(originally posted Jan. 29, 2009)

I. What's Going On:

Greetings, friends.  We've been through a lot together since our last correspondence.  The hustly-bustly holidays.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, for us, maybe others for you.  We've observed the changing of a season, a year, and, mercifully, a president.  Those of us in the Northeast are finally experiencing some winter, these last couple of days.  Now that things are breathing for a minute, we wanted to take a quick opportunity to fill you in on what's been going on; you see, we've been through some changes as well.

It is with mixed feelings that we report that drummer Mike Fellenbaum and bassist John Rapoza have left The Beanstalk Library.  We say mixed because we are hopeful and excited for their future endeavors and will continue to enjoy close friendships and hold in our hearts cherished memories of the music that we made and the experiences we shared the last couple of years.  John will still be in the area, while Mike has taken a job in beautiful New Zealand.  Though the splits were perfectly amicable, they were relatively sudden and, at the time, left us in some disarray with regard to communication.  Many apologies at the lag these last several months.

We also apologize for any confusion that arose due to our cancellation of two shows in October.  One, a Halloween show, was canceled because of our personnel situation; the other, a benefit at Cafe Asia in Rosslyn, was cancelled by the promoters.  This was unfortunate because it would have been our last hurrah together.  The last time we performed together was at a wedding reception and, though it was a blast and a great way to go out, it was only attended by invited wedding guests.  We would have preferred to have had a last public show together, complete with fair warning to our fans, but we just couldn't make it work before Mike had to leave the country.

Before he left, Mike wrote the following note that would have been included in e-mail promotion for the Cafe Asia show, had it happened.  We thought we'd include it here:

"Mike Beanstalk here.  Sadly, I'll be leaving TBL and DC at the end of the month for greener pastures in New Zealand.  As excited as I am for New Zealand, I'm equally sad to be leaving the band.  Thanks to everyone for all their support - especially those of you that I see at just about all our shows.  Good times have been had by all.  I'm super proud of our album and can't wait to hear the next.  We've a lot of good stuff in the pipeline, and while I'm certain the next drummer won't be as handsome, charming, charismatic, etc., etc., as me, I'm sure he (or she) will be able to ROCK!

The last few years were really special and I'll miss everyone, dearly."

II.  What's To Come:

Without any futher ado, it is time to look forward.  Before it became no more, the most recent lineup of the band recorded five new demos together.  All of these songs have been performed live, and range from a song written before the first album came out to a song whose arrangement was finished in time for it to be played just once before we parted ways.  We've been putting the finishing touches on overdubs and mixes for these tracks and will share them all with you as soon as they're ready.

We've also been busy talking, auditioning, playing, and putting together a new live band.  It is our intention that within a month or two, the new version of The Beanstalk Library will be back out, continuing to perform and write new music.  We thank all of you for your support and patience, and know you are just as excited to continue this journey as we are!  We also hope that many who have never seen us or heard us before will take this opportunity to jump on board.

III. Ryan sings on Exit Clov track:

In the meantime, we highly encourage you to visit the website of some of our dearest friends and a phenomenal band, Exit Clov.  Last year, Ryan recorded vocals on a hauntingly beautiful song called "My Country's At War" for Clov's as-yet-unreleased debut album.  The track has been posted on their site as a free download.  Please download and enjoy, and while you're there check out the rest of their music, if you are heretofore unfamiliar.

IV. Facebook:

Before we say "'til next time," we just wanted to point out that the band is vamping up its presence on Facebook.  If you're a Facebook-er and haven't visited us yet, please become a fan at our page.  This is just like an official MySpace page and we'd love for you to join even if you're already a member of "Sigh...The Beanstalk Library is So Dreamy," because soon we'll phase that out as the other page becomes our official Facebook presence.  (Plus, there were, uh, varying degrees of opinion on the accuracy of the title of the Group. Ahem.)

We're excited about what the future holds.  Be back in touch very soon.

'Til next time.