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DOWNLOAD ROMAN CANDLE live on the BBC radio 2 (10 Feb. 07)

Feb. 26, 07:
All of us are now home safely from the UK. Thanks again to all of those who made that trip possible, most especially our primo UK booking agent, Andy Wooliscroft and Laura Bolton. Timshel, Jude and I traveled up to East Yorkshire the day after our last London show, to visit some friends of our at Burton Agnes. We were
fortunate enough to spend a week (not in the manor house mind you, but in the "artist's flat" above (what used to be horse stables) a cafe on the grounds. Some kind people wrote in to us asking what we were doing. We walked around in the woods, looked at the north sea, ate a lot of fish and chips (the best in the world I would bet**), walked around in the woods, and finished a bunch of lyrics for the next record which we are now recording.

We go up to NY this week (thurs.) to play a show at hiro ballroom. The show is sponsored by filter magazine and musicnation.com. Musicnation is supposedly going to be filming us and producing a video (of one song, i think) form the show. If these rumors are true, we will post it as soon as we get it. Other bands on the bill include Teddy Bears, which Jude (our 2 year old) was initially excited about.

After the show on our drive home friday we will be joined by Keegan DeWitt and sparrow Nick Forde, who will be coming to wilkesboro NC for a week to record the next keegan dewitt record. As was done last time, rc will be engineering and producing the record. So look out.

Last but not least - We have to share some amazing news and brag on our friends the old ceremony, who played at Joe's Pub in NY this weekend and sold the place out (with no opening act). Not only that but one hundred
people (!) were turned away at the door, after the show was sold out.

**I would say that best fish and chips in the world are in Scarborough at a place called mother hubbards. All the travel books tell you to drive further up the coast to Whitby and eat at the magpie. However we've gone to both, often, for 2 years in a row, and Mother Hubbards easily is doing the job.


Feb. 11, 07 :

DOWNLOAD ROMAN CANDLE live on the BBC radio 2 (10 Feb. 07)

--right click this link and select "download linked file" or some similar command--

This was a part of Bob Harris's Saturday Programme.

track list: (there is chat between each song)

1) Something left to Say (Bob Harris plays this track from "says pop")

2) Winterlight

3) Why Modern Radio is a-ok

4) I wish I was in New York


Feb. 10, 2007:

Thanks so very much to all who came out to hoxton on monday(!) It was 3 times the crowd we figured might show up early on a rainy monday. It was a very fine finish for what turned out to be an amazing week for us. Thanks again to all - you know who who are.

What a primo venue by the way. We'd heard all week it was "a really cool place." Everyone was right. Even the bartenders were kind.

This morning, we got half the band off to the airport, rented a van and managed to safely return all the gear we had borrowed to a studio/warehouse called shiftworks in north london this morning. If you are a Londoner and you heard an extra amount of car horns this morning about 10am, that was me in a dented VW rolling past your neighborhood, driving on the left, making friends in traffic. yum.

(not related ot this blog at all: this is an amazing pub off fleet street with some notable literary history. It's owned by the Sam Smith's Brewery and you can only get their beers in there -- which is not a bad thing at all).

Photos, and (apparently) videos will soon be available from some of these UK shows, as they trickle in from the friendly people who brought cameras out to th show.

Tomorrow half of us go to east yorkshire -- (meaning more UK driving - entertaining for my fellow mototrists, if nothing else), to finish lyrics for the new record.

Last but not least - Timshel and I went to see the latest (out June 2006) Tom Stoppard play "Rock and Roll". I thought it was phenomenal. So good I need to write about it on a seperate occasion. If you don;t know who Tom Stoppard is, then look him up. He is the greatest living playwright.

Special thanks to Liz Bolton for watching Jude tonight, for the late late tea, and for lending the below book...

(This is "Margrave of the Marshes," BBC Radio DJ John Peel's autobiography

-Skip

Feb. 8 2007:

(the following is an excerpt from this evenings after-show time in Hammersmith. The character of Toby is a dear friend of our in the UK, brother to Laura Bolton, etc.)

Timshel: "Did you like the curry better than your sandwich, Toby?"

Toby: "Well the sandwich was good but it was just bread and bread and ketchup. I did like the curry better.
Curry is a big fan of me."

(sitting in pret a manger, while the rest of the world soundchecks...)

For personal reasons, this was one of my favorite shows we've played in a long time. Thanks to all who came out this thursday evening. First of all it was a fine time to play a show in England. It snowed today and was generallly very pleasant. Second of all it was a fine time to be playing a show in England having had UNC beat Duke last night in the final two minutes. Delicious.
We here in west London streamed woody durham via the dodgy internet connection that we had, and it was a fine music for sure. As for tonight however, for the first time in the history of our band, our sound check was early.

We were sitting in a Pret a Manger on oxford street having a second coffee and flipping through the papers, while (apparently) 3 bands and 2 sounds guys were waiting on us to show up at the club. It was wildly amusing. Nick and Jeff, who showed up to the club 10 minuted before us, single-handedly set up our entire stage. Timshel, Logan and I (unknowingly) strolled in like T-Rex, stepped behind our instruments and complained about the missing "green & blacks cherry chocolate bars" we'd put on our rider. This is not wholly true. We didn't have a rider. We did however substanatially hold up the program for being 2nd on a four band bill.

setlist:
baby's got it in the genes
somethign left to say
cry cry everybody hates a goodbye
why modern radio is a-ok
another summer
new york this morning
I've got a reason

Massive thanks go out to Dan & James for bringing their friends and the bass amp, and for riding with us home on the tube. We'd also like to thank some new friends we met tonight, including Al and Simon from the Milk Teeth, and Pat Pope - an amazing photographer - who took a picture of Noel Gallagher that i've had hanging (via a postcard) in my room in wilkesboro for years.

Amazingly also -- like clowns in the circus -- we rode in 1 taxi to and from our show tonight, including all of our gear. Very satisfying.

We'll hope to see the rest of you monday night at hoxton. As for all U.S. listeners, our BBC radio 2 performance/interview with Bob Harris will air on saturday around 7pm eastern standard time.

- Skip

Feb. 6, 2007

Thanks to those who came out to Water Rats on Tuesday at 8pm.  We struck our first chords of baby's got it in the genes to two people and by the first chorus we had over seventy early faces. Very cool to
meet everyone and exciting to get to meet a bunch of new people who had been listening to Roman Candle Cds over here for the past year.

We made it to the show despite every possible  minor set back including renting a painters van, driving straight
out into London 5 o clock traffic to then go farther into North London than we had every imagined to a group of
warehouses that looked to be straight out of a Guy Ritchie movie. 

Although Nick and Skip were there strictly there to borrow a few amps and a keyboard stand, they felt underdressed without a couple lbs of cocaine and black ski caps.  They made it back to Camden just in time to be a good two hours late.  But not late enough to bypass everyone else’s extensive sound checks ( hey hey) so we were fine as wine. We managed to dig up an exquisite babysitter complete with her own walkie-talkies at the very last minute, get all the gear from wherever and to the show, only to find out Skip had completely lost his voice just before we went on….(and smokin’ miracle)... he sang like he never has before without a single crack even through those really high Mariah Carey falsettos parts he insisted on re-writiing into the ending to “I’ve Got a Reason.”

