below is the blog/bulletin from the Easton Stagger Phillips myspace page where that band has a new song called THE ROAD.
on my page there is a new mix from the PORCUPINE album called GOODBYE AMSTERDAM which I wrote back stage at Carre in Amsterdam while touring with John Hiatt. It's going to be the Porcupine album closing track and the new mix just came in today from Eric Liljestrand who mixed Lucinda's new LITTLE HONEY album. The good news is that PORCUPINE will finally get released in on APRIL 28th on NEW WEST RECORDS. Very good news indeed. THere's loads more tour dates...with ESP and some solo dates as well. See way below for all that...
PLUS, ALSO, TOO!!!! the great Joshua Tree painter DIANE BEST and I will have an exhibit of new and collaborative paintings at the RED ARROW ART GALLERY on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13TH.
now here's the note from the Easton Stagger Phillips camp:
Holy smokes the hardest working folk trio in the business has done something unheard of.. while on tour in Europe we recorded a WHOLE NEW ALBUM! Well, it's more like a collection of new tunes and stuff we wrote while on the road and stuff we are thinking about putting on our second album. Basically, instead of a day or two off we got to work and recorded tracks in the living rooms, bed rooms, basements, cantinas, kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, and horse stables or our friend's homes in Ireland, Holland, and Germany. We got a whole Euro Bootleg of goodies to be delivered on our January tour of Alaska and the west coast....PLUS NEW DATES HAVE JUST BEEN ADDED including SXSW and a MID WEST TOUR IN MARCH WITH THE WHIPSAWS! All of this is part of a new record company/musical co-op we have started called REBELTONE RECORDS. Not to mention that the Whipsaws crew have begun a whole production company in Anchorage called NORTHBOUND PRODUCTIONS. Lots of news and activity around our camps this fall and I just really wanted to point out to you listeners that as of today, a brand new song, and the first song that EASTON STAGGER PHILLIPS wrote together, has been posted on the myspace page. It's called THE ROAD and is pretty self-explanatory. It's a demo that we couldn't resist putting on the web, even in it's rough edged condition, being recorded at Theo's Triangle T Horse Ranch Cantina in southern Holland. We wrote it back stage at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.
Also, there is a HOLIDAY SALE on the "old" record ONE FOR THE DITCH. Just click on the album cover and you'll be whisked away to the proper location to pick that record up on the cheap.
NEW SHOWS ARE LISTED BELOW. Take care of yourselves and take care of each other. HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND WE'LL HOPEFULLY SEE YOU SOON.
Easton, Stagger, Phillips
check out all these tour dates. some with Easton Stagger Phillips and The Whipsaws, and some solo acoustic opening for THE SADIES. I'm excited to play my old hometown of Columbus,OH this Thanksgiving weekend at THE SUMMIT with SAM BROWN on drums.
TIM EASTON TOUR DATES NOV, DEC, JAN, FEB, MARCH, APRIL
SATURDAY, 11.29.08 THE SUMMIT COLUMBUS, OH
THURSDAY, 12.4.08 SCHUBAS CHIGACO, IL w/ THE SADIES
FRIDAY, 12.5.08 HIGH NOON SALOON MADISON, WI w/ Sadies
SATURDAY, 12.6.08 400 BAR MINNEAPOLIS, MN w/ Sadies
SUNDAY,MONDAY, TUESDAY 12.7-9.08 ONEIDA CASINO in GREEN BAY, WI w/Sadies and Justin Townes Earle
WEDNESDAY, 12/10/08 MONK'S KAFFEE PUB DUBUQUE, IA
THURSDAY, 12.11.08 THE BRASS RAIL FORT WAYNE, IN
FRIDAY, 12.12.08 ST. FRANCIS LOUISVILLE, KY
SATURDAY12.13.08 RED ARROW ART GALLERY EXHIBIT WITH NEW WORKS BY DIANE BEST AND TIM EASTON
FRIDAY, 12.19.08 WATER CANYON JOSHUA TREE, CA
1.14.09 THROUGH 1.31.09 WITH EASTON STAGGER PHILLIPS
WEDNESDAY, 1.14.09 VAGABOND BLUES PALMER, AK w/ E.S.P.
THURSDAY, 1.15.09 TAP ROOT ANCHORAGE, AK w/ E.S.P.
FRIDAY, 1.16.09 GREAT BEAR WASILLA, AK w/ Leeroy Stagger only
SATURDAY, 1.17.09 MAXINE'S GIRDWOOD, AK w/ E.S.P.
