.. ..Stevie Coyle newsletter - back from 5-week tour and CD release parties in the San Francisco Bay Area Stevie Coyle

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the HTML version of this blog: http://steviecoyle.com/news051309.html

It's been a long time since we've chatted. Too long, I know. I blame the schools. *


* Please accept this handy catch-all excuse as my online rapprochement gift to you. It works wonderfully well for almost all subjects you would like to change with particular swiftness, and it works even better in person than in print ... or so I have read.


At any rate, your old pal Rip Van Wrinkle has reawakened and is emerging slowly but surely from his Cone of Total Preoccupation. So thanks for sticking around and allowing me to dash off to you this fresh batch of braggadocio.


THE CD, SHE IS DONE

See, a year and a half ago I set out to make a sweet, succinct little instrumental guitar album.  Apparently, some one of those Muses that we've all heard about (but that I, for one, had until then only ever had the merest glimpses of) caught wind of this humble plan, and smacked me upside the head (as we say in Marin County) with a rather substantial change in scale as well as a ... ummmm ... rather more protracted timetable.  But lordy, when the Muse visits, you can't just put on the kettle, offer a cup of tea, spend a pleasant afternoon and be done. In fact, this one moved in wholesale and stayed for months on end. In fits and starts - the way those Muses seem to operate - a protagonist appeared, as did a somewhat mysterious plot, as well as organic connections between songs written years apart. What a trip. It felt for all the world like I was taking just taking dictation fom ... something ... somewhere. And the upshot is that what started off as a polite little fingerstyle record soon revealed itself to be something more akin to Dark Side Of The Moon, if I may flatter myself by that comparison for just a moment.


"Ten-In-One" is a concept album, ostensibly about a trip to a sideshow and back. It tracks a single day in the life of one Mr. Oster, a rather unassuming and introspective Everyman sort of character. And even though it's a very unusual day for him, it turns out to be a very good one. The album is about other things too, but I'm not really certain what they are.

The cast includes:

Mike Marshall (David Grisman, Darol Anger, Choro Famoso): mandolin
Sam Bevan (David Grisman, Joe Craven, Matt Flinner): bass
Philip Aaberg (Windham Hill, Eugene Friesen): accordion
Hank Roberts (Bill Frisell): cello
Kit Walker (Kundalini Boombox, Airto Moreira): keys and loops
Heidi Clare (AtAGallop, Reeltime Travelers): fiddle
Dr. Robby Virus (Project Pimiento): theremin
Marla Fibish (Three Mile Stone): mandolin
Rich DePaolo (Ten Sleep): electric guitar
Mike Phelan (Marley's Ghost), Corinne West, Teresa Tudury, Misty Browning and Rachel Tree on vocals.
Nick Weber, my old ringmaster from circus days, is The Voice of The Talker
Walter Strauss plays guitar and sings
I play guitar & lap steel and sing.

There are 8 originals, one trad and 3 covers. There are vocal selections as well as instrumentals. "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss fifteen bucks goodbye." (One hopes.) It's Runaway Eclecticism of the first water. I got to record with pals and heroes. It was a dream come true to finally record a song with "Na na na" as the lyrics to the chorus. I'm afraid I could not, however, make my jazz odyssey "Brian Wilson Stole My Water Bottle" fit. Maybe next concept album.

The utterly amazing Walter Strauss produced the whole thing, from the big, fat opening chord to the eminently hummable strains of the closing chorus. It really is quite a ride, I must say. Hats off to Wally.

And yes, Virginia, the album is for sale. Thank you for asking. Stop on by my home - sweet - home page, and click the jolly PayPal "Add To Cart" link. Or if you would rather go the retro route, please feel free to post a check for 18 American dollars  ($15 + $3 shipping and handling) to yours truly at:

P.O. Box 5178
Larkspur, California, 94977-5178

One way or the other, the gift elves here at Steviecoyle Central that do that shipping and handling will handle your CD just the right amount, and then ship it to you promptly. New and different merch items that will be coming online soon ... stickers, baseball caps, T-shirts ... heck, even bobble heads, if I can convince the customs agents that that those figurines from China really are likenesses of me, and that I'm not trying to violate any copyrights by cornering the incipient "Harry Potter goes AARP" market.


A BRAND-NEW WEBSITE
And speaking of the website (and I believe we have, once or twice) please feel free to bookmark it and to stop by a couple of times in the next few weeks. Big doin's. A comprehensive redux is under way and will be online soon, thanks to Jimmy apRoberts, the same young genius who did the album artwork. Folks, really and truly, this fellow's design savvy is astonishing, and the old adage about silk purses and sow's ears positively leaps to my mind whenever I consider the enormous step up that things are taking on the graphical front around here.


CD RELEASE PARTIES IN CA
At the end of this month I'll be playing a couple of CD release parties in the south San Francisco Bay area. ("Barkeep, cocktail weenies and Ovaltines for alllll my friends!") These will be full - band shows. How about that? The Ten-in-One band features world - class musicians: Sam Bevan (David Grisman, Joe Craven, Matt Flinner) on bass, Kit Walker (Kundalini Boombox, Airto Moreira) on keys and Kendrick Freeman (Allison Brown) on drums. There are a couple of possibilities for harmony vocalists as well. For the July shows, Walter Strauss  (10 Sleep, The Walter Strauss Trio, The Burns Sisters) will be on board as well, on guitar and vocals. May or July, butt will be kicked at the CD events.