Everything worked out fine. We had a great show and are all back safe and sound (having paid the sitter) eating eggs and champagne like real rock stars do. Tomorrow we will try and get around to some real dorky London business involving Monmouth Coffee, Abbey Road, and William Blake but for now we are off to bed.

--Timshel

Dec. 6, 2006
An email received today at romancandlemusic.com (12-6-06)

To whomever it may concern:

Hello! I..m an 8th grader at Voorhees Middle School. I..m doing a science project for a science fair. My topic has to do with candles. My problem is to figure out if there is a connection between the amount of candle that gets burned and the color of the candle. I..ll be burning candles of different colors for the same amount of time. I want to know if you do any experiments like this. I also want to ask you if it would be possible for you to send some samples of different colored candles to help me with my project. Also do you have any research material that might help me? Your contributions would be greatly appreciated. If you have any information for me please email. Thank you again!

From,
Vidhi

Our reply:

Dear Vidhi,
We do loads of experiments like this. Thanks for having the insight to contact us directly, as we don't share our data collections with our label or management. Expect emails.
-- with love

Hello everybody. Here is a collection of photos and blogs from our week and a
half touring with the Indigo Girls. Thank you so much for all of your for your enthusiasm about the tour.
We had a great time out at the shows, got a chance to play some amazing places,
saw a bunch of great old friends, and were continually blown away by the Indigo Girls.
They are the real deal, and we were so honored to play
these shows with them.

Atlanta: The Tabernacle
Has anyone been to The Tabernacle? This place is amazing - old and full of chandeliers and reverb. This was our first proper show with the Indigo Girls and what a great way to start because that room was jam packed with every Indigo Girl hometown fan that could fit in there. It was very cool to see that much excitement and support. That room was just booming for those guys. They all made us feel right at home and it turned out to be a primo way to kick off the tour.

We also had the added treat of trading out a couple of the bus driver rooms for the evening which were not only located in a swanky downtown hotel with full boutique amenities but our previous roommates had left us some goodies of their own homespun variety (i.e. some very used q-tips, several empty Starbucks cups, a bed completely disheveled, some choice hairs scatter tastefully across the sink and tub area, a full ashtray…and a dark colored sock). We lit some matches, changed the sheets, left the balcony doors opened (as they were) and fell right asleep with the a nice fresh scent of the cool breeze and a frat party.

This was our first time ever playing a big symphony hall like this and it was looming and exhilarating. We got some good "seaters" (we mean people who looked more prepared to sip chamomile
tea and listen to a Cat Stevens record than watching a bunch of goons with electric guitars and wailing organs) in the front row and did our best to shawk them with rawk. Everybody seemed to really dig it and we even got some shout outs from our own peeps at separate corners of the auditorium.
Thank you so much also to Tom and Amy Geddes who stayed up late and put us up with Chocolate Cake and a morning feast. You da bomb. Happy Birthday to Tom by the way.


Of all the hotly contested political races of 2006, this one in Maryland was our favorite.
Unfortunately the band was split right down the middle on who to vote for.

Blog from Newark dressing room (Oct. 11. 06)

"It sounds like you have a pretty righteous guitar and you don't want to be putting anything but a righteous pick up on that thing." - spoken by the man at the Newark Guitar Store that Skip called and
asked about a replacement 72 Fender Humbucker pick-up.

Hello Everybody. We are currently writing from the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ. We play tonight at 7:15 which leaves us plenty of time to tee-pee the tour busses afterards and peel off in the van.
The shows have been going fantastic so far filled to the brim, with generous, music loving crowds that are keen to RC and scream very loud.

We have played Atlanta, and Baltimore so far. The Indigo Girls have been amazing and their crowds are so generous. These places are huge and mostly covered in velvet so we have all started dressing
accordingly in tuxedos and poofy dresses. One tux, four dresses.

We have also enjoyed La Botega (see food reccomendations page) twice and plan to show up for
breakfast in the morning so everybody is VERY happy with that. Thank you to every generous waiter and busser that has tolerated our shenanigans, and then let us hang around and read the paper for a long
morning stretch. Incredible.

We have majorly dorked out about this marquee. Dad’s have taken pictures, band members have posed with pointed fingers and scarves on, we have obnoxiously pointed it out to anyone we pass by (even in most cases, after the poor friend/stranger has already mentioned seeing the marquee). It is nothing short of a huge thrill. We have Side Stage parking and a big pain in the butt security section to get every last cousin through.

If you happened to be walking west on 51st street tonight, you undoubtedly saw jack johnson (our burgundy van – not the flip-flopped songster – though we did name the van after both the boxer as well as the Hawaiian singer) cold-lounging outside this magical venue, parked next to a pair of big timer Prevost tour busses. After tooling up and down the east coast since April in that burgundy van, playing every bar, club and retirement home that would have us, seeing it parked on the sidewalk beside radio city was a special treat. As is often the case, it is these small details that stand out the most. Also we met some Rockettes in the elevator.

Best of all - Jude is here! This is amazing. He had to have a special security clearance, and the lady behind the security counter (who was not kidding - and almost did not let master J through the gates) requested that Jude be careful to keep his backstage pass around his neck at all times throughout the evening, or he would be removed. Just because he is 2 feet tall and 22 months old does NOT mean he gets special treatment.
We were all really nervous for the show and the stage crew (in a very business-like, union fashion) did everything they possibly could to freak us out before we went on stage, like counting us down before we walked on to play and asking us “on in 45 seconds… are you ready to play Radio Ci-ty Mu-sic Haaaallll? … on in 20 seconds…”

We did learn that when the Rolling Stones played here, Mick Jagger had his own bar/bartender on stage behind the curtain as well as his own porta-potty. Timshel said the porta-potty sounded like a grand idea right about the time the person wearing headphones said, “ready to go on…3-2-1.”

The show went fantastic. Thank you SO much to everybody who came out, flew in, and bought spendy tickets to sit and support us. We had a dressing room-full ( the entire 5th floor was RC’s dressing room)-Jude had his own private quarters. It was amazing to hear familiar voices shouting from out in the crowd. You all made it a night to remember.

Also, Thank you SO MUCH to Keegan, Daryl and the multiple Nick’s who live in Brooklyn for letting us cruise in with our blow-up mattress brigade and overtake their house for the week. Sparks to you guys. And keep your ears peeled and calendars ticked for the new RC/Keegan show to be played in Jan. 12th at Sine'.


Our van, Jack Johnson.

Connecticut: Last night we made a little detour back to DC for a private party and then headed back up for our day off to hang out in New Haven. Some good and generous friends let us tag along to their Autumnal Bonfire/Party
where we stood outside in warm coats, drinking sherry, and watching little candle boats float across a lake behind the most incredible Weasley house that had been converted from an old mill. Delicious. Inside they
had turkey and stuffing and coffees and pie. For people who wonder what days off on the road are like, it's pretty much all like this. Except we usually have toilets made of gold too. Not really - this hospitality was so exceptional, and we wish it on all traveling musicians.

Thank you to Katie and Patrick, for letting us come along, keeping us at their house, and going on (after the bonfire) to light their fireplace and serve beers and cook us a big breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls. This was above and beyond, and we all headed out to Boston happy as Hobbits.

