Mmmmm mmmmm good
Monday, January 29, 2001
It's a gorgeous, blinding, Monday morning in Somerville - the yard positively gleams this winter as snow heaps higher and higher on our piles of dirt. Let the construction continue! Bring in the stove! Keep the heat on! Another trip to Home Depot! These are, I regret, some of my current mantras. So many of you have written me to find out when another record will happen - and to encourage me to keep writing, keep touring. I am very grateful for all those kind and inspiring words. I am indeed on the slow plan here for record two. I am enjoying other art projects right now and don't miss at all the endless push and scramble of the music business. That is so exhausting and humiliating. So it feels just fine to take my time.
But the above schedule will assure you all this does not mean I am not touring! And writing. I'm looking forward to playing many co-bills on the west coast (Feb-March) with my friends Peter Mulvey and Goody, his awesome electric guitar and mandolin player. We're going to make some music separately and altogether now, 1 2 4...
I am totally excited about starting a new band with Ry Cavanaugh, Duke Levine and Joe Donnelly. We're going to play lots of great cover songs and a bunch of Ry and Jenn originals, too. We are thinking of calling ourselves "Butter" - who knows if that will stick. So if you live around Boston - come down to our first gig at the Tir na Nog in Union Square a week from today! The Nog is my favorite local pub. Best Guinness, sweetest bartenders, most awesome live music every night.
Please also note that "Ms. Folk America" will have one more night on the big stage at the Somerville Theatre - May 19. Call for tickets after Feb. 5 - 617-628-3390. Faith Soloway's over-the-top comic rock opera stars Catie Curtis, Kris Delmhorst, Mary Gauthier, Meghan Toohey, Faith and me. We all wear banners, Miss Somerville, Miss Cambridge, etc.... Faith spares no one in her brilliant comedies and has parodied each of us in our own styles so that we seem suspiciously "ourselves." But make no mistake! This is a choreographed show ala Miss America but with hilarious, raunchy songs, a live band, live video, and many video clips "behind-the-scenes and up-close-and-personal with the contestants...."
This winter I got to play ukulele on the soundtrack for a new Farrelly brothers movie. Pseudo-reading charts sitting next to Duke Levine, Mike Rivard, Dave Mattacks and musical director Mason Daring. Oh, big fun. And I even played on an advertisement for some new phone company in NYC. Very strange how these things work. But I was able to stomach it for the simple reason that I got to play my song the way I play it, unchanged, and live in their studio with Marc Shulman. So the ad agency may or may not use parts of it in the ad. I hope they do, of course, since I could receive some dollars for that. Mmm, mmm, good. And I got to make many sweet and spicy harmonies with Kris Delmhorst on her new recording yesterday. Beautiful new songs from the other Miss Somerville!
Some winter reading, listening, viewing ideas: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler; Black, White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker; Traffic; Chocolat; Fishing with John; Before and After by Rosellen Brown; new Los Lobos record, old Little Feat records; Morphine, Louvin Brothers, Reverse. I posted new seasonal links on the website, too.
I want to start a network of friends and fans - write me back if you want to put up some posters, send out some postcards inviting your friends - folks you think would like this music. There will be time to meet and chat at the gigs. Even forwarding this email would be most helpful! There'll be a free ukulele t-shirt in it for those who want to do the posters thing and be fashionable. Woohoo.
Also, my booking agent of four years, Joe Dresslaer is getting out of the business to go to grad. school - a wise move I think. But sad for me. I want to thank him for all his hard work on my behalf and wish him all the best. So, we'll be doing our own booking here at Laszlo Art Songs. If you have any gig ideas for us, please send them. And send phone numbers, names, contact info if you have it...
Happy cross-country skiing, chamomile tea, spinach salad with lemon-tahini dressing, and reading time - hope to see you out there on the road.
Jennifer
But the above schedule will assure you all this does not mean I am not touring! And writing. I'm looking forward to playing many co-bills on the west coast (Feb-March) with my friends Peter Mulvey and Goody, his awesome electric guitar and mandolin player. We're going to make some music separately and altogether now, 1 2 4...
I am totally excited about starting a new band with Ry Cavanaugh, Duke Levine and Joe Donnelly. We're going to play lots of great cover songs and a bunch of Ry and Jenn originals, too. We are thinking of calling ourselves "Butter" - who knows if that will stick. So if you live around Boston - come down to our first gig at the Tir na Nog in Union Square a week from today! The Nog is my favorite local pub. Best Guinness, sweetest bartenders, most awesome live music every night.
Please also note that "Ms. Folk America" will have one more night on the big stage at the Somerville Theatre - May 19. Call for tickets after Feb. 5 - 617-628-3390. Faith Soloway's over-the-top comic rock opera stars Catie Curtis, Kris Delmhorst, Mary Gauthier, Meghan Toohey, Faith and me. We all wear banners, Miss Somerville, Miss Cambridge, etc.... Faith spares no one in her brilliant comedies and has parodied each of us in our own styles so that we seem suspiciously "ourselves." But make no mistake! This is a choreographed show ala Miss America but with hilarious, raunchy songs, a live band, live video, and many video clips "behind-the-scenes and up-close-and-personal with the contestants...."
This winter I got to play ukulele on the soundtrack for a new Farrelly brothers movie. Pseudo-reading charts sitting next to Duke Levine, Mike Rivard, Dave Mattacks and musical director Mason Daring. Oh, big fun. And I even played on an advertisement for some new phone company in NYC. Very strange how these things work. But I was able to stomach it for the simple reason that I got to play my song the way I play it, unchanged, and live in their studio with Marc Shulman. So the ad agency may or may not use parts of it in the ad. I hope they do, of course, since I could receive some dollars for that. Mmm, mmm, good. And I got to make many sweet and spicy harmonies with Kris Delmhorst on her new recording yesterday. Beautiful new songs from the other Miss Somerville!
Some winter reading, listening, viewing ideas: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler; Black, White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker; Traffic; Chocolat; Fishing with John; Before and After by Rosellen Brown; new Los Lobos record, old Little Feat records; Morphine, Louvin Brothers, Reverse. I posted new seasonal links on the website, too.
I want to start a network of friends and fans - write me back if you want to put up some posters, send out some postcards inviting your friends - folks you think would like this music. There will be time to meet and chat at the gigs. Even forwarding this email would be most helpful! There'll be a free ukulele t-shirt in it for those who want to do the posters thing and be fashionable. Woohoo.
Also, my booking agent of four years, Joe Dresslaer is getting out of the business to go to grad. school - a wise move I think. But sad for me. I want to thank him for all his hard work on my behalf and wish him all the best. So, we'll be doing our own booking here at Laszlo Art Songs. If you have any gig ideas for us, please send them. And send phone numbers, names, contact info if you have it...
Happy cross-country skiing, chamomile tea, spinach salad with lemon-tahini dressing, and reading time - hope to see you out there on the road.
Jennifer