I'm not the best at blogging. Wish I did it more. I just think too much when I write, I want it to be honest and spontaneous. Blogging is just too much pressure;) So, this is what I wrote last night after contemplating the amazing CD Release show I had Friday...

I love my new album 'Stream of Concrete'. I'm really proud of it. When I went into the studio 2.5 years ago I didn't want to settle. I wanted to make my songs into the vision I had in my head. It took my focus, patience, nerve, ability to carry on when it felt like it would never be done. Just being in the process, a process of saying 'yes I love that!', and 'no, not so much' based on the feeling in my gut. Waiting for the right time and people to be available, letting my gut guide me. I had to trust it, it was the only thing I had. I had help, yet I had to always make the final decisions. Same thing went for my CD release. I waited for the right time and place that felt right. And in the end, Friday at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge was a feeling of overwhelming love, elegant chaos, standing firm in my choices and watching them unfold to create a perfect night. That show will be forever etched in my memory, moreover, my being because I felt, more than heard or noticed a dream coming to fruition. A pretty much sold-out show, people dancing and singing along, the Aruda Bros on horns, Danielle, Barb, and Amanda on backup vocals, Paul and Tom on drums and bass, plus Lance, Lloyd, Ryan and of course Dana.  Being literally surrounded by my friends, fans, respected peers, industry connections, and perfect strangers who happened upon the show. All raising me up. I've seen what my focus and vision can create. Now I'm basking in the glow, coasting, waiting for the wave of my next vision to push me in the next direction. It'll be interesting to see what's coming. At least I know I can trust my gut:)

Thanks so much to everyone who made Stream of Concrete a reality and made the show on teh 21st soooo amazing!There are some killer photos of the night from Todd Lehmann that will be up soon. Plus watch for video!!

-TStorch 

I've been touring in the South for the past two weeks with my friend Jason Luckett from LA.  We started with 3 nights in Charleston, SC—a city full of old grandeur and moss-hung trees. Two mariners, whose job was moving boats from Florida North to spots like Lake Ontario, listened intently at The Blind Tiger. They loved their life on the outskirts of society and really supported my choice in occupation Atlanta was a ton of fun. My friend Tracy Wells put together an awesome last minute show at an Episcopal church. Her sister Ashley played too and blew me away with her beautiful voice and songs. We played the Eddie's Attic open mic and got lot's of love from Eddie himself.  We're both booking shows there in the future (yay!). Then on to the heart of New Orleans, the French Quarter, where titty bars mix with Dixieland jazz and you can people watch over beignets and café au lait every morning. Unfortunately, my asthma had a field day with the pollen, mold and dust in that old city, most of the South really.  I planned this tour in May/June partially to avoid the New England pollen season. Supposedly I did miss the worst of things down here.

Neutral Ground Coffeehouse in New Orleans had a small, appreciative crowd and my friend Louis Ledford and his girlfriend, Gina, came out. Gina had a house in the Lower 9. It was still there after Katrina thanks to a new roof she'd put on just before. After 3 years they're just getting around to the last fix--a new front door. We got a personal "destruction tour" as she called it. All we could see was row after row of cement foundations and overgrown lots of where a thriving neighborhood used to stand.  The water lifted these homes off their foundations and they just floated away, to land in the middle of a street and be bulldozed. Can you imagine coming back to find your home and everything in it literally GONE? Non-existent. Disappeared. Wiped off the face of the Earth. I hear 100,000 have never returned.

In all honesty this tour has been hard for me. Small crowds, not many CD sales, expensive gas that's had to go on my credit card, missing ones I love back in Boston, wondering if I bit off more than I can handle with 2 months on the road. Yet, I know I have a home to come home to, and family I'll see soon in Nebraska and Colorado. That brings me to Mississippi.

Jason's father grew up in Jackson, MS. We spent one night visiting his uncle and many cousins.  Not only did I get hugs as they met me, they took me into their homes and treated me as family. They taught me the proper way to say the Mississippi greeting "howyamomnem?" When I hugged Jason's Uncle James good-bye he said, "bye, you take care" I said, "g-bye Uncle". He said, "Right response."

April 7th, 2008  Here’s the latest news, via blog form!

Caffe Vivaldi, NYC Thursday, April 10th 7:00PM!
Opening for Pete Muller!

The Burren, Somerville, MA Sunday, April 13th 9:00PM!
Full band show!
Tom Bianchi on bass! Chris Anzalone on drums! Lance Vallis on guitar! Woohoo!!

Opening for Vance Gilbert Saturday, April 26th!
Stone Soup Coffeehouse Pawtucket, RI!

