Inspiration strikes at the oddest moments and in the strangest places. Perhaps it's the coincidental meeting of someone on the ski lift, and in a few short moments you find out you have something crazy in common, like you went to high school together in a far away state and you were a couple years apart so you don't know each other but you have a hundred acquaintances in common. And there you are, sitting in a two-seater with this stranger (who by definition is no longer really a stranger), dangling in mid-air, high above a steep gulch, and the ride is coming to an end. You literally go your separate ways and you never cross paths again. That happened to me once. It was both awkward and awesome. You marvel at how easy it would have been to not strike up any conversation at all with this person...how easily this major crossover could have remained unknown. And it makes you wonder how many other times you've been in someone's presence, someone with whom you have a significant commonality, and it just never came up. It might not be song material, but it's thought-provoking and it's something you never forget. It's also a tool some writers use in their stories to reveal something important to the reader, but more often than not, it's too obvious that they're using it as a tool; it never seems totally possible or natural. But then it happens in real life and I think to myself, I couldn't write this shit!On the other hand, sometimes the oddity of the muse is how normal it is, or easy to come by, such as a newspaper. You're supPOSED to read the newspaper. These stories are just sitting there, waiting for you to notice them every single day. And sometimes there are real gems in there. Like this one: In preparation for a big move, I was wadding up newspaper and came across this article. I had to clip it out and keep it. This woman, Huguette Clark, 104 years old at the time it was published, is an heiress to a Montana copper mining fortune and is currently the center of a criminal investigation into her fortune and welfare. She's been 
living as a recluse in New York and Connecticut all these years (she has a 42-room estate on Fifth Avenue, and a castle in CT surrounded by 52 acres that is currently on the market for $24 million). She was taken out of her Fifth Ave. home in a stretcher and is in some hospital but is alive and well.There was a similar event in New York with an heiress in which her son and attorney bilked millions of dollars from her and a Manhattan district attorney's office successfully prosecuted the case. There is a question as to whether it's happening again in Clark's case. Two guys, Bock and Kamsler, have been in charge of her finances but wouldn't return calls about the investigation. Oh, and a little random detail: Kamsler is now a registered sex offender convicted of emailing pornographic pictures to underage girls. WHAT?!?!? The article continued onto another page that wasn't present so all I have is this lead-in to a story with all the trimmings: mystery, money, locations, history, great characters with rich names, and unfathomable details. More often than not, I'm astonished at the real, and less impressed with fiction. There it was, right smack in the middle of my daily paper, just waiting for a song.Huguette Clark is less personal to me than the guy on the ski lift, but here's this story I would have thought either happened a hundred years ago, or never happened at all---just the made-up story of some fictional novel. However, this woman, as far as I know, is still alive and she got her gorgeous Reno divorce picture from 80 YEARS AGO posted in the daily paper in my hometown in 2010. I couldn't write this shit!P.S.Here are a couple pictures from around town (Under the Eaves antique shop and Book Nook) that got me thinking about the muse's whereabouts. Whole little rooms loaded with material, and they are strictly created for perusing. Lucky me.
Holidays in Big Sky Country
This year we had the pleasure of spending the holidays in Bozeman and Big Sky, Montana. It was great to see family (including a gorgeous 8 month old niece that inspires us to do outrageously stupid things in her honor) and we got to play in a few new spots up on the mountain at 7, 510 feet in elevation.
Now, numbers are mentioned in order to impress you, so here are some impressive numbers for the Big Sky Resort: The ski terrain consists of 3,812 acres with 150 named runs covering over 85 miles on 3 different mountains. The Lone Peak Tram is a 15-person, 4-minute enclosed ride that rises 1,450 vertical feet over a distance of 2,828 feet and deposits passengers literally at the summit of Lone Peak where the elevation is 11,166 feet (for skiing, it's an impressive elevation, but on the list of the highest mountains in Montana, Lone Peak actually comes in at 67th). At any rate, Big Sky boasts the "Biggest Skiing in America" meaning it's got a hell of a vertical drop
(4,350 ft.)... 3,640 feet of which you could ski in one run without stopping (if you take the Liberty Bowl to the Mountain Mall at the base, we're talking about a 6 mile continuous ride down the mountain). They average 400 inches of snow per year (30 of which we witnessed in the couple of weeks we were there---sweet freshy pow-pow!) and 60% of the resort is "advanced" or "expert" terrain. The lift capacity allows for 23,000 skiers to zoom up the mountain PER HOUR and 0-1 is the number of minutes we ever waited in line for this experience.On the chairlifts, in the hot tub, and throughout the bars, we met people from Florida, New Jersey, Chicago, Nashville, New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Dakota and a bunch of fellow Montanans (who were arguably the rowdiest). We enjoyed great snow and fun gigs with great staff and we can't wait to do it all again in March. Have we mentioned that we love our job?
