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Let the show begin! #grateful to be playing music in this beautiful house again! @amifreeberg @jasparlepak #kansascity #houseconcert (at Kansas City, Missouri)

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One of my favorites! @freddyandfrancine at #folkalliance #kansascity #livemusicinhotelrooms (at Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center)

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Eavesdropping at #folkalliance #kansascity (at The Westin Kansas City at Crown Center)

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Sunset in #kansascity (at Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center)

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The madness / brilliance that is #folkalliance ... @rachaelkilgourmusic I see you!!!

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at The Westin Kansas City at Crown Center

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This is why I come to #folkalliance !!! #livemusicinhotelrooms featuring @thebombadils (at The Westin Kansas City at Crown Center)

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I've had the song stuck in my head all day ... #kansascity here I come!! (at Folk Alliance International)

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Hello #folkalliance #kansascity !!! Looking forward to lots of music, visiting friends and making new ones... (at Kansas City, Missouri)

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#folkalliance #kansascity packing list: 1. Boots #madeformusic 2. Free merch #myfaceonstuff 3. Coffee mug AND water bottle #doublefisting ... I think I'm good to go! (at Folk Alliance International)

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Showtime at the Conway Muse! #livemusic #concert #intheround (at The Conway Muse)

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I wish there was a way to capture on social media everything else that makes a visual what it is ... The smell of metal wheels on metal tracks, the warmth of the sun that falls just short of the tingling cold of my ears, and the transience of a moment between here and there. Thanks #nerfa2015 for being such a grounded "here" for all the ups and downs of the last several days. Hope to see you next year! (at Metro-North Poughkeepsie Station)

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This week on my Facebook page, I’m sharing some behind-the-songs materials and inviting YOU to post stories, photos, and your own historical treasures.

TUESDAY: 93 LEWIS STREET

"On 93 Lewis Street I hear the stories of those who came before me / When I leave, I carry them with me to remember my family" ... Every family shares some special place in their memory: a family homestead, a memorable vacation spot, a favorite family member's home, etc. Sometimes these are places where we learn about our family's history, or they are where we make new stories with our loved ones.

INVITATION: What special places exist in your family stories? Post a photo, tell a quick story, or share whatever you like of your "93 Lewis Street" ... If you need any inspiration, check out these photos from my own collection, and take a listen to the song at: https://soundcloud.com/averyhilltunes

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On the road again ... But taking to the sky first. From Portland to Virginia today, from the mountains of the Cascades to the hills of Appalachia. Excited for this solo tour!

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BIG THANKS to Dan Rhiger and Rahmana Wiest of Sky in the Road for hosting a Welcome Home House Concert for us back in Portland recently. They have a beautiful setting off the side of their home and it was a truly beautiful and perfect night, playing for the friends and family we were so happy to come home to. I’ve posted a video from that night to my Facebook page if you want to get more of a taste of the evening!

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The road home...

After Mountain View, we had a few more stops to make, but we were definitely starting to feel the pull toward home. The car got quieter as our internal worlds shifted directions, and I found myself taking stock of the previous weeks. Some things on my mind:

As independent musicians, the experience of traveling together presents unique opportunities and challenges, both often within the same moment. Each of us were pushed outside of our comfort zones on this trip - by the places we visited, by communities we encountered, even by each other. I take for granted sometimes how accustomed I am to doing my work on my own, and doing it my own way, as well. This tour placed me in collaboration with new people in new places, which sometimes challenged the way I’m used to going about things, and yet always seemed to open my mind to something new to take with me.

At the same time, though, there were moments I realized I am too flexible and accommodating when working with other people. I know that this comes from growing up with divorced parents, traveling between two very different home cultures, and from other traveling experiences I’ve had in foreign countries, learning different languages and participating in different cultures. It’s funny, I always considered this kind of flexibility to be one of my more favorable attributes, but it occurred to me for the first time on this tour: I’ve become so good at adjusting to different environments, sometimes I don’t stay true to the kind of environment I want to create and foster with those I collaborate with. I find myself more prone to fitting in with how others do things, but this is not always the right thing to do. Especially as a traveling musician, you need to have a sense of who you are and what you want to stand for as part of the culture you bring into different communities.

Finally, when it comes to the pure joy of making music and making friends,  I feel we touched on something important. As I’ve mentioned, one of our main intentions for this tour was to learn some of the music of the regions we visited. A post from our house concert in Mountain View documents some of those songs. But the process, as a whole, got me thinking about the relationship between the past and the present, between the songs we write today and the songs so old we don’t even know who wrote them. What does examining and preserving the past help us discover and understand about ourselves today? And how do we balance that preservation with the drive to move forward with new ideas and expressions of creativity? There is so much heart, life, and beauty in the songs we learned and heard from the people we met; perhaps a true folk song, then, is as much a testament to life of the past as it is to life of the present moment. Time may change a lot about the world we know, but I’m starting to see how music - and all the folk arts - remind us of the things that never change about life itself.