Thursday, Oct. 14. Wichita, KS. The Vertical Violet.

The show tonight was at Vertical Violet, a whimsical old house in Wichita. The backyard even has chickens. We played with Ghostbeard and Mike Adams. Some friends and family came to the show, very good to see everyone. The family who live and put on shows at the Vertical Violet are doing so much for art and music in Wichita. And the place was a kid's paradise. Check out the lego castle in the guest room.

This was the last show of the tour with my drummer, Gary Foster. We will miss him so much as we head west. We'll play together again this winter!

A friend in Austin (RKF) described the tour as a pinwheel. We left Sept. 1 (though there were also some shows in Seattle and Nebraska the week before). I started out with a loop around the Midwest with my Lincoln band. Then Gary and I set out for the East Coast, where we met up with Philip Gayle, who played guitar and mandolin with us for part of that leg of the tour. Bassist Max Johnson also joined us for the New York shows. Then Gary and I played as a duo through the South. And I'll be on my own through the rest of the tour, up the West Coast, down to New Mexico, and up to North Dakota, finishing up in Iowa on Nov. 16. (The whole tour schedule is up at www.emberschrag.com if you are curious). Lots of live collaborations with different musicians throughout the tour, too, with Kath Bloom, The Black Twigs, Ron Wax, Mal Madrigal, Ex Oblivione, and, most frequently, The Chiara String Quartet, who played five shows with me during the trip. And I'm traveling with Bryan Day, who is frequently sharing the bill.

On the road the next day we discovered an enormous antique mall in a truckstop. I bought a pair of weird shoes for $2.50.

Lillian and Gary with antlers

Look magazine 1963 on dangerous youth

We got to see our friends Jay and Wendy in Lincoln. Here’s Jay with his pear tree.

Wednesday, Oct. 13. Austin, TX. The United States Art Authority.

Loved Austin...

Got to visit Jad and Patti in the country before we dropped Bryan off at a recording session with Josh Ronsen. There was a cloud of monarch butterflies in Josh’s front yard.

Gary and I explored the area around the venue a bit. Antone’s record shop in Austin now carries my CDs.

Mystery boxes at Antone's

Here is a very cute Korean hamburger joint called Burger Tex.

The show in Austin was great. The Church of the Friendly Ghost put on the show for us at the United States Art Authority. Bryan and Josh Ronsen played a collaborative set to start off the show. They worked really well together.

Ralph White played next. He was incredible. He played fretless banjo, thumb piano, and accordion.

We played next, with Jonah Sirota, the violist from the Chiara Quartet sitting in. He played on the songs that he arranged for the Quartet to play with us, and then on several other songs for the first time.

After that was an inspiring set by Christina Carter; she was really amazing.

I had the best donut I’ve ever tasted at Ken’s Donuts, highly recommended.

And here’s a face in a tree.

Monday, Oct. 11. Houston. Notsuoh.

We drove past more oil refineries on the way to Houston. We had already discovered in Louisiana that these can be quite beautiful at night, lights and towers rambling on and on like enormous Seussian cities. I like the names of these Louisiana towns, Sulphur, and Industries.

Ah, Houston, where all little baby strip malls go to be hatched. The downtown, however, is impressive, imposing square buildings looming over the grid, and a new light rail.

We got to play again tonight with the Chiara String Quartet! They happened to be in Houston at the same time as we were, preparing to play for the Houston Friends of Chamber Music the next night.

I have to say Notsuoh’s is the most eccentric venue I’ve ever played. All the people who work there are incredibly quirky. The place has a thrift store vibe; it’s not unlike Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, but it’s seedier. Hundreds of old shoes sit on tall shelves along one wall, their shoeboxes decaying around them. Bicycles, ballcaps, and snaggles of wood clothes hangers are suspended from the ceiling. The paintings are a bit obscene, a human skeleton peeps out from a tall window to the upstairs, and a headless male mannequin in a suit guards a dark doorway near the bar. A tall plexiglass cube full of mannequin limbs and heads, with an ancient chainsaw on top, sits in front of the stage. A loud punk band, unfortunately, blared from the bar next door through the wall during our performance. Donations for the band were collected in a red colander.

Papaya

The night after our concert at Notsuoh’s, we got to go see the quartet perform for the Houston Friends of Chamber Music series at Stude Concert Hall at Rice University. The Chiara Quartet have a motto, “Chamber music in any chamber.” I’d wager that these two nights in Houston were the consecutive shows that most proved their commitment to this promise. This performance was a world premiere of “Milagros” by Gabriela Lena Frank. They also played string quartets by Beethoven and Brahms. Their performance was fantastic. We got to meet Frank, the composer, after the concert; I loved the new piece. We were so happy to be there and so proud of our friends.

In Houston, I got to meet another long-lost aunt. In Houston, my birth father’s sister Kim put us up for two nights and filled me in on a fascinating dose of family history.

I also happen to have a song called “Houston” that I recorded for Office Park, a collaborative project with Bryan. You can listen to this early version on Soundcloud.

And I should show you this silly menu from a Houston Thai restaurant.

Ember and Bryan recommend Broccoli is a Push not Bush.