Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Lilacs from your sleepy granddaughter.
Happy 43rd Wedding Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

My Oly adventure in bullet points:
  • May 2.  Flew from Brooklyn to Seattle to be reunited with Hana, Stevie, and Gilda.  I befriended the passenger seated next to me, a horse vet from Long Island named Nancy.  Nancy saved me the hassle and cost of wrangling a shuttle south to Olympia by driving me straight to Zena and Amy's doorstep in her rental car.  It was heaven to hold baby Stevie and Hana again.
  • May 3.  At Dub Narcotic Studios I recorded the final two tracks--"Queen Patricia" and "Typical"--for my upcoming album Horse Graveyard.  Ephraim Nagler played piano and Jen Grady added cello and voice to "Queen Patricia."  This song sounds gorgeous.  Ephraim and Jen are in this band: You Are Plural.
  • May 4.  Created track order for new record.  Mixed down all the songs with producer Bob Schwenkler
  • May 4, evening.  Performed an hour of music at my favorite Jewish Deli, Kitzel's, in trade for knishes, blintzes, latkes, and more good food.
  • May 5.  Took three-hour tour, with Andras Jones as guide, of the mystical Kabbalistic Tree of Olympia.
  • May 5, evening.  Joined Andras onstage at Olympia's historic Capitol Theater for a live episode of Radio8Ball.  This was part of the Oly Music Awards, and Andras ended up winning in the "Other/Experimental Music Category."  The five songs I sang may be viewed/listened to here starting at the 47:18 mark.
  • May 9.  Drove to Missoula with Froseph.  Hana will remain in Olympia for another ten days.
  • May 10.  Played show at Zoo City Apparel with my band, The Big MT (pronounced "empty").  Also on the bill were Breakaway, Butter, and Abe Coley.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Ever heard of Day Trotter?  Check out this link to some songs I recorded there in late January of 2011: Day Trotter / Chris Sand

And here's a paragraph from a piece--titled "The Strangulated, Heart-Breakin' Glory of the Road"--that Day Trotter's head honcho, Sean Moeller, wrote up about my music:

The Cowboy writes songs about good girls and bad girls and about the white highway lines that keep them separated. He writes about the hard luck and being without any luck at all. These are stories that barely have any glory in them whatsoever. They are without much luster, instead smacking of the simple strangulation that gets to us when we're just worked to death, when we're just unable to get out from underneath all the thumbs. They are stories about taking all kinds of lumps, then getting evicted on top of it. Sand sings, "But money don't mean nothin' when a poor boy's heart gets broken/Well, I tried to cook a meal/I burnt the bacon/I tried to frame a wall/But it's misshapen/And I tried to call her bluff/But she ain't faking/Go easy on me boss/My heart is breakin'." It's one of those moments where just a little bit of mercy will go a long way and this guy is asking for it from the one person who puts him through the most hours of suffering every week. It tells you all you need to know about how beat up this guy is and even more about how many additional beatings he's going to absorb before he dies.
Stark, bordering on macabre, right?!  My life is actually very hopeful these days, but I love the poetry that went into Sean's portrait.

And to be honest, the day I showed up to record I was wrecked.

Friday, May 18, 2012

A short video-interview I did in Brooklyn has been featured on today's NBC New York website!


I doubt many New Yorkers have ever heard such a slow-talking person before.  Most will probably scratch their heads after this one, unsure whether I'm a rural simpleton or country philosopher.

Kudos to the talented Mr. Oresti Tsonopoulos for creating the video!  More of his vids and pics may be found here.

And here's the full "PO Box 7" vid!  I lie about he population still being 120;  given the current oil boom, Dunn Center probably has close to 300 residents now.  In fact, Marathon Oil recently bulldozed my former across-the-street neighbor Vivian's barn, corral, and horse pasture to put up their slick new headquarters.  

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Hugs & Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mom, Mary Herak Sand!!!
I sent a card and a package of huckleberry-flavored licorice with Froseph Kujawa, who traveled 700 miles and delivered it directly to my mom, Pony Express style. He was on his way to Fargo to play a show.  (More on Froseph's Missoula visit & Zoo City show in my next post.)
Check out this EPIC 40-minute interview created by the ever amazing Bonnie Kenaz-Mara!

There's lots of great Hideout show-footage interspersed throughout.  I guarantee you'll dig Tony & his big band.  If your time is limited, skip ahead to the last two minutes to hear our live song collabo: "With a Beard."

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Today I fly back to my sweetheart Hana and baby sweetheart Stevie.  Yes!

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Here's to the "lovely, lusty miracle of life." Happy May Day!

This video, from Thursday's Hideout show in Chicago, was made by Bonnie Kenaz-Mara.

Please check Bonnie's impeccable ChiIL Mama blog.  She's the hardest working mom in show business that I know of.

Here are two of her most recent posts:
1. Roll Out, Cowboy DVD preview
2.  Sandman at the Hideout + CD review

Speaking of videos, I've been solicited to do a Brooklyn video shoot with this fellow: Oresti Tsonopoulos.  It starts in forty minutes, so I'd best start walkin'.