Obviously, I’m not a regular blogger, but now that’s summer is over and autumn is here (even in Austin), it’s time for another update. 

The Kaye Pasa Trio continues to be a thing; however, Kaye and I perform simply as Kaye Pasa, despite me wanting to keep the word Trio in the name. Most folks, however, seem to think of us as John & Kaye. Last Wednesday, we had a fantastic show at The German Restaurant in Walburg with a big crowd that was really into the act. The sound was superb, and afterward I hung out for a while with an old friend, Pitt Garrett, who apparently is trying to revive his Songwriters Across Texas show.

Kaye and I have a pretty busy schedule this month, starting tomorrow (Thursday) night at Dale’s Essenhaus in Walburg. On Friday, we play house concert at Steamer Lane in Cedar Park, and on Saturday we’re back at the Three Legged Goat in Pflugerville.

On Sunday, I’m planning to drive to Richardson to join David Harbaugh and the Happy Hour Ukes at Four Bullets Brewery. The following weekend, Kaye and I play Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we round out the month with two shows, one on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and one on the Saturday following it. 

It’s good to be playing somewhat regularly again.

As I recall, my computer crashed in mid-2019, but I was able to make one last update on a different system just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit home around March 2020. 

In between those two dates, Paul retired. He’d always said that when his wife retired from her job, he would retire from music. It was a big loss to the Kaye Pasa Trio as a group and to me personally. I wish him all the best. 

On May 8, 2021, Kaye invited me to join her on the outdoor stage at the Three Legged Goat in downtown Pflugerville for her residency gig as the Saturday night opening act. 

The following Friday, I performed solo at The Watercrest in Bryan, and on Sunday, I was playing with Kaye again as a duo at the Hole in the Wall in Austin. 

May 29, we played another indoor gig (in May, we were all kinda acting like the pandemic was over) at Mango Tango in Georgetown. 

June 9, Kaye and I were back in Walburg for the first time since 2019. 

On June 13, I performed with the Austin Ukulele Society Ensemble at a memorial service for our friend Kevin Jolly. 

June 22 saw us back at the Hole in the Wall. It’s a tips. Not worth it, monetarily, but we ended up with a pretty good crowd who seemed to enjoy our music.

July 29 would be my last indoor gig for a while due to the resurgence of COVID, especially with its new Delta variant. It was just an open mic at Giddy Ups, and I only went for a chance to visit Lynette Wolfe who was in the area visiting from Colorado. 

July 17 and 31 were Kaye’s regular shows at 3LG, and I happily played the first one. The July 31 show, however, originally contradicted Cousins Weekend, but we had to cancel it to due COVID concerns. I would have opted for the AUS open mic at Kick Butt Coffee, but it was another indoor gig, and the AUS leader Bob Guz rightly chose to cancel it, too. 

Last night, Kaye and I performed at Dale’s Essenhaus in Walburg. Small crowd, and very hot, but we did okay in tips. We were a last-minute replacement for some other act. We have another Thursday show schedule there for August 26. 

See my December 16 post for the beginning of this story. The upshot is that four and a half months after I lost a case of seven harmonicas, they have were returned to me today! 

Of course, I'd already bought replacement harps, but I'm happy to have the originals and the case back. Suddenly the world seems a slightly better place.

After a fairly busy March, April was a bit of a slow month for the Kaye Pasa Trio. We did add a new venue to our list at the Thirsty Mule in Liberty Hill; however, beyond that our only other gigs were at Uptown Social Club in Georgetown and as the opening act at SculptFest in Round Rock. It was our second year to play SculptFest and the art was as incredible as before. Josh Ribakove performed with us.

Twin Creeks Icehouse is a special place to The Kaye Pasa Trio, so last night we were excited to celebrate our 3-year anniversary as a band there. Josh Ribakove opened the show for us on guitar. His wife Margaret brought her ukulele to join him on stage for one song (sorry, no photo yet). The rest of the night, Josh added his mandolin magic to our sound. One of our biggest crowds at the Creek, and definitely our biggest on the indoor stage. 

Joe Gee asked me to come downtown for the open mic portion of the night's entertainment at B.D. Riley's Irish Pub. Sue and I took the bus to avoid SXSW parking woes and the usual parking woes of downtown. Played "Don't Dallas My Austin," "Beer and Pretzels for Communion," and "Hot Pepper Tamale" to a good crowd of mainly SXSWers. Good times.

Encores are always fun because there's just something great about that feeling when the audience doesn't want you go.

Enjoyed a wonderful open mic and house band jam tonight. Soose found out about it after asking one of the Kaua'i locals, "Where is good live music on the island?" He first response was Paniolo, adding "I think they have an open mic tonight."

During a snowmobile trip to Colorado, I borrowed a guitar at the Silver Dollar Saloon (est. 1879) in Leadville, CO. I played for a couple of hours for a few locals with a few other locals filling in on drums, harmonica, and electric guitar. The next day, I managed to sneak into an open mic at the Syntax Physic Opera House in Denver (pictured above).