Ch-ch-ch-changes!
Eight years ago, I moved to Boston to work at Boston University as a research assistant in an ecology lab - 4 records and more than half a dozen job titles later - the universe is pulling me westward. With much excitement (and a bit of sadness), I'm announcing that I will be moving to Colorado in August.
When I first visited (and lived in) Colorado in the summers throughout college, there was something about the mountains that made me feel grounded. I constantly felt a very good, but overwhelming sense of smallness among the great statues that rose some 10,000 feet above me. I could stand on a mountain top and see half a dozen biomes ranging from desert sands to alpine forest to midwestern plains. I've never experienced anything like it. Every year for the last 3 years, I've taken a pilgrimage of sorts to Colorado to write music in the mountains and join my Planet Bluegrass family for a week in one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, Lyons Colorado. My new home after this August will be Fort Collins, Colorado - just 1 hour from my mecca, the Planet, and with the Front Range in full view nearly every day that I look West. Boston has been good to me, but it's time to try something new. I remember reading about this thing called a "city heart beat" earlier this year. A city's "heart beat" is determined by how quickly people move - literally how fast they walk. I've never felt like my cadence quite matched that of Boston's heart beat. I want to take deep breaths and slow down. I want to appreciate nature by skipping off on a Friday afternoon and heading into the mountains for a long weekend at treeline with friends. (All without feeling like someone is going to run me over while they are looking down at their phone and in a hurry to get nowhere at all.) And, you've got to admit, the state of Colorado could use some more Bethel hugs. All that said, I'll be frequenting the Boston area and the East Coast on a pretty regular basis. My family (by all definitions), my best friends and one of the most magical music scenes in the country is here and I can't be gone for too long before I'm going to need a little Boston-infusion into my new quaint, crunchy and [relatively] quiet lifestyle. Well, that's it. The big news. Now come on out to a show if you live near one, alright?!
