Some fun shows, and belated news from Winnipeg and Minneapolis

Raina and I went to see Dar Williams and Shawn Colvin at the zoo tonight. Dar was really my first true folkie love in about 1995, so though I haven't liked her later albums as much, I was still admittedly pretty excited to go. And I've always liked Shawn. It was fun. A Portland musician we know, Anne Weiss, is friends with Dar, and got up and sang with her on one song. But I think the most quotable moment of the evening was when Shawn told a story about opening for Sting and how he told her to get a tuner. She called him a "pansy-ass yoga-meister." After the zoo show, we went to Imbibe and saw Lara Michell and then Jamie Stillway play, had a cocktail and celebrated Lara's 35th birthday.

So, in order to give you a full account of my summer, I must mention this trip I took a few weeks ago to Minneapolis and Winnipeg (July 4-11). Also, I've been told to put pictures up here, so... I was in Minneapolis and Winnipeg for a week, visiting Ellen (and her illustrious place of employment - Red House Records) and going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival (an 8-hour drive northwest through scenic North Dakota). Now that was a great festival...... We saw Neko Case, Bruce Cockburn, Richard Thompson (and did I mention Ellen interviewd him for KFAI??!?!), Rickie Lee Jones, Crooked Still, Alejandro Escovedo, Steve Earle, Ruthie Foster, Jay Farrar, the Wailin' Jennys, Oh Susanna, Jerry Douglas, and tons of other great music. And there was no mud like when I went with Jenna in 1998. Lovely weather, lovely Canadians, definitely a good time. See http://www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca. We also got to spend some quality time with Mitch Podolak, who founded the festival 33 years ago. He had plenty of thoughts about festivals to share (should one be interested in music festivals....).

< Ellen and me enjoying the sun and music. We have established a tradition of going to one new music festival every summer (last year was Vancouver), so we'll see where we go next year. Edmonton? Kerrville (but maybe I have to go there with Raina)? Telluride? Suggestions are welcome....


This I think is funny, because it's *so* me in a coffee shop with my laptop and my iPod and my cell phone and my hazelnut latte.

Me at Minnehaha Falls. Emily, who I'd met about 4 days before at the festival, very kindy offered to show me around Minneapolis while Ellen was at work that Tuesday. She brought me to the lovely Blue Moon coffee shop, then we got some massive gyros at a yummy Middle Eastern place, and then we went for a nice walk.

Emily, me, and Ellen taking a picture of ourselves in the parking lot after dinner, before Emily and Scott took me to the airport.