Hi All... Glad you could stop by. Take some time, listen to our music and feel free to comment and sign the guestbook. If you like what you hear, or even if you don't, we would love to hear from you. Check out tracks from our new CD:  "Changin' My Mind" which was recently released which is available for purchse here and is also now available on iTunes "...This album is a treat and has something for everyone. The covers are masterfully done and bring something new to already-recognizable tunes. And the original works get the toe tapping and speak directly from the heart of the songwriter. This is a good album to have anywhere -- in the car with the top down, at the beach with a beer or sitting on the back porch, grilling steaks. -- Ben McNeely (North Carolina Journalist)" 
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ItstheMusic NEWS!October 23th - After 8 long years... !! Cleaver Smith Swenson & McKnight with special guests Karen and Tim Nicholson
Photo from 9th Street Bakery circa 1987?
photos - Bill Pope View You Tube Video:  Cleaver Smith Swenson & McKnight - Java Divine Gig Video - Bill Pope
October 5th - CSSM Gig! (Sorry about the mis-spelling - Java "Divine"!) Cleaver Smith Swenson & McKnight with special guests Karen and Tim Nicholson are appearing at Java Divine's Italian Cafe, in Holly Springs, NC on Friday October 16th!
July 21st - Another year older and another 100 miler under my belt:
I managed to finish in 26:24:28 (Sub 30 hour finisher's buckle is shown on the left) which is actually a pretty respectible time but I felt it was below what I could have done. But mistakes were made that cost me at least an hour maybe more, and yet it could have gone a lot worse... (read more...)
July 15th -- Tahoe Rim Trail 100 Miler Update
http://tahoemtnmilers.org/trt50/ I finally found a Pacer (my friend Keith Blom) who will come up to Tahoe Saturday to do all or most of the second 50 miles with me. It’s a long drive so I will owe him BIG TIME! My left knee which has been bothering me for the past month is getting better. It’s been getting swollen in the joint after only a few miles. I was really worried about doing 100 miles on it. I put in a 110 mile week 2 weeks ago and that probably didn’t help it. Part of that 110 miles was an easy 40 mile run pacing of Kap’n Kirk Boisseree at Western States. I was worried how that would affect it but it’s was no problem. It was swollen after a 3 mile jog meeting up with Kirk as he emerged from the trail right before Foresthill and then it just wasn’t of any consequence the rest of the night. The next day its 90% normal. With only a small amount of residual stiffness. I only ran about 20 miles altogether last week since I’m “tapering” for the race. So it’s a “rest” / recovery for my knee. I went out tonight for 9 miles on the trail while Debbie hiked and it felt a lot better. It swelled in the same distance (about 4.5 miles) but then it subsided and by the time I finished it almost felt normal. It actually got better as the run progressed instead of worse and just feeling “funky”. I’m feeling much more confident now about the weekend 100 miles. In this coming week of rest it should probably be ~80% better by the time I start on my trek on Saturday. The weird thing about this is It goes away as fast as it comes. It’s not even painful. Just gets fluid in the joint and it becomes “stiff.” The next day is pretty much fine. My Dr./ Runner friend says it’s a meniscus irritation. I looked it up and it didn’t seem serious or it would lead to worse things. So I have five days more now to rest. Doing strengthening on my left knee to help support and protect it this weekend. And we’ll see how it goes. The thing I was worried about was having my friend Keith drive up to pace me and have me drop at 50 miles because my knee was injured. That would suck for him and me to of course. My goal is 24 hours but based upon previous race results that might be tough. We’ll see. It’s not supposed to be hot, but then the consideration is how cold will it get between 8000 ft – 9000 ft? Cold is my only fear. Heat I can take. So I’ll have layers available depending upon the degree. Should be good though if its not going to be hot because that leaves you in better shape at the end of the day. SO it might turn into a good run. But anything can happen in 100 miles and usually does – sometimes more than once! Sunday I went for 9 miles on the trails and every thing is looking good. Did 6 easy flat miles on Monday and 7 hilly trail miles in 100+ temps on Tuesday. Resting now for the three days before the run. Been talking to my pacer the past coule days and it loks like Its going to be a good "tough" race! -- Joe July 11, 2009 -- One week until Tahoe Rim Trail 100 mile run.
April 18, 2009 - San Francisco, CA Swenson wins his first PAUSATF Ultra event!
photos by Rajeev Patel January 25, 2009 6:51PM PST!
Wednesday Dec 17th - "Night and Day" released. "Bella" has her copy tucked safely under the tree from Santa...
There's still time to get yours!
