Tag: pizza

BGS 5+5: Reckless Kelly

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Reckless Kelly
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest Album: The Last Frontier

(Editor’s Note: Answers supplied by Willy Braun.)

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory of being on stage is usually the last song at the Braun Brothers Reunion. We always close with a Bob Dylan song, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.” It’s been a tradition for a long time and that’s always the end of our set. Reckless Kelly always closes Saturday night of the festival. We bring all of our artist friends out to do a big grand finale jam on that song. It’s always really fun, because it’s following a week of great times, great shows, great music, and people getting together having a ball. The crowd is always singing along with it. It’s just a good little crescendo to end the BBR every year. So that’s one of my top ten right there for sure.

What other art forms – literature, film, dance, painting, etc. – inform your music?

I get a lot of inspiration for songs from reading. Actually, I borrow lines from books and maybe story lines or direct quotes. Not sure if that’s considered stealing or not, but haven’t been sued yet; so that’s good. But no, I try to read a lot, especially when I am up in Idaho in the wintertime and I keep a notepad by the chair or by the fire where I’m reading. I’ll jot down lines that jump out at me or you know sometimes when you’re reading a story you’ll get an inspiration for a song. But yeah, I take a lot of inspiration from reading books.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

The nature element that inspired me the most is probably just being in the mountains up in Idaho. Kind of out in the middle of nowhere in the high desert. My place is pretty secluded, so I don’t have a lot of people stopping by, especially in the wintertime. I’m able to just kind of shut the phone off and do some writing. It’s just a great place to just sit and stare out the window at the mountains and just be inspired by the solitude and silence of it all. So I would say the mountains are my number one place to go and get away from it all.

Does pineapple really belong on pizza?

This is two questions rolled into one. First question being, “What’s the most random question you’ve been asked in an interview?” followed by, “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” I think that’s the most random thing I’ve been asked, so we’re going to answer it for you.

The answer is, yes, pineapple belongs on pizza. If you don’t think so, then you’re only fooling yourself, you’re trying to be cool, and trying to be a little more Italian than maybe you are. I can just tell you this from experience. When we have more than one pizza delivered to the bus and one of them contains pineapple, it’s the first one to go. Even though half the guys in the band claim they don’t like pineapple on their pizza, like it is some kind of abomination. So, I’ll take my pizza with pineapple, canadian bacon, and jalapeño, thank you very much. Preferably on thin crust and if you don’t like it, you can go back to Sicily.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

If I didn’t work in music, I would probably be a carpenter. I’ve always liked building stuff. My grandpa was a carpenter; he taught me how to build stuff when I was a kid. I just enjoy creating things; whether it’s a coffee table, a cabin, a house, or a picture frame, whatever – if it’s made out of wood. It’s fun, I like to build stuff out of wood. I’m not much of a mechanic, but I can work with wood. Yeah, I’d be a woodworker/carpenter if this whole music thing doesn’t work out.

Photo Credit: Cassy Weyandt

BGS 5+5: Rose Gerber

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Rose Gerber
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Latest Album: Untraveled Highway

Genre is dead (long live genre!), but how would you describe the genres and styles your music inhabits?

I like to describe my music as rock meets country, though I have some ’90s alternative and pop influences in there. To mash all those up into one genre, I settle on calling it alt-country.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me?”

All the time. It’s almost impossible to exclusively divorce my own emotions and experience when creating a character. It’s very freeing, though, and I like to weave in and out of not just the character’s perspective, but the perspectives of other people I know, too, as well as mine.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I wrote a song called “Back of My Mind,” which is about my father who passed away when I was young. I cried my way through writing it and relived a lot of the grief I hadn’t felt in years.

What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?

I love Enya. I put it on when I am super stressed, need to fall asleep, or just want to feel some mystical vibes. Last time I visited Ireland, I fulfilled a dream and put it on full blast as I drove along the Irish west coast taking in the scenery.

Does pineapple really belong on pizza?

I fought it for so long and one day I was high and hungry enough to be talked into it. It was an instant love affair. I’ve since branched out into being open to other fruits on a pizza. Fig, pear… though I might draw the line at watermelon.

Photo Credit: Whitney Lyons Photography.

BGS 5+5: The Pine Hearts

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Pine Hearts
Hometown: Olympia, Washington
Latest Album: Lost Love Songs
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Bruce Springsteen of Bluegrass

Answers from Joey Capoccia

Which artist has influenced you the most, and how?

