Good morning friends and listeners (if it’s morning for you)

It’s morning for me.  I’m up early thinking, “I’ve wanted to write an update to everyone, telling them about our trip, and about the DVD progress and what’s happening now”.  Basically, I want to write.  Spill it all out there cause there has been so much of life recently I just can’t “grab hold” of, and it helps to put it in writing.

Shows: 
So for those of you who want the quick “knitty gritty” show information:
Friday 11/1 we will be appearing for the FIRST TIME @ The Kilted Dragon from 7-10pm.  It’s a new brewery in town and we are hoping to pack it!  Panzano brick oven Pizza will be there too and their Pizza is fabulous!

Sat. 11/2 a favorite place, The Wood River Cellars 7-9pm.  This is a GREAT venue to hear music.  Most times the audience is a listening audience and this room is amazing for sound.
All details about the shows can be found on blazeandkelly.com

Next week we are in Arizona.  We will be playing a private party in Scottsdale and a private house concert in Tucson.  If anyone lives in that area and wants a private invite, it is very possible to attend.  Just e-mail me and I’ll give you the information.

Opportunities:
We had the best times in Washington!  Indeed!  We had 3 house concerts and they were all a “smash”!  They were all very different and very fun.

What a house concert is:  Someone hosts a concert in their living room, patio, garage, closed restaurant, where ever you can put 20 people or more.  We ask for a “love donation” of $10-20 from each person.  Sometimes there’s a pot luck, sometimes the host serves wine/beer…or maybe maple cookies (wink!)   We play a set and tell stories and you can hear EVERYTHING and interact with us a bit.  We take a little break, mingle then play another set.  People listen, close their eyes sometime, laugh, cry, relate, and sometimes we all “go up 100 feet”!

I must digress into the most amazing moment I’ve experienced to date!!!   We were at the end of our set at a Mt. Vernon house concert.  There was about 25-30 people there.  It was a magical night, so many cool souls in that room!  As we finished “Life is Beautiful”,  I opened my eyes and everyone was silent for a very long 5 seconds.  They didn’t even clap…we were all transported so high up we had to stop and look around at each other and no one wanted that moment to end! There was such energy in the room that is indescribable as I try to convey it to you now.  We were all “enlightened” for just a second. Their mouths agape and my own consciousness checking back in with my body, realizing I was still on this planet!  Then I told them they were beautiful and they clapped and clapped and clapped and it made me cry!  Ha!  (such a sap!)  Seriously…it was AMAZING!!!

House concerts, I’ve discovered, makes those moments happen more frequently than anywhere else.  So why not have one?  If you have friends and family and a few feet of space you can do it and we will help you!  For some of the hosts in Washington, it was the very first time they have ever done this.  They didn’t know what to expect and were quite please with the outcome.  Surprised in fact!  Elated with the experience, they want us to return.  And that is a great feeling because that is the kind of energy exchange we are after.  When everyone feels “filled up” we know we did our job.  So, if you are tired of trying to listen over conversations of others, let us help you put on a show in your own living room!

Alternate opportunities:
Now if that sounds too vulnerable and too scary with the lot of friends you pal around with, go for the “party”, that’s a whole different energy.  That is where you invite your friends, they don’t pay a suggested donation (but can tip and buy CD’s) and you and I come up with a flat fee. If people listen, great, and if they chat it up that’s o.k. too.  Parties can sometimes turn into house concerts (because that can be the nature of music) but all fees are negotiated before hand and you’re not asking your friends to contribute.

We’ve had some awesome parties too I must say.  I really LOVE the house concert format.  People can be intimidated by it and worry about people showing up, but I tell you…once you experience the whole room floating on a cloud and all your friends being amazed and impressed by you putting this thing on…you’ll want to do it again.

What’s happening with the DVD? 
For those new to the Newsletter, we did a live show at the Sapphire Room here in Boise and had the most amazing night!  We filmed it with about 5 cameras and have been anticipating a professional video to come hopefully by the end of the year.

We are getting a proof copy of the DVD this week!  Yes!  The audio and video got “married” earlier this month.  I have written out all the credits and talked to the artist who is designing the cover.  The local manufacturer is ready to take on the project too.  We are good to go…just have to approve of the video, get the art work finished and then put it all together!  I’m shooting for early December!  Just in time for CHRISTMAS!  😉  I will be so excited to get the film out there and share that amazing night all over again. Thank you for your patience and support!

200,000 miles – the Panida Theatre and getting Older! 

Well, our truck and I rolled over another click on our odometer!  Ha!  “Betty Lou 2” my Ford Explorer clicked 200K and I turned another year older last Sat.  Yep…happens to the best of us, I guess *wink!
I’ve been thinking about all the miles we’ve traveled. I had such the fortunate opportunity to play one of my favorite theaters.  I got my big start at the Panida theatre and what a treat to be invited back.  On so many levels going back “home” to open arms was very surreal.  The Daily Bee put us on the front page! You can see it HERE.  And there were posters up on every window of the town, pellted in all the shops! Also the marquee was lit up like a Christmas tree with our names right on top!

“How amazing,” I thought.  I left this town, its’ beauty and those dear friends and family and that awesome ski mountain.  I left that whole other life behind, as I needed too.  “But now I’m back”, looking across that beautiful lake with friends from Boise who made the trip.  How did these ten years go by so fast and how did I get here?  That whole tour was the biggest birthday present I could have ever asked for, so special, so many amazing people on this journey.

I had an older Ford Explorer that turned its’ numbers high, a little over ten years ago.  I had an old graying dog then too.  With every gray hair that pops out of my head, or out of Mo’s head or my dog Osa’s face I wonder about the “miles” we’ve put on life.  I think about what is important, the growth, the love I’ve shared and have gotten to witness.  The hearts that have cracked open in the middle of a song.  The opportunity to be the one standing behind the microphone trying to make a difference, witnessing the real show.  The show of life.

We aired on two radio stations while in Sandpoint, KPND and KRFY.  The hosts of each show asked GREAT questions.  Reflective and insightful questions about what it was like to make music. “How do you come up with melody lines?  When did you and Mo meet?  How did you start playing music.” It causes me to answer and seek myself over.  I love live radio for that reason.  It use to terrify me.  I have literally stepped myself into terrifying situations voluntarily.  Ha…who does that? Why do I do that!?  David Gunter interviewed me for the Daily Bee and asked me that very question.  He plays music too.  He asked, “Why do we do this?  Put our hearts and souls out there for others to judge, or reject?”

I said, “I think I’m trying to prove to myself over and over that love is the only energy that exists and the rest is all B.S.”  I need to keep believing that.  I lose sight (as most of us do from time to time) but if I can just stay “on that line”.  That line of love and truth and knowingness and belief in myself and the best in others.  If I can continue to BE THERE and LIVE from there, others can see it and feel it and choose it for themselves too.  And…we can all float up 100 feet together, and when we come back down, laugh like hell, cry tears of gratitude and start clapping!  Ha!

I’ve literally been around the world over 8 times in the last 10 years (24,900 is a loop around the Earth – thanks google!  )  It was an epic tour – to date.  It’s been an epic journey.  It’s been a VERY cool trip around the sun for me this year.  Thank you for your support and I am grateful to have been on this journey with you! Have an awesome day!
Much love, Nicc, Mo & Osa!