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.

Basement Tapes

Everything seemed to fall into place at last Monday's Basement performance. No longer does this feel like "Shane with his Nashville pick-up band" - we ARE a band. After the show a few people asked me if we all moved out here from Seattle, assuming we'd played together for years. Aaron Tosti, Nathan Thomas and latest addition, Eric Newcomer have really taken these songs to new places. They are not doing note-for-note recreations of the recordings, I wouldn't want them to anyways, they are making these songs their own - and we're forging a new sound.

Super-fan, Meagan Mays captured the energy and electricity of the night with these video clips...


"So Hard to Make an Easy Getaway", which I've been kicking around for a couple years, made it's full band debut, and it's fast becoming the "feel good" pinnacle of the set.


After our impromptu cover of The Beatles' White Album rocker at last month's 64-Ten show - we've refined it and now it's one of our favorites to play.


"Ain't No Grave" is one of those songs that relies almost completely on the groove, and Aaron (drums) and Nathan (bass) reached a new level with this performance. It's also liberating to have Eric (guitar) filling in some licks so I can focus on my preacher-man delivery. I can't wait to get this band together again.

Next up... May 26th at the Family Wash...

Everyone Knows Nobody Knows...

George Strait, River Phoenix and The Bluebird

Since we've moved to Nashville, Meagan and I have sought out as many "country" movies as we can. Aside from the recent Crazy Heart (which I found to be an enjoyable Hollywoodized take on the quiet, brooding Tender Mercies) we've discovered a few overlooked country flicks from the early '90s. "Pure Country" stars George Strait as a modern country-pop superstar, who leaves all the lights and glamor to seek out his roots. Meanwhile, his tour continues on with a look-a-like lip-syncing to his records while the band mimes along. Eventually George finds a girl out in the country, and to really seal the deal he re-joins his tour and sings directly to her in the front row. The girl swoons. Done deal.


The other movie we watched recently, with a more direct Nashville connection, is "The Thing Called Love". I was pretty excited when I saw Peter Bogdanovich's name listed as Director. Being a huge fan of Last Picture Show, I was disappointed at what a flawed, cliché of a film this turned out to be. It follows a young songwriter (Samantha Mathis) as she moves to Nashville to try and make a career for herself. Focusing around the legendary songwriter's hub, The Bluebird Cafe. She faces stiff competition with bad boy River Pheonix, nice guy Dermot Mulroney, and southern belle Sandra Bullock. Not a great movie by any standard, but I enjoyed watching these movie stars take on the persona of hard-working songwriters. The main problem was they make a love-triangle out of Samantha, River and Dermot. Boring. Plus the songs are mostly really cheesy novelty tunes, even though they all act like they are trying to be the next Townes Van Zandt.


We took the soonest opportunity to check out the real life Bluebird Cafe. With Meagan's mom in town, we took her there last night. While it didn't look exactly as it did in the 1993 film, it did have a lot of the same vibe that they put across in the movie. Ten nervous songwriters of all age groups (I'd say 25 - 65 on this night) each perform three songs. I thought it was cool that most of the songwriters played their most recent material. Some of the dudes with a larger resume relied on their biggest hits (or closest thing to a hit). One of the highlights came from a gentlemen who's lyrics all came from newpaper headlines. "The Nipple Caused A Ripple on the #10 Metro Bus" (about recent breast-feeding on the bus scandal), got a lot of appreciation from the audience. I have nothing against a novelty tune when done right (ie early Randy Newman or Ween's country album). After the "Bluebird approved open mike" section ended we caught a couple songs from the nights main attraction, Tony Haselden. The second song he performed was surely one of his proudest songwriting moments, "You Know Me Better Than That", a song that he co-wrote with Anna Lisa Graham, that none-other-than, "Pure Country" star, George Strait took to #1! And with that our entry comes full circle.

Recapitated

Last night was a break-through. Not that our first weekend show in Nashville was an overwhelming success. Given the last-minuteness of the show, and GhostFinger cancelling, there was not a large turn-out, but it might have been my favorite show so far. Having a stripped-down power trio last night - with Nathan Thomas on bass, and Aaron Tosti on drums - I felt more free to crank up the guitar and get a bit rowdy. At rehearsal before the show, Tosti reminded me of how wild those Traveling Mercies shows were back in the Spring of '08 when I first came to Nashville. It spurned me on to get a little sweatier. While my songs are my pride and joy, I feel a renewed commitment to putting on a real show.

It was also great getting a chance to talk with local songwriter Derek Hoke. After Jacob Jones finished his set (which was great, by the way), Derek and I chatted til the bar closed. We've already made plans to get together soon to write a tune together. How Nashville!




Although we didn't get any video last night, you can really feel the energy in these photos Meagan took.

After we played, I snapped a few photos. Here's Jacob Jones soaking in the spotlight, and we have Aaron Tosti and Nathan Thomas looking at something really cool on Nathan's phone.




I'm gonna try to make this blog more than just show reviews in the future, but I've been lucky enough to be pretty busy lately. I promise to make more quality time with you, girl.

