Utah Arts Festival

I'm sort of late with this. Spent the summer moving to a new house, setting up the "man cave", and dealing with a new status as landlord for my old house. So I finally processed several recordings I did at this summer's Art Festival. I caught several acts, mostly using my hat mikes and a new Sony D50 flash recorder. The exception was John Henry, where I brought out a bigger rig, and managed to avoid getting it soaked in the big rainstorm (see resulting rainbow above). I have some great samples of the music from several groups on the Rev Willis web site (scroll to the link at the bottom of the Home page), or click the links after each of the following pics.

John Flanders seems to play with about 20 groups during the festival. He must make enough dough during this one event to retire for the winter (does he ski?). Anyway, he played in a new group (at least to me) from Park City. Highlighted by the great pipes of Alicia Faith, Radius thoroughly entertained the cafe audience.

Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Ken Critchfield is a bassist who tends toward free jazz and total improv. His group Seraphim combines music with spoken word.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

A festival favorite is Zion Tribe. They finished their set with the best version of Turning Point that I've heard them do. Flanders on sax, of course.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Following Zion Tribe was the one man band, That One Guy! He played a weird home brew pipe device with more contact mikes and effects than I could ever figure out. Amazing stuff! He's occasionally associated with the Mermen, a bay area psychedelic surf music band, and one of my favorites. TOG had to compete with bleed from some sort of Neal Diamond clone band, but he blew my mind (as you'll probably hear).
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

John Flanders was on the festival schedule with his own group, the expanded Double Helix (Ryan Shephard on trombone). He introduced a new tune, Latin Blues, which had some great percussion sequences.
Click here to direct to the tunes site.

Finally, we have John Henry, the best jazz combo in SLC. The guys started out hot, but got cooled off by a major rain shower which shut down the electricity. Well, not too cooled off, they came out to play a couple gospel tunes as acoustic, for the packed audience seeking shelter from the storm. Where Derek got the accordian, I'll never know (for a solo on a Monk tune).
I've linked to their Meat Grinder for a musical example.

A great festival for music, more than I could catch. Also some fine art, I spent way too much on neato glass sculptures.

San Rafael--Morning After

My friend Rod, with his super digital SLR and its incredi-lens, braved the cold morning air for these shots of the San Rafael desert at daybreak. Great pics... Click on the pic to get a larger image.

San Rafael--Lunizul Ruins

I can't get enough of the Utah desert. The quiet, the peace, the beauty... the desert satisfies my spiritual longing. The San Rafael is easy to access, and offers great camping, beautiful vistas, and some fun hiking. Last Spring, while hiking around the Mexican Mt. road, I spied what looked like a cool camping spot. So this weekend, Rodney and I spent a couple days in the desert at this wonderful spot, right on the bank of the San Rafael river. I call the area Lunizul Ruins, since a maker for the area is a stack of old timbers and an old well pipe, and, of course, Lunizul is the camping tequila of choice in these recession times. Here's some pics of the ruins and the camping spot (click on the pics for a larger image).






That's Rodney's tent. He pitched it under a neat outcropping at the end of the riverbank.


As I mentioned, we were camped right on the river, and area defined by arching cottonwoods (leaves just beginning to change with the Fall weather). The trees, and up and down the river.




Another icon of the camping spot was this old tree trunk monolith.


After supper, we had enough light for a short hike around the area, resulting in this nice shot of the San Rafael river.


As the last light of the sunset dimmed, I turned around to catch the full moon peeking around a butte. Pretty spectacular (actually, the moon was a couple days short of full, but still bathed the desert in light until morning).



Earlier, Rodney spent some time reviving a neat fire pit, then we went out on a wood gathering expedition, resulting in a cool camp fire. An ace photographer, Rod took this shot of me, the old sage of the campfire.


The next morning, we loaded up on carbs, my famous sleazy huevos rancheros, and headed out to the Black Box trail. The San Rafael river is weird, creating geological perspective dissonance. For a couple miles beyond the San Rafael campground and bridge, the river is right next to the campgrounds that line the river. Fourteen miles down the road at Mexican Mt., the river is again right next to hikers and campers. However, in between, the river cuts a very deep canyon, perhaps as much as 1000 feet deep, called the Black Box. A couple years ago, we hiked into the Black Box around the middle of the canyon. This year, we decided to take the second trail, nearer the head of the canyon. Here's Rod at the trailhead.


The trail follows a stream wash for about a quarter mile. Then we noticed a cairn and trail off to the left. Which way to go? Thankfully we chose the trail. As we climbed above the wash, we saw the need for a trail. Another quarter mile the wash turned into a deep side canyon with a major dropoff. First the dropoff, then a shot of the side canyon toward the Black Box.





