9 Curious Notes on the History of Lake Padden

1. There is a man who walks around the lake with a notebook full of the bones of poems. He has memorized all of the bones. As he walks, he recites them all back to himself, watching for omissions, slips, substitutions, failures. The memorized bones of these poems are like thousands of canaries singing in the depths of his mind. At that moment his memory begins to fail, each of the canaries will suddenly stop singing and die. Then, he knows, there will be nothing left to do but get out of his mind as quickly as possible.

2. "March 6, 1880: Michael Padden, residing a few miles from Whatcom, was on Saturday, the sixth, shot dead by a little son of Thomas Clark, at the instance of the boy's mother.

The circumstances of the tragic affair are briefly reported to be about as follows: The Paddens and Clarks, being close neighbors quarreled over the ownership of a small tract of land, which each claimed was within their lines. To settle the matter the land was surveyed not long ago; at the instance of either or both parties we believe was decided to belong to Padden, but the Clarks still lay claim to it.

On Saturday Mr. Padden with his father-in-law Connelly, went out to fence in the tract in dispute. Mr. Clark being away from home to work at the Seattle Coal Mine, Mrs. Clark, accompanied by her little boy, aged about 10 years, with a loaded shotgun, went out to expostulate with and warn of Padden who would not desist. Hot words followed, and Mrs. Clark requested her son to shoot, which he did, killing Padden instantly.

The boy and his mother are under arrest to appear at the next term of court at La Connor. Mr. Padden, the victim of this tragedy, has long been a resident of the Sound. At one time he was foreman of the B. B. coal mine and more recently connected with the Talbot mine at Seattle, and after the collapse of that mine, in which he was part owner some three years ago, he returned to his homestead near Whatcom with his family, where he resided up to the time of his death." - Padden Family Notes

3. The Lake reminds him another Lake, the one where he was raised. There was a man who lived at the Lake who taught him how to catch fish. He also taught him how to wait with full attention. And he also taught him how to clean the fish, to separate the meat from the bones.

4. "Michael PADDEN was born in Ireland about 1840, the son of Michael and Mary (CARBIN) PADDEN. Michael died 8 Mar 1880 in Fairhaven, Whatcom, W. T. and was buried in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, WA; shot and killed by a neighbor during an argument over a fence line. He came to Happy Valley in 1870 and filed on his homestead 22 Nov 1873. He discovered the lake which is known as Lake Padden. Michael married Anna CONNELLY 2 Nov 1877 in Bellingham, WA. She was born 4 Dec 1857 in Ireland and died August 30, 1926 in Bellingham, WA. She was the daughter of Edward Michael CONNELLY and Bridget DOLLY and is buried in Bay View Cemetery, Bellingham, WA. Michael's father, Michael PADDEN, Sr. and three brothers, Thomas, James, and Dominic, came out from Pennsylvania in the latter part of 1866. They took a sailing vessel from Philadelphia to Panama, crossed the isthmus and took another sailing ship to San Francisco, CA, then to Portland, OR and later to Vancouver, WA, where Michael PADDEN acquired 160 acres of land. They had heard out in Pennsylvania that coal had been discovered in the Washington Territory so they headed West." - Michael Padden Family

5. One day, I am sure, the man will just keep walking. Already, he forgets where he is, how far he has gone, where he started and where he was going to end. He walks around and around, stopping now and then to check his memory against the notebook. Standing there in the middle of the path, eyes closed, remembering it all correctly. Closing the book, closing his eyes. The rain falls from the trees. Fragments of Shakespeare thread through the leaves.

6. "Lake Padden is located east of Interstate 5 on the south side of Bellingham, Washington. The outflow of the lake drains into Padden Creek and is controlled by a small concrete dam. Development within the watershed mcludes a golf course and dog park on the eastern edge of the lake, a swimming beach and park on the north, a boat launch, three public docks, and residential development in the northern watershed. There are no nearshore homes. Recreation on the lake includes walking, hiking, swimming, and fishing for annually stocked rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and fry plants of lokanee (O. nerka) and cutthroat trout (O. clarkii) (WDFW Fish Program, 2008). Residents have expressed concern about possible deterioration of the lake's water quality and intense algal blooms in the fall.

