Just a quick note to announce that Chris Brokaw and I will be playing some festivals in Italy this June. Dates are to the right as usual. Also, here’s an article I wrote on Mississippi John Hurt for a British Web zine. More news coming soon….
May 26, 2010
April 18, 2010
Picking up the pieces….
As many of you already know, my father passed away suddenly when I was on tour w/Chris Brokaw in the UK a few weeks ago. I left the tour about midway through and flew to Florida where he was, and since then I’ve just been taking it easy and trying to pick up the pieces. My father and I led very different lives, but we were close friends who were very proud of each other, and we loved each other deeply. My father gave me the perseverance, drive, and sense of responsibility that has helped me succeed as a musician, and I’ll always be thankful to him for this. Needless to say it’s been a tough few weeks and I’m just now beginning to learn what life will be like without him, but thanks to family, friends, and my wonderful wife, things are as good as they could be right now.
Another bit of bad news is that the Glorytellers northern Europe tour that we had tentatively planned for June has not come to fruition. As it got closer to the World Cup, promoters became reticent to book shows, airfare went up, and it soon became apparent that it wasn’t going to work out financially. But Chris Brokaw and I will be playing in Italy at the end of June, and then in Spain and Northern Europe in the fall, which we’re quite looking forward to. I should also mention that despite the crisis, Chris and I did have a wonderful time in the UK. Damnably did an exceptional job organizing the tour and putting out our record, and we had great shows in London, Nottingham, Liverpool, Oxford, and Leeds. We’ll be back soon!
And now for some good news: My wife, who is currently a professor of Italian language and literature at Colby College, landed a tenure-track position at DePaul University. We’re moving to Chicago in July! We’re truly excited for our new life, and the move will be great for me personally, as I have a couple record labels, a booking agent, and many, many good friends in the Second City.
And before I forget, Chris and I have some shows coming up this week in the Northeast. Dates and venues are below as usual…hope to see you there!
February 4, 2010
Jan Plan, Brokaw/Farina Record, UK Tour!
I spent the month of January teaching a blues history course for Colby’s “Jan Plan”. That’s their name for squeezing an entire semester of work into one dark, frigid Maine January! It was intense for sure, and we explored almost 50 years of recordings from Sylvester Weaver to Lightnin’ Hopkins. My students did some fantastic research on topics like the Great Migration, the history of blues record labels (Chess, Paramount, Okeh, Bluebird, Vocalition, Victor), John and Alan Lomax, African-American worksongs, Senegambian music, Chicago’s Maxwell Street, early recording technologies, and just about everything in between. Of course we also did some deep, deep listening, and it was a privilege to hear the music of John Hurt, Charlie Patton, Leadbelly, Junior Wells, and other favorites through the ears of some very bright college students. Hope to do it again next year!
My music theory course at the University of Maine is going strong, but I switch gears next week when I fly to Europe with Glorytellers. We’ll hit Spain, Italy, and Southern France this month, and be back for the north in May and June. Also, Chris Brokaw and I finally mastered our record with Jeff Lipton at Peerless in Boston, and it sounds great! It’ll appear on Chris’ Capitan Records in the US, and on Damnably in the UK in March, followed by a UK tour! Dates for everything are posted to the right. It’s been about 6 or 7 years since I’ve played in the UK, so I’m quite looking forward to it…quite!
January 7, 2010
So much for holidays….
Man, twenty-ten is moving faaaasssst! I’m deep into teaching blues history at Colby College, I start my theory course at the University of Maine on Tuesday, and then Glorytellers hit Italy/Spain in Feb! Then back home for more teaching, Brokaw and I tour the UK in March, home again to finish the semester, and the band heads back to Northern Europe for 25 shows in May/June. I’m taking the rest of the year off….
Here’s a recent interview I did for a website mysteriously called “The 405″. Despite, the BBC’s predictions about my career, Atone is still getting props. Here are a couple nice reviews on Popmatters.com and Exclaim.ca. Dig my new SG and Pete Rose quaff?
