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News Archives February 20, 2008 - San Francisco, CA The Mother Hips are proud to be playing the High Sierra Music
Festival over the Fourth of July weekend this year. It looks to
be a great line-up. In the meantime we will be playing a bunch
of shows around the country with New
Monsoon. I'll be going out on a national tour as Jackie
Greene's support, playing solo. He'll be releasing his new
record "Giving Up the Ghost," and I'll be releasing my
newest solo record "House of Bluhm." January 25, 2008 - Los Angeles, CA August 2, 2007 April 20, 2007 - San Francisco, CA March 2007 - San Francisco, CA July 25th-29th Steve Poltz and I host the second annual High Sierra Singer/Songwriter Workshop. This is a five day wilderness workshop that focuses on songwriting skills. Professionals from Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides lead us into the Ansel Adams Wilderness just south of Yosemite and cook us gourmet meals and generally take care of us while we discuss songwriting and performing and write and share songs. This is a mule supported trip which means a pack train carried in all our supplies and even most of our guitars. Swimming, hiking and relaxing are also encouraged. Check out this link for more info and sign-up soon! Last year this trip yielded at least two new records, one extended tour and many friendships, not to mention about 35 new songs. There are only 10 spaces available. See you in the future. January 17, 2007 - San Francisco, CA The Ball-Point Birds record release show will be February 20th at the Cafe Du Nord. The Hips will be playing two shows right after that, Chico on the 23rd and Tahoe on the 24th. I am getting tired of the cold. I am going somewhere warm for a while. January 5, 2007 - San Francisco, CA December 13, San Francisco, CA In other news, my on-going collaboration with Jackie Greene is,
well, on-going, in the form of Skinny
Singers. We take the stage with acoustic guitars, electric
guitars, a bass, a lap steel, two snare drums, a kick drum and
a piano and play his songs, my songs, our songs, Willis' songs
and even Elmore's songs. See
for yourself. If you missed the 2006 High Sierra Singer/Songwriter Workshop, keep an eye out for new dates and trips to be announced early in the new year. posted June 25, 2006
May 25th, Sacramento, CA The Mother Hips are swinging back into action after two months off, so you should check out the concert dates and see if you can come out. Here are some favorites: * Gregory Page - He opened for Jackie at the Belly Up last month and was amazing. So is his new CD. * A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS- 1966 film. * Tamari almonds- About 100 times more expensive than gas but way more delicious, and blood-free as far as I know. * The drums on Galactic's CRAZYHORSE MONGOOSE. They sound really really good. Thursday May 25th:A Special
Evening
Want to go camping this summer?
May 11, 2006 - San Francisco This morning I drove down HIghway 50 from South Lake Tahoe. There was a ton of traffic. I stopped for coffee twice only to be turned away both times by long lines. Just too many people. The news was dominated by the high price of gas. I spent ten days in a small town in central Brazil, mostly meditating and learning about spirituality. My friend who has ALS turned me on to a medium named John of God. (www.johnofgod.com) The whole experience was very mind-opening. In Brazil, and probably in a lot of other places, the idea of mediums channelling enitities for healing purposes is commonplace and totally accepted, and it works. Why not? JUST ANNOUNCED- Southern Yosemiite Mountain Guides is offering a trip in late July that may interest you: click here. Steve Poltz and I are the featured singer/songwriters. JACKIE GREENE INTERVIEW MP3.com PODCAST March 22nd The Hips are going underground for a while after that to finish up a new record. I am finishing up recordings with Tarnation (Paula Frazer) and the Antiques from Southern California and then playing some solo dates with Jackie Greene at the end of April in SoCal. Right before that I am going to Brazil to visit and assist my good friend David who founded a group called Heaven's Helpers. There are some new downloads available here and at motherhips.com. I drove through Big Sur after the Mother Hips shows at the Belly Up and saw 650 gray whales, one bobcat and a California Condor that had a wing span of 9 feet!! It looked like a pterodactyl!!
