After a 140 mile drive and a nice dinner with Kim (Happy Scout) and her husband Dave, we lined up outside Club Cafe, under a light drizzle, with my rain jacket conveniently in my car a few blocks away. As the rain got worse, we were treated to one of the nicest gestures ever by a venue. One of the Club Cafe people scrounged up all the umbrellas she could find and passed them out! As the rained picked up, we felt increasingly grateful.

Things got progressively more interesting inside, as Kim, Dave and I were saving choice seats for Bill, KylieJo and Scott. For while, Kim was outside on her cell phone trying to direct lost Bill to the club, so Dave and I were left to fend off increasingly grumpy people who hungrily eyed those four empty chairs. Scott, meanwhile, was happily quaffing stouts, until he guessed who we were and joined us in the battle. Kim and Bill got disconnected, so she reclaimed her seat. Four people holding two empty chairs is much easier than two holding four, believe me!

Happily, Bill and KylieJo arrived just before the OTR took the stage. The funny thing, right after they arrived, while each was visiting the rest room, some angry-looking guy game over and demanded, "WHERE ARE THEY???" He didn't believe me when I told them they had just arrived and were in the club. "We'll SEE!", he replied, glaring as he stalked off. It seemed that the people who arrived the latest were the most upset that people were saving chairs; they didn't seem to grasp the fact that even if we hadn't saved the spaces, someone else who have grabbed them long before they got there.

It was a nice show, just Linford and Karin:

Thanx to Bill and KylieJo for helping me with the setlist as I wrote the songs down. I'm familiar with much of their material, but sometimes bad with the titles.

Faithfully Dangerous
Bothered
Anything at All
Who Will Guard the Door?
What I'll Remember Most
The Seahorse
Summertime
Fever
My Love is a Fever
Little Blue River/In the Garden
Ohio
Drunkard's Prayer
All I Need is Everything
Rhapsody

Encore:
She
Orphan Girl

Nice meeting ya'll, Kim, Dave, Scott, KylieJo, Luke, Nicholle, and a couple whose names I didn't learn. Nice to see you again, Bill. Hope you found the hotel!

Oh, yeah...the opener was a fellow named Eric Graf, from a local band named BoxStep. I didn't pay him much attention, but he did a nice cover of Dylan's "Pain My Masterpiece".

Thanks Chuck and Dave for circling the wagons and holding off the attack (read Chucks post). Again thanks to Kim for her efforts and thanks to all apples hangin' out with Linford and Karin in the very tiny Club Cafe.

Earlier I posted this in another topic on the forum but some mental weakness compelled me to move it here:

Sometimes, very rarely, when you are not expecting it, reality delivers on some past fantasy and it is actually better than imagination had hyped it to be.

Last night after driving hundreds of miles crossing the borders of three states, through wicked rain, being horribly lost in a new city, I sat in a tiny club surrounded by a few beautiful souls watching our two sublime musicians melt themselves into the ether of the moment. That all made it surreal. When Karin poured out this line from a song I thought I waited much to long to hear her sing live again,
my love is jazz licks
improvised by toddlers,
while she stood singing and twisting in her own energy on the floor a few arm lengths in front of me, the déjà vu of an old musical fantasy pushed out of my psyche and made reality better than imagination.

The five hour drive home in the rain evaporated in the aura of the evening. Thank you Linford and Karin for ninety transcendent minutes or so of your closeup art.

"who will guard the door?"

ok, here's a few pics from a great show last night. thanks much to kim for trying to help us find the place and for chuck and others for holding a couple of seats...much appreciated.

K&L-

karin playing her new lowden guitar. linford told a story about their guitar shopping experience, talking about their trying different brands, styles, vintages...old or new, then she sat down, strummed this one and said "this is it"...

he also mentioned the love offering, telling the crowd about their fans raising money to help out after the theft and how much they appreciated it. he also told about conversations with their musician friends and everyone complaining about how attendance was down and business was bad, etc. he then said they had never been drawing better crowds and said they were "happy" about their fans.

karin introducing "ohio"...

just karin...

dave, kim & scotty...

karin & chuck...

Thanks so much...Great pix. Karin seems to have a great new look.
Does she have a brace on her right wrist?

Sounds like I missed a great show, guys. Thanks so much for the accounts and pictures! The starry backdrop for the stage is really beautiful. I really wish I could have made it out there, especially since I haven't hooked up with Chuck for a long while.

We got my daughter moved into her F.I.T. dorm this morning. There was (to our surprise) much weeping and gnashing of teeth on the drive into NYC and whilst stuck in the five-block-long line of cars waiting to unload outside the Manhattan campus, but she was feeling much better about things after we got her stuff all set up in her surprisingly spacious dorm room. Her roomate arrives from Washington state tomorrrow.

yeah, she wasn't wearing it during the show, put it on right afterwards. it must be just to relieve the pressure after playing or something. she sure didn't seem to be having any prob playing, she seemed to be enjoying the new guitars.

.... whoa.
...

great show.
great friends.
*great* wine.



and who knew Pittsburg, PA was a black hole?! ... still in shock that Bill got us out of there.

Oh, sorry... I meant especially since I haven't seen an OtR show in over 3 months.

So did they both get new guitars, or just Karin? This sounds like it was a great show with some little jewels thrown in. I have still yet to hear Who Will Guard the Door live.

And for those interesed in the details as am I, were those just stick on stars, or actual holes with light shining through?

Sorry, I hadta ask!

on the guitars, linford told the story about the shopping experience, then after the next song, karin talked about linford sayng that he also always wanted a lowden. so, she said [paraphrasing here], being a "girl", she needed "reasons" for purchasing some things, so she thought with linford's 40th birthday coming up, that this would be a good "reason", a good present for him, a new lowden guitar. then she proceeded to smile, show "his" new guitar to everyone then strap it on and play it, as she did several times throughout the evening, switching out between the two new guitars. poor linford never even got to touch the thing but he did seem to get a kick out of it. linford also noted that this was the first time she had played the new guitar in front of an audience...

several of us helped them load up after the show and i sort of jokingly asked linford if they were parking the van in more secure places now, and he said yep and that they are taking everything in their room with them now...

yeah, those were real lights, little blue (christmas style) lights hanging behind a black backdrop, nice effect, nice little venue. and don't worry, "who will guard the door" seems to becoming a staple of the sets recently, it's been in every set i've seen since the CST shows so i'm sure you will get the opportunity to hear it soon, nice song.

But they both had Lowdens get stolen before, didn't they?

AWESOME!



Sad that they have to do this. Sad world. And I bet it's a b$%#@ to have to load and unload twice now for each show.

Nice, I'm a big fan of Christmas lights myself.  I guess the room lighting made them look white in the photos.  And they even appear to be twinkling!



I beg to differ, there Bill. They didn't play it at the Dame. Which fittingly so, because I was there...

Oh well, how can I complain?

PS, Leave it to me to screw up the quoting!--Never mind, I fixed it.

Peace out,
M

mark, kylie may want to chime in on the guitar conversation, she is much more familiar with that stuff than i am. she was there also and was explaining guitars to me...

about the guitars...

i'm confused. i thought they only had one new one, b/c the guitar linford played looked a lot like the one i've seen him play before. i dunno. *shrug*
karin's new guitar is very nice and shiny. pretty much the same guitar w/o a cut-away. (karin, why?!)
i tried to look for it online, but the Lowden site is down.

Hey Folks, We, Linford and I, just got in this evening and I'm a little tired, but I wanted to take a minute and say thanks to those of you who drove out to the shows. Bill - thanks for the beautiful flowers. Kylie - thanks for lighting up the room. And Luke and Nicole - thanks so much for the amazing treats. Nicole, you are so gifted. We will miss you and will have to find more excuses to get out to Colorado! Sorry I didn't get to say goodnight to you all.

We are truly blessed by your presence -- all of you that came out. Thanks again.

Here's a question? Would anyone be interested in a category called something like 'Lies, rumors, and general misunderstandings?' (I'm borrowing from the Cincinnati Citybeat magazine here.)
Linford and I would check in from time to time and answer/respond to questions...within reason, of course.

Thoughts?

Respond here to that last query, and I'll check in again soon. Goodnight!

Hi Karin,
First I want to tell you I listened to a few songs from Lukes cell phone at the Pittsburgh show and you, as always, sounded so wonderful. When he and Nichole move out here you guys will have to make a special effort to do some Denver/Boulder shows!
I am so anxious to see you and Linford again at the Taft in Dec. (I have my airline tix).
That forum sounds great. Do you mean questions the fans have for you guys? I'm all for it.

I think this would be great...I have seen many questions come by in many threads...having them asked and answered in one place sounds like a great idea to me...

i'm probably the one confused, as i said i know nothing about guitars (except they sound great when played well), so i'll yield to k-dogg on this one. i thought that as karin told her story about linford's b'day gift, that she picked up a different guitar (from the pics, as they are both playing, there does appear to still another guitar in the stand). but, re-thinking it, kylie is prob right, karin's story could easily have been a continuation of linford's story explaining justifying buying the guitar to herself. yes, my guitar ignorance is showing but, i do agree with kylie... "karin's new guitar is very nice and shiny".

my bad. sorry for the confusion if had it wrong.

Ha! that cracks me up and humbles me (it's the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other issue). What good citizens you guys are!... here is the perfect opportunity to amuse yourselves by adding new layers to the rumor mayhem yet you choose to help sort out the old stuff. I only say this because I am demented and just a little bent on anarchy. You might consider offering some outrageous misinformation just for the fun of it.

On second thought... skip that. Bad idea!

as we are by yours...

thank you both for another beautiful evening of music and a wonderful night shared among the friends that were fortunate enough to be a part of it.

karin, that is a great idea. our local alternative paper (LEO) also has a "lies, rumors & innuendos" column. it's usually a pretty interesting read. maybe as the "Q&A's" move along, it might possibly eliminate the some of the speculation that causes some the "lies, rumors & and general misunderstandings" in the future (riiiiiight).

hope all was well at the festival today, the weather was great back here at home, hope ya'll had the same.

another group shot, outside after the show...

Heck yeah, I know I'm interested. Even if this is the only thing I ever ask( ), the Q&A interaction would be great to have. Participator or observer. Sounds like fun to me.



And visa-versa. By being in your presence I had one of the greatest weekends I can remember and gained many, many fabulous friends and memories. Thank you.


Bill gave me a ringy ding for All I Need Is Everything - it was almost like I was there!

I think that would be great, Karin! You can start by explaining why your furniture clashes so dreadfully with the dogs. Seriously, that's very generous of you both and hopefully we won't overwhelm you with our boundless curiosity.

I am determined to get to the CST shows in October by the way, sorry I had to miss another one. If you guys keep this up I just might have to move further west...

Absolutely. I think it would be an excellent addition to the forum, and I imagine it would be easier for you two to find the things you'd like to respond to if they were all grouped in one place. I've been here since the beginning days of the Orchard, and I know it's easy to get lost in here.

I didn't make it to Pennsylvania, either, but I'll definitely be at Canal Street again in October. Thanks for the music; if you weren't here, we wouldn't be either! (And I wouldn't have so many cool new friends...)

Linford and Karin, or Karin and Linford :

I think any presence you two have in the Orchard is extremely gracious of you, and I just hope you don't get too tired of us too soon. So Yeah! I for one would be elated to post questions and rumors here. Remember that old rumor that Karin was spotted all over the city smoking cigars, and that Linford had a secret tat? Juicy, juicy.

But seriously, I think it's a great idea. And I can't wait. Thanks!



Mark

As soon as I found out that OTR was playing Club Cafe, I was extrememly excited. That is such a great venue for them to play at. I have seen many many shows there including: Damien Jurado, Christine Kane, Lucy Kaplansky, Shane Nicholson, Cosmic Rough Riders, Fooled By April, Juliana Hatfield, and others. It is always wonderful. I prefer to see shows there on the weekday as Friday and Saturday can attract bar-hoppers who really are not there to witness the show itself.

I thought that Karin and Linford played a wonderful show. This was the first time that I have heard "What I'll Remember Most" live, which was cool. I was happy to hear that They plan on recording "Who Will Guard the Door." I think that it is a really pretty song.

It was kind of weird to hear Karin actually mention "Barnesville", as this is where I am from and currently live. I have heard her make references to her hometown before playing "Ohio", but this is the first time that I heard her actually mention the name of her home which was cool.

I work part-time at a major national record store in a small area. I often recommend OTR to people to buy, but I have difficulty convincing people of the majesty that awaits them. I wish that we had a promotional copy to play in the store and maybe more people would express interest. Anybody have a clue as to when the new album will be released or a DVD?

It's a great idea.

I joined Vienna Teng's forum in June and she did a question and answer
thread for about a month.

http://viennateng.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=350&hl=

I didn't realize I was sitting right by the infamous group until I just read that you were the ones who were lost and guarding seats!! John, my husband, and I were sitting right next to you. We were the wet ones from running through the rain John has long hair and an unshaven face Anyway, we also LOVED the show and were slightly afraid a fight was going to break out right before the show when the one guy began yelling.

