Mantra: always be gigging. When you get in the flow of playing out a lot, that’s when the performances get good. No one thing makes your music good. It’s about the flow.

I’m playing the grocery store again next Saturday, this time with Paul McCue on trumpet and Rolf Wilkinson on guitar and singing. It’s the same chain, Andrononico’s, this time in San Anselmo instead of North Berkeley.

On Sunday I’m playing a cafe in Berkeley called Nomad. I’ll be doing dobro and mandolin with a bluesy singer named James Byfield.

After that, Friday night March 9 at a bar in Alameda called the Frog and Fiddle. James and I will be joined by our friends Huntley and Cal on standup bass and violin. Here’s a sample recording (with bad sound) from a rehearsal:

Next after that is March 25 – Paul and I will play at the Oakland marathon. There will be an endless stream of exhausted but exhilarated people going by. It’s a morning gig out in the sunshine. No money but the runners whoop and wave. It’s fun and I get a tiny bit better.