Somewhere On The Road Tonight

I figure if I can't laugh at myself, who can I laugh at, so here 'goes nothin'. I've started taking guitar lessons with Alan Thornhill in my old hometown & I've been meaning to ask him if he likes Tony Rice's playing (how could he not?) Meanwhile...

Last week I picked up another Tony Rice CD at Amoeba's on Haight Street, it had some fine songs and all kinds of great picking. So here comes one that sounds pretty familiar, wait, i know that song. Scanning memory, who sang it, mmmm, I think it might be on one of Alan's CDs. I've already misplaced this CD cover, wonder who wrote it, when did it first come out, I'll have to look it up on Alan's CD & learn it, etcetera and so on, like that.

Next day, I dig out the CD cover, oh yeah, Chris Hillman, and what's this Matilija publishing, wait, Chris Hillman lives in Ojai? Rewind, reread the credit and lo, Alan's the other writer. Like I said, if I can't laugh at myself, who can I laugh at?

Gigging

The hard rainy time and pneumonia have passed and now it's allergy season. Yet we persist! A funny thing happened after I recovered, my low range kicked in pretty strong. I'm out & about, having played with Stephen Foster's Indie Songwriters' Tour at Skeleton Key Folk Music Center in Big Bear and Bazaar Cafe in San Francisco.

Now I'm listening to a lot of Spooner Oldham's songs (I call it Spoonerversity 'cause he's a master of groove...) and scheduling gigs.

Top o' the hill to you

12/11/09
Friday morning
San Francisco, CA

Just back from a walk around the hill. Some days life really is just a walk in the park. Neighborhood’s still changing. Today I saw a Land Rover & an Audi parked in front of remodels at the top of my street. Used to be mostly jalopies all over the neighborhood. Some of them might have been mine, I’m not saying for sure, but… alrite, I confess I named my green F100 The Incredible Bulk and bums would use the bed for a bench because the tailgate went missing.

Today some guy was being picked up from the yuppie mansion in the aforementioned block by a limo with smoked out windows. Back in the day there was a crack house across the street and another one at the corner up from his house. “Course during prohibition we had bootleggers. When I first moved to the neighborhood even taxi drivers got lost on our convoluted narrow streets and the cross street was a drop off point for stolen cars.

Now we have a dog park with a drinking fountain for the dogs, one for kids and one for the bigger folks. Only the spigots for dogs and kids are working. We have our priorities. The New York Times writes us up and now tour buses go up there to show off the view. ‘sAlrite, a city always has changing tides & I’ve been bobbing up & down on the waves of this city's history for over 30 years. And people still drive the wrong way on our one-way streets, but nobody comes knocking on the door claiming they need money for Pampers and then turning down the package I have on hand.

In guitar news, I’m still working on healing my left hand, probably have to get sprung from OT and get another cortisone shot soon. I sure wish those tendons in my thumb would calm down! Meanwhile, I may only be able to play one note today, but I’ll make it a good one.

And I’ll take the time to say hey as I pass by.
See you in the music.

Uke 092609

Uke 092609, originally uploaded by ninajosmith.

I've been fooling around online enough today, time to get back to practicing uke.

update

It's been awhile since I've blogged here. Been a few places & back again. I'm still trying to heal my hand, am between bouts of OT, waiting for Brown & Toland to approve another 8 sessions. Meanwhile, ow.

I did get to go to Hawaii for Joey & Takako's wedding last month. Can you believe that sunset? That was their wedding day! While there at Turtle Bay I had an amazing Lomilomi massage where Lei (the masseuse) tied my Psoas muscle in a bow around my neck. Couldn't believe the intensity of that massage, and it was truly the massage of a lifetime. Worth the trip to Oahu for that alone!
I continued on down to Pahoa for several days. Lee was very close the whole time.
I picked up a ukelele in Kona. I've arranged Make Love Not War as a raggae song and am working on a new song inspired by the wedding. (The Lee Side of Love)

Thunder? Storm!

I've been bouncing around the state recently, San Francisco, Ojai, Big Bear; even bounced over to Alabama for awhile to launch my People Places & Sings project. It's a slow cookin' backwards tour.

In LaFayette, Alabama, Janice Key-Walding, The Southern Herbalist, graciously hosted me. It took a couple of weeks, but the trip bore a song called Snake In The Rafters (true story.)

Thanks to Deborah Crooks, you can read more about it at: http://deborahcrooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/nina-jo-smiths-people-places-sings.html

Still working on healing my sprained ankle. The more I hang out with it up on the back of the couch, the better it feels. I'll spare you the technicolor photo.
Instead, here's one of my friend Elisa playing the grand old Steinway at SF's Cadillac Hotel.

Got to see Sonja & Patrick yesterday and subjected them to the icy-wind torture of walking on otherwise beautiful Baker Beach. I love that place for the obvious reason of its natural beauty, also because something special seems to happen every time I go there.

As I reflected on their visit, I was thinking we didn't see anything especially remarkable (unless you count the nude sunbathers....). Then I realized what was special was our being there together!

Wonder of wonders, I'm no longer locked out of my blog.

Here's the Reader's Digest Condensed version of an update since my last posting: I retired from my day job to pursue my music. About that time I developed hand pain that kept me from playing guitar for about 8 months. Grr. After a lot of work to heal, I'm gradually getting back into playing guitar.

I'll be the featured performer at Hotel Utah Open Mic on April 27. This is the liveliest open mic in San Francisco, without a doubt, & I'm really glad to be back.

Hey thanks to everybody who rolled out of their nice warm abodes last
freezing Sunday afternoon to enjoy our Fried Pickles Front Porch Jam
at The Hotel Utah Saloon in San Francisco.

Crystal Eastman of Crystal and the Wolves came down from the mountain with her glowing originals and some traditionals we added harmonies to; Jeanne Foss shone with her wonderful lyrics and cool rhytmic fingerpicking, Ruth Butler anchored us with her bluesy keyboard & tickled us with her uke; Toy Yamaji of Toy House gave us great acoustic rock versions of her great songs; Robin Galante's steady voice and thoughtful lyrics were a marvel of craftsmanship; and I juggled my three guitars and tried not to fall off my chair - the ladies really rocked my new song, Take Me Back, Alabama played on the mighty Lee Mallory 12-string. Thanks, ladies!

The six of us maxed out the Utah's sound board & had every sound guy
in the place working: Clay (unbelievably running sound in spite of a
broken pelvis), Kevin, and our own Jeff Cotton who added his finesse
to the project. And thanks to Mike the booker too, for getting us on
the calendar!

If you missed it, well, we had such a good time jamming that we may
just do something like it again.

All the best and, see you in the music!
--Nina Jo Smith
http://www.redwoodrivermusic.com

My cousin Tiernan has a blog, my friend's daughter Rachel has a blog, hey, I want a blog! Tiernan is traveling in Guatemala & El Salvador and doing good work there. Rachel is studying in France. They are both very cool young women who work to make the world a better place.
If you want to know what I'm up to, you can check out my website www.redwoodrivermusic.com and I'll also post some stuff n' nonsense here.
'Bye for now, folks,
Nina Jo