News, Brain Spillage, and Tall Tales
Kev Fest! June 1st at White Squirrel
Help us celebrate three years of the White Squirrel Bar! We're lucky to have our little home base venue on W7th and can't wait to break in the new outdoor patio stage at 5pm with some friends.
April showers of shows
March update
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The trio band had a great time down at the Big Turn Festival in Red Wing and I closed out the month with a few great solo shows. That busy stretch in the second half of February leads (like most years) right into March, including a tribute show to the great Jason Molina (of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company), a matinee with my friend Lucy, and the continuing adventures of Devaney and Friends on Third Thursdays at White Squirrel Bar!
We’re getting closer on something resembling a record after another little stretch in the studio. Been playing a lot of newer songs live lately and can’t wait to bring ‘em to some fun spring and summer dates ahead.
Support live music and musicians,
md
Live From Laboratory and Lounge
Starting a new video series in the spirit of the pandemic-era Shed Bar Sessions. Laboratory and Lounge is the alliterative allusion to, well, our basement. This is the space where I made the Folios album and where the band usually practices these days. Pig's Eye Records' warehouse and office. I'll be digging into some deep cut catalog tunes, newly written stuff, and maybe the odd cover. Subscribe at the ol' youtube channel, if you find yourself over there and share the tunes if ya like…
The first episode is for the tune “Blue Highways.” With being on the road a little more again these days, I figured this would be a good one to start with. From the 2013 House of Rust album, I think I understand this song a lot more now than when I wrote it. I remember when I was growing up, my dad had a book he loved on his shelf titled Blue Highways by a writer named William Least Heat-Moon. A travelogue of the back roads of America. Some years later, in 2005, I borrowed his copy (still on my shelf, dad) and read it while on tour with Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls. Fitting for the times of touring with just an Atlas, pre-GPS days. It took a few more years to get around to it, but I knew I had to write a song with that title. And a great read, in any case.
Blue Highways Live From Laboratory and Lounge
See ya soon,
md
Setting the Record Straight Vol. 1
Over the years, when you get a new tune going, you've got the chance to fine tune it over several live outings, or get it down in the studio as blueprint and go from there. A lot of times after playing something live (especially in a band setting), the song will start to reveal itself and maybe a new guitar part occurs to you, or a “concert ending” replaces a fadeout, etc. Other times, a song can get too overcooked and this usually happens in the studio when you've listened to a tune too many times.
“You Can't Win” off of the House of Rust is one of those times I should have been listening a little closer. The title came from a long lost book by a fella named Jack Black (not that one) that I highly recommend, if you can track it down, and the verses came together over a couple years, live versions, and band members. We cut the tune completely live in the studio at Sparta Sound with Rich Mattson in the fall of 2011 and it came out about two years later on a record I rather neglected at the time, but have come to love and have been revisiting a bit this fall/winter for its 10th anniversary.
Long story longer, among the lines in the song that I dig, is one in the first verse turnaround that goes “head is starting to spin, got a belly full of gin…” except that on the recording, I sing "head is starting to swirl"." With the ravages of time, I can't recall if I missed that, or just decided to keep it because the performance was good and since it was live, we couldn't punch a new vocal in. In any case, in recent years, when the tune gets played, it always stings a bit that I didn't fix it. But hey, songs are living things, and the record is just…there forever.
In the spring and summer of 2020 (remember that one?), I set out to post a tune a week from the Shed Bar in the backyard of our house in St. Paul on YouTube. The Shed Bar sessions were my contribution to that weird climate, as I kept the livestream thing to a minimum. That time wasn't great for just about everyone and I was nearing the end of a very prolonged battle with the bottle, so these videos aren't always my finest moments, but they are honest and the tunes therein stand up for themselves. Here's the performance of the song from 5/4/20. Please hit the ol' subscribe button on the channel if you like the tune, and I'll be looking to add more to the channel as I can.
There will be a “Setting the Record Straight” Vol. 2 post at some point soon…hopefully not many more than that.
take care,
md
Morning missive/state of some kinda union
Spotify is terrible and getting worse, unless you’re at a level where it’s already profitable. Bandcamp is likely in its last throes, bought and sold and gutted. Live music competes, as always, with other forms of entertainment.
It ain’t pretty out there.
But that can’t take away the magic that’s there when we create and share. To paraphrase the sage wisdom of my friend Steve Murray, “Just keep writing your songs and playing ‘em.”
If you value music—and let’s not kid ourselves, it’s commodified and taken for granted like no other art form—pay the cover, buy a cd or record if you’re still into the whole physical media thing, drop a few bucks in the tip jar or support a patreon. Patronize the clubs that support small artists and pledge to college and community radio.
I know this is largely a preaching to the choir post. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t occasionally contribute to the chorus. My streaming numbers are paltry at best, I don’t know what my “draw” is anymore, and I’ve been stubborn over the years (probably to my detriment) about staying independent of a lot of this so-called business. All of this to say, I still wake up every (ok, most) mornings excited to create. This is my “only one cup of coffee, top of my head” way of saying, don’t let the bastards get ya down. We’re in this together. Let’s play some tunes.
md
Devaney and Friends Residency
A month from tonight we're kicking off a new series at the White Squirrel Bar on Third Thursdays. Devaney and Friends* will bring together just that to open each show, followed by a special guest act or two. I've never done a regular residency show before and I'm grateful for the chance to kick off something like this in my neck of the woods. Been inspired by a few things this past year that really brought out the best in what a music community looks like and reminded me of some favorite such events in the past.
I usually don't write a ton during the summer and this year has really been different somehow. We'll be debuting some of the new tunes on 9/21 along with Rank Strangers and Bootcut, the countrified offshoot of Eleganza!
8pm
More on all that and some other stuff soon,
md
*For this inaugural edition:
Ryan Lovan, drums,
Matt Palin, bass
Josh Peterson, guitar
poster by Fort Ryno
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July 8 with Rockford Mules at Mortimer's
It's been a long time since I've played on a bill with these guys, but they're back with a new record coming this fall and were kind enough to invite us on for one of their “Sinner's Brunch” shows. Doors at 4:30, we hit at 5:30. All ages show at Mort's!
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