The bedrock of the Lake Padden basin is made of massive sandstone with interbedded conglomerate and siltstone (Huntting, et al., 1961). The soils are a mixture of loam and silt loam on rough mountainous land with moderate to steep slopes (Poulson and Flannery, 1953).

Water input into Lake Padden is a combination of direct precipitation, surface water runoff via tributaries and unconfined flow, and groundwater seepage. Three unnamed intermittent tributaries drain the eastern watershed, these tributaries are normally dry during summer months. Surface water from the northwestern portion of the watershed have largely been diverted through a culvert to Padden Creek. During high runoff events, overflows from this system enter the lake through a submerged pipe at the northwest corner of the lake."  - Lake Padden Water Quality Monitoring Project June–December 2011 Final Report PDF

7. There a few faint paths that lead off the main trails. He often stops before them. They seem to lead nowhere. A fallen tree. The stump, a broken column, fragments of a temple. He shakes his head. Angry. Frustrated at the traces left of his sad education. He stares in the direction of the pathless path. Wills himself to not be haunted by the ghosts of columns or temples. As he stands there, he realizes the boots he found in the storeroom, the almost new boots that fit so well, that one of them must have a hole in its sole. He walks on, singing this bit of nonsense under his breath.

8. "A decline in the available water supply in Lake Whatcom as a result of climate change impacts would require that Bellingham residents reduce their water usage. Water quantity, however, will not be the only issue facing the citizens of Bellingham as water quality will also continue to be an issue of concern. There is already heavy development and human usage along the west and north sides of Lake Whatcom. As of 2007, the population of the Lake Whatcom watershed was roughly 15,000 people or 6,500 homes. In 1998, Lake Whatcom water quality failed to meet state dissolved oxygen standards and was placed on Washington’s 303(d) list of polluted waters. In addition to the lake failing to meet dissolved oxygen standards due to phosphorus loading, 11 of Lake Whatcom’s tributary streams failed to meet state water quality standards for fecal coliform bacteria. In response to this listing, a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study was completed by DOE to determine the amount of phosphorus and fecal coliform reduction needed to return the lake to acceptable water quality standards. Currently there are 91 water bodies in Whatcom County on the 303(d) list as impaired. The pollutant of highest concern in both Whatcom County’s freshwater and marine ecosystems is fecal coliform bacteria." - Forest and Water Climate Adaptation: A Plan for Whatcom County, WA PDF

9. Everyone that passes him seems so bright and shining and full of colors and loud sound. He just wants to become quieter and unnoticable, a pile of leaves, a cluster of roots, a pile of wet bones beneath the ferns.

Map of Lake Padden and Trails PDF

Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer – Green Frog – Friday, March 22nd, 2013

Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer at The Green Frog

Friday, March 22nd

A standing room only crowd at the Green Frog, silent, reverent, anticipatory. On stage, opener Misty Flowers is in the middle of a plaintive haiku set, six string meditations echoing Joni Mitchell, an almost spiritual presence for the evening.

James Hardesty introduces two of his most favorite performers, Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer. Unassuming and natural onstage, they begin with a song from their recently released CD, Child Ballads. What strikes one immediately is Anais’ voice: unique in timbre and tone, paradoxically delicate and strong, a thing beautiful and ancient, what you imagine the seer Cassandra to have sounded like. Jefferson harmonizes around Anais, at times in an even higher register, then right there beside her. Together they enrapture the crowd into a religious silence. Their musical compatibility reminds me of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, singing inside each other wounds and laughter.

The Child Ballads are from a collection of traditional English and Scottish popular folk ballads from the Francis James Child collection. Anais and Jefferson adapted seven of them for two guitars. The result is haunting and sublime. Their guitars braid melodic lines through each other; unusual tunings evoking English Renaissance compositions; images of stone taverns on dark nights; these ballads having been spun out of ancient myth and legend.

