Comfort and Joy at the farmers markets

After two crazy and tumultuous years, I am looking forward to the sense of community and reassurance I find at farmers markets.

Just thinking about the act of planting and growing food; the care that craftspeople take in designing…

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The Day the Music Lived

So much has been written about the last 16 months that it would be hard to find anything to add. We do want to post a grateful hooray for everything that has brought our communities back to life -- and…

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Libba Cotten

I have been lucky enough to do some writing for an on-line bluegrass publication called Bluegrass Solutions. I was honored to be asked to write about Elizabeth Cotten.  We all know her song Freight Train, but fewer know the amazing…

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Community in the campground

Free Range went to the desert.

We were extremely lucky to have timed our trip to Arizona and California in time to see the beginning of the super bloom -- yellow and pink and purple and white flowers covering the…

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On Sondheim and simple music

"If I cannot fly, let me sing." Stephen Sondheim

Singing is the best antidote for overthinking that I've encountered. Now I think that instead of checking my news feed compulsively throughout the day, I should take myself off to…

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Columbia travels

We've set ourselves a goal of traveling the Columbia River from its headwaters to its mouth over a number of years.  Last month, we started the journey. We drove to the town of Canal Flats in British Columbia and wandered…

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Love happens every day

I just read this great quote:

"February days are a marketing gimmick; love happens every day."

It was written by an Indian film star named Randeep Hooda. Now I have to watch Monsoon Wedding and everything else he's been in…

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A la Carts

One member of Free Range has a confession. She has long wanted to play music at a food cart pod.

And she got to fulfill her desire yesterday at the great Rose City Food Park at 52nd and Sandy.

In…Read more

There's no place like home


OK, we're Portland-centric, but it seems to me that there's no place better to be during the summer than Oregon.

And if you happen to be in the city, the best place to be is at a farmers market. And…Read more

Little girls in pink tutus

The first time we played at Fire & Stone was on Easter Sunday.   Just a few families were there at 6, when we started playing.

One of the listeners was a little girl in a pink tutu, who wasted no…Read more