Home Away from Home

Tuesday was the best show I've had in Nashville thus far. We played to the fullest room yet, and the band sounded great. It was the first show with Ethan as utility man, switching between guitar, baritone guitar and lap steel. Here's a few clips from the night. My buddy Lonnie from Seattle was in town for a business trip and made it out, so it was great to play for someone from back home.


"Across the River" from I'm Gonna Live The Life I Sing About In My Song


"Idle Hands" from Shouting At A Silent Sky


"Ain't No Grave" from Hey Lazarus!

So it turns out the 5 Spot is my latest "home away from home." After playing our second show at the 5 spot in less than a month, l was pleasantly surprised to find an email waiting for me at home asking us to play the 5 Spot again this Friday (tomorrow)! We are opening up for Jacob Jones (who really impressed me when I saw him at Dino's a couple weeks ago) and GhostFinger. It's a sort of "East Nashville Neighborhood Party" so it's great to be included, and with our first Friday night show, it should help establish us a bit more around town.

Joey Sanchez won't be able to do this last minute gig, but we are lucky enough to be joined by our good friend Aaron Tosti on drums. Aaron, or as he's more frequently known as Skwid, played my first show in Nashville with me back in June 2008 before my brother joined me for our Traveling Mercies southern tour. Looking forward to playing with him again. I'll let you know how it goes (or if you're in town, join us)!

My Life In Pictures

Just before leaving Seattle, I got a new cell phone. It's no iPhone or anything, but it takes color photos! Here's a few highlights from the last couple weeks...


As we were setting up on stage at the 5 Spot, a couple weeks ago, I took a pic of everyone in the band. Here's Nathan's letting out some steam before the show.


And here's the famous Joey, who played drums with me during the Suburbiac and New Old Friends days of Dolour. He moved to Nashville three years ago, and was my only friend out here the first time I came, almost two years ago now.


Here's Josiah. Although he is a new friend, we have a bit of back-story. Around the time I was working with Aaron Sprinkle on Suburbiac (2001-2002), Josiah was simultaneously working with Sprinkle on the first Holland album. We met briefly in the studio at the time. I can almost picture the LOST-style flashback.


I took this photo of Stephen Sebastian and Co at his acoustic show last week at Ugly Mugs. If you look closely at this low-res phone capture you will notice that the-hardest-working-man-in-Nashville, Nathan Thomas, is on the upright bass.


I've had a lot of quality time with Boris since Meagan started her new job. Yesterday afternoon I tried to get a good pic of us on our front lawn during this recent sunshine. I couldn't hold the phone and get Boris to pose, so I ended up with this. But you can see the cool veiny trees from our front yard.


Yesterday Meagan's manager sent steaks home with everyone, and he gave her an extra one for me! Life is good.


On our third day of consecutive sunshine, Meagan had the day off so we took Boris on a big long walk. He's still recouping from more exersize than he's had in months, but I captured this moment as he took one of his many breaks this afternoon.

Hope you enjoyed this photo journey of my last couple weeks. As ever, there is more coming soon...

I got the blues sewn in to my jacket sleeve

Here's a clip Meagan filmed last night at Drifters.


A cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Black Widow Blues"

About Last Night (at The 5 Spot)

Despite the fact that we were the only band scheduled last night (due to an emailing mix up) we had a great crowd (quality not necessarily quantity) and a full night of music. Our friend Stephen Sebastian was there and so we had him play a few songs to get the night rolling. I love his voice, and he's one of the rare performers who doesn't need a band behind him to get people tapping their toes and feeling the groove. After his short and sweet set, we took the stage. Our band has expanded since the Family Wash show, we now have Josiah Holland playing keys with us. He's most recently been seen playing bass with The Lonely Hearts and keys with his brother Will Morgan Holland. At our first show, last week at the Family Wash we introduced ourselves as Shane Tutmarc & the Oceanic 2 (since it was the night of the big LOST final season premiere) but last night we were Shane Tutmarc & The Enablers. I kinda like the sound of that, might use that one again. Here's a photo Meagan got on her phone's camera:



Our friend, local photograher, Emjae was also on hand to capture the night. Here's her gallery.

We played a 10 song set, pulling songs mainly from Hey Lazarus! and Shouting At A Silent Sky. After laying off of the Mercies stuff in Seattle for the last year, its been fun pulling out those songs again. There is a freshness to them that is undiminished. Here's the set-list (with a couple random video links):

1 Fair Warning
2 Honey I Choose You
3 Idle Hands
4 Across the River
5 Next Best Thing
6 Never Turnin' Back
7 Lost Myself Again
8 Mortality Blues
9 Death & Texas
10 Ain't No Grave

Next up, I have another solo gig at Drifters on the 18th. We'll keep ya posted with more going on here as we get settled in Music City!

The BIG Catch-up

Alright, the day finally arrived. Internet at home!

So let me catch you up on some of the highlights of the week.

First of all here's our house...