As we progressed along the trail, I decided to take a break and use my intense mental powers on a small boulder... right in half, like a hot knife through butter...


Soon we reached on overlook where the side canyon met the San Rafael river, a confluence considered the head of the Black Box.


A short hike further and we could see the full Black Box area of the San Rafael. First a shot down river, where it flows around Mexican Mt., through more canyons to the Green River, and eventually to the Colorado.


And now a shot up river, west towards the San Rafael campground, the Wedge, and eventually the headwaters in the Manti mountains.


Right below our vantage point were some neat rapids. So I leaned way over the cliff's edge to get this shot (yeah, right, thankfully I have long arms...).


And a neat rock spire sticking out of the cliff wall.


Finally, from the cliff over the river, we got a great panoramic view of the San Rafael desert. Here's three shots.





Another satisfying trip. We found a couple other roads down to the river we want to take in the future, so next Fall I suspect we will take a followup trip to the San Rafael.

Joshua Payne Orchestra

Joshua Payne has been an iconoclastic guitar player around the SLC area for many years. He has a unique style that he seems to apply to whatever genre of music he's playing. I recorded him with several groups many years ago, then he disappeared to NYC. When he returned, I never seemed to connect with any of his gigs. Finally, the other night at the Urban Lounge, I had a chance to check out his new orchestra... and I was not disappointed.

Josh still maintains his "free jazz", or at least experimental jazz, stance. The orchestra performs outrageous compositions, and included (I can't even believe I heard a jazz band play this at a local club) a Stockhausen composition, "Set Sail For the Sun". Marvelous stuff. Josh has assembled a fine cast of musicians to realize his musical vision. I hope to hear more from this group in the near future. In the meantime, you can check out some tunes, pics, and info at his web site.

Ranch Antics

No better way to celebrate the Fourth than in genuine 'Merican fashion... drinking with friends! So this holiday weekend had us meeting up at the Ranch once again... (Click on the pics for a larger image).


Some of us do the tent thing... some of us do it in the tent... tent raising, or whatever was rising, was evident...


There was some concern about Bill's health... but he had a new hat and was looking good...


The 4th at the Ranch has gotten out of hand, people-wise, in the past. So there are some new posted rules...


Harry was looking good, as was Auntie Caroline...



Girls, girls, girls...



Jane brought this year's theme napkin...


Of course there was music. Esther "discovered" a three women band who added to the musical spice...


Along with Mark and David, we had a good musical day...



Harry's got Frankie working on singing and on the piano. Her Spanish song was a big hit. And the duet with Harry was priceless...



More of the younger generation. Colton, my grandson (long story, actually part of Bill's lineage somewhere down the line) is cute beyond belief...


And Angelo showed up. Getting into the teenage years, now, he will get all the girls... (kinda looking like a young Keith Richards... before the drugs...).


The day before was Bobby D's birthday. Nice apron, birthday boy!


It's a ranch, so you gotta have horses...


After all the drinkin'... gotta get some grub...


And after the grub, more drinkin'... Usually breakfast the next morning doesn't happen much before noon, for some obvious reasons... But this year, Pat showed up early in the morning and got things started...


A satisfied customer...


Thanks to Bill and Julie for another great summer camp out. And thanks to all the musicians for the tunes. And thanks to my own self restraint allowing me to survive!

Lost Clowboy Desert III

More interesting blooming. This garden continues to surprise me.




The weather has turned quite hot, with no rain in sight. I suspect that I've seen the last of the desert in my front yard for the year. Ooops! I forgot the sunflowers! Another blaze of glory will soon appear.

Father's Day--Starving Musician Son

Some of you know that my son, Willis, is a musician (starving) in Los Angeles. Although he's not scored the big success yet, I'm quite proud of his accomplishments: Masters from USC, a great CD, and many interesting gigs (just not yet enough of them). As a dutiful son, he called me last weekend wishing me a Happy Father's Day. So I though I'd pass on some pics of him from a recent performance. While I'm back from my trip to France, Willis was in Paris in May, backing up the famous European pop diva, Jeanne Mas.

First, the gig promotion at the Olympia Theater in Paris...


And leading backstage for the musicians...


A rehearsal...



And the band, Willis on the far left...


And the gear, big Marshall stacks for the guitar god...




Some shots from the performances...



With the Diva...



A successful concert...


Of course Willis has a life of his own, and it's hard to keep up with him. I have to sneak a look at his MySpace page now and then to catch up. I also update his website on occasion with more pics, movies, and tunes. All in all, he makes me a proud father.

Oh, one more pic from the Paris gigs... Really a great shot from the audience...