SUNDAY, 1.18.09 BUNNELL STREET GALLERY HOMER, AK w/ E.S.P.
WEDNESDAY, 1.21.09 THE PUB AT U.A.F. FAIRBANKS, AK w/ E.S.P.
THURSDAY, 1.22.09 WHOLE WHEAT PALACE TALKEETNA, AK w/ESP
FRIDAY, 1.23.09 SNOW GOOSE THEATRE ANCHORAGE, AK w/ ESP
SUNDAY, 1.25.09 TRACTOR TAVERN SEATTLE, WA w/ ESP
TUESDAY, 1.26.09 ALBERTA STREET PUB PORLAND, OR w/ESP
WEDNESDAY, 1.28.09 HOTEL UTAH SAN FRANCISCO, CA w/ ESP
FRIDAY, 1.30.09 HOTEL CAFE LOS ANGELES, CA w/ ESP
SATURDAY, 1.31.09 CLAREMONT FOLK CENTER CLAREMONT, CA w/ESP
SATURDAY, 2.21.09 LOBERO THEATRE SINGS LIKE HELL SANTA BARBARA, CA
MARCH 18TH....SXSW AUSTIN, TX
SXSW Rebeltone Tour ALL DATES WITH EASTON STAGGER PHILLIPS AND THE WHIPSAWS Wednesday 25-Mar-08 THE BASEMENT Nashville TN Thursday 26-Mar-08 SUMMIT CITY LOUNGE Whitesburg KY Friday 27-Mar-08 THE FISHTANK Lexington KY Saturday 28-Mar-08 RUMBA CAFÉ Columbus OH Wednesday 01-Apr-08 WORLD CAFÉ LIVE Philadelphia PA
THURSAY, 4.16.08 RENDEZVOUS JUNEAU, AK SATURDAY, 4.18.08 ALASKA HOTEL JUNEAU, AK
Easton's E.S.P. Euro Tour Blog: 11.11.08 I'm writing all bleary and worn from the road- but there is no complaining. I'm high above the continent in a Swiss Air jet from Zurich to Brooklyn and I wanted to write down some thoughts about the tour and whatnot before I arrive back in America and get caught up in the mix. It's just another day out here traveling from place to place. I woke up at 4:15a.m. after sleeping just about two hours, in order to catch the train to the airport to get this day's journey in motion. Leeroy Stagger and I played the last show of the tour without Evan Phillips. Together with our tour manager Inge Rietjens, we drove back from southern Holland to catch a few winks at our Amsterdam home base( Daphne Van Velsen's flat on the Damrak right near the Central Station) before both of us flew back to North America. Evan had left the day before to get back to Alaska. We missed him and his songs and harmony singing at that last show, but being the consummate troubadours we are we were able to pull it together just fine and deliver a very good last performance before wrapping it up. The tour was excellent. The most important thing about it is that we have finally become a real band out here on the road. When we got together 10 months ago at Greg Benolkin's place in Girdwood to record the 11 songs that ended up on ONE FOR THE DITCH, we weren't really sure what was to become of the recordings. We were just three songwriters with a plan to track some extra tunes we had laying around and inside that cabin a record was formed, but there wasn't really a band until now. Sure, we just toured Alaska in August in order to support the record, but even then there were many distractions that prevented us from really focusing on the idea of writing songs together and traveling as a trio and basically we took this European tour as an opportunity to become a real band. I am very proud of the fact that on our days off, in Dublin, Ireland, Mulheim, Germany, and Amsterdam, we would get together and write and record tunes on the laptop, mic, and Pro Tools rig that I had brought with me. Most of the time, time off on the road means stick to yourself and do whatever it is that makes you feel comfortable. This band worked hard and now I am sitting on ten brand new recordings which will is a great head start on our next record, and will definitely be the majority of the bootleg available to those who come to the shows in January.
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11.13.08 Flying home from NYC to Joshua Tree, CA
I just had a great couple of days with J.P. Olsen and his family in New York. J.P.'s brand new documentary THE NARCOTIC FARM, the story of the federal governments first prison for drug addicts in Lexington, KY, is currently playing on PBS around the country. Also, the book by the same title is in all the major bookstores and we saw it in the shop windows around Manhattan plus it was at the bookstore inside the New Art Museum on Bowery on the lower east side of Manhattan. It was a great day to walk around town and see his last 5 years of work all displayed for the public. J.P. Olsen was one of the primary reasons I started writing songs. I was dabbling until after I saw his band The Beetkeepers, playing in a little club in Columbus, Ohio back in the 80's. Today, he is still one of the greatest songwriter's I know, and he also happens to be a film maker and writer. It has been many years that the both of us have been "making stuff," and it was great to walk around town yesterday and see some results.
