Michigan, Detroit Etc.

After staying in The Soo for several days (and swimming at Harmony Beach - sweet), I drove The Green Grand AM down through the Michigan Peninsula early last week, it was a really nice drive, stopped at several of the official rest areas to pee and, uhm, rest. Stopped into visit Audra Kubat for a couple of days and we had a nice visit, she gave me a copy of her most recent CD release - you can check out a couple of full length songs in MP3 file format at the Times Beach Records website. I have been listening to the CD and I really like it tons, very different from Million Year Old Sand (which was recorded on miles of analog tape) - the song Garden (check the MP3 at the link above) has this sweet thick harmony chorus, yum - but I haven't figured out all of the lyrics and they aren't printed on the CD insert - anyhow, I really like the way Eric H. plays the drums, he has a pop leaning light rock touch with a cute swing feel and the production allows the drums to come into and out of the songs in a real musical way. So, while I was up there, we went out to see an MC5 retrospective documentary film at the Magic Stick in downtown-ish Detroit, that was fun (and there were many keen hipsters in attendance) and we also went swimming at one of the little spring-fed lakes at a neat and tidy family oriented park area. Then we went into Ann Arbor MI and hit a couple of Open Mic events - Audra plays a bending bluesing lead acoustic guitar that I like allot. All in all a very nice visit with my friend, and it was cool to meet her parents, they were friendly and relaxed folks.

More later..