California Guitar Trio Diaries Paul's Diary
California Guitar Trio Diaries
Thursday 24th. April, 2008
CGT in Felton CA at Don Quixotes. Photo by Kurt.I'm back at home in Utah for a short break from touring, getting ready for our next tour in Europe! Since my last diary posting we've had quite a few adventures. The concert in Sedona was not an easy one. We had some disagreements with the people running the venue, which escalated to the point where the second half of the show was nearly cancelled. I felt really horrible. The show was being webcast, so I just tried to focus on our friends that were watching the webcast and not on the difficulties that were going on at the venue. In our 17 years of touring, this gig was one of the most difficult ever. Rather than going into the details of what happened, I'd prefer to forget about this one, and move on to how much fun we had the next night in Phoenix! Yay Phoenix! Our friend Linda Cushma played a short and wonderful opening set for us with such a good vibe that immediately helped me to feel better and let go of what happened the night before. We've played at the Rhythm Room 3 or 4 times before and have developed a good relationship there with the staff at the venue, and the CGT fans who come to the show. Good energy and a lot of fun!
The next day we had a long drive to Cerritos in Orange County California. Fortunately the hotel was right next to the venue because we arrived just in time for sound check (after a quick stop at the In-n-Out burger). The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts is a beautiful new venue, and our show was totally sold out! The audience was a bit on the mellow side, or perhaps it just seemed that way after the night before in Phoenix. Since Los Angeles is the first home of the CGT, we had quite a few friends and family at the show, including Diane Aldahl who is the real California of the California Guitar Trio. And Mark Perry, and Michael Fisher who were both instrumental in helping CGT in the early days.
After another long drive from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, we had just barely enough time to check into the hotel and then drive to Felton for the gig at Don Quixotes. This venue is actually a Mexican restaurant. Yes, CGT plays gigs at a Mexican restaurant! There is actually a nice performance space in the restaurant that is separated from the bar and the dining areas, and the food is good, plus we always get a good audience there so it all works out well.
Tyler, Lori, Kevin, Paul, Hideyo at the Apple Computer BBQ.Our friend Kevin who works at Apple Computers in Cupertino, invited us to stop by Apple on our way from Santa Cruz to Berkeley. There was a special BBQ being held for the people who work in the AppleCare division and we were invited to join them, which was great! It was fun eating BBQ outside at Apple with the team who fixes the computers. By the way, I've been a Mac user for 8 years now, and never had a computer break yet!
The concert at Freight and Salvage was spectacular. We've wanted to play at this place for a long time. It's a well-known acoustic venue and it was exciting for me to finally get an invitation to play there. Patricia Fripp was there celebrating her birthday and introduced us and help with the merchandise. She gives the best introductions I've ever heard, and really got the crowd going for us to walk on stage. And when we were backstage during the intermission, I could hear her getting everyone to buy our Cds and t-shirts. We did really well on merchandise that night. Thanks Patricia! The audience at the show was phenomenal. It doesn't really get any better than that. One of the highlights of the show for me was Andromeda. Bert's solo was amazing. After the concert we went next door for Pizza with a few friends who live in the Bay area, including Steve Tilson who is the originator of the Pathways CGT fan egroup, and Stacey Street who is the director at the California Symphony and Steve Walton who is my good friend from high school that I used to play guitar with and go to the midnight showings of "The Song Remains the Same".
The final show of the tour was in Sutter Creek near Sacramento. We had a shorter drive that day, and stopped at Young's winery on the way for a quick wine tasting. Yummy! The Theater in Sutter Creak is a very nice small venue, but Tyler had to rebuild the PA system completely, which took nearly two hours. Good thing we arrived early! Yay Tyler!
CGT and Crew at the Grand Canyon.We are in Flagstaff Arizona now, playing in Sedona tonight. We've had quite an adventure the past week with the marathon drive from Ashland Oregon to Salt Lake City last Wednesday, and then an excellent show in my hometown at the Holladay United Church. With lots of friends and family at that show, it always makes be a bit nervous. But it turned out really well and we had the biggest audience so far at that particular venue.
On Saturday night we played for the first time in Cedar City, a small town in southern Utah, and were pleasantly surprised with really great show there at The Grind, and a special laser light show during Echoes!
Yesterday we drove from Cedar City to Flagstaff Arizona, and managed to stop at 2 national parks on the way: Zion National Park in southern Utah, and the Grand Canyon. As far as traveling goes, and spending all day in the van, this drive is spectacular. A few photos from our adventures here.
