So currently I am sitting in the "computer lab" of the St. John's Lutheran Ministries Retirement Community in Billings, Montana. Josh is playing here tonight, on their huge lawn out front- part of a weekly music series they host in the Summer. We've spent two days as guests here, eating in the dining hall with the residents (dinner starts at 4:30) and enjoying the luxury of having our own room (the "guest suite") for a bit. We've really come to cherish these rare opportunities for privacy. . . but not really for the reasons you'd think. When we have time off, a quiet space and wi-fi you'll find us doing exactly what we're doing now- working. Josh is upstairs playing guitar, and I'm here on my computer emailing (literally) hundreds of venues in Europe, trying to finish booking our last month there.
A couple hours ago Josh got an email from the venue he was supposed to play at on Saturday- that's 2 days away. They said they had to cancel the gig. Did I mention that they gave us TWO days notice?! And there was a relatively large sum of money guaranteed. So this has a pretty big impact on us. . . Not having a show on any Saturday sucks, but especially when it comes at the last minute. And you know what, this kind of thing happens all the time. I know we lead a charmed life and I don't want to complain, but I just think musicians get a short stick sometimes. People seem to think that they all party hard, show up late to gigs, tour because they think it's fun. . . and it is most of the time, but it's not a vacation- it's a job. And it's 24/7, especially when you do all the booking, promotion, social networking, travel planning, etc. yourself. . . and, of course, then you have to find the time to practice your craft and write new songs. It just drives me crazy when a venue cancels, or they don't do anything to promote a show (how hard is it to post on FB once or twice?!), or Josh plays to a full house and gets paid $12 because the sound guy, door guy and venue owners have to get paid (that actually happened recently. . .).  And then there's the shocking lack of general support for live music in this country. It's sad, but sometimes I think that most Americans would rather stay home and watch "American Idol" than go see a live show. We all need to stop and think what this world would be like without real musicians, writing songs and playing instruments.
Again, I don't want to sound ungrateful for the amazing freedom we have, but sometimes you just need to vent. Geez, and I meant for this post to be about the last month in Washington. . . which was amazing, by the way. But I didn't find time to write because we were so busy catching up with friends & family, "networking", and booking for this Fall. . . but here are some lovely pictures of mountains and beaches.

Mount Rainier

Vashon Island


take care and SUPPORT LOCAL & LIVE MUSIC!
XO,

Jess

Westward!

Since we last left off. . .

Josh and I have driven well over 2,000 miles the last 3 weeks in our little Previa- which is now equipped with a loft-style bed! Pretty fancy, I know. . . almost like having an RV.  So now we're in beautiful Washington state, staying just far enough north of Seattle to be surrounded by huge national and state parks, small farms and lots of lush greenery! It's so nice here this time of year, probably my favorite part of the country.
The journey out here from Wisconsin was long but exciting. Driving across Minnesota, South and North Dakota, Montana and Idaho the landscape changes drastically every couple hours. From dense green forests to wide open rolling hills to dry flatlands and then huge mountains show up in the distance. Since I've never really lived around mountains (unless you count Stone Mountain, GA. . . ) they still fascinate me. If you take a look at my flickr account you'll see there is a disproportionate number of mountain photos.

Livingston, MT

north of Missoula, MT

Every time I go to Montana I love it more and more. This time we got to spend nearly a week there (and we'll be back in August!). We went to Livingston (near Bozeman) for the first time and I just fell in love with this small Western town which has a thriving downtown thanks to the natural landscape that brings in a fair number of tourists this time of year. And then we had 3 days in Missoula which is fantastic! I had only been there once before, briefly, but now we had adequate time to explore. One afternoon I drove up to St. Ignatious about an hour north of Missoula and the landscape there just blew me away. My friend Piper grew up there, on a huge ranch surrounded by snow-capped mountains and vast green fields.
Here in Washington there are still snow-capped mountains surrounding us (in the distance), but it was about 90 degrees today. strange. When we first got in a few days ago, though, it was lovely and cool. We took our time driving through the Cascades which were spectacular!

not a fake backdrop....

Now it's time to get back to work- Josh has 6 shows in the Seattle area, one in Bellingham and one in Eugene, OR, and we'll also be going out in the city as much as possible, meeting musicians and playing open mics. Should be a busy month!

XO,
Jess

Ahh, Wisconsin!

Well, somehow the last 6 weeks have flown by without my writing on the blog. . . oops. I will say it's been a very busy Spring and will continue to be a crazy hectic Summer for Josh and I. When we left Boston at the end of April, we headed straight west for Madison, making only brief stops in New Jersey and Ohio. This past month has been spent entirely in our adopted "home state" of Wisconsin, playing shows, catching up with friends, eating at our favorite restaurants, seeing some of our favorite bands and so much more. This morning we woke up at a campsite in Perrot State Park, hiked to the top of a large bluff (not quite a mountain, but it felt like it), looked down at the Mississippi River dividing Wisconsin from Minnesota and I realized "this is the last time we'll be in Wisconsin for almost a year!" Strange.

Perrot State Park

Besides spending time in Madison, we took a few trips around the state- to some old favorite spots as well as a few new places. I had only been to Door County once before, in January, for a friend's 30th birthday party.  Since then I've been dying to go back during "the Season" when businesses are actually open. Well, the weekend before Memorial Day is still not technically tourist season, but that has its perks. We got to Sturgeon Bay on a beautiful 75 degree Tuesday and spent 2 days exploring the peninsula known as Wisconsin's "vacationland" (though it would be more fitting to call it Chicago's vacationland). Josh played a show at the very cool Holiday Music Motel- a classic 1950's roadside motel that was recently bought by two musicians who fixed it up in a retro Rock-N-Roll style. Upstairs they have a recording studio/ listening room that was packed on Wednesday night with local musicians and music appreciators from 5 years old to 75.

