I thought it was so he’d have an excuse to come to Seattle, explain himself, and play stuff from his new solo album. Well, he did do all of that in the Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge (the video’s up on our homepage right now,) but here’s the real story of his departure from BNL:

steven page on BNL

His new solo album, Page One, is coming out at the end of September and a tour will follow, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be back.

Just to satisfy my own curiosity, I asked Steven about the background of one of my favorite BNL songs, One Week:

steven page on one week

And for old time’s sake, here’s a really cool acoustic version of that song, recorded in Ed Robertson’s bathroom:

Finally, this may or not be renowned actor Morgan Freeman covering One Week:

So, I’m doing the Mike MS Ride in less than two weeks — it’s September 11 and 12 beginning in Mount Vernon. All the details are here. I’m thinking of doing the 59-mile ride, which is longer than my typical weekend outing, so I thought I should get a long ride or two in before the actual event. As it happens, it’s a 50-mile loop around Lake Washington from my house in Madison Valley, so . . . off I went, heading south toward beautiful Renton.

Sadly, no time to poke around Seahawks HQ, because I was just getting started. On I rode, around the bottom of the lake, past this lovely little park:

and up the East Side to the shiny towers of downtown Bellevue:

I knew I was getting close to Kirkland when I passed this landmark near 520:

but my plan was to refuel at Aqua Verde, a little joint by the water’s edge just south of downtown Kirkland:

Lots of choices:

But those catfish tacos were speaking to me:

Then, adequately fueled up, up from Kirkland and along Juanita Drive — and I do mean “up.” There are some wicked hills there, which didn’t seem all that fun 35 miles into the ride, but that’s what training is for. Of course, once you go up a hill, you have to go down:

Yeah, that’s fast. Before I knew it, I was around the top of the lake and enjoying the splendor of Kenmore:

and I bet I was the only guy actually photographing the splendor of Kenmore that day. Anyway, a quick run down the Burke Gilman, where it actually felt a little bit like fall, with a warm golden glow all around:

past Sand Point heading toward UW:

And, finally, home . . . Didn’t I say it was 50 miles?

That was a good ride. And I feel great about riding for a fantastic cause on September 11. Want to join me? Those details, again, are here.

Trust me — If I can do it, you can do it!

It was truly a happening Thursday night at Easy Street Records in West Seattle as the new band Fistful Of Mercy made their public debut. (George Harrison’s son Dhani, Ben Harper, and Joseph Arthur are the well-known components of the lineup.)

For me it was more of an audio than a visual experience, because the place was stuffed to the gills with music fanatics and I couldn’t see a thing:

Luckily some attendees had a better view, and caught the magic on video:

If the full-on adoration of the crowd was any indication, there are great things in store for this band. I think I saw the back of Shawn Stewart’s head among the throngs. Check out her blog for more eyewitness action. (And special thanks to Mountain listener Louann who bought me a beer. This DJ was parched!)

Say hello to Fistful Of Mercy — Dhani Harrison, Ben Harper, and Joseph Arthur. It’s kind of a Traveling Wilburys for the 21st century (and of course Dhani’s father George was a Wilbury. And a Beatle.) Their story, according to Rolling Stone:

In February, when Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison arrived at the Carriage House studio in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood, they had three days booked and zero songs to record. “I thought I was going there to add some guitars or harmonies on Joseph’s album,” says Harrison, who was invited to the session by Harper, whom he befriended at a skate park in Santa Monica. “When I got to the studio, I saw Joe and asked, ‘What songs are we going to do?’ He said we hadn’t written them yet.” After three long days, the trio had recorded the nine acoustic tracks that make up As I Call You Down — and called themselves Fistful of Mercy, after the track of the same name. “I never thought we’d pull off an entire album, [I thought] maybe we’d get an EP,” says Harper, who credits Arthur as the catalyst who pushed for three songs a day. “The three of us were able to create something we never could have done on our own.”

The good news for us in Seattle is that the band is doing its first public live performance tonight (Thursday 8/26) at 7:30 at Easy Street Records in West Seattle. Details here.