Greg and I just finished up our new Ball-Point Birds record. It should come out sometime in May. We recorded it at the same studio where BACK TO THE GROTTO was recorded in 1991. The Mother Hips are adding new shows throughout the spring so keep checking for new ones. I am playing only one solo show and it is in February at the Delta of Venus in Davis. It is a free or at least very cheap show that is open to people of all ages. Other than that I have been trying to surf in between these storms and doing a lot of recording in my studio, Pacific Dust. See you around. ------- << RECENT INTERVIEWS >> << w/
TheMusicEdge.com >> << Static
Magazine >> DARK SIDE OF THE RADIO ------- TIM'S DECEMBER FAVORITES November 21th - Home
November 17th - San
Francisco, CA TIM'S AUTUMN TOP TEN November 11th San
Francisco, CA - Don't forget to check out the Mother Hips' new release RED
TANDY. See you around.
TOP SIX THINGS IN NEW YORK: MUSIC OF INTEREST: October 9th San Francisco , CA - There is lots happening here this fall. The wind is blowing like it's spring so I am getting stuff done instead of surfing much. The Mother Hips have lots of shows for the remainder of the year, and a new release is coming on November 1st on Camera Records. I have a few solo shows coming up too, in SF and NYC. Thanks for checking in and ,if you want, visit my MySpace site: myspace.com/timbluhm. The Mother Hips have one too: myspace.com/themotherhips. Two of my songs, Eucalyptus Wood and Tinkerbell Perfume are featured on the soundtrack of the movie "Water Under The Bridge". Hang loose. August 9th North Fork, CA - August and September are the months of the summer for me to put on my shoes and walk a long ways. The only driving will be of pack animals. The only buzzing will be of mosquitos and sometimes flies. The only smoke will be of campfires. The only music will be of wind in rocks and trees. The only bright lights will be the sun and sometimes the moon. It is good to be gone and then good to be back. July 13th The High Sierra Music Festival was a success for the Mother Hips. It was so fun to play at a festival again after so long. There is nothing quite like it. We played two shows, one very late at night inside a large building and the other the next afternoon on a large outdoor stage. there were bands playiing all night long and I don't think anyone slept very much. I know I didn't. After watching the Steve Kimock Band for hours The Hofe and I walked around the festival, enjoying the generally hippy atmosphere. There were thousands of friendly people milling about. We were eating pizza when we saw the dawn breaking in the east. Karl Denson and his Tiny Universe were only about halfway through their long set. Ithink everyone in the band is hoping we will get to play more festivals next summer. As it is we are all looking forward to playing together in August. June 19th I just woke up from the little tour that the Mother Hips was on. It was like a good dream, but I feel pretty tired. All the shows went great thanks mostly to lots of people coming out and being nice to us, and to our friends giving us help along the way. I saw some good bands too; Pinata, Virgil Cain, Ape and the Mermen. Ape was crazy. They play surf music and they have this guy who stands in the middle of the stage and carves a tiki idol out of a log with a hand-held hatchet, wood chips flying everywhere. It sounds weird but I really liked it when I saw it. It will be a busy time ahead for me. We played with them at the Ocean Revolution Benefit in Santa Cruz. This event was very enjoyable for me because it kind of blended two of my interests. I saw a lot of my surfing friends down there. The tickets were expensive but all the money went to a cause I feel is very important. We were honored to be able to help out. Check it out at www.oceanrevolution.org. The Sheets are opening for Louis XIV at the Fillmore on Wednesday June 22nd. Tthere will be more copies of the EP) and then the Hips are playing the Neil Young thing at Slim's on Friday and then going up to Quincy to play the High Sierra Music Festival. May 20th I went to Yosemite to lead some 9th graders on a backpacking trip to Little Yosemite Valley. I stayed at a friend's house south of the Valley the night before and it rained hard all night long. I knew I was in for an interesting week. I got into the Valley the next morning right before the road was closed due to the Merced River flooding. The Park Service prohibited any of the outfitters from taking groups into the backcountry due to flooding as well so we ended up taking the kids out on dayhikes on the valley floor. The waterfalls were outrageous. I had never seen them like that before. The guides all stayed in one of the tent cabins in Curry Village after eating pizza and drinking beer with everyone else who was stranded there. Those kinds of situations are always kind of cool because everyone is in the same boat with everyone else. On wednesday the weather cleared a bit so we took the kids out on an overnight. We headed up the Merced into Little Yosemite Valley and looked at Vernal and Nevada Falls. There was so much water that it was scary to even look at them. Look at the pictures. Today the Mother Hips are going to a studio in SF to do some recording.