The second CD in the four CD Instrumental project from Bruce Emery and David McNight, Nov 15th 2008 - New mix from recent CSSM Recording session ! "Tell Me" - by Robert Smith and Bill Cleaver -- download mp3 , new version New version: different electric guitar tone & taste of drums: downlad mp3
Nov 4th 2008 - Yes We Did! President Elect Barack Obama
Breaking News... CSSM proudly endorses Barack Obama!!" Ok I know we've been quiet about the upcoming historic election... But North Carolina is close folks. WIth Obama in a narrow lead over John McCain, we though we should help Obama over the top with our valued endorsement. We believe our country stands the best chance of getting out the mess we are in and restore our moral leadership position in the workd once again.
So get off your duffs and vote early or vote on Tuesday for Barack Obama - The Change We Need!! October 31st: What a Princess...Amadala A proud Grandpa took this picture of his favorite Granddaughter on her 6th Halloween. She will be turning 7 next month. I think she will be growing up to be some sort of artist. She is very much into movies and visual arts.
October 25th: New mixes going up "Miners' Holiday" 4 frame of guitar mix on Projects page October 20th: Last Night in NC - James Taylor Concert for Obama!
Couldn't have had a better final night in North Carolina. Bill Robert and I went to a Free James Taylor concert for Obama, on UNC Campus in Chapel Hill, his home town. More about this later... Here are the pictures I took. Only filtered out the blurry ones. I was shooting in the dark with a Canon 20D with a 70-300mm F4-5.6 Image Stabilized lense at 1600 speed from the top of the bleechers about 50 yards away from the stage. And so some of the pictures are less than sharp. Here are a couple great shots by freelance photojournalist Jenny Warburg: Independent Article on JT Concert Here is the link to my JT Concert photo gallery: James Taylor Change We Need
Upcoming music trip to NC on Oct 14th! I just rediscovered some wonderful songs from Graham Nash's - "Songs for Beginners" Album. It would be fantastic to get some CSSM harmonies on "Wounded Bird" to go with the Jonathan Edwards song: "Sometimes" we will likely sing at our get together. Other songs which are pretty much as relevant today as they were in the early 70's - "Military Madness" for example. And two other tunes I always loved: "Simple Man" and "Sleep Song". I guess I'm still just a sucker for those love songs. Probably the most noted song off that album was Chicago / We can Change the World. Great political stuff of the day! Check them out! October 5, 2008 Emery and McKnight "Night and Day" CD Project wrapping up! Final mixes going up. Artwork is getting finalized. CD should be ready by the end of this month!Check out the latest mixes JULY 30, 2008 Updated Photo Gallery Jim Crisp Trio at Franklin Hotel February 28, 2008
JULY 26, 2008 This weekend it's time for apple pie picked fresh from our tree and ice cream: If you don't ike apple.. well there's not much hope for you in any case. But there is peach pie as well. All this and more on the 53rd anniversary of my birth and only a week late. At least when I was 3 months old I could cry and get things in a little more timely fashion. But perhaps the better option would have been through sheer cuteness.
...This is me.. cuteness as defined in October of 1955. Whatever happened to it? I don't know... Last weekend was my birthday weekend and we were in the thin air of Lake Tahoe for the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 Mile Endurance Run. There were people simultaneously running the 100 miler (although they started at 5 AM) and then there were those of us running the 50K as well as the 50 miler starting at 6 AM. The 50 miler was enough for me this year. There were 113 out of 144 starters who finished the 50M... I was 17th and the first old-fart to cross the line from the "over 50" crowd. Of the 111 people who started the 100 Mile race (who finished the next day) only 64 finished (53%). This was a slightly tougher version of course, which was two of the loops we did for the 50 mile course: Tahoe Rim Trail 2008 Results
The elevation - distance chart below shows how much time we spent above 8000 ft. We maxed out at 9000 feet just below the Snow Valley Peak summit 7 miles from the finish...
Surprisingly the altitude didn't bother me. The hills weren't all that tough. There were just a lot of them. I did have a drinking problem during the race. I had brought a Camelback backpack since I didn't know the course I wanted to carry enough supplies with me so as not to run out between aid stations. Well that worked out well since and aid station was missing a the half-way point between Tunnel Creek aid and Mt Rose - the hilly 9 mile section that spends all it's time uphill and above 8000 feet. I had enough water but many people didn't. Luckily they got that aid station in by the time I returned from Mt Rose. It was hotter then and the extra water was very welcome. SOmething I did learn was it is quite difficult and perhaps unsafe to drink out of a Camelback at high altitude. You have to suck the water out of the bladder and to do so you stop breathing. When I did even for just a few seconds I got extremely light headedand nearly fell over a couple times. Not good. Water bottles next time. The kind you squeeze the water out. Al in all I had a really good run. The downhill from Mt Rode turn around was extremely welcome. I did manage to get into trouble once after just 15 minutes earlier pulled myself out of a slump by taking 3 extra Salt Caps when I started feeling a bit low. I felt the same and thought it must be the heat since I just took salt and I couldn't possibly need more so soon. Well I did and I was quite nauseaus by the time I pulled into the Hobart ROad aid station at mile 40. It took about 12 minutes there and 6 more slat caps to get me straigtened out enough so I could go on. Not too bad. But three more S-Caps 15 minutes earlier would have helped prevent such a porblem. I have to learn if you need salt then take it. I thought I had all this figured out. GUess not. So I had a good day overall. I did manage to beat my much more talented, faster, younger, lighter, runner friend, Mark Tanaka, for the first time ever! For some reason the altitude makes him quite sick. I had caught him at about half way through the race a couple miles before the Mt. Rose aid station turn around at 26 miles. He was one of the people who had run out of water a ways back. I was about to offer him some when I realised I was out too. Oh well.
