So the tribute record that I contributed to (Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy) is out now for pre-order and itunes exclusive download. The song I did is called "Love's the Only Thing that Shuts Me Up." It's track 4 on the collection. Here's the official PR for it:

I did the morning show on Monday from the patio of the Fox 6 studios in Birmingham--just beside the great Vulcan. For those of you who missed it, you can watch it here: David Berkeley on Fox 6.

The highlight was actually when my brother went for a run while I was setting up. He came back without his shirt on, and while stretching, he was apprehended by security telling him that he'd have to leave. He told them that his brother was on the roof, and they said, well your brother is going to have to leave. Then he explained that I was playing on the news broadcast, and everyone relaxed a little. But just a little.

Check out the aerial shot in the clip. What were they thinking with that one?
-db

So it's official.
My friend and fellow troubadour Micah Dalton and I have started ATL Collective down here in Atlanta. We throw monthly happenings upstairs at Danneman's Coffeehoue (466 Edgewood Ave in the Old 4th Ward) where local artists come together to cover a classic record.
We cover the record top to bottom in order. AndFor our first event, we did Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. And it was BYOBM (bring your own bloody mary, of course). Our next event is this Wednesday (Aug 26). We're doing the Fleetwood Mac epic record Rumours. And it's BYOMC (yes, bring your own mac and cheese). We cover the record top to bottom, in order. And each event, we also try to feature an artist or two. This Wednesday, we will be showcasing our good friend Peter Bradley Adams.

I'm really excited about this venture for a few reasons. For one, it's a chance to celebrate great records. By playing the entire album sequentially, we really get to know the record by the end of the evening. And in an age of singles and digital downloads, when we constantly hear that the album is dead, this is a great way of reviving and remembering what is so wonderful about the album as art form.

For two, there is a great collective spirit among the artists who contribute. This was one of Micah and my main objectives--to foster a community in the local scene, to unite and excite. Too often, we promote ourselves and do not support our peers. We often don't even go out and listen to our friends playing shows. By covering a great talent's work, we can celebrate each other more than focus on ourselves. Sure as an audience member, you come away having discovered each of the acts who perform that night. But as an artist, you don't have to worry so much about pushing yourself and you can just enjoy playing music and listening to music.

For three, although I do participate in most of the events, I'm also excited to just host and promote the other acts. I see this endeavor as a way to contribute some and help bring together parts of the Atlanta music scene.

For four (that's a bit awkward), I like trying to learn songs that I might not normally try to play. This week, I'm going to do Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks sings the tune normally. It's not an obvious choice. Last time, I played Shelter from the Storm on ukelele. I've never played that thing before. There's a freedom and levity to these shows that allows for some great things to happen. We don't take ourselves so seriously and, therefore, we get back to what brought us to music in the first place--the love of playing and listening of collaborating and of making something unique and beautiful.

Find us on facebook and come see us at Danneman's.
-david

Thanks to our good friend and publicist, Jeff Kilgour (Tijuana Gift Shop), we gave a private showcase atop the Atlas Building in Manhattan last month. I was flanked by Jordan Katz and Jonathan Goldberger (you can't see JG in the photo) and filmed by Mr. Robbie Stauder (you can see him).


The building is about 50 stories high and right between the Empire State Building (yep, that's the one behind us) and Times Square.


The folks from Gotham provided an open bar. And my man Tuey Connell supplied the sound (and a van). Thanks Tuey.

Although you couldn't tell by his playing, Jordan was running on empty. He played the Filmore in San Francisco the night before with the Indigo Girls and was playing the Filmore in San Francisco with De La Soul the next night.


Despite a 30% chance of rain all week, the weather was perfect. And we could see the entire city, all the bridges and all of the great state of NJ while we played. If all shows could be 50 stories high, I'd be on the road a lot more.
-DB

Hello there good Myspace Blog world.

So I'm admittedly a terrible blogger, which is surprising considering how much I talk about things of dubious relevance. And the truth is, I write more on my website than here.

But there have been some really nice reviews of Strange Light, available now at my new store. (You can also pick up the shiny new David Berkeley tshirt there.)

And I wanted to share one of the recent reviews featured in Blurt. They dug deep, going back to my nursery school beginnings and my days accompanying a traveling saleswoman door to door. Check out the piece.

And thanks for being patient with my lack of blogging rigor.
-David

We have just learned that the track I did for the Mark Mulcahy tribute record, "Love's The Only Thing that Shuts Me Up," is coming out on Shout Factory Records Sept 29. This project was spearheaded by our friend from West Virginia, Nathaniel Smalley.
After Mark's wife died in a terrible and tragic fall, leaving Mark to raise his 2 young daughters, Nathaniel had the bold and brilliant idea to collect songs by many of Mark's musical fans. I was flattered that Nathaniel asked me to contribute.
Will, Jordan and I did a simple version of this short and beautiful song. But then we learned that there were a lot of submissions by some pretty amazing artists, so we figured that our little song wouldn't make the cut.
Well, the track list has just been made public, and not only are we on the record, but we're batting cleanup. Check this: Track 1: Thom Yorke (Radiohead). Track 2: The National. Track 3: Michael Stipe (REM). Track 4: Me. Track 5: J Mascis (Dinasour Jr.). Track 6: Chris Harford & Mr Ray Neal. Track 7: Frank Black. Track 8: Vic Chesnutt...Other later cuts include tracks by Ben Kweller, Josh Rouse, The Autumn Defense, Juliana Hatfield, Mercury Rev, Elvis Perkins, Frank Turner, Sean Watkins. You can read about it here.
If you are the blogging type, tell your friends to check it out. It's an amazing collection for a really worthy cause.

