I recently stumbled on a rough demo of the song “Damrell’s Fire” that I thought you guys might like to hear.  The (finished) song will be featured on our upcoming album, The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry, due out later this summer. Click the link below to hear the rough demo…

The Dimes – Damrells Fire EARLY DEMO (click to listen)

A little background info: In the winter of 1871, Boston fire cheif John Damrell was in Chicago surveying the damage of the greatest fire the United States had ever seen. He was convinced that unless they took immediate action, Boston would soon face the same fate…and, unfortunately, he was right.  A terrible fire broke out in the old financial district of Boston, and the combination of the buildings being so close together and their wooden roofs made for a perfect storm…one could say the flames were “jumping roof to roof like they were running from a robbery”.  But Damrell’s actions and the changes that were made in the year before the Great Boston Fire may have saved the historic town – the firefighters in Boston were able to stop the fire before it spread through the entire city.  Along with these old photos from the aftermath of the fire, I also found a link to a letter that John Damrell wrote to the widow of a fallen firefighter – this letter, along with a ton of cool info, is on a website for a documentary about John Damrell called “Damrell’s Fire”. Catchy title, no? (Click here to read the letter.)

Have a great week y’all – see you soon,

Johnny

PS – to hear a more recent demo of the song, check the right column of the website – there’s a few new tunes to download including “Damrell’s Fire”…

In the spring of 1775, British troops were stationed in Boston and the ports had been closed in the wake of the infamous Boston Tea Party.  On the night of April 18th, word spread across Boston that the British were on the move, crossing the Charles River on their way to Lexington to arrest two Patriots, John Hancock and Sam Adams, and to seize the weapons depot in nearby Concord.  Dr. Joseph Warren instructed two men, William Dawes and Paul Revere, to ride north from Boston to Lexington to warn Hancock and Adams of the British plan – history has since forgotten poor Mr. Dawes, but the “midnight ride of Paul Revere” has become the stuff of legend…

“Paul Revere” was one of the first of the “Boston” songs and it’s a fun one to play.  In so many ways this song shows a band in transition – it has elements of the “Silent Generation” sound, especially in the chorus and guitar work, but it also has little hints of the sound and style that would become “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry“.  We had a couple of folks ask us about the song last weekend in Seattle, so I figured I’d post the demo this week – just click the link below to stream it (or right click on a PC, control click on a Mac to download it) -

The Dimes – Paul Revere DEMO (click to listen)

Have a great rest of the week and weekend and keep in touch -

Johnny

(NOTE: if you can’t see the above video, click here)

Hey all – here’s the second of two video blogs from our acoustic rehearsal a few weeks back. Many thanks to our friend Ryan for the camera work on these… (in case you missed it, free to check out the Liberator video blog here).  Both songs will be on our upcoming album, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry“, which is due out later in the summer.

I hope your week is going well so far – it’s been a nice one here in Portland, though the sun seems to have left us again today. But it’s supposed to be a great weekend, and one that we’re all looking forward to in the Dimes camp – we’ll be opening for the always fantastic Clumsy Lovers at the Doug Fir Lounge here in Portland on Friday night, and again at the newly reopened Crocodile in Seattle on Saturday night. I’m also excited to say our dear friend Ehren Ebbage will be rejoining us with his lap steel for these shows after a few months on the road. These are going to be fun shows for sure…

Have a great rest of the week y’all – we’ll see you soon -

Johnny

This weekend marks the start of our short West Coast Tour (see the next blog down for dates!) and we kick things off with a show in Seattle at the Comet Tavern. It’s a special show in it’s own right, being a KEXP Presents show, and oh how we love KEXP.  They’re great people and huge supporters of independent music – they’ve been very kind and supportive to us and we’re always happy to take part in KEXP events.  It should be a great time and what a great way to start the tour…

I’m ready for the road trip, as it’s been quite the busy few weeks here at home…I’ve been a good little history student during the days, and continuing to work on mixing and tweaking the new album at night (gotta love the last minute vocal takes   But I’m excited (and relieved) to say that I sent the final mixes off to mastering last night, and we should have the finished album in hand by the end of the week…well, the music anyway…then we get to play with album art…

Speaking of art…I also had the chance to spend a few hours at the Portland Art Museum last week. A friend of mine told me that the Museum has one of Childe Hassam’s “Isle Of Shoals” paintings, which is mentioned in the song “Celia’s Garden“…and he was right…though it’s not the “Isle Of Shoals” painting mentioned in the song. As it turns out, Hassam painted several different works he titled “Isle Of Shoals” (the one mentioned in “Celia’s Garden” is “Poppies, Isle Of Shoals”).  The Portland Art Museum actually has several other paintings by Childe Hassam on display as well. Incredible stuff.  If you’re in the Portland area, or if you visit the city sometime soon, it’s definitely worth checking out.  They also have works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and a handful of others I’m sure you’ve heard of.

I hope you’re having a great week and if you’re in Seattle this Friday night, come out and say hi -

Johnny