RM Tour Diary #114: SUMMAFEST

We had a "wicked good" time up in New Bedford, MA this past weekend.  Summerfest is such an amazing festival, bringing together so many different acts in unique combinations.  We started our day Saturday by singing with Dala, a great female duo from Toronto who were making their US debut.  Then we had two main stage sets, one with The Kennedys and The Englishmen (rockin!!) and one with Roy Bookbinder and Antje Duvekot.  We were also lucky enough to sit in on solo sets by Antje and Cliff Eberhardt.  Highlights of our weekend include the fabulous Italian meal we had Saturday night, seeing our brand new "Red Heads" shirts on our fans, making it to the front page of the Times, and the awesomely strong coffee in performer hospitality. 
 
Coming up: special WEDNESDAY night show, opening for the Duhks in NYC at Madison Square Park (7/8) and our first time at the Pleasantville Music Festival on Saturday 7/11.

Red Molly Tour Diary #112: Breaking Things
 
We played an indoor set Thursday night in Hoboken, down by Sinatra Park (which is quite lovely in when it's not raining!).  It was fun to do a show without any sound system at all, just for the brave folks who ventured out into the rain.  We also got to show off our brand new Red Molly banner!  Look for it this summer when we play outdoors.
 
Friday we headed up to the legendary Club Passim, where we had such a rowdy time in the green room that we broke a lamp!  Crazy rock stars!  Sorry Matt!  But the show must go on, especially when it's sold out!  Opener Judd Caswell drew everybody in with his songs about "fruit"  (yeah, right Judd).  We asked him back up during our set to play Millworker with us, and one more solo song about a motorcycle by Richard Thompson.
 
Saturday we were thrilled to be back at the 10th annual Roots on the River Festival, otherwise known as Fred X.  The Sweetback Sisters were awesome and so was Hayes Carll, who tells hilarious stories.  The festival gives away a vintage guitar each year and Abbie was shocked and honored to be awarded a 1930's Oahu.
 
We picked the winner of our T-shirt contest and are hoping to have the shirts in our hands by early July.  See the winning entry by Marie Guglielmo here. Congratulations Marie!
 
Coming up: Red Molly heads to Southern California on 6/21!

 

Red Molly Tour Diary #111:
 
Friday night we went back to Long Island and played for all the friendly smiling cowboys out there! The crowd was so happy and nice to us, even singing along to Long Island Cowboy and laughing at our bad jokes. We tried out a new tune- Gillian's "Miss Ohio" which is a different type of song for us... very groovy.

Saturday we played in Hyannis for a big high school fundraiser, dedicating "May I Suggest" to the students and getting to meet the great quartet, Tripping Lily. Sunday we headed over to the Sustainable Living Festival in Rhode Island, where Laurie got to sing backup with Marc Erelli for the first time. Then we played our own set, ate some uber-healthy food, drank some yummy Blue State coffee and walked around on our "sustainables" checking out the clean energy exhibits.

Coming up: Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, NJ on Thursday 6/11, Club Passim in Cambridge, MA on Friday 6/12 and Root on the River in Bellows Falls, VT on Saturday 6/13.

Red Molly Tour Diary #110: 350 shows so far!
 
The Living Room show with John Platt marked our 350th show as a band! WOW! How cool!!

This past Saturday we played the Strawberry Park Bluegrass Festival in Connecticut. It was fun to be a part of the Folk Stage, along with The Kennedy's and Tracy Grammar & Jim Henry. We tried out new individual vocal microphones at this show and had some fun with Lucinda William's song "Can't Let Go."

Sunday night we played TWO sold out shows at the Turning Point in Piermont, NY. Wow. Kind of hard to believe I was once scared to play the open mic there! But we did our best to keep all those people entertained and we certainly entertained ourselves.

Coming up: Garden Stage in Garden City, NY (Long Island) on Friday 6/5, The Living Room in Hyannis, MA on Saturday 6/6 and The Sustainable Living Festival in Coventry, RI on Sunday 6/7.
 
WAHOO!  See you there!
:) Red Molly

Red Molly Tour Diary #109: I Gotta Go to OHIO!
 
What a wonderful time we had out in the Mid-West this past weekend.  Five very different shows in 3 states.  We started out at The Ark, a legendary club in Ann Arbor that made us feel so incredibly welcome.  Molly Venter opened the show that night and a few others on tour.  It's such a pleasure to spend time with her and hear her beautiful music. 
 
Friday we headed to the Highlands of Ohio in Bellville, where somehow the show was sold out!  We'll never forget watching a bright blue Harley Davidson pull up, blasting Laurie's song "Beaumont Rest Stop."  The couple on the bike, Al and Sara, became true Red Heads (and friends) as they followed us to the rest of the shows on tour!  In Van Wert, we got to taste real country fresh eggs at the famous Balyeats Coffee Shop and had the whole crowd singing Abbie's song "Ohio" along with us.  What a thrill to finally GO to Ohio!  haha...
 