CGT tour van in Zion National Park
Bert in Zion
Zion
CGT tour van in Zion
Hideyo in Zion
Navajo Bridge in route from Zion to Grand Canyon
Tyler and the Moon
Lori and Tille at the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Giant Redwoods! Hideyo is Sleeping in the van
Northern California Coast
Tillie and the CGT tour vanWe had a wonderful show last night at the Arcata Playhouse. From the moment at the venue I felt good vibes from the owners of the venue, and all the staff helping out with the show. We had a really good opener for the show, a local group called Champagne Palace. Amazing vocals and precision harmonies. The CGT show was very good and I felt a lot of support from the audience. A first for the CGT: we invited our friend Steve Anderson on stage to sing the Greatful Dead song China Doll!
View from the hotel in Portland ORHideyo, Bert and I arrived in Portland on Tuesday, and have been very busy rehearsing and working on new music. Portland is one of my favorite cities, and we are staying in a hotel in the middle of downtown with hundreds of great restaurants and coffee shops and the worlds greatest bookstore "Powells", all within a short walk. It's been very sunny and nice the past few days, but this morning we got a glimpse of the more typical Portland weather with rain and grey skies.
Bert arrived here with some very interesting ideas for a new CGT piece, and we've spent the past 3 days working out the parts and arrangement for his new piece. Hopefully we'll have it ready for the upcoming shows. Tonight we have a performance/workshop at a local music store and several of the folks from Breedlove Guitars are driving all the way from Bend to come to the show.
Last night after a long day of rehearsing, we had dinner at the Rogue Brew Pub. Great brews and good food.
This morning I received an email from a friend that lives in Charlotte North Carolina asking why it's been over 2 years since CGT has played a concert in his town. Here is my reply:
"Hello Gary,
Thanks for your email. I too would like to understand the inner workings of our agency and concert promoters. After 17 years of touring with the CGT it continues to be a mystery to me. If it were only so easy as sending a message to our agency saying "Please book us in Charlotte again soon". What I have figured out so far is that it largely has to do with the following factors: money, dates available at venues, the moods and whims of the local concert promoters, the moods and whims of the agent working on the tour, and many many more things that I haven't figured out yet. Occasionally routing plays a factor into our tour schedule, but that seems to be way down on the list of important considerations for our agency, given the crazy driving that we always do. Ha! :-)
Hopefully the planets will align, and the minds of agents and concert promoters will sync together, and one day we'll arrive back in Charlotte!"
CGT playing Echoes at the Sellersville Theater this past Saturday. Photo by Kurt BartelmehsI'm back at home in Utah for a short break in-between touring. The last week of the past tour was very busy with long drives and concerts every night.
CGT in Louisville at 21C Museum. Video by our friend Ela.The concert in Louisville at the 21C museum on Tuesday was phenomenal. One of those concerts that reminds us why we are doing what we are doing, and why we are willing to drive 200 miles on icy roads for the opportunity to play concerts like this. The audience was so good. They helped us to play well, despite our crazy long drive from Bolivar MO where we played the night before. Tyler did an amazing job setting up the PA system in the Museum and it sounded great. The concert was sponsored in part by Ohio Valley Creative Energy, who is doing some creative things indeed by building a facility to use methane gas from a landfill to power a fire-arts studio. So the concert was also connected to a good cause It was Bert's birthday, and we enjoyed some cake with a few friends after the concert.
On Wednesday Steilberg Strings hosted a "guitar workshop" sponsored by Breedlove guitars. The workshop was sold out, and we had a roomful of appreciative guitarists with lots of questions about our guitars and the workings of CGT.
Thursday night we played in a very nice theater in Charleston WV. We are still figuring out how to get people to come to our shows in Charleston, but the folks that were there enjoyed the show. Dave, the promoter of the concert has become a good friend, and he and his family and friends do an amazing job taking care of us while we are in town. Great food, drinks and good company. Thanks Dave!
On Friday night, we got to do a double bill concert with the Adrian Belew Power Trio at the Sunoco Theater in Harrisburg. CGT played a one-hour show, and the audience was really into it, with lots of bursts of applause during our set. We had a long drive from Charleston that day and were feeling a little tired, and I think Bert was a little nervous because Harrisburg is his hometown. Thanks to the audience for making this a great show. We invited Eric and Julie Slick to play with us at the end of our set. They are so much fun! And we enjoyed hanging out with them after the concert too. I don't know remember when I laughed so hard watching them jump on their beds and pillow fight as we approached their hotel room.