This is a tough one because about every six months I find someone new that I dive headfirst into. I love that feeling of discovering someone new and having their music brighten your day. Seeing them immediately influence your songwriting… it’s the best! Sometimes you are so inspired by a new song you hear, you start to learn it, and it winds up sending you down a path to write your own song. Possibly one of the best parts of music is how one song leads to another.

But, if I had to choose… I’d say Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian. That’s the biggest shift I’ve ever felt musically/songwriting. I can remember going through my friends’ music collections, absolutely devouring every bit of them I could find. It’s basically a marker in my life… pre- and post-Belle and Sebastian. At the height of my love for them, they came to The Capital Theater in Olympia. It was one of those magical moments where the band you’re in love with is suddenly playing in your town… I’ll never forget it!

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This was fairly recently actually. September 2021 at Treefort Music Festival in Boise. The whole summer was pretty good, we had a bunch of really fun shows, with great audiences and hosts, but at Treefort, we had a full house of folks who really seemed into the whole vibe, and the entire environment of the festival was great! It was our last show in a string of gigs, which means we were warmed up, playing tight, and grooving off each other. That, mixed with the crowd, was a perfect combo! Plus we got to watch a bunch of our friends play, make new connections, and also just enjoy the city. My brother who is an architect out of Portland has a building project going on around the corner from where we played, so I got to check that out as well. Really great stuff!

What other art forms inform your music?

When I’m not playing music, I’m usually doing carpentry. I absolutely love working with wood. It’s not a perfect product. It has imperfections and abnormalities, and you have to learn to accept those. If the board is gonna crack, or splinter when you pound a nail through it, the best you can do is be prepared for that, and mitigate it the best you can. Maybe that prepares you for the flat tire you get on the way to the gig that you’re already late for?

Carpentry also helps when you don’t have the money for a setup job on your upright bass. I’ve definitely sanded down the fingerboard in my kitchen with decent results. Or glued the top of my guitar back together after it cracked from high altitude in a dry Montana winter. Another element of carpentry, when it comes to songwriting, are the people you meet on a job site… plumbers, electricians, equipment operators. Great working folks. People that I really identify with. To say it’s important to have connections like that in my life is an understatement. It’s the reason music/art exists…labor by day, art in the evening.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio, or before a show?

Rituals are very important to me, maybe most important. For instance, especially in songwriting, I can dabble here and there, and slowly turn out songs. But if I really want to get things done and finish up a batch of tunes, then I need to set times and days, and keep it consistent. 2 p.m. That’s what works for me. If I spend a few hours starting at 2 p.m. every day, by the fifth day the songs will be flowing.

Before a show, I usually go on a walk. There’s a lot of down time between arriving and playing. I find a casual stroll through the neighborhood is incredibly relaxing and keeps me from having too many beers before downbeat. For this last recording, I made running in the morning my ritual. I do often run, but not in the morning. We were in the tiny town of Enterprise, Oregon, so every morning, I’d wake up and run past farming equipment… down dirt roads… it wasn’t bad once I got going. But usually the last thing I want to do upon getting out of bed is start running down the road.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Well, my favorite food is pizza, so maybe Bruce and I will get a slice someday? It’s a great question though, because I find that one of the hardest parts about touring is finding the food you need that works for you. It’s basically disappointing gas station food most of the time. So when you play a venue that cares about food, and is excited about the music, amazing things happen! The Pine Hearts are all about good food. If we have a place for a night on tour, you know we’ll be cooking up a storm. Each of us has our own specialty, but we tend to combine it for some amazing dinners!

Photo credit: Jemual Gardner

The Shift List – Christian Puglisi and Alessandro Perricone – Copenhagen (Bæst, Relæ, Manfred’s, Mirabelle)

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Chef Christian Puglisi and Sommelier Alessandro Perricone dive deep into Italian disco, African funk, and add a bit of ABBA for good measure to their Shift List.

LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • STITCHER • MP3

When Chef Christian Puglisi opened Copenhagen’s restaurant Relæ in 2010, his first as head chef, it was quickly awarded a Michelin star and became known as one of the most sustainable restaurants in the world.

He’s since gone on to open three more restaurants in Copenhagen – Manfred’s, Mirabelle, and Bæst, and each have followed in Relæ’s footsteps with a focus on sustainability.

