I just wanted to let folks know that I now have a last.fm profile page where I've uploaded all ten songs from last year's Hangman Studio sessions with my good friend, Trent Miller. The songs are available at the following link: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Harrisburg+Family+Band/The+Hangman+Demos There is also a free download of "That Mockingbird Story" on there so please do drop by and have a listen. The recordings for "Cutting Down The Bird Hotel" are still ongoing and I hope to have a sneak preview for you real soon. I would urge you to check out the last.fm pages for some of my regular gigging buddies as I'm sure they'll appreciate a few listens too: The Lorcas can be found at http://www.last.fm/music/The+Lorcas/We+Should+Have+Brought+The+Rum Dan Raza is at http://www.last.fm/music/Dan+Raza And Howl Griff have their full Welsh-language album at http://www.last.fm/music/Howl+Griff/Howl+Griff Stay safe, Greg p.s. I have a last.fm listeners' account too so if anyone else out there uses the site you can find me under the user name "GregorzIV". Stop by and say hello and we can exchange a few recommendations

I'm very excited to announce that I will be hosting a new weekly folk club at The Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell, North London. The night will be called The Snake Mountain Revue in honour of my great hero, Mr Townes Van Zandt. There will be two or three featured artists playing each week and there will be floor spots too so I urge any folk, country, or blues singers out there to come along to the upstairs room at The Betsey Trotwood every Tuesday and let's see if we can make something good out of the whole thing. If anyone out there would like to know more or is interested in coming along to play please do drop me a line as I'm eager to get as many songwriters involved as possible. I'm pretty open-minded about music in general and although there is a very rootsy theme to the night, I would love to get some psychedelia, punk, rockabilly, & jazz artists involved. The room is very small so we're unfortunately unable to accommodate a full band. However, if any bands fancy doing a gig with a stripped down kit, we'd love to have you. We can get away with a snare drum and high-hat but anything else would be pushing it. We can't really fit bass amps in either but we could always DI it. I really am keen to make this night work and for those who don't know my history in the promotion world, I've previously booked the following artists: The Handsome Family, The New York Fund, Modena City Ramblers, Pete Molinari, The Coal Porters, Danny & The Champions Of The World, Southern Tenant Folk Union, The Cedars, Pete Greenwood, Indigo Moss, The Left Outsides, Prints Of Whales, Petra Jean Phillipson, Jason McNiff, Dan Raza, Smoke Fairies, The Zetland Players, Andy Hankdog, Bob Meyer, The Lovebirds, & Howl Griff. I hope to see you on a Tuesday real soon!

Howdy!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have my own radio show on www.live365.com and if anyone would like me to add their music to the show to drop me an email at folkatthemoon@yahoo.com with an mp3 attachment or, if you'd prefer, email me for my home address and you can send something in the post. The show can be found at the following link: http://www.live365.com/stations/townes98?site=live365

To live is to fly!

Harrisburg

Howdy!

I've just uploaded three demos that I will soon be recording with the full Harrisburg Family Band. The titles are incomplete on the player due to space restrictions so here are the three songs:

Jon Hooper's Red Clay Yodeling Blues
Hoist Up Your Flag In The Morning
She Can Play It With Three Fingers

To explain briefly, Jon Hooper is my uncle and about eight years ago he gave me the first draft of a novel he'd just written, called "The Man Of Red Clay". It is Adam's story following his expulsion from Eden. It is a truly remarkable piece of work and sadly, no second draft has ever been produced. Therefore, college students are still reading Rushdie and I've finally written this song. You can find Jon in my top list of friends. Feel free to hassle him about producing a second draft or, better still, the finished article. He needs it. We all fucking need it.

Hoist Up Your Flag In The Morning is a rare thing. Most songs don't need to be written, they just are. I needed to write this song. The alarming surge in popularity for conservative values and politics makes me physically ill. I believe the ballot box should empower us to overthrow prejudice, to break the chains of slavery, to give people the right to love anyone they fucking want. I believe John Walker Lindh is an innocent man and should be freed immediately.

