— Shaky Tour: West Coast 2015 —

December 12, 2015 (Saturday) - A unique venue hosting a unique artist in a unique spot -- situated in between the Columbia River and the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, on the Long Beach Peninsula, gazing out onto the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. The Sou'Wester Lodge welcomes the Shaky Tour of Thayer Sarrano. Escaping the bustle of Seattle and now Portland, Thayer is accompanied onstage again by C.K. Koch (drums) and Zack Milster (bass). Also performing at the Sou'Wester will be the fantastic Snowblind Traveler, whose album Confederate Burial was released in 2014. Returning to Seattle in a few days for another series of shows, the Thayer Sarrano Caravan will pass once again through Olympia, Washington, best-known at Guildwater as constituting part of the native lands whence derived King "Buzzo" Osborne of the Melvins. Buried deep in our Scriptorium, and shelved next to the writings of St. Augustine, is a copy of Salad of a Thousand Delights. This is a live Melvins performance video from the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia. We Scriveners would like to point you towards some footage from that show, but, if we did, it would be the typical pirated material that abounds at YouTube. This we cannot in good conscience condone, especially considering that the DVD is still in print. Instead, here is some YouTube fan-footage of the Melvins infecting the UCLA campus with "Joan of Arc" back in 1993.   

December 11, 2015 (Friday) - The Analog Café & Theater of Porland hosts Thayer Sarrano and the Shaky Tour. She is joined again by C.K. Koch (drums) and Zack Milster (bass). Established in January 2013, the Analog Café & Theater is owned and operated by DRD Records, a label headquartered in Portland. The Café is a place to grab eats, obviously. Less obviously, the Theater is a facet of the DRD Records "music production arm" -- Supernatural Sound. That studio, over the last 20 years, has welcomed between its acoustically-treated walls some top-shelf acts, including among numerous others: The Shins, and The Decembrists. You may recognize Chris Funk, as noted in our more recent Guildwater Chronicles -- both up above and down below. We mean in particular Funk's performance with Patterson Hood, when Thayer Sarrano joins, in support of Hood, on this Shaky West Coast Tour. Boasting a gear list beyond extensive, Supernatural Sound offers analog junkies an API Legacy Plus board, and a Studer A800 MKIII 2" 24 Track Tape.   

December 10, 2015 (Thursday) - The West Coast Tour gets louder today for Thayer Sarrano. Drummer C.K. Koch joins Thayer and Zack Milster (bass) onstage at the Bunk Bar in Portland. Performing separate sets are two other musical acts from the area -- Robin Bacior, and Snowblind Traveler, the latter of whom will join Thayer for a series of shows in the region, in between her Patterson Hood dates. Robin Bacior is a native of Chico, California, but is now located in Portland. She performs "dark, piano pop" music. Her finely produced album Water Dreams was released in 2015. Snowblind Traveler is originally from Brookhaven, New York, but has since settled in the Pacific Northwest. His predominantly acoustic-based music, which still frequently features drums, is self-described as being inspired by "the fog and lichen draped cathedral of redwoods of the northwest," and "the lulling whisper of a New England blizzard." We Guildwater Scribes particularly enjoyed Snowblind Traveler's live performance video for "Hold You Down," which pleasantly reminded us of haunting shades of Cat Stevens, in the best of ways -- Cat Man being an unsung idol in our office suites, no matter what 10,000 Maniacs (or more) might have once said about him.

As stated, together, the Thayer Sarrano Experience, Robin Bacior, and Snowblind Traveler all perform this evening at Bunk Bar & Sandwiches, located in Portland. In our electronic news-gathering (ENG), for the writing of this particular scroll-entry, images gleaned from the Bunk Bar website menu caused a considerable rumble among the stomachs of we Guildwater Scriveners -- a grumbling so loud it momentarily drowned out the scratching sound of our quills on parchment. You see, we are but humble scribes, subsisting on a simple diet of lentils and other assorted legumes, as good Benedict prescribed, in his Rule, at Monte Cassino, in the Italian peninsula, of the sixth century. Yet the illicit image of an Italian Cured Meats Sandwich ($11) from Bunk Bar -- this was more than enough to touch off a near riot in our Scriptorium, so much so that our Abbot had temporarily to suspend internet access, lest we tonsured of the cloth be tempted to swear off alfalfa sprouts forever.

Addendum: We Guildwater Scribes don't know if we will ever have a chance to write about Cat Stevens again. With the subject inadvertently raised, we would thus like to take this opportunity to recommend to the world three Cat Man albums, all of which can be enjoyed while (or while not) eating an Italian Cured Meats Sandwich from Bunk Bar: Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat. Regarding individual tracks, sooner or later you must move beyond "Peace Train" and "Wild World." Why not, then, spread your ears' wings across -- listed in no particular order -- "Changes IV," "Bitterblue," "Time," "Fill My Eyes," "Miles From Nowhere," "But I Might Die Tonight," "On the Road to Find Out," and "Where Do the Children Play?" We should probably stop now, before we gain more momentum. We cannot help, however, but add to the mix "I Love My Dog," which Cat Stevens released on the album Matthew & Son, before he went through his peace-nik, hippy metamorphisis -- this is also a fine song. (Who needs "Eleanor Rigby" when "I Love My Dog"?) An ancient scroll in the Guildwater Scriptorium purports that Cat Stevens' legendary acoustic guitar sound was obtained in the studio by combining a Martin with a stereo pair of AKG 451s. Our Guildwater Schola Cantorum possesses the AKGs, although not the EB models with the CK1 capsules that Cat probably used. It remains to find a Martin, at which point we will rerecord "Trouble," and report back as to whether ancient scrolls speak true or nay.   

