FRIENDS....this is the THIRTEENTH (13) Aaron Starkey Music Newsletter!

If you are getting this for the first time..it's because i'm still learning to send email. If you are sad to get an email from me....please respond back with "no thanks!" and i'll gladly remove you from all future missives!

ok..lets chat!

It's midmorning at a Daytime coffee in brooklyn with springsteen's the river playing in the background. not new jersey, but close enough. Yogurt with dates, and a macchiato that would make lighthouse coffee proud, sit in front of me. Family is still asleep at our friends' house a block away, tired from the flight and the exhaustion of new places.

Growing up in the midwest, people seemed to be of three types (here come some vast generalizations, by the way): the "earthbound": you were happiest staying near to home and St. Louis was as far as you wanted to venture because the massive blue skies of summer (and winter for the most part) put you at ease, made you feel connected, grounded. I know this type and I feel this type when i'm boucning down a blacktop road listening to Bob Seger lament his troubles in Against the Wind on the radio for the third time that day and I'm happy to hear it.

The second type, what i'll call the "mountain view" type, or the "west coast or bust" type of person. Mountains, coasts, and maybe you got to Denver and found a perfect balance, or the deserts of arizona, but whatever it was, it was the west that drew you to a home away fro home. The Open Road. The new. the newer america. the place of reinvention. All directions...WEST. The sweep of the sound and rush of the mountains. We know this type too. I am often this type. I love and live this type on the daily for the most part when i drive home down market st into Ballard and see the full sweep of the olympics or smell the sound earlier on a sunday morning. This too is home.

The third type, somewhat less common where i'm from, because who goes "backwards" in america? (i mean that's a long conversation), is the "get me to the big city" type. My first time popping up from the A train into manhattan from newark after a long non-stop drive from normal illinois in 1993 (day before the perfect storm) was a lifetime setpoint. it was a "oh, right, now i get it" or perhaps it was "this is a good drug, i like this feeling" that i've never forgotten.

This type is happy to not be slowed down with peformative nicenss, but quickly welcomes a real conversation with someone they don't know waiting in line for a coffee and that they will never see again. Given its age as one of the older colonized places in north america, it carries a weight and momentum. There is a cleared eye and unsentimental historical infrastrucutre that is held in contrast to a relentless pulse of activity and re-invention in situ. you don't need to drive 3k miles to reinvent. do it where you're standing. also, do it quickly and please get out of the way because i'm trying to get somewhere.

I am also this type. I am probably more this type that the first two, although they all bounce against each other. I can get this feeling in chicago, but it's tempered by a bit more midwest ease and space. the compression of this city keeps you both inward and also, more exposed, in my estimation. I dare say i feel most at home here, even though i've spent far less time here than in any other part of the country. The indifference and fast proximity of others somehow works...for me. I feel like i move and talk at the right velocity. Anyways, not moving anytime soon, but damn I love new york.

why share all of this? well, like i said, i'm sitting here in this coffee shop, weirdly a little jet lagged, and the springsteen gives all the feelings. I also think it tells you a little bit about where my music comes from when filtered though these layers. I love a twangy guitar, and i also love an angular pointed guitar. I love loud, and I love quiet. and i'm never really satisfied to write the same song twice.

I've got two great shows coming up:

• Brodienation July 9-12 (we play saturday the 11th) Festival in Carnation, WA. Killer...killer lineup, tucked back in the woods. this is what you think is happening in the PNW when you think of what a music festival tucked back in the woods would be. it'll be...awesome. and it's a quick drive back into seattle. details here: https://brodienation.com/

• and i'm happy to announce the vinyl release party for the new Long Dark Moon record: Cold Atlantic (see a theme here?) 12" of pure vinyl!

• get your tickets early because it's the right thing to do. and you like to be right, right?

• BUY TICKETS HERE

• when and where is it? Friday Sept 18th at the Sunset

• who with? King Youngblood and The Great Ooze -> you all know Cameron and the KYB crew and you know that they are going to delight. A new band to most of you, and Den Tape's label mate, The Great Ooze have become one of my favorite new bands. think of them as a post-modern jason molina with the exuberance of youth. truly a fav.

ok folks, i'll write more on this..but now is the time to get on the tickets. KYB would sell this out on their own on a tuesday, so this will, literally go fast.

And i'd be remiss and a bad band leader if I didn't mention that you can still pick up a cassette in person at SONIC BOOM RECORDS in ballard or via the Den Tapes Label bandcamp ->. get it here: https://dentapes.bandcamp.com/album/cold-atlantic (please pick one up!)

If you've read this far...I invite you to write me a question and I'll try and answer it in my next email! I like questions!

love ya ll! (well most of ya!)

Aaron

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