Joshua James Huff is my great friend and collaborator in art (and in trouble).  This past year we filmed nine different performances at my Solar Powered Cabin in the Mojave Desert (pictured above) and put them up on YouTube and Facebook for your enjoyment.  Each episode has a short interview and a then the artist plays a song.  Everything is live - there are no overdubs. 

As we filmed additional episodes, I became more comfortable with interviewing.  The questions became more pointed and the discussions went deeper and longer than our format fit.  But not to fear! We are releasing extended versions of the interviews for several of the episodes, starting with John Bardy.  John and I discuss the origins of his song, Justice Peach, which was inspired by the news of John's uncle's death in a highway murder incident which he heard along with his mother over the radio.  The song, Justice Peach, is amazing and will be on John's forthcoming album.  Watch the episode below.

And be sure to check out other episodes of The Solar Cabin Sessions with Pat Kearns on our YouTube Channel.  If you dig it, please like us and share the episodes widely.  And take a moment to look at my Listen/Watch page, where you will also find links to episodes of The Solar Cabin Sessions as well as my other videos.

Gallery 62's annual Highway 62 Art Tours opens tomorrow.  It's the first of three weekends in the high desert that artists open their home studios to the public.  Susan Kearns, my wife, is showing at Labonetto Studio (Studio #98), sculptor Eric Banas's studio, this weekend only with Denise Tanguay, Eric Saks, Eric Conroy, and Suzen Smallwood.  Susan is displaying ten paintings that were inspired by the songs from my album, Down In The Wash.  She is also displaying a few other paintings including a self portrait (of both of us, pictured above) and one from her buffalo series (Saint Buffalo).  All of the paintings are for sale. She is also selling Down In The Wash - The Eleven Card Set and Down In The Wash CDs.  And on Saturday, I will be performing at Studio #98 throughout the day in order to enhance your viewing.  A few of our friends are going to drop by as well to play a few songs.  Heck, if you're reading this and plan on coming by, bring your guitar - I'll plug you in and we would love to hear a few songs.

I'm falling in love with Google translator.  Here's a review in German at Cool Tourist giving my latest album, Down In The Wash, high praise.  They recommend Mojave Moonlight or Low Wind Howling as a place to start. I've posted the translation below.

"What would have happened if the Angie-Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Canned Heat made an appointment in 1969 for an unplugged session at Woodstock's Bearsville Studios? Maybe a little bit the sound picture that fifty years later presents Pat Kearns from California. The CD "Down In The Wash" is not only an acoustic retro experience but also the product of a big change. In 2016, Pat and his wife Susan "So Long City" (as well as the title of his first solo album), left the orderly life as a music producer and hair studio owner in Portland, Oregon, settling in a small cabin the Californian Mojave Desert. There life in the middle of nature is characterized by solar power and little water, from the reflection on the essentials. But with selected equipment and a few friends off-celeb can also make (and record) relaxed music that soaks up the landscape ambience. Kearns has selected ten of his own compositions and a Stones classic ("No Expectations") and thus conjured unmistakably the burrito spirit of Gram Parsons. Wife Susan plays the double bass (and has the cover drawn!), Tim Chinnock plays relaxed drums, Joe Garcia and Luke Dawson create with guitars and pedal steel the spacey country-rock sound of the 70s, which helped the Byrds at the time of his breakthrough. If you do not have the opportunity to travel to the US west coast in the near future to test the atmosphere on-site, you should start your journey with the introductory tips "Low Wind Howling" or "Mojave Moonlight"."

Back in July, we were on tour in Scotland. Following our Friday night show in Ullapool and on our way to a Pop Up Festival on the shores of Loch Ness, we stopped by Mark Forbes' Summer House and recorded an interview and performed a few songs.  The Summer House Sessions have a lot in common with The Solar Cabin Sessions.  But Mark goes further in depth with his interviews (which I find inspiring) and the artist performs a number of tunes instead of just one.  I loved the experience of having this table turned on me - I'm the performer instead of the interviewer.  Mark directed us through a conversation that covers what inspires me (good songs), the definition of a wash, how living in the desert effected the sound of my latest album, and how gentrification caused us to leave Portland, Oregon, behind for the Mojave Desert, and the changes that came with going solo and putting my old band, Blue Skies For Black Hearts, in the rear view mirror.  And I play Low Wind Howling and Mojave Moonlight from my album, Down In The Wash.  And I finish with So Long City, the title track from my first album.