December 09, 2015 (Wednesday) - Moving back down the West Coast a bit, Thayer Sarrano finds musical sanctuary at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Oregon. This show is another largely acoustic one, accompanied by Zack Milster, and in support of Patterson Hood. This series of a total of four shows with Mr. Hood provided the foundation for building out Thayer's current tour run. It shoud be noted, for those not in the know, that Patterson and the Drive-By Truckers are / were originally based out of the South, specifically the Athens and northern Alabama regions. Other Athenians have also sought out cooler climes on northwestern shores -- Peter Buck, for example. Yet another Georgian West Coast transplant is the eye behind the lens of the camera at Caitlin Webb Photography, based in Portland. Her Facebook page provides the photograph found below, from Thayer's Wednesday performance at Doug Fir. Visit Caitlin Webb Photography on Facebook to see other Sarrano images from Wednesday, as well as still other examples of Webb's work.   

December 08, 2015 (Tuesday) - Seattle is slightly more than a 14-mile ascension above Mill Valley. The actual mileage tally is more to the tune of 810 miles, or thereabouts. Quite a trek. Thayer Sarrano and her Shaky West Coast Tour arrive on the stage of the Tractor Tavern, where she will open as a duo, with Zack Milster (bass), for Patterson Hood, co-founder and frontman of the Drive-By Truckers. Sarrano then, playing keys, will join Hood for a few select songs, including one that counts as a favorite around the Guildwater Scriptorium -- "Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance." Chris Funk of The Decembrists also perfoms as part of the Patterson Duo this evening.   

December 06, 2015 (Sunday) - Moving a mere 14 miles above San Francisco, but across the Golden Gate Bridge, to Mill Valley, Thayer Sarrano visits the Sweetwater Music Hall, where she plays this evening. Her musical configuration will consist of Ted Kuhn (drums), and Zack Milster (bass). Thayer opens a show that also features The Blasters, and Gamblers Mark. The Blasters claim Downey (CA) as home, whence derives their self-concocted blend of "American music, rockabilly, Americana, and cowpunk." Situated in El Monte, in the Los Angeles just off in the hinterland, Gamblers Mark offers up a potent brew of "rockabilly, psychobilly, punk rock, and ska," underpinned by an upright bass.   

December 05, 2015 (Saturday) - The Shaky Tour -- Version West Coast -- of Thayer Sarrano moves north of Los Angeles. For the moment, she stops over in San Francisco, taking stage DIY-style at the Ritual Coffee Roasters. Her line-up tonight includes: Ted Kuhn (drums), and Zack Milster (bass). Thayer's ultimate destination is Portland and Seattle, where, for a series of concerts, she will open for Patterson Hood, while also playing keys on select songs as part of his ensemble.   

December 03, 2015 (Thursday) - Thayer Sarrano rounds out the third of her three shows in the Los Angeles area. If our field reports do not deceive us -- it is always possible -- this will be her first full-band performance on the West Coast. Thayer plays tonight as a trio, a lineup that includes: Athenian-Turned-San-Fran-Man, Edward "Ted" J. Kuhn, Master of Fine Arts (drums), and local Athenian Zack Milster (bass). The Thayer Sarrano Three appear this evening at the Viper Room. This venue, established in 1993, is perhaps most (in)famous: as (1) the place where River Phoenix overdosed on illegal substances; for (2) Johnny Depp's on-again / off-again involvement in the club's (mis)management; and as (3) a haunt of Hollywood's jet-set at different junctures in time. Such frivolities impress us Guildwater Scriveners not in the least, although we are not so ignorant to the ways of the world as not to realize that such concerns do carry some currency with the broader public. For us humble, humorless, tonsured scribes, who concern ourselves with sharpening quills solely for matters of gravity and substance, it is sufficient that Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, and now Thayer Sarrano have played the Viper Room, to render its name hallowed among our vellum scrolls chronicling the annals of music history.   

December 02, 2015 (Wednesday) - Thayer Sarrano undertakes the second of three shows in the Los Angeles area, as part of The Shaky Tour -- Version West Coast (2015). The Harvard & Stone stage hosts Thayer's appearance this evening. If our field reports are accurate, Thayer will again perform a solo set, one that will also feature Zack Milster on bass. Joining in with sets of their own are Holland Belle and Jamie Wyatt. Belle is herself based in Los Angeles. Her music is self-described as a combination of "folk, blues, daydream." Wyatt is also LA-based, and combines "rock and roll with folk, and some country."   

December 01, 2015 (Tuesday) - The Shaky Tour of Thayer Sarrano -- Version West Coast 2015 -- begins in earnest today, after a preparatory performance at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia -- which is closer to the Atlantic than to the Pacific Ocean, as is well known to most students of geography, save the creators of the Catalan Atlas, who were oblivious even to the existence of the Americas, back in the fourteenth century. Addendum / Update of Forewarning: "The Catalan Atlas should not be used for driving to Thayer Sarrano gigs on the East or West Coast, although it may be of some marginal utility when she visits San Sebastián, Spain, on October 8th, 2016."

Thayer appears this evening at The Hotel Café in Los Angeles, California, the first of a series of three shows in that city. If our field reports are accurate, Thayer will perform a solo set that will also feature Zack Milster on bass. This is a concert put together by our comrades at Rollo Grady, an organization responsible for the licensing of the album Shaky, as well as Thayer's prior catalog: Lift Your Eyes to the Hills (2012), and King (2009). Also performing at The Hotel Café tonight are two other groups, both denizens of the city of Los Angeles: Marié Digby, and the Fairground Saints.