EVEN MORE ABOUT ME, IF THAT'S EVEN IMAGINABLE
In early June I will jet off to the east coast for five weeks of solo touring in a small, rented vehicle. (As unbelievable as it may sound, having recently released a CD will not qualify me for an upgrade. Neither will "Don't you know who I am?" The last time I tried that some wag called my bluff and asked the person behind me in line, "Hey, can you help this guy? He doesn't know who he is." We were not amused.)

I'll begin in New Hampshire, work my way down to Georgia by Independence Day weekend, and then scoot back up to Vermont to conclude the tour on July 11.  (By the way, here at press time there are still several open dates. Please feel free to take a look at the schedule below, and to contact me if you think the time is right for you to jump on the House Concert bus. As those in the vanguard of this worthy movement always say, "it's just a little party with a concert in the middle." Ping me and I'll send you my usual cut - and - paste on the topic.)

All along the way I will do my best to visit as many classic roadside attractions as possible, and to update whatever blog or photo gallery Jimmy The Graphics Guru has created on my homepage by that time. And then - no rest for the wicked, indeed - I'll resume the string of full-band CD release extravaganzas in Northern California, with shows in Marin County, Berkeley and Woodside. There might even be a few more California shows. This band is so good I just want to do months and months of CD release parties. Stay tuned.
 

"WHEN WILL YOU MAKE AN END, BUONORRATI?"
Good gravy. Where are my manners? We haven't had a coffee klatch together for months, and here I am yakking your virtual ear off. One last digression, if I may, before I go sleep for a week.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETE SEEGER
Pete Seeger turned 90 recently, and unlike most 90 - year - olds, he celebrated by performing at an enormous concert. Pete's influence on modern acoustic music can hardly be overstated, and I'd like to pay him a tiny tribute by relating a brief reminiscence.

I was playing at Merlefest a few years ago, and happened to be busily retrieving something from the trunk of the car. I stood up and turned around much too quickly and bumped right into Pete. I'm not a hefty guy, by any means, but Pete is even slighter, and we instinctively grabbed each others' shoulders to keep him from flying into the bushes. "Shall we dance?" he giggled as we righted ourselves, amid my many spluttered apologies.

We stopped teetering, finally, and I made to release my grip, but he held on to me tightly, and fixed me with a half-steely, half-drifty gaze. After just a bit of a pause he said, "Young man," (which endeared him to me forever from that moment) "I want to tell you something. We are all musicians. Some of us play instruments and sing, and some of us listen. But that doesn't matter. If you love music, you are a musician."

He let me go, and I just stood there, all amazed. A mere moment later I returned to consensus reality and he had utterly evaporated. The man is magic, I tell you.

Thank you Pete, and let me be among the first to wish you a happy and healthy 91st.

And thank YOU, gentle people. As always, here's hoping that our paths cross sooner than later. Right now I'll get back to paying off some of the enormous sleep debt I have accrued this past 16 months. Good night.


Here's the gigs, and please stay tuned to the website for imminent updates:

 

Sun, May 17, 4:00pm
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Oakland, CA


Sat, May 30, 8:00pm
MISSION CITY
Santa Clara, CA
The very first CD Release Party for Ten-In-One, featuring Kit Walker on keyboards, Kendrick Freeman on drums and Sam Bevan on basses.


Sun, May 31, 7:00pm
DON QUIXOTE'S
Felton, CA
The second CD Release Party for Ten-In-One, featuring Kit Walker on keyboards, Kendrick Freeman on drums and Sam Bevan on basses.


Fri, June 5
THE REY CENTER
Waterville Valley, NH
This will be my second visit to this wonderful spot. The Reys gave us Curious George, you know. Last year I was gifted with a copy of Clueless George Goes to War. Loved it.


Sat, June 6
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Winterport, ME


Sun, June 7
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Portland, ME


Mon June 8 - Thu, June 11 
** AT LARGE IN NEW ENGLAND!! **
House Concert, anyone?


Fri, June 12
HOUSE CONCERT
Boston, MA
Email me for details.


Sat, June 13
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Long Island, NY


Wed, June 17 & Thu, June 18
VILLAGE CONCERTS
Palmyra, VA
I'll be sharing these evenings with either/both Peyton Tochterman from High Society and Mike Clem from Eddie From Ohio. Charlottesvillains, don't ruin your life by missing these shows.


Fri, June 19
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Richmond, VA


Sat, June 20
BENEFIT CONCERT
Richmond, VA
Details TBA


Sun, June 21
HOUSE CONCERT
Reston, VA


Wed, June 24
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Mt. Airy, NC


Thu, June 25
CJ HOUSE CONCERTS
Durham, NC


Fri, June 26
BROAD ST. CAFE
Durham, NC


Sat, June 27,
TRIAD ACOUSTIC STAGE
Greensboro, NC


Sun, June 28, 5:30pm
THE ROOSTER'S WIFE
Aberdeen, NC
Opening for Shout Sister Shout


Fri & Sat, July 3 & 4, 8:00pm
SAVANNAH'S MUSIC HALL
Greensboro, GA
The Roadhouse Concerts is a wonderful and prestigious new music series. Yow. I'm thrilled to be invted. Pals Corinne West, Walter Strauss, Chuck McCabe, Jimmy Galloway and Ray Bonneville are also on this summer's roster.

Sun, July 5 - Fri, July 10
** AT LARGE, ON THE ROAD BTW GA & VT **
House concert, anyone?

 

 

- FIN - (whew)

Happy New Year, all. No ... I insist.