My latest album has been reviewed in Europe a handful of times over the past couple of months.  I'm posting links to two of the most recent ones.  One in Dutch and the other in German.  Curiosity got the best of me this morning.  I tried out Google Translate for the first time. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if they were reviews.  I don't speak either Dutch or German.  I speak a tiny bit of French and even less Spanish, but my accent is so terrible, I never speak to anyone.  I'm sure Google translate mangled some meanings along the way, but this turned out to be a pleasant exercise.  Both articles have done their background research!  I think Rootstime must have found my Linkedin profile.  How else could they know I have a background in biology? Musik an Sich really dug into our desert lifestyle here at the Solar Powered Cabin and some nice facts about our favorite desert, The Mojave.

Rootstime

Musik an Sich (German to English translation courtesy of Google below)

"Pat Kearns, born in 1970, is active not only as a musician but also as a record producer, sound engineer and songwriter. Having lived in Portland, Oregon for a long time, in connection with the recording of the album Down In The Wash, there was a drastic change in the life of the musician and his wife.

The two took the risk and moved into the desert, in the Mojave Desert, which includes in its extent the states of California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Anyone who has dealt with it in detail will certainly associate the term with Gram Parsons, since his body was secretly burned in this desert.

But now again to the Kearns family. They bought a small home in the desert and live there completely self-sufficient. There is no power and water connection there. When it rains, there is water and the electricity is generated by solar cells. And here and there this record was also recorded and mixed. And this atmosphere must have been very relaxed, it radiates the music anyway. This is pure American, with influences from folk and country, from rock and pop. If I wanted to associate spontaneously, then I spontaneously fell to certain songs of Neil Young (because of the often sluggish rhythm and the harmonica) or John Lennon, but also memories of The Band wake up with me.

All songs are from Kearns, except for # 5, for "No Expectations" Jagger / Richards were responsible. But this piece fits seamlessly into the songstrings. This music is indeed very relaxed and this lascivious character can spread pleasantly to interested listeners. High performance of any kind should not be expected, no frantic solos, no enthusiastic vocal contributions, everything is laidback of the highest degree and very sympathetic in expression."

The Reverberations and The Cool Whips both have songs used in the recently released independent film, Woodstock or Bust.  I haven't been able to watch the full film yet.  You can find it on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and a few other places for around $4.  We attempted to watch the film but it "wasn't available" on our device of choice, an iPad. 

But we did get to watch the trailer, and this film looks fantastic!  It's well shot, tightly edited, and sounds great.  The film is about two teenage singer songwriters that appear to succeed in sneaking their duo into Woodstock.

Splash, by The Cool Whips, was recorded and mixed at my old Portland, Oregon, studio, PermaPress Recording. It appears on their second album, Baddies.  We intended the album to sound like they were a psychedelic garage band from about 1968.  Splash also appears in the trailer for the film after the two heroines have ingested something psychedelic.  With the phazed fuzz guitar and Eric Ramon's drug dream lyrics, "I want to ride on the back of a bumble bee,"  the song is perfectly placed in the trailer.

So Strange by The Reverberations is also used in Woodstock or Bust.  It appears on their recently released LP, Changes. Here's how we made that album.  And here's their fantastic video for that song.

I'm playing an incredible festival featuring loads of high quality, high desert solo artists and bands.  This is going to be a blast!  It's the nearest pub to our compound.  Hit me up if you want to camp on our land!

It's so nice to be back home in the desert after a successful run of shows in the U.K., a fantastic tour through Oregon and Washington with The Adobe Collective, and another year in the books for recording and mixing the Mt. Hood stage at Pickathon for broadcast.

The studio is coming along!  Here's a pic of it from our first evening back home after more than a month away.

