I’ll be teaching guitar and songs at Boxwood Festival in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia from July 21-27 alongside a great faculty including Chris Norman, Brittany Haas, Nick Halley, Shelley Phillips, and many more. Learn more about the festival here:
I’m excited to join Méabh O’Hare, Pauline Scanlon, and Noriana Kennedy in Belfast on Jan. 31 for a concert at the Open House Festival. Check this link for details and tickets.
In the spring of 2012, bouzouki player, guitarist, and singer Eamon O’Leary and I recorded ten tracks in our apartments on the Lower East Side, in Park Slope, and in a studio space in Dumbo, seven floors up, right beside the Manhattan bridge. We had to wait for the trains to rumble by before we could start each take. In some of the quiet sections, close your eyes and you might even hear the D or N, taking Brooklynites home after work or midnight cocktails. The songs are old traditionals, but we worked on them a lot and gave them new melodies and textures and sections. We sang them in harmony. We picked out the best stuff and send it off to Erick Jaskowiak for mixing and mastering. Now, just in time for the holidays, the ship is in, the fat lady is singing, hell has frozen over, the northwest passage is thawing out, and Obama just won a second term in the White House. I’m proud of this album- please enjoy it and share it with your friends!
-JH 11.21.2012
For more information on the Murphy Beds, visit any of these links:
Greetings from sweltering Brooklyn, as I sit in front of the fan, shirtless and restless, listening to Todd Snider’s Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables, pretty certain I don’t want to be hanging around the asphalt jungle come July and August. Good thing June is already accounted for! Read on if you like music, friends, swimming, good food, or all of the above.
Summer Camps June 9-15
Miles of Music Camp: An All-Ages Music Workshop & Retreat
I’m very excited to announce I’ll be teaching at the second annual Miles of Music Camp on Lake Winnipesaukee, NH, along with an all-star roster of dear friends and colleagues, including Kristin Andreassen, Laura Cortese, Stefan Amidon, Zara Bode, Eric Frey, Chas Justus, Dawn Landes, and Christopher Pappas. Besides offering unparalleled natural beauty and an idyllic summer hang with a great crew of staff, instructors, and campers, this one-of-a-kind, all-ages retreat brings instrumentalists, vocalists, and songwriters of all abilities together to learn and create the kind of music we all love to listen to. You get to decide the kind of week you want to have. Want to brush up on your old-time fiddle playing? Want to write some new songs and workshop them with your peers and coaches? Want private guitar lessons by the lake at sunset? Want to just get off the grid for a few days and chill out by the lake? Click these links for more info:
Those of you headed up to camp, or in the Boston area on June 8th, come to a special concert at Club Passim featuring the staff and guest instructors:
June 8
Miles of Music Pre-Camp Concert
Club Passim, 47 Palmer Street, Cambridge, MA
Details & Tickets: www.clubpassim.org
I’m also humbled, honored, and wickedly looking forward to teaching voice, guitar, and mandolin for the first time at the Mike Block String Camp in Vero Beach, Florida, alongside a great lineup of instructors including Hanneke Cassel, Joe Craven, Rushad Eggleston, Brittany Haas, Zach Brock, Lauren Rioux, Victor Lin, and of course, camp founder Mike Block. This promises to be a week of fun and learning with some of the best string players on the planet.
June 25-30
Mike Block String Camp
Vero Beach, Florida
www.mikeblockstringcamp.com New Jefferson Hamer and Tashina Clarridge Record Tracked – Pre-Order Campaign Success
In other news, my new record with Tashina Clarridge has been tracked! It was recorded in Nashville by Dave Sinko and features Tristan Clarridge (cello) and Simon Chrisman (dulcimer) of Tashina’s incredible chamber-grass ensemble The Bee Eaters! We recorded 11 songs in three days: 6 original songs, 3 traditionals, and 2 instrumental pieces. We funded the first phase of the recording with a pre-order campaign, announced on this mailing list and made possible by supporters like you! Thanks and thanks again! We still need to raise more funds to help pay for mixing, mastering, and duplication, so if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet via paypal (a $20 donation gets you a signed, limited-edition, advance copy mailed to your home in early June), please click the link below to support our new CD with your pre-order donation.
Upcoming JH Shows – Toad in Cambridge, Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, more
I’ve got a couple exciting shows around New York and Boston in the next few weeks, including two with my friend and wordsmith unparalleled, Robert Sarazin Blake of Bellingham, WA. We’ll be joined by an exceptional duo- Kristin Andreassen and Rayna Gellert (of Uncle Earl fame). I’ll be debuting some brand new songs off the brand new record, missing Tashina and the Bee Eaters, but swinging for the fences nonetheless. I hope to see you there!
Tuesday, April 17
Brooklyn, NY
Jalopy Theatre
8:30 PM
$10
A night of traditional music, collected stories, and new illustrations: Anna & Elizabeth, from Southwest Virginia, with artist Katherine Fahey. Opening sets from Jan Bell, Kristin Andreassen, and Jefferson Hamer.