Saturday was a really busy day with a drive from Harrisburg to Sellersville and then another "guitar workshop" in the afternoon where we had about a dozen guitarists with guitars sitting in a circle, circulating with us. This was followed by interviews for WHYY TV who was filming the show for a program to be broadcast on the local PBS station. Bert, Hideyo and I did separate interviews, and then the entire show was filmed. We'll post a note on the website when we know more about this broadcast. The show was excellent. I was a little worried that we might be tired after the busy day, and a busy tour, but the moment we hit the stage and began playing the first notes of the first song, I felt a huge surge of energy coming from the music and the audience. I'm excited to see the TV program, as it was the first time I felt we had a really good show that was captured on film.
Interview for WHYY. Photo by Thad Kirk
Bert interview for WHYY. Photo by Thad Kirk
Bert and Hideyo in the WHYY production truck. Photo by Thad KirkAfter the concert in Sellersville, we had to drive to a hotel near the Philadelphia Airport, which was supposed to be about 1 hour away. When we entered the tollbooths on the turnpike, the freeway in the direction we needed was closed and we were forced to go more than 20 miles out of our way before we could get headed back in the right direction, turning a one-hour drive into more than 2 hours. We finally arrived back at the hotel around 3am.
View from my hotel room this morning. Heavy snow in Columbus Ohio.10:55am. Blizzard like conditions outside. We are stuck in one of the biggest snowstorm in years in Columbus OH. The concert last night in Newark, OH was cancelled due to the snow. And the concert tonight in Cincinnati…cancelled. A big financial hit for the tour. Our agency is working with the venues to reschedule, which may happen later this year. At the moment, I am watching the news on the weather, as we need to decide if it's safe enough to try and do some driving today. Ideally, we'd make it to Louisville tonight. And then we have a very long drive to backtrack to Bolivar MO tomorrow.
The routing for this tour is crazy. Our agency does the best they can in trying to make sense of the routing with the venues on the dates they are available, but often it doesn't make any sense at all. Especially this drive back to Bolivar, MO. We drove right past Bolivar last Tuesday on the long drive from Parsons KS to Louisville. So we have to backtrack over 600 miles for this one concert, and then 500 miles back to Louisville for the concert there on Tuesday. Crazy.
Our little tour of Kansas last weekend went really well. Topeka, Salina and Parsons, all good shows with very good attendance. I especially liked the Stiefel Theater, a beautifully renovated art deco theater in the small town of Salina.
On Wednesday we had a day off in Louisville. You can see photos of Bert, Tyler and I looking at vans. We've been thinking about the possibility of buying a nice tour van, but always seem to shy away from the idea once we start thinking about the depreciation, and upkeep and repair costs of owning a van.
Sunnier, happier times in Louisville on Wednesday. View from my hotel room. You can see the Mohammad Ali Museum there in the forefront of the photo.Thursday night we played at the Music Mill in Indianapolis. The Music Mill is a big rock club; sort of a big warehouse with a stage in the corner. Perhaps it's not the best venue for CGT, but we always have some really nice people coming to our shows in Indy, so I enjoy the shows there.
Yesterday morning as we were leaving Indianapolis venturing into the depths of the snow, I looked out the window of the van to see two large geese, flying right along side us, just a few feet from the van and the traffic on the freeway, as if they were migrating along with the flow of traffic. For a slight moment I felt a connection to the two birds, battling the elements to make it to our next destination.
The hotel where we are staying here in Columbus has an ipod player in the room. I've been listening to the new Nine Inch Nails album. Our good friend Adrian Belew is heavily featured on this recording. Wow! Something good to help keep me happy despite the cancellations and the snow. Thank you Trent, Adrian and Kurt!
CGT at Crosstown Station last night. Kansas City, Missouri. Photo by Justin StoddardBert, Hideyo and I have been rehearsing in my hotel room here in Kansas City this past week. We have been continuing work on some new CGT originals, and debuted one of them last night at our first performance of this tour at Crosstown Station. We've played here in KC a few times before, but hadn't found the right venue for us until this time. Crosstown Station is an excellent new music venue in a recently renovated older building near downtown. We've struggled getting many people out to our shows in the past in KC, but last night was the best audience we've had so far. It finally feels like we are making progress here, and the owners of the venue have already invited us back. Next time we will remember to ask them to turn off the TV's above the bar, which were directly in our sight lines from the stage. It's a bit distracting looking up while playing Beethoven and seeing basketball game going on. :-)
Seventeen years ago today, the California Guitar Trio played our first public performance together at the Natural Fudge Cafe in Hollywood California. The venue required that we buy 30 tickets in order to perform at this "pay to play" venue. Bill Forth, Mark Perry, Diane Aldahl and a few other friends and family bought a few of the tickets from us and provided us with a small audience for our short set. The rest of the tickets went unsold, so we payed to play that night. As far as I know there are no photographs of the show that night, but here is a copy of the ticket, thanks to Mark Perry.
