John and I are here in Seattle enjoying a day off with our booking agent, Ali Hedrick and her family. The Neko Case tour has gotten off to a great start. All of the crowds have been very receptive to the two piece version. I wish we could do more dates as we’ve been having a blast hanging with Neko and the whole band and crew. The last time we did the two piece two was in 1998 opening for the Dirty Three across The States. There’s an openness with playing as a two piece that allows for room to improvise that feels really good. You learn to appreciate the space and elasticity of time with phrasing, segues and tempo. I feel like we are just now finding our sea legs and sadly the portion of dates is coming to an end this evening at the beautiful Pantages Theatre in Tacoma. John has been sitting on ‘Red Tide’ and I have been playing some 12 string acoustic guitar on ‘This Tornado Loves’ you every night. The visuals on this tour have been stellar and all coordinated by the lovely Kathleen Judge. Hey does everyone know that Neko deisgned all the t shirt art? I try to help Kelly at the end of every night at the merch booth. Jon Rauhouse designed the tractor shirt. All in all an amazing touring team and super fun to hang with.

I hope we can all meet up again on the road with band and crew again soon. Thanks to Neko, Amy Lombardi, Ali Hedrick, Kong, Kathleen, Tim, Shelley, Kelly, Barry, Tom V Ray, Paul Rigby, Kelly Hogan (come to record at Wavelab!!) and Jon Rauhouse.

p.s. Go Lakers!!

setlist for the neko dates

01. All The Pretty Horses
02. Not Even Stevie Nicks…
03. Spokes
04. Man Made Lake
05. Bisbee Blue
05. Bend To The Road
06. Slowness or Quattro
07. Two Silver Trees
08. Fractured Air
09. Scout
+Slowness and Bend To The Road (w/ Craig Schumacher- harmonica) Denver
+In The Reins (with Jon Rauhouse – pedal steel) Salt Lake City and Tacoma