Things are different. Maybe those bumper stickers that claim "Regime Change Begins At Home" aren't so very far off.  I'm all for Hope and Change ... I really am. But friends, this new upward spike on the political integritometer is serious money out of my pocket. In the months just before election time, see, I had gotten a sweetheart deal with a big toy manufacturer for a board game I was developing called "Turpitude Bingo." It was a million dollar idea then and it's a big ol' goose-egg now. But just like the man said from the Capitol steps just a couple of weeks ago, we've all got to be willing to make sacrifices. So Turpitude Bingo is toast. That's all right. I'm willing to give it up. The trade-off seems a fair one. Come to think of it, "N - Suspension Of Habeas Corpus As Part Of A Programmatic Misappropriation Of Power Into An Increasingly Monolithic Executive Branch" would never have fit on a single bingo ball anyway.

To abuse the bully pulpit of a musician's newsletter for just a moment longer, I will say merely that it is my sincere hope that amidst all of the current optimism that all the current optimists will show some tolerace for the political crankiness so many of us have honed to razor sharpness over the last 8 years. Mislaid car keys? Broken guitar string? Flat tire? "Doggone Bush" worked great for all of them. And of course there's a there's a more generalized, truly panoramic curmudgeonliness that comes with age and that I hope will not go entirely out of fashion.  I've worked long and hard to become middle-aged and now that I'm here I hope I don't have to "fight .... for my right ....  to kve-e-e-e-e-etch." But I will.

For example, even as I write on this balmy California Sunday afternoon, a football game of apparent import and renown is being contested somewhere very far away. It occurs to me that it's not often one finds oneself in the minority by NOT sporadically and enthusiastically shouting vowel sounds at a glowing tube. But here I am.  A singular realization, that. Then again I also find myself in the minority when I experience true revulsion at people asking their barristas for coffee "with rheum." Ewwww. Man, grouchiness is gonna be hard to give up. "Doggone Obama." Naw, doesn't have the same ring to it ...

The CD is almost here. I feel like I'm in my 8th trimester. I may have mentioned before that what started as a humble solo fingerstyle CD has blossomed into - dare I say it - a Concept Album. A Concept Album with a Cast Of Thousands. I'm not even entirely sure in a forebrain kind of way what it's all all about .. but I decided at the outset just to turn my subconscious loose on it, and here at the finish line things are sounding moderately fabulous, even if I do say so myself. Maybe after I've bought a copy and heard it a few times I can develop a theory on What It All Means. And it's really only $15? And if I pre-ordered off the website right now I'd get a cool gift certificate as an exclusive bonus? Geez, why wouldn't I?


Here's the cast list:
Mike Marshall: (David Grisman, Choro Famoso, Mike Marshall & Darol Anger): mandolin
Rufus Capadoccia (Stellamara, The Voudou Jazz Ensemble, Rufus and Bethany, Vishal Vaid): cello
Kendrick Freeman (Alison Brown): drums & percussion
Heidi Clare (Reeltime Travelers, AtAGallop, The Wronglers): fiddle
Sam Bevan (David Grisman, Joe Craven): bass
Kit Walker (Airto Moreira, Kundalini Boombox) B-3, percussion, bass clarinet, alpenhorn, loops
Rich DePaolo: electric guitar and mixology
Robbie Virus - of the West Palm Beach Viruses, I believe - (Project Pimento): theremin
Marla Fibish (Marla Fibish Trio, Double Treble, The Heart Of The Roll): mandolin
Teresa Tudury, Corinne West, Mike Phelan (Marley's Ghost) and Rachel Tree: backing vocals  
Phillip Aaberg (Windham Hill, Eugene Friessen & Darol Anger): accordion
Walter Strauss (Walter Strauss Trio, Ten Sleep, Mamadou Diabate, The Burns Sisters): guitar, baritone guitar, vocals, arrangements and production.

The music, it may not shock you to learn, is rather wildly eclectic in its range. Lots of fingerstyle guitar, yes. And sure, there's some Kumbaya-free folk. But there's also some soft-shoe in there, and it's the recurring signature tune of our protagonist, Mr. Oster. A wordless fairy tale gets told. There's original calliope music. One cut can be described fairly, I think, as "Brian Setzer plays mumbledypeg with Tom Waits in John Lennon's back yard."  You'll find a rather wistful, rather left-bank-ish guitar-and-squeezebox tune. An old friend gets a new suit of clothes. A monstrous, unstoppable train nearly mows the joint down.  An Appalachian fiddle tune wakes up in India. The Louvin Brothers get subpoenaed. It's a visit to an old-time sideshow, folks, so there will be no shortage of oddity and wonderment. It's been a right royal blast watching this album unfold. And possibly the coolest part of all was fulfilling a lifelong dream of writing a song where the lyrics to the chorus are "Na na na na na."


Onward.


Those that actually read past all of this blather down to the bottom will notice that there are not a lot of gigs coming up real soon. No worries. This is the blessed calm before the storm of travel that will likely happen later this year and into next. But in just a couple of weeks your humble servant heads off to Memphis for a few days to showcase at The Folk Alliance's annual international conference. I'll be co-hosting a private showcase room with my pal and producer Walter Strauss. The focus will be on fingerstyle guitar. Wish us luck ... we'll be trapped in a hotel for four days with a thousand raging folkies. Augh. I get so tired of reminding these people that their true loves probably don't want to be given a chicken without no bone. Ah, well. Just that native crankiness again ...


Oh ... and the off chance that the Pew Charitable Trust forgets to send that check, I suppose it bears mentioning that a new income stream has started trickling in here at Corporate. It's all about online guitar lessons! Yes, gentle readers, by giving online guitar lessons Yours Truly stands a chance of keeping StevieCoyleDotCom off the bailout rolls, which means, of course, that the CEO will not be subject to the wretched $500,000 annual salary cap that's got all us acoustic musicians stewing. Lessons happen via Skype, which is a completely free and wonderfully functional piece of downloadable software that allows users to make telephone calls and hold video chats right over the Internet. Both hour-long and half-hour lessons are available and payment is via PayPal. All ages and all skills levels are encouraged to get in touch. Teaching advanced players is a gas, of course, but I must say I get a huge vicarious thrill out of seeing absolute beginners "get it" as well. Wherever you are in your playing, please don't hesitate to give me a shout. It'll be good.


