California Guitar Trio Diaries Bert's Diary
California Guitar Trio Diaries
Sunday 20th. April, 2008
April 20, 2008 I'm on my way home after the tour, on a plane to Chicago. The last three days of the tour were pretty hectic: on Wednesday we drove 380 miles from Phoenix to Los Angeles, for a sold out concert at the Cerritos Center for the Arts. Notable on this performance was the Questions and Answers session onstage, after we played the last encore. Paul did a great job talking to the audience. There was a lot of questions, and the promoter had to jump in at one point because it was getting too late.
On Thursday we did another long drive to Santa Cruz for a concert at Don Quichote's. This is a performance space inside a Mexican restaurant. Sounds strange? It is! Fortunately the bar and main restaurant is in a different room; we actually have a very nice listening room available there, and we had a great audience.
On Friday we played a stellar performance at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California. Our friend Patricia Fripp, a professional public speaker, introduced us onstage, telling the audience about our connection with her brother Robert, and gave a brief history of the CGT. She prepared the audience for something very special; when we walked on they were really excited to see us.
Last night we played our final performance at the Sutter Creek Theater, near Sacramento. On our way to sound check we stopped at a local winery in the area for a little wine tasting on the patio and to toast our upcoming last gig of this Spring tour.
Poster for the Cerritos concert in LA.
Having a drink after the concert with Tyler, Ron Brewer and Mark Perry.
Trying to get a little rest during a long ride in the van...
Patricia Fripp assisting Lori with CD sales in Berkeley; merchandizing went through the roof!
At Young's winery before our last show in Sutter Creek, CA.
Last night we played at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix, Arizona, a great little venue in town with a welcoming audience; it's always fun to play there. Linda Cushma opened for us with a short set of songs. With her radiant presence and music she created a good atmosphere for us to start our concert.
Below are a few photo's from the gig, taken by Diego.
Linda Cushma, opening the concert and creating good vibrations in the room for the CGT.
Hideyo
Paul
Bert
With Tyler on melodica and Tillie on kazoo during Tubular Bells.
Are we having fun yet?
Below are three photos by Don Manion from our concert on Saturday at the Grind in Cedar City, Utah.
Flagstaff, Arizona. Saturday evening we played a concert at the Grind Coffeehouse in Cedar City. Besides incredible espresso's they have a really great performance venue. This concert was just about perfect: the promoter took great care of us, was a very fair guy; and the people who attended the show and the staff were just plain wonderful. The music flowed from our hands into the room...a big contrast with last night's show in Sedona, where we felt very tense and constricted on stage, and we did not enjoy playing as usual.
But we had our a little moment of joy and freedom: Tillie joined us onstage to play the kazoo during Tubular Bells.
Below are a few photo's from our drive to Flagstaff the other day; we drove through two national parks(Zion and Grand Canyon). It was a spectacular day..
Our new upgraded GPS navigation system.
After our 12-hour/800 mile drive on Wednesday we all enjoyed a 'day off' on Thursday. I slept in, spent what was left of the morning in a local coffee shop, and attended a Bikram yoga class in the afternoon. In the evening we all went to our local favorite Mexican restaurant the Red Iguana for Killer Mexican food and jalapeno margaritas.
Yesterday we played at the Holladay Church in Salt Lake City. Paul suggested I play a solo piece before we go on. I played Mudarra's Fantasia X, a piece originally written for vihuela, that I arranged for the steel string guitar. It's scary to be up on stage by yourself! I was pretty nervous but I managed to stay in touch with m breathing and my body while playing. My heart was beating quite fast and I was a little shaky but I was grounded.
The new CGT pieces are getting more confident every night; Hideyo's solo at the end of our latest (still untitled) piece had a great energy.
At the merchandizing table with Tillie and Lori.
I-80 from Ashland to Salt Lake City; today's drive is 800 miles. We drove through some amazing and desolate landscapes, entering Nevada from Oregon.
On Monday we played at the Playhouse in Arcata, California; A fun gig with a great opener: Champagne Palace. At the end of the concert we played a Grateful Dead song(China Doll) with vocalist Steve Anderson. He has a great voice; it works really well with the trio sound. I hope we'll have a chance to perform and record with Steve again in the future.
Opening group Champagne Palace at the Playhouse in Arcata, Ca.
Photo stop at the Trinidad light house.
Yesterday eve we played a concert at Mobius, a good listening venue downtown Ashland. Unfortunately the concert was not promoted well. We ended up playing for a very small group of (wonderful)people.
At sound check we came up a few more ideas for the new pieces, worked them out backstage, and performed them onstage.
After the concert I went down the road to a local bar with our friend Donella, Paul and Tillie to hear a blue grass band play. It was refreshing to hear a pure acoustic performance again, with great players. I enjoyed every minute of it!
We're driving on I-5 from Eugene, Oregon to Arcata, California. We're getting close to Grants Pass, where we'll cut through the mountains and the 'Avenue of the Giants'.
Last night we played at WOW hall in Eugene, with special guest Jarrod Kaplan, playing percussion. He joined us onstage during the last part of our concert. Jarrod adds a great energy to the trio, and that was definitely a highlight yesterday. At sound check we decided to try one of our new pieces(Cathedral Peak)with percussion; Jarrod's playing gave a new life to the piece; exciting!
