Ahoj friends, old and new! there are many of you! this trip has been different. From the moment we left Austin, the sky has been swarming with storm clouds, raptors and glorious sunsets. Our first gift was a surprise gig in perhaps the deepest valley of America, in the shadow of the Black Mesa where New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas quietly ponder each other. At the senior citizen's potluck dinner we played for the folks, including the 95 year old valley matriarch. Cowboys and girls waltzed along with our unamplified instruments as the funnel clouds and the double rainbow give way to a most contented dark. That night we slept in a clapboard bunkhouse (discretely left unlocked), but an obstacle for the game trails of bobcats, coyotes and mule deer. Everybody around there works hard to get by. The Upland Breakdown brought us into America's Mongolian high steppes. Velvety golden green mountainsides, old friends, puffy clouds and getitin' gone music. 1920s rock and roll, odes to the muse and post-cajun psychedelia. Souled American drops it down to C, and every sound vibration's like it's taken mescaline. Deepest song telling and a van that holds everything (rolling now we are, with the master!) Then Denver show at the gallery was a door buster! And the next night: a surprise house concert in the old style. I am surprised and honored to be playing music for (along with folks in their teens twenties thirties etc) folks in their sixties, seventies, eighties and beyond. It's not every night you get to shoot the shit with someone who ran their airplane into a tree over New Guinea in WWII. No sir. We've just begun, now we hope to see you next...shows added in SF and Bellingham, WA. Thanks to all so far for the good times and hospitality, and Fare Forward, Voyagers! xxthe placesxx THE PLACES HIGH PLAINS AND PEAKS WESTERN TOUR Most of the dates are with the legendary vanner and master song teller MICHAEL HURLEY www.myspace.com/kornbred07 All dates with proto-folk enigma and river brother RALPH WHITE myspace.com/ralphewhite * * * * * * * * * AUG 31 BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE Salt Lake City, UT Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White, Pink Nasty SEPT 2 LAST CHANCE BARN DANCE Trout Lake, WA Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White with Bingo Dream Band, Freak Mountain Ramblers, & lots more freaks and dreamers SEPT 3 TRACTOR TAVERN Ballard (Seattle), WA Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White SEPT 4 GREEN FROG Bellingham, WA Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White, Lone Bird SEPT 5 FORT GEORGE TAVERN Astoria, OR Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White SEPT 6 LAUREL THIRST Portland, OR Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White SEPT 8 DELTA OF VENUS Davis, CA The Places, Ralph White, Garrett Pierce SEPT 9 HOUSE CONCERT San Francisco, CA The Places, Ralph White, Garrett Pierce (999 Steiner at 9 PM) SEPT 11 HOTEL UTAH San Francisco, CA The Places, Ralph White, Dave Mihaly's Shimmering Thieves SEPT 12 RHYTHM Nevada City, CA The Places, Ralph White, Tractor Operator ...and shows in the works for Los Angeles, Durango, CO and Marfa, TX... Fare Forward, Voyagers! xxamy annellexx ----------------------------------- a cosmic high-five from the Austin Chronicle: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Music/?subject=oid%3A526642 "A folksinger in the truest sense, Annelle and her high, lonesome, pretty voice seem to be from no particular time--more like many of them at once. Resembling someone who might've been hopping trains with Woody Guthrie, she transmits ages of American troubadour traditions in her performances. But if one of her roles is as a medium, it's hardly a passive feat; the songs come from and go in all directions."--Mike Wolf, Music Editor, TimeOut New York "What longtime Austinite and former Bad Liver Ralph White puts on albums and onstage is so mind-boggling and vast, it forces those of us in the description business down a treacherous path" (Darcie Stevens, Austin Chronicle)