Dark and Heavy Rye Bread — the Good and the Bad

Hi Folks!

I’m just back from a wonderful trip to Denmark making music with vocalist Sinne Eeg.

Good things:

Happy and kind people.
Crazy tasting dark heavy rye bread.
Getting to play 2 sets a night for 13 concerts with Sinne who sings beautifully.
Full on listening audience with total silence as one of the options.
Incredible open landscapes just a mile outside of Copenhagen.
On a day off, an inspired visit to the Aros Art Museum in Aarhus.
Great drinking water right out of the faucet.
Taking a break from the pile of chores and tasks that are in my life when I’m at home.
Getting to practice a lot of guitar.

Not as good things:

Weather that you can’t believe — rained every day, mostly all day.
Intense wind blowing the car around.
Bordering on too much driving.
Maybe a little too much dark rye bread.
Missing home and my wife Stef.
To go surfing was unthinkable.
Missing all of you —my friends and fans.

Here are some pictures:

I liked this metal sculpture at one of the costal towns we played at.

The rainbow view from atop the Aros Art Museum.

One of my favorite paintings from my museum day.

I like this painting and LOVE the dogs hanging out.

The city of Aarhus, looking down on the building from inside the rainbow glass of the art museum.

This was our last concert and it was a good one!

I’m probably playing something clever or just plain horrible. There’s something funny going on.

It doesn’t look like it but man, this was a cold moment with arctic winds blowing off the ocean, so much sand in the mix it was hard to look at the water.

Hey, there’s a new Pat Metheny album out now and that’s what’s currently playing over here at SpragueLand. It’s called From This Place and it’s one of his finest!

He did a cool thing in coming up with the music and arrangements. First he composed the songs and took a quartet into the studio. He left space in the music for orchestration to come later. Next he got Alan Broadbent and Gil Goldstein to arrange the music for full orchestra and then he had them record in L.A. with the cities finest musos. My flute playing friend Steve Kujala was in the orchestra and had told me about those sessions last year. He said it was incredible and as you can hear, it’s some of Metheny’s best!

There’s a moment in the album (“Everything Explained”) where he has an uptempo waltz hovering in a minor key —it’s cooking and keeps gaining intensity. This transitions to the title cut (“From This Place”) — a folk tune with vocals. The contrast of these two together hits me hard. Brilliant!

From Pat about the song:

“There was only one musician who I could imagine singing it, and that was Meshell Ndegocello, one of the great artists of our time. With words by her partner Alison Riley, they captured exactly the feeling of that tragic moment (Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the election) while reaffirming the hope of better days ahead.”

Another cool recording recently emerged and this comes from vocalist Pamela Pendrell. She recorded it over here with me on guitar along with John Opferkuch playing piano, Gunnar Biggs on bass, and Duncan Moore on drums. Brother Tripp also guests on sax for one tune.

I met Pam through Kevyn Lettau who is Pam’s vocal teacher. I was knocked out when I heard her and it was a joy to make the album together. Check out her version of Joni’s “Little Green” and her cover version of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic”—soulful singing, gorgeous timbre, and great tunes.

Her album is available on the CDBaby Store.

For live music this week it’ll be a magic Saturday night at Ki’s Restaurant with vocalist Lisa Hightower, Gunnar on bass, and me on guitar for a night of jazz, samba, and moments of Americana major chord serenity. Perhaps arrive early for a blendo of a beautiful sunset and great food!

That’s it for now friends and it’s good to be back in the Cali loop. The Santa Ana winds are blowing and the ocean is as blue as it gets. I’m in!

adios, Peter