Armed with my trusty laptop I can even do lessons from the road. And on that note, I'll be in Florida for 10 days in March and around The Bay Area for CD Release Parties in April and May. I'll also spend some at home seeing if I can get recombobulated after this extended and adventure into CD-Land. Maybe take a little vacation or something. Maybe read a book. Take a hike. Jump off The Grid for a while. That's hard to imagine, but people do it, I hear. June finds me in New England, building a tour around a wonderful new week-long guitar camp in New Hampshire. From there I'll work my way south, perhaps all the way to Georgia. Later in the summer and into fall I'll be in The Pacific Northwest and then in The Midwest and The Great Lakes. Maybe Greece and/or Australia in the fall. And then it'll be time to start thinking about another album. Good gravy.

Happy New Year, Debra. I really mean it. Strange times. Hard times. But with any luck and soon, better times.

All the best,

S
-Stevie Coyle
http://www.myspace.com/coylestevie
http://www.steviecoyle.com
http://www.reverbnation.com/steviecoyle

http://www.marinlocalmusic.com/content/stevie-coyl...

Friday, Nov 28, 2008
8:05am

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea,

Your faithful reporter here, with much to tell you since our last coffee klatch. That was several weeks ago, now, and considerably more concise than customary, if memory serves. In fact, some folks wrote in to complain that the newsletters have gotten rather too brief. So feel free to bail out - if you'll pardon the expression - whenever impulse or common sense dictate. But in an effort to respond to the demands of a market economy (ever the hallmark too-big-to-fail credit institutions and folk musicians alike) I'm just gonna open the chute, compadres, and let 'er buck.

It seems there was an election recently. Did you know that? Oh yes. It was all over the news here in Northern California. Some folks are very happy about the way it turned out and some are not. And at this point I think I'll take my sainted Granny's advice to stop talking when one runs out of utterly self-evident things to say. Oh heck, I suppose I could add just a couple more such items, such as, maybe ... oh ... "Africa is a continent, not a country" and "I can see the moon from my house, but this does not qualify me to be an astronaut." There. Done with that. You betcha.

(Augh. Is it warm in here or is it just me? I'm in my favorite java-teria, sitting next to a table full of dermatologists talking shop, and their conversation is perhaps making me feel not so very good. I'll spare you the details. Maybe I'll take a little stroll and have just one more half-a-cup ...)

Friday, Nov 28
8:35am

Chilly morning here in Marin. Sure glad I have a nice hot beverage to warm me up. Have been joined by a cafe regular I used to refer to as Larry The Subvocalizer, whose first name, it turns out, really is Larry. Larry's a mighty nice feller when you're not trying to get some email done while sitting next to him in an otherwise quiet corner of a cafe, and now that we've actually met, he's very kindly offered to buy me a nice Cappuccino. I suspect he is not offering me some sort of of cloistered monk, but rather a beverage of the same name. I've never had one (the beverage, that is.) I wonder if it has coffee in it.

Friday, Nov 28
9:05am

Nice post-election chat, nice bevvy and now back to work. Larry's political views are somewhat left of Atilla The Hun's and I am currently basking in the rare glow of perceiving myself as a centrist.

I had a wonderful little tour of Michigan recently an wanted to thank all the fine folks who came out to lay an ear on me there. The gigs were terrific. The crowds were savvy and smart and endured my brief between-song forays into left-leaningness with true and undeserved forbearance. The drives through the fall colors were spectacular. I had a right royal blast. I walked the dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. I ate caribou salami. I resolved to title a song "Caribou Salami." I played in a venue that was just tremendously quaint (though not in the Geneva Convention sense of the term) where a Near Occasion Of Sin was struck down by a preemptive strike launched by village elders who - when they bought the town hall from an ancient brotherhood lodge for one dollar a few years back - made job one painting over the little naked angels that had flown across the della robbia blue ceilings for decades and decades. I, for one, was grateful, having learned at an early age that angels actually have no bodies at all, and that depicting them naked was mere prurience. Who knows how many hundreds of years in Purgatory I've been spared? I sure don't.

Well, it's happened again and even though I could have sworn my stomach was still full from The Great Imprudence yesterday (sorry, Oprah, a couple of purple berries were just not going to cut it on Thanksgiving) and I truly believed at that time that I would never have to eat again and knew I was done when the host and his brother started talking about the "pie slide" that they wanted to invent when they were kids for swift and hands-free ingestion of desserts I really thought I still had a good base coat of sorts down this morning to slow the absorption of the high test they serve here just one easy flat beautiful mile long walk through the redwoods from where I live damn their eyes I was apparently grotesquely wrong and no you're not reading a lost novel by Garbriel Garcia Marquez it's just that my runaway amygdala will no longer tolerate pedestrian concepts like punctuation and capitalization but I appear to be able for the moment to put spaces between the words and that will have to be enough which is OK just so long as the spelling is right because Sister Battlebarge is probably watching from wherever she ended up and that location is not certain by any means come to think of it and pow bang zoom to da moon Alice are your ears ringing too and I don't think I'm foaming at the mouth but still I wonder if wearing a lobster bib in a coffee place would be bad form because I really don't want to ruin this lovely cardigan my sister behind The Orange Curtain in Anaheim gave me and gee do I make that ferret face too that I see other middle aged men make trying to read through bifocals man oh man is that ever NOT attractive wow managed some capitalization there wonder if I'm now on the down side of the bell curve and open the pod bay doors hall daisy daisy give me your oh my no doubt about it now it's noddy blinkums time acck pfffffft