November 3, 2009
Silent No More
Long story short: Web site gets hacked in back July. I stare at the computer for hours trying to fix it, give up after much frustration, and swear to spend less time in front of the computer and more behind the guitar. Months go by. You send me nice emails inquiring about my silence. After slowly realizing how lucky I am that you actually care, here I am once again staring at a computer when I could be playing guitar. In any case, nice to see you again too, and a lot has happened since then. Where to start?
First and foremost, the new Glorytellers album called “Atone” is finally out on Southern Records (CD/LP/Download) in the US/Europe, and Afterhours (CD) in Japan. This one’s got everything I love: harmonizing guitars, vivid narratives, the supple rhythms of drummer Gavin McCarthy, and the clinical production values of engineers Andy Hong and Jeff Lipton, all wrapped up in gorgeous original artwork by Sonnenzimmer. It represents 2 years of work (much of it Andy’s), and I’m quite proud to see it finally hit. Here’s a 5-star review on the UK’s Rockfeedback, more kind words from the UK at the 405, and the Line of Best Fit, a recent interview at The Voice of Energy blog, and a recent interview/performance I did for ScannerFM in Barcelona. And this kinda-funny-kinda-sad BBC review came out of nowhere and just about says it all!
Atone was not without its birthing pains: apparently the first batch of CDs were pressed with someone else’s music in our package. Unfortunately they made it to Amazon before anyone caught it, and my label tells me there are still a few that escaped the dragnet. If you receive a bum Atone CD, contact me and I’ll forward your complaint to the appropriate parties. (Since the Karate 595 2xLP was shipped with the wrong song order listed on the jacket a few years back, I’ve became fine customer service rep.)
We also have a nice chunk of road time coming up: On November 7th we’ll share the stage with our pals Ida at Union Hall in Brooklyn. Then we’ll be out with Curtis Harvey for a couple weeks of Midwest/East Coast shows in early December. Curtis has a new record out on Fat Cat, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen him play, so I’m looking forward to the tour. Chris Brokaw and I will open Philly, NY, and Boston with our set of old-time/ragtime/blues tunes we’ve been chewing on for the past few years. (Those will soon be available on Chris’ Capitan Records.) Then in February of ‘10 we’ll be off to Spain and Italy with bells on, and later in the year to northern Europe. More on that soon. As usual, tour dates are posted here, at the Glorytellers Myspace page, and at the Southern Records Glorytellers page.
The last bit of news some of you may already know: my wife and I recently moved to a beautiful little New England town called Hallowell, 3 hours north of Boston. We live a few hundred yards from the mighty Kennebeck River, in the Hallowell Row House, a Federal-style worker’s residence built by Isaac Gage in 1846 that housed some of the area’s early textile workers. We made the move last July after Caterina finished her PhD and got a teaching gig at nearby Colby College. I’ve also been teaching a seminar on post-1958 jazz at the University of Maine, and I’ll teach a blues history course at Colby this winter. The pace is quite a bit slower than in Boston, and in many respects Hallowell reminds us of the small town in Northeastern Italy where Caterina and I spend a month or two each year. With the leaves changing to every shade of gold, Hallowell is also stunningly beautiful, and has provided a wonderful setting to work on some new music. So things are working out just fine up here. More soon….
March 24, 2009
Signing Off
Guitar strings? Check. Passport? Check. Toothpaste? Check. Cold medicine that actually works? Check. Classic novel that I would otherwise never read except for the fact that it’s the last book I have in English? Check. That should about do it! Back to Logan Terminal E once again for what is bound to be quite an adventure, with over thirty European shows in as many nights. I can’t tell you how excited I am to step on stage and do some serious guitar pickin’ once again. I even worked up a few more John Hurt numbers for the tour (I soon hope to know all 13 of the 1928 Okeh sides), and I also dusted off a couple Secret Stars chestnuts for any of you who might want to hear ‘em.
