Bandcamp for Grownups

We the please, please me are still riding the high of Folk Alliance, where we spend the last four days (nights really) crammed into Memphis's downtown Marriott w/ 1,000 other musicians. No one leaves, except maybe to grab soul food down the street.....

Then you're right back in it.

Every half hour from 2pm-3am, in nearly EVERY ROOM on the top three floors, people are showcasing. There's enough acoustic guitars to arm a small nation.

Bearded man giving us a concertina lesson in hotel lobby

It's a lock-in, like my high school did one night with all the juniors. Except folk musicians.

Completely surreal.

We went in wanting to blow people away with a perfect set. Though we're not really an acoustic band & we were winging it on without sound effects, playing on instruments we built just for the event.

We quickly realized we were surrounded by talent -- in some cases greater or lesser than our own. But in nearly all cases, different & inspiring.

You're crazy if you think, in a place w/ so many musicians, you can get attention just by making noise. So we made friends. We made cinnamon toast in the hotel bedroom & passed it to hungry musicians in the hallways.

And what we really did was JAM. That's right, for an amazing moment in time, the Please, Please Me was a jam band. I felt like a kid learning jazz all over again...

Austin's Ghosts Along the Brazos

Chloe, Sam & Aly of the Sweetness

We finally gave ourselves permission to let go of perfection, not think about how anything was supposed to be played... but JUST PLAY. That's the beauty of playing music that hasn't been written down, hell that hasn't even been written yet.

Members of the Belleville Outfit, Cumberland Collective, Caleb Hawley, Tim Easton, Stone by Stone, the Memphis Dawls.... they didn't give a shit who we were so long as there was an empty chair or inch of floor, a guitar & whiskey bottle going around.

Stay tuned... because I've come home with a shitload of good music & memories. And I'm dying to share some of my favorites with you.

The mini-kit Agustin built for Folk Alliance

The Memphis Dawls

 Memphis is, afterall, the land of soul.

A mini-New Orleans in its own funky way.

xoxo

~jessie, alissa, agustin

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