only living boy in new york

Driving over the George Washington bridge in New York this morning on our way out of town; it’s raining steadily, but the leaves are bright through the sheets of water. It’s autumn in New York.

The show last night at the Mercury Lounge was a good one. Natalie came out with a friend and it’s always great to see her…I always wish I could spend more time. Ben Soliee played right before us and I really enjoyed his set. Just him and his cello. Great voice. Great playing. AND he’s from Kentucky. ☺

Looking at the calendar, we’ve basically been on the road with little reprieve since September. It looks like we’ll get home a few days before Thanksgiving and I’m really looking forward to going home to Kentucky; seeing my dog, the parents. Even though it’s not my house in Nashville (and thus still requires me being “away”) I’m looking forward to it as if it were.

more updates soon.

of all the nations

Well, we're in Washington, D.C. We got in last night, driving from our show in Knoxville, so we actually got a few hours to walk around the capitol today and see some sights. I've always wanted to do that on the road, but we never seem to have time. I'm trying to get better about making smaller, more digestible video blogs. I'm determined to get some up before week's end.

We're crashing with my friend Beth Chapman here in D.C. It's always great to see Beth and she's exceedingly gracious about letting us crash with such late notice. With the election so close and politics palpably in the air, it's kind of crazy to be here. We even walked by Capitol Hill and they already had the yard blocked off for the presidential inauguration. We get so caught up in the RACE of the presidency, that it's difficult to spend much time thinking about the actual day-to-day nature of having the candidate in office. Might be a healthy mental exercise. :)

Emily Saliers and Amy Ray posted a new video of "Finlandia" that it brought it back to my memory. It seemed achingly timely. I SO long for a time and a nation who would tout this as their anthem:

this is my song
oh god of all the nations
a song of peace
for lands afar and mine

this is my home
the country where my heart is
here are my hopes
my dreams my holy shrine

but other hearts
in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams
as true and high as mine

my countries skies
are bluer than the ocean
and sunlight beams
on clover leaf and pine

but other lands
have sunlight too and clover
and skies are everywhere
as blue as mine

oh hear my song
oh god of all the nations
a song of peace
for their land and for mine

better from above

just home from playing french horn for Brooke Waggoner's cd release show at the Belcourt. It was a fun show with a lot of fun production and Brooke was stellar as always. Save a few flubs on my part and fairly dreadful sound engineering, it was a great night. Lots of good friends, new and old.

By no fault of any current circumstances, I'm thinking a lot tonight about being away; away from home, from friends and family. Often a huge part of playing music for a living means being gone a lot. There's something about moving from town to town like that that seems at times lovely, but often quite (albeit poetically) melancholy. If it's a town that's dreadful, boring or just a bust in general...no great failure. lesson learned; avoid Leiben, Arkansas next time. But, if it's a town you immediately fall in love with, your bags still get packed and you're still leaving. For some reason (probably because i've been home for almost a month) I'm ready to have a solid run of shows again; ready to be gone. Not because i don't love being here...i do. and i actually LOVE having a routine at home that i can never quite get into on the road. I don't know. I suppose it's the greener grass...but that's not quite the full picture either.

If you're lucky enough to find a place that feels like home, you've got to leave to keep it. Which especially makes this time in life an interesting one. There's a part of me that's always invested in people, but (to awkwardly quote myself), "kept my suitcase small". I'm suppose if i was married or just more settled in general, i'd feel differently about leaving. More to leave behind i suppose. Though, i can't imagine any 180s on the subject. who knows?

I heard two people talking tonight about returning from the road recently and it just made me wonder...Is it easier to be the one leaving home or to be the one left at home? I tend to get in my own world on the road and. Contrary to what we often feel like, we return home only to find life has continued in our absence and people have ceased keeping up with your comings and goings.

I think there's probably something in us that's attracted to that loneliness...or solidarity. Whatever you call it, I think David put it well in "Astronaut" when he sang, "couldn't tell you for sure the view is better from above i'm not the first of the astronauts to leave the place i love " I've always loved that song. NPR It's a painful roundabout admission that, while the places we leave exert a gravitational pull, they can never miss us the way we miss them."

for now, i'll just stick to being home...and maybe...just maybe..."spend a lot of time finding out just where that is".

these dreams go on when i close my eyes

woke up this morning around 4:30am stressed out over a dream. In the dream, Matthew Jones, Katie and a few other people and I were in this play. It was almost felt a bit medieval in the time period of the play....at least the costumes looked as such, but could have just as easily been 17th century garb. In the first part of the dream, we were at the dress rehearsal for the play. I'm not in the first part of the play, and it is not until I am backstage during this part that I realize I haven't even looked at the script and no none of my lines. I read from the script and no one really mentions anything about it.

