April 2018

APRIL 2018

NEW YORK // TENNESSEE //GEORGIA // N CAROLINA //VERMONT // RHODE ISLAND // ALASKA // TEXAS // MIDWEST // BLOOD BROTHERS
 

     I holed up most of March, lashed heroically to the desk and chasing various details related to the release of my forthcoming album, as it snowed, and then snowed again. I ignored the empty three-weight reel and the winter resupply of flies and lines forlornly piled on the bookshelf, and kept myself to the strictest rations of tequila, wine, beer, and whiskey. I put heavy cream in only the first cup of coffee, and smoked my pipe exactly once, running quickly out of the tobacco bought at Bell's in Missoula last summer, which was anyway old and ground down to a fragrant dust that burned hot and smoked too fast.

     The album pre-sale campaign and publicity are in train, the first single elected, a website re-design nearly complete, and every day many and various prayers emanate from the faded Tibetan flags strung up to keep the younger chickens from literally flying the coop, though fair to say these are mostly chicken prayers related to weather, red-tailed hawks, coyotes, and bugs. This letter then is boilerplate, detail, need-to-know. There will be another, longer letter announcing the new album and all appurtenances appertaining thereto in the next few weeks.

NEW YORK - April 5th I'll try once again to drive over the Berkshires and perform at the Cock'n'Bull Restaurant in Galway, NY, something I had every intention of doing in early March but had to postpone thanks to one of a succession of spring snowstorms. All tickets for the prior engagement will be honored, and I am exactly one month better at singing and playing the guitar now, a win-win situation for all of us.

TENNESSEE - In late April we'll start a full band Southeast run at City Winery Nashville (4/26), an industry town where it can be hard to rally the party faithful because they are all themselves on tour elsewhere, or busy waiting tables. 'Bearded Songwriter with Hat Returns to Nashville to Play Songs,' is a hard sell in the local papers, so if you would send a note to your favorite Tennessean, or even Kentuckian, we would appreciate this gesture. The room seats 315 but we'd settle for 312. Tell them it's air-conditioned. The excellent Kristin Andreassen opens.

GEORGIA - From Nashville we head down to Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA (4/27), probably in a rented Dodge Grand Caravan, because I like the seats, and I have a strong self-image. The excellent Kristin Andreassen opens, again.

NORTH CAROLINA - From Atlanta we drive to North Carolina to perform at Merlefest (4/29) in Wilkesboro. It's a great fest, and a great bill, and we're going to come out swinging.

VERMONT - By early May I'll be back in the Connecticut river valley performing at The Stone Church in Brattleboro (5/4), with my old friend and fishing buddy Zak Trojano opening the show. Zak is a great songwriter and guitar player, and he ties his own flies. You should know his records, because they're wonderful.

RHODE ISLAND - May 5th, I'll be in Portsmouth, RI, at Common Fence Music, on a split bill with Kris Delmhorst, a songwriter recently featured in Forbes magazine because sometimes it's fun for them to throw in a little something about the peasantry. Kris and I are married to each other. We worked on her last album together, and she appears on my new album. This is what is called nepotism.

ALASKA - May 9-12 Billy and I tour the great north with shows at Zudy's Cafe in Seward, Jitters in Eagle River, Vagabond Blues in Palmer, and the Church of Love in Anchorage. I've toured Alaska five or six times and always found it lovely, and various, in any weather. I once helped to haul a quartered moose by plastic sled through 30 yards of waist-deep snow, and later crashed a dog sled, on the same trip. By my reckoning the sun should be setting every night just around the time we finish the show.

TEXAS - From Alaska we'll fly 4,000 miles south to play the Backstage at El Mercado (5/16) McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston (5/17), The Guitar Sanctuary in McKinney (5/18), and Comfort Concerts in Comfort, TX (5/19). Management assures me that I am famous in Texas and should play there more than once a decade, regardless how hot it is.

MIDWEST / BLOOD BROTHERS - The new album will be released early this summer, with a full band tour of the upper Midwest beginning at the Shitty Barn in Spring Green, WI (6/13), before moving through the Cavalier Theater in La Crosse, WI (6/14) The Mill in Iowa City (6/15), the Colectivo back room in Milwaukee, WI (6/16), and City Winery Chicago (6/17). Then it's the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis (6/21), and - proving Twain's dictum that history does not repeat itself but it rhymes - Des Moines, IA, at the Des Moines Arts Festival (6/22). Our friends Dusty Heart from Minneapolis open the Midwest tour, supporting their fantastic new record. Tours of points east, west, overseas TBA.