She Can Play It With Three Fingers is about my girl. She's the musician in my world. I'm just the storyteller. It's a pretty sweet combination.


Hope you enjoy the demos. There will be guitars, banjos, basses, drums, harmonicas, shakers, tambourines, and saxophones in the finished recordings.

We still can't get the fucking kazoo to work and the ukulele only stays in tune for a chord change.

One, two, three, four. . .
We ain't waitin' anymore
Five, six, seven, eight. . .
Finish it Jon, before it's too late


The Storyteller.

Last night the Snake Mountain Revue hit its regular haunt in Wimbledon at Hidden Away in Bertie's Bar. On the bill were myself, Trent Miller, Benjamin Thomas, The Lorcas, and JD Smith. Whilst it's always my intention to focus on the music itself rather than the usual bullshit that inevitably happens around it, I have to share a truly remarkable moment that occurred at the end of the night.

All night the poor Lorcas were distracted and distressed by a dying pigeon in the courtyard outside. Our poor feathered friend had, to all intents and purposes, given up the ghost and after an initial attempt at movement had become completely immobile from about 8.30pm onwards (and all this in spite of Emily C Smith's valiant attempts to revive it with mushy peas and a few drops of water). However, at approximately 11.30pm GMT we were all leaving together when Trent Miller accidently walked into the said pigeon. He actually dragged it under his feet for three or four metres before he realized what was happening and freed it from his boot heels. To our delight, our previously comatosed friend got up and walked!

And so the people beheld the first miracle of Trent Miller.

Going back to the music, the Harrisburg Family Band performed old favourite, Pessoa's Grave, for the first time without original songwriting buddy, Paul Gilbert (aka The Ascendancy On Trial) as Andrew Hall took over lead guitar duties on the song. The full setlist was as follows:

1. The Circle Ain't Broken
2. Rolling The Numbers
3. Pessoa's Grave
4. Size Zero Blues Again

I'm off to see The Lorcas play the Easycome Acoustic Club (still the best night out in town) tonight and there are rumours our miraculous friend, Mr Miller, will also be in attendance. I look forward to the next feat with baited breath. . . .

Peace, love, and understanding. . . .

Harrisburg

Hello!

I finally got to launch my new song, Hoist Up Your Flag In The Morning, on Tuesday night and it's given me the idea to post a blog after each show I do, partly just to keep a record myself, and keep the set lists varied.

ELECTROACOUSTIC CLUB @ THE SLAUGHTERED LAMB - TUESDAY 29TH APRIL

The big thrill about the show was not only that I was playing with The Family Band and headlining, but The Swedish Cowboy was also on the bill. For those of you not yet familiar with my favourite Scandinavian Cowpoke I would strongly suggest coming down to Last Exit @ The Moon at The Half Moon in Herne Hill on Thursday 15th May and see for yourself.

The gig was definitely one of the best we've played in a while. I've been a bit off in the last couple but with the threat of Boris on the horizon I guess I was a bit more charged. My new profile photo, taken by my new friend and Swansea's leading authority on Eddie Vedder, Chris Beal. Highlights centred largely around the incessant heckling of Trent Miller, the resident genius at our recent shows. Anyways, here's the setlist:

1. Rolling The Numbers
2. The Circle Ain't Broken
3. White Wheat
4. This Town Of Mine
5. Evangeline
6. Size Zero Blues Again
7. Hoist Up Your Flag In The Morning

All you fascists are bound to lose.

Harrisburg

'Molinari's voice and haunting melodies left me feeling that the musical void in the British music scene will most definitely be filled. He can follow in the footsteps of Dylan and Guthrie' – NME  
  
"A singular talent....his distinctive voice and guitar establish him as a Medway Hank Williams. Worth investigating." - UNCUT  

'The soul of American music distilled into the voice of a Cuban-heeled greaser from the Medway Delta' – THE GUARDIAN

'An extraordinary new British talent...4.5/5' - THE SUN

'A spellbinding, wondrous voice....an amazing album' - STOOL PIGEON

'Young, finger-picking, country-blues marvel Molinari has a thrillingly ambiguous voice...'Virtual Landslide' is an actual triumph' - TIME OUT

'A superbly realised piece of folk blues heartache' - MOJO

'Sweet-voiced blues-folk...a cherishable artefact even before you fall under the spell of the actual music' – NME

Howdy!