This may have given my dream "me" false confidence b/c....fast forward to the next night (opening night) and i suddenly realize i know no more of my lines than i did the day before. AND i'm walking around backstage making small talk as the first act is starting. A woman I knew as I child in Kentucky is apparently the stage manager in this dream and she grabs me and inquires as to why the hell i haven't been to makeup and wardrobe yet. I don't have an answer. How the hell am i going to get through this? I know NONE of my lines and it's an entire play that has just started. I start frantically memorizing my first line as a woman layers stage makeup on my face. By the time I've nearly got the first line, I realize this is not going to work. Even if i get the first line, there's still a whole freakin play i DON'T know. I start thinking of escape options....throw up (this might happen whether i plan it or not), migraine (they'll never believe it...besides...not dramatic enough to merit my absence, probably)... gosh. i better think of something...and how!

it's about this time that i wake up, look at the clock and realize it's 4:30am. ugh. I try and go back to sleep and eventually do, but spend the rest of my next dream trying to explain the dream to a cafeteria table full of the people who were in the first style. (not unlike Dorothy's "you were there...and you" speech. Only in this 2nd dream, I recover a document that can help me explain the dream. I can actually picture it right now, but it's difficult to explain as some of the "letters" look like xeroxes of a cartoon keyboard square. so weird.

so, here i am... up at 7am. maybe i can get some work done before we head to Pickwick this weekend. Annie, Raina and Brandi flew in from Colorado yesterday for the very long weekend. I'm so glad they're here. we went to las paletas last night. i got lime and loved it, but as one who loves trying many flavors to determine my favsies, it was exponentially enjoyable as everyone got different flavors. highlights: pistachio, coconut, strawberries w/ choco chips. mmm. see? does that look delicious? As we were leaving, the owner was pulling up with fresh produce (i saw a lot of peaches) from the farmer's market to use for tomorrow's popsicles. doesn't get much fresher or awespome-r than that.



(L to R from bottom): me: lime, Brandi: pistachio, Raina: plum, Annie: Strawberries & Chocolate Chips, Katie: Grapefruit, Natalie: Coconut) mmmm


aight. off to give scout a bath and clean the house a bit before i start the work train. happy friday.

what they say i am, in brief.

INFJ - "Author". Strong drive and enjoyment to help others. Complex personality. 1.5% of total population.

and I'm a type 2 on the Enneagram. http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/TypeTwo.asp


Should I be concerned that Enneagram 2s aren't supposed to be introverts? http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/typecorr.htm



Introverted (I) 56.76% Extroverted (E) 43.24%
Intuitive (N) 55.56% Sensing (S) 44.44%
Feeling (F) 67.65% Thinking (T) 32.35%
Judging (J) 53.13% Perceiving (P) 46.88%

happy rhodes day

there is a light that will sometimes go out

...and tonight i have found many of them. You see, I'm hosting my friend Allan's birthday party in my backyard on Saturday. We've spent the last week painting, scraping, power washing, rearranging,building, fixing and generally working on the house. It's been pretty exhausting, i'll admit. Now that the parental units have gone, i'm working by myself and getting a bit overwhelmed. I'm trying to stay positive, so i'm giving myself as many small, focused projects as possible. Today, as soon as we got home from Louisville, I got a little work done on the compy, then got to work.

I installed a clothes rack in the attic to house some more clothes temporarily. It was absurdly hot and a desk fell on me, but I finished and took about 4 loads of clothes up there to store. I ended up biting the bullet and weedeating despite the crazy heat. After that was finished, i decided to finish burying the wires for the outdoor lighting by digging little trenches for the wires to rest in, then covering them with dirt. It was a little fun getting to use the axe and the pick axe with the shovel, but after a while, the wonder fades and it's just hard work.

