I’m so excited to announce several big shows I have coming up, as well as the upcoming release of a 7″ vinyl record on Brooklyn’s Media Blitz label!
This week: I’ll be playing a string of East Coast concerts with Anais Mitchell and Portland, OR Indie-Folk quartet Horse Feathers. We’re kicking off the tour on Tuesday, Nov. 9 in Montreal, Canada, heading south through Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and finishing up next Saturday in New York City for a hometown spectacular at the famousBowery Ballroom! I’ll be playing guitar and singing harmony vocals with Anais, and Chicago songwriter Rachel Ries rounds out the trio on drums, keys, and vocals. I can’t wait to hit the road again with Anais and Rachel after our successful Midwest tour last summer!
Then: I’ll be playing two Cambridge, MA dates with Boston’s favorite acoustic songwriting troupe, Session Americana. On Nov. 17 and 18 we’ll be headlining the Lizard Lounge for two intimate nights of music. I first played with Session Americana at NYC’s Rodeo Bar last September, and I’m thrilled they asked me back to play mandolin and sing original songs and harmony vocals.
Speaking of Rodeo Bar: On Tuesday, Nov. 30, I’ll be playing a full night of music (two sets, a NYC rarity) at New York’s oldest Honky-Tonk, the Rodeo Bar. I’ve got a great electric band lined up featuring Robin Macmillan on drums, Jacob Silver on bass, and more special guests sure to be announced. This is my first headlining show at Rodeo, and I’d love to make it a regular hometown gig. Come out and get down with us! We’ll be playing a mix of original songs, electric folk arrangements, and wailing, high and lonesome country-rock covers.
And finally: I’m pleased to announce the upcoming release of my first vinyl album on Brooklyn’s Media Blitz label! Titled “This Ragged World We Spanned“, this 2-song 7″ record features a solo acoustic version of the title track, as well as my rendition of the folk classic “Barbara Ellen”. This limited edition (only 500 copies will be printed) record features handmade, silk-screened sleeve artwork and includes a coupon for a free digital download of the tracks, mastered by Grammy-winning engineer David Glasser at Airshow in Boulder, CO. Stay tuned for details on how to order the 7″ online, or come to my Record Release Party on Dec. 15 at theRockwood Music Hall in NYC’s lower east side! Mark your calendars. See you there.
Thanks for all your support, and see you this fall!
Good news! The electric duo album I recorded last winter with singer and fiddler Laura Cortese, “Two Amps, One Microphone” is now available at cdbaby.com via this link:
I thought I’d share this link to a recording of a solo-electric show of mine at the Subdued String Band Jamboree in Bellingham, WA in Aug. of 2009. The guitar is a bit low in the mix, but otherwise the quality is pretty good.
Anyone in the Pacific Northwest- or itching for a summer trip to someplace cool, green, and beautiful- should consider a trip to the Jamboree next August. It’s put on by my friend Robert Sarazin Blake, and it’s really a great festival…
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JAMBOREE
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
–Margaret Mead
On a summer’s day in 2001, I was drinking beer with musician friends when someone passionately shouted “Bellingham needs a festival!!” We found the only Saturday none of us had gigs and got to work. None of us wanted to be festival promoters, but we all wanted to play festivals and our telephones weren’t ringing. The original price was $10 ($5 if you were broke). We had 10 bands, ran about an hour and ½ late, the port-o-john overflowed, and after the music was done, we sat around the fire playing songs. Around 150 people attended the first festival. Band members took tickets, hung lights, set up the stage, picked up the trash, and ran a shuttle bus to a parking lot. After the expenses were covered, we split the remainder between the bands.
At our second year, we moved to our current home at the Deming Log Show Fairgrounds. Quaalude County Country Band offered to be our house band at the 3rd annual and played between bands off to the side of the stage. This led to the creation of the Slanted Stage, which now keeps the music rolling non-stop. In our 5th year we added a Friday night line-up and, in doing so, added a second night of campfire sessions. The focus of the line-up and the festival has stayed consistent over the years. The line-up is still local bands with a few blow-ins to kick us in the pants. We now have a campground full of tents, guitars, coolers, and banjos surrounding two stages, creating two nights and a day of pickin’, singin’ and stompin’. -RSB
I’m excited to announce that my traditional Irish group Murphy Beds will be performing live in-studio this Friday, Oct. 1 on WGBH Boston’s Celtic Sojourn program with host Brian O’Donovan. The incredible Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill will be playing as well. We’re honored to share the stage with them.
The concert will be broadcast live on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 3-6 PM. Visit the WGBH website and stream the concert live here:
Bellingham, WA – Monday, Aug. 30, 2010. Weather: partly cloudy, 75 degrees, dry, beautiful. Coffee: overrated. hell-bent for purgatory
Pacific Northwesterners are coffee snobs, which might have been justifiable in the first decade A.S. (After Starbucks) but I have Southside Coffee two blocks from my Brooklyn apartment and they draw espresso as good as anything I’ve had anywhere, with elbow room for exceptions here and there. Gene in Vancovuer was in fine form last week. I had a crush on one of the espresso girls until one day she put Aerosmith on the stereo and I judged her musical tastes incompatible with mine. Her boyfriend came in the last day, looking like an Aerosmith roadie with long, long curly hair, babyface, and ripped jeans, which all made me feel better about her not giving me any special attention or smiles. But enough about coffee.
