Coming Up

September is shaping up to be the busiest musical month since moving to Nashville. I'm very excited to be hosting two Tuesdays in September at the 5 Spot. Local songwriter, and friend, Derek Hoke started a weekly series at the 5 Spot called "$2 Tuesdays", where he brings together 3 or 4 bands to play short sets, introduces them to the crowd sometimes collaborating with the bands, and then plays a short set of his own. It's a big undertaking to book a new show every week, trying to keep the bills exclusively "Nashville", so he's handed over a couple weeks to me. At this point, it looks like I'll be hosting every other week, alternating with Derek.

In addition to the 5 Spot hosting, on Sept 1st we're playing a show at FooBAR.too which is put on by Blood on the Bluegrass, featuring Hoots & Hellmouth (from Philadelphia), Barnstormers (Alabama), and local Nashvillians Wess Floyd & the Daisycutters.


In late September, my whole family (mom, dad, brother, and sister) are coming out to Nashville for the first time! My brother, Brandon, was with me the first time I came out here in June of 2008 for a Southern tour with the Traveling Mercies, but no one else in the family has ever been here before. I'm looking forward to showing them around a bit, and hopefully squeezing in a day or two in Memphis.

They should be here in time to see me playing at Douglas Corner on Sept 22nd, with Derek Hoke and the Clones sharing the bill.


Finally, in recording news. On Saturday I layed down vocals for When You Found Me, So Hard to Make an Easy Getaway, and Southern Pines. Being that I had already recorded I Know I Should Know Better (since I did the guitar and vocals live), that leaves only What is this Love? left. Starting with When You Found Me might have been a bad idea, as I sing that song very gravely, and it left my voice a little raw for the others - but I trust that Nathan Thomas can either make something good out of it, or that he'll be honest and tell me I need to re-record them. Hopefully, we can find some time in the next week to get What is this Love? finished then we can start mixing. When we first started these sessions, our goal was merely to have polished demos to pass off to labels, producers, managers, etc... but with how everything is turning out, it's gonna be a real challenge to not release this stuff in some form. I'm looking into various ways of getting this music out there, whether its in video form, vinyl, or a limited-time download. Let me know if you have any ideas, OK?

Until next time, stay classy.