At our show on Saturday, Emmett folked too hard and fell asleep in the ergo baby carrier. We would be lost without that thing.
Sleepy time guy
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Category Archives: Austin Texas
Where is the grown up?
Emmett was up all night coughing. It occurs to me sporadically, and especially in moments like this, that I’m the grown up here. That if the dog vomits on the carpet, I’m the one responsible for cleaning it up. I wonder when this will stop being a surprise?
single mommin’ it
Emmett and i have been on our own for about 5 days (including my 31st birthday!). When we are on our own, we take it very easy. We go grocery shopping, walk the dog, play in the yard, take baths and linger over breakfast. It’s lovely at the same time as it is a lot of work.
This morning we went grocery shopping with Molly & Oscar. Oscar is almost 1 year old and has the squishiest cheeks i’ve ever seen. I dearly hope that these boys know eachother for ever. There is something magical about having friends you’ve known since you were born. I’d love to take this same picture every year.
My mom comes to town today to help us out. So grateful that she could. No one helps you like your mom.
Two weeks!
It’s just me and the dude for two weeks while papa goes on an exciting adventure playing bass with Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers. It’s a great gig for him.
I get to have solo snuggles with my favorite snuggler. We will miss papa, though.
Papa!
Hey hey folks!
My name is Andrew. I am the papa in this family who spends much of our time on the road.
I play bass. My main focus is playing bass with Raina and helping our band grow and develop. I also I spend a pretty sizable portion of my time on the road with different songwriters and bands.
Here are just a few of bands I play with in addition to Raina Rose:
Carrie Elkin
Sam Baker
Steve Poltz
Nancy & Beth
Anthony da Costa
The Bluegrass Outfit
Danny Malone
Rebecca Loebe
Elliott, Rose, da Costa
As well as many others.
I am on the road a lot. I love it. I see all kinds of beautiful places and meet tons of people. I play a lot of interesting gigs.
Expect to see posts from my travels and insights about how Raina, Emmett and I continue to figure out how to have a normal, close and supportive family while we’re out on the road together and apart.
Dig it!
Baby’s first haircut
We had oatmeal for breakfast. Cooked in our kitchen with food from our fridge. These are some of my small joys, after living in a car for the lion’s share of 5 years, even our tiny house is heavenly ours. We can leave the bed unmade. Leave the toys in the tub. Leave the dishes in the sink. It’s an incredible blessing to have a small part of the world in which to nest.
Emmett has my curly locks and my coloring. Other than that he’s a small replica of his daddy. It’s the sweetest thing to see them asleep next to eachother.
This morning we gave Emmett his first haircut. His little ringlets easily intertwine and form dreadlocks. I believe that to be or to not be a hippie is every person’s personal choice. He’s yet too young to be well informed enough to choose a life of Phish parking lots and bong hits. We will let him figure that our in his teens.
So trim his 14 month-old hair I did. In our front yard. Its almost spring in the hill country, gloriously closer to the equator than where i grew up.
Here’s a picture of pre haircut.
talking crowd-sourcing!
Today we had breakfast with the original rust-belt vagabond, Greg Klyma. I met Greg at my first Kerrville Folk Festival in 2005. He was one of the people who inspired me to leave my comfy home in Portland, OR, find a minivan and get on the road. Greg has been independently touring for over 10 years. He and Andrew are talking crowd-sourcing, the new model for the small entrepreneur.
We ran a successful kickstarter campaign in October, through 644 backers we raised just over $20k. It was a wonderful/stressful time. We felt deeply humbled and grateful to have such community support for our art. Andrew has a lot of ideas on how to make kickstarter an easier thing for musicians who may feel overwhelmed by the idea of asking their fanbase for money. Truly you are just pre-selling your amazing music. You can do it. Also, this is not our kitchen, we are house siting 😉
When in Photoshoot…
In December i did a photoshoot for my new album, Caldera, with the amazing Jen Hellow. Many photographers take 500 photos and you get 30 good ones. Jen takes 50 shots and you get 30 good ones. She has a great success record. We took a few with Emmett, why not? here are some of the cutest ones:
I love how well documented his life is already. He’s a firecracker with a goofy smile. I sure love that boy.
a moment of peace at home
nap time is the best time. this quilt was hand sewn by my cousin.
Portlandia For Christmas
Hey fellow traveler
Mama here. Currently nursing almost 14 month-old, sniffly Emmett and typing one handed. It is lambswool grey and drizzly here in my hometown of Portland, OR. The TV show is more spot-on than caricature. On this 10 day trip I’ve overheard such gems as “I’ve always wanted a jumpsuit” and “I mean, we are lucky to be very focused on grass-fed, certified organic, free-range, rural consumerism”. I love this town where i had my salad days, but i am deeply grateful to be living in sunny Austin, TX where tacos abound and people are living in a more casual swing.
sweet pic of Bug that my sister, Marisa McClellan of foodinjars.com took!
Bug and i will be headed back to Austin on the 30th whereas Papa will go to San Diego to play a rocking New Year’s Eve show with Steve Poltz. I plan on baking some GF pumpkin bread, walking around our sweet 78704 neighborhood with the pup, writing some songs during naptime, and taking each day as a gift wrapped in news print.
As soon as Papa gets back we are diving headlong into mixing the new record. Mixing means finding the right home for each sound; putting the guitar at the right volume so the vocals can be heard (and more importantly, felt), adding tambourines & chimes like sprinkles, seeing to it that the album is more of a cohesive whole as opposed to a bunch of sounds clunking around in the same time signature. It’s crucial. I can’t wait to hear the final product myself, but i am more excited for the 644 people who pre-ordered the record on Kickstarter to hear what we’ve made. I hope they like it half as much as i’m proud of the thing. That would be a win. Here’s a picture of our amazing folk choir, and yep that is a finger in the upper left corner:
