We have two gigs in Flagstaff this weekend. One at a coffee shop for a couple of hours and one at the Flagstaff Folk Festival, which is a favorite of ours to play. It's about a seven hour drive to Flagstaff. Through the desert. It's a very hot weekend. So we pack a bunch of water into the car before we leave (my friend Colleen has drilled into my head that if you are driving on any long trip, but especially through the desert, have lots of water, more than you think you will need. Even if you are on well-traveled highways, you might be waiting a while for help). We also pack our PA for the coffee house gig. This is a little annoying because between the PA and the various accessories needed for it (like cables and stands), our guitars, and our luggage, my poor little car is packed to the brim. But it's Friday morning and off we go! The drive is long and uneventful, except that it's hot and windy when we stop for gas and food in Needles. Somehow we always end up stopping in Needles.
In Flagstaff, we're staying at Hotel Monte Vista, which is right in the historic downtown area. It's old and supposedly haunted and a lot of famous people stayed there. Each room is named after someone famous--ours is the Robert Englund room; it even has his headshot on the door, signed and thanking them for their hospitality. We joke about how the Freddy Krueger room may not be the best room in a haunted hotel, but what can we do?
The hotel is beautiful, with all the style and design and charm that older buildings have. Our room is also charming--in both the “cute” sense and the realtor sense (a.k.a code for small). The hotel is also apparently one of the hotter night spots downtown. The bar is already super crowded and loud when we check in at four pm. We walk around downtown for a bit and Ron finds copies of a couple of Flying Burrito Brothers albums on vinyl that I have wanted forever. But the prices are steep and they both have big scratches, so they don't come home wiht me. We eat dinner at a cute Italian place and stop in a bookstore and then we go back to the hotel.
The hotel bar and lounge is still absolutely full of people. There is also a cocktail lounge with live music that we check out that night. It's packed. This really is the place to be. Also, the handstamp for it is a little bird, which we find apropos. The band is really good, but we don't stay long because we're tired.
The next morning we wake up and head to breakfast. Then we relax and do a bit of warming up with our guitars and hang out. We can't go to see our friends Doug and Eric at the Festival because he's playing about the same time as our coffee shop gig, but that's life as a musician. We all miss each other's gigs because we all have gigs of our own. About an hour before we're set to leave, I get a text that our gig at the coffee shop is cancelled. They have to close early, and it's for legitimate reasons. It's one of those unavoidable things, but I'm still annoyed because we brought the PA all this way, we're now not getting paid, and we missed seeing our friends at the festival.
So we find a different cafe downtown that's willing to let us set up without a PA on their patio and just play for an hour. We don't make much money (one younger guy tipped us $2 because it was all the cash he had, which was kind of sweet), but we get to play some, so at least there's that. Empty wallet, full ego? Then we eat dinner and I get a call from Eric and a message from Doug... they both had stopped by the original coffee shop after the festival closed for the day, and it was closed, so I explain what happened.
Sunday, we head to the festival early. We run into someone else playing the festival in the parking lot of our hotel and we exchange set times. We're not playing until 1 pm, but we want to be there in plenty of time and get to see some of the other acts. The festival is at the Coconino Arts Center and it's beautiful. Big pine trees everywhere and lots of shade. And of course the volunteers and staff are super helpful and kind. We haven't been playing festivals long, but these small folk ones are almost wholly volunteer run, and every single time the volunteers and staff have been happy and helpful and enthusiastic. Today is no exception.
We go see our friend from the parking lot (Jim Klingenfus) and he sounds great. He plays a lot of older folk music, but kind of with a modern twist. We see some great acts after we see Jim, including Stone Company Music, who are such an impressive duo with such a wide variety of sounds they make me want to practice my non-guitar instruments more, so Ron and I can do more.
We run into Eric and also into Greg and Debbie from The Phabric Pharmacy. We met them in Tucson previously. Greg also does programming for a local Tucson radio station and I find out it's him that's been playing our music on the radio in Tucson! I thank him for that. (I can see on Apple Music that we have radio spins and even what city they're in and the radio call letters, but I never know how to find the actual shows/DJs who are playing us). Then Debbie gifts us some beautiful hand-made coasters.
We perform at 1 pm, and I'm ambivalent about how it went. To me, our actual performance feels like it could have been stronger, but Ron says I'm being hard on myself. People did seem to enjoy us, but I feel like we've been tighter. I'm probably just being picky. Some days you feel on, some days you don't and I've actually found that that isn't always a reflection on the audience experience, so I'll take that as it is and just hope that people enjoyed it.
We eat and hang out at the festival for a little bit more and then the heat starts getting to me (it isn't that hot, but I'm on a medication that makes me susceptible to heat and sun, so sometimes these outside long days are difficult). We head back to the hotel and rest and change and then we go see Eric performing at a local brewery. He does a great job, playing some of his originals and some covers, but in interesting ways. Then the three of us get some pizza and Ron and I head back to the hotel. We have a drink at the bar and then head to bed.
We leave Flagstaff having had a mostly excellent, entirely ghost-free experience. The drive home is hot and windy, and I almost hit a tumbleweed, but we make it home unscathed. Until (hopefully) next year Flagstaff!