Getting to the Doldrums/Real Women Real Songs #1

I just turned off the am radio oldies station I listen to here in my little pink trailer because the cricket, who lives along the wire fence in the tall grass outside my front door, just woke up and has a song to sing. He needs no mic. He is as loud as a school bell that never stops ringing.  I don't know when he catches his breath because that guy never misses a beat. I am here in Lyons tonight back into the arms of the town that refuses to let me go... back in my neighborhood where I belong to no one and everyone just the same. I am alone but never lonely. I am home in my 1959 Kenskill travel trailer... This is the place I feel like I have been trying to get to my whole life.  At 40 I have finally found my place and it's not a place I have to share with anyone. I have  very full life that I do share with my guy, my dogs ,my friends and my band...but I need a place just for me. 

I was born with the wanderlust I always say. Half man, half horse... running wild, shooting arrows. It's in my blood. Don't try and put me out in a fenced pasture because I will kick  it down the so I can  run to the mountain top to see what's on the other side.  So it makes sense that my house has wheels, latches to keep doors from swinging open while in motion, and not too much storage room to keep extra crap that will only slow me down when I've got to move. Where I am I going? What am I looking for? The answer is always the same...I am going where the sound of the wind is louder than a rush hour highway. Where the mourning doves wake me up with the sun rise. Where the smell of skunk and bitter weeds are sweet perfume and where the crickets sing their chiiper tune. 

Over the last 5 years, I've been living out of my suitcase...it's called the MLC bag, Maximum Legal Carry-on ... I don't bother to unpack it even when I am at the place that is technically my home. I do my laundry and just repack it every week. My dresser only holds the clothes I never wear and my closet is full off things that seemed like a good idea at the time. Home is my boyfriend's house in Frisco, Colorado. He owns it and I am really  lucky to have a place for me and my dogs. We live in the basement as we have a roommate to help pay the mortgage who lives on the floors above... Me and basements...? Um... not a recipe for success.  The best part about the basement? It's where the washer and dryer live...and I love doing laundry... the smell of honey flowers on soft, plush towels and the powdery soft way a fresh- off -the- line flannel top sheet feels against my bare skin ... But when I am there and I am there living in the concrete floor basement with him and three dogs ( that often smell like the swampy, wetland, marsh area that is in the back yard ). I am not firing on all my cylinders. I feel like I am drowning. I love my guy and believe in us but the living situation is difficult.Or perhaps, I am difficult. There is no place for quiet when people are walking around in high heals on the cold linoleum above. There is no reflection in pewter concrete that shines in pink cherry blossoms or sea foam waves... No matter how much I vacuum, the carpet is still stained. And I always seem to end up burning up the vacuum belt when I run over the  electric cord...  No matter how much I clean, the dog hair still creeps into the base board heaters and singes slowly on cold nights. As soon as I get there, I just want to get into bed...under my down comforter and  organic Turkish cotton sheets that  I got at the Thrift Store for $2 (the workers apparently don't know that these are worth a lot more.) So that's where you'll find me when I am there...in bed under the covers... That's of course after I've OCD-mopped the kitchen floor, taken out the rotting trash, and wiped the counters clean with my blue Pine Sol that just makes it feel better. Or at  least smell better...  And then when I am in bed, I am tired. No room for guitars. No room even in my mind... 

So for the last two years, in between my comings and goings from the basement  to  playing shows ... I have  been splitting my time in a rented 1968 Overlander Air Stream...which has been a sanctuary and a temple of sorts. When I go in there and shut the door behind me... the world I  knew before just disappears and out the window on the other side is a quiet world of birds bathing in the river, black squirrels swinging like monkey acrobats from the branches up  on the tree top canopy and yellow leaves riding the river like a hobo hops a train... Looking out that picture window feels like I'm spying through a looking glass.  That world is intoxicating...a warm opium den of sorts and I womb I never wanted to leave... So it made sense that I would buy my own trailer...that I could call my own... 

