on, we're not threatening). - At 6 AM Thursday morning I am pretty sure either a bomb went off or a single giant crack of thunder made enough noise to wake me up AND freak me out in one second. I'm hoping I'm not the only one who heard that. (Update: I am not -- my coworker and neighbor did, too. Phew). - I got to see Susan Gibson and Shelley King songswap Wednesday night. That made me happy. - Dan's going on tour for 3 weeks. It makes me proud that his band gets to kick butt, and sad that he won't be in Austin! Thank goodness for internets and in his case, iPhone geekery. When he gets back we hit EP 1 mixing hard and also start woodshedding guitar, voice, writing, and all that good stuff. Excited! - Apparently my "experimentation in college" (that sounds a lot worse than it is) is fine and not all that weird...because a lovely commenter named Miss Tenacity says, "College is not necessarily the time to limit oneself to experiments with chile in typically sweet foods... I'm *ahem* well past college and I STILL put chile in my oatmeal, and I've made a wicked-good batch of green chile ice cream for a dinner party." Whaaaaaat? Can I come over? Can I can I? Awesome. - I am packing to go to Winnsboro! Woohoo! I promise to take decent road trip photos.

Ode to the Albuquerque Tribune

A little piece of my growing-up years shut down yesterday...after 86 years of publishing, the Albuquerque Tribune has ceased to exist. It was the afternoon paper, and I guess people like morning papers, so now the only paper left in ABQ is...well, "the other one." My parents always subscribed to the Tribune, and since they are current events savvy folk, I learned how to "read" the paper with them after dinner (though it was always just the comics and TV listings for me until I got a little older). When I was probably 8 or 9, they published an opinion piece that I had sent in. The topic? "Why I love cats." (I still do!) I felt like a real writer. They sent me a certificate to tell me so, too. I got to know the columnists by reading them every week, and in some happy twists of fate, I had the pleasure of crossing paths with a few of the Tribune folk, too. V.B. Price was one of my favorite professors in college. When he wasn't writing for the Trib or writing his own books and poetry, he was leading an amazing seminar on poetry and poets at UNM. I still have my final essay I wrote for that class with his words of encouragement to me as a writer inked on the last page. It meant a lot coming from him. I got to know Kate Nelson and Gene Grant by virtue of working with them at KNME. I was an intern, they were the hosts of In Focus and The Line. They always treated us with respect on the set, even though we definitely had no clue what we were doing at the beginning, hehheh! I was a dang good water girl, though. Kate was exceptionally helpful and patient when we produced our own episodes at the end of our tenure. Gene was always one of my favorite Trib columnists, so I'll admit to being a little starstruck when I started seeing him around KNME...but he's simply a nice guy to talk to. (Right now I'm all paranoid that I am writing about writers and I just ended that sentence with a preposition. Oh well). Me and Kate and producer Tish Bravo on the set of "By the People" in 2005. I got to speak with Jim Montalbano for the first time when he called me here in Austin to interview me about going back to Albuquerque to play some shows with Susan last May. I think I probably rattled on nervously for too long, but he was great to talk to and the article was very cool. I thought it was neat to be an actual part of the paper I grew up with. I got to meet Jim when we went down to the Trib's offices to film a segment for TribVid with Michael Amedeo, another of the nice Tribunites. Of course we have video. I don't mean to sound all funeral-like...the good thing is all these folks are great at what they do, and I am curiously awaiting where they'll pop up next. (Kate is already working for the Lt. Governor...good stuff). So that's that. A newsroom full of nice people, great writers, and what I thought was the more cutting edge and technology-aware news daily in the city...cheers to the Tribune! Thanks for all the words.

Albuquerque: My Hometown

In only two weeks I fly to Albuquerque to play some gigs. Well, the gigs are all over New Mexico, but Albuquerque is a nice place to land, always. I miss it all the time, but especially in the fall when the scent of roasting green chile and burning cedar fills the air. And then there are the balloons...taking over the skyline for a few weeks in October and adding color to an already vibrant sky. It's not really explainable...y'all might think a few hot air balloons in the air is not so much a big whoop. Except there are HUNDREDS, all at once. It's awesome. There are years that the wind triumphs and some of the events are cancelled, but the last time I attended the Balloon Fiesta in 2005, it was perfect flying weather. Here's a little bit of Albuquerque in October: The Mass Ascension in the morning. Right now my mom is freaking out because her photo is now on my blog. Hehhehheh. She's a cute mom. Special shapes rock, too. They're huge. Inflating for the Balloon Glow at dusk... 3...2...1...GLOW! There are a few more photos in my Flickr Pool if you are interested...

Albuquerque TribVid is up!

It seems like eons ago we were in Albuquerque, filming a TribVid segment with Amedeo. Eons translates into mere weeks, and it's online for the world to see already. Thanks, Amedeo! We had a grand time. Our behind the scenes exclusive was posted back in May when we were on tour, and here's the result. Neat how that happens! Powered by ScribeFire. Technorati Tags: newmexico, albuquerque, songwriter, folkmusic, video

I got Fixed...

Is it ok that I am chuckling at myself for that post headline? Anyway I am proud and thrilled to say our first bit o' press for the New Mexico shows has appeared on one of my favorite online hangouts...Duke City Fix. I mean, you can take a girl out of the Burque (or a girl can pack all her possessions in a Hyundai and drive with her knees up against the steering wheel all the way to Austin), but you can't take the Burque out of the girl. This blog has been my lifeline back home into local politics, UNM happenings, and all the hip new restaurants I need to hit up next week. Anyway, Edith Grove is their fab music writer, and she says nice things. Thanks, Edith!