Going WEST

Pictured:  Blues Singer's AC across TX. 

Rushing runoff in McCall, ID.

The view from the Miller Stage at Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival.

Redi Jedi and the Space Needle in Seattle.

Colin and Eric Lindell rocking in Alexandria, LA.

With the help of my friend Matt who put a new clutch in my truck, I was able to get on the road by noon on Friday, May 8th. 

 That night, I opened for Eric Lindell to a packed house at Spirits in Alexandria, LA.  Later in the evening, Eric invited me to join he and his band on lap-steel.  We played several songs together including a rousing rendition of the Allman's "One Way Out".  The folks in Alexandria always treat me well and this night was no exception.

The following day I headed down to Lafayette to open for The Iguanas, a New Orleans favorite.  From Lafayette, I made my way into the Texas Hill Country for a few days and then on into West Texas where I played the Railroad Blues bar in Alpine.  Texas is pretty warm in May and in the afternoons I would pull a hand towel out from a bucket of ice that I refilled each morning, ring it out, and lay it on my head as I drove.  It's an effective but slightly less glamorous alternative to AC.

On my way back north, I also played in Las Cruces, NM and Silverton, CO where I got to spend time with my friends Sally and Mike Barney as well as make all sorts of new high-altitude friends.  

Of course I also played McCall, ID once again, and while I was there, my buddy Mike Green took me for a Kayak trip down the upper Payette River.  Nothing too crazy, but an incredible ride with incredible views.  At one point we found ourselves less than 50 yards from a young male moose who was enjoying the last of the afternoon sun on the banks of the river.  He stood still for over two minutes as we hung out in an eddy watching him.

Eventually I made it home to Portland, where it was time to reconvene with my band and prepare for a run of NW shows.  Over Memorial Day weekend, we played the Folklife Festival in Seattle.  Our set there went well, but the experience was marred later in the evening when a few thousand dollars worth of equipment was stolen from Paul's (our drummer) vehicle.  

Recent shows with Wellbottom have sounded very good and I've been excited to integrate some of what I've learned in New Orleans into our sound and our set.   

The past few weeks have kept me very busy.  We've been working on new demo recordings during the week and last weekend we played the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival here in Portland.  On Sunday we played the Miller Main Stage and were joined by an excellent horn section; Matt Crampton on trumpet and Marc Hutchinson on Sax.  

The Northwest is an incredible place to be during the summer and I am glad to be here. Temperatures are perfect and the days are long.  Life up here is relatively easy and safe and we are insulated from the problems that riddle many other American cities.  

A call came from New Orleans a few weeks ago letting me know that the landlord at my first house there had just been found dead of a crack overdose. 

Thoughts on New Orleans

Pictured: entrance to the St. Roch Cemetary in the upper 9th ward. Mardi Gras Indians at Jazzfest. Trombone Shorty, late night. Behind the scenes at a lemonade stand near the Jazzfest entrance. Street-style; playing for $ and respect on Royal Street in the French Quarter.

Where to start? Jazzfest has just ended and I'm in the midst of preparations for my tour home to the Northwest. I have made a staggering number of new and great friends here in NOLA and throughout Lousiana. I am humbled and flattered by how well my music has been received since arriving here in January. I have come a long way from the first dreary nights that I spent on the floor of a run-down shotgun house on Montegut Street. Without power, heat or appliances, with few friends and little knowledge of the city, I would occasionally wonder how I ended up in New Orleans, but I never questioned why. I came here on a mission to learn more about the music that I have been in love since the first time I heard it and to meet the folks that make it all happen. In a few short months I've done and seen things I never thought I would, all the while enjoying the company and incredible generosity of some of the most genuine people on earth.

As so many classic New Orleans songs will tell you, this is a city with huge soul and unique tradions that are truly worth keeping alive. Last Saturday at Jazzfest, I listened to Irma Thomas explain the concept of a Second Line to 50,000 folks from around the country. "In New Orleans we celebrate everything", she said. "Anniverseries and divorces, birthdays and backaches, life and death. When you hear the beat, you put your hankerchief in the air, and your backfield in motion." That's good advice from the Soul Queen of New Orleans.

