GAMH this Saturday
Hello Folks,
Holidays being what they are, I hope you all had good ones. And if you didn’t? Well, just remember - almost anything beats sleeping in an airport. Welcome to 2015. Let’s wash away the past. Every sinner is a saint. And every saint, a singer. Okay, calm down, Chuck.
We are coming in for a full circle landing with end of the week Bay Area shows in SF and Napa. January 31 at the Great American music Hall.
Kevn Kinney of Drivin’ ‘n’ Cryin’ has been added to our Napa and SF shows.
Yeah, full circle. It was only 3 or 4 months ago we started the Night Surfer tour in a meadow in Golden Gate Park after a beautiful set by our friend Mark Koslek a.k.a. Sun Kil Moon. The weather was perfect, it was one of those you had to be there kind of gigs. Come to think, I actually did have to be there. Afterwards we went straight to the airport and flew to Cologne to meet up with our trusted leader Carsten AKA “The Eckermeister”. We crisscrossed the Continent a couple times and trekked up and down the “angry island” before finding our way back stateside to play a few more weeks of shows. I swear we put over 1,000 miles on our roller bags. And if that’s not enough, James and the Vicente have become quite the walkers. I get around but these guys take it to another level.
Startup City, USA really takes its toll on a man. But you have to enjoy your time off. If you’re like me there’s only one good reason to get dressed in the dark. And that’s the “Dawn Patrol” - paddling out before the sun comes up. That’s about the size of what I’ve been doing lot lately. At Linda Mar. Why not? What else can a poor boy do when there’s all that snackable content on tap? You could find me out there with the sewing circle most mornings just lately.
All in all I’m feeling re-energized. Honestly, after spending a month with John Murry in the Mission Express van where I repeatedly tried to convince him that Whittier is a suburb of Los Angeles and nowhere near Memphis, TN, I was a little exhausted. He claimed he could read me like a book. And I became convinced that while John was a good read - he is still missing 25 of the 26 volumes that complete the Encyclopedia Britannica. In other words, there’s room for growth. For all of us. Are you listening, homie? John claimed when we got home he was going to get a real job. Now get out there, son. Straighten your tie and remind yourself to BE yourself, try to have a good time and try not to say anything racist in public today, okay?
Right. Where was I?
Well, aside from what amounts to an unhealthy amount of cable TV, I did have some time to lay around and catch up on some reading. Didn’t quite get to everything on the bedstand but I did dig into Dan Stuart’s memoir [“A False Memoir” - by Dan Stuart ]. For those of you who don’t know, Dan is my old Green On Red partner in crime from the bad old days. I did learn some things that I already knew. Kinda. A little recap: Basically, you start out sleeping in your clothes and it all kind of goes downhill after that. Not sure I was too excited about reliving some of this stuff. But I was snorting out loud and turning pages before long to see what Dan gets into next. There’s some real poetry to Dan’s tall tales and epic bullshitting. I dug it. You might dig it too. Whatever. Seek it out. It’s worth the seeking.
I wrote a little review on Amazon and you can find the book and my words here: http://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-Marlowe-Billings-Memoir-Stuart/dp/0957171722/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421286640&sr=8-2&keywords=dan+stuart
Please allow me to pimp a couple things here. For one: Night Surfer is still very much out there. In fact, let me see if I can slip this in - you see. . a couple of weeks back. I was riding on the N Judah like I do. I looked down. And I saw an SF Weekly. I stared at it for a while. Then I picked it up. Glad I did. I found this nice year-end LP roundup from Emma Silvers http://www.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2014/12/24/our-favorite-local-rock-records-of-2014
And if that’s not enough. Here’s a little nod from the New York Times:
Rainbows in the gutter. The New York Times gives a year end nod to Night Surfer: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/07/arts/ap-us-music-overlooked-in-2014.html?_r=0 …
[See how I slipped that in?]
Oh and another thing: Don’t be cheap bastards for goodness sake. We were thinking of getting a stand at the Farmers Market, and just selling CP product, or jewelry. Until then, we’ve got merch at our on-line store. For days. For your consideration: In fact, dig the New NIGHT SURFER T’s that just came in here: http://www.theconnextion.com/chuckprophet/chuckprophet_cat.cfm?CatID=212 …
Onwards,
-CP