May 4th My New York Top Ten:
April 21st I
went to Mexico for five days last week. P.S. Here are some random pictures from my underwater camera.
April 8th, San Francisco As
I had mentioned before I spent six days When I got home I found that there are going to be quite a few rock shows happening in June, which will be posted in a little while. Also check out the California Report segment from NPR that aired Friday April 1st. Happy Spring.
Best regards- March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, San Francisco I am wearing a green shirt, not so much because it is St. Patrick's Day but because it is what I put on yesterday. I have just returned from a small tour of California and Utah. A sincere thank you to everyone who came out to hear the music and have a good time, and especially to Momma and the Silent Sevens for letting the Hips use all their gear. I had fun at every show and never got tired of playing and I got to surf "Big Wednesday" at Trestles. CALIFORNIA WAY is doing well, the first pressing has sold out and we are into the second. I recently did an interview for the California Report on KQED radio and it is hopefully going to air next week. If it airs it will be on several NPR stations across the state. I will have more details as it gets closer. Greg Loiacono and I (Ball-Point Birds) are playing on wednesday the 23rd of March at the Swedish American Hall, opening for Tom Baxter at 8:00pm. Its all ages so bring your kiddies. February 28th, San Francisco We played in Sacramento the next night to a full house. Bart Davenport played solo right before us and it was amazing. His voice, his guitar playing and his moves were things that I have never get to check out in this day and age. It was a "hard act to follow." After the show, Bart, me and John Baccigalupe (owner of the Hangar Studio and publisher of TapeOp Magazine) decided we would do a tour together in John's new 1981 BioDiesel Mercedes. I hope they weren't kidding... Nucci had to go home on Saturday so we needed to figure something out for our gig in San Rafael that night. I had planned on having John Hofer play but he got "double-booked" and couldn't make it. Our very own Paul Hoaglin suggested that he play drums and versatile Jack Reynolds switch to bass. We did a "rehearsal" at my house, in which Paul air-drummed the set whilst Jack played bass and Dan and I played guitar. Paul played his heart out and it sounded amazing. He played really well at the gig too. It feels great to be around such good musicians. After our set at in San Rafael we sat at the bar and drank pitchers and watched the Mother Truckers. At the end of their set Josh called us up to help him sing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" with members of the other bands. It was a fun night. On Sunday Bill DeBlonk's movie THIS IS THE SOUND played at the ATA Theatre on Valencia Street. Hofer and I went with some friends to watch it, despite being a little wierded out by the concept. There were about 15 people there and the movie was good. very strange to sit and watch a movie about yourself though. I wouldn't recommend it. I am grateful to all the people who come out to the shows and pay money to hear the music and put their email addresses on the lists. Thank you one and all.