It was my plan, originally, to get a trailer, tow it up to Frisco and park it in the grassy area next  to the house above our bedroom... So I could have a space just for me...where no one could walk on my ceiling, where the sizzling sesame smells of Asian Surprise would not wake me up at 11 at night and where I would be out of ear shot from my guy's constant search for his missing sock ( even though he has many other  perfectly fine other pairs to wear.)  I would not have to answer to or be annoyed by any one.  I would have a door to shut and a world to myself.The older I get the more time I need for being alone and being quiet.  

So with the help of my friend who has let me rent his old Airstream for the last couple of years when I visit Lyons occasionally, we found my dream trailer. I had always been drawn to the little vintage trailers I'd see in magazine spreads and dream of finding one of my own and fixing it up in cute kitschy colors... After finding a couple that would have 'done the job' but  would not necessarily have  been exactly perfect, my guy suggested that I get really clear and to find the exact one I wanted. I knew that I liked the old bumper pulls... the ones with the light birch wood cabinets and paneling and the big louvered windows. I liked the ones I saw with full beds that stayed put and didn't have to be packed away every morning...and the idea of a real bathroom and shower was just the icing on  the cake. So in searching Craigslist constantly, my friend found an ad we thought was sure to be spam. It was for a 1959 Kenskill. It had no photo and no phone number... But it had an email address...So we emailed the guy and he gave my friend a very simple description in broken english.  I Googled  the model and year and found about 4-5 different ones from 1959. All different sizes and layouts but there was one that I fell in love with from the first photo I saw. It was Pink! Pink stove, Pink oven, Pink sink,  Pink fridge, Pink  shower and Pink booth seats!  PINK!PINK! PINK! It had an atomic retro star back splash in the near full size kitchen and cool, faux wood, grey laminate counter tops!!! It was my dream trailer and it was owned by a girl in Austin (naturally)...This one wasn't the one that was for sale here in Colorado but it was the same year. My friend called about the one for sale here in Colorado and pretty much told the guy we'd buy it sight unseen. Since there were several models and sizes, I wasn't sure which one it would be...I had hoped, of course, that it would be the pink one...the others ones in that year were bigger, had kitchens in the back and had brown or yellow appliances...I was keeping my fingers crossed for it to be the pink one! 

This is the one I saw online and fell in love with!

I had a show the night my friend was going to buy it...but he said he would bring it by where I was playing on his way back... I could hardly wait...I kept imaging him pulling up across the street while I was playing my songs... I finished the show and packed up my gear before he arrived... I went for a walk down the neighborhood streets that reminded me of the Northern Indiana town I grew up in. And when I walked down the dark ally back towards the venue...There.It.Was!!!!

It was bigger than I imagined... Iit was a little rougher looking that I hoped. I knew that the space in the yard that I had planned for it to go to in Frisco was limited and I wondered if it would fit and what would my guy think of it? It was pretty trashy looking by my guy's standards. I knew with my crazy cleaning skills that I'd have it ship shape in no time. So with a flash light shining in I stepped up inside...and to my sheer delight it was the.exact.same.one.as.the.pink.one.in. Austin! I started screaming! "It's the exact same cabinets! It has the exact pink sink and stove! Oh My God!I can't believe it's the exact same one!!!!'  It felt like finally something was going right! I had gotten clear on what I really wanted and the universe delivered! And right then, my life changed for the better.  Granted, it was covered in bird poop and years of caked on dirt...but those things didn't even phase me... it was something I could make perfect. And that I did. 

I spent this whole summer in between shows and festivals, cleaning it, sewing curtains, reupholstering the benches and filling it with mid century melmac dishes, aluminum tumblers, a vintage ice crusher, a wall mounted can opener, and on and on... It didn't take long until it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. It is ready for the photo shoot... At least on the inside it is. 

I lived in it as I worked on everything while I was visiting...Searching for and finding all sorts of cool things like a brand new RV sized mattress for free on Craigslist that I needed, the exact cherry blossom fabric for the curtains, pink rag rugs and on and on. We found a guy with a yard full of chickens, goats, pigs, dogs and blown up trailers , just prime for the picking, where we got a vintage 3 way fridge, toilet, and random other cool trailer parts like vents, lights and curtain rods ...We ended up painting the avocado green toilet and fridge ballet slipper pink and they now  look like they've been waiting their whole life to come out of their drab life and live in the pink! 