Friday, Nov 28
11:00am, 10 miles away from previous location

Lordy. You know, I really thought I had fever-dreamed that tiny electronic voice intoning "This is Red Leader, move in" just before I hit the wall, there, but apparently not ... (Look, my beloved ellipsis is back! How I missed it!) So thank you very much to the intervention team that whisked me out, threw me in the back of a van, drove me around Marin for an hour and talked me down, maaaaan. I'm told I resembled Frank from Blue Velvet for a few moments or one of those little wind-up monkeys with the cymbals. I'm quite sure I did, actually. The rest of this newsletter will be written from this positively Calvinist-meets-Bauhaus organic snack joint across town. Wheatgrass juice: it's not just for cows any more.

Oh. The CD, you ask? It's called Ten-In-One and it's really taking shape. Mike Marshall came by Treehouse Studio a couple of weeks ago and laid down some mighty, mighty mandolin on an original jig called Bruno's Revenge. Good gravy, did he ever catch a wave. You'll see. The album also features Sam Bevan (David Grisman, Joe Craven), Kendrick Freeman (Alison Brown Band), Kit Walker (Kundalini Boombox), Heidi Clare (AtAGallop, The Wronglers, Reeltime Travelers), Mike Phelan (Marley's Ghost), Marla Fibish (The Heart Of The Roll), Corinne West (Corinne West and The Posse), Joel Tepp (Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Danny O'Keefe) Teresa Tudury, Lee Virus, Rachel Tree, Nicholas Weber (The Royal Lichtenstein Circus) and producer Walter Strauss (Walter Strauss Trio, Mamadou Diabate, Mamadou Sidibe, TenSleep, The Burns Sisters). Ostensibly, it's about one fellow's trip to the sideshow. What it's really about is anybody's guess.

It's not going to be ready for the holidays, but that doesn't mean it won't be for sale for the holidays. This is the age of Vaporware, and doggone it, it's high time us folkies got on that big shiny bus. So - ever in the vanguard of questionable financial instruments - Yours Truly has decided to sell CD futures on my website. Now, the good lord willin' and the creek don't rise, Ten-In-One will arrive in dozens of big heavy boxes by the middle of February. But if you would care to extend some full faith and credit before then, pop on over to the old homepage corral and click the jolly candy-like PayPal button there. Your dollars will go on account and your order will be filled absolutely ASAP. And as a special bonus for Early Adopters, the gift gnomes here at Stevie Central will send an electronic image directly to your inbox, suitable for printing on your own free-or-nearly-free-but-the-damn-ink-costs-eighty-bucks-a-pop printer. This image will be available only to advance buyers. And if the album is to be a Christmas gift, this way you'll have a little something to stuff that special someone's stocking with. Pretty doggone modern, eh?

And speaking of modern, I have - for better or worse - taken the advice of my fellow folkies and have signed up on some of those social networking sites you hear about on NPR. Or at least that we here in Marin County hear about on NPR. Now, I'm not looking for a mail-order bride or anything like that. But I'm told that this is the way music bidness gits done these days. MySpace? Got me one. FaceBook? (A.K.A. Evil Time-Sucking Cyber-Party Crack Book?) You bet. In fact, that was how I began to suspect I was spending too much time in an Italian cafe ... I found myself pronouncing these sites "Mee-spa-chay" and "Fah-chay-bouk." Clearly a cry for help, wouldn't you say? Pass the spirulina, buddy. I'm on the wagon.

Well, I think that pretty much covers it. I'm quite sure I have given a faithful account of every waking minute since we last chatted. There are house concerts coming up pronto in Davis, Oakland, Napa, Menlo Park and Kensington, CA and some cool train gigs in Niles, The Town That Time Forgot. Looks like it'll be March in the Virginia-to-Florida corridor, April in Australia and Tasmania. May in Greece, maybe, if the high rollers among you still fancy a week-long fingerstyle workshop in the Artemisian Mountains near Argos. Please ping me pronto about that. No, not you, Mr. Paulson. You have to stay home. You and your pals have been bad bad bad.


Here's the gigs.

Fri, Dec 05, 8:00pm
BILL WAGMAN'S HOUSE CONCERTS
Davis, CA
It's always a beautiful day in Mr. Wagman's neighborhood. http://wagmanhouseconcerts.org/

Wed, Dec 10, 4:30pm
NILES HOLIDAY TRAIN OF LIGHTS
Niles and Sunol, CA
Departs Sunol Station 4:15pm.

Saturday, Dec 13, 8:00pm
"FRITZ'S FAMILY ROOM" HOUSE CONCERTS
Kensington, CA
Email RFrassetto@LOWBALL.COM for reservations and details.

Sun, Dec 14, 2:30pm
PRIVATE HOUSE CONCERT
Napa, CA
Email pkrammer@42pacific.com for details and directions.

Wed, Dec 17, 4:30pm
NILES HOLIDAY TRAIN OF LIGHTS
Niles and Sunol, CA
Departs Sunol Station 4:15pm.

Sun, Dec 21, 4:30pm
NILES HOLIDAY TRAIN OF LIGHTS
Niles and Sunol, CA
Departs Sunol Station 4:15pm.

Thanks for hanging in there. Really long email this time, and a very eventful morning. But if you remember anything about this newsletter, remember these two words: caribou salami. Yeah, baby.