After a few days off I headed south to San Luis Obispo and played at the Frog and Peach, an unlikely place for a hushed music event, but one that has been cultivated over the last few years and works quiet well. Tom and Angie drove up from LA and sang some old-timey songs, sounding like Richard and Mimi Farina or something. The (mighty) Butch Boswell palyed and sang and sounded great too. Then some friends and I headed down to Santa Barbara county for some surfing, where unfortunately I smashed my face on my heavy old surfboard and had to get fifteen stitches to the inside and outside of my lower lip. It is still pretty swollen as I write this, but the only consonant that really suffers is "F". So tomorrow don't ask me to sing "Thinking of Home and of Mother"...As always, thanks for coming to the shows and supporting my musical ideas. October 26, 2004 - From myself and on behalf of the band a heartfelt thank you to everyone who made last weekend so fine. Rock hurts, I've said it before, but not this time. We can't wait to play again. On thursday October 28th I am playing solo at Henfling's in Ben Lomond, near Santa Cruz. This place is known for being quiet and "musical." It is a sit-down show. On Friday and Saturday the Mother Hips re-instate their traditional Halloween stand at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley. There will be two shows this time; Friday October 29th and Saturday October 30th. Wear a costume on both or either nights and compete for cash in the costume contest. Opener for the 29th TBA, Two Gallants open on the 30th. These guys opened for us in San Diego and they were really good, like you just know they are on their way. I would highly recommend seeing them play. Check www.motherhips.com and www.timbluhm.com for more info. See you soon. - Tim Bluhm October 9, 2004 - Thanks to everyone who came to the Great American Music Hall on Friday. Paul Hoaglin and I had a fine time playing. I am playing this Saturday (the 16th) at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. This is a new venue located on Fell Street between Van Ness and Franklin. I checked it out the other night and it is a cool place, and parking is no problem. I go on at 9:00pm. After me is D.W. Holiday and Sun of Mercury. Remember that you can check out the rest of my schedule here. I have a new record coming out of Fog City Records in November. I hope to see you at the show. September 26, 2004 - It has been four months since I played any shows. That is the longest I have gone since I learned to play guitar 17 years ago. So am I really excited to play again. Here is what is coming up: Wednesday November 3rd - Tim Bluhm by himself at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, other acts to be announced later. Friday November 5th - Tim Bluhm by himself at Old Ironsides in Sacramento Saturday November 6th - Tim Bluhm by himself at Hotel Utah in San Francisco, supported by El Capitan and the Last of the Blacksmiths Monday November 8th - Tim Bluhm by himself at the Frog and Peach's "Mondays at the Peach" series, San Luis Obispo. Dan Moore of 5 Foot Tuesday supports as well as others. Friday November 12th and Saturday November 13th - The Mother Hips at Ego's in Salt Lake City, UT. The Court and Spark support. There probably will be an acoustic show on Sunday night as well. The Holiday shows in San Francisco are going to happen right around the middle of December. More details on that later. For more information on these shows please visit the shows page.
Hopefully there will be a few more California dates as well as some in Utah and even Colorado. The website of Great God Pan Magazine, creation of my brother Erik and good friend Mark Sundeen, is up and running, filled with captivating nuggets of liturature, journalism and opinion. If you go to the TB Sessions link don't forget to check out the rest of Golden-Coast website.
August 9, 2004 - Tim has announced a solo show will take place at Henfling's Tavern in Ben Lomand, CA (Santa Cruz County) on Thursday, October 28th. More dates will be announced. June 14 - Hello, Just a reminder that I and the Involvement are heading out for some shows this week. These are about the only shows I will be playing until October; - The Casbah in
San Diego on tuesday the 15th. All set times for the Involvement are 10:30ish. Amy Cooper opens all these shows, with Jack and Nucci on bass and drums. And don't forget that Paul Hoaglin stands in for Jeff Winfrey on bass during this tour. I hope to see you all there.
April 21 - It has been a busy time for me and my musical partners. The Mother Hips shows went very well from the band's perspective. It was so enjoyable to crack into those songs again and lift into harmonies with Greg and Paul. John was in fine form and spirits and explored his "looser side" which I appreciate so much. A heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended and anyone who wished us well in non-attendance. Dawn Holliday and the staffs of both the GAMH and Slim's treated us like family the whole weekend, as they have for many years. Now Greg and Paul and I are getting it together for the Palms show in Chico. We will be playing lots of songs from the Sheets, Ball-Point Birds and other inter-determined selections from the insides of our collective eyelids. John Bittle of Chico and of the olden-days Bisonfield Trio will be there at the Palms (he might even live there) and will be joined by the Birds for some nostalgic harmonizing. Amy and I have been practicing for two shows in New York next week. One is a singer/songwriter thing upstate, wherein I will be backing Amy up on bass, and the other is in Manhattan and will feature Amy on electric guitar and bass pedals(courtesy of Paul Hoaglin) and me on drums and harmonica (strictly in the key of C). A small Tim Bluhm Involvement tour in the second/third week of June is planned. Amy Cooper will be playing at most of those shows as well, and my brother Erik plays in the Best of All, which is Tom Watson's group and they will be performing at the Silverlake Lounge. As for the "new" album I am making headway on getting it released, but it is safe to say that will not happen until shortly after the new year due to personal engagements this summer and the dreaded "fourth quarter" blackout thereafter.