 

Bean town:
Our last show with the Indigo Girls on this tour and we are playing a great room in Boston called The Orpheum. It only took us four times around the block to find the street it was on and low and behold, it has a street of it’s very own. Apparently we pulled in just after Sullie (IG masterwoman/guitartech) had arranged the marquee to read “I dig girls with Roman Candle”
We all watched the rest of the IG show from the side of the stage and even got out there to sing a little on “closer to fine”. Timshel’s high school fantasy #1 ……check.
After the show we met some unruly fans who were so excited by the show that they had given each of us different names (not knowing our actual names) that they proceeded to tell us about and then look disappointed when we corrected them. We had Jeff = William, Logan=David, Skip= Sam, Nick=Cameron (?) and Timshel=Lori. So next show we would appreciate it if, when you see us, you could address us by our stage names…that’d be cool.

This Saturday Night Roman Candle is playing with Keegan DeWitt at the Sine in NY and you should all be there. This will be a Keegan DeWitt and the Sparrows/Roman Candle show which, if you do or don't know, will prove to be a very special evening for everybody. Keegan has been getting wonderful reviews across the board and will be promoting new songs from his CD which will be off the press this fall. After a long wait we are VERY EXCITED to get back up to NY and play together again.

Hello from Wilkesboro where we are up late watching Under the Tuscan Sun and giving each other pedicures. Which code language for: we are recording. We were lucky enough to head up here to visit family and everybody went to bed early so after burgers and dawgs we grabbed our guitar and headed downtown.
RC NEWS: Paste magazine readers please check out this month's issue where Roman Candle is featured in "4 to Watch". We love you Paste 4-everrrrrr.
Rumor has it that parts of our redhot Cedars (The Continuing Care Community where Skip bartends performance is making it's way to DVD. We are working hard right now to harness the blistering rokkathon that the 3:30pm performance unexpectedly turned out to be. It is the unruly crowd that is the unruly crowd that is demanding the weight of the editing. Twirlers and streakers will not be tolerated. That should be out soon and we will let you know when and how to get it.

Thank you so much to everybody who came out to all of our shows over the past week and a half.  We have had a great time playing Knoxville, Columbus, and The Cradle and even wrapped up our weekend with a knock down show of flames and dancers at The Cedars (the retirement community where Skip bartends) on Saturday afternoon around 4 pm.  Thanks to the Whigs for rocking our socks at all of these shows (sans Cedars).  We LOVED getting to play with them and hope to repeat it again soon. 
Biggest Thanks of all to everybody who came out in full glory and enthusiasm to The Cradle on Friday.  It was good to be home and even better to see a full house of fans and friends.  You all were amazing.
 Please check out the band in this month's Paste Magazine and keep checking back in for some videos, Mp3s, and pictures from the shows.  Hopefully we will be getting those up here in just a little bit. 
Thanks to all who tuned in on Friday morning for our NPR interview.  It is currently available for download on our music page.  It is 17 minutes long so tuck in. Above is the first in a series of pics from Friday night.  More to come soon!

 

Hello everyone and thank you to everybody who came out to our shows these last few nights in Knoxville and Atlanta.  We had a great time playing with The Old Ceremony.  They are absolutely rippin amazing and blew the vizers and rainbow flops off of every beer ponger at CJ’s Landing.  Even after suffering from a brand new van that not only lost it’s air conditioning ten minutes into the drive but actually burst into flames when they restarted it to head out for dinner, the entire company hit the stage decked out like gentlemen and blew a hole in the wall that will be hard to replace for next weeks poetry jam.  We were thrilled to be in their company and look forward to more shows with them all again, soon.
Also keep a heads up all PORTLANDERS..THIS WEEK as Roman Candle have added a few last minute acoustic shows in town tomorrow night (Lola’s) and Sunday (Music Millenium, In-store, 5:30).  If you are in P-town be sure to check it out.

 

The Wee Hours Revue was reviewed in The Boston Globe today. click here and check it out!

If you are from Chapel Hill or have lived/visited Franklin Street in the past 5-7 years you might remember a little golden oldie called a Trio Shake. Café Trio shut down like a bunch of hosers and left the main street of Chapel Hill anchorless and floundering on the waves of pretzel palaces and places that threaten to wrap anything you can think of in a pita (we are not talking Hector’s here..that is a different story all together). But when Trio was on Franklin Street the pavement had a twinkle and our town was a place you didn’t mind hanging out in for a while. Café Trio left and took the twinkle and now all I can offer you here is a recipe. A single secret recipe for a very satisfying drink. If you know about it, then you know. And if you don’t know about it, get ready to loose your trunks.

TRIO SHAKE
1) Fill a blender almost all the way with “hard”Vanilla Ice Cream (you are free to try “other” flavors. You will be disappointed.)
2) Add 4 shots of espresso
3)Add 2 ounces of Chocolate syrup
4)Blend
5) find a couch, sit down and enjoy.

****These measurements are not exact. You will figure out what you like best after you try it a couple of times.

Welcome to our NEW WEBSITE. Come on in and look around.

We have been working in stages to get this up and on for you all so take a look and keep checking back in as we will be adding new smarties by the day. It will be like 12:30 on Halloween when you look in the bottom of your pillowcase and find that hidden packet of whoppers.

We are beginning a list of Amazing Tambourin Trax:

Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
Chicken Pay Back (shaker)
Going to A Go Go
How about that tambourine track on My Sweet Lord? Alleluia.
***more to be posted as the days go…

We have a bucket of shows coming up that are being posted as we speak on our website so keep an eye out for those…the first of which is this Friday in Charlotte at The Evening Muse.

We will also be playing with The Violent Femmes and The Avett Brothers Sept. 9th in Greensboro so get ready.

Also news to us is that Roman Candle will be featured on MTV’s online site “urge” will be featuring us as a “Band on the Verge” and they asked for a list of recent favorite songs from us and this be it:

The Bees (U.K.) - Free the Bees
Camera Obscura - Let's get out of this country
Mason Jennings - Jackson Square
Burt Bacharach - Odds and Ends
Keegan DeWitt - So high so low
Big Star - Daisy Glaze
Danielson - Ship the Majestic Suffix
Bob Dylan - I Threw it All Away
The Innocence Mission - You are the light
Dr. Dog - The world may never know
Thad Cockrell - Warmth and Beauty
Oasis - Listen Up
Sufjan Stevens - All the trees of the field will clap their hands
The Faces - Glad and Sorry
Van Morrison - Madame George

Hope you like it all so far!!

 

Last night Nashville was a busy city.

Rolling into town in our Burgandy van (dubbed Jack Johnson for the "flip-flop wearing good feeling" he/she inspires) we had plans for a sound check, maybe a burrito, Logan was even day-dreaming about spending way too long strolling the isles of the drum store while the rest of us sweated off lbs, in the van.... But before all of this could happen we had to meet some celebrities and watch some car theft happen at the BP.

Skip and Timshel dorked out heavy when we pulled up to Grimey's and the Danielson Familiare was packing up after their in-store upstairs . We immediately approached their van and bumbled out something suave and uber-cool like "you guyzes music is , like, SOOOO amazing." He dug it. If you haven't heard their new album "SHIPS", check them out.

And the BP. Nick and Timshel went for a pre-show deodorant. Suspicions should have risen when we noticed that it was late enough (what?) or shady enough outside for them to lock the front doors and only allow you to request your purchase from a small hole in the plexi-glass to the right of the door. Just about the time that all of these "details" registered Nick heard the lady behind the counter say to a man behind him "That man is stealing your car."

