Baby’s first haircut

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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.

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Edom, TX

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We drove for about four hours to the Northeast of Austin today. Andrew and I are a part of Carrie Elkin’s Greats. Carrie Elkin is a firecracker songwriter who is a pillar of the folk nation community. She and her partner, Danny Schmidt, host a slew of traveling folksingers in their home in east Austin. They are amazing.
Here’s a picture of the men’s at the Firehouse in Edom, tx.

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talking crowd-sourcing!

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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 😉

photo

When in Photoshoot…

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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:

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I love how well documented his life is already. He’s a firecracker with a goofy smile. I sure love that boy.

Portlandia For Christmas

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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:

 

Hullo, nice to meet you!

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Howdy!

Rose-Press family here. We are a sweet little nuclear unit of acoustic music traveling prowess. We consist of:

  • Papa ~ Andrew Pressman, originally from Carmel Valley, CA on bass, management, phone calls, meat cooking, van packing, lettuce-free, solid as a rock solutions.
  • Mama ~ Raina Rose, originally from Portland, OR on vox guitar & songwriting, social media-ing, gluten-free, sweet potato & kale cooking, joyous minimalist.
  • Baby ~ Emmett Rose Pressman born in Austin, TX in November of 2011, on giggles, yogurt, stumbly mumbly, road tested, good attituded tiny monster.
  • Pup ~ Hopi, found in Arizona, a deserted desert mutt turned glorious folk hound.

We are independent musicians living in Austin, TX the Live Music Capital of the World.  Emmett has proven to be an able traveler. As of the end of 2012 he’s been to over 68 gigs, 7 music festivals, 3 recording sessions, 2 conferences, 18 states and 2 Canadian provinces.

This is the ongoing story of our lives together on the road, attempting to stay healthy & loving while making great music and running after the New American Dream.

the 3 of us at SXSW 2012