After spending a few months - or even days - in New Orleans, it becomes little wonder why folks down here dance at eachothers funerals and why millions of people continue to flock to the city year after year.

The next time somebody asks me - in song or conversation - "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?", the answer will be simple.

Never a Dull Moment

Pictured: St. Patrick's day on 3rd st. The TBC Brass Band on a Tuesday night.

New Orleans is a town brimming with all sorts of important traditions. Until last week, I had little idea that St. Patrick's Day was one of them. On the day itself hundreds of people gather outside of the Uptown haunt Parasols. From 10am til dark, 3rd street is packed with people dressed in green who are eager to celebrate the Irish holiday and excercise their right to drink in the street. I was invited to a party called Don-a-palooza that day. The Don in question is a guitarist in the well known New Orleans reggae band the Revealers whose house is sits right in the midst of the St. Patricks/Parasols madness. On this day, Don's back yard had been transformed to an outdoor music venue which played host to 8 bands in 8 hours. There was an indie rock band from New England comprised of 14 year olds that were on their way to showcase at SXSW in Austin. There was a Pretenders cover band. There was an uber-tight soul band, and of course the "Nawlins style Reggae" of the Revealers. At one point as Don waited for one of the bands to show up, he asked if I could play for a bit. I sat in with an all female blues band for a few tunes, and then played for myself before being joined on the fly by a high-school age drummer who could hold it down.

As everyone else imbibed into the evening, I remained relatively sober. At around midnight I jumped in the car with my friend Max to drive through the night to Austin, TX. Max was going to Austin to help WWOZ (the greatest radio station on earth, www.wwoz.org) broadcast from the SXSW festival/conference. I was going to Texas for a little R&R with a special friend of mine in the Hill Country. After a few days we headed in to town and on Sunday morning, got to see the Lee Boys play a Gospel Brunch at Threadgills. The Lee Boys are a gospel/R&B outfit from Miami, FL (www.leeboys.com) that have a great take on the "Sacred Steel" style of music that until recently was only played in far away churches. My trip to Texas was very relaxing, save for the 600 mile drives-through-the-night in each direction.

Tonight my friend Rob took me to hear the Ragin' Cajun, James Carville speak at Dillard University. Carville, the democratic political strategist and cable news contributor, often lectures to students and currently teaches a class at Tulane. Mr. Carville spent most of the time talking about how to communicate effectively; be simple, repetitive and have a narrative. Not surprising coming from somebody who has honed his chops in a world of cable news soundbites and fleeting attention spans. During the question and answer period, I posed a question critical of the corporate-political-media machine in which he is entrenched. James was a good sport but my question did seem to have him a little hot under the collar and before long he was giving me a not-so-subtle brush-off. Afterword I thanked him for taking my question and we enjoyed free punch and cookies together.

Next, we headed over to the Candlelight to see the Treme Brass Band. The Candlelight is located in the Treme neighborhood - a neighborhood rich in African American culture and music. The TBB plays the Candlelight every Wednesday night and it is something to see! The horn players roll in at a leisurely pace and eventually when everyone is seated on or near the stage, a few drum hits signal the beginning of a great night of traditional New Orleans brass band music. The band is lead by snare drum player Benny Jones and bass drummer Uncle Lionel Batiste. Uncle Lionel is always dressed to impress and umistakable in look and presence. It's best to keep him away from your women. Tonight the band was joined by Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on baritone sax and by Trombone Shorty, among others. All on a Wednesday night....

Down on the Bayou

Pictured: A Cypress swamp near New Iberia, LA. A 1930's era Dobro. Colin with the Theus Krewe in Alexandria.

Earlier this month, I played a house concert in Alexandria, LA, about a three hour drive west and north of New Orleans. The concert was hosted by Graves Theus who runs the Alexandria Music Project. Graves is a good friend of my friend in Portland, Fabio Apolito, which his how this gig came to be.

The show was a great success and I was introduced to all sorts of new people.

