When I think music in Coachella, I think Beyonce, Kanye, Drake and other music that isn't necessarily on my radar.  I don't think, little rock and roll dive bars with shuffleboard and ice cold beer.  I was surprised to find out Coachella Bar existed after a day trip to the low desert.

Susan and I stopped by this cool little spot near old town Coachella on our way back from seeing wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert.  We hit it off with the bartender and his brother, Nick, who owns Coachella Bar.  Nick invited us down to play the after party for this Saturday's Coachella Food Truck Park.  We're kicking it off at 9pm and we'll play a couple of sets.  Susan will be backing me up on bass.

It's going to be a beautiful day.  Street food, cold beers, cool tunes, and front and back patios.

 Low Wind Howling debuted on The French Bonjour & Americana show on March 11, 2019.   You can have a listen to the episode at the links below. 

Down In The Wash, my second solo album, comes out May 14 on Astro Lizard Records.  The songs on the album were inspired by our move to the Mojave Desert and our experiences living off the grid using solar power for our electricity.  Low Wind Howling (Lazy Country Melody) is a pretty literal take on how we arrived at where we live now.  It was inspired one night a few years back when Susan and I were camping in the Rockies in Colorado.  Before she got inside the tent, she looked up at the stars and said, "I was just a Philly girl who had never seen the stars."  I wrote that down.  It was the perfect start for the song.

Spotify

SoundCloud

I'll be providing the music for this fancy dinner in the high desert in Sun Alley on April 5. Make your reservations by emailing cateringbyzara@gmail.com.  Twiggy will be playing upright bass with me.  A portion of proceeds benefit Sparks Growth for Childrens' Literacy. 

Coming up over the next few weeks, I have three amazing shows between the high desert and the Los Angeles area.

Saturday, February 23 at Landers Brew Co. near Joshua Tree, CA.  Moody Little Sister joins the Saturday night fray at Landers Brew for this month's last Urban Desert Cabaret.  Joe Garcia bookends the evening.  I'll also be playing a set before Moody Little Sister takes the stage for their Mojave Desert premiere.  I am so excited to have these friends play our little town.  I first met them in Portland.  Now they live in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  They took great care of us there.  Let's show them a good time here.

Friday, March 1 at The Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.  We're playing this legendary club opening for the equally legendary Todd Albright. Todd is a Country Blues, finger-style guitar player and singer living in Detroit, Michigan. He's a man out of time... or at least, quite possibly, from another time.  Twiggy Pop will be joining me on upright bass.  Join us and Todd for an evening of rolling on the Mississippi River and desert winds.

Tuesday, March 5 at Matt Denny's in Arcadia - The Songwriter Serenade.  My good friend, Rags & Bones, played this evening a couple of months back.  I happened to be in the neighborhood and dropped in.  What an amazing evening!  J.C. Hyke puts this weekly series together featuring singer-songwriters from all over Southern California and beyond.  It's so important for songwriters and musicians to have a night like this that puts us all together - both artists and audience.  J.C. is building a community one brick, or one song, at a time.  I'm honored to have a chance to play this evening.  I'm looking forward to meeting the other folks on the bill and becoming a brick in this community.

I wrote a small piece for Billboard magazine about Crooked Rain's long journey to the center of my heart.  It's one of the coolest, and weirdest records from any time period.  The article compiles the thoughts of a number of people whom the album impacted including Lilly Hiatt, Larry Crane, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn and Aaron Lee Tasjan.

It was an honor and a pleasure to work on this album.  Available today on vinyl and digital.  Read about the recording and mixing here.  Get the album direct from Beluga or play it on your favorite digital platform.

Susan Kearns' curated show opens Friday, February 1 in Joshua Tree, California at Gallery 62.  The show is titled SURFACES. Susan has six paintings displayed that were inspired by songs from my upcoming album, Down In The Wash, including the painting pictured above which is the front cover. The other artists in the show are Joanna Szachowska, Tobi Taboada, Michael Maxwell, Alane Levinsohn, Eric Banas and Francesca Spoonhower.  In addition to oil painting, there is sculpture, assemblage, encaustic painting and more celebrating texture and how artists apply surface manipulation to their art form.  There is an OPENING PARTY on February 9 from 6pm to 8pm.  Come on by!  Musical surprises might happen.

See more of the art here and get details for the opening party:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1188584121307900/

I am excited to announce I have a new album that will be released May 14, 2019 by Astro Lizard Records.  There are eleven songs and the album's title is Down In The Wash.  I'll be sharing the album's cover art next week on this blog.  In the meantime, you can listen to the very first single from Down In The Wash.  It's titled Mojave Moonlight and it's available on the compilation album Euro House Concert Hub: Looking for Europe Collection from The Medicine Show Records. It's Track #4.

Later this spring, we'll be kicking off the album's release with a UK tour.  Hold tight!  Dates coming soon! 

This week, The L.A. Record ran an interview with Terry Six (Terry & Louie, The Exploding Hearts) and Ardavon Fatehi who is the director for an impending feature-length documentary about The Exploding Hearts.  Reading the interview was like taking a time machine back to 2003.  It sure sounded like Adam Baby was in the room.  I should also note that the article was written by Clorox Girl, Justin Maurer. 

I hope you take the time to read the whole article.  I think it will make you laugh.  It will help you remember what punk rock was like before everyone had a camera in their pocket.  There's also a little bit of information in the article about one of my own projects.  I'll be telling you more about that soon.  Meanwhile, enjoy the picture below.

I produced and engineered this album from one-time Timbuk 3 frontman, Pat MacDonald at my sixteen track Portland basement recording gutter, Studio 13.  We began tracking in October or November of 2005 and wrapped up mixes early in 2006.  Both Pat and I were going through some rough times.  We were both ending long term relationships.  Take a listen.  You can hear the pain coming off the Troubadour's performance.  You can hear the darkness in my mixes and production.  Almost all of what you hear is Pat MacDonald laying down a live performance in his one man band format.  The drum sound is Pat's home-made stomp box construction - a wood box with a D-112 kick drum mic inside.  The mic was run through guitar effect pedals and sent to an amplifier.  I took it DI and I mic'd the cabinet.  We would occasionally double track a vocal or add some percussion or hand claps.  An Ibanez AD202 was my main delay used for this album. It was released in 2007.  This album came from some really dark days.  But I'm so happy I got to spend that time with Pat MacDonald.  We made some great music.

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/troubadour-of-stomp/291780642
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3BbQK4c3bpmJq2IAExtiTF