We didn’t play enough in 2011. It just kind of happened. The shows we did play were great (for us anyway), including a set at the Sasquatch Festival along the Columbia Gorge. Joe Adamik (Califone, Iron and Wine, + all over my new album) joined us for a song, many friends stood in the crowd and when I would look offstage I could see the gorge for miles. In October I played Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Built in 1998, it is the home of the Seattle Symphony and the acoustics are intimate and transcendent. During the show I sang one note off-mic, listened and then heard, from a waaaay back balcony somebody sing the note back to me. Sound check sounded like this: http://snd.sc/wmvHOT
I spend a lot of time thinking about listening, voice, translation, and sound as sculpture. It was a complete thrill to be able to sing in that room.
At the Northside Festival, I was fortunate enough to help plan the bill and see, start to finish, a great show: Ted Leo, Ida, Spectre Folk and Eleanor Friedberger. There were other nights, other cities, it was a pleasure to play and have you all swing by when you could. This year is shaping up to be much more active. We are playing in Portland and Paris in April, looking forward to SW and West shows in May, and then as much of the country as the country will take during the summer and into the fall, I’ll be playing solo in Spain in June, the band is due to be in Europe late fall. Specific dates announced as they are confirmed.
Big news is that the new album will actually (really) be out May 15. The vinyl is due to be released by 12XU Records and will be available on their website, from us, and in fine stores everywhere. I am releasing the CD and managing digital distribution myself, with the amazing, inspiring folks of Cash Music allowing us to be one of the first releases to showcase their full-fledged, robust, open-source-non-profit-shaking-s**t-up-0s-and-1s coding masterpiece. More on all that later. There is a Kickstarter campaign in the near future. I am hoping to make it interesting for us and others. One good thing about making this album is there’s plenty of demo versions and odds and sods. As we say on twitter: #premiums.
It will be great to have the record out. Then I can get to making the next two, both already partially written.