Sure enough, the man's blue Toyota truck was being driven out of the parking lot by someone else. It became obvious to us all (most unfortunately to the man in the truck) that the straight shift was a "surprise". The man made it across the main street and even managed to back it up with the owner hanging through the driver window punching his head off before he escaped out the passenger door, paused to wave at the police car and darted for the woods.There was a helicopter.

Thank you so much to everybody who came out for the Nashville residency shows. You all came out with zeal, filled the room to the seems and rep-rezented, Big Time. We had a great time playing The Basement and look forward to seeing you all again next time we are back in town. We'll keep you posted.

 

Hello and welcome to Nashville. We just got to the hotel after staying up late last night recording in Wilkesboro
and alternating naps during our six hour trip,...just in time for a little FIFA. Real quick we wanted to post some pictures of the cd release show in Chapel Hill. More will be coming as well as a live stream clip from the
Pourhouse ( we are just trying to organize some killer graphix by way of Dr. Matheny) so keep looking but for
now here is a sample of what's to come. Enjoy!

 

We are all doing our best here to rest up after a weekend full of shows.

After the celebrations on Thursday night we played an in-store at Schoolkids in Chapel Hill and then we finished off the weekend in Raleigh where we joined our friends the magnificent Patty Hurst Shifter at The Pourhouse. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to single and multiple shows throughout the weekend. It was quite a way to celebrate and we thank all of you for coming out and putting on your party hats.

We will be posting pictures from all the shows in the next couple of days so keep your eyes out for back flips and pyrotechnics. They happened so quick……
Also squeezed into the weekend we managed to pick up the phone around 12:30 a.m and hear Thad on the other line requesting Skip and Timshel back over at Logan and Nick’s to write a Christmas song for the dB’s Holiday album due out this 2006 Christmas. This was Saturday? By some sort of miracle the song was finished by 3:30 (despite multiple breaks by every band member to listen to/read aloud Wesley Willis Lyrics) and recorded the next morning before Thad headed home to Nashville.

This week we are very excited to be heading to Alabama and back to Nashville for our second night at The Basement. We will definitely be pulling some rabbits out of some hats so rally the troops and head on out.

Here is a review of our record in the Nashville alt-weekly "All the Rage"

Most exciting for us though we will be stopping mid trip in Wilkesboro to get some recording done for Songs
For An Empty Room.

 

What is amazing about rock and roll bands is that they can do ridiculous things and blame them on
"the crazy life", for example...labelling the shows that you are about to play in a few days with dates from
a previous month.

We DID play a smoking show with Seth Kauffman and The Real Mothers in Asheville this
past weekend, during this very month of June that we are currently living in right now. So... sorry for the miscommunication. loco.

Thanks so much to everybody who came out anyways (how did you know?!) and
for all of you all let me say this..HOW ABOUT THE REAL MOTHERS?!! Our pants have been officially blown off everyone. The show was incredible with everything from multi-instrumentation to live romance novel reading to MAD maraca/bongo playing. thank YOU to Seth and his Mothers.

The main event as it stands right now is our high security secret plans and rehearsals for the cd release party. We can't even really talk about it. So of course we thought we'd blog about it. s-yyyyke.
See you Hot-lantians this weekend.

 

Before we forget we wanted to give a shout out to all of the new inhabitants at 6** Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn for letting us come in with our blow-up mattress brigade and sleep over after our show. We all suffered through that night of no air conditioning together, flat on our backs with mouths open, trying not to move. Ever-clever Nick outsmarted us all and moved to the roof.

Also, one detail that can NOT be left out of our NY trip is the amazing breakfast we had at The Maritime where Keegan keeps the peeps in check. If you are from the area you already know and if you are not, get in there for breakfast and get ready to have your face blown off. We had to be carried out on carts.

Last nights show in Nashville was totally Ry-CHUS. Thanks so much to all of our new friends that came out. We were so honored to share the bill with Miss Dawn Kinnard and Thadonius Punk. This was our first time hearing Dawn and she took our breath away..

Also, a big shout out to Anonymous Bandmember for farting in the van during a heavy rainstorm while he was
in the very back seat and all of us were trapped in the rest of the seats, with the windows up.
And last but not least, at the request of that lady in the strappy platforms and velvet windsuit at the Sheetz in
West Virginia, Nicks digits are on the way.

 

Hello from Nashville and thank you so much to everyone who came early and stayed late to watch us be
Sparrows with Keegan and then again to play as Roman Candle late later. The shows were so much fun and we loved seeing everyone..props for support. If you missed the atomic 'splosion we will be up again in July for similar family antics and we hope you can get it together by then.
Nashville tonight for everybody so hopefully we will see you out there. Good talk.

 

All of our fans’ suspicions were confirmed today. We’ve been hearing for months that Usher (author of yeah, etc.) has been keeping up with your pals at roman candle to find where we shop, what we roll, etc. well today in Atlanta, Usher himself came out of hiding at a clothing store in little 5 points. He followed us into several clothing stores (must have admired our ridiculously modern and trend-setting band fashion sense) and eventually forced us to loudly reject a photo-op. He tearfully returned to his Ferrari.

We have blown through Columbus, GA and Atlanta so far this weekend and thanks to everybody who came out because the shows have been fantastic.

Another shout out for Java Jive. We waited the 50 minute drive from LaGrange on Sunday Morning just to get in there for those tasty omelettes. Apparently the Veggie is the best way to go (Nick) although anything with a bisquit on the side will do.

A very different kind of shout out for the Candleberry Suites which provided us with Sean of the Dead-like delinquents welcoming us up the drive and keeping a good eye on our van throughout the night. In their favor though, they also provided was a double showing of Return of the King. Usher wishes.

The picture above is us outside Krispy Kreme just before we got the customer of the month award.

 

The writing above means thanks in a language none of us can identify for certain. However thank you is the main message we have for you tonight.

First off Happy Mothers Day - and obviously thanks to all the mothers out there (and in roman candle).

Also - thanks to all who traveled near and far (people from CA, OR, OK, NY, Scotland and London were in attendance last night) to get your hand stamped at the 506 last night. We haven't had that much fun making music with friends in a long time, and we would like to thank all who came out to join us. What an honor. we had so much fun. We're such fans of Thad and Keegan that it was even more fun to watch their shows from the stage as it was to play.

If you have been living in a hole and have never heard these individuals, do your self a favor and check them out. It was amazing last night to hear people singing along to unreleased songs by Thad, Keegan, and us. The internet is a weird an fantastic place.

For all you New Yorkers, we have added a new show at the Sin-e Club in the East Village (150 Attorney St.) on May 29, with Keegan DeWitt opening. As far as performing as "the sparrows" we will undoubtably be up to the same mischief we were last night.

If you know anyone in Georgia, let them know that we're coming to blaze a hot trail of something through their town this week. we are at the Loft in Columbus on Saturday and Smith's olde Bar in Atlanta on Sunday night.

We also added a new show in Asheville NC on June 4. we will be accompanying Seth Kauffman and the Real Mothers (connection to Mother's Day? maybe.) at their cd release party.

 

We want to send a big thank you out to everybody who came out to the Exit Inn last night for the show. It was a great room and we were very exited to see so many old and faces. Shout out to The Hip Zipper in East Nashville.. they got major bling at that placce. You should all check it out.

