Joanna Newsom @ the Rio, Santa Cruz, CA, 12/1/06

Time to catch up on all of our travels over the last couple of months. For the second year in a row, Chrissy and I escaped the coldest and darkest days in Fairbanks for sunnier skies down south. Shortly after Thanksgiving, I traveled to San Francisco to hang out with my friends and co-workers at the USGS.

While in California, I happened to catch my favorite harp-toting musician, Joanna Newsom, at the Rio Theater in Santa Cruz. I showed up early to catch the opening act, Smog (aka Bill Callahan) and to commune with the surfers and the hipsters. His set was great…simple, repetitive acoustic guitar, deep and warbley baritone , incredibly wry, funny, warm lyrics. By the fifth song of the set, I was completely hypnotized, so I ran out to the lobby to grab a cup of coffee to snap myself out of it before JN’s set.

I had seen Joanna Newsom at the Gorge in central Washington two summers ago at the Sasquatch festival. On that day, she performed alone, just woman and harp. Since then, she has released her second album, Ys., (my second favorite album of 2006) and put together a six-piece band. The new album has received considerable attention from the critics, and rightfully so, although I won’t go into its grandeur here. I will say, however, that her performance at the Rio Theater on this particular night was absolutely amazing! She began the show by playing a few songs solo, songs off of the old album The Milk-Eyed Mender and a beautiful traditional Irish song. She then brought the band out and played the new album straight through from beginning to end. Her new songs are longer (one is 17 minutes long), less poppy, and more complex than her debut. Live, these songs had evolved from their form on the album. The orchestral strings were replaced by guitar, banjo, a Bulgarian guitar-like instrument, tympani, the musical saw, and accordion. Live, the songs were more driven by rhythm and dynamics, tension and release. On the final song, “Cosmia,” the band broke from the ending on the album version, and instead entered a long jam, taking turns improvising around the rhythmic harp chords, swelling and then fading away, finally ending on a single harp note. It was an amazing show…just what a music-starved guy from Fairbanks needed!

After the concert, I left for a quiet weekend of hiking and camping at Point Reyes National Seashore.

www.nps.gov

It was a beautiful spot...lots of deer and surprisingly few people. Here’s sunset from the beach where I ended up camping.