Well hello,
I do apologize for my absence….slightly embarrassed that I haven’t posted anything since February, but I’m here so now that’s what matters. Life appears to have grabbed me by the hand and isn’t planning on letting go anytime soon, which I’m quite happy with.
A lot of things have happened since February. I worked for a group called FieldGuides at the Malakoff Diggins Historic State Park teaching 4th graders about the gold rush. I worked for nearly two months with them and was exhausted and exhilarated by the end of it. The original plan was that my boyfriend and I would drive back to my parent’s house at the end of FieldGuides, but due to car trouble we hung out in Davis for a few days before heading back to Oregon. We hung out with my family until it was time to head to the mountains for Camp Unalayee, a backpacking camp for kids that we both work at.
The two of us were there for nearly three months. It was really tiring, but a lot of fun. We celebrated our one year anniversary and learned what it’s like to live together. Now I’m back home, with a new car, my job that I had earlier this winter, one year older, and a lot of feelings about still living in the house that I grew up in… Thankfully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In January I will be going to New Zealand for two months accompanied by two friends, and when we return to the states I’ll be moving out! Until then I’ll be working and driving to Davis as much as I can, but that’s enough of an update for now, onto the music!
Last week my momma and I had a date with Brett Dennen….well maybe that’s an exaggeration, we saw Brett Dennen and his band at the Ashland Armory. I am lucky enough to count this concert as my third Dennen performance. I wrote about the first time I saw him in 2014 when he was on the Soulshine Tour with Michael Franti and Spearhead. (You can read that article right here). In that article I swore that I would see him again when he was on his own tour, and I’m happy to say that I’ve fulfilled that promise twice. I attended his acoustic Valentine’s Day performance last year, again at the Armory. That performance was hard for him, the Armory is very small and the bar always gets very loud, so he had to ask people to be quiet several times. At this show he still had to ask people to lower their conversations, but for the most part the band was loud enough that it wasn’t that much of an issue.
Brett Dennen comes off as such a genuinely sweet person. He’s very good at making his audience feel like he cares that each and everyone of them has come. My momma and I got pretty excited that he seemed be to looking over at us a lot and smiling, and I’m sure there were other members of the audience that were experiencing the same thing. When I saw Brett Dennen last time all he had was one guitar, a chair, and a cup of tea. It made me feel like I had been invited in to his home to enjoy a pot of tea while he jammed. At last weeks concert there was a similar feeling, although not quite as intimate, I still felt like he was authentically himself. He was barefoot, and didn’t have on a glitzy outfit or any extra decoration on stage, it was all about the band and the music. I really appreciate that he doesn’t let anything distract his audience from the music and from his performance. He captivates everyone with his sweet smile under that mop of red hair, and gives a feeling of unconditional welcome.
Although his Tour Por Favor was to support his new album, Por Favor, Dennen played a lot of his older songs. When he started playing When We Were Young I immediately ran into the middle of the dance floor and stayed there while he played Wild Child (from his album Smoke and Mirrors) and then Sydney (I’ll Come Running) (from his album Surprise, Surprise). He wanted his audience to stop talking and dance, and he got his wish. My momma was especially happy when he finished his encore with Blessed, (from his album Brett Dennen) her top favorite Dennen song.
Por Favor, Dennen’s sixth studio album, was released in May of this year. It’s a great addition to his collection, and I am sure that his next album will continue this impressive wave of creativity. Tour Por Favor ends on October 29th in St. Louis, MO. Check out his schedule and I highly encourage you to go if you can.
©Autumn Micketti
Autumn Micketti 