March 30 - First of all, thanks to everyone out there who were supported me and the boys through our challenges last week. I had so many doubts as to what to do and my friends and supporters helped out a lot. It was a stressful time to be sure but everything worked out great other than the fact that Greg had to stay home. Rusty Miller of Jackpot sat in for Greg and we had a wonderful time. Some people said it was loose, well, maybe it was, but I haven't had so much fun in a long time. Mike Campbell came backstage wearing his 1960 Gretch White Falcon, just like the one sitting next to Neil Young on the sleeve of AFTER THE GOLDRUSH. He said Rick Rubin had recently given him a copy of SHOOTOUT and that he played in it his car for a couple weeks. The San Francisco shows are going to be even better, and it seems we just added one more because the first two are sold out. I talked with Greg today and he seems to be feeling better every day. Paul, Greg and I are going to Chico on the 23rd, and the three of us will play as the Sheets and Paul-Point Birds. On the new record front I am still working on getting it released. It shouldn't be long now. I am almost done writing songs for my new new record as well. Thanks again for being so nice to us. February 19- The big news is the Mother Hips shows coming in March and April. Tickets will not be easy to come by, which is kind of cool for me and the boys, kind of a bummer for those who don't get them in time. And as far as more shows in the future, no one can say. I am excited to play them and am still focused on life and music apart from the Mother Hips. The shows that I played with the Involvement were very enjoyable. The Palms, in Chico, is such a nice atmosphere to play in and I hope to do another show there in early May. Greg L. and I played some shows down the coast and had a great time, despite Greg feeling poorly at the beginning. Amy Cooper and I played two shows together this month and we will play more in the future. Next week at the Parkside i will be playing with the Involvement and that will pretty much be my last show before Solana Beach. I am still trying to find a label to put out my newest recordings so I can't say when it will be available. Hopefully I will figure something out very soon. I plan on touring with the Involvement in June...Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows and to all who care about my music. January 24th- Amy Cooper and I travelled to the east coast for some shows in the middle of January. We had planned on writing bunch of songs together but managed to come up with only one complete song, "Night Comes for Grasshopper." To fill out the set we played several songs of our own. We played Philadelphia first and then the next two nights in New York. There was a good number of people at all the shows despite the cold weather. The night we played the Parkside it was -25 with wind chill. Amy and I both thank everyone for coming out and being nice to us. We are planning on touring the east coast more extensively sometime in late spring and we will have more collaborational songs by then. February will bring some more west coast shows. The Involvement will be playing early on in Chico (supported by Nate Pendery's The Deer)and in Fairfax (supported by Dave Gleason'e Wasted Days) and Ball-Point Birds (Greg Loiacono and me) are doing a little California coast tour, starting with an "evening with" at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on the 8th. Also of note is my residency at the Parkside in SF. I will be playing every tuesday night (with the exception of the 10th) in February. On the 3rd, the esteemed and aforementioned David Gleason will also play, on the 17th Ben Weaver will be there, and on the 24th I am hoping the Involvement can join me. My solo record, which for now I am calling WINGBEATS, is more or less done and I am looking for a label to put it out. Hopefully something will come of that soon so it can be released in a timely fashion. I hope to see you all at the shows. December 23rd - I flew down to San Diego a day before the Casbah show to practice with the boys. Dan Moore picked me up at the airport and we met everybody else at Benny's for some beef tacos, according to tradition. After a while we headed over the Jack's garage and messed around with some ideas for about two hours, mostly just to stretch out and warm up. The show at the Casbah that night went really well, we had good sound, the crowd was into it and we had fun. The next day we headed up to Hollywood and found ourselves in some really horrendous traffic. It would be an omen of what was to come. Upon arrival at the Knitting Factory I discovered that we were scheduled to play about two hours later than I had thought and I was unable to convince the