In living/visiting in the trailer all summer, in my neighborhood, I found a part of me that I had shelved away over 5 years ago... the girl who can turn garbage into gold and do it on a dime. I fell in love with me in the trailer in Lyons so much so that I couldn't imagine taking it up to Frisco... As  was my original goal... I started playing my guitar and working on new songs in the pink trailer and found that I felt really creative, calm, and inspired - even happy. Happy? Me? What? Yes. Happy. Me. 

So it was always my plan that this fall and winter, I would woodshed myself...take time to just play music...My co producer of my last record and current band mate, has kept saying 'let's start the new album!' and Then one day after I was playing electric guitar in the pink trailer, he and I decided we'd make the new album in it (which by the way, it  is called 'The Birdhouse' after the fact that it was covered in bird poop when I got it.) And I knew then that it couldn't come to Frisco, it had to be my place here when I was visiting  Lyons... 

And this is the part of the story where trailer #3 comes into the story.

Yes trailer number three!

So my friend who is my partner in all things trailers, decided that he wanted to buy a vintage trailer too and that  I could fix it up to my liking and take it up to Frisco for as long as I wanted and that the Birdhouse and the Airstream would stay down here in Lyons... AH HA! Perfect!!! So we found a little 1963 bumper pull called a Cardinal that is smaller than The Birdhouse and has a sleeping loft area...It was in a lot better shape than the Kenskill and it looked less trashy from the outside... So now we had 2 trailers to restore! So it goes...I love restoring  these trailers so much that I could go into business of restoring  and selling them. The little Cardinal, that we call the 'Love Bird' (after the Mourning Doves that live in the trees above me.) is being made to look like a 1963 vintage Fender Reverb Unit... 1963 was the last year Fender used the wheat grill cloth and brown tolex...so since it's got cool, vintage, brown tile, I decided that it would be cute to make it look like a vintage Fender Amp... It originally came with persimmon appliances which weren't ugly but they just weren't aqua or sea foam. So I found an entire set of aqua appliances out of another vintage trailer and we went and got those...and now those are in there... 

So it's coming up on fall now and that brings me to the time of the year that I slow down and start feeling the need to nest... write...be creative... and I am so thankful for my trailers that are ready for me to start writing, recording and just being in...

Which brings me to the Real Women Real Songs chapter! 

My friend, Cary Cooper, an award winning, song spitting out every other day, reality tv show persona, mother, wife and all around person who makes the world a better place to live in, made up this challenge/ inspiration for her other song writing women friends...called Real Women Read Songs...where all the women in the group would write a song every week (or every other week) and post them on You Tube... I originally got the invite/email this summer and it didn't even register to me that it was an invite to me...I just thought it was something else wonderful Cary was up to, being part of or spearheading...(all of which are true). So I started seeing the Facebook posts and started figuring out that I probably was invited and that I should probably do it. By the time I figured all that out though, the final group was chosen and it was already in motion... With out me. I decided that I would do it anyway...with or with out being official...I would ride on the tail feathers of the women who were paying attention and were brave enough to commit right off the bat. I sent Cary an email and just told her that I was gonna do it on the side and she encouraged me to make an intro video to let people know who I was and to go ahead and post my videos on the  Real Women Real Songs Page. So these last 2 days I have spent here in my little trailer making an intro video on my iPhone and posting it to You Tube...

I also spent a day writing a song based on this week's 'prompt' (which is just an idea or theme to which to write from). The first week's prompt was 'Patience'...So I wrote this song 'Doldrums'

And apparently according to this video, I also became a left handed guitar player. (Ha Ha). 

I am proud of the song because it is true to me. It sounds like me...It sounds like one of my songs. Many people maybe don't know that I have always thought of myself as a sailor/sailer. I read all those books about circumnavigating the world, being a single hander...It is my dream to have a sail boat and sail the world... When I met my guy, he told me that while not a super experienced sailor, he did know how to sail and also wanted to sail away someday. (He's a Pisces and was born to the water.)  Me being all wanderluster just translates to being a born traveler who wants to go everywhere and see everything. I won't go into all the details of the song...but I will just say that it is my story... I haven't actually sailed across the Doldrums...not in this lifetime anyway...but I feel as though I have before, perhaps in another life time and I will again. I am always looking for the pretty water the... blue and the green. 

