We’re thrilled to announce the release of our new record, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, with a local CD release show scheduled for Saturday, November 14th at Mississippi Studios here in Portland and an official national release to follow. The record will feature 12 songs, each with their own ties to historic Boston, MA (hometown of our own Pierre Kaiser) -

We’ll be playing two shows at Mississippi Studios that Saturday (Nov. 14th), with a special all ages acoustic show in the evening and a full show (with some very special guest appearances) later that night – tickets for both shows are available on the Mississippi Studios site…

CD release shows are also on the books for Seattle, Eugene and Ashland as well – just click the shows link for more info.  We can’t wait to get the new record out to you – in the meantime, you can find several demos and acoustic versions of songs from the upcoming record here on the site (see the new music player towards the top)…

Hope to see you all soon -

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 was one of the first songs written for the “Boston” record, and it’s still one of my personal favorites. The Liberator was an abolitionist newspaper from the mid-1800s published by a man named William Lloyd Garrison, who was himself a prominent abolitionist and activist.  Published during the years leading up to the American Civil War, The Liberator grew in circulation and popularity and gave a voice to those who some wanted to keep silent, at a time when slavery still plagued this country and a black man couldn’t even cast a vote.  That said, it was especially cool to get to play this song at a benefit show for the Artist Mentorship Program on November 7th of last year – 3 days after a black man was elected President of the United States.  It wasn’t about politics – it was about an incredible moment in the history of this country – and it was about time.  I think William Lloyd Garrison would have loved that moment, too.

“Liberator” is on our current EP, “New England” (available over on the right), and will be on our new album, “The King Can Drink the Harbor Dry”, due out this summer.  You can also find it on our Myspace and Facebook pages – stop by and say hi!

Have a great week and if you live on the west coast, check those tour dates…we may be headed to a town near you -

Johnny

Photo © Steve Haning

It’s a long way to LA, but we’re driving it anyway tomorrow morning…we’re headed down to the City of Angels for a long weekend to take part in the NACA conference, where we’ll start work on our spring touring schedule. It’s gonna be a very busy spring – we’re planning a West Coast tour as well as a trip to New England and a tour of the Northeast, all surrounding the release of our next full length album. The next month or so will probably look like the calm before the storm on the surface, but we’ll be keeping busy in the studio for much of the winter as we work to finish the new record.  

As promised, I’ll keep posting new demos on the blog every so often so you guys can hear what we’re working on. I’m hoping to have more new music to share next week or the week after. In the meantime, have a great rest of this week and weekend…and if you’re in the LA area, maybe we’ll see you this weekend – you know, with LA being such a small town and all…

Johnny