I am back on American soil for good (or at least for a long while). And today, the 20th of January, it feels so good to be back. I just watched the inauguration with my wife Sarah and a huge number of people at Manuel’s Tavern, a legendary Atlanta establishment where Jimmy Carter announced his plans to run for governor in 1970. As I know was the case all over the world, the room was positively buzzing with emotion and hope and pride. And we watched, elbow to elbow, and wept and hugged each other, and there was the feeling that things might just be okay. We live in a cynical time. And it can be hard to get behind movements and causes, hard not to get skeptical and frustrated by inefficiency, to get mired in controversy, to believe that nothing can change. But today was not a day for the cynics and, I hope, not a day for the partisans. It is true, I watched among quite a sympathetic crowd. And I am sure there were quite a few people who heard different things in Obama’s speech than I did. But I hope that somewhere within those people, the president’s words illumined a small flame, sparked a flash of belief. For I found his words to be once again profound and poetic, to not only touch on most all I believe in but also to teach me something about who I am and who we can be as a people. Today I am proud of my country and happy to be an American. Today a good measure of my faith was restored. Today I want to be a better citizen, a better husband, a better father. And maybe I want to start writing happier songs. Or maybe not.  
But in the spirit of bipartisanship, I did an interview for a NASCAR blog. It was done a few days ago and has nothing at all to do with politics and barely anything to do with racing.
You can see it  here.
I’ll also be playing my first show since moving back to Atlanta at my home court of  Eddie's Attic. It’s on Tuesday, February 3rd and is all ages.

Thanks for reading, and happy 2009.

Obama,

David
(as always, pay us a visit on our official site:
  davidberkeley.com)

It's official. Finally.

Strange Light is now avail.

I'm sorry for the wait. But hopefully you were doing other things and so weren't JUST waiting.
I think I'm most proud of a couple of the tracks that are deeper in the record--the way we layered Measure of a Man, for example, and how Scraps of You came out.
But I don't want to influence your listening.

Let me know what you think.
And thanks for the patience,
David

A few days ago, I set up a microphone in a corner of Corsica and did a long phone interview with Ira Glass, the host of the amazing, Emmy-award-winning radio program This American life. I held a phone to my ear and recorded my end of the conversation and got to play a few songs, with the phone wedged between my cheek and shoulder. And this weekend (between Sept 26 and Sept 28), the segment will air on the program. It will then be downloadable as a podcast and will rebroadcast on occassion. We haven't heard the edited version, so we have no idea how it will come out. But it should be about a 20 minute piece of me telling an odd story and singing some songs. You can download the podcast on iTunes or at This American Life.


In honor of the radio show, we have made Strange Light available for purchase on iTunes and actual discs will be available at CDBaby and Amazon quite soon. It's been a long ride getting this disc out. But the delays are no indication of how proud I am of the music on this disc and how much respect I have for all the musicians who played with me on it. So I hope you'll like it enough to forgive me for how long it took to get it to you.



And the final news is that I will be back in the US in November coming through a lot of towns (mostly on the East Coast). I will definitely have the new disc with me, and hopefully I'll have Jordan along as well. So keep your eye out for updates.

All the love
-DB

That's French for summer. I think. It has arrived. And although it's cool in the evenings (as we are in the mountains), the days are hot. They're hot enough that it's hard to do much more than the cows do around here (that is, lay under the fig trees most of the day).
I just returned from England, where Jordan and I did a quick 2 week run of shows all over that better known island and to Paris. I lost my voice fiercely on the 3rd night of the tour. Although I got it back in a few days, it was a struggle to get through some of the songs. One night in London I only played 2 songs before my UK manager Garry threw in the towel. Literally. He hit Jordan with a white towel and made us leave the stage.
Luckily, it is true what they say about Guinness being the world's finest healer. The black gold elixir worked its magic again, and I was restored. Still, I look back on Ripon as one of our finer evenings, as it was before the pipes gave out. The town up north is a gem. And we were treated royally by the lovely Jane, who made us toast in the irons and prepared a breakfast that was not matched on the rest of our run. The only disappointment was that we were rained out of our pilgrimage to the heralded abbey up there.

We played an unmarked club in Paris. The show was supposed to start at 11pm, which seemed late for my bones. Turned out we didn't start until closer to 2am, which was just about right as that was when the club started to fill. Love that city.

Thanks, as always, to everyone who came out. Seeing you makes it all worth it.

Finally, a word on Strange Light. Though I shouldn't jinx matters (as the release has been progressing so smoothly so far...), it looks like we can expect the disc to be out by summer's end. Think late August/early Sept. Just when the dog days are setting in, and the heat has made us weary, she'll be there to bring the rain. I hope.


All for the moment. Check the tour page. I'm playing a show on a beach in Corsica accessible only by boat. Maybe you should start paddling now.