We played a great show last night, had margaritas on the Pat-yo, and then headed to Thad’s house to meet the most amazing little Martin guitar to hit songwriting history. It is a beaute, given on permanent loan to Thad from a friend and, as Thad would say, has songs pouring out of the sound hole so quick you have to grab them all and stuff some back in there. This was definitely a highlight of the night and we are VERY eager to get that thing out of the case back in Chapel Hill and put it to use.
We drove the first leg of our trip back last night reaching the Biltmore Estate somewhere near 5:00a.m. just
early enough to brush our teeth, pull up the covers, roll over, and then get dressed again.

Thanks to Nick, we missed our wake up call but made it to the phone for his staggered announcement that it was NOT 7:30 but was instead 8:30 and would we like to meet down by the van and get going. We DID miss the breakfast buffet but we DIDN’T miss the weirdo guy floating like a merman in the hotel lobby pool with a train of M. Bolton locks and a speedo. Good morning.

 

And we are on the road again, trying to get back to center and cause some electric mayhem. Tonight we are in Nashville playing the Exit Inn with a bunch of bands with names like "rain dancer" and "magic flute parade" but we are VERY excited to be here and we expect to destroy.

Above and beyond we are most excited to head back to chapel hill for the craziness that will happen on Saturday at the 506 with Thad and Keegan. I f you don;t know about this than you should wake up and sniff it because this show is bound to Blast off.

Keegan DeWitt is flying in from NY for two nights (Wilmington and 506) of head spinning, mouth dropping , butt- shaking music. We have been pumping up for weeks for these shows. Skip is on the Metrex and Nick and Timshel have been drinking nothing but Muscle Punch.

By the way, Jeff Crawford is revisiting his alma mater this weekend. He has his "mouseters" you know.

 

The following story behind the song portion of our broadcast was recently written by Skip in response to the emails we get asking when and where we were when we wrote this or that song. The one we've been getting the most emails about recently is why modern radio is a-ok.

Skip: This song was accidentally inspired by Thad Cockrell (as many things are). Thad was over at our house one night checking his email and Timshel and I were making supper for the three of us. We had been listening to a bunch of records, and I put on the Neil Youngs Comes a Time.

We'd never listened to this record with Thad before, and as soon as track one, side one came on, Thad froze up. He looked pretty confused, and a little misty if you know what I mean.

He said Oh what are you doing? You cant put this thing on without giving me at least a weeks warning I fell in love to this record (!)

It turns out that this was Thad and his special ladys main album -- The same special someone who was the eventual broken-heart-inspiration behind the lions share of songs on Stack of Dreams and Warmth and Beauty. Jackpot. As far as insensitive moves go, I had rolled snake eyes and not known it.

Needless to say I put on something else. We felt pretty bad about the whole event, and probably made some lame jokes about how many couples wed known that had fallen in love to Cinderella and Scorpions tapes (Ourselves included in this list naturally).

A couple of weeks later I was brushing my teeth and I got this song in my head. I dont remember exactly what I had been thinking, but probably something along the lines of how emotionally stable Thad would be if he only listened to the Z100 radio stations.

Anyway I wrote this song that night and played it for Thad that weekend at one of our shows. Lyrically, it is a recollection of a conversation between two friends. If you have been coming to our live shows, you might have notices the lyrics have changed a little since we recorded the demo that is on our myspace page.

Thanks to all who write in and ask about these songs. we'll post more of these as the record release approaches.

 

All the way to merlefest I don't think i'll miss you much.

Three knockout moments we need to share with the people from this weekend are (we only got to go for sat. and half of sunday) -

1) sitting at the foot of the cabin stage drinking a hot coffee hearing Gillian Welch and David rawlings sing a new song of theirs (in unison!) for an amazing 5 minutes. Then hearing them cover "White Rabbit". youch.

2) watching all the Cailtin Cary Thad Cockrell sets we could manage. Having just returned from their european tour, they were in fantastic form, each show topping the last - fantastic-o!

As usual we highly recommmend that Begonias record to everyone and EVERY one. If you' haven't heard it yet you can either go get it now, or wait until David Lynch puts "please break my heart" in his next movie, and then it will be very chic to go listen to "that begonias record that was underappreciated back in 2005".

3)Watching Doc Watson and the Nashville Bluegrass Band play their gospel set on sunday morning. Doc is 83 and still, without question, plays a set that never fails to silence and inspire the crowd and every other musician who has played the stage during the weekend. Incredible and beautiful and always the biggest treat of Merlefest.

All in all we had a great weekend and even manage to squeeze in a minute or two for some pics with a couple unruly fans (see pic).

Thanks to all who came out to Tyler's to see us play with The Old Ceremony. We were very excited to finally get to play with TOC. Django (Haskins) is a primo singer and songwriter (a rarer combination than one might think), and the band he has gathered is such an amazing group of musicians. It goes without saying that they were fantastic and won many friends.

 

We just got back from playing a brand new venue called the Flying Anvil with Patty Hurst Shifter (who have a fantastic review-photo in this month's UNCUT magazine - look out). We were the 2nd band ever to play there, and the first band to knock over both drums and fancy overhead mics onstage during a song (sorry, Skillet).

To anybody who lives near the g-boro area, we at roman candle suggest you get out and support this club. It's a good place and it's run by good people. By the way we will be playing there again on May 25 and we'll be playing with Patty Hurst Shifter again on June 24 at the pour house in raleigh.

The crowd this evening (as well as roman candle) was fortunate enough to have Mr. Thad Cockrell grace the stage to help sing "i can't even recall".

Though we are not playing merlefest this year properly, some of us will be up there - watching Gillian Welch, and others -- but especially to see Thad and Caitlin (Cary) take over the main stage on saturday.

Special thanks this special evening go out to Kent Bennett for running a knockout light show (we thought we were opening for Whitesnake!) and to Skillet for grabbing our box of cd's - after we left them at the venue, like the absolute business professionals that we are.

 

Athens to Charlotte, etc. I dig a poodle by Charles Haltry on the devee.

Phase 1 in which roman candle covers I dig a pony Saturday night in the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte. But before we get there let's enjoy a quick recall of the 40 watt. Our first time to play in Athens and man did it rain. Not only weatherwise, but also in a figurative sense - Figurative in the same sense that Phil Hoffman's character (in Along Came Polly) is making it rain while playing basketball. - the rest of the movie is forgettable, but this scene of trash talk is primo).

Our number one fan for the evening went unanimously to our new friend Sarah who drove six hours from jacksonville FL to see us play -- and had to drive back for work in the morning. wow. we were very grateful for this public display of affection (and as if that wasn't enough to win the green jacket, she made that whole trip only because she is a dedicated my-spacer who happened to discover our band while looking for new music on myspace).

As for the Beatles Tribute on that night, it was an amazing thing to witness. The "green room" for the 30+ musicians who were performing in the 4 hour spectacle, was one of the happiest little dressing areas we've ever seen. People standing in corners quietly practicing "she's leaving home" on the ukelele, or "strawberry fields" on one acoustic guitar. It was an unbelievable testament to how amazing that body of music is.