Cheers to you, and Happy New Year!--Tumbledown House
A Self-Inflicted Relocation Program
That's right, folks, your favorite bindlestiffs have once again packed up their meager belongings, traveled the country, and plopped down again in a seemingly random location far from anything familiar. In other words, Tumbledown House has relocated to beautiful Prescott, Arizona. Why Prescott? Because it reminded us a lot of Bozeman, Montana. Then why leave Bozeman? Because we travel a lot and don't like to do so on ice. Besides, it seems as though everyone who comes to our shows in Bozeman already has the damn CD. A beach is not the place to try and sell sand. So we moved in to a good place with great neighbors in a cute town full of friendly people. And we couldn't be happier. We might even go ahead and record our second album here.
Our introduction to downtown Prescott was the First Annual HarvestFestival on Cortez Street. It was cold. Mighty cold. But there were talented artists of all kinds, fresh local and semi-local beer, and 9-foot-tall-human-propelled puppets (created by Jacob Devaney). And you just can't beat that.
It's a festival-friendly, arts-supportive town with something going on every weekend. And regardless of our agenda, we usually end up at the Raven to meet new friends, catch a movie or a show, and choose from lots and lots and lots of beers. The rooftop patio there is our unofficial living room.
What can we say? It's the first time we've signed a year-long lease in years, and we didn't flinch for a second. So if you know anyone in Arizona, tell them we're here to stay. Well, for a year, anyway.Cheers and Happy Holidays from Tumbledown House
After another great tour, it's time to lay low
After a few wonderful weeks on the road, we're taking a short break to revitalize our minds and bodies, align our chakras, and focus our Qi by partying really hard, dressing up in silly costumes, and drinking into the early hours of the morning with old friends in Northern California.Just to recap, we left Montana in mid September and played a few dozen shows, traveling northeast up to Maine, then south on the east coast until we reached D.C. For the most part, the tour was relatively uneventful. We played some great shows, met some great folks, and further explored this gorgeously immense nation. This time around, the effects of the recession were more notable: venue owners seem to be nervous, people aren't going out as much and seem to be watching their dollars more carefully. We met many musicians who've been doing this crazy gig much longer than we have that are currently struggling. So, if you support live music and wish for artists to continue writing creative independent music, go out, get drunk at a bar, and buy a CD, maybe even a T-shirt. Just remember that The White Album couldn't have been written while John Lennon was working at Dairy Queen or delivering pizzas.After our tour we headed over to Mountain View, Arkansas for the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance, or SERFA. The conference was held at The Ozark Folk Center, which is a state park dedicated to the preservation and celebration of traditional folk music in the region. It's an absolutely gorgeous, wooded park with cabins that provide all sorts of modern creature comforts. The conference itself was very educational and productive for us; there were workshops throughout the day and TONS of music every night.Now, I've never thought of Tumbledown House as folk music, but we do have a few 'folk-esque' qualities: we tell stories of working class folks in days of old, and our guitar/vocal combo seems to be the standard for folk instrumentation. However, we play amplified music, use effects, and sometimes sing about hookers, which maybe isn't a topic widely appreciated in conservative southern states.So, considering all of these things working against us, I was a little surprised when we were offered an official showcase. It could have been my imagination, but I felt a pall settle over the audience when I plugged in my guitar, which I ran through my usual guitar rig consisting of octavers, loopers, and a guitar and bass amplifier. We were starting to wonder what we were doing here and why were granted a showcase.We were introduced and were very grateful that Kari Estrin, the SERFA president, prefaced by saying that we were a bit unorthodox. After our first song, it was obvious that people appreciated what we were doing. After the show, people were talking about our performance. I'm sure at least a few of the other artists were wondering what the hell we were doing there, but the majority of them were extremely supportive. We left feeling incredibly inspired and invigorated. A few days later we were notified that we were granted an official showcase at the International Folk Alliance conference, held in Memphis in February. This is a HUGE deal for us, and we couldn't be happier about it.Whilst on the road, we filmed some footage from a house concert in Newton, Massachusetts to use in a video contest for concertsinyourhome.com. We'd like to thank my sister Julie and her wife Susana for their work in helping us put the event together, and Karyn and Joel for opening up their wonderful home to us. Here's the vid I made:Our next show is at The Ukiah Brewing Co. on Saturday, November 6th. From there we'll be traveling back to Prescott, Arizona, finding a place to live, and once again starting anew in a new town. We're very excited for 2011 and hope that we all have a fantastic year.Cheers,TR