Downtown Seattle, taken at 5pm today from the top of the space needle.
South East View from the top of the Seattle Space Needle this morning at 10am.
Southern view.
View to the west.
View from my hotel room in Seattle last night at dusk
Lunch at Anthony's in Bremerton before our Ferry ride to Seattle yesterday.
Tyler amused by the Seagulls that were gliding in the wind wake from the boat.
View of Seattle from the ferry, just before we arrived at the ferry terminal in Seattle.
In the van, ready to drive off the ferry.
The town of Shelton, where we played a very nice concert on Sunday afternoon, and did a workshop with about 25 guitarist on Monday morning.On Saturday evening, we did a very special concert in Centralia Washington with the dancers from the Southwest Washington Dance Center. They opened the show with a brilliant opening set on their own. And then CGT played our set, and then we did a collaboration that was a huge success culminating with an enthusiastic standing ovation from the audience. See Hideyo's Road Cam for photos from that show.
View from my hotel room in Bremerton, WA. The ferry on it's way to Seattle.We are staying in a hotel right on the Puget Sound next to the Bremerton Ferry Terminal, with beautiful views of Bainbridge Island and the Sound. It's been a little bit rainy today, but in general the weather has been very mild.
Our schedule has been crazy the past few days, with over a 500 mile drive from Ukiah, CA to Salem, OR on Wednesday, and then 2 concerts a day for the past two days: A matinee in the day for school kids and then a full concert at night. Yesterday we got up early and drove from Salem Oregon to Napavine Washington and played at the Napavine High School for several hundred kids, and then drove 2 more hours to Bremerton where we played at the beautiful Admiral Theater last night.
The really good thing is that we've had some excellent shows. Last night in Bremerton was especially great with a very enthusiastic audience, and several standing ovations during the show. The favorites of the night seemed to be Andromeda (Bert played a really rippin' solo) Toccata and Fugue, and Echoes. After the show, we did a quick "meet and greet" in the venue with the theater sponsors and then went out to the lobby to find a huge long line of people purchasing the live CD and waiting for autographs.
The Elsinore Theater in Salem gets my vote for most beautiful theater of the tour so far, and the folks in Ukiah were the most enthusiastic audience we've had at the "Live on Stage Community Concerts".
On our drive from Ukiah to Salem, we stopped several times in the Giant Redwood forest and enjoyed walking amongst the giants.
A Random "Blast From The Past":
Saturday 27th. October, 2001
I-90 West between Chicago and Rockford
12:49pm. I didn't get to bed until well after 3am last night. When I was just about to drift off to sleep… thud!, thud!, bump!, bump!. It sounded like the Elephant Family was having a party in the room above me. I wondered if I should complain to the hotel management, but was too tired to do anything about it, and eventually fell asleep.
Backtracking to Thursday evening. We played a very nice show at the Cabaret Theater in Indianapolis. Jamey Faulkner from the Guitar Institute of Indianapolis promoted this show and had filled the large room to about 1/2 full of mostly new CGT enthusiasts. Our opener for the evening was award winning finger-style guitarist Jason Dennie, who played an impressive set of solo acoustic guitar.
The audience in Indianapolis was very mellow, quite a contrast to the rowdy guys in Cincinnati. Part of the mellow feel may have come from playing in such a big room with only half the seats filled. Ideally we'd prefer to play in a 200 seat venue that is packed full, than a 500 seat venue that is half empty. None the less, we had a good show and I think the audience really enjoyed it. After the show, many people told me that it was one of the best concerts they had ever seen.
One of the highlights of our stay in Indianapolis was the Nestle Inn Bed and Breakfast. A very nice change from the hotels we are accustomed to staying at. Steve and Barb, the innkeepers took excellent care of us during our stay. They even came to the concert and really seemed to enjoy the show. And oh, what a breakfast we had…superb!
The show last night in Chicago was lots of fun. We love Chicago! Club Martyr's has a great sound system and good sound technicians. Christine Holz from Music News Network Newsletter did a great job promoting the show. The club was not quite sold out, but very full with lots of very enthusiastic people. A band called Fluid Time played a progressive opening set, and by the time the CGT hit the stage at 10:15pm the crowd was ready to rock…and they did.
The only downside of the performance were some loud talkers that chatted loudly through most of the show. Our merch man Bruce even "shushed" them a few times, but to no avail. There were enough people that were really focused on the show that we didn't let the talkers bother us. And there were a few great musical moments. The fugue section in "Ode to Joy" really rocked and the quiet section that follow, silence peaked it's head in the door and graced us with it's presence. Did the loud talker's notice the silence? I wonder how they could not have noticed it.