Although I always plan to update this space from the road, staring at a computer is usually the last thing on my mind once tour chaos ensues, so realistically I won’t hit you back until I return in early May. Until then, have a great spring, and please stop by a show if you’re in the neighborhood!
August 26, 2008
According to Google Maps…
…Glorytellers will drive about 12, 575 kilometers (7813 miles) in the next month on our European tour. That’s roughly the distance from Boston to Yakutsk Siberia, if you could drive accross the Bering Strait. I certainly don’t miss the days of touring before cell phones, GPS, and online mapping, but sometimes too much information can be a bad thing. If Google could only quantify how many songs we will play, how many friendly folks we will encounter, or how many tasty European meals we will consume over the next month, things would look a bit different.
Fortunately I spent this past week here in northeastern Italy drinking local grappa and eating fresh figs straight off the trees, taking long hikes through the Dolomites with my wife, playing harmonica in the park, and generally letting the days fly by for what seems like the first time in quite a while, so I guess I’m as prepared as I can be for such a foray. Updates “from the road” coming soon…
July 28, 2008
Spain/Castellana
Firmed up the Spain shows on our growing Europe itinerary. The good news is Spain (and just about everywhere else) is now booked solid, and the first two shows are in the gorgeous beach town of San Feliu de Guixols, a great place to shake off the jet lag and kick off the tour! We also added a show in Paris since my last post, and hopefully there will be more to come from Italy soon.
The other good news is that my long and often frustrating guitarist search seems to have paid off. The upside of writing tricky songs that demand genuine instrumental proficiency is that when the dust settles, I get to play with some fantastic musicians. Gavin McCarthy, Josh Larue, Ty Citerman, Chris Brokaw, and Jeffrey Charland have all added something unique to the band over the past few years, and I hope Mike Castellana will be the last name on that list for a while. “Ask Castellana…he’s your man if he’s not too busy,” is what I heard from just about every Boston musician I asked, and for good reason. Mike is what I would call a “real deep listener,” and a true eclectic who has internalized everyone from Derek Bailey to Monk to Buddy Guy into his guitar playing. Over the years Mike’s shared the stage with blues great Eddie Kirkland, Sugar Hill records’ Sara Borges, and Boston locals the Blue Ribbons, and we’re proud to have him on board!
July 5, 2008
Glorytellers Europe Tour
You can find our LONG list of Aug/Sept Euro dates to the right under the “Calendar” section. It’s been a few years since I’ve done a month-long Europe tour, but I have to say that our band is sounding great, and I’ve been cooped up in the studio for most of the summer, so I’m excited to hit the road and play for some folks. If my last couple Euro solo tours are any indication, we’ll be seeing lots of you and it’s sure to be a great tour!
Also my buddy Jef Charland (who plays upright bass in Blue Ribbons, Steve Fell Trio, and many other Boston formations) and I are playing a duo set at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge on July 8th, and at a festival at Simmons Organic Farm in Newport RI on the 26th. We’ve been running tunes by Norman Blake, John Coltrane, Leroy Carr, Muddy Waters, Gram Parsons, Doc Watson, and many other greats, so it’ll be an eclectic set if nothing else. It’ll also be my harmonica debut, which I’ve been practicing for all year. (Much to the chagrin of my wife and neighbors…)
December 15, 2007
Buon Feste!
No news to report since my last check-in, but I wanted to leave a “Happy Holidays” note before I split to Italy for a week of shows. Hoping for some great solo shows and dreading some not-so-great solo driving, but fortunately I have a brand new stack of Norman Blake CDs to keep me company on the lonely autostrada. I’ll return to the States on the 31st, but I’m off to Japan on January 6th for the Glorytellers record-release tour w/Him! I’m really looking forward to this Japan jaunt because we have a couple days off to explore Tokyo and Osaka, two of my favorite places on earth. Arigato gozaimasu Afterhours for releasing our record and inviting us to Japan! More soon….