My spine is a total nightmare and I could barely hold my electric guitar last night at the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern. I’m doing push-ups and back-bends to try and regain my gait and stature. When your back hurts nothing goes right. You can’t sing, flirt, read, or think, and all your tele-bends go sharp. After our gig with Robert Blake, drummer Jordan Rain from the Yogoman Burning Band cracked my back and it sounded like champagne corks at midnight. But enough about the pain in my neck.
I’ve been away from home for almost a month. I’d say I was homesick, but what is home but a creaky bed, a cluttered desk, and a wilted basil plant? You can have my home. And while I’m thinking about it, my rent payment. I miss a few people. Maybe I could convince them all to move into a big house with me somewhere in western Massachusetts and we can plant a garden, full and leaden at harvest time with tomatoes, kale, peppers, and flowers. I’m thinking about gardens a lot these days. Vancouver is a garden town. That’s where Anais Mitchell and I recorded an album of traditional ballads with producer John Raham. We reinvented the wheel on Tam Lin. Willie’s Lady is our hit. We’ve already got a vision for the video, which we’re going to shoot in Brooklyn. Betsy Plum, Alex Battles, and I were talking about shooting a video in Prospect Park this fall, but Anais and I have a different idea. Hold tight Betsy and Alex, I think you’ll like it. We’ve got more tracking to do, both in New York and Vancouver, and the record probably won’t be out until sometime next year. I was hoping for sooner, but everyone is busy and that’s just how it is. I’m going to stop talking about this record now, because it won’t be out for ages and I don’t want to make myself or anyone else sick hyping it up.
Here’s a live show from the Rockwood Music Hall in NY, NY, recorded by John Mahon on June 29, 2010. The band is Erik Deutsch on piano, Jacob Silver on bass, and Marc Dalio on drums. You can download the songs individually by right-clicking or control-clicking on the links, or just listen to them here with the embedded mp3 player. There’s also youtube videos of this concert available online. Big thanks to John for filming, recording, and uploading these songs!
Todd Livingston, Jefferson Hamer, and Sam Grisman at Pagosa
I’m pretty sure that Delta employees profile musicians. They target them from behind closed circuit cameras and lick salty lips in anticipation of the coming excess baggage charge. They dress like cafeteria workers in a privatized high-school lunch program and treat their customers like 4th graders who forgot their milk money. I’d go on longer but I’m trying to bury too many bad memories, and as a friend of mine once said, talking about your troubles only makes them stick around longer. In fairness, she was talking about emotional dysfunction, which is a condition I’m threatening to approach if I wait for this delayed Delta flight any longer.
All is well – I made it home.
I’m back in New York after a three-week trip to Colorado, which for the most part was a total delight. I kicked things off at the Pagosa Folk and Bluegrass festival, where I caught up with some old friends and saw some great music. Darrell Scott’s festival-closing solo set was a particular highlight. Here’s a shot of my friends in the Bearfoot band, who taught the kids’ camp all week and then played a great set on the main stage.
After an all-night drive on Sunday, I headed to Denver and moved in with the guys from Boulder Acoustic Society.
We rehearsed for three days and recorded for six, nailing down five songs for their new acoustic EP. It’s called Coal, Cotton, and Dust, and it’s going to come out in August. It was a joy to produce their record. On the last night, sometime around 2:00 AM, Aaron Keim started bowing his open-back banjo while bassist Neil McCormick controlled the settings on engineer John Macy’s Space Echo unit. I have no idea how much of the stuff is going to make it into the final mix, but in my hazy memory I remember it sounding a bit like Ravi Shankar sitting in on a Donovan record. We worked late every night and ate Mexican food from a curiously plural taqueria called Tacoss.
Boulder Acoustic Society (back row): Aaron Keim, Neil McCormick, Scott McCormick, Scott Aller - (front row): producer Jefferson Hamer, engineer John Macy
I finished off the Colorado trip at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, where I reconnected with old friends and enjoyed an all-star lineup. Highlights included Irish Rockabilly sensation Imelda May, who made me want to trade in my Tele for an old Gretsch hollowbody and sing gravel-throated breakup songs while strutting across the stage in a sexy dress. Other highlights included Swedish progressive folk trio Vasen, and Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussein. I had to catch an early AM flight out of Denver, so I missed the Sunday night headliner Mumford and Sons, but I caught them on the radio. They sounded as fun to watch as they looked to hang out with. I regret having to miss their rousing, emotional performance. Speaking of regrets: I missed my chance at a Friday night tweener- 9:45 PM, right after Lyle Lovett- because as I was warming up backstage the crew mistook me as the guitarist for Leftover Salmon (I’ve never been mistaken for Vince Herman before, maybe it’s the grey hair). Rumours were circulating the next day that I had been forcibly escorted from the backstage area by commandos in desert fatigue. Maybe they caught wind that I was going to play a 25+ verse English Ballad about a woman cursed to stay pregnant forever and her plan to break the spell by employing a wax baby deception at a staged christening party called “Willy’s Lady” (hey, they told me to play something “trippy”). Look for that hit single on my upcoming ballads record with Anais Mitchell. Recording commences this August.
Our friend Howard Arn shot and edited this video from last year’s Rhythm and Roots festival in Bristol, TN. Featuring Ryan McGiver, Cleek Schrey, Eamon O’Leary, and Jefferson Hamer.