So please pass this blog and videos around to your friends who are song writers and/or fans of song writers or even aspiring song writers...If it wasn't for me being inspired by my friends, I wouldn't have gotten this song... I am not sure if it's a keeper yet or not but that's not even the point...The point is that I am just so grateful for this space to write, create and be me in!!! And I am grateful for a community of  girl friends to inspire and support me. 

Thanks for reading and/.or watching,

All My Best-

Jami 

http://www.jamilunde.bandzoogle.com/fr_thisishome.cfm

Doldrums

There are no swells the winds have died

There are no stars to indentify

are we floating on water or sailing on sky

I know what you're thinking with out saying a word

is that Albatross a blessing or a curse?

as the days multiply I'm not so sure

Everything looks insane

walls of black water the sky in flames

lost in the doldrums day after day

I'm looking at you, you're looking at me

you're the blue and I'm the green

i became the sea, it wasn't a dream

you're the only fixed point I know

when the wind blows and the sea foams

I'll dead reckon our way on

Everything looks insane

walls of black water the sky in flames

lost in the doldrums day after day

What time is it? The time is now

It doesn't matter anyhow

Just wait for the green flash as the sun slips down 

Everything looks insane

walls of black water the sky in flames

lost in the doldrums day after day

Sept 5-6 2012

Jami Lunde 

Lyons, Colo 

SXSW 2012

Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song?
I'm in love with that song."

I am just back from a whirl wind trip to Austin for SXSW 2012...
I could try and sound cool, like, yeah, it was the next obvious step for me and my record... everyone does it... but it was so much more beyond being cool...
It has been, in my mind, the biggest of all of the music conferences/festivals... Something that I started reading about with my subscription to the magazine No Depression in the late '90s. I remember reading about the Bloodshot Party at Yard Dog and thinking: those are my people...that's where I belong...
It might have taken me 13 years to make it to SXSW but it's always been the plan. It's been on my list of things to do... as a musician...not just as a fan. It's been on my big list..... Like the ones that my dreams live on. So it was always my plan to submit for an official showcase with the release of my 2nd album Big Black Birds. They started taking submissions last year for the 2012 conference and one day last fall, I thought, well, it's time, I better go ahead and submit my album/myself for consideration. After all, I'd been waiting 12 years...the time was now. So when I went on line to print out the forms or what ever it takes to submit, I saw I was a day late. Literally, one day late. I couldn't believe that I had waited all this time to have an album that I was proud enough of to think I might actually have a chance to be one of the 2000 chosen bands for official showcases and I fucking blew it...

It was March... SXSW 2010 and I was living in a one room garage apartment in Lyons, Colorado. My album wasn't finished yet and had along time to go still (it would eventually be released Aug 2011). I was in a really weird space in many ways. I had lost my driver's license due to a DUI, was taking the bus every where I had to go and spent about 20 hours a week at the Boulder Library because there were only buses to and from Lyons in the mornings and afternoons...meaning that if I had to go in for a breath-a-lizer test that day, I'd leave around 8 am and come back around 4... so I spent the time in between at the Boulder Library, reading books, writing a book of my own (not finished...yet) and feeling like a really fucking big loser. I gravitate towards the darkness... I read every book Henry Rollins wrote I could get my hands on, the diaries of Anias Nin, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf,and Hubert Selby, jr... I was single...not even some one to blow dry my hair for at the bar I bar tended at... I spent a lot of time alone... just walking my dogs (I guess I had them so I wasn't that alone...but as for people... I was pretty alone.)

I am not sure really about the exact details but the lead up to that year's SXSW was big on Facebook and NPR... I remember reading somewhere that Big Star was playing and I was like 'Fuuuuck... I wanna be there...' I never got to see Big Star and they were always one of those bands I loved in a back wards way....from the bands I was listening to : The Replacements and Evan Dando and more... The Ballad of El Goodo ...

