Kate B. wrote:
> Had the pleasure of meeting Shane Mattison from Alberta this weekend. He
was travelling around California & the >southwest too I believe & he stopped
in for a visit to Santa Barbara. He loved my town so much he stayed an extra
day!. I >think he was hoping to visit Kakki too, if she wasn't working over
the weekend & if he could drag himself away from Santa >Barbara!
After a few voice mail messages back and forth as Shane was alternating
swimming and driving his way down the Ventura highway from S.B. and despite
my work load, we were able to get together last night! He raved about Santa
Barbara and your gig at Cold Springs, too, Kate.
I picked Shane up at his hotel in Santa Monica which just happened to be
right across the street from the famous McCabe's Guitar Shop! Since Les
Deux is closed Mondays I decided to head east on Sunset over to Dan Tana's
next to the Troubadour (and location of the tequila anaconda parking lot
memorialized in "Talk To Me" from DJRD). As soon as the valet took the car
we broke out the cameras and started taking shots of the parking lot and
driveway. The parking lot manager came over to us with a mildly alarmed
look and asked if he could help us. Shane told him we were shooting a
"celebrity site." The manager couldn't help but laugh and had a look like
he seen everything around there and this was just another one of those flaky
L.A. things ;-)
Dan Tana's is a trip and Shane instantly fell in love with it. It's almost
like a neighborhood roadhouse for the local movie stars and industry people.
Two tiny dining rooms divided by the bar and kitchen. The standard red
leather booths and hundreds of miniature Chianti bottles hanging from the
ceiling. Yellowed restaurant reviews from about 30 years ago framed
everywhere. Framed Lakers shirts (Magic Johnson among others) hanging next
to delicate and faded Renoir type watercolors that looked a lot like early
Joni paintings. Definitely lived in and comfortably tattered with the
contrast of elegant waiters standing by in tuxes. We were seated in one of
the rooms where there were only six booths. As we settled in our
neighboring diners (including actor James Woods, football star Lamar Lathon,
and some actresses we couldn't identify) all looked over smiling and nodding
their heads at us like we were regulars. As each finished dining they would
go up and say goodbye to everyone else and shake hands or hug. The very
friendly Lamar and his girlfriend stopped by our booth and chatted for
awhile, too! I think it helped that Shane has a bit of a movie star look
himself and we secretly were cracking up that maybe they all thought they
knew us from some picture we did togather ;-) We had just too much fun
there!
Later, Shane played me several original songs on his 12 string guitar. His
guitar is magically tuned in a way that every strum sounds like a Joni song.
His songs were wonderful and very creative and his voice is a dead-on ringer
for the young Crosby!
I showed him several photos of past Joni fests and jmdler get-togethers and
he shared with me some sweet personal items he had received one Christmas
from Joni's mother Myrtle (connection through his old girlfriend cousin in
law of Joni). I had a great time discussing Canadian politics with him
(very interesting to me) and he told me all about Joni's birthplace Fort
McLeod and how there are still some people there who remember Bill Anderson
when he was a commander in the Air Corps in WWII. Shane also made an
amazing connection between Fort McLeod and one of everyone's favorite Joni
songs that I don't think any of us have ever thought about before. I hope
he will share it here when he gets back home to Calgary.
It was wonderful to spend some time with Shane and I only regret that
everyone's schedules made it difficult to have gotten more of the LA jmdle
gang together with us. I hope he will come this way again soon.
Kakki