See you down the road.

Stevie

Howdy, all ... especially Acoustic Music Presenters -

This is just too weird for words. But it might be wise for all you kind-hearted music presenters to be on the lookout out for this scam.

Somebody out there just scammed a venue operator I've played for by claiming to be me and asking for a short-term loan to get his car out of impound. Presumably the car had "my" guitars, "my" cel phone and $1100 in cash in it, and all that was needed was a short-term loan to pay the $400 in fines, recover the vehicle and wire back the loan.

The super-creepy part is that this person, whoever he was, sounded like me. Ugh.

I called the police department of the city where the bad guy gave a (false) number for himself and explained the situation to an officer there, and he told me that this sounded like a variant of a currently prevalent scam where the bad guys will find out (via various social networks, often) when high-school kids will be in Mexico. They will then call the parents, posing as an airlift rescue service, with dire news that their kid has been in a terrible accident and needs to be airlifted back to The States. Money is wired instantly and that's that.

I don't know who this bad guy is, but I am fine, my car is in my driveway, and my guitars are all accounted for. It was mighty kind of the presenter who was victimized to even consider lending money to "me," but please please please be careful about high-stress phone calls from musician pals claiming to need a quick loan. Especially if the rotter says he's me.

Best to all,


_____________

Stevie Coyle
http://www.steviecoyle.com
http://myspace.com/coylestevie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDor0Symxc0

Possibly the coolest app I have ever seen. Almost worth the price of admission alone. Almost ...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

Noted atheist Sam Harris sizes up Sarah Palin in spades. With each book and article he brings into ever-sharper focus the difficulties of being a Good Christian and a Good American at the same time. Most pointedly (and accurately) of all, he points up America's apparent love of mediocrity. George W. Bush was "the guy you could feel comfortable having a beer with." And look what 8 years of that has gotten us. Absolutely unparalleled corruption within the federal government and a swifter decline in every measurable facet of American life than at any other time in history. And with the current financial-markets scandal, that slide is not over by a long shot.

Ben Franklin ... would you have felt good playing foosball with him? Probably not. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. John Adams. Bowling buddies? No. These were people MUCH smarter than you or I are, with much wider and deeper experience in the world and much more native wisdom, I'll wager, to boot. Sarah Palin had never had a passport until last year.

Let's not vote for people who are as dumb as we are. Let's vote for people who are much smarter.

Let's vote for what we truly believe is right, not what is dictated by whatever tribe we've branded ourselves members of.

Please read the Newsweek article at the link above.

S

This is a really quick note. Some folks like just the facts, and others prefer a good rambling rant. We've had plenty for the latter batch. Oh, yes, we have. Now it's time to accommodate the former. Here's one for the "Chatty Cathy, cut your string" crowd.

Why, you may ask? This is good practice. I suspect I will soon need to be hugely tolerant. Noblesse oblige. All things to all people. Read on ....




STEVIE COYLE FOR PRESIDENT http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=5374657669657c436f796c65



My Fellow Americans -

It's all rather embarrassing. I didn't put this whole thing in motion. I really didn't, but I'm just terribly flattered that somebody did. And if elected I, in fact, will serve. If you haven't yet clicked the link above, well, now would be the time to do that.

On the off chance I am not elected President Of The United States, I am hedging my bets by continuing to book shows and making an album that I can sell for money. Devil-may-care guy that I fancy myself to be, I still just can't bring myself to risk it all. "Baby needs new shoes," and "Daddy needs a new garter belt" and all that. But just imagine if this all works out, and I end up moving to Pennsylvania Avenue. Wouldn't that be something? A musician in the White House. I look forward to a day when we can all hoist a steaming flagon of Ovaltine and shout "Mission accomplished!" *

First and foremost, friends, I want to let you know that I'm right now setting up a tour of the Great Lakes for mid-October through mid-November. I've I just booked a set of anchor gigs in Michigan for the weekend of October 24 in Trufant and Muskegon. That's "along about the base of the little finger," I think the locals would say.. There's currently lots of scheduling flexibility on either side of that. Say, you good folks in MI, WI, OH, IN, etc, what say we do some house concerts? Hmmmm? HMMMMMMMM? It really is just a party with a concert in the middle. It's populist, it's subversive, it's tres-DIY and it's all the rage for touring solo and duo acts. Why wait for your not-so-local venue to book your favorite acts? There are lots more musicians than there is work out there, so email me pronto and let's get busy. I think you'll be delighted to find out how easy and fun it is. And The Joneses down the street will be simply GREEN with envy, dahling.

Things are a tad quiet on the booking front, in anticipation of some big ol' slammin' CD Release Parties just as soon as the CD gets releasable. But I've got a really fun tourette of Southern CA coming up with songstress / picker / racontresse Caren Armstrong. That will be a right royal blast. Then in October I'll be doing some round-robin shows in Northern CA with road pals Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines Yup. THAT Lloyd Maines. We'll do some solo stuff, some duo stuff, we'll leap in and out of each other's songs and it'll be a big ol' hootenanny. The good kind, though.

I just toured New England. New England was ridiculous. It was just one incredibly-bucolic setting after another. Check it out:

Ridiculous And Incredibly Bucolic New England Tour Photo Gallery 1
Ridiculous And Incredibly Bucolic New England Tour Photo Gallery 2

And now I'm heading up to The Great Lakes. I'm looking for living rooms to play in at night and for the daytimes, I'm putting pins in my map for all the roadside attractions I can find up thataway. I'm already hip to The Giant Ball Of String, The World's Largest Tire and The Very Strange Cherry Pie Battle monument. But please don't let me miss anything really unusual.

