"welcome home"
10 months deep in permatour - quick & dirty updates, from Maine
hello from a dear friend’s kitchen table in swanville, next to some beautiful, cathederal-sized windows. portals with the sun pouring in. swimming in it. jes, my tourmate for the week and friend for life, is on the phone on the deck. i can hear their voice, but not their words.
cat named otis at my feet, cat named grandpa straight ahead. fresh iced tea in my glass.
from this house on the top of the hill, you can watch the woods unfold for miles. cadillac mountain in the distance, like a newsboy hat over the treeline. it’s all shades of blue and green today.
the maine state line highway sign said “welcome home” and i got teary eyed at the sentiment.
i’ve admittedly been having trouble keeping everyone up with my own whereabouts — been choosing real presence over virtual correspondence, out of necessity. too many miles in too little time. doing what i can to keep me up with myself. glass half full, like my gas tank.
since i last wrote, i’ve been to canada twice, all over lower appalachia, on a train and three planes and a ferry and the subway (where i lost my merch briefcase in manhattan at the houston station and somehow got it back), vermont farms and mountaintops, a massachusetts screen porch daybed, a waffle house in georgia, all over new england, an island 12 miles of the coast of maine and on and on and…
recorded a beaut of an album for & with dearest Terri (crushrose), played festivals deep in the woods and in the sky and on impossibly charming farms, and toured with Eliza Niemi & Abe Hollow & Sister. & Dogs on Shady Lane & now Jes, once again…
since i last wrote, many miracles later, i’ve turned 26, and driven some thousands of miles. aged out of health insurance. onward.
i am tired, but the wheels are still turning. i am ok and thankful - still the usual & comfortable dependencies on the usual & extraordinary generosities of all those around me.
a bigger, wordier update with carolina highlights will have to wait, for now.
in their place, here are some highlights from hemlock HQ:
Depot Dog & Lake Martin
another double single, ahead of the ‘444’ album.
depot dog is a seasons-changing midwestern hardware store glizzy anthem that mentions sweet bandmate andy by name, who opens the tune with my favorite intro of the album. this one’s for the chicago home depot hot dog heads.
lake martin is an ode to the swamp that helped raise me, 20 mins from the house i grew up in, and the most impactful sunset of my life, which i happened to film a lot of in my awestruck archivist state. you can sip it up here:
lake martin was also one of the most magical recording moments of the making of this upcoming album. our gentle and grand finale. recorded in a single late-night take as the last song of the session, cross-legged on the rug in the front room with bailey. the perfectly timed gentle hum of cars passing by outside. andy and jack nearby & nearly asleep, eyes closed in their chairs. runnin on steam. all love.
recent links I’d like to share (additional reading):
"COMMUNITY THRIVES ON THE TRUTH OF ABUNDANCE," A Conversation with hemlock - a really special interview where I got to get down to the core of it all, with Maps Music
a writeup about ‘amen!’ (and some other indie folk friends) by Kevin Krein that made me cry.
hemlock Finds New Life on “Depot Dog” and “Lake Martin” — Single Premiere on Ugly Hug. shea is my fave out there lending words about music rn. they call andy’s guitar tone “sticky.” I agree.
“Lake Martin” featured on GoldFlakePaint - finally! i’ve been a GFP fan for a while and was tickled to read tom’s thoughts.
misc. heads ups:
andy (Red PK) put out two tunes of their own! above. i’m listening as i type. gemstones twinkling.
POTHOLE HOTLINE — my monthly radio show on Beloved — is coming to an unplanned end. no real chance for the closure of a goodbye episode, but here’s the archive of the past year and a half of mixes. if you know another online radio network i may be able to put my foot in the door of, let me know? here’s a really special (perhaps my FOATSF [fave of all time so far]) PORTAL REPORT — a segment of the show where anonymous friends & inspirations share what they see out their window — transmission from the Fust / Sluice tour van, that I didn’t get a chance to air:
where! when!
tour rolls on:
*8/29 orono, ME - house show
*8/31 burlington, VT - Birdsong fest
#9/7 seattle, WA
#9/8 whidbey island, WA - Bailey’s Corner Store
9/14 portland, OR - house show
9/21 portland, OR - rainforest cafe (house show)
10/1 seattle, WA
+10/5 NYC, NY - Baby’s All Right
10/7 philly, PA - Abyssinia
10/9 richmond, VA - house show
10/11 efland, NC - Feast fest (hemlock album release day!)
10/14 san antonio, TX - Presa House
+10/18 pittsburgh, PA - Bottlerocket (Merce Lemon album release show)
~10/23 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
~10/24 minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry
~10/25 chicago, IL - Schubas
11/7 austin, TX - Central Presbyterian Church
*with Jes #with Alexandre Duccini +with Merce Lemon ~with Allegra Krieger & Greg Mendez
filling in the gaps, living on a prayer, tiptoeing around the chasm, more tba, hmu, etc
my self-booking wick has admittedly burned real short these days so largely depending on invitations and open doors. all gratitude for the ones that have lit & re-lit the candle thus far. xox
signing off with another anonymous hope:
solidarity,
Carolina
Whew, you are busy! Love the songs and have spent many hours at Lake Martin. That's where I used to go to sit in my car and listen to new albums in their entirety with a friend, late at night. Now the cops bother us too much. For some reason they don't buy, "we're just sitting and listening to music".