What a hot summer! I don't know about you, but this is the kind of New England summer I remember as a kid- sunny & hot every day....It doesn't really matter if that was true, does it? Its the feeling you have about the memories thats so evocative. I captured this for myself in the song, "American Night" back in 1994.... "The longest days came in July- out in the fields, under the sky... and the sun went down- red, blue & white while I waited for the American night..." This summer feels like that one... But now I'm looking back instead of ahead as we do when we're kids... Tracey & I made a fantastic trip to Ireland & England in late June into July and it was sunny and warn there as well- as it hadn't been in 40 years we were told- we were very lucky and it was all very beautiful- the Burren, the Cliffs, the rolling countryside and narrow lanes of Cork & Clare. England was also wonderful- we visited my birthplace near Liverpool, and walked the "rabbit warren" from my Godparents old home to the village- something I hadn't done since I was 17- and had lots of fun getting lost in Cheshire and meeting the locals. I got a KILLER pic of Keith Richards in 1973 taken by the owner of one of the B&B's we stayed at. Ah, the good old days, when anyone with a camera got full stage access! But it's good to be back in the States- especially in the Happy Valley, and looking forward to the fall time & gig season again.
We had a hot night at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket, MA on July 16th with Dave Mattacks on drums. What a trip! Thanks to you folks who made the journey to Becket- it was a sweaty, cool gig for us, and I heard from some of you that the low-volume, living room feel was very enjoyable. We sure dug it- different and musical.
The next gig for the van Gogh Brothers is on Friday, September 17th at 10:00 PM at Toad in Cambridge. The Mighty Mike Levesque joins us on drums to kick off the 2010-2011 gig season with a bang! Then on Sunday afternoon, September 19th, at 1:00 PM, we play at Hungry Ghost Bread in Northampton for the annual "Bread Festival". This is a trip- the Ghost is a fixture here in Noho- and is located right in town at the end of Center Street (just down the street from the Iron Horse Music Hall) with an old-fashioned stone oven and killer bread. The owner has been hosting Breadfest for several years now-- as long as I've been eating his bread, anyway, and he tells me this year he'll have a great sound system and is very much looking forward to having us part of this cool event. September is a magical time here in the Valley. We hope you can spend your Sunday with us. Finally, on Friday, September 24th, we return to Vincent's in Worcester-- thank God! We've missed our Worcester friends over the summer! We'll update you on any other dates as we go.
If any of you have seen the August issue of "Metronome". you will have seen Brian Owens' interview of Paul & me about the making of "The Wonder Show" with Anthony Resta at Studio Bopnique. Thank you, Brian, for a lovingly-prepared piece on our latest effort, and for including us in the magazine.
We're starting work on some new songs with Andy Plaisted manning the recording gear. This could be the start of another record- who knows? We'll see what songs fall out- Paul has been after me about one I thought would fall off the table and that's usually a good sign, as "Call it a Day" (The Wonder Show opening track) and "Johnny" had also both fallen off the table and came back with a vengeance! We shall see....
Enjoy the remainder of these longest days, and we'll see you in September!
