We are currently recording 2 covers for an EP / bonus disc for those wishing to buy oh tall tree in the ear on cd this year. 

For those of you who do not follow us on twitter, Skip has started an interview series for American Songwriter magazine called "Drinks With." The idea behind the interviews is not too complex. It's to sit around with a drink and talk about songwriting.

 So far the published interviews can be found here:

Wild Beasts (from UK)

Travis (from UK)

Jason Isbell (from Drive by Truckers / 400 unit)

Other interviews already completed and waiting for publication include:

Arctic Monkeys

Tom T. Hall

Brendan Benson

Elvis Perkins

Peacock that greeted us from the porch of Fox Hollow, Drinks With Tom T. Hall, December.

Drinks With Arctic Monkeys, Chicago. December. 

We were very excited this morning to find out that one of our favorite authors / musical ears, Nick Hornby said yesterday on (the sunday version of) npr's weekend edition, that he'd been listening to our record on his ipod. Nick Hornby has been one of our favorite writers for years. His new book, Juliet Naked is especially good.

We don't otherwise know him that well, so it was a great surprise. To quote ("American Movie") filmmaker Mark Borchardt, "Life is cool like that sometimes." At the time, I think he was talking about the burger kings in wisconsin switching from pepsi to coke products.

Here is a link to the full transcript, and an excerpt is below: 

HANSEN: What music is on your playlist?

Mr. HORNBY: Oh, I've got it in my pocket, I think.

HANSEN: Take a look.

Mr. HORNBY: Hold on a second. Well, I know I've been listening to Steve Earle's son, Justin Townes Earle, a bit recently and also Elvis Perkins. He's, I think Anthony Perkins' son. The most recent playlist that I made myself had a band called Roman Candle on it, Los Lobos, Phoenix... There's a lot of stuff. It's been a good year, I think, for music.

HANSEN: Really, that sounds good. How often have you changed that playlist?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. HORNBY: Well, I make a playlist twice a year... 

 

(posted by Skip) 

They are already selling peppermint ice cream in the Kroger people. Time to spend the evening working on a Christmas song with Keegan.  Only trouble so far: finding whichever indeterminate nook or cranny the sleighbells have been "hidden" in. 

This picture was taken at Messiah College, PA during our set from backstage by Sam Beam's manager John. We are back home for a few days after a long week of great shows. This past weekend of shows was a real treat for us as we got to play with some great bands (thank you Wild Beasts and Iron and Wine) and we also got to meet a bunch of new fans and friends (thank you to Main Street Music in Philadelphia and all of you that came out for the North Star Bar show). We got a chance for a short week break in SC to rest but will be heading back out on Thursday for a few shows with Jason Isbell.

Also, below are a few pictures taken by a fan from our show supporting Iron & Wine. Each of these are taken from his facebook page. There are several more photos posted there.

(posted by Timshel)

Thanks to their uncle Keegan, our little ones got this drawing in the mail, done by one of our favorite filmmakers /artists Michel Gondry . Keegan's record "Islands" comes out in the UK and US on vinyl and mp3 one week form today Sept. 15. 09

(posted by Skip)

Thanks to all who made the last few weeks so much fun (especially ha ha tonka, the people at daytrotter and schubas, and all you who came out).

We are glad to be home for a few days before heading Northeast, to play with iron and wine, Wild Beasts , and to play our first legitimate headlining show in the great city of Philadelphia (sponsored by the great people at wxpn.)

We will be posting photos from the last couple weeks in the next few days. Meanwhile here are links for tickets:

tickets for Sept. 10 NYC show with Wild Beasts at Mercury Lounge

tickets for Sept. 11 09 Philadelphia show at North Star

(posted by Skip)

diaper change:

outside the hi-tone club:

the kids in the trailer:

inside da club:

in the van:

recommended eating: (bonus: 2 blocks from hi-tone club)

thanks to all of you who came out to 3rd and Lindsley tonight. We sold out first copy of "oh tall tree" on vinyl to Nate Yetton and Joy Williams (Nate also took the above picture from the back of the club). We will be selling vinyl at all of our upcoming shows.

Welcome to our new romancandlemusic.com website by the way. If you register (either with your email or through facebook connect) for the site and go to the downloads tab under media, you can download 2 free mp3's.

One is an acoustic "you don't belong to this world" from our a session we did at water music with Jane Scarpantoni (cello - Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, many others). The other is an unreleased verison of Thad Cockrell performing one of our songs, "I can't even recall".

(posted by Skip)

I found a recording today I have been looking for since 1996. It’s not that obscure really, I just could never find it.  It’s a version of “almost like being in love” by the nat cole trio. If anyone can imagine back to 1996, it was still hard to locate music back then. I bought all uk import singles that schoolkids in chapel hill (r.i.p) did not carry through a mail order company called parasol out of Indiana. Needless to say, I had a hard time finding this recording even since we’ve years of internet. And thanks to lala.com I was able to hear it (though ironically not download it) this morning. I found it on amazon of all places later today. A minute and fifty five seconds long. 

(posted by Skip)