Random Acts of Music
Every so often on a Tuesday, I head out to Northville to play at or watch the open mic at Solid Grounds Coffee Shop hosted by Steve Kovich. There are a lot of great “regulars” at this gig. Darwin, Bill, Kathy, Steve, Terry and so many more amazing performers. Sort of our very own “Tuesday night music club” I suppose.
Tonight was one of those Tuesday’s.
The difference tonight was that as I’m playing my first song, in walk Dave & Lisa. When I had the chance to play again I coaxed them into coming up for a few tunes. We did What Can I Say, Imagine and I’m With the Band.
Moral of the story? Come on out to the open mic show at Solid Grounds on Tuesday nights. You never know who might show up. ;o)
See you soon,
John
Arlington Station
5,000 Hits, Birthday Cake and Cinnamon Toast Crunch
What a week!
First off, we’re amazed to see that we turned over 5000 hits on the Arlington Station Myspace page in less than six months! Wow! It’d be pretty cool to get to 10,000 hits by the end of the year! Thanks for taking the time to check out the site!
Thursday started three days of whirlwind activity for the band (as well as each of us, personally). With it being Karen’s birthday, I diligently set out to Mary Denning’s Cake Shop (amazing) on the way home from work so we could have a “cake & ice cream” band practice/birthday celebration. After making sure the family was all home, we (actually Jen) tried to burn down the house by putting every candle in the pack on Karen’s cake. After a rousing rendition of the Happy Birthday song, we ate way too much and returned to prepping our weekend shows.
South Lyon’s Gallery Cafe Coffee House was the site of our Friday show. We had never played this venue and were really looking forward to it. Rachel and Jenni asked us awhile back to play with them and we jumped at the chance. Rachel’s sister, Krissy, works there so we had our “in”. What a great room. We played at one end of the building and had a great view of all the patrons and the street activity outside. At one point a huge bus pulled right in front of the shop and we all got our hopes up, thinking it was our tour bus.
We did a 45 minute set and then turned the stage over to Rachel and Jen. They did the longest set I’ve ever heard them play at once and it was fantastic. Hope those two continue to play music, regardless of where their lives may take them. After that, we closed out the show with another set.
Conveniently, the South Lyon Hotel was nearby when the hard work of breaking down and loading up was done. Pizza and refreshments for everyone. Even had live entertainment!
Tonight, Ron and I played the Baseline Folk Society open stage show. Dave and Lisa are out doing some White Water Rafting in Pennsylvania (wear those helmets guys!). With it being the last one of the season until September, all the usual suspects were out. Darwin Mamassian, Kathy Nieman, Bill Nedela, Dan and Andy Yando, Rise Again and many others kept the crowd entertained all evening. We played three originals tonight: Irish Love Song, Help Me Be Good and Nothin’ All Day.
We had quite a few supporters representing tonight as well. It never ceases to amaze me how people come out on their weekend evenings to hear us. Nichole and her friend Tawny came from, like, a million miles away. Michelle, Steve, Will and Nicole made it a family event. Karen (the birthday girl this weekend), of course represented the Natiw family (and didn’t kill me for scheduling that practice on her birthday). Great time had by all. Can’t tell you how much it means to have you all show up from time to time.
So that’s it for the 2007-2008 open mic season. It’s been a blast. East River and Baseline are such great places to play. I got my start as a solo performer at Baseline in 2006 and Dave, Lisa and I did our first show as Arlington Station there in November of ‘07. And, finally, we’ve met so many great musicians and friends at these shows. Both organizations have been very good to us.
We have no intention of slowing down now, though! We’ve got a few more shows on the schedule for the next two or three months. This friday we’ll be back in South Lyon at Brew Waters Coffee Shop (don’t tell the Gallery Cafe folks!). Next month we have a private party and another great show at one of our favorite places to play, Solid Grounds Coffee Shop. And, finally, we have a show booked in August out in Pinckney at Mainly Chocolate and Coffee. I think Karen and Lisa are really looking forward to checking out this venue!
We’ll keep on working hard to keep the shows fresh. Mainly because it’s just so much fun to play, but also because we love making music for you when you have the time to spend with us. Let’s have some fun this Friday at Brew Waters!
I’m off to finish a late night “victory” bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and go up to bed (I’d make a great rock star, no?). Thanks again for the great memories from this weekend.
See you soon,
John
AST
Making Do With Two
Ron and I went downriver to the East River Folk Society open stage show Saturday night. Those folks always put on a great show, so we were happy to be a part of it. Ron and I played three brand new songs. We started with a “folky” version of Montomery Gentry’s What Do You Think About That. After a few bars of not having any of Ron’s fiddle in the monitor, things got corrected and we dug in and played hard.
We did a new original and an old one as well. Help Me Be Good was written last week and debuted by me at the Solid Grounds open mic on Tuesday night. Ron and I made a few arrangement updates and brought it out for the second time.
Although I wrote An Irish Love Song in 2004, this song has not been played out much. Ron and I messed around with it Thursday night and it seemed to finally “have what it was missing”. We made a few arrangement changes and, viola!, it was party ready.
After spending awhile chatting up our number one downriver fan, Nichole, in the parking lot, we headed home. We have one more folk society open mic show this Saturday. We’re going to miss doing these shows all summer long, but we look forward to returning in September.
Contrary to what I said in the newsletter, we’re about to start a stretch of three shows in EIGHT days (I really CAN count… one, two, four…). We’ll have the full band together again for a show at the Gallery Cafe Coffee Shop in South Lyon Friday, 6/20. Ron and I will be playing at the Baseline Folk Society show on Saturday, 6/21. And we’ll be doing another full band show in South Lyon the following Friday, 6/27 at Brew Waters.
Hope to see you there!
John
AST
Again with the Fries… With a Slice of Americana
It started in Ypsilanti. Last Saturday we met with Jen to get some nice photos for our website and to use in our flyers. We recently saw a great fundraiser show at the Corner Brewery in Ypsi. The proceeds went to the Freighthouse. Seemed like a great place to get a few shots and maybe give the cause a little publicity.
Then it was off to other area sites. The Fire Station Museum in town and a walk through the neighborhood yielded some great shots..
Off we went to Ann Arbor. But not before stopping for what we believe was one of the worst fast food experiences we can remember. We ordered fries, a sprite and a chocolate milkshake. Without getting into details, the best way to describe it is probably using the words of Ron: “THAT my friends, was a slice of Americana”. We almost lost daylight completely. We wondered aloud during the shoot “what would they have done if we had ordered a meal involving protein???”
Moving through downtown Ann Arbor, we found our way along Huron River Drive. It was there that we found some amazing backdrops to shoot the band. Not to mention getting Jen’s camera a little wet while throwing rocks off a railway overpass into a pond… with a deer carcass in it… but I digress.
Thanks to Jen for the wonderful shots. As with everything we do, we had a great time.
Hope you enjoy the photos,
John
Arlington Station