In between each song, Jefferson sets the theme of the ballad for the crowd, telling about witches and jealous mothers, curses and wax babies, sister maidens beguiling young travelers, sailing ships and lost loves. All the characters seem simultaneously strange and familiar. Ghosts from fairy tales and archetypes from dreams.

They break from the Child Ballads to play a handful of their own songs, Jefferson playing his elegiac, The Ragged World We Spanned, building it before the crowd like a quiet cathedral: “We set out for allegory on a ship of the damned.” And Anais played the stunning, Young Man in America:

There's a hollow in my bones
Make me cry and carry on
Make the foam fly from my tongue
Make me want what I want
Another wayward son
Waiting on oblivion

After hearing the Child Ballads, much of the imagery of their earlier work is more accessible, the traditional songs providing a thematic bridge back into each of their catalogues. Young Man in America feels less disquieting and more familiar, the language suddenly translated through the new/old context.

The crowd, now a true audience - all of us - is deeply appreciative and respectful. It is one of those shows that marries performer to space in the most harmonious manner possible. Anais and Jefferson return for an a cappella encore, standing off to the side of the microphones, singing together, purely, quietly and intimately. The music dances there amidst the hushed presence of the room, reminding us all of  why it exists in the first place.

This review originally appeared in What's Up!

Zach Zinn at the Cavity Club: A Human Wire Suspension Masterpiece - January 13, 2012

Zach Zinn at the Cavity Club: A Human Wire Suspension Masterpiece

January 13, 2012



An invitation to a new club. More like a burned-out house off of Texas Street. Set-up in the basement. Only Zach Zinn would play a gig like this. I walk in and am drowned in consecutive waves of thick incense and disturbing ambient sound. There are a few signs leading you through the house and down into the basement where there are about 30 people standing around – everyone looking like they are ready to run. Electric weird vibe. Dark anticipation. The odor of humans starting to worry. Across the room is a black plastic sheet. The occasional shudder as those working behind it move around. 15 minutes pass. A few people wander away. Then the ambient music stops and a girl comes out to pull the black plastic down from where it was nailed into the ceiling. And everyone has a hard time figuring out what exactly is it that they are seeing there on the other side.

At first, it looks like Zach Zinn is floating there in mid-air like some sort of absent magician’s trick. But then, you see that he is suspended by a multitude of wires which are hooked into his body. Tiny rivulets of blood trickle over his skin. After an initial inward gasp, a collective murmuring of concern starts to rise in volume. Zach slowly raises and arm and plucks one of the strings. A deep bass note trembles through the room. The crowd shuts up. Then he plucks another string and another until each is resonating and rising through manipulated tonalities, fading over long moments, swirling like water down a drain, suddenly going quiet, always a distant thunder sounding. Zach twists in obvious pain to reach some of the strings. And it dawns on me that he has made himself into a human stringed instrument and he is playing an ambient adagio of his own pain. It is brilliant and disturbing and no one could stop watching and listening for the duration of the 45 minute performance.

It is a rare artist that is willing to endure such agony for their own creation. I bow down to Zach Zinn and his willingness to push the boundaries and show the world something that has not been witnessed before.



Originally appeared in What's Up! Magazine

Good Time Girls Gore and Lore Tour – Bellingham – October 27th, 2012

LBDL Design

Good Time Girls Gore and Lore Tour – Bellingham

October 27th, 2012


The appropriately dark and stormy night begins in the radiator warmth of the Black Drop Coffee House, the air redolent with beautiful coffee aroma. 17 stalwart souls have gathered to take the Good Time Girls Gore and Lore Tour of downtown Bellingham. Our Virgil for the evening is the lovely “Francine” (a.k.a. Jane Burleigh), dressed in 1930s attire clothing, who informs us that she perished under one of the local streetcars before “people catchers” were installed. Each of us is given a newspaper style handout full of murder stories and macabre details.