Wanting to light the back corner of the yard with Christmas lights, I scurried up to the attic and brought down 2 large rubbermaid tubs of lights....only lights. I would like to report that after untangling and testing each strand, i have found 4 strands of white lights that work. seriously? 2 tubs and only four strands work??!? it boggles the damn mind, i tell ya.

luuuuulvllll

this is the correct pronunciation of louisville. i'm just sayin.

greetings from a strongly scented Ramada Inn. Claire and I are currently watching an episode of Sex & The City...the same episode, coincidentally, that Katie is watching in the conjoining room next door.

It was a hot one in the Bluegrass state today. We started the show around 6pm and were followed by an 8 piece irish band..um... i can't remember their name...oh. The Elders. Claire used to Irish dance and gave us a couple of glimpses into the glory that once was her dancing past. it was a blessing. we got some amazing video footage i'll have to put up here at some point including all of us hula hooping.


As we were hanging out in the crowd after our set, we ended up sitting by the playground area with a ton of very cute little kids. We had an idea to go up to each of them (ranging in ages from 6 months or so to 6 years) and have katie ask them what they thought of her show and make a video blog of it. I think it would have been hilarious, but we thought the parents might get a little weirded out. perhaps so. we did get one family of 10 (only 5 were there) to sit down and talk to us. one small step.

there was a gorgeous sunset over the water. here, katie chooses to enjoy it by working on her computer.




back home now and there is much to do before Allan's bday party on Saturday. I need to get motivated to do the little stuff...it's just so not the fun part. projects, i love...this....not so much. off to get motivated.

shalom.


oh. here's a little gem from the WFPK studio where we found a computer that i felt i could really empathize with.

You can't afford the freeway

In Louisville, KY to play WFPK's Waterfront Wednesday with Katie. We got in last night and stayed with Pam & Mike Helton (friends of my family's for too many years to count). They're so generous and it was great to be able to spend some time with them. They cooked a delicious meal and i broke down and finally ate red meat (first time in.....maybe 6 months?)

I got up around 7:30am. I just can't seem to shake the waking early thing lately. Finally went back to sleep and woke up again around 9:15 and guessed that was enough trying to sleep. Of course it's 11 and no one's up yet.

I started reading Godric by Frederick Buechner this morning. I had been wanting to get into Buechner as a lot of literarily credible friends :) have been singing his praises for years. Jason Killingsworth let me borrow his gorgeous hardback of Godric the last time i visited him in Atlanta and I've been so wanting to dive in. Having just read two modern non-fictions (a rarity for me), Godric is making me work. It's kind of nice. I've definitely had to re-read a few passages. it's pretty dense language, but i love it.

Watched a few videos of Aimee Mann & her band this morning. It's interesting how Paul Bryan's voice is such an integral part of her sound now. There's some great footage of her talking about getting signed to a major and the mythology about what that means....how maintaining the shoulder padded 80s look is difficult to do when you're dirt poor and living on $150/week on the road. Don't i know it. the hairspray alone gets me every week.

half and half

My internal clock has been waking me up pretty consistently lately at 8:15. That's kind of wild if you think about your body waking up on it's own at the same time every day...no alarm.... no matter when you go to sleep. 8:15 every day. kind of mysterious to me.

Dropped by Katie's this weekend, and set out on an unexpected mission around town to upgrade her whole home studio. Saw Patty Griffin at the Mac store buying an iphone case. Good times.

In unrelated news, I'm 9077 days old.

This weekend perpetuated the luke-warm phase i've been in for over a week. I feel like i haven't been able to get motivated to work OR play in an unadulterated way lately. I can't just focus and work without ceasing or rest without thinking of to-do lists. The result is this weird half-life version of both. It's kind of dreadful and makes for a pretty compromised version of both. I've had quite a few deadlines fall around the same time which has lengthened the to-do list a bit. Maybe i just need to get over that deadline hump... Hopefully that will end soon.

so flossy flossy

To Butterfly's for rehearsal. Some of the chords were so ridiculous, i had to take pictures on the iphone so i'd remember them. ok, so it's a little lazy, but... come on... so convenient. I think the show with Dawson and Butter will be fun. I just have NO idea what to expect. We decided to head to La Hacienda after rehearsal. Why is Mexican food and a cold Dos Equis such an amazing combination? It's like they chemically engineer the flavors to be exponentially more delicious together. Only THEN do their secret powers activate. Called Katie to meet us. We all decided to go to the Sex & The City movie (of course). It exceed my expectiations, actually.