So, for example, instead of importing mozzarella for the pizza at Baest, they make it themselves with raw milk from the 16 cows grazing at Puglisi’s Farm of Ideas, just 40 km from the restaurant – and stretch it by hand several times a day.

Before opening his own restaurants, Puglisi worked at such humble fine dining establishments as El Bulliin in Spain, and Noma in Copenhagen, where he served as sous chef for 2 1/2 years until he ventured out to open Relæ.

He selected the music for Relæ on his own when it first opened, but that duty has since been delegated to his trusted Somalier Allesandro Perricone, who helps to guide the vibe and playlists at that restaurant, in addition to Manfred’s, Mirabelle, and Bæst.

http://relae.community/

Christian Puglisi and Alessandro Perricone’s Shift List
ABBA – “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”
Daft Punk – “Giorgio by Moroder”
Adriano Celentano – “Susanna”
Tullio De Piscopo – “Un’Onda D’Amore”
Eros Ramazzotti – “Terra promessa”
Lucio Battisti – “Il Veliero (Chicago Balls Rework)”
William Onyeabor – “Fantastic Man”
Fela Kuti – “Let’s Start”
Prince – “Purple Rain”
Johnny Cash – “Folsom Prison Blues (Live)”
Neil Young – “The Needle and the Damage Done”

Theme song: Jamie Drake – “Wonder”

BGS 5+5: Pauline Andrès

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Pauline Andrès
Hometown: Nashville by way of France
Latest Album: Fearless Heart
Personal Nicknames: Musicians call me P.A, Spanish friends Paulinilla, Southern friends Mama.

If you could spend 10 minutes with John Lennon, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Joni Mitchell, Sister Rosetta, or Merle Haggard how would it go?

Tough choice between Merle and Dolly. I guess I’d go for Dolly because such a moment would surely get me high on a crazy good mood for about a month. I would humbly ask for two pieces of advice: one from Dolly, the songwriter, and one from Dolly, the businesswoman. I’d also thank her for both her badass career and the incredible fun I had at Dollywood last Christmas.

Since food and music go so well together, what would be your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

My life would be complete if I could ever have a big slice of pizza with Springsteen. Wouldn’t even need to talk. But if I could hear an anecdote or two, then my life would be extra complete.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Work in the best interest of the songs and nothing else. If it does not serve the songs, it ain’t worth doing.

How do other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Literature plays a big part. When I write a song, I always start with an idea, concept, or actual plot. Rarely with a melody or rhythm. Storytelling in the form of books, tales, or poetry is the brainier sister of songwriting. A couple of songs I’ve released are entirely based on literary influences and many are just sprinkled with more subtle references. “On the Doorstep” is feeding off Lovecraft’s writing in every single line and was inspired by at least 10 of his short novels. “She” was born from my obsession with fairy tales — the original, darker, and often Eastern versions of the stories we (think we) know so well.

As you travel around the world, what is the overriding sense you get of the people?

It’s fair to say I’ve traveled a lot and for longer periods of time. At the end of the day, whether in Nashville, Hanoi, or Berlin, you just see the same people with similar-ish struggles. The scenery changes — that’s all. The scale of the problems, too. But not their essence.

It’s probably this universality, this pain that we share, that allows music and arts to create such amazing connections that cross languages and borders. When you travel intensively, you also realize that idiots come in all sizes and languages; therefore, any generalization about a nationality or culture is not only morally wrong, it’s literally not true. People are people. Fact. And the touching part, for me, is to see that most just do the best they can. Even when that ain’t much.

3×3: Lo Carmen on Prine, Parton, and Pizza

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Lo Carmen
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA via Sydney, AUS
Latest Album: Lovers Dreamers Fighters
Personal Nicknames: Carmo, Lo Lo, Yo Lo, Loey, Lolene, Leone

Uncanny resemblance @tfsrecords. Midnight portrait by jet lagged 6 year old.

A post shared by Lo Carmen (@locarmenmusic) on

What song do you wish you had written?

“Be My Baby.” This is my 50th answer in five minutes. How can such a short question be so difficult?

Who would be in your dream songwriter round?

Will Oldham, Dolly Parton, John Prine

If you could only listen to one artist’s discography for the rest of your life, whose would you choose?