production manager to change the schedule. I had hoped to be out of there by 11pm, but we didn't go on until 10:45. It is a pleasant place to play nonetheless. The sound system is great and the staff is professional. The attendance was modest but enthusiastic and we had a good time. After the show we needed to cover some ground toward Arcata, where we had a show the next night. I got us as far as the north end of the Grapevine, right at the base of the great San Joaquin Valley. We slept for a few hours at a hotel and got on the road at about 9am. By 2pm we arrived in San Francisco. I needed to stop and pick up some stuff there and we crossed the Golden Gate at 3 under darkening skies. It was a Friday. It took us over 7 hours to finally arrive at the club in McKinleyville, a drive that should have taken us 4 1/2 hours. The discrepancy can be attributed to the awful, awful traffic in San Rafael and Santa Rosa, the absolute downpour that started in Cotati and didn't stop for three days and 800 miles and to the simple fact that six guys in a small-ish vehicle have to stop very often for a variety of reasons. We showed up at the Six Rivers Brewery and pretty much had to load in (through a mud-puddle and in the rain) and start playing right away. There was a good crowd there and everybody had a great time despite missing dinner. (I managed to gulp down a few nasty chicken fingers that the bartender found in the kitchen.) The drive to Portland was rain-soaked and mountainous. We saw a number of wrecks and a rockslide or two along highway 199. In Portland there was sleet and ice but we made it safely to the Tonic Lounge. Five Foot Tuesday played a set without time for dinner and then Tim Seely played, singing intermittently into a lavalier microphone hooked onto a harmonica rack running through a synth-string effect pedal. It ended up sounding like a one-man Mercury Rev record. Trevor flew home the next morning and would not join us again until San Francisco. We had a night off the next night and we hung out with friends and dined on oysters and catfish at Montage. I managed to hook up a house party at the home of Karl Blau in Anacortes, northwest of Seattle, through my friend Kyle Field. Karl is a third generation oyster farmer and a creative and beautiful songwriter. When we showed up at his house he was cutting the feet off some chickens from his backyard. He and his wife Calli cooked those birds up and pulled out a whole lot of oysters and we had a big meal there in the kitchen. Karl then played a short set in the living room of the house he grew up in, quietly commanding the small crowd of locals that had showed up, playing a Danelectro and using a sampler to create loops of mouth-percussion and singing to accompany his songs. Then two Anacortes musicians from a band called Spoonshine played some acoustic songs, and then the Involvement got up there and gingerly set about playing, trying hard not to lay into our instruments too hard. All these big amps and drums set up in this little living room in a very rural area...After the show we played liar's dice far into the night. The next day I started to feel ill and I was convinced I was getting the flu, the famous flu. Before the show I was unable to touch my dinner and went to lay down in the back of the truck. It was cold in Seattle and the truck was parked in a pretty bad area and I was miserable. Dan called me on my phone when it was time to play and I walked back to the club, shivering uncontrollably. Once on stage I felt OK and the band played well I managed to sell a bunch of CDs before walking back to the truck and crawling back into my sleeping bag. I missed Tim Seely's set and Friend for Heroes' set. I heard FfHs covered my song "Tear it Down." I felt much better the next morning and Dan and Trevor had flown home so there was plenty of room in the truck. We drove south all day and stopped in Ashland for dinner. The whole town was lit up like a Christmas tree and we tasted the Lithia water that flows out of a fountain downtown. It is said to have bolstered the health of the early settlers here, but it tasted really awful. We arrived in San Francisco at about 2am. On Thursday night I had commited us to playing a song (The Beach Boys' "Little St. Nick") for a toy drive at the Parkside. The only problem was that I couldn't find a recording of the song until earlier that same day and Jeff, Nucci, Jack and I tried our best to learn it well enough to perform it, but could not. We took the stage eagerly and started in, inspired by David Gleason's Wasted Days who had just been on stage, and proceeded to train-wreck worse than I had ever train-wrecked before. Luckily it was a short song and we were done in about two minutes and we slunk out the door in shame before anyone could react.
