After a two year absence, I’m heading out to California for the NAMM show in just a week’s time

I’ve managed to fill up my schedule pretty well, so here’s what’s happening so far:

• Thurs 19th - AltBass. at El Torito in Anaheim – the whole bill is Steve Lawson, Chris Tarry, Steuart Liebig, Darren Michaels, Tom Shad – music starts at 7pm.
• Friday 20th Jan – BassUp! at Viento y Agua Coffee House – also on the bill Steuart Liebig, Edo Castro, Stew McKinsey, Christopher “C3″ Cardone, Brittany Frompovich, Zen Beer, John Ady, Rod Taylor, and Darren Michaels!
• Saturday 21st - AltBass Pt 2, at El Torito in Anaheim again – the bill this time is Steve Lawson, Julie Slick, Gustav Fjelstrom & Tom Shad.
• Sunday 22nd – House Concert in Sherman Oaks, CA – message me if you want to come. There may be limited spaces… the amazing Julie Slick will be guesting with me  $10 suggested donation…
• Monday 23rd – house concert in Newport Beach california – along with a lot of other people TBC.
• Tuesday 24th – at The All American Melodrama Theater in Long Beach, CA, with the wonderful acoustic guitarist Muriel Anderson. http://www.allamericanmelodrama.com/ - tickets $15.
• Thursday 26th – House Concert, Bayview, San Francisco. – See the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman on Kora!)
• Friday 27th – House Concert, West Oakland – see the facebook event page for details. (with Daniel Berkman and Lattanand)
• Saturday 28th - house concert in San Jose with Michael Manring – message me for details. $20 donation…
• Sunday 29th  - Northridge Music Center, Citrus Heights (Sacramento), CA – hybrid concert/masterclass, focussed on looping. http://www.northridgemusic.com $20.

More details will be added here as and when – if you need info on any of them, please message me via email, facebook or twitter and I’ll hopefully see you or the friends you send my way a a show!

After quite a while off from the live scene thanks to moving house and all the stuffs that go on around that, Lo and I are going to be down in Devon and Cornwall on the 12th and 13th November, playing with the brilliant saxophonist Andy Williamson – I’ve known Andy for ages, and we’ve done a couple of really lovely gigs together over the years. He’s a joy to play with and a delightful man to hang out with, so we’re hugely looking forward to the visit.

Nov 12th St Endellion, St Endellion Church, North Cornwall
Nov 13th Ashburton Devon, St Lawrence Chapel – both with Andy Williamson and Lobelia

Then, on the 24th, I’m playing a duo show in Derby with another old collaborator – Corey Mwamba. Corey’s an exceptional vibraphonist, composer and music maker. The gig I did with his band at the London Jazz Festival a few years back was possibly the hardest music I’ve ever had to play, but also some of the most enjoyable. Here we’ll be improvising, making a gorgeous noise between us, and you’re invited to come and enjoy it with us.

24th November, Deda, Chapel St, Derby, with Corey Mwamba.

Both Lobelia and I managed to finish up our solo albums before we set off. Which is very exciting!

My new solo album is called ‘11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything‘, and will be out via bandcamp on May 18th, and via iTunes/Amazon etc. not long after that… That picture at the top of this post is the cover art, and there’ll be individual art for each track too, as well as extensive sleeve notes. And of course, I’ll blog some more info and thoughts on it here over the next few weeks. 

For now, I do have a pre-release link to the MP3s, for bloggers, journos, radio, TV people, town criers, people who hold golf signs – anyone who tells people about things that they think are fabulous for a living… Do drop me an email, with some details about what you do if I don’t already know you, and I’ll send the link to you ASAP.

Gig news:

As I said, we’re playing our first house concert in the US here in New Jersey tonight, then we have a coupla weeks of seeing friends and family before we play in the following places:

May

• 18th – Toledo, OH
• 19th – Chicago, IL
• 20th – Milwaukee, WI
• 22nd – Madison, WI

Then we’re probably playing in Nebraska and Nashville TN (plus poss of things in between) before the end of the month (details to follow) then onto:

June

• 4th – Plano (Dallas) TX
• …we’ll be in Austin here, if anyone wants to offer a show (if not, we’ll be visiting friends anyway!)
• 10th – Lake Charles, LA
• 11th – Lake Charles, LA
• …space here for something fun in LA/GA/anywhere between Lake Charles & Atlanta…
• 17th – Atlanta, GA
• 18th – Atlanta Bass Gallery clinic, Atlanta, GA
• …poss. another nashville show/clinic in here…
• 21st/22nd – New Music Strategies online event in Nashville TN/Birmingham UK
• 23rd – Asheville, NC
• 24th – Wild Goose Festival, Shakori Hills, NC
• 25/26 – VA/MD (details TBC)
• …things between VA and NYC (possibly north of NYC too…)
• fly home on 4th July

There are more shows to fit in, and if you’re near any of these places and want details or have ideas for other shows/clinics etc. please feel free to drop us a line, or leave a comment. We’ll see you on the road!

