"By My Side"

We just released a new song this morning entitled,"By My Side". You can listen to it right here on the blog or through reverbnation. I hope you enjoy it!

New Shows Coming Up!

Come check out some of the shows coming up! A couple of them are at  farmers markets around the San Diego area.  You can enjoy some great locally grown food along with some melodic local tunes.  Definitely try the organic popsicles made by Viva Pop at the Little Italy Mercato.

A little ways down the road we booked another show at the House of Blues San Diego.  That is always a fun place to play.

Hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows! Check the shows section on the blog for more details.

Horn of Africa Benefit CD

For any of you following the devastating situation regarding the drought in Somalia, the news is still bleak.

Somalia has been experiencing the most severe food crisis in African history. About 3.6 million people in the country are at risk of starvation, accounting for half of its population. More than half of all Somali children are undernourished, with six infants dying from malnutrition every day. Read more...

Once thriving families have been trying to stick out years of drought that has dried up their crops, killed their livestock, and slowly driven them out of their homes. They walk for days without food or water, hoping to make it to the already over crowded refugee camps.

Although militants finally lifted the ban it had placed on foreign relief agencies, aid is difficult to get in. It BREAKS our hearts to see what these families are going through, with headlines like, "I Carried Him a Whole Day While He Was Dead, Thinking He Was Alive"- read more.

We're trying to get creative in how we can help while we do some of the regular things we already had coming up this week. This Friday, August 19, Beggar and the Pen is playing at the House of Blues. We've got FREE tickets, and for every ticket that comes in, we will get a dollar. We'll put together all the bucks and add it to what we're donating to the crisis. A little can go a long way! Email me at Tkinnaman @ gmail for tickets to be left at will call for you for Friday night. For more info on that show, click here.
If you like the music, please buy a CD at the show, for 5 bucks you can get some new music, and 100% of the money will also be donated. We're doing some major research before deciding what organization to give the money to, so stay tuned for more details on that.

If you're looking for something a little more diverse to do, check out Beggar and the Pen at the next San Diego Raw Artist event, Thursday August 25th. Tickets are $10, buy them here. We'll be selling our benefit CD's there as well, and you can get out and enjoy some local fashion, art, photography, music, and more. Buy tickets or read more about that event here and select Beggar and the Pen as the artist.

I know there are many things in our own back yard that need attention, but this is a CRISIS. Thanks everyone, do what you want, do what you can, but please, just do something. . .

Thank you to Brian Kinnaman for drawing our cover art for this very special benefit CD.

RAW Natural Born Artists Presents Fusion

We'll be playing at the upcoming August RAW showcase: Fusion.

We attended a RAW event earlier this year and were pleased to see all the amazing local talent and support for artists, fashion, music, and more. We urge to come out for this show and keep the creative arts flowing in SD!

We will have CDS for sale for $5 and all proceeds with go to the refugees in Africa. This is a serious situation and we're getting creative in trying to find some more ways to help. Come out and enjoy this night, come say hi, and pick up a CD: To buy tickets to RAW, click HERE and select Beggar and the Pen.

Hope to see you soon.

Amy Winehouse joins the "27 Club"

27 year old Amy Winehouse died unexpectedly on Saturday July 23, 2011.  This coincidently is the same age many other notable musicians have lost their lives such as: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Kobain, Ron "Pigpen" Mckernan, and many more.

While Winehouse's death was unexpected it was not a complete surprise.  Her abuse of drugs and alcohol had been going on for some time and seemed to be getting worse.  She had repeatedly been checked into rehab centers to deal with her addiction, but it wasn't enough.  Her death has believed to be from a drug overdose although the full autopsy report has not been released.

Winehouse has joined the mysterious "27 Club", a name that is used to acknowledge famous artists who have died at 27.  Most of these artists were also heavily involved with drugs and alcohol, but not all died from overdoses.  Kurt Kobain took a blow to the head from a shotgun, while Brian Jones drowned in a swimming pool.  The coincidental age of all of these deaths does seem to be rather strange.

This mysterious age of death continues to accumulate more notable musicians. Amy Winehouse while the most current will most likely not be the last.  Her unexpected death saddens us all, but her name lives on with the rest of the "27 Club".

Take me by the hand available for your listening pleasure!

Here is the recorded version of the song, "Take me by the hand", that I put up as a vid a few weeks ago.  Hope you enjoy Click here to listen

The Tayee lakes

     “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir

Every year my dad and I do a weekend backpacking trip.  A few years ago we hiked 50 miles across Catalina Island in thirty hours.  It was a lot of fun.  Well this year my dad and I hiked through the Tayee Lakes.

There are four lakes that make up the Tayee Lakes.  Our goal was to reach the fourth lake, set up camp, and fish to our hearts desire.   The fourth lake rests at 11,000 feet.  The hike itself starts at 9,000 feet and 4 miles away from the fourth lake.  It was a tough hike, but a lot of fun.  

We ran into a little snow trouble in between Lake 3 and Lake 4.  Here is a Vid of my dad following the snow covered trail to the fourth lake.  One slip and We would be falling about 200 ft!

It took us about two and a half hours to reach the fourth lake.  It was beautiful.  Most of the peaks were covered in snow.  Huge boulders surrounded the lake, but there was a small flat area just big enough to fit our tent.  

After we set up camp we dropped our poles in the water.  Within a few minutes both of us started catching fish.  They were biting like crazy, and so were the mosquitoes.  I think by the end of the trip I had so many mosquito bites that my bites had bites.  We caught and gutted a total of five fish that day.

Sunday we hiked back down the trail and drove over to South Lake where we did the remainder of our fishing.  It started off really slow.  I mean realllllllyyyyy slow!  Two hours and neither one of us had caught a fish.  As we were about to pack up  my dad's pole started to bend rapidly.  He yanked up the pole and reeled in a nice sized Rainbow Trout.  This started a fish catching frenzy which ended in a total of eight fish caught in under an hour!  We were so excited!

So our fishing trip was a success and the four hour drive home was cake.  I had a lot of fun hiking around with my dad for a couple days.  There is nothing quite like surviving in the wild with nothing but what you have on your back.