It was a GREAT show.

A friend and OTR fan told me that "Welcome to the Goldrush" is actually titled "The Seahorse". Can anyone clarify this? (I'm a bit of a stickler for setlists.)

yes, it's called 'The Seahorse' from Good Dog Bad Dog.

Thanx! I do believe the setlist is 100% correct now.

Chuck, are you doubting my word?

hey karin,

i think that sort of forum would be pretty awesome....its cool for fans to have interaction with their favorite artists.

check out ronnie martin's q+a forum at www.joyelectric.com

i think it would be cool if you set it up like his to where only you and linford can reply in the threads that way a bunch of people don't keep asking questions in the same thread.


peace,
ryan

Great... I just knew the guy whose ear I about tore off with my rapacious clapping would be someone I would face later. Lets see... I owe John a beer, Bill a beer, Keith a beer.... this is more record keeping than I've done in a decade.

Not at all!

I hadn't read your post on the CJ board until after I made that query.

Someone else first brought "The Seahorse" to my attention.

Hello folks,
Maybe I had better start here...? Or brush up on my story telling. =)
The short version is ... the cutaway Lowden is my guitar. It replaces the one that was stolen. (We're still working on replacing the rest of the gear.)

The other beautiful F model is Linford's birthday present. It has a unique voice and will be very useful in recording this next project, hopefully. I played it for one song that night in Pittsburgh (Who Will Guard the Door) because it was tuned down a whole step -- as Linford is prone to do with his guitars.

As for the other guitars, one was my old 'beater' as we call it. It's not a great guitar for recording or performing live, but I've held on to it for a couple of reasons. It was my first guitar that I bought for this band. It's functional. That's about it. And I wrote 'Poughkeepsie' on it. All the more reason to a. keep it, b. cherish it, c. burn the sucker. You decide. Dan ... behave. =)

The last guitar is Linford's main axe, (I hate that term). This is the one he plays throughout the show. It's his best songwriting tool, next to the piano.

more soon,
peace out

Way the By,
I'll get with Drew and see if we can set up this new forum. Until then, I'll field 'em as best as I can.
Ok.
Time to let the dogs out.

nah, don't change a thing regarding your story telling. i'm sure it was far more likely to be my memory retention (and/or my complete lack of guitar knowledge) than your story telling abilities (which are very enjoyable by the way)...

and i'll vote "b" on the old guitar.

thanks.

Um,

After Nichole and I realized we were saving the same two seats for Kylie and Bill as were Kim and Chuck, Nichole made her way back to the back of house (where the standers stand), and invited two folks to join us up front. They turned out to be incredibly Kindred (jason and heather) and they gave us a ride back to the Marriot after having breakfast at midnight (they also took the time to lead Bill back to the highway so he didn't spend all morning looking for a way out of town ). Thank You, You Two!! It was their first time seeing Karin & Linford Live and they were not disappointed! THey also bought us a round! THanks Again!!

I was most moved by the Faithfully Dangerous that was played right of the bat.... ....No wonder the Keyboard was sooo HOT!!!

MuchLove,

Luke

p.s. Karin, your idea for a new category is really cool!........that reminds me, I want to let you know that that you would be offering your Christmas shows Via. Simulcast sattelite across the U.S. and in 25 countries...I Hope This Is True!!! Note: (because of the altitude we get great sattelite reception in Denver)

yes, thank god for jason & heather (and nicole & luke for finding them) or poor kylie and i would probably still be in pittsburgh, crossing the west end bridge over & over & over...

very nice people (good "peeps"), i hope to see them join in here or at shows in the future.

pictured below: luke, jason, heather, nichole
*btw michelle, i think that "gang sign" luke is flashing is for you...

I also experienced all of the seat chaos. I was directly behing "the group". I am sorry I missed the opportunity to introduce myself. I think I was to meet Dave at the merch table...I was there for a few minutes, but it was so crowded.

This was the first I have heard the new songs, I haven't seen them since December when I was able to host the Geneva College show. I no longer work there, so I have no idea if there are plans in the works to bring them back.

There needs to be a better venue in Pittsburgh. Club Cafe is so small! Moondogs was awful...the show was great, but the venue was sub-par. They haven't played at the Rosebud in a few years.

Thanks to everyone for a good night. Next time, I'll say hello.

Kathleen

I saw that...

Howzit Luke? Shaka's brah! I see you February bum bye an den we go snorkel for honu an go eat da kine! Latah's!