Then Francine introduces Chuck Crooks from B.O.O.O. or Bellingham Observers of the Odd and Obscure. Chuck plays a few E.V.P. (electronic voice phenomenon) recordings from when members of B.O.O.O. were investigating Bayview Cemetery. In one, you can hear some people talking and then an eerie breathy voice saying: “I keep myself awake as long as I can.” I look around at the skeptical faces and note just the tiniest bit of freak-out as Chuck plays it back for us a few times.

Francine leads us out into the elements, down the rainy streets to the Old City Hall building. After a bit of Bellingham history, she shows us where the entrance to the basement jail once was, just beneath the Mayor’s office. A reputed story goes, she says, that one night they arrested a strange man, presumed to be intoxicated, and placed him in a cell by himself. The next morning they came in to discover a painting of Leonardo’s Last Supper on the walls… painted in the man’s blood. Nice.

Just next door at the old Fire Department, Francine directs our attention to Bellingham Towers and cheerfully told us about how in April of 1929 the fireman witnessed a man, despondent over stock market losses, commit suicide by jumping from the upper floors. I enjoyed how she added that the fireman responded, you know, to go “clean up the mess.”

We then walk down to the corner in front of Old Town Café, where Francine informs, with evocative photographs that we pass around, that there was once a Funeral Home in this location. She provides an entertaining history of embalming and makes certain that we note the presence of the woman in the picture. Necessary, she says, to prepare the female corpses with propriety. We walk a down the street a bit, almost to the front of Old Town, where we are told about an assortment of ghostly occurrences, from plates levitating to the persistent odor of smoke at certain times of the day.

We are now only about halfway through the hour-long tour. I look around at the other members of the tour and can see that all of them are intensely caught up in the weird, the gore and lore, of Bellingham. No one seems to mind the rain. If anything, it adds to the atmosphere. It is a wonderful to be led around by an informative and entertaining guide through the city and stand immersed within its history. I am tempted to recount all of the fascinating dark history that I was shown that night, but I will leave that to the Good Time Girls. Suffice it to say, that gore got gorier and the lore even more interesting.

The Good Time Girls offer a variety of historical activities throughout the year here in Bellingham: most notably, the Sin and Gin tour, exploring the colorful history of brothels in the early days of the city. Each of these now also has a Fairhaven version, which has gotten high praise. They also produce Wild West Variety shows, involve themselves in a many charitable shows and have an enchanting Victorian Christmas Caroling tour in December. I have only the highest recommendations for all of their productions. The Good Time Girls bring the lesser known, but far more interesting, aspects of our local history to vivid life and, by doing this, help to create a richer character of the city that we all live within. The local schools and colleges should take note and start incorporating GTG tours into their curriculum. They make history fun, exciting and… yes, very sexy.

Update: Please check out the Bureau of Historical Investigation for more information

Related on Bellingham Reviews:

Bureau of Historical Investigation
Bayview Cemetery
Washington State Archives

LBDL Design

Rejected LBDL Design

Rejected LBDL Design

Sarah in the Wild at Honey Moon and Sarah Goodin’s New EP and Spinner Productions

Sarah in the Wild - Honey Moon

October 19th, 2012


There are few singers who can compel a buzzing capacity crowd into instant silence. Fewer who can keep them quiet and suddenly reverent. Even more rare, are the one or two that can charm each listener to feel they are being singularly addressed. Sarah Goodin is such a singer. She is behind the microphone at the Honey Moon. The rich and subtle registers of her voice thread golden through an a capella Nature Boy. The words hang in the air like Chinese lanterns, rising with fire, lingering like ghosts.

The occasion is the debut of her new band, with the, perhaps provisional, name of Sarah in the Wild. Sarah handles vocals and guitar. Cade Capp is on drums and Jake Werrion plays bass. From the number of people in attendance, there is a high level of anticipation to hear what they will sound like. Sarah is opening with a solo set before Cade and Jake come up to join her.