crab legs and drinking to the dregs

derek's birthday.

we ended up going to south street. The Cooleys, Allan, Derek, Sandra and I celebrated Derek's birth with seafood and laughs. not a bad way to spend an evening. I got there early and ended up sitting on a bench outside and finished listening to "Eat. Pray. Love." I'm always sad when books end...well...good books. I had to work extra hard on my Catfish to get all the bones out...it was secretly a little fun. It's so fun to have Allan in town. Back to the Webb plantation where Sandra and her neighbor Kari had made homeade butterscotch pie. and by homemade, i mean seriously homemade. made the crust...everything. sooo yummy...and impressive. Played tennis on dw's new Wii. Cason was really getting into it....endlessly entertaining.



As I was working in the yard today, i was thinking about people i know who are amazing cooks like that who seem to have that gift of tending for and creating things things around the house with such great care. It's amazing to watch. Or those friends who are master gardeners... I'm so not that person. I love those things, but they are not a part of my daily life like i see in these people; they're like little holidays that i enjoy when they come my way.

I wonder if that's an age thing. Is that what I'll do when I retire? ... Suddenly have this gift for rose gardens, cooking and housekeeping? I just don't know. Maybe it's not in my gift bag. :) Wait a second. retire? what am i talking about? i can't imagine me having something to retire from. who knows.

return to things

lately i feel like i've returned to a lot of things that at one time brought be great pleasure (possible side effects also include clarity, energy, sanity, more apt assessment of the world around you, stillness, purpose and sometimes... buckets of happy).

After more or less two months on the road with little to no time in one given place, my head got a little....how you say...out of alignment? I've been on the road for longer periods of time, but this is was a unique version of this experience.

By no accident, i'm sure, i am the sole inhabiter of my house right now. (Something I love and hope to make a habit someday). One roommate moved out, one gone for the summer and one on vacation, it's just me and Scout. I can't help but think of the old adage that you cannot see your face in running water; only still water. I feel as if i may have unknowingly been the poster-child for such wisdom lately.

I love being alone and love the quiet, but love (perhaps as intensely) people and things. These are often at odds, but most certainly need each other....as i need them.... both greatly. One without the other, and things are not as they should be.

I'm not setting out to articulate everything that's happening right now, because that's what generally makes blogging feel daunting to me, but rather sharing how grateful i am for simple things right now. simple pleasures. simple work that brings pleasure.

I also have a confession. I (like many cynics my age) resist things that are "the new cool thing". I'm sure somehow i secretly think this makes me cooler....it does not. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "Who cares what Oprah reads?" with an astute looking lamb reading a book with a monocle. I think you get the picture. I recently downloaded "Eat. Pray. Love." for my mom because...you guessed it...her book club was reading it. As with these cool new books, (and Oprah's endorsement), I know about a million people who are reading it. I'm not sure what broke through my jedi force field between me and this book, but yesterday morning, I awoke early, prayed for energy and a revitalized spirit (more or less), and headed to the Y. After a surprisingly great workout, I was energized and ready to face the day. (*this does not always happen) I got home and realized it was barely 9:30am. I used to LOVE getting up early and getting things done. There's that great feeling of looking at the clock at 9:30 and realizing you've already checked five things off your list and half the people you know aren't even up yet. I think i just always feel so behind, that I feel like i'm actually evening the playing field for a moment.

I stopped in Whole Foods for a Strawberry Kombucha, some mahi mahi, some asparagus, and some of these amazing crackers I've been stealing from Katie for weeks. Very content (and excited about being home alone), I took full advantage of my AirTunes and decided to listen to "Eat. Pray. Love." while i was cooking....very loudly...on every speaker in the house...because i can.

I decided to experiment a little with lunch (which having no concept of time... i thought was dinner) and ended up with lime & ginger Mahi-Mahi and orange-zested asparagus. It was kind of amazing. It began raining, so I opened the door to my patio, turned up the book, sat outside just under the awning, and ate. I ate in that savory sort of way where you're being fed in a few different ways at once and you know it.





