The ‘Chimp Told Me…I haven’t sent a letter to this list since February 2022, which does speak to more than I’d care to discuss in this first, attention-grabbing paragraph. Squinting at so many menus and checkboxes, imagining all the places I’d rather be spending these early morning hours – a hot 19th century forge, a coal mine, cleaning the toilets on the International Space Station- I’m somehow reminded of a time in my teenage years when I actually thought of computing as viable recreation; something to be enjoyed, honed, and appreciated as an off-ramp to physical labor, should the need to earn an honest living ever arise.
The sun will soon be up, and sure as Bedford Ave will be honking, I’ll be hand pasting links into a bulleted list to announce concerts the same way I have done for twenty-five years. But enough complaining already! This part is mostly enjoyable, and some of you actually write back sometimes, which I love. I had planned to start this work earlier, but got caught up attempting to introduce various testaments of my own life’s work to one another on Spotify. For some reason listeners to the first Murphy Beds record would never gain inkling that a second one exists, and was in fact released last year and titled Easy Way Down, and should you chance to wade into that swirling eddy you’ll never find your way back to Alameda, or Child Ballads, or JKLoL, or any of the Session Americana records, or Laura and Jefferson, or any of the other dozens of titles I played on, produced, or engineered over the years (there’s a partially complete discography on my website here).
Getting on with it a bit – There’s a show today in New York you might want to see if you’re free and you like big Japanese guitars from the late 1970’s. It’s at the good aul Rockwood Music Hall, and it’s a double slot (and a double bill) with my friend Mary-Elaine Jenkins. We play 9-11, and the great man himself Rob Jost will be standing up on his bass.
Some other things on the horizon:
2/10 – 2/11 – Irish Arts Center, NYC – The Murphy Beds with Liz Hanley, and Dani Larkin
2/16 (Lethe Lounge, NYC) and 2/17 (Folkus Project, Morristown, NJ) – Dead to the Core, an Acoustic Celebration of the Grateful Dead
2/18 – The Owl, Brooklyn – Fellow Pynins, Jefferson Hamer, Ali Dineen
2/23 – Brooklyn Made, Brooklyn – The High Hawks (feat. old pals and bandmates Vince Herman, Tim Carbone, Chad Staehly) with opening set by Jefferson Hamer, Ray Rizzo, and Rob Jost
2/25 – Camden Opera House, Camden, Maine – Sweet Chariot Music Festival Presents Bob Lucas, Denny Williams, Jefferson Hamer, and friends
oh – and this summer thing I’m teaching at:7/23-7/29 – Summersongs – Stony Point, NY – w Sloan Wainwright, Tom Prasada Rao, Susan Cattaneo, Jefferson Hamer, Taina Asili, Mark Dann, Sue Riley, Glen Roethel, Roger Tomhave
Probably there will be gigs in March, April, and beyond but I don’t know exactly where or when or with whom. I’m still teaching a fair bit. Feel free to email if you’re interested in a lesson. Also recording – new albums finished and on the way from Lucia Comnes and Naomi Sommers, both absolutely wonderful. Had my sleeves rolled way up for those, and can’t wait to announce them, ahem, more formally.
That’s going to have to do it for now. I am, as they say, shattered. Sure I forgot something, but maybe it can wait until Feb. 2024. In the meantime, like the photo says below…
Yours truly, Jefferson