She takes possession of the next song, Call It What You Will, by the inimitable Joe Pug. She follows this with the title song off of her recent EP Sleep. A plaintive invocation to insomnia and deep night desire, the song seems simultaneously like an ancient prayer, a lullaby to a child or a note written to a lost lover. You imagine Durer’s Angel of Melancholy quietly humming this melody as the sands of time run out. Next up is an almost joyful reading of Tennessee Waltz full of haunted Appalachian ache which prompts a lively interaction with the crowd. Her rendition of Eliot Smith’s Between the Bars is simply beautiful: the juxtaposition of the female voice in the male role, singing the drinker’s song, the late night lonely promises of empty hope and broken dreams. These are the sorrow filled songs that Sarah Goodin can sing like no other.

After a short break, the highly anticipated band gathers together. Jake and Cade lay down a deep slow beat, throbbing bass line, hooking straight into dark voodoo centers in the brain. Sarah snarls out the wicked lyrics of Dylan’s Man in a Long Black Coat: “Somebody said from the bible he'd quote / There was dust on the man in the long black coat.” The band ignites the song into a slow burn with rising intensity and back into the tribal voodoo beat.  The crowd erupts into a huge applause.

Everyone knows that Sarah Goodin is a great singer. And there might have been a few – but not really - that worried how she would translate into a band. Now, one song in, there is no doubt: Sarah in the Wild, the band, is great. They follow with a set composed of the songs from Sarah’s EP and ones that will be on her forthcoming full length album. Icarus Into the Sea is a beautiful set piece, luminous with lyrical intensity. Home is transformed by the band, Cade’s drumming like tribal poetry: at just the right intensity with just the right rhythmic complexity. Jake’s bass steady and pure, out in front, reminiscent of Mark Sandman’s sound in Morphine. They sound tight and well practiced. They sound like a band you could listen to all night.

They finish with a cover of Radiohead’s Creep which is so good that it drives the crowd into a sort of Bacchanalian frenzy. Everyone is singing, dancing, smiling, laughing, enraptured by the beautiful music of Sarah in the Wild. At the end, there is an obligatory encore with M.Ward’s Big Boat. Then: sustained applause. Everyone left wanting more. As the musicians lay down there instruments, I watch as a surge of fans and well-wishers surround them with congratulations and gratitude. In the back corner is a beautiful older woman with her eyes closed, smile on her face, lost in the memory of the music. There is more laughter than words. Good omens abound.

Poster by S. Casey

Sarah Goodin’s New EP and Spinner Productions: Good for the Soul


I am sitting in the heart of the Spinner recording studio talking to Sarah Goodin, Dave Brown and Brett Steelhammer about the process of recording Sarah’s new EP, Sleep. With the larger recording rooms still under construction, this smaller interior space feels like a comfortable living room filled with state of the art recording equipment, empty coffee cups from the Black Drop and a pile of pillows in the corner. You get the sense that Dave and Brett spend a lot of time here.

In 2011, Spinner was commissioned to produce a new Sea to Ski promo and Sarah was brought in to sing. Feeling a good connection with Dave and Brett, she approached them later to help her record some covers for a CD to sell at her performances. “It was easy with Sarah because her ideas and songs came through quickly,” said Dave. Sarah could only afford to complete one cover, the Cole Porter standard, “So Nice To Come Home To.” Dave and Brett were impressed at how much “she made the song hers.”

Knowing a good thing when they heard it, Spinner then approached Sarah about doing an EP of original material – “off the clock.” Over the next 5 months, they began working on the 4 song EP, Sleep - each of them juggling children, school, work, other artists, in order to make time to finish the project. Sarah says, “It was hard because I wanted to be here more. I would be in class thinking about the songs. And I would be at home getting ready to fall asleep and thinking about the songs.” After a moment she adds, “I can’t imagine working with anyone else. These guys have been incredibly patient with me. I have been able to be a part of every step, of every process – even when they may not have wanted me to be. They let me watch and it has just been incredible. Because I feel like these are my babies, these are my own songs.”

