Happy Monday!
Lots going on here so I'm going to do bullet points and then more in depth below. Ready? Good.
- Three shows this week in SoCal ~ The Fallen Stars, Bobbo solo and a Riddle & The Stars show!
- We have a new Firefly video hitting the YouTube airwaves today and more Firefly themed shows coming up.
- Touring updates from California to Germany to Australia.
- Bobbo's new EP gets some help from Wilco, Foo Fighters and Roxy Music* as well as new reviews.
- We got a new kitten!
Shows:
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Sam Ash Music Store Songsalive Showcase
14200 Beach Blvd, Westminster, CA
w/ Sparky & The Ancient Mariner
Fun early night that starts at 7 pm and we're done by 8:30. I'm a big fan of Sparky and I think you'll dig them too. Our buddy Rodney runs the show and he brings drinks and snacks and it's a really good night.
Thursday, February 14, 2019
The Harp Inn
130 E. 17th St, Costa Mesa, CA
Creative Circle Singer/Songwriter Night
Sparky will be there again as well as my nemesis Colleen Kinnick. Come sit with me as I boo her.
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Tony's Original Deli
613 S. Anaheim Blvd, Anaheim, CA
6:30-9:30 and nothing but Riddle & The Stars all night.
This will be the only RATS show in the USA for all of 2019 (and probably 2020, we don't get together that often on this continent) If you see one show this week - this is the one to see.
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Tracy has been editing the new video for "Carry Me" which goes with the episode "The Message" and it's one of the folkiest songs we've ever done. I say that because I used the really folk voiced tuning of double drop D tuning and played some accordion and Geo Hennessy played a nice violin part. It's unique in the fact that both Matt and Brandon played drums on the song - Matt on the cajon kit at the beginning and it morphs into Brandon playing the regular drums at the end. Tracy sang it beautifully and it was an interesting song to write having so many great lines in the episode. Thanks also to our friend Stacy Pendleton who added a harmony vocal on the chorus.
WhedonCon 2019 is in June here in Los Angeles and we will be playing the Bronze that night as well as chairing a panel on songwriting during the day.
We also recently finished writing the final song in the entire Firefly "Leaves on the Wind Music Project". The last song is for the movie and it came out great. We've started recording that as well as planning a remix and remaster of all the previous 15 songs we've done and package them in a fancy cd package with lyrics and all nice and shiny like!
And if you're planning way ahead - we've been asked to be part of the Browncoat Waystation in Long Beach in 2020 as well as continuing to be a global sponsor for the Can't Stop The Serenity charity Equality Now.
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Touring News:
Tracy and I will be in Arizona in April for the Tucson Folk Festival. I'll be in Europe the end of June thru beginning of August. I'm working on some more tour dates with my friend Sonny Mone (formerly of Crazy Horse) for early fall on the east coast and then Tracy and I (and maybe Ben) are booking things from Melbourne to Perth in Australia for December of 2019.
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I meant to mention this before but I forgot - Goldmine Magazine, which you can find in your local Barnes & Noble, had a great review of my latest album in their January issue. I reprinted it on my website but here's my favorite part: "It only takes a cursory listen to Two Sides To this Town to recognize the fact that an important and essential new artist has indeed arrived." I don't know how "new" an artist I am but seeing that in print was pretty flabbergasting.
Bobbo's "The Red Wheelbarrow" EP.
Ok, now this is weird and wacky tale and has a lot of name dropping in it but it's fun. Ready?
About two years ago I got an email from a guy named Ken saying he used to be the drummer in Wilco and Uncle Tupelo and he liked our stuff and if we're ever in Nashville we should do some recording together. I told him I had been listening to him since he was in Clockhammer and I knew who he was. Fast forward to this past fall and I'm hanging out and recording with him in Nashville. We're talking about bands and music we love and Roxy Music comes up so I say "Let's do a Roxy Music song!"** So we crank up the amps and we rock out a Roxy song. A week and a half later I'm in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they are announcing the nominees for this year's "class". My friend Kevin's wife is the assistant director of the R&RHoF archives and he takes me to see her and we're hanging out and upon meeting her boss I start threatening him, telling him he has to vote for Roxy to get into the hall of fame. We laugh and it's fun and he says he was going to vote for them and I tell him "If they get in, I'm taking credit for it." I get home to California and Roxy Music is voted into the R&RHoF and I'm working on the stuff that Ken and I recorded in Nashville and I take a break and I'm going thru facebook and up comes Phil Manzanara as someone I might know because we have a bunch of mutual friends. Phil is the guitar player in Roxy Music. So I write him and tell him this whole story along with "You're welcome for getting you in the hall of fame." Just totally owning it. He writes back and we have a nice conversation and he says "send the track over, I'll put some guitar on it." AND HE DOES! In the meantime I'm messaging my friend Rami who plays keyboards for the Foo Fighters and I tell him this story (he's also a Roxy Music fan) and he says "send it to me, I want to be on it too!" Now he's on it too!
The world can sometimes be an amazing place where lots of strange things come together. So if you're wondering where the intersection of Wilco, Foo Fighters and Roxy Music lies - apparently it's with me and I'm in awe of it.
I'm going to be running some kind of Pre-order campaign thing for this EP but I don't have the details of that worked out yet.
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About a month ago we got a new kitten. Our friend Cecille found her in her backyard and we took her in. She was just a tiny little thing that we think someone abandoned. She has extra toes on all her paws and looks like a Turkish Van (that's a thing, I had no idea!) We named her Princess Thumbelina and her Magnificent Floof but we call her Lena for short. (Yes, her tail got it's own name) We're adapting to life with a cat again and she's been very sweet and nice. She is pretty demanding in the studio and is pretty good at getting everything to run at her speed - which is full stop. Here's a picture of her:
I think that's everything for now.
Really hope to see you this week!
Bobbo, Tracy, Matt and Ben
*That's a lot of name drops.
**Early Roxy Music music was weird in '72 and it's still weird in 2019.