Noise Pop 2009

My good friend Daren and I have been long time fans of Josh Ritter. We have jammed on our guitars through half an hour versions of Me & Jiggs and Harrisburgh. We saw Josh first at the Independent in San Francisco in the early 2000’s. We found out about him through a complaition CD from Ireland called ‘Other Voices: Songs From A Room Volume 1’. On Other Voices, Josh Ritter has a live acoustic track called ‘Snow Is Gone’. The studio version is on his album called Hello Starling. It is a beautiful, catchy, and about love and the changing of the seasons.

Josh Ritter is one of the most talented singer-song writers today. His recent albums are thematic and they have many layers to them and they take time to digest after the first few listens. His lyrics are filled with many complex ideas that tend to reference historic concepts. Sample verse from ‘Thin Blue Flame’:

“I flew over Royal City last night,

Bullfighting the horns of a new moon’s light,

Caesar’s ghost I saw the war time tides,

The prince of Denmark’s father still quiet,

The whole world was looking to get drowned,

Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds,

I looked over curtains and it was then I knew,

Only a full house would make it through.”

Last spring my wife Jill and I were a part of the lucky audience at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco to see him perform, for the first time, with a string quartet. The combination of the talented string quartet and Josh's powerful acoustic guitar strumming and picking made it an inspirational performance. The music ran through my fingers and up my arms and sent shivers down my spine. It sounded natural and earthy and organic like they should have been playing atop a mountain or on a river bank somewhere in the wild away from the loud city crowd; that is where they took the audience during the performance.

The video footage below is from you tube. Two songs called Girl In The War (with strings) and a song called Wolves, (not performed with the quartet). Highlights from the show were Girl In The War with the Strings, Kathleen with strings, and Thin Blue Flame. Josh played “I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore” by Woody Guthrie without any plug-ins or mic’s while standing at the very edge of the stage singing at the top of his lungs to fill the room with Guthrie's powerful song about people and families who farmed, mined, and had to wander around the united states trying to find a job and place to call home,..all I can say to his rendition of this old folk tune is....wow.

It was a memorable show and if Josh comes to your town, go see him play.

New Web Page...

My new web page that I have finally figured out is now active. I created this using iweb in my Macbook. Here is the link for it and I hope that you enjoy it,..

I will post videos, pictures and updates of life in Colorado on that webpage.

http://web.me.com/tambrose3/Site/Live_Balanced.html

The World of Nick Adams,..

"It was not his country but it was the middle of fall and all of this country was good to drive through and to see. The cotton was picked and in the clearings there were patches of corn, some cut with streaks of red sorghum, and, driving easily, his son asleep on the seat by his side,.." - Heminway: Fathers And Sons

On Monday evening my fiancee, Jill, and I went to see a production called The World of Nick Adams; A series of Hemingway semi-autobiographical short stories put into a script by A.H. Hotchner. It was at the beautiful Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The production was a combination of many art forms including music from the San Francisco Symphony, literature, and stage acting. A.H. Hotchner created this script for on stage performance by combining many of the famous Nick Adams stories many years ago while Ernest Hemingway was still alive and with his approval, Hotchner successfully created the script.
The World of Nick Adams was on Broadway in New York in 2002 for another benefit and was extremely successful. It was in San Francisco on Monday night to benefit an organization that the late Paul Newman put together called The Painted Turtle, it is said to have raised 1 million dollars.
Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco introduced the show along with his wife. The actors that contributed parts to the acting and reading of the script were: Jack Nicholson (as Hemingway and the narrator), Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis (as the main character in one of my favorite stories the Battler), Sean Penn, Warren Beatty, Danny Glover, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Joaquin Phoenix Danny DeVito, and finally an acoustic song at the end performed by Bonnie Raitt.
It was not only fascinating to see this talented group of actors live on stage, but it was great to see how dedicated everybody was to Paul Newman and all the incredible things that he did in his life and the cause that this supported. At the end of the show, all of the young ones who attend the Painted Turtle Camp came on stage and lined up to give thanks to the crowd.
It was a magical performance and the combination of music, live reading and acting, and the timeless words of a Hemingway made it an unforgettable experience.

Listening to Neil Halstead

Long time comin'...

I have been away from blogging for a while because I have been discouraged about the amount of people that would actually read my blog. My good friend Daren updates his blog often and he told me that no matter who reads it, blogging is a wonderful outlet and a great place to go to when the urge to write strikes you. View his blog here.
I understand that and with technology, we can blog from just about anywhere in the world. I decided against blogging when I was on my recent trip to Peru. I wanted to enjoy the people, below is a photograph of myself on the left, Falvio (an 80 year old waiter who lit our cigs) and my good friend Adam who I traveled Peru with in August.

I wanted to also enjoy the surroundings and not have to worry about when I would be at the next internet cafe. The serenity of the mountains in Peru, and the the technology that the Incas used to create Machu Picchu is much more creative and inventive than My Space and blogs and facebook. Not that these new technologies and programs are not creative, but Machu Picchu impresses me more and I know that long after the human race is gone, Machu Picchu will live on and My Space will be gone.


We have so many outlets through technology and I have grown exhausted of digital connections. It is more real to talk to somebody, through the phone, but even on the phone, we are so disconnected. To be with somebody, to celebrate the day, to look down on our lives after a long hike to the top of a mountain, from where we can see the world pass by. Or to spend all day walking around ancient ruins or even here at home, being at an outdoor concert listening to Greg Brown and Taj Mahal while camping, really getting to know our friends, dancing, drinking, eating good food, swimming, this is what i enjoy. This is what I think of as spending time with the important people in our lives, not typing what we are doing now or what we want to be doing, as people do on facebook.

Don't vote,..no wait, vote!

Five Friends Vote (Uncensored) - Watch more free videos

3/20/03 - 3/20/08

NO MORE WAR,..it is hard for me to think differently these days, five years of this war has made me sick every day, all the damage we are doing and have done.
Innocent lives lost.
An irresponsible administration.
The above video and song is written by an artist I admire truly and greatly, Ed Vedder. He wrote this song for a guy named Thomas Young. There is a documentary that is coming out called Body of War and it is about him. He is one of many that are treated poor, under the policies for veterans by our current administration , upon returning home from war. He returned with major wounds and in a wheelchair.
NO MORE WAR!

Listening to She & Him

Momentum

The energy is flowing and building up, up, up and up. No one knows who will win the individual parties primary elections or in the presidential elections between the two parties in November 2008. I have been a strong supporter of liberal politics in the way of voting for the candidate that demonstrates they will help clear a path, a path of change. Nader 00’, Kucinich 04’, Kucinich 08’, oh wait; they would not let him debate or even run a competitive campaign. Obama 08’ is the next best, electable, candidate who will create change and he had and will have my vote.
The past eight years have been a living hell. The United States has separated itself from the rest of the world and our administration has cut off many ties to coexist in a global community. I am ashamed to call myself an American under this administration. How do I live in a country with an admin that is irresponsible in their actions? How do I live in a country that creates and supports endless war? And how do I live with G.W.B. as my president?
We have to change. We have to end this war. We have to open our conversation with other countries and react responsibly and peacefully in this universal, global community.
After living with war for this long, this election feels like all the momentum that Obama has built up and will explode like the bombs that George Bush ordered dropped on innocent villages and childen, men and woman, but different, Obama's bombs will be bombs of peace, they will be bombs of change, and they will be bombs of fresh air, a fresh breath of air. Obama continues to build up this energy, and with the positive change he will bring to our nation, and if he gets elected, I will be proud to call myself an American once again.