Luke Graner, my favorite local performer, provided 4th & Broadway with some tunes today at noon. I was fortunate enough to be able to take some time from my day to hang out and enjoy the music while trying to gnaw through one of those big brownie ice cream sandwiches!

I post an occasional “Luke Graner love fest” on here because he’s my friend, co-worker, and he helped me with my animated Flash banner at the top of this site. Oh yeah, I’ve loved his music going all the way back to the Curious Yello days. Today Luke played some of my favorites, and I was able to show my appreciation by grabbing some pictures.

I met a nice lady at Wells Fargo who let me take some photos from their corner office, just above the area where the bands play. Notice how Luke plays barefoot; he uses a Boomerang digital loop recorder to lay down tracks of drum, guitar, vocals, or whatever…then sing and play along with the loops he’s just recorded. That way this “one man band” can consist of backing vocals and multiple instruments. That in itself is pretty cool to hear, but I think it’s also a good lesson of how a song is composed. You can sit and watch Luke build a song from the ground up, sing his heart out, then slowly pick the song back apart as he stops the loops one by one. It’s very educational to a non-musician.

This was the one event that could draw me to the Urban Harvest. I just don’t get anything from the whole “hippie vibe” I suppose; I’m not into the jewelry or new age stuff, and I think buying tie-dye items that someone else made is so contrary to the idea of tie-dyeing in the first place. Hey, I think I just stumbled upon something that a true “hippie” might agree with!