Late last year, I had the honor of recording backup vocals on a new album for Dick Holdstock and Allan MacLeod. The English/Scottish duo is known mostly for their sea music and chanties, but this album, Seasoned Songs, is a collection of their favorite songs from home. It was fun to work as a studio musician, but it also introduced me to Dave Nachmanoff, who added some instrumental & vocal tracks to their CD, but also was the recording engineer for the project. 

The current big fun is that Dave recently asked if I'd be interested in doing a couple of house concerts together, so we've started working to put on two acoustic shows, one in Berkeley on May 3rd at 8:00pm, and the second in Davis on May 4th at 7:30pm. You'll be treated to original songs of Dave's, as well as some of my original music and some traditional Scots tunes, too. I'm really looking forward to the shows, and want to urge you to get your seats reserved ASAP. The suggested donation for each show is $20, refreshments will be served and we'll both have our CD boutiques open for business! RSVP for the Berkeley show or RSVP for the Davis show; the locations will be revealed when you reserve your seats.  And please help spread the word about our house concerts.

OKAY--WHAT THE HECK IS A HOUSE CONCERT? Right--good question! House concerts are utterly cool. Musicians are hosted by normal folks like you & me to perform in their living rooms. That's all there is to it! The beauty of a house concert is that you can be up close and personal with the musicians. You'll be able to see Dave's fingers working the guitar strings, and see my gold crowns when I sing high notes, and you'll also be able to ask questions during the break because we won't disappear backstage. Intimate and casual makes it special to both audience and performer. One way you can follow house concert venues is on MeetUp. 

By the way, my recent house concert with Steve Baughman at Berkeley's The Joint--which was not a home, but a chiropractic office--was really sweet--you'll want to follow The Joint on Facebook to see what other concerts they have coming up. It's an interesting place, and fun for performing.

Please comment! I'm dying to know what you think! Should CD Baby provide folks who prefer downloads with a way to read what the artist was thinking when they wrote or recorded a certain song? Would you/do you look at the lyrics on my website?

Also, those of you who order from CD Baby: many of you canny folk choose not to include your name on the order, probably for fear you'll be dogged by email from CD Baby. Fair enough, but you can easily opt out of their email, and I'll know you ordered if you INCLUDE your name. If you want to. Just sayin'. I like to write personal thank-you notes to folks! I'll ask first before I add you to my mailing list.

And one more small point about email. If you are on my personal mailing list--you'll know that if you've gotten email about concerts from me--it really is ME doing the writing and all that. I'm using an email template, but that is me. The template I use has a very easy to use "unsubscribe" function, and I swear there'll be no hard feelings if you just don't want mail from me. I would only let you know about things I'm involved in or feel you'd like to know--like the benefit concert for Chris Caswell.

But what a fine, fine show it was for a sold out/SRO audience--an amazing thing of a Monday night. The money will help his family with medical expenses that have mounted, but more importantly, a community of family, musicians, fans, and friends turned out on a Monday night to honor the memory of one of Northern California's best-loved bards.

We all have certain, keen moments in our lives--the ones that will sparkle in our memories when we stop to review our lives.  The Night for Chris Benefit is one for me.

So there it is! My name on a marquis! What else is there but for you to come and listen?

I'm so excited; we're gonna rock and you're gonna love us. I hope you'll be there! Look, I know . . . it'll be very easy to talk yourself out of coming; you'll have a conversation in your head about how it's a Wednesday, and you have to work the next day and you're tired . . .

BUT this show will energize you, because with you in the audience, the band and I can't help but be energized, and then our energy will shine through in the music, and well--you know what that does when you're listening--you get energized. You can sleep on Saturday morning! So buy your ticket, catch a quick bite to eat at one of the many places that are within walking distance of the Freight and Salvage, and COME LET US ROCK YOUR LIFE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT! CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!