Comso's Dream at Anelia's Kitchen and Stage, La Conner, WA

We had a busy Saturday this last weekend.  We played at the Proctor Farmer's Market in the morning from 9am to 11am.  We played a straight 2 hour set there.  It was very enjoyable as we had a lot of friends who stopped in to hear us.  I really enjoy singing with Kristi and Gen.  Gen is a wonderful guitar player, songwriter and gets such a nice blend with our voices.  We have such a great time playing his songs because we know everyone will love them.

Kristi and I got to the market early.  For a change we drove in and unloaded at the entertainment canopy like we were regular vendors.  That was kinda nice as it is often a bit stressful carrying all of our gear for a block or two.  It doesn't seem like much gear as long as you don't have to carry it too far.  It has been an overcast July this year so far.  Saturday was no exception, but it was just warm enough to be comfortable outdoors.  It has been just wet enough that the entire state is pretty, and green now.

We played my new song "California" at the market.  It was only the second time we had played it.  It went down well.  I think it has a nice sound, and people who are from California just like hearing the name of their home state repeated in a song.  Although the song is a fiction it has a slight ring of truth to it.

After our two hour set we packed up and went home.    Gen and (his wife) Rebecca schmoozed with one of our fans after we finished playing.  That is good as I'm not really sociable in these situations. The truth is that I sometimes cannot imagine having fans as I just enjoy making that sound and I'm often oblivious of whether someone else is interested in the sound we are making. It is good to be playing with someone who is good with the people who come to see us.  Kristi has been good with that too.  It's good that those two are good with  that.  Frankly, I always have a job to do getting things broken down and packed up.

We followed Gen and Rebecca through the market on our way out.  By now we know a few of the vendors.  It is a really comfortable situation for us.  There were people who actually stayed for most of the two hours listening to us play.  That is very gratifying, and I think it is a bit unusual.  Put it this way.  I don't think that Kristi and I ever had anyone stand for the complete two hours listening to us sing at a farmer's market.  There was at least one guy who did that, and there were an exceptional number of people who stood and listened for an hour or maybe more.

After the farmer's market Kristi and I went home, had a little bit of leftovers for lunch and we took a nap.  That was a good thing to do because our Saturday wasn't over yet.  It was a good long nap.  We had booked a party in the Olympia area for Saturday starting at 6 pm.  We picked Gen up from his house.  He brought his QFC powered speakers.  I brought a mixer, cables, mic stands etc.

The first part of the drive there was uneventful freeway driving.  We got off of the freeway at exit 111 which is pre-Lacy/Olympia.  We had our GPS running and I didn't think that it would be far from the freeway, but as it turned out there was another 10 miles to drive after getting off of I-5.  The first part of Marvin Road is  fairly new development.  We have been there many times as there are a couple of businesses out that way that we use now and again.  I was also reminded of an adult community out that way that we played a few years ago.

The development just keeps getting more developed all the time and as houses grow, so do businesses.  That always bothers me as it seems like a little bit of hypocrisy when someone moves out into the countryside having been sold on country living and then finds they don't like the inconvenience of being 10 miles from businesses who sell them groceries etc.  Then the businesses move out into the countryside and you no longer have only houses, but you now have miles and miles of strip malls, and concrete.  Ah well, such is life.  I guess.

The latter part of the drive was gorgeous.  It was green, lush, and the houses are zoned to be on very large lots (five acres).  There was a river we drove by for awhile, and there was forest everywhere. The  lots filled with Douglas Fir seemed like a fantasy to me.  It was all so green, bright, and alive.
We spend too much of our time in the city, and where we live is something of a desert.  It seems like more of a desert after that drive on Saturday.

The place where we were playing had a long driveway and obviously was on a pretty large property.  We drove past pens with chickens, and turkeys all under the shade of giant Douglas Fir trees.  As we got further up the driveway you could see a large workshop kind of building looming in the near distance.  There was a house that obviously a bit new and a pen with floppy eared goats.  There was a person working on a chicken house who introduced herself as the sister-in-law from Oklahoma.  We soon met Seth, the man of the house and we backed the car over the lawn to the porch where we were give a space to play under a shelter.  There were canopies set up on the lawn and there was a gazebo.  There was a mother duck with ducklings that we saw traversing the property for one reason or another all evening.  There was a black and white short haired dog named Charlie who was friendly and left the ducks alone.

Once we were set up to play we were pretty much all business except when we had a break.  We played one hour then took a fifteen minute break.  After that we played two more 45 minute sets with a 15 minute break before the last set.  At break time we munched on the food which was pretty good.  They had bbq ribs, bbq salmon, bbq chicken, potato salad, chips, and marshmallow covered brownies.  They had beer too but we did not partake anticipating a drive home and a long day on Sunday.

Kristi and I had a great time playing with Gen.  We feel like we are much more than we are as a duo, or as single performers.  I hope that Gen feels the same way.  On Sunday Kristi and I had a dance to play in Wenatchee and Gen played in a bar down in Oregon.   Gen took the pictures of the goat(s).
We had a good gig in Wenatchee and I'm sure that folks in Oregon enjoyed hearing Gen play his songs.  You can check out our schedule at http://www.cosmosdream.sknebel.com