I know it has been awhile since I have updated this. My only excuse is that when traveling it’s easy to find things to write about that are interesting. Tied to the dock, not so much.
So what’s been going on? Pretty much just finding the groove here in Sitka. Weekend before last, I went to an open mic hosted at the Larkspur Café. I met Ted Howard, one of the musical mainstays here. He’s in a blues band by the name of Belly Meat as well as a member of Sitka Folk, an organization that promotes music events here. It was an enjoyable evening.
Last Friday night, I went to see Belly Meat at the Westmark Lounge. They’re a four piece, stand up bass, slide resonator, Ted on guitar and mando, and a hot harp player. Ted had asked me to bring my harps and sit in, but after listening to their harp player, all I wanted to do was sit and listen. Good stuff.
Saturday night was a fund raiser for a local fisherman who has cancer. There were four bands, the Sugar Shakers, a rockabilly cover band, Belly Meat, the Sitka Blues Band, and another band whose name escapes me. Held upstairs at the Moose Lodge, there had to be over 150 people dancing, drinking, and bidding on pastries and tasties. I was impressed by the turn out as it was competing with a local production of the Nutcracker Ballet, which by all reports was excellent.
Sunday afternoon it was back to the Larkspur Café for a jam session. Three quarters of Belly Meat showed up, Ted, Ernie the bassist, Gary, the exceptional harp player, as well as John, a very tasty mando player. Although most of the tunes were a little outside of my usual fare, I managed not to embarrass myself too badly. It was fun and I look forward to doing it again this Sunday.
Other than that, I’ve gotten a little more done on the novel and Jazz has familiarized himself with the smells around the harbor and environs. We’ve been having gorgeous weather, clear, highs in the low 40s and calm winds. It looks like it has snowed but it’s actually frost from below freezing temps at night. And the sun is above the horizon for over 6 hours. Pretty nice.
The pic of Mount Edgecumbe was taken last weekend from where we were tied up when we first arrived. It shows the main entrance through the break water to the right. The others are of Eliason Harbor.
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