Plans are now underway for us to return to the US this May/June and play some house concerts.

This week is when we start putting in dates and routing our trip - we’ll be flying into and out of New York, in at the beginning of May, out at the end of June/beginning of July. Aside from time with family and friends, what happens in between is largely reliant on people booking us for house concerts.

What’s a house concert?

The clue’s in the name – a concert in someone’s house. It’s taking music into a more comfortable, intimate listening environment, it often involves food too, and can be for an audience of anywhere from about 15-50 people, depending on your number of musically adventurous friends and how much they’re willing to donate to the cause of us getting to where you are.

We bring everything that’s needed for music, you just provide a willing, listening audience. The show can be advertised beyond your immediate friends and family, but we promise we’ll never give out your address to anyone or put it on the internet, and will allow you to vet anyone else who wants to come along.

Money: on a trip like this, with car rental, gas and a baby to look after, we need to be aiming for around $400 a show. If that sounds like a lot, it’s less daunting when you realise that it can include ticket donations, music sales (CDs and USB sticks full of music) as well as any extra fun we put on, like music masterclasses/workshops etc. beforehand. Sometimes people underwrite the show themselves so they can put on an amazing event for their friends/family/colleagues… we’re open to that kind of arts patronage too. If you know of a baby-friendly amazing venue near you that you have a good contact with, we’re interested in that too.

Accomodation – more often than not we stay in the house we’re playing in. Sometimes that doesn’t work out, and that’s fine, we can either find friends to stay with, or use some ninja internet skillz to find a cheap hotel.

What now? First up, if this takes your fancy, register an interest either in the comments here, on Facebook or Twitter, or by emailing. Please let us know

• where you are,
• what level of help you’re offering (from venue suggestion to fully guaranteed show)
• and any dates that really DON’T work for you between the first week of may and the first week of July.

From there, we start planning. We’ve currently got 19 (NINETEEN!!) show offers already being explored. Not all of those will happen, but to have that much interest before we even start the process is fabulous.

If you’ve hosted a house concert before with us, and want to say nice things about it in the comments below, please feel free.

Here are a couple of videos that show what we do, in case you’re wondering

Click here for booking/ticket info.

Playing with Michael is one of my very favouritest things to do as a musician, and listening to him play is one of my favouritest things to do as music fan. So I’m happy as Larry. (Not sure who Larry is, but he must be over the moon right now.)

Here’s a lovely lil’ video from last time we played there:

And here’s our free-to-download live EP, recorded in California a few years back:

Steve Lawson and Michael Manring live at Don Quixotes by solobasssteve

Hope to see you there – PLEASE share this link around, invite friends, and c’mon down. It’s going to be a GREAT show, and probably my last ‘public’ show in London before the end of the year… and I think Alex Bershadsky is joining us, which will be cool.

The show is at The Monastery – an amazing and beautiful recording studio and performance space in Cincinnati. It’s owned by Ric Hordinski – a wonderful guitarist who’ll be playing with us too. It’s going to be a lovely show and we’ll see if we can stream it too…

It’s on July 6th, at 7pm, and the studio address is 2601 Stanton Ave, Cincinnati, 45206. Tickets are $15 (I think – will check!)

• If you’re in the Cincinnati area, we’d love to see you.
• If you’ve got friends near there, we’d love to see them.
• If you’re on the internetz and contribute to social networks or forums where people from the Cincinnati area might read what you write, please feel free to tell ‘em about the show.
• Here’s a link to the Facebook Event Page for the gig. Please share it around.

It’s going to be an interesting experiment to see if we can get word out to people in a week… let’s see what happens!

Tomorrow we drive to Nashville

Which is why we’re there for a week in the middle of this tour. We’re doing a lot there. Here’s the list:

Thursday 17th – I’m playing solo at the Low Notes For Nashville benefit show for people who lost everything in the recent Nashville floods. See Facebook for Details.

Friday 18th – is the ‘Amplified Afternoons‘ trans-atlantic web-stream conversation with the New Music Strategies team and a hand-picked selection of musicians forging careers in the new music environment – I blogged about that here today, and will write more tomorrow. You need to tune in for this. Srsly.

Sunday 19th – the first of our house concerts, at this one we’re sharing the stage with the awesomely awesome Kira Small and Bryan Beller. That’s going to be lots o’ fun. Here are the Facebook details.

Monday 20th – we have two events, at the same location. In the afternoon, I’m giving a ‘social media for artists’ workshop. (read about it on Facebook) – that’ll be good. I like taking this stuff and applying it not just to music but to as many creative paths as are represented…

Then in the evening, Lo and I are playing a house concert, with the fabulous Angela Doll Carlson opening the show with special guest Sarah Masen. Yeah, so that’s going to be awesome too. It’s also listed on facebook.

That, my friends, is a busy weekend. Lots of things for you or your Nashvillian friends to come to. It’s going to be a great time, for sure. See you there!

We’re off to the US of A this week, taking Baby Flapjack over to his place of nationality, to meet the family.

While we’re there, we’re doing a handful of House Concerts, as is our want.

