They keep coming

"Tiny Specks of Delight, the song, video by Zach Von Joo:

Tiny Specks of Delight

Exciting news! - first of all, I am pleased to announce a new partnership with the San Francisco-based record label Kitten Charmer (Kristin Hersh, Crime, Carletta Sue Kay). Kitten Charmer is releasing my new EP, Tiny Specks of Delight. It was co-produced by Monte Vallier (Swell), and as of October 2nd, 2012, is available on every digital platform worldwide - iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Spotify, MOG, you name it, it's there!

We're celebrating with two California shows: one in San Francisco on October 14th, and one in Los Angeles on October 19th.  If you are around these parts please come and say hello! The San Francisco show will include the premiere of a new video for the title track - produced by Kitten Charmer and directed by our favorite Bay Area filmmaker, Zach Von Joo. We'll be at the Make Out Room, with the Moore Brothers and Eight Belles. The L.A. show will take place at Origami Vinyl, everybody's favorite record store on Sunset in Echo Park. And- I will have a band for the San Francisco show (with special guests!), and some accompaniment on drums for the L.A. date. Getting excited!

I have to admit I am very proud of this collection of songs and love how they came out sounding. Here's peek at the cover, and a few words about it:

"With instrumentation varying from very sparse (guitar, harp and pedal steel) to full band arrangements, the songs on Tiny Specks Of Delight encapsulate a certain idea of the West Coast sound - breezy and open -  while offering a reflection on that eternal process of falling in and out of love - each song centering around a different point along love's roller coaster of learning and liberation.  Contributions by Tom Heyman and Marc Cappelle (both long time Mark Eitzel collaborators), Russ Blackmar, Matt Montgomery, Willow Willow, Chris Molla, Christina Zirker, Amber Lamprecht and Bennett Grassano, make this a bit of a more produced collection than the last album."

Also available through Midheaven.

BLUE MOON #5 - Let's Stay Here

Welcome to the final installment!
This is a song written at another friend's house, Caitlin's. I was just back from a trip to Europe and looking for a place - nostalgia, hopes, possibilities, and the soft sand of the atlantic coast all found their way into the song. In open G tuning; I often play this one last in a set - like this time, complete with hugs at the end! - check it out on vimeo and youtube.

I hope you liked this series, please feel free to share your felings in the comments.

A big thank you to Lisa Moro for the video, and to The Lost Church for the amazing space.

And to my partners in crime for that show, Sam Heminger (stand up bass), Amy Fowler (mandolin and harmony vocals) and Zach Von Joo (video projections).

photo (as in the last post) by Rikki Ward

BLUE MOON #4 - Looks Like It's Gonna Rain

Written at my friend Kara's, where I was staying while being between places in San Francisco, for someone who didn't quite measure up. Because Kara loves her, I was listening a lot to Joanna Newsom's Ys at the time. The song started while I was walking around, the clouds were becoming grayer, there was some rain on the way.

Watch it with Amy's lovely voice harmonizing with me, on vimeo and youtube. (and hear the Lost Church's chairs cracking!)

BLUE MOON #3 - Like A Woman In Love

Some songs hardly need an introduction, and this might be one of them. You meet someone, everything feels so new that it's hard to put into words - is it love? or something like it...

The video is up on vimeo and youtube - with some laughter in the beginning, due to a previous false start...

BLUE MOON #2 - Bumblebee (like you've never heard it)

Written in Golden Gate Park - my friend Chantale, who was visiting, dragged my hung over ass out there on a sunday morning to take photos. I brought my guitar. After I was through playing all my songs, there was nothing left to do but figure out what was next, and this bumblebee happened to hover  by the bushes nearby, so I started singing to it. As we walked out of the park the lyrics for the second verse came to me, and by the next day I had a song. It still feels like that song wrote itself, the best feeling really.

This version features Amy's wonderful mandolin part, a rare treat. And it's up on vimeo and youtube (also on facebook of course) - enjoy!

BLUE MOON #1 - In Time

Welcome to the first installment of what I'm calling the BLUE MOON LIVE VIDEO SERIES - a series of live footage that was recorded at The Lost Church in San Francisco last June. Starting today - the blue full moon of August this year, fittingly a rare occasion - I will be releasing a song a day for the next five days on youtube/vimeo/facebook.

For the first segment, I chose a song I wrote about something I feel strongly about - how we treat women in the world, and what impact it has on said world. It started a few years ago when I realized that if only we treated women better, we'd end up with a better world. They carry on the love and if thwarted, aren't able to properly transmit it. The latter half of the song was informed by my buddhist practice and how we women have a mission to live a full, happy life - so sort of the same idea.

I hope you like it! And stay tuned for the rest of the lot...

A new video for the solstice

HERE IT IS!!!! A rare treat to the masterful artistry of Zach Von Joo, done all in film and super 8. Click play!

Video release

I am so grateful that someone as talented as Zach Von Joo has made a video for one of my songs, and I can't wait to celebrate! We're doing that at The Lost Church in San Francisco on June 20th, the video will be made public that night at midnight. Local faves Bramble and Briar are opening, and Zach will be doing film projections during my set. 

It's a dream, it's strange, it's made in film and super 8 and goes with the song beautifully. Zach has worked on a number of other local music projects, including collaborations with Hannah Lew of Grass Widow. You can see some of his personal work on his vimeo channel. Here are a few stills :

The song is The Deer Convention, the title track of my last album.

Yay!