For all you Thad Cockrell - Caitlin Cary fans out there (and boo to you all who are not), they are back in the country as of today from their european tour. Among other things, they played a sold out London show at the borderline and taped a BBC2 special with bob harris that will air this thurdsay on radio 2. and finally played a premium acoustic set - interview on wxyc tonight.

we will be supporting them at the tyler's outdoor show on Sunday. food, prizes, kids under 10 get in free...

 

Last night Nick was sleeping soundly, a smile spread calm across his face, dreaming about the flames that flew from the Chatanooga stage. The rain had stopped, all five band members were tucked in to rest (Logs and Nick had lost the coin toss and were respectably sharing a pad), not a creature was stirring. Until Logan got friendly.

First a single Logan arm was thrown across the shoulders of an unsuspecting Nick. Nick’s eyes dart open. He laughed to himself and wiggled Logan’s arm back to his side of the bed. A moment passed. And then, a second snuggle attempt.

The arm again, this time more gently, with intent to spoon. Nick laughs harder and wiggles free for the second time. Several moments pass and Nick is almost back to sleep.

And then the King Tut. The tip top of them all,..The Leg. Saaaa-Wiiing and tuck.

Ahhhh. Covers fly, exclamations of warning and surprise, we laugh, we cry, we share memories, we all pass out back to sleep.

We are currently on the road from Chatanooga to Athens. So far, we have only taken two U-turns, seen one man driving a convertible with fingerless driving gloves, stopped off to purchase five pairs of leather, fingerless driving gloves (brandishing them immediately), and we have even had time to eat breakfast at The Cracker Barrell. Mmmm, mommma. Things are looking good.

So, if you are in Athens tonight or have a friend or grandparent who likes easy listening music, send them out to the 40Watt …cause we’ll be there. And it is bound to be awesome.

 

thanks to all of you who wrote in so quickly (in a matter of hours!) with thoughtful and articulate suggestions on which song(s) we ought to cover on saturday. A few of the suggestions were creepily accurate to what we were already chatting about in the privacy of our own burgundy van. To you people we say "mind your own business". For everybody else though we do say thanks and a few of the suggestions (you know who you are) will probably work their way into a live show here and there soon, even if we can't do them all saturday.

(Talking emails) Often we get folks writing and asking “how/where did you write this or that song, what were you listening to (or not listening to), while writing it, etc.” As our record release is coming up, and we’re playing the entire album (a couple of smoking tracks at a time) on our myspace page, we’re going to try and tell the circumstances under which some of our songs were written via this blog.

 

Upcoming this week for Roman Candle..shows, shows, and Beatles covers. what? Beatles covers? YES. This week we are very excited to play a couple of shows with Will Hoge. One in Chattanooga and one in Athens. Know anybody in either of these towns? Better give them some fair warning before we blaze a hot trail of heartbreak through their backyards. sizzzzle.

Also, our friend Joe from The Evening Muse in Charlotte has asked us to come through on our way home and join in on the Beatles non-profit Tosca extravaganza at Spirit Square in downtown Charlotte on Saturday eve.

We are very excited to be a part of this concert, to play with some great bands, and to play in such a great room(pictured above)..however..WE NEED YOUR HELP. Have any blaring opinions about Beatles covers? Dying to hear us croon and crash over one of your old favorites? Let's have it. Please send us an email at romancandlemusic@gmail.com Do your good deed to day and direct RC towards those golden musical numbers..... Pah-leeez.

 

If you look above you will see a picture of us from our recent show at the casbah in Charlotte. This picture comes at you courtesy of our dear friend (and fine photographer) Daniel Coston. If you look below, you will see the album cover for keegan DeWitt's record entitled " & the Sparrows," which we here at roman candle recently produced.(and Chris Stamey mixed)

Keegan and Chris will be playing in NY at Tonic on May 7, for all you New Yorkers. Not to mention he will be coming to NC for two shows in May, joining us and Thad Cockrell for our Wilmington and Chapel Hill shows (at the soapbox and local 506 respectively).

This photo on keegan's record was taken in wilkesboro during our hot recording sesh. We recorded 13 songs in 5 days (one of which --"anyone but you", keegan wrote in 10 minutes in the studio, and we recorded in 10 minutes, so the whole song from conception to "the can" was under 30 minutes - yikes that was hot). and to think we could have been upstairs watching Emeril.

Has anyone seen Fiona Apple's new-ish video which features (wilkes county native) Zach Galifianakis?

Not to show hometown bias, but if the world had a brain the late show with Zach would be playing everynight 2 or 3 times in a row. That was one of the best and shortest lived shows ever to grace the tv screen. Boo Vh-1. Boo.

By the way, we play at the Brewery in Raleigh tonight. The Choosy Beggars are sharing the bill with us, which should be a treat for all.

 

There is officially a new Starbuck’s off the Highway in Salisbury, NC, which to all people traveling through to Charlotte to rock and roll shows or onto grandparents in western North Carolina, is a bodey. We stopped in twice on each pass through Charlotte for bathroom breaks, Tazo tea (complete with “the mumbled chantings of a tea shaman”..have you ever read the back of those tea bags? Inspiring.), and exclusive access to Alanis Morisette’s new acoustic CD.

We had a great time in Atlanta and thanks to everyone who came out to dance, dance, dance. We all give major props to the band who played before us called “The Booze.” Unfortunate name, fantastic music, very cool hair, and two (count em TWO) members in vests.

Thank you also to Rock Kills Kid and all of their generous fans who were kind enough to let us share the stage for both Charlotte and Atlanta shows. Very nice people and music. We dug it.

Did you know that in Atlanta you can find…the first ever Chick-fil-a known to locals as The Dwarf House. Open 24 hours and complete with mini-door for small people entrance. Jeff entered first (6’2”).

Also,….Roman Candle gratuitously recommends: Java Jive off “Ponce”(Atlanta natives abbreviation for Ponce de Leon Ave.) for good coffee, amazing scrambled eggs, and an impressive vintage stove collection.

As well as,…“The Warren”, a members only bar where (no joke, you have to swipe a card to enter…) we all varnished our members only jackets and tagged after Russell for the night, complete with a great view of the city and chairs made out of twigs with velvet cushions.

 

Let us offer this up to the good people if the world - our record has an official release date: June 20, 06. WOW. we have been anxious to deliver that tidbit for a long time. Mark your calendars, break your piggy banks, celebrate however you see fit.

Casbah: (VARIANT FORMS also Kas·bah; Arabic dialectal qaba, from Arabic qaaba, to cut up

1.) A castle or palace in northern Africa. - also "fortress"

2.) often casbah The older section of a city in northern Africa or the Middle East.

3.) A dark club in Charlotte of south tryon where 5 members of roman candle, (with etymology filling their heads) "cut up" the stage, warm hearts, break hearts, make friends, influence people.

Good evening Charlotta. This picture to the left is exactly what the queen city skyline looked like tonight from the stage. I had to ask a couple of our roadies to hold off on warming our baths of liquid gold (the view was too fine to turn away).

Truthfuly we had a great time tonight at the Casbah. I wonder how many "Casbah's" there are in this country. my guess is several (we may have played at 4 or 5 of them). the venue name must be tempting for a club owner who wants his club to be "edgy" or inevitably "rocking".

