Set List – Coffee Amici, April 16, 2016
Set List – April 16, 2016
Coffee Amici, Findlay, OH
with Mike Gentry opening
- Don’t Mess Around with Jim (Jim Croce)
- A World That’s Bigger
- Girl on the Mountain, Boy on the Beach
- Here Comes the Sun (the Beatles)
- I Just Want to Be Your Last
- Damn Fine Day
- Ghost Writer
- Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)
- Only the Rain Knows Why
- One Way Road
- Made a Mess (with James Atkins on guitar)

Photo credits: Mike Gentry
Recording Updates, OH & IN tour dates
Coffee Amici was a musical treat last night to play!
Big thanks to Craig for running sound, John and Danielle for brewing the coffee, and the Findlay community for sharing their night with Mike Gentry and I. Also, thanks to Josh Woodward for posting about my gig on his social media. (You’re the best, Josh!)
I love this little cafe that turns into a music listening room two nights a week. I’ve been stopping here for coffee on my road trips through Ohio for years, and the Amici staff gave me a chance to play my first show there last night. (Set list here)
Earlier in the year, Gentry and I attended the Amici open mic to help promote our show, and we met James Atkins, a killer picker and touring musician! Big thanks to James not only attending the show with his wife Emily, but also for accompanying me on my last song “Made a Mess”!
New Album: A World That’s Bigger
After a year of delays, my new record of ten songs is finally getting finished and will be out this summer!
The Dayton City Paper is running an article about my show at Taffy’s, and writer Justin Kreitzer got me to open up a lot for the article about the challenges of finishing the album. I decided to put the record on hold twice, once in 2015 and again in earlier 2016, as Natalie and I were getting our bearings after two miscarriages, and a surprise roof repair needed on our house we bought in fall 2014. (Brand new roof Fannie Mae put on the house was installed incorrectly.)
When it rains it pours, but we are doing OK! (We are so blessed to have Ginny in our lives.)

Ginny’s practicing her air guitar!
The article is running last week of April before my show at Taffy’s, and I’ll post it when it gets published.
After our Acorn show last week, Mike Gentry said to me, “You know, we need to just finish your record! I’ve got the gear, you’ve got the songs ready to be done.”
He offered to help produce and do the final recording sessions, and I’m taking him up on the offer. We are going to pack up his mobile recording system and my stockpile of microphones, drive up to the picturesque Burg cottage in northern Michigan, and finishing tracking the album during the first week of the May; and I’m going to do some additional tracking at Solid Sounds in Ann Arbor.
The album will be a Nick Drake, Pink Moon styled record. 100% recorded live. No auto-tuning, minimal digital airbrushing, a 70s style, folk record. I’m not ready to announce the official release date for the new record, but anyone who wants to hear the songs first can sign up to my mailing list, and be the first ears to hear it before it’s out this summer.
Friends and fans in Indiana and Ohio, I’ll be coming to your area this month! I’m playing 4/23 at Wild Rose Moons in Plymouth, IN with Tim Pike; and 4/30 at Taffy’s in Eaton, OH with Denny Cottle. Check the gigs page on the website for more info.
Performing in a theater > Recording in a studio
Musicians, anyone else feel the same way about recording vs. performing live?
I enjoy performing live more than the recording process. I love rehearsing for gigs, yet dread the preproduction process.
Or do you feel the opposite? (Friends are commenting on my post here on Facebook.)
Peyton Tochterman told me, “Playing live is great because if you make a mistake, you just keep going and get the next note correct!”
Human ears are kind; microphones are less forgiving.
Set List: Fenton Hotel, Dylan Set, March 31, 2016
March 31, 2016 – the Fenton Hotel, Fenton MI.
Bob Dylan Set:
- Blowing in the Wind
- All Along the Watchtower
- You’re Gonna Me Lonesome When You Go
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- Wagon Wheel
- Like a Rolling Stone
- A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
- Man in the Long Black Coat
- The Times They Are A-changin’
- Desolation Row
When my dad and I bought our first CDs, I got Pearl Jam’s record; my dad bought his favorite Dylan album. He told me, one day you will love Dylan. At age 13, I shrugged. By age 20, my father’s prophesy became true.
I played a mini-set of Dylan covers at the The Fenton Hotel during my 7-11 PM gig last night. This is partly for my dad, who can now request Dylan songs when he comes to my gigs; and also for Ed Talley and the Talley family. My dad and Ed Talley are the two biggest Dylan fans I know.
Blog Hiatus until May, Spring/Summer Tour!
Hi friends and readers, I’m putting my blog on hiatus until late May or early June.
As many of you know, I watch my baby Ginny in the morning and afternoon while Natalie does freelance journalism work; then I go teach music or play gigs in the evening.
For the past year, I’ve been writing my blogs daily during Ginny’s morning nap, but I need to use that time to finish tasks with impending deadlines.
The main goal is to finish some graduate-level classwork. I’m taking two online classes to keep my teaching credentials current. A second piece of that time will be finishing some bookings and songwriting.
So I’m taking a break from writing the blogs.
During the 50+ shows booked, I’ll be traveling though possibly eight or more states while on tour! I have six festivals confirmed to announce soon, and that might be up to ten this summer. I hope to see you at a show!