Flagstaff, Arizona

flew to Flagstaff from LAX yesterday on the most relaxed flight I've ever been on. About half full - maybe 50 people who probably knew almost everyone on the plane. The hostess up front and in her fifties would serve well as a stand up comic, holding her nose and pulling a face when demonstrating how to enter the one restroom. The safety routine ran something like, 'We reckon you've probably figured out the seatbelts by now but just in case.... and surprise, surprise, you cain't smoke'

The views of the snow sprinkled volcanic mountains and tracks, looking like crop circles in same, combined with ponderosa pines casting shadows of about their length was stunning. Tony was on the ground at the tiny airport holding a sign saying, 'SEAN'

Any cars that had overnighted in the car park had about 6-12 inches of snow on and around them. Tony said that this side was north and that it wasn't so bad out at his place. We drove to Flagstaff - very picturesquew and got a couple of things from the store - including the 'wrong' flour.

Tony's house is down a long lane with several other house, all on a couple or three acres - hard to tell as it's flat with hardly a fence. They share a new puppy with their daughter who lives, most of the time in an apartment in their house - They've moved downstairs. The frond door is on the upstairs level and downstairs, the back. Soon after arriving, I went out the back door for a smoke. Sue came out before I finished and told me that the stange bird that ran right in front of us was a roadrunner that'd been hanging around for a few weeks now.

This morning, I looked out the window and Tony and Sue were shoveling snow from the apron leading to their cars. About 2 foot of snow had fallen on top what was already on the ground and the snow continued all day long. As I write, there's a snowstorm brewing - expected to bring in another 3 ft tonight. It's snowing almost horizontally and hard to keep a cigarette lit in it.

Today then, we didn't go to town. There's plenty of food in and Sue's quite a cook. Tony and I exchanged songs for a while, drank a bit of whisky made in Colorado by a company his son is a quality checker for - it's a single malt. With Sue, this evening, we wrote a very silly song which is also quite good. They've headed to bed and I have my emerciency kit - flashlight, candle, kerosene lamp and jug of water - if the power outs, the water stops. They've actually never experienced anything quite like this in the twenty eight years they've lived here.

Forgot to mention that through the day, if you stood watching the trees outside for five or ten minutes, you were almost bound to see a waterfall like avalanche of snow slide down a tree trunk. So much beauty. I'm trying to change my flight out from Sat to Sun and connect then with my Nashville flight. Looking at the forcast, after tomorrow, it'll ease up and the airport should be normal by the weekend - the do snow better here. Today wasn't even cold or wet - just around zero.

I couple of photos and youtube links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h9csDuwqns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvBfI4ngxac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRlAGG_sCI

a soft day thank God...

2nd co-write day in California. woke up to pelting rain which hung about, occasionally pausing. has one of the most unusual writes I've ever had and produced a diamond.

1st Days writing..

... one excellent song - 'Next Time Around' . Actually 8 songs - all with the same title all very different and all very good.

I'm in love with California...

Fox Car rentals at San Francisco give better value than Enterprise, Nashville. Four days in my Cherry Chevy worked out at the same as 7 days in this. Granted, this one has no roof - I guess that's the difference.

The little house in behind the car - and - there's only 3 of us sharing.

Good Friday... in Nashville

I’m writing as I’m flying out of Nashville, bound for St Louis and onward to San Francisco. It’s been a week of place names I know through songs, literature and film. Yesterday morning, I braved the snow and ice and drove eastside. I was planning on filling the time while waiting for the print shop to call and let me know my Cds were ready.

What, according to the printout the receptionist had given me, should have been a nine minute drive – including my first interstate miles – took me about an hour and a half and, while I found Lanes Motor Museum, I went to my first real American diner instead. The woman who served me could have come strait out of a movie. Black, motherly and very friendly. I even heard her nagging an old boy – looked like a regular customer – to ‘Go to the doctor and get yourself seen too. You men are all alike when it comes to doctors!’. Beautiful.

I had a few other things to do apart from the CD pick up on the West side, return my ‘Chevy’ – surely the reddest car in Nashville – and I was going to see a play reading at the ‘Post Depression Theatre’, somewhere in East Nashville. The play – based on legend, Kinky Friedman was being produced*** by Jaz and Jamie who I met on Thursday at the Commodore.

Having overshot the museum by some miles, I turned around and was heading back when the aforementioned diner beckoned – a Waffle House. After my 4.99 special, a BLT with a bowl of Burt’s chilli and an iced tea, I got a call to say the Cds were ready and figured I’d like to spend more time looking at the cars than I now had so best to head West and pick them up. I’m a really bad tourist – I love everything and particularly the everyday mundane stuff that’s different from my own everyday mundane.

