Moon Baillie - Season’s 4 & 8

I know Moon Baillie from season 4.  He’s part of the Conor Byrne Pub crowd. He’s a bartender there.  He plays alone and with his band, Pampa.  Over the last year he became part of the co-op that took over the Byrne when the bar briefly closed down.  We first met four years ago in the fall of 2022.  That seems forever now.  He was the last musician for Season Four and we took the seas just off the neighborhood of Ballard where he lives.  He’s been living in Seattle since the 1990s and is originally from Argentina.  When we first went out he looked like a bit of gaucho meets grunge and sang in English and Spanish.  

This time around it was a much warmer fall and this time we met on the freshwater side of Ballard. He showed up with a fur hat and instead of gaucho vibes he could have played the part of a good natured warrior on horseback fresh off the steppe.  I've come to this part of Ballard several times this season.  There are these wrecks that are essentially in the middle of the city that have an ochre and deep azure color that are placed in such a way that they capture the evening light in this magnificent way that seems to add a glow to everyone.  

We played until the light gave out.  We talked about tinyboatsession and got the idea that maybe it needs a bit of a party to finish it all off.  It sounds like a good idea.  I dropped him off on a dock a few hundred yards from Conor Byrne, he had to get to his shift..  Perhaps we got a little party brewing.  @moonbaillie, @pampa_band

From Season 4:

I know Moon because of Kate Dinsmore. He works at the Conor Byrne, a pub in Ballard and they have a lot of musicians that go through there. Apparently, it’s a lot of tinyboatsession Season 4 folks. Kate posted her tinyboatsession and Moon reached out some time after.

His names Brian and he’s originally from Argentina but has been in the US over 25 years. He sings in a band called Pampa and they do songs in English and Spanish. Brian has lived in Seattle a while—like back when you could get a studio in Capitol Hill for $250 bucks. He’s been in Ballard for the last seven years and in all that time had never gotten out in a boat. I picked him up, and we raced over to Golden Gardens to grab the last bit of a beautiful, rare dry day in November. The clouds were high and the Olympic Mountains across the sound were out. He wore a hat and scarf and jacket. The combination seemed 50% Ballard and 50% my perception of Argentine countryside. He had a song in English and one in Spanish. 

Afterwards, I asked if he had a moment to row around. I talked boats, and he strummed his guitar as we passed a kayaker in the dark and over to Ray’s Boathouse, where he sang under the neon lights. -Jordan & Clarabelle