Late Monday afternoon, Jill Marie and Bryson VanCleve pulled their parking brake at the base of the hostel and unloaded a few guitars into our common room. It was just as the sun readied itself for his daily curtain call. We rearranged a few couches and waited for the hostellers to arrive. Jill and Bryson seated themselves on chairs with a backdrop of colorful Community Walls murals, which local Yurok Tribe high schoolers created last year to teach our travelers about this community, and its walls. An ideal backdrop for teachers of the soul and of soulsearching, Troubaduo, a.ka. Bryson and Jill.
The hostellers arrived. The band played. And it was O’ So Good.
Listen for yourself as they sing “Favor From Lucy”, “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Waiting for the Sun to Rise”. If you haven’t been here yet, these clips will give you the flavor of our communal spaces and laid-back atmosphere, if you pay attention to the occasional person poking their head in from the kitchen, or the impromptu Q&A between artist and audience, or the off-screen chuckle of a child. Jill and Bryson said this has been one of their most intimate shows–sitting two feet from your audience is an exercise in intimacy!–and they and we alike both felt the soul-stirring feelings we get, all too rare, when art gets to enter the everyday life.