Safe travels and I'll see you in DC in '09.

Zoom zoom.

S


-Stevie "Bush For Ex-President" Coyle
http://www.reverbnation.com/steviecoyle









* Maybe we won't shout that, after all.



UPCOMING SHOWS FOR STEVIE COYLE
09/12/2008 08:00 PM Culver City, CA Boulevard Music
09/13/2008 08:00 PM Covina, CA The Fret House
09/14/2008 07:00 PM Altadena, CA Coffee Gallery Backstage
10/10/2008 08:00 PM Sebastopol, CA Studio E Tickets
10/14/2008 08:00 PM Berkeley, CA Freight & Salvage Coffee House Tickets
10/23/2008 06:00 PM Lansing, MI Elderly Instruments Tickets
10/24/2008 08:00 PM Trufant, MI Trufant Community Center Tickets
10/26/2008 08:00 PM Muskegon, MI Muskegon County Museum Tickets
04/17/2009 12:00 PM Pinjarra, WA, AU Fairbridge Festival Tickets
04/18/2009 12:00 PM Pinjarra, WA, AU Fairbridge Festival Tickets
04/19/2009 08:00 PM Pinjarra, WA, AU Fairbridge Festival Tickets
04/24/2009 08:00 PM Albany, WA, AU Harboursound Festival
04/25/2009 08:00 PM Albany, WA, AU Harboursound Festival
04/26/2009 08:00 PM Albany, WA, AU Harboursound Festival
10/17/2009 08:00 PM Santa Rosa, CA Private Show: Santa Rosa House Concert

"Our recent House Concert with the incomparable Stevie Coyle ranks among the best shows we've had. Stevie's great song writing and amazing guitar playing were complemented by his humor, charm and exceptional rapport with the audience. " - R & J , Russ & Julie's House Concerts (Apr 06, 2008)

"When I speak to people who know The Waybacks, they always appreciate the humor, intelligence, and well-roundedness that Stevie brought to the band ... he gave it a light-hearted seriousness and a walking-on-air groundedness that had broad appeal without being watered dowm ..." - Polly King, Village Concerts, Palmyra, VA

"On top of being a top-rate guitarist and singer, he is also an outstanding entertainer. He brings a lot of humor to his show, through funny songs, stories, and general chatter with the audience. He really connected with our group, and everyone had a wonderful time." - Bo Russell, Casa Bowl House Concerts, Orlando, FL

NB: When presented with the first draft of this newsletter, the editors here at StevieCoyleDotCom threw up their hands, astonished and not a little dismayed at the sheer, oppressive, presumptuous length of it. The overall tone of their response was something along the lines of, "He really got the big shovel out for this one, didn't he?" They have urged us here in the production department to point out right at the top that there are actually only three points of any import at all here:

1. Mr. Coyle will in all likelihood host a week-long fingerstyle guitar workshop in Greece next year.
2. There is still weekday space available on the calendar for house concerts on the upcoming tour to The Great Northeast - New England and all the way down to Pennsylvania - and that bookings can be made in a snap. A house concert is, after all, just a party with some music in the middle.
3. Pursuant to Item 2, per above, friends are urged to stay tuned to his website as the August tour develops

Much of the rest is addenda, errata and hyperbole.


Howdy, All,

First off, a bit of housekeeping: allow me to thank - as graciously as I can - those eagle-eyed compadres in the reading audience who have so assiduously pointed out some small number of typographical anomalies in several recent newsletters. Be assured that those were mis-keys, and not misspellings. If there's one thing yours truly can do, it's spell. In fact, I must admit to being a bit of a Rain Man on that front. You see, when I was in first grade I won the school spelling bee. And 30 years later I met the previously-eighth-grade gal that I beat and she gave me such a noogie I saw stars for ten minutes. Of course, nature abhors imbalance, so while I could spell like a little fiend, I also had a tendency to trip over the painted lines on the basketball court.

Just a couple more excuses about the typos and then we'll move on.

Having minored in theology all those years ago, I seem to recall, too, that most major deities tend to body-slam the prideful, so that even the most expert rug weaver is wise to drop a stitch every now and then. Yeah. I like that. And finally, being simultaneously a fingerpicker with fingernails a hunt-and-peck typist is a wicked combo. Check it out.




Greece was ridiculously fun. Thank you for asking. Thanks very much, too, to those of you who sent well wishes, and regrets to those who asked me to post pictures of how tan I got during my visit. Friends, Homie don't tan. Seriously, the very best compliment I can hope for along those lines is, "Gee, Stevie, you look somewhat less translucent than usual." But I have posted pix from the trip and links to those galleries are up onat my home page. Surf on by.

I traveled as part of an ad hoc acoustic trio expeditiously dubbed The Sirens Of San San Francisco. We helped inaugurate a brand new performing arts center up in the beautiful Artemisian mountains near Argos called Elegaia. Until very recently it was a hundreds-of-years-old tumbledown farmhouse. But now it has been lovingly restored by Steven DeLaet and Diane Tittle-de Laet, founders of The Arete Fund, a charitable foundation based in Menlo Park, CA. Elagaia is a truly compelling location for retreats, workshops and performances. Check out the pictures. You'll see that the old threshing floor right at the edge of the cliff has become a stage, and that the hillside above it is being shaped into an amphitheater. Can you picture yourself there? Me, too. And it seems entirely possible that next year Yours Truly will be leading a group of a dozen or so pals up there to do a week-long fingerstyle guitar workshop. Accommodations and dining will happen in the ancient and impossibly charming seaside town of Napflio, about 25 minutes away. We'll take time out to visit a few of the archaeological sites that are right in the neighborhood, too. Email me to get dibs on a spot on the roster, if you like. No shoving, please.