In 2010, Just as the music portion of the SXSW festival was to begin, lead singer of Big Star, Alex Chilton died of a heart attack on March 17 just 3 days before their SXSW scheduled performance... Instead of the Big Star show it turned into a Tribute show that featured some of my biggest musical heroes like Curt Kirkwood of The Meat Puppets, John Doe of X, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads and more...

Somewhere, somehow my musician friend, Amy Speace was there at SXSW that year. She always seems to be at the right place at the right time... I will try to recall from memory how she told me this all went down... I think she said she ran into her friend, Jody Stephens, who was in Big Star, in Austin, that day and he invited her to join the tribute...that's the condensed version. She must of posted something about singing with Evan Dando at the Tribute that made me almost have a stroke. Evan Dando, to me is one of my number ones... it was he who introduced me to the music of Lucinda Williams back in '92 at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago when he covered her song 'The Night's Too Long' ... He also reminded me about Gram Parsons with his cover of Brass Buttons... I had always known 'Won't you scratch my itch sweet Annie Rich'...from my FM radio days riding around in Camaros and he brought my little punk rock youth and love for bands like Lone Justice, X, and The GoGo's all to the center... He was everything to me then and even now. I love him... (On a side note: The guy I was with the night I got the DUI... a dead ringer for Evan Dando... )So when I heard from my friend Amy that she was signing a duet with him at the Big Star tribute...I looked around at my 4 wall sequestration and felt trapped and that my life was passing me by. I was happy for her, honestly, a big part of me was living vicariously though her. She after all, is a super talented singer and song writer who I had befriended years before at a Folk Festival. She was and is many steps beyond me in all ways but I look to her for inspiration and silent guidance when it comes to being a touring girl musician. She, after all, wrote one of the 5 songs in my top 5 songs I wish I had written. It's a song called 'Haven't Learned a Thing' and it goes on the list with Angel From Montgomery by John Prine, and Difficult Kind By Sheryl Crow to name the top 2.In that moment, that I realized that life was passing me by as I sat in that garage apartment surrounded by dark books...and I made a vow to myself...that my life was for the living...I made a silent promise to myself that I would make to SXSW as a musician... amongst a few other things.

I could take you back to all the years I spent not believing in myself... letting other people's doubt of me define me...and giving up on myself before I could even really try... And then some where, out of no where...A new way found me...it felt as though I was plucked up by my hair and picked up from my life and moved like a board game piece to the other side...another side...this side. I have no idea what I am doing...The grass isn't greener...it's just different. It's scarier and more stressful, but It's mine. In the last 5 years I've watched as some of my most private dreams came true...I have failed so many times and fallen while running so hard... And so many times, I am my only witness...new friends, could never know the old me who never thought she'd get to see any of the dreams come true...so I sit quietly next to my self taking snapshots in my own mind to try and hold on to the moments that are gone entirely too fast... Like last week being in Austin for SXSW... even though, I missed the dead line for the official showcases, I managed to secure 3 unofficial showcases around town and played to great crowds. I brought down a guitar player to sit in with me...but he was anything but impressed with the fact that I had brought myself there at 40 and witnessed myself live one of my biggest dreams... (yes, I know now that I need to put bigger, better dreams on the list).
I am proud of myself. I and know have grown so much. I feel as though I am at the top of my game right now and that's not saying much but for me it's just something I know...a feeling I get sometimes...an effortlessness ...I also know I have a long way to go and to quote someone from my past, 'I am no Emmy Lou Harris and no Gillian Welch.' I am me though and I am the best me musician I've ever been (and I am looking forward to what the next part of my life brings me.)