Dylan — pretty much got all bases covered for life there!

How often do you do laundry?

Constantly. I have small and rather grubby children, and sometimes I feel like Loretta Lynn in the bad ol’ days of “Hey Loretta.”

What was the last movie that you really loved?

Youth by Paulo Sorrentino. It had a really surreal, reflective Fellini-esque feel.

If you could re-live one year of your life, which would it be and why?

Maybe 14. Every crazy teenage story I have seems to be from when I was 14. I’d like to take notes this time and see how much is true.

A post shared by Lo Carmen (@locarmenmusic) on

What’s your go-to comfort food?

Spaghetti marinara. Or pizza. I think I must have Italian heritage somewhere.

Kombucha — love it or hate it?

I’m suspicious, but occasionally curious/hopeful.

Mustard or mayo?

Chipotle mayo!

Photo credit: Katerina Stratos

Lupo’s Throwback Sounds for Traditional Eats

Posted on by Editor

Sharing and expanding upon musical traditions has always been a means for forging cultural connections to our ancestors and to each other. Another vehicle for cultural preservation can be found in cooking. In the same way that a song can evoke a certain memory, a recipe can transport you to a time or place — your grandmother’s kitchen or that destination you crossed off your bucket list one summer.

As members of the band Murder by Death, wife/husband duo Sarah Balliet and Adam Turla have been musical purveyors for nearly 20 years. Now, along with Sarah’s brother, Chef Max Balliet, they are trying their hand at dining with a newly minted restaurant, Lupo. Located in the Butchertown district of their home base of Louisville, Kentucky, Lupo is an Italian eatery that draws as much upon the family’s Italian roots as it does the cuisine found right at their Southern doorstep.

“My mom’s from Italy, so we’ve spent a lot of time in Italy and we wanted to bring that to Louisville,” says Turla. “So that’s been a huge part of it — trying to touch on some of our favorite dishes, often from Rome … and then occasionally [Max will] just throw something in that’s local. We’re in Kentucky; we’ve got to use country ham.”

Balliet has been running an award-winning Mayan food truck in Louisville for the past six years called Holy Molé. But when it came time to get an Italian brick and mortar going with his sister and brother-in-law, he wanted to use the opportunity to focus on another culinary interest: Neapolitan pizza. “Neapolitan pizza is definitely a very scientific craft and there are a lot of ways to do it and a lot of corners you can cut, but we decided that we weren’t going to cut any,” Turla explains. “It’s all about hydration levels of the dough, humidity, gluten structure; it’s about getting the right yeast and getting the oven hot enough.”

In order to achieve that authentic Neapolitan flame, the family imported a wood-fire pizza oven from Italy that arrived by boat and was assembled in-house.

“Pizza is just crust dressed up with toppings. It’s all about the dough. It’s all about the crust,” Turla says. “So, in our opinion, it should be spongy and light on the inside, but a little crispy with some char on the outside. That’s what we’re after. That’s what we’re missing and craving when we come back from Italy.”

Lupo’s other mouth-watering speciality is handmade pasta. For their current seasonal menu, they’re serving a carbonara. “[It’s] a pretty classic dish, said to have originated during World War II from what farmers could cook for American soldiers who were marching through Italy that would show up and say, ‘Hey, is there any chance we could sleep in your barn and you can cook us a meal?’” says Turla. “They’d take eggs from their chickens, you know, make some pasta, just staple food, and parmesan and some ham, some pancetta. So we do that, but [Max] does his own spin on it by salt-curing the egg yolks, which makes them really silky and awesome.”

To make their vision a reality, the Lupo partners purchased a historic two-story building that dates back to 1860. “It’s an incredibly beautiful, Federalist-style brick building, and I personally spent the last year doing a massive renovation of it where everything we pulled out that was salvageable, we repurposed,” says Turla. “The old joists that were holding up the floors, we reused those and made a bar out of them. And all the shelves and all the old floorboards, we used them as the fronts of bars and in closets to make more shelving out of, so it’s got a really natural feel.”

The aesthetic is derived directly from the wood-fired oven, which is made of brick and wood. Carrying that theme throughout, the restaurant is decorated in subway pictures and Italian movie posters, bringing a modern take on a casual, Italian environment.

“Most Italian restaurants in America tend to be — if they’re Italian-American — they tend to be heavy on the American, and there are dishes that we wanted to bring back that you don’t see that often, especially in the Midwest and South.”