Anyways, if you are curious about all this work he is doing please google The Narcotic Farm, which will take you to the web site for the film and book.
Back to Europe and the E.S.P. experience there. So many highlights, like our first show at Kane's in Ballyferriter, Ireland- way out on the Dingle Penninsula with the huge waves breaking in the distance, and the great night in Draperstown where the audience was singing along and making us feel at home. Very cool folks there. Amsterdam's Paradiso show was great as was our first show in Holland in Hoorn. The Roepaen Church gig is always cool. Election night in Groningen was amazing and exhausting as we stayed up most the night in order to find out the very good news about President Elect Obama. Thank you America for restoring the pride you can get so far from home when people come up to you and congratulate you on your country's massive change of direction. Next summer will be a good one for the Yankee backpacker to hit the European trail. Germany was amazing thanks to our friend Dietmar Liebecke and his family. Maybe the best show of the tour was in Lahr where Marco and Jaimie and Whiskey Boy took care of us. There was a whole string of shows where we really had it together. Toogenblik in Brussels was also nice, and we owe you another set I know.
There are some decent plans on the horizon for E.S.P. as we are set to tour Alaska and the WEST COAST in January of 2009. The dates are mostly posted up on the Easton Stagger Phillips Myspace page and soon- if not already- there should be new photos from Europe and more news about the songs we wrote and recorded while on the European tour.
The plan is for me to get to work in mixing all the tracks, and then printing up a very short run of 200 "bootlegs" which will only be available on the January tour of Alaska and the west coast, after which we will reconvene in Joshua Tree to get to work on an official e.p. that we hope to put out on Rebeltone and Blue Rost in 2009, as we are returning to tour Europe in October of next year.
Not bad for three dudes who played some music together for the first time in a cabin in Alaska just 10 months back. I would have to call that keeping busy- not to mention the fact that the Whipsaws will have a new e.p. out next March, when Easton, Stagger, Phillips and The Whipsaws both play SXSW in Austin and then proceed to tour through the midwest together. Also, both Leeroy Stagger and I have finished our solo records and will release them in 2009 as well. It will be a busy year, with lots of traveling and song singing.
I would like to wrap this up by thanking so many people for our tour in Europe....we couldn't have done this without you. Fans and friends such as Dietmar Liebecke and family, Inge Rietjens, Theo Rietjens and family, Una Molloy and Bueno, Daphne van Velsen, Barbara van Velsen and family, Johan at Take Root, Tim's Dad for the mandolin, Kees, Jan the Lazyman, Gossens Family in Rogol, Paradiso, Marco and Jaimie, Whiskey Boy, Michael McDermott, Luc Gheldof and Toogenblik, John Cassidy and family, J.P. Olsen and family, Greg Benolkin, all our families, the good people of Draperstown, Edgar and BLUE ROSE RECORDS, Ellie Stefano, and all those who helped us make our way around Ireland, Holland, Belgium, and Germany on our first European tour as Easton, Stagger, Phillips. We appreciate your support, kindness, and hospitality.
Here's a guerrilla style video made the day before I left for the Easton Stagger Phillips tour in Europe. It features the art of Bobby Furst and Bret Philpot and was filmed by Don Lombardo. Feel free to send it to anyone and everyone. Thanks, Tim
Last night, I played a show in Lexington, Kentucky which was basically a large Octoberfest party put on by the Catholic Church involving lots of good music, good people, and beer sales to pay for it all.
Anyways, the bands that played yesterday and the day before were such an inspiration in contemporary American music. Just after noon, Gary Louris and Mark Olsen of the Jayhawks started singing their beautiful harmonies. It was so good to hear those two sing again and I thought that I must be listening to the Every Brothers or Louvin Brothers of my generation. Very powerful and inspirational and it's good to see that they have another record coming out early next year. After them the great Peter Rowan got up and played on a single mic and blew the tent away with his style and power. Another history lesson.
Later, Justin Townes Earle and Cory Younts got up and basically kicked ass throughout their set and seeing them in that tent reminded me of what it must have been like to see Hank Williams sing at similar community throw downs. Those two play music that shows us the past and the future at the same town. They stand on a very firm foundation of music history and write and play songs that turn heads and ears their way.