They plan to tour in October. Fingers crossed for a Mountain Music Lounge visit!

Every year everybody who works at The Mountain and our sister radio stations takes a day off together to do some good in the community — we call it Make A Difference Day. This time we headed down to Seattle’s Arbor Heights Elementary School. The school has a huge asphalt-covered playground

with typical games painted on the surface — foursquare, basketball, etc., plus a map of the world and a huge outline of the U.S.:

Everything was outlined in fading white paint; our job was to fill things in. Kind of like paint-by-numbers on a giant scale, only there weren’t any numbers. Equipped with buckets of brightly-colored paint, we went to work.

My team tackled the big U.S. map:

The hard part was keeping similar colors from touching one another. Easy in the West; tougher in the Northeast. But we did it:

And we all went home with at least a few souvenirs on some part of our bodies:

But first we had lunch on the playground:

We found this project thanks to a great organization called Kaboom, a non-profit dedicated to creating play spaces for kids all over the country.

This is where we sing “We Are The World . . . .”

Yes, it’s me and Melissa Etheridge, just after her session in the Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge. As soon as the video goes up on the Mountain homepage, you have to check it out. Or listen to the full session now right here. It’s hard to believe she sang for three hours at the Paramount, then came in here the next day and rocked it hard.

When I was a young DJ in Columbus, Ohio, in 1989, I did a broadcast from the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, and I interviewed Melissa, who was up for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. (She lost to Tina Turner, but hey — she did get nominated for her very first album, which isn’t bad.) Anyhoo, today I reminded her of that interview, and guess what? Big surprise: She didn’t remember it. Does it really count as a reunion if one of the people doesn’t remember meeting in the first place?

BTW . . .here’s the guitar she played today. Pretty, huh?:

. . . but things will change on Monday afternoon.

The Carter Subaru Mountain Music Lounge looks a little sad when it’s empty. But just wait until Monday afternoon at 2:00. Melissa Etheridge will take the stage (okay, there’s really no stage, but you get the idea) and spend some time chatting and playing live. It’s been a while since she’s stopped by, so I’m really looking forward to catching up with her.

You can watch it live as it happens (which I believe is what “live” means) in a video webcast Monday afternoon on the front page of 1037themountain.com.

Somebody bring me some water!

. . . . and just like in any other office that faces the motorcade route, I ran to the windows with my coworkers to watch the action:

If nothing else, this video proves that behind the scenes in the offices, a radio station is just about as exciting as insurance agency. (No offense to insurance agencies.)

Just before I went on the air at 2pm today, a couple of big BOOMS shook the Canned Ham building, and then I started to get calls and emails from Mountain listeners all over the Puget Sound area asking what the hell happened. The answer is: sonic booms.

According to Q13 News, a plane entered restricted airspace Tuesday afternoon while President Obama was visiting Seattle. Two F-15 fighter planes were scrambled (from Oregon!) to follow the unidentified aircraft. Their afterburners caused a sonic boom. (Apparently the military responds very quickly to these kind of things!) The restricted airspace is a temporary no-fly zone during the president’s visit. The booms were heard from Seattle to Chehalis. (Read the full story here.)

Here’s what a sonic boom sounds like:

Hopefully, today’s boom didn’t do this to your house:

I had a great plan for Sunday. Since the Bike MS Ride is just a few weeks away — September 11 and 12 — I was going to get up bright and early, beat the heat, and get in a good long ride. Unfortunately, it took a little longer to get it together than I expected. Pick a reason: It was the morning after Mountain Music Fest, someone was coming over to buy a dresser I’d put on Craig’s List, I like sleeping . . .

Anyhoo, I didn’t really get going until almost 11:00am on a day when the temperature was heading well into the 90s. Yeah, that’s right, I was in the saddle at high noon on the hottest day of the year. But I did it! Here’s how it went:

If I can do 40 miles on a sweltering August afternoon, you can probably do at least 22 on a cool September morning, so join me and ride with some great people — of all skill levels — on a beautiful course for an important cause. Click here to learn more or to register for the Bike MS Ride. And don’t forget to hydrate!