Here are the first few dates, with links to their Facebook event pages. Please send me a message too if you want to go. These are, for the most part, private events, so the addresses aren’t public, and the people whose houses they are want to know who people are, naturally… So email me, tell me who you are, check out the page, and I’ll put you in touch for more details. (it may be that some of the gigs are either full, or the details are not available for some reason or other – please don’t be offended if this is the case – the privacy and wishes of the hosts win out here…)

here’s the first batch of shows:

Brooklyn Gig – FB event page.
Saturday May 29th.
8pm.

New Jersey gig – FB event page
Monday, May 31, 2010
Time:
6:00pm – 9:30pm
Location:
in central NJ, a little west of NYC, a little northeast of Phil

Workshop with Neil Alexander – FB event page
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Time:
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location:
Wallkill River School @ the Patchett House
Street:
232 Ward St (17k)
City/Town:
Montgomery, NY

Gig with Neil Alexander – FB event page
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Time:
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location:
Wallkill River School @ The Patchett House
Street:
232 Ward St (17k)
City/Town:
Montgomery, NY
View Map

North Adams Massachusetts – FB event page.
with Todd Reynolds
Friday, June 4, 2010
Time:
8:00pm – 10:30pm
Location:
Elf Parlor
Street:
303 Ashland Street,
City/Town:
North Adams, MA

Toledo, Ohio – FB event page (masterclass + gig)
Saturday June 12, 2010
Time:
12:30pm – 10:00pm
Location:
Owens Community College/ The Ground Level

Milwaukee, Wisconsin – FB event page
MONDAY June 14th, 2010 (see comment from Tracy Apps below – sorry for getting the date wrong! what a loser )

Nashville gig #1 – FB event page
With Kira Small and Bryan Beller
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Time:6:30pm – 10:00pm

Nashville gig #2 + workshop – FB event page for workshop
Monday June 21st, 2010

Plano, nr Dallas, TX – FB event page
Friday June 25th, 2010
Time:
8:00pm – 11:00pm
Location:
The Wilson Conservatory Plano Texas

Austin TX gig – message me for details
Saturday June 26th 2010

More to follow…

…and what’s more, it’s only 2 weeks til our first date in the US! We’re in Brooklyn on May 29th. See you there, Native New Yorkers

We multitrack recorded all three gigs, and some of that should be available in some shape or form soon - probably via the USB memory sticks that now seem to make up about 70% of our in-concert music sales!

There are some great photos from the Camberley gig and some Audioboo from the Leeds gig.

But for now, here’s a load of Youtube footage, taken by the lovely Ilicco, starting with a new version of The Kindness of Strangers:

Then there’s Lobelia’s fabulous song, I’m Lost:

And finally two cover versions – Love Is A Battlefield, and You Spin Me Round (Like A Record):

2009 was a fairly easy-going year, music-wise for Lobelia and I

Gigs:

2010 is already shaping up to be a much more musically-focussed year. I’m in the process of booking some solo house-concerts for the end of March/Beginning of April – the open dates are

• March 29th (near Birmingham),
• 31st (near Exeter) and
• April 1st (near Swindon) -
• the 30th already has a gig booked in Southampton (more details ASAP).

If you want to host a house-gig on any of those dates, and are near (or between) those places, please drop me a line.

Then Lo and I are doing some duo shows at the beginning of May - on the 6th we’re in Leeds and the 8th in Surrey (more deets soon) – if you’re anywhere between those two, we’d be happy to come and play on the 7th, or either side of those dates. Do drop us a line.

And at the end of May we go out to the US, mainly to take Flapjack to meet the family, but we’ll be doing some house concerts and ‘house consulting’ as well – if you’re interested in hosting something (or putting us in touch with a music school/university) please drop us a line.

Recording:

It’s now nearly 4 years since I released Behind Every Word, and while it’s currently selling REALLY well thanks to Bandcamp’s wonderful download sales platform, it really is time for a new album. So I’ll be working on that very soon – just need to get the tech side worked out. Hopefully will have that available for the US shows.

In a couple of weeks time, I’m going into a studio for a day with Mike Outram – guitar-monkey extraordinaire. No idea what we’ll come up with, but if its releasable, that’ll be out sometime soonish as well.

And then there’s the archive - I’ve got a whole load of fascinating music languishing on hard-drives. There’s a duo album with Italian guitarist Luca Formentini, a strange-yet-beautiful experimental duo album with free improv trumpeter Jeff Kaiser, a quartet live recording with Jeff, saxophonist Andrew Pask and bassist Steuart Liebig. (that last one is really interesting cos I thought the gig had gone pretty badly, then listened to the recording and really liked it )

And there’s also a double album’s worth of live stuff with Theo Travis, recorded on the tour we did after For The Love Of Open Spaces came out. That really needs to be heard. So maybe I should work on that first.

Suffice to say, there’ll be lots of cool music from me this year, if something else doesn’t get in the way.

For now, here’s the album with Theo Travis – have a listen, and then pay whatever you like for it if you want to download it.