Stevie Newsletter

The New Newsletter - re: touring, online lessons and much blather.

Feb 06, 2009

Happy New Year, all. No ... I insist.

Things are different. Maybe those bumper stickers that claim "Regime Change Begins At Home" aren't so very far off. I'm all for Hope and Change ... I really am. But friends, this new upward spike on the political integritometer is serious money out of my pocket. In the months just before election time, see, I had gotten a sweetheart deal with a big toy manufacturer for a board game I was developing called "Turpitude Bingo." It was a million dollar idea then and it's a big ol' goose-egg now. But just like the man said from the Capitol steps just a couple of weeks ago, we've all got to be willing to make sacrifices. So Turpitude Bingo is toast. That's all right. I'm willing to give it up. The trade-off seems a fair one. Come to think of it, "N - Suspension Of Habeas Corpus As Part Of A Programmatic Misappropriation Of Power Into An Increasingly Monolithic Executive Branch" would never have fit on a single bingo ball anyway.

To abuse the bully pulpit of a musician's newsletter for just a moment longer, I will say merely that it is my sincere hope that amidst all of the current optimism that all the current optimists will show some tolerace for the political crankiness so many of us have honed to razor sharpness over the last 8 years. Mislaid car keys? Broken guitar string? Flat tire? "Doggone Bush" worked great for all of them. And of course there's a there's a more generalized, truly panoramic curmudgeonliness that comes with age and that I hope will not go entirely out of fashion. I've worked long and hard to become middle-aged and now that I'm here I hope I don't have to "fight .... for my right .... to kve-e-e-e-e-etch." But I will.

For example, even as I write on this balmy California Sunday afternoon, a football game of apparent import and renown is being contested somewhere very far away. It occurs to me that it's not often one finds oneself in the minority by NOT sporadically and enthusiastically shouting vowel sounds at a glowing tube. But here I am. A singular realization, that. Then again I also find myself in the minority when I experience true revulsion at people asking their barristas for coffee "with rheum." Ewwww. Man, grouchiness is gonna be hard to give up. "Doggone Obama." Naw, doesn't have the same ring to it ...

The CD is almost here. I feel like I'm in my 8th trimester. I may have mentioned before that what started as a humble solo fingerstyle CD has blossomed into - dare I say it - a Concept Album. A Concept Album with a Cast Of Thousands. I'm not even entirely sure in a forebrain kind of way what it's all all about .. but I decided at the outset just to turn my subconscious loose on it, and here at the finish line things are sounding moderately fabulous, even if I do say so myself. Maybe after I've bought a copy and heard it a few times I can develop a theory on What It All Means. And it's really only $15? And if I pre-ordered off the website right now I'd get a cool gift certificate as an exclusive bonus? Geez, why wouldn't I?

Here's the cast list:
Mike Marshall: (David Grisman, Choro Famoso, Mike Marshall & Darol Anger): mandolin
Rufus Capadoccia (Stellamara, The Voudou Jazz Ensemble, Rufus and Bethany, Vishal Vaid): cello
Kendrick Freeman (Alison Brown): drums & percussion
Heidi Clare (Reeltime Travelers, AtAGallop, The Wronglers): fiddle
Sam Bevan (David Grisman, Joe Craven): bass
Kit Walker (Airto Moreira, Kundalini Boombox) B-3, percussion, bass clarinet, alpenhorn, loops
Rich DePaolo: electric guitar and mixology
Robbie Virus - of the West Palm Beach Viruses, I believe - (Project Pimento): theremin
Marla Fibish (Marla Fibish Trio, Double Treble, The Heart Of The Roll): mandolin
Teresa Tudury, Corinne West, Mike Phelan (Marley's Ghost) and Rachel Tree: backing vocals
Phillip Aaberg (Windham Hill, Eugene Friessen & Darol Anger): accordion
Walter Strauss (Walter Strauss Trio, Ten Sleep, Mamadou Diabate, The Burns Sisters): guitar, baritone guitar, vocals, arrangements and production.

The music, it may not shock you to learn, is rather wildly eclectic in its range. Lots of fingerstyle guitar, yes. And sure, there's some Kumbaya-free folk. But there's also some soft-shoe in there, and it's the recurring signature tune of our protagonist, Mr. Oster. A wordless fairy tale gets told. There's original calliope music. One cut can be described fairly, I think, as "Brian Setzer plays mumbledypeg with Tom Waits in John Lennon's back yard." You'll find a rather wistful, rather left-bank-ish guitar-and-squeezebox tune. An old friend gets a new suit of clothes. A monstrous, unstoppable train nearly mows the joint down. An Appalachian fiddle tune wakes up in India. The Louvin Brothers get subpoenaed. It's a visit to an old-time sideshow, folks, so there will be no shortage of oddity and wonderment. It's been a right royal blast watching this album unfold. And possibly the coolest part of all was fulfilling a lifelong dream of writing a song where the lyrics to the chorus are "Na na na na na."

Onward.

Those that actually read past all of this blather down to the bottom will notice that there are not a lot of gigs coming up real soon. No worries. This is the blessed calm before the storm of travel that will likely happen later this year and into next. But in just a couple of weeks your humble servant heads off to Memphis for a few days to showcase at The Folk Alliance's annual international conference. I'll be co-hosting a private showcase room with my pal and producer Walter Strauss. The focus will be on fingerstyle guitar. Wish us luck ... we'll be trapped in a hotel for four days with a thousand raging folkies. Augh. I get so tired of reminding these people that their true loves probably don't want to be given a chicken without no bone. Ah, well. Just that native crankiness again ...

Oh ... and the off chance that the Pew Charitable Trust forgets to send that check, I suppose it bears mentioning that a new income stream has started trickling in here at Corporate. It's all about online guitar lessons! Yes, gentle readers, by giving online guitar lessons Yours Truly stands a chance of keeping StevieCoyleDotCom off the bailout rolls, which means, of course, that the CEO will not be subject to the wretched $500,000 annual salary cap that's got all us acoustic musicians stewing. Lessons happen via Skype, which is a completely free and wonderfully functional piece of downloadable software that allows users to make telephone calls and hold video chats right over the Internet. Both hour-long and half-hour lessons are available and payment is via PayPal. All ages and all skills levels are encouraged to get in touch. Teaching advanced players is a gas, of course, but I must say I get a huge vicarious thrill out of seeing absolute beginners "get it" as well. Wherever you are in your playing, please don't hesitate to give me a shout. It'll be good.

Armed with my trusty laptop I can even do lessons from the road. And on that note, I'll be in Florida for 10 days in March and around The Bay Area for CD Release Parties in April and May. I'll also spend some at home seeing if I can get recombobulated after this extended and adventure into CD-Land. Maybe take a little vacation or something. Maybe read a book. Take a hike. Jump off The Grid for a while. That's hard to imagine, but people do it, I hear. June finds me in New England, building a tour around a wonderful new week-long guitar camp in New Hampshire. From there I'll work my way south, perhaps all the way to Georgia. Later in the summer and into fall I'll be in The Pacific Northwest and then in The Midwest and The Great Lakes. Maybe Greece and/or Australia in the fall. And then it'll be time to start thinking about another album. Good gravy.

Happy New Year, email@site.com. I really mean it. Strange times. Hard times. But with any luck and soon, better times.

All the best,

S

-Stevie Coyle

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