I've just put six new songs on my player to give people an idea of what's happening in my world at the moment. The songs were recorded in Trent Miller's Hangman Studios and they're the rough mix we laid down in one session yesterday afternoon. We recorded ten songs in total, each with just a vocal (sometimes two), guitar and harmonica. The plan is to add more parts, i.e. guitar and percussion at a later session. For those of you with a good set of headphones you can pick up mine and Trent's drunken chatter in the background on some songs. Emily C Smith features on harmonica and backing vocals.

I'll keep you posted on developments with the recordings and expect to hear the full completed version real soon.

Viva la revolucion!

Harrisburg

A songwriter’s life can often be a lonely one. Isolated by their own creative spark, they inhabit a world that’s plundered by the only industry that’s run by people who have absolutely no understanding of the product they’re trying to pimp and sell. Set adrift in a sea of noise, their obsession with self definition might often seem to cripple the relationships they have with their peers and contemporaries. Shit, that stuff don’t need to be true.

I first encountered Trent Miller at an open mic in Camden. I thought he was insane. No, really. I thought he was as mad as a jar of snakes. I thought he was Portuguese and I couldn’t hear a word he was singing and was convinced that he was singing in a hybrid of Portuguese and English. I heard him say to someone that he’d just arrived in town "to get a deal". I grinned.

The second time I saw Trent I realised he was actually Italian and he was singing in English. Drink-fueled and harmonica clad, he was a revelation. And just like the first time around, I slowly realised, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. You see, as a performer, I ain’t never really seen anything like Trent Miller. Just imagine an Italian dandy with earrings that wouldn’t look out of place on Sitting Bull’s daughter singing country songs about graveyards, empty bottles, and a steel rail heading straight for a hell and you might just catch of glimpse of this guy. With a brakeman’s hat and a voice pitched somewhere between Gene Clark and Johnny Cash, he’s like a fucking child when he plays. By that I mean only a child could possibly have the purity to be having that much fun. I’ve seen him sober twice. Both occasions were gone inside ten minutes. His set is broken up with rants and effeminate hand gestures about "indie kids", "skinny jeans" and "the country revolution". The only thing that can rival his obsession with Hank Williams is his obsession with girls. He flicks away at his guitar with fingers that are so gangly that it can’t strictly be described as a strum and yet couldn’t be explained away as a picking style any self-respecting guitarist (I exclude myself from this company as I’m happily sat down in the basement with the other hackers and barbarians) would admit to. Yet the sound he evokes is startling. His phrasing is so rich it’s like Leadbelly’s ghost just walked in through the door and declared that the bullshit is over.

The Lorcas are Emily C Smith and Ruth Jacob. If you asked them to list their five favourite ever artists you’d still have absolutely no clue what they might sound like. Their music is the closest thing I’ve heard in London that can truly be described as alt country. Em’s ridiculously weird chord progressions and Ruth’s Derroll Adams infused banjo lines create a sound that we’ve all secretly wanted to hear. It’s a wild mercurial blend of Beatlesesque pop and gritty farmhard bluegrass. They are both terrific songwriters in their own right and in any normal situation you’d never find two writers of this sort of talent who’d be prepared to share the limelight in the way this pair do. I’m sure they often question it themselves. But you never lose sight of their own individual talents. It doesn’t fucking matter ’cause when you put this pair together the music is so fucking good, the sound so fucking original, the arrangements so unique I have to keep fucking swearing in the vain attempt of communicating just how good they are. Listen to their songs, you can find them in my top list of friends and I’m sure you’ll agree. The next year is going to be very interesting as we watch them develop. Every time they perform a new song, it’s an event. Every single thing they do is alarmingly good. In a couple of months they’ll probably be able to play for hours they’ve got that many songs in the vault. Sickening.