Mark usually is in the top 3 or 4 finishers in most "lowland" races. I don't do too bad but being bigger and heavier, the hilliier races usually put more distnace between me and Mark. Last fall I came in 3rd.. only 10 minutes behind him at Rio Del Lago 100 miler - a much flatter faster race than last weekend's Tahoe Rim Trail 100 - a reall bugger of a course as you can see.. Mark had also run the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 mile race for the firsttime two years ago and just made the 35 hour cut-off. So he really has trouble at altitude. So he has dropped down to doing the 50 miler the past two years. I finished in 10:29 which I was pretty happy with considering the altitude and the 9,894 feet of climbing (and descent) you do for the 50 miles. The only tougher 50 miler I've done was the Diablo 50 which has about 14,000 feet of climbing. I sat and had which they handed me after the race. A nice Stout which taseted great. That is always a good sign when I can drink a beer after a tough run. means I'm not too far oof from feeling decent and normal. I was curious how I did, so Debbie and I went to get food check on the race results and grab my camera to take some finish line pictures which I like to do when I'm feeling well enough after a race. We went up to the awards area and could find no results posted for either the 50K or 50 miler. Nor could we find anyone who knew the results. So we grabbed a burrito and a soda and the camera bag out of the car and ate. About an hour later we went back to the finish line and Mark had just come in looking much better than I saw him earlier in the day. He had been in for about 10 minutes and was definintely feeling better at the 7000 ft of the start / finish line.
I had hoped Debbie would have remembered the camera and got one or two of me finishing, but not this year. So now we ahd the camera and she could take some of us at the finish line. This is Mark and me. I'm the one on the right (in case you couldn't tell from the earlier picture af me above)... Later he felt obliged to bow to the victor in our friendly competition. It was his idea - believe me!
We spent the rest of the weekend in South Lake Tahoe and had a great dinner at Villa Roma and then knocked around the lake for a while the next day before diving back to Livermore.
We were going to ride the Tahoe Queen but rain looked emminent. So we just tooled around the shops in South Lake Tahoe and I found a great new pair of trail running shoes! Montrail Streaks!
We did get rained on and even so it was a beautiful day and a nice get away. - and good training for the upcomgin fall races...........
Next year the 100 miler... maybe.
June 25, 2008 All week the air has been filled with smoke from the over 800 wildfires sparked by a freak lightning storm on Saturday June 21st. They recorded over 3200 lightning strikes. The air quality has been extremely bad all week. So bad that the Western Sates 100 Mile Endurance Run has been cancelled for the first time in its 35 year history. Runners from all over the world are due to arrive for the race which will no be held. Looks like I won't be pacing this year either. The air cleared up a bit last night with a welcome westerly evening breeze and so Deb and I went up to Del Valle for a walk at sunset. Even though the air was better there was still abundant smoke in the air which you could still smell and see, which made for a spectacular sunset. Here are some pictures I took.
June 9 - June 13, 2008
March 16 - May 13, 2008 Home Rennovation Project - Livermore CA
Two months of being torn up was not as easy as it might seem... The main part of bumping out the entryway of the house and adding space to the office / studio took a month. We replaced all the old orignasl single pane aluminum fram windows with Marvin INtegrity double paned windows. Added inulation in the attic and stucco's the rest of the from of the house and garage which was originally a plywood facad. The "remodel" of the living room - which involved raising the ceiling and dressing out the roof trusses took anotherr month! PLASTER Dust, dust, dust, everywhere on everything every day we came home! We finally have our house back and the old living room is a new "family" room. March 16 , 2008 1st Quadrennial CSSM Reunion Jam Session @ Cleaverville - Feb 29, 2008 Listen to Robert & Bill's new song-- "Tell Me... " See the photos taken by Annie Cleaver
March 11 , 2008 Photo's of "Jim Crisp Trio" at Franklin Hotel:
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Well… I’m resting now for my 100 miler this coming weekend in Tahoe. 
