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At last you can get your Jazzed Desserts!

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After much fumbling about and a truly hideous number of hours editing, I’ve finally put together a show based on an idea I got from Fran Snyder of ConcertsInYourHome.com.

They’re essentially a “mini house concert.” A brief gathering of friends for food, conversation and live music in an intimate and approachable setting. They’re easy and inexpensive to host. They’re strictly acoustic so you won’t upset the neighbors. (But you should invite them, they’re a great way to strengthen existing friendships and forge new ones.)

I’m available solo for these shows and with my duo, Hobbit & Hare. Currently we’re limiting this to the greater Seattle area, but we could be convinced to roam a bit farther in the future.

Find out all the details here.

Heeding the inner voice

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Sunday I busked solo at Pike Place Market (because Sketch has a regular church gig). It featured some of the fattest hats I’ve had in a long time. I left, all flush with cash, and thinking maybe I wouldn’t bother going in on Monday. Lately the Mondays have been dismal  and I didn’t want to waste time when I had other tasks that needed doing. But then the second-guessing set in. And the guilt.

Yes, guilt. Due to a hiccup in the normal scheduling I had a ride both to and from the market, so I’d save money I normally spend on bus fare. And I knew that, despite how wealthy I was feeling at the moment, the money wasn’t likely to last until Friday, the next day with at least a moderate chance of decent tips. And with it being winter I need all the chances I could get or my conscience would say I’m “being lazy” and would tsk at me when I ran out of cash. So, even though the inner voice (of experience) was warning me, I went to the market.

I should have stayed home and edited the video that’s waiting to be finished. A whole day eaten up for less than $20 gained. Now the next day I have open for editing is Thursday.

“Live and learn” they say. I’m managing to stay alive so far, but sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever learn.

Hobbit & Hare rehearsal tape

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After a long dry spell, I finally have something to share with you. A little while back I talked on them social medias about learning the Cindy Walker western swing tune, Miss Molly. I promised I’d upload at least a “rough cut” as soon as I could.

Yesterday Sketch and I got together to work on some tunes. I got my trusty Zoom H2 out and we recorded a couple of our efforts. Miss Molly is the first of them.

MissMolly_HobbitandHare.mp3     

You can click on the little embedded player to stream the tune or right click where the title is linked and download a copy. It’s a high-quality (320 kbps) mp3 file and weighs in at 4megs for you downloading pleasure!

Recorded live to stereo in my living room and only lightly processed! And now, for the mere price of… free!… you can have it for your very own.

Not that I’d object to the odd dollar deposited in my online tip bucket. Hell, you could throw in $100 and I wouldn’t fuss, but I would think you were extremely sweet, or possibly barking mad. Maybe even all of the above.

But seriously… if you like it, leave a comment and/or pass the link to this post around! You know, the usual social media things.

Thanks for listening.

Busking Surprise

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This past Monday Hobbit & Hare busked at Pike Place Market. The first set was pretty much like one would expect for a Monday in January, to wit, bleah. So we hung out for about an hour and started another set.

While we were tuning up two young couples stopped. One of the guys is a bass player and was fascinated with the upright Sketch plays. He said if we could play a jazzy tune he’d tip us a Jackson.

Well. Fish in a barrel and stuff.

He not only tipped us the $20, he also bought one of my $10 CDs. This interaction drew a crowd and, by the time we’d finished our 4th song, we had been tipped by several of them and had a flurry of CD sales.

When the dust settled from all that activity the hat held more than twice the money as it did at the end of our first set.

we finished the set and went home with a total that was more like a pretty damn good summer day.

who’da thunk it?

another test

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OK.I believe I’ve gotten the problem fixed and I’m now able to post here from my tablet. This, in theory anyway, will allow me to get back into more frequent posting since I’ll be able to do so from nearly anyplace.

So, for instance, instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs between sets at Pike Place Market, I should be able to actually do something productive.

Time will tell. Push the button, Frank.