Be sure to pop into Lupo for pasta or pie during this year’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival September 22 and 23 in Louisville, KY and stop by the BGS Stage! 

3×3: Steve Gunn on Science Fiction, Favorite Clintons, and His Top Five Concerts

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Steve Gunn
Hometown: New York via Lansdowne
Latest Album: Eyes on the Lines

 

Last day of EU run Nimes, France today. picby@swindler86

A photo posted by Steve Gunn (@stevegunnstevegunn) on

If you had to live the life of a character in a song, which song would you choose?
I’d have to go with "Ancient Jules" because I can see myself living in a basement one day. I’ll Invite the youngsters to come over to listen to some records and play guitars into the night, offering them somewhat far-fetched but sound advice.

Where would you most like to live or visit that you haven’t yet?
Japan

What was the last thing that made you really mad?
Losing my camera

 

time for a new set list I think :::::::: Hamburg::::::::::

A photo posted by Steve Gunn (@stevegunnstevegunn) on

What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Hmm that’s hard. Here are five. Neil Young & Crazy Horse in Philadelphia a few years ago. Sun Ra Arkestra & Pharaoh Sanders just a few weeks ago in Brooklyn. Fugazi in the '90s. Bert Jansch in New York City, 2010. (I got to meet him also.) Jack Rose, everytime.

Who is your favorite Clinton — Hillary, Bill, or George?
George Clinton by a mile.

What are you reading right now?
Neuromancer by William Gibson — my first science fiction read.

Whiskey, Water, or Wine?
Wine

North or South?
North

Pizza or Tacos?
Pizza

Photo credit: Nathan Salsburg

Root 66: Austin Lucas’s Roadside Favorites

Posted on by Editor

Touring artists spend so much of their time on the road that they, inevitably, find all the best places to eat, drink, shop, and relax. Want to know where to find the best burger, beer, boots, or bunks? Ask a musician. Better yet, let us ask them for you.

Name: Austin Lucas
Hometown: Bloomington, IN
Latest Project: Between the Moon and the Midwest 

Burritos: Taqueria Cancun – San Francisco, California. Super prawn burrito. I've lived in the Bay Area multiple times. There are many burritos worth talking about on both sides of the water. This one is probably the best burrito in existence. You better like shrimp, though, because you're going to get your fill in this massive burrito that is the size of my forearm.

Pizza: Frank Pepe's The Spot – New Haven, Connecticut. Pepperoni & garlic pizza. There's so much amazing pizza on the East Coast, why argue about whether Brooklyn or Manhattan has better pizza when you could just go to New Haven and find out theirs is the best?

Burger: Don's Downtown Diner – Bellefontaine, Ohio. Cheeseburger w/bacon & all the fixins.

Health Food: The Wild Cow – Nashville, Tennessee. Grilled tempeh with lentils & kale.

Day Off Activity: Europe – visiting castles. USA and Australia – Hiking.

Dive Bar: White Water Tavern – Little Rock, Arkansas. The Whitewater is the place I wish I was playing almost every night. The drinks are cheap, the staff is friendly, and top-shelf artists grace its stage almost nightly. Nashville might be the home of country music, but this dive bar that's burned down and been rebuilt three times is more important to me and my touring friends than any place in Music City.

 

The places that we rest.

A photo posted by Austin Lucas (@austinlucasmusic) on

Backstage Hang: Tractor Tavern – Seattle, Washington. There's a saying in the music business: "Bands who can't draw crowds draw dicks." There are no dicks drawn in the backstage at the Tractor.

Radio Station: WSM, 650 AM – Nashville, Tennessee.

Highway Stretch: The Pass at Coeur d'Alene on I-90 in Idaho.

 

I love old painted wall advertisements. Even if they're for coke. #rva

A photo posted by Austin Lucas (@austinlucasmusic) on

Music Festival: The Holiday Hangout – Little Rock, Arkansas. This festival is thrown by Last Chance Records every year in December. Only 150 tickets are sold, and it'll be most of my very favorite bands and songwriters mingling with our raddest fans at the Whitewater Tavern for three days.

Record Store: Landlocked Music – Bloomington, Indiana.

Gear Shop: Elderly Instruments – East Lansing, Michigan.