Loving our house. I recently wrote a song called "Double Paned Windows", somewhat inspired by our Home Sweet Home.

So Tuesday was the big day of the week. Our internet guy came and set us up, then we headed out to the Municipal Auditorium to be extra's in the Gwyneth Paltrow/Tim McGraw movie, Love Don't Let Me Down. Not nearly enough people were there to fill out the seats, so they put dummys in most of the seats. But Meagan and I were on the ground floor only 15 feet (or less) from the stage, so there is a good chance we'll be seen as Gwyneth is strutting down the catwalk of the stage singing the movies closing song. It was so much fun I almost hated to leave, but I had a rock show to play!

That night, instead of huddling around my TV or computer watching the season premier of LOST, I was playing my first show as a local with a full band. It was at The Family Wash for their "short sets" night. We played 6 songs, had a great time, and got a good reaction from our friends, the club and its patrons. I had Joey Sanchez and Nathan Thomas backing me up, so what could go wrong?

Here's the setlist (w/ live & studio clips from various sources):

1. Lost Myself Again
2. Honey I Choose You
3. Idle Hands
4. Across the River
5. Death & Texas
6. Ain't No Grave

Meagan filmed most of the show, and once we figure out how to get the video and sound synced up on iMovie, we will post a clip. But for now here's a picture that Joey's wife Brynn took.



Next Tuesday (will I ever get to see LOST when it's new) Joey, Nathan, and I will be joined by Josiah Holland on keys to round out the band's sound when we play The 5 Spot. We will be playing a full set, so be prepared for more video clip threats, and rock shots by the wives and girlfriends :)

State of Emergency

A surprise snow storm has slowed me down the last couple of days.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen declared a state of emergency!

I'm hoping this doesn't affect the Family Wash show on Tuesday night.



Thanks to those of you who are following this blog. And thanks Elizabeth, Mary and Arthur for the comments. Another thing I hope the snow doesn't get in the way of - our Comcast guy showing up to install internet at home on Tuesday morn!

Once we get that installed, expect this page to be full of all the bells and whistles you've come to expect from your favorite blogspot journals :)

The Family Wash

Getting internet installed next Tuesday.

AND... that night I have my 2nd show in town, and my first with a full band!

Nathan Thomas (who played with me on my first trip out to Nashville in Spring '08) on bass.

Joey Sanchez (who played drums with me in Dolour, until he moved to Nashville and became my lone connection to the town) on drums.

We are playing "Short Sets" on Tuesday, February 2nd at The Family Wash 8:30pm.

Got some more gigs in the works. I'll keep ya posted.

XO

Drifters in hindsight

Still don't have internet at home. I know, what's my problem, right?

Sitting at Sip Cafe, my closest coffee shop.

So the first show is behind me now.

Got more people out than I expected. Luckily, its a smaller place, so my 9 or so friends (plus the patrons) actually felt like a lot more.

Without much time here to write. I will leave you with the set-list. It was nice to dig deep into the my "cannon" and pull out a few surprises. Here's what happened last night.

Set I:
1 Black Jack Mama (Townes Van Zandt)
2 Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson)
3 Fair Warning
4 Next Best Thing
5 I Know I Should Know Better
6 Lyin’, Hidin’, Cryin’
7 Ain’t No Grave
8 The Basement in Nashville
(song I wrote for my first trip out here in Spring of '08)
9 Running Forever
10 A Billion Odd People
11 Across the River
12 Hesitation Blues
13 Honey I Choose You
14 Since You’ve Gone
15 So Hard to Make an Easy Getaway
(rarely performed 2 year old song, I've yet to record)

I took a short break. Quenched my thirst, then went back at it.

Set II:
1 Can’t Get You Off My Mind (Hank Williams)
2 Mortality Blues
3 Eliot
4 Idle Hands
5 Suspicious Minds (Elvis)
6 Death & Texas

I had more songs planned for the 2nd set, but with my late start (I left my capo at home and had to retrieve it), these 6 songs took me to 9pm perfectly.

Alright, what's next?

CREMA

We moved into our new home.

Don't have internet yet.

At CREMA.

Green Tea.

Free internet.

Booked my first show!

Saturday January, 23rd at Drifters.

East Nashville BBQ joint.

I play 7pm - 9pm.

If you are in the area please come!

Working on getting internet at home.

(the 2nd Fleet Foxes song, since I've been here, is now playing)

More soon...

Seattle Shane becomes Tennessee Tutmarc

Hey friends - despite the fact that I already have a Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, ReverbNation, NoDepression, iLike, and ShaneTutmarc.com - I feel like this "journal" (hate the word blog) will be a better place to share my thoughts, personal photos, and hopefully keep you up-to-date on my recent move across the country.

I was born and raised in Seattle, WA 28 years ago. On January 1st 2010, my girlfriend Meagan and I started a road trip that took us across the country to Nashville, TN. We got into town on Elvis' birthday (January 8th) yesterday, and now begins the search for a place to live, putting together a band, and a temp job. I don't have much time to write right now, but I will be writing more and sharing photos soon!