Last week we got up to Wausau for a couple of shows with "the band". . . The Josh Harty Band, that is. It's always fun to hang out with the guys and hear Josh's songs re-interpreted as upbeat dance music with a great drum beat. After the Wausau gig, we drove a bit further north and stayed at a friend's farm. It was a fantastic day filled with horseback riding, atv-ing, cooking, playing music and of course, a campfire after dark.

On Wednesday we gathered most of our belongings from various friends' houses, packed up the van once again, and headed north. We headed to Hayward for a house concert at our friend Rick's amazing house on the lake, then down to Black River Falls for another house show. Yesterday we started meandering up the Mississippi with no real plan. We stopped in Trempealeau, WI to check out the famous Trempealeau Hotel. Well, we kind of fell in love with this beautiful town and decided to stay a night. Sitting outside on the river, sipping brunch cocktails in the afternoon, we met the unofficial town "mayor", Don. He told us all about the town and its history, how the land was formed after the last ice age and where we could get a good meal. Though we were tempted to stay at the hotel, we decided to be more budget-conscious and camped, finally having a night without rain!

Now we're in Minnesota for the week before heading West! Check out the tour page to see where we'll be next. . . and for more Wisconsin photos go to our flickr page.
XO,
Jess

We Heart Boston

As everyone knows, a terrible thing happened here in Boston a few days ago. Some unknown, evil person or persons planted 2 bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon and when they went off, 3 innocent people were dead and nearly 200 were wounded. I know bombs go off in other countries every day- we read in the news about the thousands of civilians dying in places like Syria and Afghanistan. I think it's important to keep these facts in mind when dealing with terrorism in America. . . however, as we all know, the closer you are to the tragedy the more tragic it seems. I keep thinking about people who died or lost limbs on Monday- they just wanted to enjoy a race on the first sunny day in weeks. I've only been in this city for two weeks, but after day 1 I had completely fallen in love with it, so this violence seems personal.
Luckily, Josh and I were in South Boston when the bombs went off- several miles from the site. I still haven't been through that part of the city, so it still seems a bit surreal and removed. But on Tuesday we spent the afternoon walking around Cambridge and you just felt such a strong sense of community, of compassion. Crazy, inconceivable things happen every day on this planet and sometimes I think humanity is just going right down the toilet. . . but then you see something like this.

college kids giving out "Free flowers, hugs and conversation" in Harvard Square

we met Eric Sommer who was playing music in the square- he's been on tour non-stop for years!

RE-CAP: eating and shopping in NYC

So last week we left the tiny apartment in Bushwick that we called "home" for the past month. Time really flies by when you're in a new place, seeing new things every day! In fact, it seems like just last week we were in Europe. . . now we're in Boston (which does have about as many Irish pubs as Dublin). But let me back up a bit. The last couple weeks in Brooklyn I was an especially avid explorer- going out for hours almost every day, exploring new neighborhoods, but mainly eating and shopping.
I had a few food goals when we got to NYC. . .of course, there are an endless number options in every conceivable category. And I don't have the stomach or the pocket book to eat out every day (plus I like cooking)- so I just sought out some highlights- starting with the almost-unattainable gluten free NYC bagel. If you read my last blog post, you know what a struggle (*tear*) I went through to find this simple delight. In all of my research and wanderings around the city, I was still only able to find one deli-Tompkins Square Bagels in the East Village- that had GF bagels on their menu. I'm pretty sure they don't make them in-house, but I didn't even ask for fear of being disappointed. However, they definitely make their own cream cheeses, in a vast array of delicious flavors. I went with my old staple (pre GF-days): veggie cream cheese with tomato slices. I used to always get everything bagels, they only had plain in the GF variety, but no mind. . . it was heaven (albeit very pricey for a bagel). 

 I was hoping to get to Chinatown more than once this month- there is such an overwhelming number of restaurants, tea shops, groceries, etc. that I could have just eaten here for a month and been satisfied. Avoiding soy sauce (which has gluten in it) at a Chinese restaurant is a bit tricky, but otherwise there are usually a lot of great GF options. The one day that we did spend in Chinatown was spent darting in and out of shops trying to avoid the rain. When the rain got particularly bad, we ducked into Paris (because it was close and there were delicious smells emanating from within), which turned out to be a Vietnamese restaurant. In Chinatown. Oh well- it was wonderful!

I got these rice paper crepes with a side of pork, which looked like Spam, but tasted great. Josh, of course, got pho.

Homemade brunch on the roof in Bushwick (we thought a sunny 55 degree day was good enough for rooftop dining)

seriously awesome empanada- that only cost $1.50!!- at undisclosed Queens location (if I told you I'd have to kill you, sorry).

Delicious Ethiopian food by Bunna Cafe at special Pop-Up Vegan Fair in Bushwick

Now on to the shopping. . .
I spent a lot of time combing through a few particular Brooklyn thrift stores (again, if I told you I'd have to kill you...) which were fantastic and allowed me to seriously bulk-up my Etsy store! Also, I made it to a couple of the big flea markets.

The Williamsburg "Artists and Fleas" market was small but had a great selection of handmade jewelry and high-end vintage

Brooklyn Flea in the impressive Skylight One Hanson building

and finally. . .

 

 

 

THE MOBILE VINTAGE SHOP!!

Next up: Boston!

XO,
Jess