Friday, August 31, 2012

Lots of shows coming up!!!

Tonight and tomorrow I'll be doing my troubadouring in Astoria, OR.  Tonight I play at The Voodoo Room (free!), and tomorrow the movie Roll Out, Cowboy will screen at The Columbian Theater ($5).

Monday (9/3), which is Labor Day, I'll be at Mississippi Studios in Portland, OR, sharing a bill with Dan Weber.  That show will go from 4-7 and the cost is FREE.

Wednesday (9/5) I'll be back in Olympia, WA, for a house show with Mary Water!  $10.

Thursday (9/6) I'm up in Seattle for another house show at Jonas' house. $10.

Friday (9/7) I sally farther north to Anacortes, WA, for a mystery show.

Sunday (9/9) I fly to Los Angeles, CA, for my final show of my End of Summer 2012 tour.  More details coming soon.

Monday (9/10) I fly to Chicago to rendezvous with Goodall Trucking and start driving again.  Hana will stay in Olympia to help with the birth of our friend Hali's third child.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Helsing Junction Sleepover

Had a blast this weekend at the Helsing Junction Sleepover!  It was the perfect choice for Stevie's first music fest.  So many great bands and the food was excellent.

Chris Sand & the Big MT was well-received, but, alas, 'twas our last show as a trio.  Alex and Arif drove back to Missoula yesterday, and Alex will keep going until he lands in New York.  He and his banged-up banjo will be sorely missed.



Here's one of the songs that Hana captured on her Nikon camera: "Ain't All Good." Please note that the first verse isn't about me.  I'm just a danged storyteller.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Last night's Horse Graveyard CD release party went swimmingly.  I am grateful to You Are Plural and June Madrona for opening the show, and Pat Maley for letting us sing and mingle in his backyard.

The CDs look great, by the way (pictures coming soon).  They arrived hot-off-the-press from Bicycle Records midway through You Are Plural's last song.

Here is the Horse Graveyard tracklist:
  1. Johnny Thurman
  2. Bad Becky
  3. Sandy Bob
  4. Horse Graveyard
  5. Queen Patricia
  6. Go Easy on Me Boss (My Heart is Breakin')
  7. Miller Killer
  8. I Ride an Old Paint
  9. Typical
  10. Damascus
  11. When I Love
  12. Sugar Bank Hank
I'm very proud of this CD and hope it travels far and wide.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Horse Graveyard CD Release Party!

Sandy Bob at Wolf Creek (north of Wolf Point, MT) ,where he was raised.
UPDATE: TONIGHT!

This Tuesday (8/21) in Olympia, WA, at Little House on on the Perry - 124 Perry St. NW!

"Horse Graveyard" is a collection of North Americana-flavored songs filled with western characters I've known, living and dead. You'll meet Sandy Bob, Bad Becky, Queen Patricia, Sugar Bank Hank, Cowboy Moses, and others. Recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio by Bob Schwenkler, it features the volunteer talents of a gang of Olympia musicians, including Chad Austinson, Abigail Ingram, Pamela Margon, Kelly Ray Smith, Jen Grady, Ephriam Nagler, Jes Raymond, Kendl Winter, Adam Oelsner, and others.

"HORSE GRAVEYARD" will be my first release on Bicycle Records.


From the Facebook invite page:
Chris Sand (AKA "Sandman the Rappin' Cowboy") teamed up with Bicycle Records to create an album of country songs spit from the breaks and badlands of Dakota Territory. It features fiddle, pedal steel, drums, piano, cello, sweet back-up vocals, and, yep, trombone ALL by local Oly musicians. 
Please come help celebrate its release into the stratosphere. He'll be backed by two punk rock North Dakota banjo-pickers. Well, ok, one banjo and one . . . banjelele. 
Opening up the show will be sweet rebels from around the corner, You Are Plural & June Madrona.   
Sliding scale admission $5-$10.  Ten gets you a Chris Sand CD, shirt, or pillow case.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Stevie's almost seven months old already.  We love her!

Wednesday, August 01, 2012


After sixteen days away from my family and Missoula, I'm back.  Most of my journey was filled with truck driving.  The last four days, though, were spent in New England celebrating the marriage of two of my closest friends, Nima Samimi and Amanda Graff.  In fact, I had the honor of co-officiating, with Nina Berenfeld, their wedding ceremony!

Below is my brief "sermon" which was written very last-minute.  I didn't even have time to proofread it, but it turned out fine, I think.
Hi everybody!  What a perfect day for an outdoor wedding, right?  I really, really love this place.  I learned earlier today that Khalil Gibran, the fantastic Lebanese-American poet, author, & artist who penned some of the most mystical, beautiful, and overused wedding poetry in the canon of world literature, spent a couple months here on this land and in that building, recovering from an illness.  He may have even penned parts of his most famous work--The Prophet--right here on this very lawn. 
Photo credit: Hanon Rosenthal
I won't be reciting any of Gibran's poetry today, but it does seem fitting somehow, the connection.  Nima and Amanda are, after all, prophets of love and pioneers of affection.  They love you.  They really do.  You are all so very important to them.  Do you know this?  They've told me and shown me 1,000 times in their impeccable and generous ways how much they adore me, and it still hasn't fully sunk in.  It's hard to LET it in.  I'm not used to it.  I never know what to say.  I've met few people like them who emanate the kind of love and affection, dignity and humanity, that they do.  They are open-hearted.  They are open-minded.  They are curious.  They are adventurous.  They are smart.  They have retained their passion for life, and they mean what they say.  
So when you hear them exchange their vows today, and when you hear them appreciate you all for coming here and for being part of this ceremony and for supporting them over the years in your untold, vivid, and generous ways, believe them.  They couldn't have done this without you.  And they wouldn't have wanted to do it without you.  You have made their lives infinitely richer.  And believe me when I say that they want YOU to stay close to them, forever, in a way that is not unlike a marriage.  Today let this ceremony be bigger than the miracle of two fabulous, earth-shaking human beings uniting.  Let it also be about all of us being bound together in a similar spirit. 
Nima and Amanda, now is your opportunity to come up here and stand together in front of your friends and family and just tell each other what's in your heart.
The wedding was magical, and Amanda and Nima shone like the stars they are.  Tomorrow they fly to France for the honeymoon.  Bon voyage, lovebirds!