I sat down to work and decided to close my email program, turn off iChat, and just listen as i worked. I worked undaunted and inspired for 5 or 6 hours before even looking up. I finished the designs, emailed them off and then knew it was time for a bike ride. I used to LOVE riding. I mean, i still do love all of these things, of course, i've just forgotten what they feel like. I threw the bike in the car, mourned the demise of my old bike rack for a minute, then headed to Shelby Bottoms. The rain had cooled everything off, and it was a pretty perfect ride. It was memorial day at 6:30pm and had just stormed, so there was almost no one in sight. It felt a bit like a Nike commercial. I decided to push myself on the front end and fight urges to turn back, as i knew it would get dark and there's nothing like chasing darkness when you're riding in the woods. It's always been a good motivator. All in all, i ended up riding about 8 miles and being exceedingly delighted about the day.

Here's to the return of things.




"The other problem with all this swinging through the vines of thought is that you're never where you are. You are always digging at the past or poking at the future, but rarely do you rest in this moment." - (from "Eat. Pray. Love")

speaking in bubbles

Thought this was interesting...

Video called "Speaking in Bubbles" about Ji Lee, a street artist in NY who founded Bubble Project. He tags stickers shaped like speech bubbles and places them over public advertisements, and he invites passersby to fill in the blanks with their own thoughts. After working in advertising for 4 years, Ji Lee shares his thoughts and unique approach to public spaces and street art. When describing his work, he states, [I don't like the term illegal; I prefer the term unauthorized.]"

Watch the video HERE.

Wiki-rado

Wikipedia just told me Colorado's state motto is "Nil sine Numine" - Nothing Without Providence. hmm. who knew?

Well, I just got back from a two week-ish run with Katie in her home state of Colorado. It was my first time to "The Centennial State" as Katie pointed out to the crowds each night. I must say, i had very high expectations as it was tied for the #1 position on "Things Jordan still wants to see in the U.S. but hasn't yet." and Colorado did not disappoint.

Coloradans (yes that's the official term for its residents) were just plain lovely and also very concerned/curious about my reaction to the altitude. (it was fine...until i went biking). Overall, i must say this may have been my favorite tour thus far. The shows were great..well attended, the company hard to beat and the music is absurdly great...such a blast to play.

We had Claire on cello, Katie played acoustic, sang and rocked the porchboard we are forever borrowing from PBA and I played the wildcat electric, accordion and ukulele.

I was watching The Colbert Report today as I was editing some photos and saw the Roots playing the theme song. a) they're a trio and sounded rockin'...and that's pretty awesome. b) Captain Kirk Douglas (guitarist for The Roots) was playing my guitar!! Same model, same finish. i feel 8 rock points cooler.









Oh. and here's episode 1 of our little video blog... enjoy. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-DWG0eBc_E

-jbh

how long

Wow. I haven't written anything on the old blog in a while. Never too late, i guess......

Well, i'm finally home after a run of shows with Katie Herzig in the Northeast. It was our first run with this arrangement, and turned out to be copious amounts of fun. Without the band, we were pulling double / triple duty with Katie on acoustic, porchboard, vox and me on electic, accordion, ukelele and vox....most definately maxing out our alloted carry ons and checked baggage on the plane. By the second show we really started getting into the groove of this new set up and i'll have to say, i'm kind of digging it.

DAY 1 - NYC

We flew into New York on Wednesday, staying with Katie's sister Jenny and her roomate Kristen (who both happened to be opera singers). For some reason, around midnight, we decided to utilize their talents in one of the songs (much to the shigrin of their neighbors, i'm sure). Here's what happened....



..yeah. pretty amazing. still makes me giggle.

Went to a cute little restaraunt in Inwood called "Guadalupe" (Mexican gourmet) with Katie, Jenny and Paul. Had some delicious Quesadilla de Seta y Queso which did not dissapoint

Woke up early the next morning and drove to do a radio interview / performance and WFUV. Everyone there was exceedingly kind and made the early morning an enjoyable one. The host was
Claudia Marshall and was a hoot. We had a great time and the sound engineer, Joe, ended up coming to the show with a friend later that night...which is always super fun.






The show Thursday night was at The Living Room and we had a great crowd and met some really awesome people. Being our first go at it, we were a little shakey musically, but the crowd was so warm and receptive, it made us feel ok about the bumps along the way.



to be continued