MORE SHOWS LISTED BELOW! CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR IN MAY and JUNE!!!

New CD ’Stream of Concrete’ Update
Mixing Done! Mastering THIS week! Photos and sending to the plant for manufacturing this month! Sequencing of the tracks has been the most fun and collaborative effort yet. My friends are helping tons giving their input. Sequencing is a fancy word for "what order the songs are in" on a CD:) I hope you enjoy what we created. The hard thing is, some of the songs are not making this album. They will be available for download or on a future relese though, so you WILL be able to get your hands on them eventually:)

We’re looking at an ’official’ release date in late Aug/early Sept. I’m hearing how everyone goes out of town in August in Boston...so early September may be a better time. Anyone have input on this? Let me know. Pre-orders will be sent as soon as they’re back from the plant. NOT MUCH TIME LEFT TO PRE-ORDER! This month I’ll be writing up the liners notes so if you want your name in lights (okay, small print in my CD booklet) here’s how!:
A lovingly autographed copy of the New Album ’Stream of Concrete’ Plus:
Gifts of $15 or more = Demo CD mailed right away!
Gifts of $100 or more = Demo CD + Your name in the CD liner notes!
Gifts of $500 or more = Demo + name in the liner notes + A House Concert for you and your friends!
PS Don’t forget to include your address with your order!
PPS You can alwas pre-order at any show!

Click the PayPal button above to use a credit card, or regular mail is fun too!!:
Teresa Storch
PO Box 440197
Somerville, MA 02144



APRIL 2008

Thursday, April 10th 7:00pm $5
Caffe Vivaldi 32 Jones St. (off Bleeker near 7th Ave.) NYC, NY
-opening for Pete Muller!

Sunday, April 13th 9:00pm
The Burren 247 Elm St. Somerville, MA (Davis Square)
-BAND SHOW! Marc Douglas Berardo at 8pm!

Thursday, April 17th 8:00pm
Mirabar 35 Richmond St., Providence, RI

Wednesday, April 23rd 8:00pm donations
Morey’s Tavern 27 Main St., Maynard, MA
-open mic feature!

Saturday, April 26th 8:00pm $15
Stonesoup Coffeehouse St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 50 Park Place, Pawtucket, RI
-Opening for Vance Gilbert!!

MAY 2008

Friday, May 2nd 7:30pm $5 donation
Milkboy Acoustic 822 W. Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA

Saturday, May 3rd 8:00pm $15
Panzer House Concerts Columbia, MD
-Opening for Dave Lamotte!!
-Reservations contact: panzers@cs.com 410-531-9233

Wednesday, May 7th 9:00pm
Blind Tiger Pub 38 Broad St. Charleston, SC

Thursday, May 8th 8:00pm $15
Palmetto Acoustic Series Communications Museum, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
-sharing the night with Chris Sullivan!

Friday, May 9th 8:00pm
Blind Tiger Pub 38 Broad St. Charleston, SC

Monday, May 12th 8:00pm
Eddie’s Attic Decatur, GA
-open mic competition!

Wednesday, May 14th 10:00pm
Neutral Ground Coffeehouse 5110 Danneel St.New Orleans, LA!!

Saturday, May 17th 8:00pm
Salento Cafe 2407 Rice Blvd. Houston, TX
-Sharing the night with Celeste Terrell!

Sunday, May 18th 8:00pm
Last Concert Cafe 1403 Nance St. Houston, TX
-Opening for Dave Fahl!

Monday, May 19th 8:00pm
The Corkscrew 1919 Washington St Houston, TX

Thursday, May 22nd 6:00-9:00pm donations
Iguana Cafe 2900 Ranch Rd. 620 N., Austin, TX
-Sharing the night with Shawn Madden!

May 23-28th Playing the song circles of the Kerrville Folk Festival!
Kerrville, TX

Saturday, May 31st 8:00pm
Fiddler’s Dream Coffeehouse 17th St., 1 block North of Glendale Ave., Phoenix, AZ
-my favorite Phoenix listening room!

Wednesday, June 4th 8:00pm
Lestat’s 343 Adams San Diego, CA
-with Greg Friedman and Jason Luckett!


.
Happy April!
April means Spring is here, my birthday is coming, and soon the crabapple trees will be all pink! I love pink crabapple trees:)

I’m excited for ’Stream of Concrete’ to be almost out! I’m excited for my cross-country tour in May and June! I’m excited to be playing Club Passim in Cambridge, MA July 9th!! Thank you for continuing to make my life a success. Success is relative to everyone, and I’ve gone father with this musical life than I ever expected. Mostly due to all of you on this list, anyone who’s bought a CD, anyone who told me they enjoyed the show, or anyone smiling at me from the audience. I love you. Seriously.

