COLBIE CAILLAT
DIRTY MARTINI
The Crystal Ballroom
1332 West Burnside
Portland, OR
7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show
$15 advance, $17 day of show
All ages

One of Dirty Martini’s uber fans shot a smogasbord of video from a performance earlier this month. You can watch several more clips from our set here.

Dirty Martini will be sharing the bill with Universal recording artist Colbie Caillat on Sept 10th at the Crystal Ballroom.

Here are some quick pics from my show with the Floydian Slips last weekend. Needless to say it was epic.

Interesting little factoid for Aug 16th: the very first compact disc rolled off the assembly lines 25 years ago today. What was on that first CD you may ask? It was ABBA’s album “The Visitors.” I was smitten with the CD when it first came out and like a lemming I hit the music stores and replaced a huge portion of my vinyl collection with the new “superior format.” Remember when the CD sleeves would would indicate what part of the recording process was analog and which was digital? Discs would have ADD or AAD referring to recorded in analog, mastered in digital and manufactured in a digital compact disc. My friend and then band mate, Paul, gave me the first DDD CD by a band called Flim and the BB’s. It was kind of this progressive Jazz type of band. I also remember that Elton John’s live in Australia (which is like the last good CD he ever released) was the first live DDD album I’d ever seen.

I’m probably the equivalent of a first grader when it comes to understanding the Jazz world. I spent some time practicing to some of the most well known Jazz recordings in the hopes that I might pick up a lick or two. One of my favorite guys to practice to was Max Roach. He was just a tremendous drummer and, from what I’ve read, a great human being. He will be missed.

We had several amazing photographers at the Pickathon this year. Here’s a link to one group of images. Thanks to David Owen for the snaps. Link

Sometimes it’s a headache to be in several different musical projects however at times it can also be really rewarding because you get to play more really cool gigs. On Friday I got to play the main stage at the Bite of Oregon with the Renegade Saints then on Sunday I got to play a kick ass set with Dirty Martini. I relish each opportunity to play on those really big stages because I get more comfortable and more confident about my playing (even when the guitar player looks like he’s half a mile away). There have been times when I’ve been so nervous on those giant festival stages that it’s seemed almost like torture getting through a set. But I seemed to have turned a corner and have been having a great time (must be the booze). This weekend I’m off to play another massive stage..the Cuthbert Amphtheatre in Eugene Oregon.

Well..where to begin. I guess I’ll start how we put this stellar lineup of music together: Pickathon llc has three partners, Zale, Terry and myself. Each one of us is tapped into our own unique genre of music. I’m more alt/rock/singer-songwriter, Zale is bluegrass and Terry is connected to the roots/americana scene. For the last three years we have created the festival music lineup blending all of these styles together thus creating a new genre (coined by Pickathon) called indie-roots. One of my favorite examples of this genre is the Avett Brothers who blend Bluegrass/Punk/folk (I’ll have video from their Sunday night performance at Pickathon but here they are on Conan O’brian a few weeks back Watch).

Ultimately this new genre is what seperates Pickathon from any other festival in the country. More to come…

Avett Brothers at Pickathon

It’s over. I can now peel off the festival owner hat and return to being a simple drummer. I’ll have ton’s of content to post in coming days from what was easily the best Pickathon ever. One more night of going to bed at 8pm should get me back on track.

More to come…