I also got a series of texts from who I don’t know as I don’t even know my US cell number. Getting drunk and ‘making out’ was the desire of the textee. A good idea but not today.

To be sure, to be sure, I asked the motherly waitress for directions to Hillsboro, explaining that I wasn’t the best at following the US road system.

‘Ya take a right outta here – stay on the road and follow signs for Chattenooga till the road divides and follow the Memphis signs a while. Hillsboro’s signed after that and you can’t miss it.’ Poetry, and I didn’t.

When you’re on your first interstate and your phone rings, startling you somewhat, and you notice the caller display is Ralph Murphy – vice president of Membership, ASCAP – you take the call. ‘Hello my good friend, and how are you today?’

‘Scared of crashing my Chevy, Ralph and how’s your stubbed toe?’, followed by, ‘Can I call you back Ralph? I’m about to peel off my first interstate and I’d love to bring the car back in good condition this evening.’

‘You sure can, Sean. I want to give you a number of a very good friend of mine who’s expecting you to call him soon – and he’s “connected”’ – Music to my ears. Thank you Ralph!

Got the discs. Rang Mr Connected and set up a meeting at my home from home, Dan McGuiness’s, for 4 O’Clock, replied to a couple more amorous texts and got back to my hotel – a walk across from Dan’s. Burnt 3 or 4 demo’s onto the beautifully printed discs, dealt with emails – including a response to a rough recording – on the mac – made and emailed to Steve Goodie’s studio, earlier on. Steve said he really liked the song and would work on a track and suggested treatment for me to come on in and put it down on my next visit – in 2 weeks time.

A good meeting at Dan’s and even found Enterprise without getting lost and with Cherry Chevalier in one piece – albeit with way to much fuel in the tank. The kindly dropped me back too.

Six O’Clock – ‘Becoming Kinky’ starts at seven thirty and, as there’s an open mic going on in the hotel’s ‘Hall of Fame’, I got to play a couple of songs while waiting for the taxi – a big mother-f*cker of a truck, and black as the driver. And glimpses of a TV I’d had today were showing all the accidents of the day – ice and snow is big news in Nashville and there must be cameras everywhere. The big 4x4 taxi was, on this occasion very welcome this evening.

*** now on St Louis – San Francisco flight.

Nashville Open Mic Nights - compare and contrast...

The Commodore Grill in Nashville isn’t as world famous as the Bluebird Café but for a visiting performing songwriter, It’s found it to be an easier place to get to play. Turn up before nine, give your name to Debbie Champion and you’ll get to play that night. The sound is second to none and, as the open mic immediately follows the ‘Writer’s Night’ showcase, you’ll possibly have a ‘Legend’ or two warming up the crowd for you. The only drawback is that ‘the crowd’ shrinks noticeably once the Legends have left the stage.

The Bluebird by way of contrast has the Legends playing after the open mic and a lot more people turn up to play. Barbara Cloyd, who runs this Monday night event, has devised a very fair system of deciding who plays. There are two baskets and songwriters without a ‘stamp’ put their name on a piece of paper into basket number 2. Basket number 1 is for people with a stamp to put their name into. Everybody in this basket gets to play. Names are drawn out to decide the playing order. The gig runs from 6-9 and, if there aren’t enough stamp people there, basket number 2 comes into play.

On Monday night, not having a stamp, I put my name into basket 2 and just before kick off, Barbara announced that, as there were 23 people in basket 1, there was only a slim chance of anybody from basket 2 getting to play and those people with names in that basket, would be able to retrieve their stamped name at the end of the show and bring it back for basket 1 any Monday night in the future. I will.

Debbie’s open mic runs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and, if she likes what you do, you can play all three.

Dublin to Nashville...

I left Dublin in snow, passed through Chicago - in the snow and landed in Nashville - no snow - about 7pm. Hotel is good and location is pretty good too. There's a small row of shops across a big stretch of road and I'm sitting in a cafe-bar there and there's wifi.

I was knackered on arrival but came over here and ate an excellent shepards pie with a pint of Guinness. Enda Cullen recommended it to me and I haven't been disappointed. I've just eaten a char-grilled burger - rare and I've never had one as good before. With Swiss cheese and fried onions, not to mention the fries, the bill came to 6.56 dollars (inc. taxes)

I'm hanging out here and giving myself an easy day. I walked for 2 or 3 miles before I found my car rental depot and have so not got a handle on getting around - need to buy a box of matches for instance - or a lighter - but don't know where the shops are - toothpaste too.

People are very friendly and open to chatting too. I played a couple of songs here last night too, wandered into the famous Tootsies at about one and there was a guy playing - stunning voice - he'd been playing since 10 and would be till the changeover at 2 - and for tips only.

Oh yes, I opened my curtains this morning - snowflakes.