Friday was the big show, the Show of the year. This one was especially big for me because I was fronting or co-fronting three of the four bands on the bill. It was a hectic afternoon of getting ready and trying to get through soundcheck but at last it was time for Ball-Point Birds to play. Greg and I were both pretty sure it would be a token performance to a chatty crowd and were prepared for that. But when we struck the first chords of "Daisy and Joaquin" the audience fell hush. It felt incredible to sing with Greg again and our harmonies were right where we left them. We played for about a half-hour. I missed Chuck's set entirely because I had to eat dinner and write rough setlists for the Sheets and the Involvement. Luckily Nucci volunteered to write out the latter. Paul and I walked onto stage and launched into "Long Journey of the Eye." I had played Greg L.'s Les Paul at the Fillmore and it kind of became the Sheets guitar for me then, so I played it now too. It is much hotter and raunchier than my Gibsons, which are pretty raunchy already, but in a flappier way. We all had a blast, Greg and I watching Paul and Paul bashing the %(^*& out of his drums. I wished I had had some of those guys' vocals in the monitors, but they were set up for the Involvement, for which I can hear Jack and Dan enough without putting them in my own mix. We didn't play perfect, to be sure, but that's kind of what the Sheets has been all about so far. More heart than brain. When it came time for the Involvement set I knew it would be a piece of cake. We had been playing everyday for a week and had paid a lot of attention to what we were doing. Those guys have been so concientious and earnest and it had paid off. I was really proud to see it all come together at a place like the Great American and in front of such a cool and attentive audience. It was a perfect close to a scary, challenging and exciting year. I can't wait to play more shows with Greg, Paul, Dan, Trevor, Jack Jeff and Nucci in any of the possible combinations. Thank you to everyone who supported me in my pursuits this year and in past years. Happy Holidays. November 15th, San Diego, CA - The-Man-Who-Would-Be-King and I made it to San Diego and here we await tonight's show. After playing two shows (tripling our show count)we are starting to figure out a few things about the Sheets. Thee Parkside show was really fun because we had Greg L. join us on his black Jazz bass. We wished we could take him along on the rest of the tour, but he declined, citing an appointment at the barber as his reason. I saw Vertibird for the first time and enjoyed watching Jack step to centerstage. Nat and Simone of Essen came through with the 200 handprinted and numbered EP covers and we have sold a lot already. I saw the Court and Spark's EP cover that Essen did and had to get them to do the Sheets. We will probably be sold out at Sacramento, but will have more for Saturday. We were offered the opening slot for Lucinda Williams' Saturday show at the Fillmore and so had to cancel our appearances with Vertibird in the northwest. Our sincerest apologies to all who had plans to attend. Vertibird will be there in full force. November 3rd, Sausalito, CA - The mixing of the "solo" material went well, and in fact is all done except for one song that still has to be mixed. I had some demo CDs made up and began passing them out to industry types. I even went to New York City for that purpose, and to play two shows. I loved New York a lot. It is a huge city, truly huge and people stay up all night and they don't get tired. Greg Kempton and I walked about 25 miles while we were there. We visited the World Trade Site. It is a giant hole in the ground surrounded by a fence and a whole bunch of people looking down into the hole. There were a lot of trucks and workmen down there. The most poignant thing was the damage on some of the adjacent buildings. It was difficult to imagine those huge towers crashing down in the midst of the city. Sandwiches were $20 straight up. Brownies were $6.95 pretty much everywhere. Americanos cost about the same as California. I would say that people were generally friendlier there than here, but that is difficult to say. Maybe I was just in a really good mood. The music scene was interesting. I saw every musician I knew from San Francisco. We all fit into one club. We stood around, passed out demos to one another and talked about Cafe Du Nord. We flew into Long Island on Southwest and that was a mistake. The train ride form Islip Airport to Manahttan was about 85 minutes. And then on the way home to San Francisco we somehow got stuck in Vegas for three days because of fires in LA, and somehow agreed that the Hard Rock Hotel was the most prudent choice for lodging. There were a lot of famous people there. At least they were dressed like famous people. I pretty much stayed in the room the whole time and switched back and forth between the Who