At this point in the program we have to send a warm thanks and congratulations to Jim Pearson (cousin of roman candle) who is back from flying air force planes in Iraq and just had a baby boy. Thanks are in order not only for his presence at the show night (with a party in tow), but for letting us know that the President of the of U.S. is going to be in Charlotte tomorrow morning and that they are shutting down over 170 exits and the interstates for security. which means we have to be out of dodge earl-y in the morning, if we want to be in atlanta by our sweet load-in.

Thanks again to the many who came out for our show tonight. We had a primo time. -- and with less technical problems than our last show at the casbah in 2002. During the sourse of the show, Skip broke all the guitar strings on all his guitars and had to run out of the club (while the band kept rocking those smooth jams), unlock the trailer to our van (in the parking lot) and get another guitar to come back to the stage and finish a song.

Thank goodness we were in the middle of our traditional cover of "fire on the mountain".

 

Good old portland airport. We are flying on a sweet red-eye back to NC this evening. we had a fine trip to portland, and even managed to record a couple of keegan's new bossa nova songs with him.

As i am writing the final seconds are ticking down on the ncaa championship game (who cares?) We are looking forward to our shows this week (charlotte - wed., atlanta - thurs. and in chapel hill on sunday), and hope to see any and all of you there (at any and all of the shows). by the way has anyone ever heard Luther Vandross's NCAA theme? "one shining moment." apparently it's a tradition. a sampling of lyrics "the ball is tipped... the time is short, the world is long..." this is our first time listening for sure.

Okay.It’s no secret that since the death of Johnny Cash, everybody and their brother is going out of their way to claim how much they “looooove” Johnny Cash. And everybody probably already knows that if you want to aim for “the coolest” you lay claim to having ALWAYS loved Johnny Cash.. “you know! For-EVER, I have liked him for like E-Verrr.”

I have watched some very respectable people turn into that thirteen year old kid who on the day after Christmas when three other kids showed up in a pair of Vans, sat there explaining ‘till they were blue in the face the intricate details of how far back their knowledge/dedication/loyalty to the art of skateboarding went.

However, it is late here, everybody is thinking of sleep, and we have just finished watching Walk the Line. So, I feel that something must be said. Over the past couple of years with the surge of Johnny Cash Memorials, Awards, Honors, and Tributes it has become the most obvious thing in the world to Everyone and Anybody that Johnny Cash is not only the Man in Black but he is absolutely and completely THE MAN of ALL MUSIC of ALL TIME.

Perhaps the frustration here is not that everybody else is saying it too, but that ,..well.. that everybody else is saying it too.

And yet,…. after we sat through Walk the Line for the second time tonight we thought that we should add our little bit to the grand echoing chorus, regardless of how many times we have heard it this year (or last, or the one before) or how many times we will inevitably hear it again and again.

The truth is Johnny Cash can Bring it. Big Time.

And so,.. here it goes…“I love Johnny Cash most!! I do ! I do! The first, the last, the least the most! I do! I do ! It’s true! I do!”

And we do.

 

The car stereo in our car is not great. pretty standard really (or less) if we can tell what song is playing, and generally who is singing we are well satisfied.

however, if you ever get the chance to listen to the faces "nod is good as a wink..." on a really swank stereo, do not miss the opportunity. I was lucky enough to be "borrowing" a lexus from a friend recently, to drive to the store, and this record was in the player.

Gloriously (and i mean this word) however, i didn't even know the car stereo was on when i turned the ignition, and i was a good ten feet out of the driveway before my borrowed vehicle went from total silence to the heavens opening up and the song "debris" blaring slow and massive out of each side of the car's interior. wow. "maybe people have this experience all the time i thought." it was unforgettable. i've never appreciated glyn johns more...

by the way - for anyone wondering about the "songs of america project", we found out today that the record will be coming out in jan. 07 accompanied by a massive concert at the Ford Theater in Washington DC. It will be recorded for a pbs broadcast, dvd, etc.

For anyone who's never heard of this project it is a record featuring the songs of american history from 1620 - present covered (or "interpreted") by several different artists including the flaming lips, sufjan stevens, thad cockrell (fronting the Mavericks -- they cover the song "Dixie" !), and many others.

We here at roman candle were assigned the song "Get Together" (made famous by the youngbloods & the easy rider soundtrack), by the producers, and recently recorded a version of the song for this record, which we hope to host for a day on myspace in the coming weeks. so look out below.

 

(1929-2006) Before he ran the show at Hee Haw, Buck Owens ran the show in general. He was an unbelievable singer and songwriter. He is one of many knock-out artists that will fall into a newly developing genre (coined here for the first time), called "Man, they were one Rick-Rubin-produced-project away from blowing peoples' minds (again) in their old age.*** God rest his soul.

I was first introduced to him (like most kids i guess) by watching hee-haw at my grandparents house. As you might imagine Hee-Haw turned many wheels in my brain, and i saw my fair share, but it didn't cause me to run out in my tender youth and buy Buck Owens records (this was truly my loss).

I didn't actually start +listening+ to Buck Owens until a few years ago when we started spending a bunch of time with Thad Cockrell (quick aside - Thad Cockrell by the way, as an artist, should be seen in the same context as Buck Owens or Willie Nelson. The kind of luke warm comparisons he always gets to contemporary folks like Ryan Adams don't do justice to Thad in the least -- or Ryan Adams for that matter). Instead of rambling here any further - i'm going to suggest you listen to this verison of Buck Owen's covering Chuck Berry in England.
by the way, if you've ever seen Thad in concert, his live show might make more a little more sense in this context.

*** I'm not suggesting that these amazing artists (from a past generation, i.e. Everly Brothers, Bill Withers) would be in any way dependent on rick rubin, as good as he is, to turn heads, etc. I am suggesting that if they made an album of voice and acoustic guitar/ piano or otherwise minmal instrumentation, and were given the media attention that accompanied R. Rubin's recent collaboration with Neil Diamond, hipsters, housewives, et al. would be sporting two front teeth over a bottom lip while listening to their inevitablly hot tracks.

Last but not least - Bill Withers, or Don and Phil, if you are reading this, we here at roman candle would love to offer our production services to you in any shape or fashion...

 

hmm sleep. what's that? one time i heard on a "behind the music" about 90's country music singer Aaron Tippen (known for "There ain't nothing wrong with the radio" and several patriotic hits), that while he was struggling to get noticed in nashville, he was able to keep up his songwriting, playing several live shows per month, and a die-hard weightlifting schedule, all while keeping a full-time job.

If you kept up with Mr. Tippen in the mid-90's, you'll know it all paid off for him. If you keep up with roman candle, you might guess that our weightlifting isn't what it used to be.

 

Hmm. a nice night at the house watching BET. we have almost finished our album artwork. The picture here is us in skip and timshel's apartment shooting photos for the inside of the album booklet.

As seen here, Jude was the chief art director in both vision and execution. In this photo he was barking directions left and right like a mini A. Hitchcock. The truth however is that Jude stole all of his idea for the artistic vision from nick, and being the rascal that he is, managed somehow to get all the credit.

by the way - we are currently booking shows for april/may/june and will be adding them to our website as they get confirmed.

 

ghost story for the kiddies:

Thanks to all who have written in asking questions about our UK trip. sorry we don't have time to answer all of them with the detail they deserve, so we've decided to post the occasional anecdote or photo on our blog. (looking at photots may require you, the reader to venture out into our official blog).

