I want to tell you about one of the best musical afternoons I've had in a long time, because it's exactly the kind of story The High Country Dispatch exists for.

Last Friday evening, I was out paddling my kayak from Boulder Bay, just cruising over toward the dam to catch the sunset. As I got close, a speedboat full of people at a mooring waved me over. I paddled up, and before I knew it, someone handed me a pollo asado taco. So there I was, floating in my kayak in the middle of Big Bear Lake, eating tacos and chatting with a group of new friends as the sun went down.

One of them was a local musician named Christopher Hollis. We got to talking about music, and it turned out he was deep into the same brand of Americana I've been building Music from the High Country around. We swapped numbers before I paddled back to shore, figuring we'd stay in touch.

The next morning, my phone buzzed. Christopher was setting up at Moonridge Coffee Co and told me to grab my guitar and come play. I had about an hour's notice, so there was no way to get the word out (otherwise I'd have loved to have some of you there). I grabbed my guitar and headed over.

What was supposed to be a quick sit-in turned into about five hours of music, trading songs solo, then playing together, back and forth, while people came and went, grabbed their coffee and drinks, and settled in to listen. It was one of those afternoons that reminds me why I picked up a guitar in the first place.

Christopher recorded parts of that set, and I'm going to be sharing performances from it on YouTube over the next few weeks. Starting this week, I'll be releasing two new videos a week from the Moonridge Coffee Co performance.

Watch the first Moonridge Coffee Co video here:

Christopher and I are already working with Moonridge Coffee Co to set up our next show. Nothing is locked in yet, but as soon as it is, you'll hear about it here first.

Stay tuned and thanks for being part of this.

-Pete Matthew

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