channel and the Zeppelin channel. We went to New York New York but it just felt weird. We had crepes at a cafe in Paris. I learned that French people love nacho cheese. A middle-aged woman wearing sweat-pants shorts had a poorly executed Charlie's Angels tatoo on her ankle. I was ready to get back home. The Ball-Point Birds show at the Sweetwater was very enjoyable and well-attended. I loved playing with Greg and watching Amy Cooper play. I have about twenty shows between now and December 19th. Some of them are with the Involvement and some of them are with the Sheets. One is with Butch Boswell. The Sheets EP is done and will be available for sale starting November 13th at Thee Parkside in SF. It has five songs on it and a hand-printed cover, limited to 200 copies. The Mother Hips will release a live recording on motherhips.com in a new, high-quality downloadable format. Album art will be downloadable as well. As I mentioned before my solo record is done and I am looking for a label to release it, ideally by early next year. Thanks to everyone for supporting my music and ideas and for the great conversations and hospitality that I and the boys have been lucky to recieve wherever we go. I look forward to seeing you soon. October 5th, San Francisco - There has been a name change. Now, when I play with 5Foot Tuesday as my backing band it will be called Tim Bluhm Involvement. The line-up will still be the same, and 5Foot Tuesday is still 5Foot Tuesday. September, the Golden Month. I had planned on spending most of it in southern Baja with my brother and and few friends, but instead decided to spend that time helping out with the construction of the family home in the eastern Sierra. I spent three weeks up there, largely working very long days laying hardwood floor and painting. It is said that manual labor is rewarding and I suppose it is, but mostly it just further enforced my commitment to being a musician. My back was sore, my hands had blisters and splinters and I drank too much Dr. Pepper. During the quiet evenings I did manage to work on some new songs and just play a lot of guitar for no reason at all. On the 23rd I played the first of three shows opening for Josh Ritter. The Largo is a real nice place that enforces the no-talk policy with rigor, which is great if you are a solo, acoustic performer and kind of a bummer if you are trying to whisper something to your companion. Josh was great and the audience absolutely adored him. The song called "Wings" is truly amazing. The next night was at the Cafe DuNord in San Francisco and the place was sold out. I really enjoyed playing in front of Josh's audience. They were a little older than what I am used to maybe, and very quiet always. Then it was time for Paul and I to meet up and record the Sheets EP. We convened at Pyramid Audio Headquarters (of "Maybe" and "Purgatory" renown)and very quickly set up and quite literally bashed out three songs in four hours, including a trip to my favorite retail spot Guitar Center. The next day we sang our parts monitoring off the stereo speakers thereby completing the recordings without once using headphones. (A fairly desirable accomplishment.) The next two days found Paul and I at Scott Solter's studio recording three more songs for my "solo" record, which we did live and together, and completing some overdubs on a few others thereby completing that phase of work. I flew to Seattle the next day to play the third and final show with JR, which went well, and returned awfully early the next morning to begin mixing the "solo" stuff at Tiny Telephone. Paul was in rehearsals with John Vanderslice for their upcoming five-week stint as the support act for Beulah on their alleged final tour, but Paul managed to come by and grace us with his magical ears for several mixes. That is all for now because I realize I am already writing about early October... Look for November and December tour dates with Involvement and the Sheets and don't forget October 22nd is Ball-Point Birds at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley with my favorite Amy Cooper.
San Luis
Obispo was the locale for some great times earlier in the month.
I played at the SLO Brew with 5Ft. and Jackpot and local boys The
Coyotes (not to be confused with the Court and Spark acoustic).
We headed up to Ben Lomond and played Henfling's with David and
Mike from Wasted Days and Ron Work joined us onstage as well. I
actually prefer playing Henfling's as an acoustic act more. I went
back down to San Luis and played at the Frog and Peach with Greg
Olin and Adam Selzer and Little Wings. The place was packed and
I felt good there. I camped out at my favorite place for a few days
and surfed with Kyle Field and Justin Fuller and Hippy Johnny and
ate shrimp burritos. A woman was killed by a great white shark in
Avila while I was there.
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January
14th 
October
25th SF, CA - 
April
28 - 