After the show, I was invited to head down to Bayou Teche, a bayou (slow moving river) near New Iberia, for an oyster feed and party the next day. So rather than heading back to New Orleans on Saturday, I headed south through Lafayette and onto a series of swampy, backwoods roads that eventually led to Bayou Teche. I was greeted by a great goup of folks and some of the best food I've experienced down here yet. After dinner I played for a while with a zydeco musician named Mojo who tours the world with his band, The Bayou Gypsies (http://www.redhotmojo.com/). Mojo was patient with me as I followed him through a couple of Cajun and Swamp Pop tunes that I was hearing for the first time.

My new friends were kind enough to put me up for the night and in the morning I was greeted in the kitchen with a glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice from grapefruits that had been cut down a few minutes earlier. I spent the rest of the morning playing on a 1930's era dobro that Joel, my host, had picked up at a pawn shop in northern Illinois many years ago.

This was quite a weekend and I look forward to my next trip to Alexandria and/or New Iberia... who knows what could happen.

Idaho again... Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Pictured: A daytime Mardi Gras Parade on St. Charles Blvd.

Papa grows funk at the Howlin' Wolf

The sign out front of Foresters Club in McCall, ID

The Idaho Hills in all their splendor.


Well, it hasn't taken me long to neglect my blog already. It's been over a month since I've posted anything and much has happened since.
In mid February, I flew home to Oregon where I reconvened with my band for a short tour of Idaho. The tour took shape a few weeks earlier when I was asked if we could open for JJ Grey and Mofro (mofro.net) at the Knitting Factory in Boise. After a few phone calls, it became apparent that we could make it work and soon after, my flight was booked. The tour also took us back to McCall, ID, where invariably we are treated like kings. (see photo above)

Upon my return to New Orleans, Mardi Gras was in full swing. Parades snaked around the city for a week straight and time began mean less and less to me. When it finally ended, I felt as though I had traveled to a different planet and back.

Gimme Shelter

Pictured: Chauncey the Bywater goat, enjoying sun.
also: the northbound entrance to the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway. 24 miles; the longest bridge in the world. and:
Nick filtering vegetable oil for fuel in his diesel truck. and:
The first set of new tiles for Chartres Street.


I've been in New Orleans for a little over a week and played one show so far. I've been able to check out some music and see the town, but much of my first week has been spent shaping up the shotgun style house that I'll be living in. The house is on Montegut street in the Bywater, very close to the river and not far from Frenchmen Street and the French Quarter.
Our landlord hasn't exactly been holding up his end of the bargain and thus I've been living without a few basic creature comforts. Appliances, for instance. On the bright side, I haven't had to spend any time scouring craigslist in search of shelter in a new city.
New Orleans is an American city unlike any other. The streets are alive with sounds and smells hundreds of years in the making and first timers don't have to walk too far to see something they've never seen before. Unlike the very green, clean and presentable city I've been living in, much of New Orleans is pretty rough looking. In many buildings there is plywood where windows should be and much of the city has been reeling for 3.5 years from blows dealt by Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing strife. The roads and highways are a mess (and have been since well before the hurricanes). The streets of the Bywater and the Quarter don't feel much different to a driver than the gravel roads in rural Louisiana. I-10 became noticably more rough as Alex and I crossed the border from Texas to Lousiana.
"Looks like somebody ain't payin' they road taxes", I remarked. More likely, the taxes got paid and the state got billed, but repairs never quite took place.
I'm living here with my friend Nick, a New Orleans native and artist who works in a variety of mediums. Currently he works out of a studio on Burgundy Street where he is hand-making the iconic blue and white New Orleans street tiles that mark streets and intersections throughout the city. Nick has been commissioned to make the first batch of these tiles since the originals were shipped over from Spain in the 1920's. His tiles will soon find their way into New Orleans sidewalks wherever originals are broken or missing and will stay there for years and years to come.
In addition to learning how to get around, I'm learning to adjust to the tempo of the city. It is, in a word, relaxed. This suits me fairly well - most folks who know me understand that I'm not usually in a big hurry. I do, however, maintain a hypocritical expectation that others get things done in a timely fashion. As with music and women, however, things in New Orleans happen just when and as they are supposed to and there is little point in trying to change that.

In a few weeks, I'll be flying back to the Northwest for a series of shows with Wellbottom in Idaho, including an opening set at the Knitting Factory in Boise for JJ Grey and Mofro. We'll also be playing in McCall and Pendleton, OR, two of our favorite towns to play.
I'm hoping to have a stove by the time I get back down here.