Benjamin Thomas is twenty years old and Swedish. I apologise to all and sundry as it’s my fault he’s over here in London annoying the shit out of every open mic host, every gig promoter, and every wall that might just have a poster worth nicking. It’s just that the first time I heard his songs I had to do something. He needs to learn to stop asking questions as he keeps missing the answers when he does so. He probably needs to write more songs about girls. And then he will be doing what I believe he is destined to do. He will be writing songs that speak for all of us. And we all know who the last guy was to do that.

I first saw Dan Raza play two songs in Waterloo. I still haven’t recovered from the experience. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about another artist. It was like he was speaking from my brain. Everything he did just reeked of everything I’d been inspired by. I good hear Townes and Bobby, Hank and Prine, Earle & Springsteen, Woody and Josh. He played "Every Little Dog" that night and I damn nearly wept. I still say it’s the best song I’ve heard from a young British songwriter ever (and I own every single thing Richard Thompson has ever done, including some twenty bootlegs). He was about twenty or twenty one when he wrote it, I think. Imagine Townes Van Zandt rewriting Blowin’ In The Wind. He claims he wrote it in a night. How the so-called major labels haven’t snapped this guy up is laughable. They deserve to die out for this heinous crime.

These people are my friends. I’m a songwriter and I ain’t lonely.

THE SNAKE MOUNTAIN REVUE
THE GREEN NOTE, CAMDEN
SUNDAY MARCH 16TH
7PM
£5 ENTRY

THE HARRISBURG FAMILY BAND
DAN RAZA
TRENT MILLER & THE SKELETON JIVE
THE LORCAS
BENJAMIN THOMAS


p.s. I had to write something about this night for The Green Note gig pamphlet. I referred to this bunch of songwriters as being "acclaimed". Trent is going to send a translated copy to his mother in Italy. They are acclaimed by me, and in my world that’s the only thing that matters.

Fuck the machine.

Viva la revolucion!

FOLK @ THE MOON - Friday 1st February, 2008
Hosted by Harrisburg at The Half Moon in Herne Hill

Petra Jean Phillipson
Indigo Moss
The Left Outsides
Bob Meyer

Plus DJ James Lawrence
Doors 8pm
Entry £5
Bar 'til late

This is going to be one hell of a night and I would urge any music lover with some time on their hands to come down and join the party. Petra Jean Phillipson is one of the UK's most unique vocalists, fusing jazz, folk, and electronica in her own breathtaking style. Often referred to as a "white Billie Holiday", Petra Jean's music is brooding, lyrical, and sensual. This is not a show to be missed.
Indigo Moss are the pride of South London at the moment. 2007 saw them release their first album to widespread acclaim and heavy nationwide touring has only seen their popularity grow. One of last year's highlights was supporting Damon Albarn and Paul Simeonon's The Good, The Bad, And The Queen across the country. Now loaded with new songs that are, amazingly, even better than the last bunch, this is an act I've been trying to get to play Folk @ The Moon since it started. I am now a very happy man indeed.
The Left Outsides were born out of highly acclaimed psychedelic folk rock band The Eighteenth Day Of May. Featuring guitar and viola and some classic folk phrasings they're sound is pitched somewhere between The Velvet Underground & Nico and the The Fairport Convention. This will be their last UK show before they embark on an extensive tour of Germany. Hailing from Camberwell, they're local so come out and support 'em.
Bob Meyer is an experimental bluesman who has been referred to as a bit of a guitar virtuoso. Often compared to South London's cult bluesman Duke Garwood, Bob has his own inimitable style. His unique live performance involves him playing for thirty minutes straight, with no breaks or pauses. The songs all flow together into one tapestry of off-kilter blues melodies and rhythms. A unique live performer and he has a new record to promote. Come down and see if you can get a copy.

DJ James Lawrence spins a plethora of records ranging from Buddy Holly to Townes Van Zandt, from Bruce Springsteen to The Fairport Convention, Neil Young to Richie Valens, Status Quo to The Byrds.

This night, always held on the first Friday of every month, is really growing and I've got some great stuff lined up for the months ahead. If you're looking for folk, country, blues, and americana south of the river, this is the only place to be on a friday.

To live's to fly,

Harrisburg