Tuesday, April 24
Brooklyn, NY
Pete’s Candy Store
Rayna Gellert & Kristin Andreassen 7
Jefferson Hamer 8
Robert Sarazin Blake 9
Get there early for Rayna and Kristin’s set, stay late for Robert Sarazin Blake. I’ll keep you entertained in between!
Saturday, April 28
Cambridge, MA
Club Passim
Reed Foehl
I’m excited to play guitar and sing harmonies with my talented friend Reed Foehl, from Boulder, Colorado. We’re in the middle of recording a brand new record. Come to Passim Saturday night and get a sneak preview of Reed’s incredible new songs.
Sunday, April 29
Cambridge, MA
Toad
Robert Sarazin Blake and Jefferson Hamer
I love sharing the bill with Robert. It’s been almost exactly one year since our last show at Toad together. We’re each playing our own set. Don’t miss this one.
Thanks for your love and support. You make it all possible! See you soon.
Thanks to Jeff Chu and The Plant Productions (www.theplantproductions.com), the Brooklyn Ballad Theatre debut from December 2, 2011 at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theatre is now on-line in a six part series. Here are the videos in order:
Friday, 2/24 and Saturday, 2/25, Jefferson and Tashina will be playing workshops at the 2012 Wintergrass Festival in Belleview, WA. Here’s the link to the full workshop schedule:
I’m really looking forward to teaching at the Mike Block String Camp this summer! Enrollment is already half-full, so visit http://www.mikeblockstringcamp.com/ today if you’re interested. Here are the instructors for 2012:
Zach Brock - heralded as “the great bright hope for jazz violin”, Zach has a virtuosic and emotive voice that embraces many influences.
Hanneke Cassel - U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and a leading creative voice in Celtic music, The Boston Globe described her as “Exuberant and rhythmic, somehow both wild and innocent.”
Joe Craven – the “Musical Madman” will make music out of any object, strings or not! Long-time member of the legendary David Grisman Quintet, he has also performed with Stephane Grapelli and Jerry Garcia.
Rushad Eggleston - The Sneth Goblin is a Grammy-nominated cellist fluent in many folk genres, and the inventor of some of his own. If you want your mind blown, check out his power-rock trio, Tornado Rider, in which he also "sings" and "dances".
Brittany Haas – Fiddle player in the wildly popular Crooked Still, an Alternative-Bluegrass band based in Boston, Brittany also plays Appalachian mountain music better than it was ever meant to be played.
Jefferson Hamer - Offering vocal, guitar, and mandolin classes, Jefferson is a folk-rocker if there ever was one. In addition to developing his own personal songwriting, he is deeply rooted in the traditional song of America and the British Isles.
Victor Lin – a versatile Jazz pianist, violinist, and bassist, this musical prodigy received a Doctorate in Jazz Education at Columbia University, where he still teaches.
Lauren Rioux - Past President of Maine ASTA, and ground-breaking teacher combining Classical Music and Old-time fiddle styles, she also tours with the Republic of Strings.
Mike Block –Multi-genre cellist, composer, educator, and Juilliard graduate who has toured regularly with Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O’Connor, and Darol Anger.
Anais Mitchell (RBR recording artist whose latest folk opera Hadestown was the UK’s best-reviewed album of 2010) & Jefferson Hamer (Brooklyn-based songwriter, accompanist, and traditional player) come together to arrange bold new versions of the old British and Scottish “Child” Ballads (those collected by Professor Francis James Child at the end of the 19th century). These are timeless stories of passion, deceit, violence and the supernatural, lovingly arranged for clarity, poetry, and the American ear. Melodies too are re-imagined and delivered in close harmony accompanied by two acoustic guitars. Anais & Jefferson’s collaborative debut release is slated for 2012.
upcoming Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer “Ballads” shows:
I’m really excited to be teaching voice and guitar next week at the 2011 Mt. Shasta Fiddle Camp, located in beautiful Mt. Shasta, California. I’ll be working alongside an incredible lineup of teachers and performers including Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, Roger Tallroth, Sean Watkins, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Maeve Gilchrist, Brittany Haas, Vishal Nayak, and many more!
I’m leaving camp early for a California tour with Anais Mitchell, the particular downside of which is I will miss the stellar 7th annual Summer String Summit at the College of the Siskiyous in Weed, CA, in the beautiful Kenneth Ford theater. Show is at 7:30. Buy tickets online at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com.
Bay Area residents should also check out the post-camp String Explosion concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley on Saturday, July . Featuring Darol Anger, Roger Tallroth, The Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel, Brittany Haas, and more: http://www.thefreight.org/string-explosion.
New Jefferson Hamer and Tashina Clarridge Record Tracked – Pre-Order Campaign Success
Thanks for your love and support. You make it all possible! See you soon.