Photo credit: Max Threlfall

Root 66: Al Scorch’s Roadside Favorites

Posted on by Editor

Touring artists spend so much of their time on the road that they, inevitably, find all the best places to eat, drink, shop, and relax. Want to know where to find the best burger, beer, boots, or bunks? Ask a musician. Better yet, let us ask them for you.

Name: Al Scorch
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Latest Project: Circle Round the Signs

Tacos: Stay away from any "tacqueria" with reclaimed wood counters, Ball jar light fixtures, and single word names. Instead, you wanna look for places named after a specific region in Mexico that are frequented by construction workers and families.

Pizza: Glorious Mother of All Things Delicious and Tasty, we venerate you. Pizza, mystic font from which all other snack-life flows, we raise your name in exaltation to the highest Heavens. I always hit Dante's Inferno for pizza in Chicago, Illinois, when I get home from tour. Hail Satan.

Health Food: Your best bet to actually eat a vegetable on the road is the hot bar at a nice organic grocery store. Of course, there are your national chains, which do the job, but I love finding locally owned health food stores in small towns run by people dedicated to making their town a rad place with thoughtful food options. Real Food Market & Deli in Helena, Montana, is my favorite discovery like that. So good!

Roadside Diner: As suburban sprawl erases roadside towns and Americans find themselves less and less willing to leave the safety zone of multi-national chain dining establishments, the diner is in grave peril. There are still vestiges of hope, though, like the Whistle Stop Diner in tiny Frontenac, Minnesota, about an hour south of Minneapolis on Highway 61, right along the MIssissippi River. Old Town Café in Bellingham, Washington, is also incredible. You look out over Bellingham Bay as you eat, and it's just lovely.

Truck Stop: On the road, the band and I like to pretend we are a dysfunctional, argumentative family and have fake fights about whether we are a "Love's Travel Stop family or a Flying J family." The joke is that all those places are the same except for the regional tchotchkes. I still regret not buying those gator teeth at the Love's in Southern Mississippi on the way to NOLA. Real talk.

Dive Bar: Another dying breed of Americana as our nation's tastes turn toward highly designed bar environments that blend modern minimalism with vintage accents that make you feel like you're actually inside Instagram. The Cinema Bar in Culver City, California, is a true gem, especially considering how close it is to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It feels like my grandpa's basement and is jam-packed with mementos, artifacts, and wood paneling that have all legitimately been there since the '60s, if not earlier.

 

Keep your van kitchen on point for health and focus #raekwonthechef

A photo posted by Al Scorch (@alscorch) on

House Concert: The Roots Hoot House Concert series in Rhode Island is amazing. Dan and Liz have been throwing these shows at their home for almost 15 years and have cultivated a fantastic community of music lovers and supporters from all walks of life. Music means so much to them and it is immensely revitalizing to play their house and be reminded of the healing power of music and community.

Tour Hobby: Far and away our top tour hobby is thrift store shopping. Not only does it yield sweet threads, new tapes to jam, and useful bric-a-brac, but it allows you to learn a lot about where you are. It's exactly the same as an archeologist digging through ruins and inferring information from artifacts, except we get to do that in real time here in post-industrial Anthropocene America.

Book Store: I love bookstores almost as much as thrift stores and Denver, Colorado, has got some amazing bookstores. There's the Tattered Cover, of course, which is huge and the selection is amazing. But my fave Denver book nook is Kilgore's Books and Comics. A really well-curated used bookshop with a well-read clerk who is happy to help. Their Western U.S. History section is incredible.

Car Game: Charlie taught me an awesome game that we've been playing for years now called "Old, Phone, or Burger?". When you are behind someone who is failing at driving (drifting across lanes, going really slow then really fast, etc) you yell "Old, phone, or burrrrger?!?!" and everyone has to guess why they are driving so terribly. Then, as you pass you get to see! Usually, they are old or on the phone; but man, when they are driving and eating a giant sandwich, that shit is the best.

Radio Station: Hands down 89.3 the Current in Minneapolis. I was going to guitar building school up in Red Wing, Minnesota, back when the Current started and I listened to it early in the morning making breakfast every day. They always played mellow folky music in the morning and it was just so perfect. I have so many fond memories associated with that station.

Driving Album: Karen Dalton, In My Own Time, for sure. Just check it out, if you don't know. Roll on, buddies.

Photo credit: Nick Karp