While we were very happy to be back home at our Solar Powered Cabin in the Mojave, our resident barn owl that lives in our defunct water tower, was not as pleased as us about our return.  Here's a short recording of her flying over the cabin while scolding Susan and I.

Kicking off our first European shows ever this July 4 in Bath at St. James Wine Vaults.  After two weeks in the UK, we cross back over the pond and return to where I grew up, the Pacific Northwest, for a run of shows with The Adobe Collective.  Get the details here.

For Episode 4 of The Solar Cabin Sessions, my guest is El Gringo Mariachi.  You many have seen his other name in the credits of The Solar Cabin Sessions.  Sometimes, El Gringo Mariachi goes by Joshua James Huff and he's the director and editor of The Solar Cabin Sessions.  About twenty years ago, I was toiling away in a musty, egg-shell crated little recording studio in Southwest Portland, called Studio 13, doing records for The Exploding Hearts, Pat MacDonald and The Nice Boys.  One day, in 1999, Joshua James Huff of Joshua James and The Runaway Trains came through my door to put some songs down on tape.  On that day, if you told either one of us that two decades down the road we would be collaborating on a recording and video web series set at the remote cabin where I would be living in the Mojave Desert... well, we wouldn't have believed you. 

In the last two decades, Joshua covered a lot of miles becoming fluent in Spanish by immersing himself in Mexico for months at a time, riding his motorcycle all the way from Portland, Oregon, to Guadalajara, Mexico. All the while, Joshua James Huff never set the guitar and songwriting pen down.  A few years ago, as artists will do, he went through a transformation which was sparked by his travels.  While struggling to define the very person that he is - juggling his Mexican heritage here in America with the motorcycle forays into Mexico where he was regularly pointed out as "el gringo" by the locals - Joshua began making tips by playing traditional songs as well as rock and roll in bars in Guadalajara. 

Upon returning to Portland, his new persona emerged, El Gringo Mariachi.  Joshua came into PermaPress Recording with a cracking band featuring Greg Odell on drums, Freddy Trujillo on bass, James Sasser on guitar, Mark Breitenbach on keys, Paul Brainard on trumpet and I even get in some harmonica and lead guitar on a few tunes.  We cut a ten song album which will be out this Fall of 2019.

El Gringo Mariachi brings his mariachi style three piece to the Solar Powered Cabin.  James Sasser is on electric guitar and Balin Strand is on acoustic. 

For The Solar Cabin Sessions Episode 3, our guest is James Sasser who is best known as one half of real country music torch bearers, Miller and Sasser. 

James Sasser's partner, Chris Miller, plays lap steel and electric guitar for Dave Alvin.  Miller's name has also been attached to Asleep at the Wheel, Marcia Ball, Wayne Hancock and Marshall Crenshaw who all tapped into his road dog and recording studio skills via the Austin, Texas, scene where the Portland native had relocated. After a two decade stint there, he's still on the road, but is calling Portland home again, where he teamed up with James Sasser.  That Much Further West, a Portland country music podcast, says, "When it comes to country singers in Portland, it just doesn’t get any better than James Sasser."  With Miller's experience, you know he has discerning taste.

James Sasser was born, raised, and first taught a version of the Nashville number system by his grandmother in John Day, Oregon, population 1800, two hundered and fourty seven lonesome highway miles east from the big city of Portland.  Before Miller and Sasser joined forces, Sasser was proving himself as one of Portland's strongest new country songwriters, landing a few songs on TV and in the movies.  A dream come true for any Eastern Oregon singing cowboy, Sasser's music was used for a college championship tournament commercial that ran during the Final Four for Portland's now long gone local brew, Henry Weinhard.  His east of the Cascade Mountains twanged singing was attracting attention beyond the Portland country music scene.

Sitting down with James Sasser, who pens classic sounding country songs, I was surprised to find out who first inspired him as a songwriter.  I should have been even less surprised that this humble gentlemen and fine songwriter played his partner Chris Miller's song for the episode.  But after all, it is a killer tune.

Miller and Sasser's latest album, Tell It To The Jukebox, is out on Never Lucky Records.  James Sasser plays Tell It To The Jukebox, the title track, for this episode of The Solar Cabin Sessions.