Dave emphasizes the collaborative nature of the recording process, “the exciting thing is that we were able to help produce Sarah’s music, to bring it from the 2nd to the 3rd dimension and still let it be Sarah Goodin, the songs she wrote. Sarah is what ties the songs together.” Brett says, “She is so good at putting emotion into the vocals, her songs are so genuine that I know that when I first heard them, I thought this is definitely something that people will like. The major challenge is getting the release out there and getting it to stand out amongst the thousands and thousands of other releases.”

Spinner and Sarah produced a beautiful video for the single, Sleep, which chalked up over 1200 hits in a short time. Dave says there will definitely be more videos for the EP. And, along her many local performances, there is a West Coast tour in the works.

Sarah tells me: “What is so amazing to me is that I came in here initially just to record some music. I didn’t know anything. I thought I would just sit down and play music and then I would be ready. But Dave and Brett are not just good at recording. The video is amazing. And the fact that they had the vision to do something like that and it wasn’t hokey and cheesy. It has just been so amazing.”

When asked about the financial aspect of investing so much time and energy into an artist, Dave tells me that what is most important is to first “work your ass off. Get the best quality. Be true to the music. And the money next. Good things follow. To work this way, not worried about hourly rates and financial pressures, off the clock, it is your own personal time and you are interested and invested in what you are doing, that is a cool way to work.” Brett adds appropriately, “it is good for the soul to put an EP out.”

The result of this labor of love is a beautiful, textured and elegantly produced set of 4 stunning original songs by one of the most talented singer songwriters in Bellingham. You can tell that the creation, performance and production of Sarah Goodin’s music is the foremost concern in every element of the EP. As it should be.

Sarah tells me: Recording this EP has been the best, the most fun, the most inspired I have ever been. Hands down ever and I think it is only going to get better.”

This article originally appeared in What's Up!

Rejected Poster - S. Casey

Rejected Poster - S. Casey

Rejected Poster - S. Casey - Tribute to Wynn Bullock

Rejected Poster - S. Casey

Brian Blade and Mama Rosa - Blue Horse - Sept. 11, 2012

Brian Blade and Mama Rosa - Blue Horse

Sept. 11, 2012


The evening begins with the clarion call of a coal train whistle in the distance. Brian Blade and the Mama Rosa Band are assembled on the revamped stage at the Blue Horse listening, smiling as the sound fades into a slow dirge on the keyboards. Blade is singing there is “no fear of darkness with you by my side.” Only moments into the performance and there is a sense of experiencing something extraordinary. There is a beautiful gospel intensity filling the room, a sudden spiritual quality. Then, the songs is over, a fragment from a lost rock opera, opening up the possibilities of the music, reconstructing the expectations of the night. The capacity crowd is transfixed.

A recommendation by Julian Macdonough, never to be taken lightly, brought me down here. Blade is a well-known jazz drummer and composer who performs with the Wayne Shorter Quartet, as well as leading his own band, The Brian Blade Fellowship. Mama Rosa evolved out of a series of intensely personal recordings he made at home. At the encouragement of Daniel Lanois, he shaped with into an evocative and lyrical song cycle. I was curious to see how Blade’s jazz sensibilities translated to a more singer-songwriter oriented format. The current iteration of the band features Kelly Jones on keyboards and vocals, Goffrey Moore on guitar, Chris Thomas on bass and Steve Nistor on drums.

Three songs in, there are soulful echoes of Bobby Womack, elements of Across 100th Street. Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man. Something there of Beck from Sea Change. The songs trail off, segueing into each other seamlessly, underlining the interconnectedness to each other. The qualities of gentle and accomplished experimentation with structure and form lead me to slightly muse what Jimi Hendrix would have sounded like if he were still alive and performing.