NOLA Baby

Pictured: The first sign we saw in Louisiana!
Also, the rose that Mariah gave to me as we played Dante's the night before we left Portland. It traveled with us all 3000 miles to New Orleans.

Alex and I rolled into New Orleans on Sunday evening at around 8.30pm local time. It's about 530 miles from Austin, TX where we spent Friday and Saturday nights. The weather was a bit chilly (still is) and the humidity down here puts an extra nip in the air. We met my friend Nick Hasslock at his ceramic studio on the edge of the French Quarter and took a walk. We stopped into Rays Boom Boom Room to check out an (almost) all-female brass band called the "Big Ass Brass Band". We spent a few hours on Frenchmen Street checking out some local joints and caught some low-down dirty blues; the "Royal Bohemians", late-night at the Apple Barrel.

On Tuesday, JAN 13, Big Al and I got to play a very special show in the town of Alpine, TX. Alpine is located about 220 miles east of El Paso amidst the beauty and desolation of West Texas. It was dry and cold when we rolled into town a little before dusk. Nestled between the train tracks and Holland Ave, you'll find Railroad Blues; an authentic Texas roadhouse. We were greeted with open arms and a very appreciative audience. Thanks once again to Richard, RC and the gang for having us.
We left Alpine the next morning, headed for the town of Bourne (pronounced Bournie). As we moved east, the terrain transformed itself from rough, inhospitable desert to rolling hills, covered in green tree canopies. The hill country is thought of by many as the most beautiful part of Texas. It's beauty was matched only by the generous hospitality of our friend, miss Dawn Marie Cobb, who revived us and provided much needed r&r after 10 shows and 2000 miles in 11 days.

This tour was an ambitious one and thankfully we encountered little difficulty along the way. January in the Rocky Mountains can often be challenging for travelers, especially ones who have a fairly strict schedule to keep. Touring is tiring - Alex and I joked along the way that the name should be changed from 'touring' to 'loading/unloading', as often that seems to be how we spend the majority of our time. I rarely feel armed with a sense of purpose, though, as I do when I get to perform every night, especially in front of new audiences. I've had a week without a gig and I've been anxious to play for a few days now. I'm working away to make sure that me schedule fills up quickly for the coming months.

Texas Bound

Pictured: The sunset in Northern Utah as we headed south toward Ogden, UT.

Resting comfortably at the Motel 6 in Las Cruces, NM at the moment.
Alex and I played a very special show at the Millwood Junction in Mancos, CO last night. The house was packed and it was truly one of the best audiences I've ever played to. Big thanks to Kim Pappin, KSJD fm, and the Millwood for having us.
We are through the mountainous stage of our tour and headed to Alpine, TX tomorrow.

NOPO to NOLA: On the road from Portland to New Orleans

Welcome to www.colinlake.blogspot.com - I've set this blog up to keep people posted and occasionally interested as I travel from Portland, OR to New Orleans, LA and beyond...

I'm writing tonight (this morning) from McCall, ID. I'm touring with my friend Alex Weed, whom I met about six months ago when we played a series of shows in Oregon and Washington.

The tour began on Friday when Alex flew into Portland just in time to open our show at Dante's in downtown Portland. Local blues band Kolvane played after Alex, and I closed the night out with my band Wellbottom - it was my last show in Portland for five months.

The next morning Alex and I loaded everything up and hit the road headed east. Most of my possessions are being stored at my mom's house in Leavenworth, WA and I'm traveling with the things that I need for my tour and my stay in New Orleans - that includes five guitars, an amp and a variety of other gear.

Last night we played Crusty's Pizza here in McCall, ID - it was my second time performing there and we were happy to be as well received as the last time. Due to a cancellation in Boise (thanks to a problem with the Bouquet's liquor license), we stayed in McCall. We were invited to play an impromptu show at Foresters, a large venue here in town. The night went remarkably well and we made a ton of new and wonderful friends. We plan on skiing Brundage Mountain for a few hours in the morning.

Headed to Caldwell, ID to play Music of the Vine tomorrow evening.