Finally the Rain and Billy Hults

Looks like the weather is finally starting to turn here. There’s a coolness, even a bight. And it’s raining, the wonderful clear water that makes this place what it is. It’s about time!

I’ve basically dropped out of the Buskers’ Guild down at the Market. Haven’t been to a meeting in ages and didn’t play the festival. Jim Hinde was the guy who really held that thing together and made the festival work. With Jim Hinde passed away and Niceol Blue living in Ireland things have really taken on a different color. So I just went on to other things. Sometimes I think about it, sometimes I think it would be fun to go down there and play for a while on those old sidewalks. But mostly I don’t.

I’m excited about my UK tour for next February. It’ll be a double bill tour with Scott Law. (http://www.scottlawmusic.com/) Scott and I have known each other for years and have played together quite a lot. He’s one of the best all around musicians I know, and he’s no bullshit when it comes to ego and baggage. There is none. It’ll be great to travel with him. Last week we recorded a couple of songs on his home studio unit so the agent has something to promo with. Scott lives in Portland and I always love going there so it was no trouble to get me down. And I got to see some old friends – Tye North, who I met when he played bass with Leftover Salmon. And his father Roger North, who I have known since the old Holy Model Rounder days when he was their drummer. I remember that he made his own drum kit – they curved out at the bottom, turned toward the audience – the idea being that it help carry the sound to the crowd. Don’t know what happened with the idea, if it ever caught on. These days Roger plays with the wonderful Freak Mountain Ramblers (http://www.freakmountain.com/) – you can catch them in and around Portland if you look. They are well worth your time.

The sad news was that while I was reconnecting with Roger he told me that Billy Hults was sick, cancer. And that there was to be a benefit gig for him the following night at the White Eagle. Again, it was a no-brainer that I would stay an extra day to play a song or two and see Billy. If you don’t know, Billy is a great washboard player, an associate of the Holy Model Rounders, and an all around great guy. He was also instrumental in getting Bud Clark elected mayor of Portland way back in the 80s. Bud is the guy who you can still see “exposing himself to art” in that wonderful museum poster from those days. He was a bar owner and a real populist. The day after he won the election he held a press conference at Baloney Joe’s, a cheap eats café on the east end of the Burnside Bridge that catered to transients. It was a great move on Bud’s part – it brought the whole poverty issue out into the open and made it all right to be poor. How times have changed…

Anyway, as sad as it may turn out to be in the long run – it’s always too early to tell in these things – the benefit was a wonderful event! A great crowd and a great lineup of talent. Freak Mountain, Billy Kennedy, Artis, RB, Baby Gramps, Me, Shoehorn, Lewi Longmire, James Low, Spud Siegel, and others who I missed because I got lost on the way over. It reminded us all of what great, great music we have had all these years in the Northwest. I’m sure hat every region has its gems, but this place is extraordinary.

Here's Billy playing with the Rounders some time in the 70s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqcKfeVWIzs

S0………. Now it’s raining and I have a cold. Ain’t that great? And where is Nickelsville? The great tent city named after Seattle’s mayor – the guy who is definitely not Bud Clark. Where are they headed? We are standing on the edge of the 21st century cliff. Where they go, we go.

More later.