What follows is the deeply spiritual, Mercy Angel.  “Feel the sunshine on my skin / It must be you smiling within / From above, I feel your love fall downward / Troubled waters wash over me.” Beautifully accompanied on vocals by Kelly Jones. Blade’s guitar has a sharp, percussive quality. Moore’s lead creating unexpected whips and wails of sound almost of time, transcending time signatures, rising from deep spaces with the music and then moving out front and center. Thomas and Nistor constructing solid architectures of sound around them. There is a slow build from plaintive solitary exploration to a communal celebration. Then the return to the solitary singer addressing his angel. There is an intimacy here, like witnessing someone say their prayers. It is beautiful and transcendent.

These songs are vignettes into the spiritual world of the singer. They are studies in sonic textures and modes, as a means of self-exploration through musical expression. In an interview, Blade said, "Revealing more of ourselves is always daunting, but I feel like I need to keep challenging myself and peeling away layers to get to the core of who I am and what I have to offer."  

After a short break, the second set resumes the atmospheric gospel tones with rounded, soft sculpted chords. The phrase “come down to the old country” evokes a small country church choir. This builds up through ecstatic repetition into musical vocalizations that move beyond language and pure sound. Expressive sounds, chants, the speaking in tongues. The band is more relaxed. The music is more open. Song structures are broken apart and there is space for a sort of dynamic improvisation to occur. At one point, Brian says to the audience: “Being with people you love and trust allows you possibilities of chance taking, that you have shoulders to lean on, so let’s take a chance....”

The extraordinary song, At the Centerline, quotes the Serenity Prayer, following with the sublime line: “mercy hold us when we fall.” The crowd at the Blue Horse seem to be hanging on every note, intent on following the narrative of the music all the way through. There is rare and beautiful intensity of quiet participation in the unfolding of the performance.

Penultimate is a cover of Fire and Brimstone by Link Wray, which sets ablaze all of the introspective spiritual intensity and provides a cathartic release for the room. Images of the Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God dancing to the devil’s music in a small country church a hot summer night.

An encore comes without question. Steve Nistor rumbling the drums darkly. Chris Thomas’ deep bass voice balanced beautifully with Kelly Jones’ and Brain Blade in the middle singing: “they tell me of a home.” Goffrey Moore’s guitar is blistering the air up on the stage. A supreme moment held there, sustained, harmonious. And then, in one of those poetic and magical moments, the distant whistle of the train rises out of darkness to announce the end.

http://www.brianblade.com/

Brian Blade - Black Drop Coffeehouse - 2012

Jeffrey Foucault - Redlight - September 8, 2012

Jeffrey Foucault - Redlight

September 8, 2012

A few Saturdays back I was walking past the Redlight on the way home and, noting there was space at the bar, decided to go on in and have a couple of drinks. I vaguely remembered that someone named Foucault was playing there. I amused myself for a moment imagining what a post-structuralist folk singer might sound like. A quick online check revealed that Jeffrey Foucault, no relation to the French philosopher, was performing. 

The Redlight is always a good space for intimate shows. Chairs and tables were arranged in a circle around Foucault, who performed without amplification. An appreciative group had gathered around him. Foucault, who grew up in Whitewater, Wisconsin and spent Sundays either going to church or ice fishing (according to his press release), played with a quiet intensity, engaging audience in dialogue and telling amusing anecdotes between songs. In an interview during the Sound Pass Sessions, Foucault spoke of the “magic number for a room” as being the required number of people in the audience to get a feedback look and establish a connection, to have a sense of community. It was clear that the magic number had been reached on this evening. Everyone there felt as if there were witness to a special performance. 

Foucault’s voice has a warm lived-in quality that captures your attention. His songwriting skills, as evidenced on songs such as One for Sorrow and Ghost Repeater, are extraordinary, as is his guitar playing. You sense a narrative thread weaving through his music. You listen closer with each new song to try to figure out its traces. His music explores some of the darker aspects of the 21^st century American Dream with an honesty and integrity to the Word. Think of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Anais Mitchell, Jay Farrar. Here’s hoping that the next time he comes through Bellingham, that magic number of his will be much higher. 

http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com/