There is a pretty wild and apparntly true ghost story associated with the house, Burton Agnes, where we stayed in february. It tickled us while we were there because everyone was so commonplace about it. ("here is where we do laundry, here is the red drawing room, there is the ghost's bedroom...")

(quick aside) if you ever get the chance to visit east yorkshire - and it's pretty out of the way - it is completely worth it. Go to the Burton Agnes House/gardens, and undoubtably go to either Scarborough, or Whitby, or both. The drive alone is pretty fantastic.

With great zeal we recommend eating fish and chips at Mother Hubbard's in Scarborough if you get the chance. They are the official reataurant of roman candle in yorkshire (a very coveted title). Everyone that writes a travel book reccomends the Magpie Cafe in Whitby (which we tried, twice, and it is great) but the stone truth is Mother Hubbards is where it's at.

back to the ghost story as it was told to us: in 1620, one of the three daughters of the gentleman who built the house Burton Agnes (in 1598) was mugged/attacked/robbed while riding her horse in the countryside near the house (in the above, photo the one on the far right - and the only one wearing black). she was brought back to the home in terrible shape and died a few days later.

This daughter had always been in love with the house as a child and a teenager (maybe in a nutty way?), saying she thought the house was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, and how she never wanted to leave the house, etc. You get the idea.

After she was mugged, and laying on what would be her deathbed, going in and out of consciousness and/or sanity, she pleaded with her sisters to take her skull, when she died and put it in the walls of the house. yikes.

The sisters agreed to this, to soothe their ailing sister, but when she died, they buried her in the churchyard, with her head attached to her body. Apparently she haunted the house in a loud and nasty way, until the sisters consulted the vicar (taking David Brent's perpetual advice), dug up her body, removed her head and put it into a wall within the house. The haunting stopped.

a hundred or so years later, while the descendants' family were remodeling things, someody discovered an old skull planted in the walls. Very sensibly, they chucked it in the trash. The haunting apparently cranked back up until the skull was found and put back.

This happened again about a hundred years later, during another remodel only this time they (very sensibly) buried the skull in the garden. This was also a mistake.

After this third haunting, they permanently put the lady's skull into a wall in the house. Things since then have been generally at peace in the house according to the owners, except for the dogs occasionally refuse to go into the what was the ghost's bedroom. Which, having been in the room, is a pretty weird, cold place.

We were told it continully smells like lilac, even though there is no lilac in the room or near it. I'm not sure what lilac has to do with ghosts, but there you have it.

 

"I'm gonna name this track 'feedback'..."

Ello. We are up in Woo Town hitting the licks with Nick, the Monster, Jeager on git-arghhhhhh. It's crazy cool. Much like any other TLC-type record that we have done in the past. No rules. No limits.

By tomorrow night we should have a finished song but for now we are just sweating it out in the basement with some cups of tea (All Mathenys gave up coffee for Lent), Logs and Timshel are I-chatting one another across the room like a bunch of dorks "o hilarity, hilarity!" and Skip,..well Skip is twirling to Nick's spaced out guitar licks because, honestly, what else can you do to the song "Get together"?

 

Hello everybody.. we are all home..and safe after six weeks of England and one night of down right spankadelics at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Welcome home peeps.

Skip, Timshel, and Jude spent the past six weeks touring England, Jude on upright bass. We played a few acoustic shows in York, Leeds, and Burton Agnes. We stayed for the last four weeks of our trip up in East Yorkshire at an old manor house called Burton Agnes where we took part in their "artist in residence" program. This means we took lots of country walks, ate lots of Yorkshire pudding, and wrote a load of new music.

We will be heading into the studio this weekend to work on a cover song for the "Songs for America" compilation. Very exciting. This will be a collaboration of artists doing their own interpretation of songs from American history. We were assigned the song "get together.' So wish us luck on that one.

Sir-MIx-a BAMB. Finally we are mixing folks and it smells like hot potatoes down here. Tonight is our last night of working on this record and we are finishing here with seven songs. we are just having trouble putting this whole experience into words and everything so .....I have taken a poll as far as metaphors for how good this record is and so far we've got:

"Thad's new record is as good as.....

a) The popcorn break you take in the middle of a hot and sweaty night at the roller rink.

b) When they opened up that refrigerator on Sesame Street and all of your favorite vegetables and sandwiches were in there singing.

c) The way that big ol' fat money pouch at the school bake sale feels in your hand before you have to turn it into the principal.

d) Vienna in the Snow, St. Peter's in the Spring...."

 

"I think records are like sausages, you like them a lot better when you don't know how they are made."

 

Kong size your single?....invaluable. "Rosalyn",The first of Thad's "whomp your butt and leave you crying" songs, is hot and ready to post on Thad's Myspace. Take a listen everybody and see what you think.

We have been working ridiculous hours up here trying to get these things right and still leave time for a little footy-ball. Just Kidding. No footy ball.

We have set a goal for two days/song and so far we have been blowing through with few snags except that Thad is such a Prom Queen that he insists on doing vocals with no lights, standing in a circle of flames, and holding a sceptor. Hope you like it so far.

Kong Size your Record, 89 cents.

Hello folks.. we are officially recording thad cockrell's new project. 530 am and finishing another hot sesh. oh man can he write some songs. thad is recording an electric sitar track as i write. not really.

we haven't really emerged from this basement apart to eat, make coffee and play with jude. we did indulge in about a half hour of conan the destroyer last night though. thad's two songs we've been hammering out are (at the moment) called "she's a navigator" and "rosalyn". Happy new year by the way.

It is true,the sign on the burger king right as you pull onto 268 (wilkesboro) says "kong size your whopper - 89 cents".

 

We do have a new european booking agent and we will be in england playing shows in february. more deatils to come when we get them. here is their website:primary talent international. the man to look out for is Andy Wooliscroft.

Chris Stamey is currently mixing some delectables from the keegan dewitt record we have been working on. between him and us, we should have the record mixed and listenable sometime before springtime. in the meantime, if you want to hear some d-lux demos, visit keegan's myspace page. look out for guest appearances on keegan's record form Thad Cockrell, and others.

speaking of TC, we will be involved in some (ineviatbly smoking -- have you heard warmth and beauty?) recording sessions with the man during the first two weeks of January. As always with new music from Thad Cockrell, we feel obligated to say "look out" because his new songs and his singing will undoubtably blow your brain out/break your heart. ---- this picture by the way is keegan in wilkesboro NC recording "so high so low".

 

 

 

Well hello. Christmas time, and the phone is ringing off the hook. reporters. courtesy calls (thumbs up), landlords, vicky pollard. and you want to know what they are all asking? what does the spirit of Christmas mean in our modern age? nope. they want to know if Chris (Stamey)'s acoustic guitar was ever repaired after our db's/maxwell's shows. the answer, thankfully is a sweet pie yes. Here is a quick background if you missed this tidbit of our live show history:

This past Sept. we played two shows at maxwell’s in Hoboken NJ, opening for the fully reunited dB’s. (if you don’t know who the dB’s are, visit thedbsonline.net). Half way through our second show, skip announced to the audience that we were all using the dB’s gear that night, and that they had graciously lent it to us, so that we could open for them as a full band. He also put in a special thanks to Chris for letting us borrow his acoustic guitar, which he’d brought to NY just for us to use during these opening sets.

Exactly three minutes after this “thanks, thanks and thanks” interlude, we