There were many great bands playing that weekend, and I want to thank the organizers and also the people of Lexington for having us over for the weekend. I write you from Nashville, where I plan to continue working on the acoustic record HIGHWAY 62 LOVE SONGS, which may or may not come out before PORCUPINE, the electric record I made here nearly a year ago. So now there are two records!
And of course the Easton Stagger Phillips crew is leaving for Ireland and Europe in a month's time. A great new review just came out at
and you can copy and paste that in your browser and smoke it.
All the best to you out there....and please register your lazier friends or co-workers to vote if you have not done so already. Time's running out for voter registration.
I have three central Ohio shows next week and I wish to not let a single person get out of there unregistered.
Most of the time I have to look up the date before I write these journal entries or blogs or whatever you want to call them, but it's 9/11 so the date ends up surrounding you. I am having a rough time of it today. There is a special on the History Channel which is showing a composite of the many hours of video tape that civilians took on that horrible day. It's an emotional program, and it's being made much worse because not to far away at the 29 Palms Marine Base they are firing off artillery shells and dropping bombs and basically having a war game which is causing my house to rattle and shake. They don't do this too often, but it's got me feeling very uneasy that they would pick today to blow things up. I'm not surprised, I'm just disgusted. I want to attack the warmonger types on all sides today, and I'm picturing mostly men, but then lo and behold Governor Sarah Palin is on the news today in her first full on interview since joining the ticket, and she is talking about how we will have to go to war with Russia. I welcome all comments back to me about this but within 55 days we will have the opportunity to make sure that the Governor of Alaska does not move any farther up the political ladder. I have a new song that I am contemplating calling AN OPEN LOVE LETTER TO THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND A WIDE OPEN FUCK YOU TO THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE GOING TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY IF McCAIN IS ELECTED PRESIDENT. What I am trying to say is if you are tired of the old stuff than do something about it rather than sit around complain. I am going to vote for Barack Obama. That is probably no surprise to anybody who is reading this, but I am not here to tell you who to vote for. I am here to tell you to get yourselves registered to vote and also to get your friends registered to vote now. I am asking to please participate.
The song is almost done as far as the editing goes...I may have to take the tip of the hat to Neil Young out of there. I wrote it because a lot of people were asking me what I thought about Sarah Palin since I loved Alaska so much. I originally wanted to record it with the Whipsaws, who are passing through town soon, but I ended up just playing the drums and bass and guitars and singing it just as you hear it here. I built the drum loop to sing the song to, and then for some reason I ended up going into Farmer John by Neil Young somewhere in the middle...but I was thinking about Farmer George, or General George Washington, one of our O.G. revolutionaries.
Anyways....here's the rough cut of the song NOW for MySpace listeners. And here's some lyrics:
TO ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO SAY YOU'RE GOING TO JUMP SHIP IF NOTHING CHANGES I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU: INSTEAD OF RUNNING AWAY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT SO YOU CAN STOP ALL YOUR COMPLAINING YOU KNOW THEY GAVE US THE RIGHT TO CHANGE IT BECAUSE WHEN YOU JUMP OFF THE SINKING SHIP YOU'RE ADMITTING THAT THEY OWN IT JUST REMEMBER WHO WORKS FOR WHO AND HOW THIS ALL GOT STARTED
I have a brand new collection of paintings on display at the RED ARROW GALLERY web page. There are a few on the myspace page as well...in the photos area...but if you go to http://timeaston. com and click on the link there you can find the whole show. Or, try http://www. theredarrowgallery. com if that doesn't work. I've made some last minute changes in the text that goes with the paintings so there may be some of you that can't get into the show today, but try again later if that is the case.
These are mostly paintings I've done around the house in the last few months, using paint that was left over from painting the walls plus found wood, a bit of oil, chalk, pastels, and kitchen sink variety.
I have also put together a batch of songs that I am calling HIGHWAY 62 LOVE SONGS and this will be the summer album that I am taking with me on the road. I purchased a bunch of recycled, brown CD jackets and am putting a drawing on each cover, making them as I go along. There will be information on how to pick one of these up through the mail if you want.
Thanks...and I hope your summer is going well. Tim
Greetings from the very, very high and hot desert of Joshua Tree, just off Highway 62. It's 113 fahrenheit today. That's on the hot side.