The Greek language uses a different alphabet. Did you know that? I must have known that at some point, too, but I probably blocked it after getting one too many wedgies from frat guys in college. So at any rate, with that different alphabet, getting around in Greece was a bit like reading a Russian novel, I thought. Remember back in college how your brain helped you keep all Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's hugely long-named characters straight? Perhaps, like me, you turned the protagonist into "That guy with the two really long first names, and the first one starts with 'A'," or maybe the villainess was "That evil 'K' lady," or even "The 'K' lady with the long name as opposed to 'The 'K' lady with the REALLY long name.'" It was like that in Greece. I got around by thinking "Well, I need to take a left turn at the taverna that starts with the letter that looks like a sideways belt buckle," or "I must remember to go back to that great restaurant where the first word started with the horseshoe and the second one began with the candlestick." Worked pretty good, too. And here's a little travel hint: I have found while traveling anywhere overseas that a hearty "Una mas cerveza, por favor," combined with much energetic and illustrative gesture is more than sufficient to communicate your meaning most of the time. Try it out.

Our pension in Napflio was extremely comfortable and well-appointed. But we all agreed that an enormous red and green macaw is odd pet choice for an innkeeper. But there was Dio, right in the lobby. Right in the heart of things. All day. All night. Dio, The Bird That Never Sleeps. Dio, replete with 100-decibel whistles and spine-throttling squawks that can in a nanosecond transform even the most mellow and imperturbable soul into Bill The Cat. Breakfast in the lobby each day was a truly bonding experience for sorely underslept guests from all over the world. And believe me, there was no language barrier there at all .... we all understood perfectly the gist of every muttered threat and colorfully pantomimed method of parrotcide. Good old Dio. Helluva bird. Where's Colonel Sanders when you need him?

Time flows differently in Greece. People have dinner at 10:00 at night. They stay up 'til near dawn. They get up at the crack of noon, have a bite (maybe the lucky ones get to strangle a macaw, too, over breakfast), and they get quiet again between 2:00 and 5:00. Only in the evening do they start the day in earnest. A whole country living on Musician Time. My people! I have found you at last!

Ah well, let's press on. Those that care to are welcome to surf to the ol' home page and click the links to look at the purty pitchers. You'll see the old Venetian town of Napflio, the newly-christened performing arts center of Elagaia, the ancient stadium and temples at Nemea, the theater at Epidavros, a friendly cave where mad dogs, Englishmen and American musicians can get out of the noonday sun, the most perfect private beach EVER, the yacht that's so big only a James Bond villain could possibly afford it and lots of photographs of happy people eating and drinking. Oh, and some pix from the Island of Hydra's independence day celebration where a faux Turkish ship was set alight in the harbor. Man, do Greeks know how to party or what?

What you won't see in those shots is a photo of what yer pal Stevie lucked into on the way home. So I have included one here.



Yes, that is what you think it is. I flew home first class. Compadres, I have flown thousands upon thousands of miles these last 8 years of touring and not ONCE have I flown first class. Until this trip the best I could hope for was an exit row seat with two extra inches of legroom. And narrow row-mates. But that all changed Monday on the London-to-SFO leg. Once the nice lady at the podium handed me the upgraded boarding pass, I found myself fighting the urge to positively sprint down the jetway, onto the 747 and up the stairs to first class before she could realize she had made a horrible mistake and that she'd have to take my seat assignment back.

Folks, my bewtocks had not hit the chair before I was offered a cocktail. Free, like. And that chair? It turned into a bed. Can you believe it? Like other musicians, I had heard fables and rumors about such things but I didn't believe them any more than I believe in the tooth fairy or the wisdom of a Persistent Republican Majority. But the rumors are true. Air travel can be a joy. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never had crayfish salad on terra firma. On Monday I had it 6 miles up in the sky. A-fricking-mazing. "How you gonna keep them down on the farm?" indeed.

Well, I won't have to worry about that for a while. Today I'll be driving to the next gig. I'm teaching fingerstyle guitar at a week-long music camp here in Northern California. The site is kind of remote, actually. Hmmmm. Musicians. Together for a week or two in the wilds. Isolated. No cel phones or Internet. Cut off. Geez, I hope this doesn't turn into Lord of The Flies or Deliverance or anything. Stay tuned.

Here's the gigs:


Stevie Coyle
http://www.steviecoyle.com

UPCOMING SHOWS FOR STEVIE COYLE
07/05/2008 01:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/06/2008 08:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/07/2008 08:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/08/2008 01:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/09/2008 01:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/10/2008 01:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/11/2008 01:00 PM Sonoma County, CA, US California Coast Music Camp
07/30/2008 08:00 PM Bangor, ME, US Ann Marie's Kitchen
08/02/2008 11:30 AM Winterport, ME, US Winterport Music Festival Tickets
08/02/2008 07:30 PM Brooks, ME, US Marsh River Theatre Tickets
08/05/2008 07:30 PM Waterville Valley, NH, US Rey Center
08/08/2008 08:00 PM Easthampton, MA, US P.A.C.E. Tickets
08/09/2008 02:00 PM Providence, RI, US Private Show: Providence House Concert
09/12/2008 08:00 PM Culver City, CA, US Boulevard Music
09/13/2008 08:00 PM Covina, CA, US The Fret House
09/14/2008 07:00 PM Altadena, CA, US Coffee Gallery Backstage
10/17/2009 08:00 PM Santa Rosa, CA, US Private Show: Santa Rosa House Concert