Photo By Jon Rezin

The tour has been in the Seattle area for a few days now – Redmond, Georgetown and Vashon Island. It’s good to be among the evergreens and more of my wonderful Northwest folks.

The first gig was rough; I caught a pretty bad head cold a few hours before the show (nice!) and it really started to kick in as I began to play. Fortunately the positive energy in the room won out in the end, and everyone seemed to have a good time despite the less-than-polished performance. The Steiners, who have hosted me for a house concert before, were gracious as always – and this time they filled me up with natural remedies on my way out.

After that somewhat humbling experience, I prepared for the next show by trying not to do much of anything for a day. It worked. Between that and all the homeopathic, herbal and vitamin remedies I blasted myself with, I felt fine by the time we got to the venue.

And what a venue! The Georgetown Ballroom is a huge old brick garage, converted into an event space by someone who furnishes movie sets. You can imagine. The whole place feels like it’s made for a photo shoot or a music video… or a concert.

Rainn Wilson came down (that’s Dwight from the Office for those of you just joining us), and after being mobbed by a bunch of guys in an Escalade out front, he came in and gave me a little introduction before I went on. He’s a good dude, Rainn. Even tweeted about my show to his 2 million followers: “SEATTLE-ITES, come see one of my best friends @jbeckl work his Canadian freak magic on your earbones.” And sure enough, I did meet a few who came in on his recommendation. Thanks, man!

That show was much tighter. I felt less sick and more centered, and got really into it. Met lots of good people and ate well next door at Calamity Jane’s – I’ll be back to both of those spots! Thanks so much to Justice Beitzel, who books the Ballroom, for taking a chance on blocking out a Friday night for li’l ol’ me.

Last night was Vashon Island, a lushly treed place in the Puget Sound that required us to take a beautiful 20-minute ferry ride. I played in the home of a big Santana fan, so I told a few stories about those days. It was a great crowd, and the hospitality was outstanding… this is what it’s all about, exploring and making friends out here in this wide world…

Onwards!

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