Hope to see you on the road soon!
Much Love,
Teresa

I'll bet you really want to know what happened in 2007. "It's about freakin' time" you're saying, since this is my first blog since January, "Where've you been?"
Everywhere. So, first I want to apologize...I've been so wrapped up in my own life I've forgetten to keep in touch:)

This year was been beautiful and crazy.  Even right now I'm on the edge of the beautiful desert North of Scottsdale, AZ (my parents retirement condo) and surrounded by my crazy family. Gotta love the holidays for family bonding;) Highlights of this year were time spent in Austin at SXSW, the Kerrville Folk Fest and two trips to Colorado, one being an amazing tour with Chuck e. Costa. This year saw my second headlining show at Club Passim and first at the Tuft Room of Swallow Hill in Denver (with actual printed tickets!). 

My biggest accomplishment, though, is completing the recording for my first full-length album 'Stream of Concrete'!!  It's been a huge project. There's horns, cello,viola, piano, Hammond B3, electric and upright bass, drums, percussion, lead guitar (electric and acoustic), dobro, mandolin, multiple backup vocalists, on top my vocals and guitar (though not all at once!). WOW. Soooo many people have gone into it's making: Rob Ignazio my engineer, the musicians who've created my dream, the fans/family/friends who've funded it, and Ben Wisch mixing --it's been everything I've imagined and more. My dream made reality, literally. We've got 6 tracks mixed and 8 others scheduled for February. Patience...I keep having to remind myself. We're looking to release in spring or early summer and I believe you're going to love it as much as I do. I'm really, really proud of this album:)

In 2007 I played 115 shows, put another 40,000 miles on the Pontiac Vibe, made a few hundred new fans, met a ton of you on MySpace...and lived another year in my dream life. With "Stream" coming out in 2008 I can only see things getting better, more beautiful and more crazy! I chose this life, yet I have you all to thank for it:) I hope you know how much you mean to me.

May all your dreams for 2008 come true:)
Much Love,
Teresa

called Donn's Depot in Austin, TX and feels like she's home in Somerville, MA. Why? She still cannot tell you. A fold in the cosmic rift? Maybe because there were people there who once populated The Burren in the same fashion, playing music, making new friends, sharing the love... Yes, it is a small (musical) world indeed.

AHhhhhh the WARM South!!
I am currently in Hammond, LA, on my way soon to New Orleans. My first ever visit and I'm psyched!
However, when we last left our heroine she was braving the bitter cold and snow in Kansas and Colorado.  After a beautiful little show in little Great Bend, KS with my father and Aunt Libbie in attendance, we spent the next day (New Years Eve) stuck there due to a closed I-70.  We had a pleasant New Year's regardless:)
Making it back to CO, 2 fabulous shows ensued: Swallow Hill in Denver with Megan Burtt and Avogadro's Number in Ft. Collins w/ Megan and Zac Galen joining us.
My nephew Liam Dann Stringer was finally born 1-8-07 (!!) and I immediately had to trek to Kansas City and Omaha for more shows. While in Omaha I recorded a segment for "River City Folk", a syndicated radio show to be heard sometime in March on WUMB in Boston and many others around the country (http://www.tommayfolk.com/rivercityfolk/). I'll keep ya posted when! 
Back in Denver I did one more show at Stella's in Denver w/ the fabulous musician, Zac Galen,and soon thereafter we travelled  to the Sundance Film Festival where we were part of the Radical Rat Independent Music showcases. The highlight was opening for friends the Ryan Montbleau Band there in Park City, UT! A crazy night it was indeed... The lowlight was performing in a movie theater lobby for folks waiting to see a Sundance film. Well...there's something strangely satisfying seeing the weird pictures of me in front of the snack bar.  Onward to WARMMMMmmm and a cool show at Brainwash Cafe in San Fran. I love that city. My cousin Jim has the best view of the Oakland bridge from his Mission Hill apt.
Zac and I continued down the coast to Santa Barbara. Seeing my old friend Stephanie was sublime! We shared shows w/ LA's Jason Luckett (go check him out: www.jasonluckett.com) At Elsie's Tavern Zac got to show off his DJing talent, never had samples in/amongst my tunes before! The next day we had off and walked on the beach! Damn I love the Pacific.
Next day I was to drive to Phoenix for a gig...only LA traffic decided to keep me 3 extra hours making me miss my entire show. I'm soooooo soorrrrry to those of you who came to the Mama Java's show to find me not there.:(  The following night at Fiddler's Dream in Phoenix was certainly dreamy...
Then, back to Cali I went, meeting up w/ Zac Galen again at Lestat's in San Diego. Okay. One more reason I believe there's something bigger than me creating a grand plan: I drove there w/ no place to stay and believing I wouldn't know a soul there. I walk in and whom do I see but my firiend Greg Friedman. He'd moved there 5 years ago from Boston. But no, he wasn't there to see me, he was frickin' playing before me!  I had no idea he was performing at all...I'd even checked out this guys website a month earlier and didn't recognize him (in my defense, he'd grown his hair and sideburns out). So we had a great show and I spent 2 days hanging w/ him and his family in La Jolla.  No such thing as an accident...
Returning to Phoenix, I went to see more of my brother and his family and my friends Michelle and Karen. I played an open mic at a crazy dive bar called Cactus Jacks--impromptu 1/2 hour set! Never ceases to amaze me...
 2 days of driving brought me to Houston and the chic wine bar Salento's in Rice Village. Sharing the night w/ Carrie Ann Buchanan and Lise Liddell was a ton of fun, plus seeing old physics friends from my geek days (okay, who am I kidding, I'm still a geek at heart) plus Joe Kowan who used to run the Passim Open Mic! I stayed w/ Joe and his girlfriend Julie, played a cool arts fair in the Heights the next day and an open mic w/ Joe during the Super Bowl. It was great to hang w/ other non-watchers;) 
Then, on to Austin and the story I allude to above. I performed the break set at Artz Rib House on the Sara Elizabeth Campbell monday night, then on the suggestion of one Boston->Austinite Jenny Reynolds, found my way to Donn's Depot. It was a magical evening hosted by Chris Gage at the piano and various friends sitting in, including the amazing Bill Small (www.billsmall.net) who knew exactly what I meant when I said "This place feels like the bar I hang out at back home in Somerville called The Burren" because he'd been there! He used to teach at Berklee and live in Ball Square...freakin' small world indeed. The rest is history. Thus my story ends... for now, at least:)