After the show we stopped by the Ninkasa Brewery to say hello to our friend Jamey, owner and founder of this new great beer. He was working all night until 6 am the next morning. I tasted a double IPA(Tricerahops) and a red ale(Believer)in the brewery, surrounded by beer barrels, fermentation tanks and the great waft of fresh malts and dried hops.
Sound check with percussionist Jarrod
Ninkasi brewery in Eugene, Oregon.
In the Redwood forest, near Grants Pass.
Sound check in Forest Grove, Oregon.
What a great show last night at PAC University in Forest Grove...we played in a small theater with acoustics 'to die for', and from the moment we walked on, played our first notes and felt nice vibes from the audience, we knew this was going to be 'a good one'. We can never take it for granted, but yesterday everything was effortless, inspiring and full of joy. One of the highlights for me was Paul's slide playing on Sleepwalk; when he hit the first notes they were absolutely perfect.
It's really great for me to feel better as well; during the entire last tour I had a nasty flu that wouldn't go away for weeks. Now I'm happy to be healthy again!
Performance at Beacock Music store in Vancouver, Washington.
We spent a few days downtown Portland, rehearsing for our upcoming tour. We mainly worked on new original material, and also on a Grateful Dead song.
It's been fun to stay downtown Portland; there's lots of great coffee shops, brewpubs and restaurants everywhere. On this upcoming tour we have Lori, Tyler's girlfriend with us, and also my daughter Tillie; she'll be our merchandizer for the next few weeks.
Our first concert at Beacock Music store was fun too: we played upstairs in a room away from the store, with lots of people. This concert was sponsored by Breedlove guitars, and behind us on the stage there was an array of guitars on display. You can see some of them on the picture above. The concert was intimate, challenging and fun; we included quite a few new pieces.
We had a group guitar meeting yesterday in Malvern, PA with the Malvern Guitar Circle(name still subject to approval), for now a group of seven people. We spent all day practicing and playing music at the house of George. The day flew by so fast! We started out with some technical work, but soon switched over to 'playtime', and worked on new repertoire for the group: a lovely piece named 'snow swept'. At the end of the meeting we rocked out during a one hour group improvisation. It was a real fun and inspiring day; a great beginning of a new guitar circle here in Pennsylvania. Here is a few photo's by our host George:
Shoes by the front door..
Mike
Jim, mastering the espresso machine and providing incredible desserts.
Nancy
Thursday eve in Charleston , WV: Our best backstage experience of the entire tour: catering by Margy!
Friday eve, jamming backstage with Eric and Julie Slick of the Adrian Belew Power Trio. They played Pipeline with us at the end of our set:fun!. (photo by Kurt)
Tyler Trotter(sound engineer and producer of our new CD Echoes), after the concert at Whitaker Center in Harrisburg. (photo by Kurt)
Signing CD's after the Harrisburg show: it's good to be home again!(photo by Kurt Bertelmehs)
Workshop in Sellersville, filmed by a local TV station. (Photo by Kurt)
Another photo from the workshop(by Kurt)
Final performance of this tour at the Sellersville Theater in Pennsylvania. This photo was taken during the piece Echoes.(photo by Kurt)A Random "Blast From The Past":
Wednesday 6th. October, 2004
11:45 am, highway 5 South to Los Angeles. Today is Tillie's birthday, Im missing her a lot. In the van I'm still wading through takes of the Preludes from the Cello Suites. Paul lent me his objective ear; he selected the best tracks of Cellosuite nr 1 and the Sarabande from the first Violin Partita. Im more than halfway through the process of track selecting. This is the most time consuming; once the tracks are selected the editing and mixing will go quite fast( I hope).
11:30 pm
Ervin Somogyi joined us for lunch today. Ervin built custom guitars for the CGT in '96. We used the guitars for several years and used them on "Pathways" and "Rocks the West". Ervin has a lot of wisdom and insight, and a great sense of humor. We met in the lobby of the hotel, and Hideyo was still on his way down. He saw Tyler, shook his hand and said:"Hideyo, you have changed!".
Ervin is recovering from triple bypass heart surgery, and we talked with him about doing a benefit concert in the Bay area to help him pay the bill. He told us that he believes that something good will come out of this experience. I quote: "Nothing comes out of nothing, and this was quite something...".
Last night we played at the Little fox theater in Redwood City, near San Francisco. This is a wonderful venue with a great atmosphere, excellent promoter and staff.
Tom played a beautiful first prelude from the well-tempered clavier during sound check. I hope he includes it in his set very soon. He invited me for the last piece of his opening set: Victor's Chase.
I felt rather tense during most of the concert; Paul felt the same; its impossible to determine where these things come from, but it didn't seem to affect the overall performance very much. I have learned to let go of how I feel onstage because if I get upset about it, I am no longer present with the performance.
We played for a full house. Barber's Adagio was a highlight. The restroom is very close to the stage; some guy went to take a leak in the toilet with the door open and flushed, just as we were playing the very quiet ending of the piece. How insensitive! Anyway it made us laugh.
After the concert I enjoyed a short visit with dear friends Igor, Doug and Lance from the Geary Street Quartet.