I spent most of SXSW alone... wandering the streets of my favorite town catching what ever bands I could... Feeling pretty invisible in a sea of skinny jeans, creepy moustaches, and everyone trying to out cool each other... I talked to nearly no one. I watched the world go by, listened to the bands, who, like me, had a dream to be there... and all the while felt like : these showcases are just another gig... my life isn't going to change because I was there...I had a guy from a Nashville Record Label kind of courting me while I was there...but after I made all the effort to meet him at the Driskell Hotel on 6th Street, I had to leave after waiting for him for 40 minutes so I could make it to one of my shows. We texted but never wound up meeting up down there...It was just too much in all the craziness. He sent me an email today... But I can't let myself believe that anything will come from it...I saw some great bands...to me they all sounded like one of 2 bands: The Jayhawks or Old Neko Case... which is good for me as I happen to like both of those bands a lot. I got to hang out at the Bloodshot Record Label party at Yard Dog and see some of my favorite artists...And I imagined the days when bands like Whiskeytown were there...

I sang my heart out and we killed it all of my showcases. The last one we had was on 6th Street which is where most of the chaos occurs at SXSW... blocks and blocks and blocks of bars each with at least 1 stage if not two...and all the bands dying to be heard. They say there are 2,000 official bands at SX and that it draws over 200,000 people... and on the night of my showcase down there, the venue I was playing wouldn't even let me in because it was too crowded. They finally let me in as it was my time to go on. Girl with guitar, singing eyes wide open, right hand leading the way, trying to find the people who came looking for someone like me... I found them... one at a time... People were listening...
There were times, I gave myself goosebumps, singing words from Big Black Birds like : They came by at the same time I felt like I was loosing my mind...' and looking out the window as Big Black Birds flew right by me... As I sang words from Time Will Tell l and remembered how it has been 5 years that Craig's been gone ... and how far I've come and thinking of his mom and the dreams she had for him and that here I was living a dream that Craig had for me... and I felt so alone...and I know that no matter who reads this, who plays next to me, who I try and describe this all to...that I am the only one that really knows or cares where I came from and why it meant something to be there singing my songs...



I drove home in one day from Austin to Lyons where I now have an airstream I call my own (although it's not really mine) that is across from the little garage apartment that I lived in a couple years ago dreaming up this dream... and in the cold morning, as I walked by there, still in my Austin Flip Flops in the cold Colorado morning, I saw the fluffy white blossoms of a cherry tree in bloom next to my old garage apartment while all the other trees around were still bare... I never remembered that tree blooming like that before... and I stopped for a moment to remember that year that Amy sang with Evan Dando at the Big Star tribute, the year I made a promise to myself that life wouldn't pass me by anymore...That same year I also went looking for a home for my heart. I had told myself that when the cherry blossoms were in bloom I would find my love... I did just 2 weeks after that on April 1st 2010 when the pink tree in our yard was in bloom... Yesterday I stopped long enough to take it all in and see my life traveling in circles... I had to remind myself to hold on to the moments that mean something to me and not just dismiss them because I know they are leaving anyway...To acknowledge them as they come and then hold them close in my mind when they've done gone and blown away...



Come quick and see
you won't believe
all these cherry blossoms
they are blooming
all over me...


Jami Lunde
Frisco, Colorado
http://www.missminimalist.com/2010/05/minimalist-philosophy-cherry-blossom-living/

On a side note...last night as I cooked a dinner of Carmelized Onion and Asparagus Risotto for my guy and me, I watched You Tube Videos of things I missed at this years' SXSW... and came across the Big Star Trailer for the movie on Big Star that premiered at SXSW this year and heard Amy's voice from across my kitchen and it nearly brought me to me knees...what it did bring is tears to my eyes...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=216ea1lJcMQ&feature=related

From the Airstream on Positively 4th Street...

Hello friends...
Good snowy day from Lyons Colorado in my favorite spot... the airstream on positively 4th street...Hope this email finds you well...
I haven't sent out a big email since last August when my album 'Big Black Birds' came out and I was doing my digital CD release at The Walnut Room in Denver... It was great to see so many of you there and I rarely really ask you to come out for a show but I have another Big show at the Walnut Room in Denver next Thursday Feb 16 at 7 pm http://www.thewalnutroom.com/show/detail/54012
It's a big deal to me and I really need you to come to the show. I have booked it with 2 of my favorite Colorado Bands Turn 4 and 4 H Royalty... If you like Son Volt, Drive By Truckers, Lucero, Whiskeytown etc... you will love these bands... The show starts at 7 pm and I will go on earlier in the night... I will be joined by my guitarist Eric Straumanis who captures the record perfectly. I love playing with Eric!!!