We stopped at a Speedway gas station late that night to get some snacks and witnessed two UPS guys and two Fed-Ex guys meet up.  We stuck around long enough to see if there would be a rumble, but since the US Postal Service didn't show up, things stayed pretty friendly.
 
Big thanks to everyone who came out to see us in Dayton at The Canal St. Tavern.  What an amazing listening room!  This was probably our favorite (and most rowdy) gig on the tour and they seriously had to kick us out at the end of the night.  Can't wait to come back!  Thanks to Mic for booking us at the last minute and to Don Thrasher for the article that got the word out.  :)
 
It was an honor to spend the last night of the tour on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour in Lexington, KY.  Huge theater, big crowd, and it's all nationally syndicated for radio and webcast too!  Thanks to host Michael Jonathan for having us and Sam & Ruby, the stunning act we shared the stage with.
 
 
Coming up: The Friends of Montessori Foundation in Rockleigh, NJ on Thursday 5/7 and The Living Room in NY, NY on Tuesday 5/12. 

:) Red Molly

Red Molly Tour Diary #108: Sunny Days
 

What a beautiful weekend! We headed upstate for two shows in Saratoga at Caffe Lena Friday night. The early show sold out!! What a fun crowd! They inspired Laurie to do her chicken impression. Heh. The late show was even crazier, as we talked about the "poetry" on the Caffe Lena bathroom walls and even sung a snippet of our new favorite song "Code Monkey" on stage. That will probably never happen again, ha! The volunteers at Caffe Lena were so helpful and loaded us up with their legendary cookies for our trip.

We spent the day soaking up the sun in Saratoga and then headed down to Woodstock for a show at the Kleinart Arts Center. It's right in the middle of town and built for beautiful acoustics. We recorded the show, audio and video, and played a lot of older songs, like Mary of The Wild Moor and Ohio. We'll let you know if we end up releasing any of it. Big thanks to "Bistro To Go" for a lovely dinner and also to our friends/fans who drove so far to see us!

Coming up: "I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go to O-HI-OOO" Yup, we're headed West to Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky! The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI on Thursday 4/30, Highlands of Ohio in Bellville, OH on Friday 5/1, The Historic Marsh Foundation Auditorium in Van Wert, OH on Saturday 5/2, Canal Street Tavern in Dayton, OH on Sunday 5/3, and Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour in Lexington, KY on Monday 5/4.

Red Molly Tour Diary #107: Code Monkey
 
We headed North to Boston, Maine and Haverhill, MA this past weekend bringing the sunny weather with us! Maine is just beautiful and so CLEAN! Although we've yet to see a moose up there, the lack of garbage along the highways is a really nice change. The whole town of Lewiston came out to the Ramada for a romping good time Friday night. Thanks for making us feel so welcome!

During the day Friday, we visited one of our favorite radio stations, WUMB in Boston, MA. DJ extraordinaire Dave Palmiter interviewed us and let us play some new tunes on the air. We're in danger of forgetting that the conversation is going out on the radio when we're with Dave, so it made for a fun chat.

Saturday night we returned to the New Moon Coffeehouse in Haverhill, MA where the crowd was happy about the Red Sox upset this weekend, but not letting it show (lest they lose the next time!). There's nothing like New England logic... In any case, the place was full and we looked out over big smiling faces all night. They all agreed to vote for Abbie's song in the John Lennon Contest too (only one more week of voting)! All weekend we continued to road test the AT-4033 microphone and were even able to use low level monitors with it! This may be the winner!

On the ride home we discovered our new favorite song- Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton. It's just genius. And we like Fritos too, mister Code Monkey!

Coming up: TWO SHOWS at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY on Friday 4/24 and Kleinert/James Arts Center in Woodstock, NY on Saturday 4/25.

Red Molly Tour Diary #106: Hurdy Gurdy
 
Just one show this past weekend, but it was a goody. Or should I say "gurdy!" Ha! In any case, we were lucky enough to play for a packed house at the Fair Lawn Community Center's beautiful theater Saturday night, where the longstanding folk series The Hurdy Gurdy now calls home. WFDU's Ron Olesko hosted the show with his million dollar smile. Our buddy Steve Kirkman opened with a medly of folk standards and got people singing, too.

During our set we used yet another new microphone- this time the Audio Technica AT-4033. It's a common one for bluegrass bands. We also tried out a new TRX-82 monitor from Renkus Heinz, a long monitor-sized wedge enclosure that's adjustable to 60 and 90 degrees so it interferes less with the microphone. Though during our encore, we decided to ditch all the sound equipment, walk to the edge of the stage, turn the house lights on and sing "May I Suggest" au natural.

Coming up: WUMB Live at Noon in Boston, MA on Friday 4/17, Lewiston/Auburn Arts in Lewiston, ME on Friday 4/17, and New Moon Coffeehouse in Haverhill, MA on Saturday 4/18 (Dean Stevens opens).