It's that time again!

FAWM.ORG

14½ songs in 28 29 days.

Most of you who follow my music know that recently I've been collaborating with good friends and fellow grad students Sarah Wynia (who played trumpet on "Sugar In The Raw" from Sketches) and her fiance and longtime conspirator of mine, Brian Smith. We call ourselves the Pine Box Orchestra.

We've been working on some recordings for a forthcoming album or EP, and I thought I'd post them up here for your pleasure and feedback. "Slingshot" (new dress on an old friend) and "Answers Come." Give 'em a listen.

Note the play count for the song "Heaven Only Knows" at the time of this blog post:



Also, if you're in the Madison area this Sunday 9/9, check us out at Club Tavern... 7 bands for 7 bucks.

I just got back yesterday from 5 months of living/touring in Europe. I played maybe a dozen gigs, mostly in southern England (I was living in Cambridge working on my Ph.D. at the university there), but also Scotland, Holland, and Belgium. I stumbled across this web widget and, feeling nostalgic, made myself a gig map (all the states/countries I've performed live):




That also got me thinking of the places I've traveled, gig or not. Natalie and I were just discussing this morning that, once I've finished my Ph.D. and we're (*finally*) out of Madison we'd like to throw our shit in storage (or sell it) and get one of those 3-month Greyhound passes that let you travel as far as you want in North America at no extra charge. There's so much of the world I haven't seen, as evidenced by the map below, but there's also so much of my own COUNTRY I haven't seen:



Wish me luck. First, with the Ph.D., then with some gigging, then getting around. Hope to see you out there...

Apparently I've been nominated as "Folk/America Artist of the Year" for this year's Madison Area Music Awards (MAMAs). I was nominated last year, too, and lost to my buddies in Blake Thomas and the Downtown Brown. (Who, incidentally, used my guitar on their album, so I'll take partial credit, haha!) I wonder who I'll lose to this year?? ;)

Also, the 2006 FAWM compilation CD (FAWM.ORG) that I curated was nominated for "Compilation CD of the Year." So that's pretty cool.

So if you have the $5 to spare, go to www.themamas.org and register to vote for me and FAWM, and tons of over great deserving artists and albums in the other categories. The $5 donation goes to keep school music programs alive... and you don't have to be from WI to vote.

Cheers,
B

This year one of the new features at FAWM.ORG is the ability to post video demos of our newly written songs. I wrote a songs called "Color Bars" yesterday afternoon and took this video of me performing at home that evening. It was intended to be a little more high-concept than just a bedroom performance, but the learning curve for the video editing software was a bit high and this is all I felt like working on for now.

Enjoy.

Live Indy Folk | 2006 A live performance from the Musical Family Tree Festival 10/20/06 in Indianapolis. 8 Songs, free online release. Download FREE »

Apparently someone was there and took a video as well. Here's my performance of "Your Derivative" as a preview:

Also, this Friday 11/17 will be my last show of 2006 at Mother Fool's on Willy Street before I head over for a stint in the UK this Spring. I'll be playing with Ritt Deitz, a fellow Kentucky expatriate and francophile. This show is all ages, so step out of the cold for some warm coffee and great music.

For those of you in the Midwest, I've got a few dates coming up in the next couple weeks:

10/13 - Common Grounds - Lexington KY
10/19 - Sudsy's - Cincinnati OH
10/20 - MFT Festival (Big Car Gallery) - Indianapolis IN
10/21 - McAuliffe's Pub - Racine WI

Check the show details or my webpage (www.burrsettles.com) for more details.

Thanks to Kiki Scheuler who was there last Tuesday to catch me with my band The Pine Box Orchestra at the Cafe Montmartre's acoustic 80s tribute night. Here's a video of us performing Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" at the end of the night:




Too bad she didn't catch "Take On Me" or "Hungry Like the Wolf" or "Whip It." ;) By the way, we made a myspace page for the Pine Box Orchestra here:

www.myspace.com/pineboxorchestra

Feel free to drop on by and be friends with us. Brian and Sarah are great friends and bandmates.