Lots has been going on in my musical life... Last year I did a solo fall tour back to Chicago, Indiana, Nashville, Knoxville and Austin. It was great to get out an see America and fall in love with it... I just demo'd a new song I wrote about it called 'America' (go figure) and in fact I have 8 new songs that I've been working on... which feels great... I feel the next record in the making already...
I am really looking forward to heading back down to Austin next Month for SXSW where I am doing a few unofficial showcases and I am bringing another great guitar/lap steel player with me, Jamie Mitchell from 4 H Royalty... So if you have friends in Austin, please send them my way!

In other news, I also formed a side band with the co-producer of my album, Eben Grace, (he played with me at the last Walnut Room Show) it's called Merula (Latin for Black Birds) and I am the side player on his songs! It's been great we've done a handful of shows and it's an honor to be in a band with him! He is making his first solo album which I got to listen to a couple tracks off it last night confirming that he is so fricking talented!!!!

If you haven't already, would you please stop over at http://www.reverbnation.com/jamilunde and become my fan? As stupid as all this sounds, it is apparently important to venue bookers who look to see how many fans I have an where I am on the charts... There is a lot of press and reviews of the album as well you can read... While you're at it... Here is my facebook page foe the album
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jami-Lunde-Big-Black-Birds/171101019616352?sk=wall that you could also be come a fan of or like or whatever it asks you do it to show your support.

If you don't have the album yet, it is for sale at Twist and Shout in Denver, Albums on the Hill in Boulder and on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-black-birds/id446959165 I still have a long way to go to pay back my investor and every sale helps.

I am starting to book a spring tour on the West Coast for mid May/June of this year and looking for any house concerts or venues to play... if you have any suggestions please let me know...

I am still splitting my time between Lyons and Frisco and keep going with this album, playing lots of shows and trying to keep moving forward... I just spent 4 days alone here in the Airstream submersed in demo-ing the new songs, booking shows, waking to the sounds of the mourning doves and going for long walks down Old St Vrain Road with the dogs... I feel good...

Upcoming shows:
WED FEB 15 ROLLING STONES TRIBUTE OSKAR BLUES LYONS 7 PM
THUR FEB 16 W/ TURN 4, 4 H ROYALTY & TALL BUILDINGS DENVER 7 PM
FRI FEB 17 BAR DOUBLE S LAPORTE,CO 9 PM
THURS MARCH 1 NO NAME BAR BOULDER 1O PM
THURS MARCH 15 SXSW UNOFFICIAL FLIPNOTICS AUSTIN TX 2 PM
THURS MARCH 15 SXSW UNOFFICIAL ARTZ RIB HOUSE AUSTIN TX 7 PM
FRI MARCH 16 SXSW UNOFFICIAL TOUCHE'/TINDER BOX MUSIC SHOWCASE AUSTIN TX 8 PM
WED MARCH 21 THE BAND/VAN MORRISON TRIBUTE OSKAR BLUES LYONS 7 PM
FRI APRIL 6 JAMESTOWN MERCANTILE JAMESTOWN CO
SAT APRIL 14 BUENA VISTA ROASTERY BUENA VISTA CO
THURS APRIL 29 SHUG'S SHACK BOULDER WITH TURN 4 & 4 H ROYALTY (CONFIRMING)
THURS MAY 3 OSKAR BLUES HOME MADE LIQUIDS AND SOLIDS LONGMONT,CO
SAT JUNE 23 GOOD OLD DAYS FESTIVAL LYONS,CO

I am planning another fall tour back to Chicago and Nashville for the Americana Conference in September just in case you were wondering what else I am thinking of for this year...

Anyway I would really love to see you (especially at the Walnut Room Show) and I would love to hear what YOU are up to ... so send me an email or find me on facebook (my personal page) https://www.facebook.com/jami.lunde1

That's all for now...
All My Best
j a m i