We have a thing called the Swamp Cooler up around these parts. It uses water and a bit of electricity to turn the hot and dry wind into cold air. I can't turn it on when I am recording, but it just means you spend most the day wearing nothing much at all, and then dress up for the sunset and night life.
I woke up today and had to re-string my Gibson in order to take it to Salt Lake City for a 4th of July gig I have this weekend. When the guitar was ready, this song was waiting there. It just came out this way. I would have probably just liked to have written a simple and straightforward love song, which is how it starts, and then the other stuff creeps in. Maybe it was the trip I just took to San Diego, where I hired three Mexican men to help me move a piano, and the conversations we had. Maybe it was the ex-Marine on the deep sea fishing boat a few days ago who had on a tee shirt that said "WHILE YOU WERE HOME CHILLIN', WE WERE HERE KILLIN' SPRING BREAK, KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN." I thought it was particularly interesting how my country can turn something as harsh as war, destruction, and torture into a Spring Break tee shirt slogan.
Anyways, I don't have a whole lot to do out here in the desert besides make art and music, so I thought I would take advantage of the instant technology we have and print it to a computer so I could put it up on the myspace page and Snocap too. I also wanted to show you what my songs looked like right out of the gate, so to speak. It may change over the next few weeks. There's a good chance that I will re-work it as I make my way across the country and then up to Alaska later this summer. It's the kind of song that I may even be a bit shy about as time goes on. But this is how it came out today, and although it sounds as if I woke up on the Dylanesque side of the bed(again)today, I would say this song came from somewhere more important than my record collection.
The song is called THE WEIGHT OF CHANGING EVERYTHING
So happy Independence Day to you from the States. For the rest of you, happy every day and I hope my country can get it together before long.
GREETINGS from Joshua Tree. A few years back, I was in the attic of a mansion in Amsterdam, recording songs onto a four track owned and opporated by my friend REMCO. These were the first takes of songs like DEAR OLD SONG AND DANCE, otherwise known as "The Drug Song" and other tunes that would end up on the Ammunition album. There's a few that never found a home as well. I recorded 17 songs that day but only 9 of them made it this far. Digital glitches that happened to them long after they were mixed down from cassette has left me with these 9 and I put them up on the Snocap site on my myspace page for as cheap as I could. 75 pennies is the deal for each tune and you'll know it's from the Amsterdam Sessions because it'll say so in the track title.
I wish to God I had an album out this year, and was traveling around and playing the songs for you, but it just isn't that way. So I am working on the Porcupine album still, and writing new songs, and making new paintings, and taking time to write down some of the stories from my busking days back in Prague, Paris, Dublin, London, Florence, Barcelona, etc.....there's a few stories in there!
There will be an on line show of the paintings as well, the show will be called THIS MACHINE KILLS HIPSTERS after the woody guthrie/cameron mcgill guitar and I'll let you know more about that soon. And of course, I will be on the road just a little bit. I have to pick up a trailer that was lent to an organization in New Orleans after Katrina. I have to drive it back to Joshua Tree, and while I'm out there I'm going to play a few shows. See you then. Tim
Greetings. I am very proud to announce the completion of the debut album by EASTON, STAGGER, PHILLIPS. We started making it in a cabin in Alaska just last January and we finished it up in March in Joshua Tree with the help of Bingo, who mixed it at his HOLODECk studios.
The art work is being wrapped up and we'll have a record release party and tour in ALASKA this August. It's going to be an Alaskan only release except for mail order and I guess somewhere on the internet you'll be able to find it. We produced it ourselves and plan to take the whole party over to Europe to play some shows in October as well.
You can find a few tracks on line at our myspace page
http://www.myspace.com/eastonstaggerphillips
and I would appreciate it if you could help spread the word. We are doing this one on our own for now. The label, REBELTONE, is Leeroy Stagger's label, which he has just started.
Thanks so much and we hope to take it on the road in North America in 2009.
about the TWO OF US song...i was in the Integratron outside of Joshua Tree yesterday and I wrote and recorded this demo. It came out of nowhere so I wanted to grab that first rush and send it out to the world since I'm so late with this new PORCUPINE record.
Remixing starts today and I've been working hard on the cover art with various paints and stains and textures and stencils around the house this week.
i borrowed the title from the Beatles but they should be alright.
all the best to you out there- easton
ps...google The Integratron and see what i am talking about. (ie...man designs time machine on instructions from aliens to get back to Jesus.....i'm not making this up.) (this is where i live)
awake
determined
satisfied