So, when I left Boston I promised everyone a Tour Blog...two months is a long time to leave my "family" at The Burren in Davis Square--I miss ya'll:) Yet, there's so much to see out here.  I am currently stranded from the snow in CO and KS. What a twist to hear it's only rain back in Boston:)

The first stop was Mojo's in Jamestown, NY with Jacinta Whitcome....a sleepy town focused on it's connection to Lucy and Desi, Mojo's looked a little dive-ish for 2 folk chicks, yet the people were psyched to have live music. Jacinta is a local and her powerful voice and songs brought a good crowd around us.  She currently lives in the spiritual community of Lilydale, NY surrounded by gingerbread houses that home mystics and healers. I felt better just sleeping in their midst. I travel on up to Niagara Falls and stop on the Canadian side for a view. Canada feels like that mini-Europe they have at Epcot Center, a Disneyland version of Europe with American influences...I had to keep on, to get to Pt. Huron, MI that night. Why? Even the customs officer wanted to know. 

One of my oldest highschool friends, Sara, whom I see so rarely, lives there with her family. Sara and her husband are both doctors at local hospitals. They have an energizer-bunny-5-year-old named Callaway and their life is punctuated by pagers buzzing between XBox sessions. Sara's life shows me, more than anyone, what a contrast my life is, how different our lives are.  Pager buzzes, cell phone comes out, medications and solutions to a patients problem flow easily from her. So completely focused on giving her utmost to someone she hasn't even met. Even though she's on call, we got to resume our old habit of late-night talks. I tell her "You save people's lives on a daily basis...I sing for them." She insists back "Yet, you're living the dream..." I don't know how to feel about that. I like to think we're both healers in our own ways.

After a few days with Sara and a nice show at the quaint Raven Coffeehouse, I push on to Omaha.  Long drive. Great weather. I love it. Omaha is still my hometown though I haven't lived there in too many years. I get people there. They're like me. At times in Boston I'm still the awkward girl from the Midwest. Mick's Music and Bar is The Burren of Omaha, my favorite venue/hangout here. It's a great night, shared with Matt Cox, a local blues guy I love listening to.  My old highschool friend Matt Banta, known from his band Blue Moon Ghetto, came out to hear me for the first time. Matt B. was always an inspiration to me, so I make him get up and play a few tunes of his own for us:)

Now, I am in the small town of Great Bend, KS staying with my Aunt Libbie. Tonight I play at the Barton Arts Center "Back Room". Tomorrow, I may be blocked from driving West by a snowstorm that came from Denver and closed I-70. Looks like New Years in Central Kansas! My theory still holds up: "Touring is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get!"

Hope you all are doing well. Drop a line when you can. And most importantly have a Happy New Year!!
Love
T.