Wednesday, June 27, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

WOODY GUTHRIE 100TH BIRTHDAY BASH AT UNION HALL

Music by Fast Rattler, Dear Sister Killdeer, Chris Sand & the Big MT, Jennifer Combe.  Missoula's Bare Bait Dance Company to Perform.  More.

Artwork by Hana!
MISSOULA, MT, 7/13/2012 - Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday party will be held at Union Hall (208 E. Main), above Union Club on July 13th.  Portland's Fast Rattler, hot off of a West Coast tour, will join the ruckus.  So will locals Chris Sand & the Big MT, Dear Sister Killdeer, and Jennifer Combe who will lead the young-at-heart through a handful of children's sing-a-longs.  Bare Bait Dance Company will dance.  Actor Jeff Medley will recite one or two of Woody's writings to explore Guthrie's poetic core.  Show begins at 8pm.  Cost: $5-$15 sliding scale.

Show organizer, Chris Sand, is thrilled to announce that the late Utah Phillips' son's band, Fast Rattler, will headline.  "I met Brendan Phillips around 9/11," Sand says, "and then lost track of him.  I didn't realize he'd been traveling and performing with his father and learning his dad's songs.  It's fitting," Sand continues, "that two of America's most influential folk singers and champions of social justice, Woody and Utah, will both have a chance to be remembered and honored at a show like this at Union Hall."  To be clear, though, Fast Rattler is no mere Utah Phillips cover band.  This dynamic 4-piece string band performs mostly originals and beloved folk-classics. 

Bare Bait Dance Company is Missoula's newest professional dance company and is choreographed by Joy French. French's latest modern dance project, "Views from Grandmother's Porch," examines the grittiness of rural life from a tapestry of angles.  Her Depression-era-inspired pieces synchronize auspiciously well with both Woody Guthrie's stark, populist lyricism and the era that he lived in and wrote so much about.

Chris Sand & the Big MT is a three-piece country-folk band.  An award-winning feature-length documentary about Sand, Roll Out, Cowboy (directed by Elizabeth Lawrence), was shown at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in both 2011 and 2012.  The Woody Guthrie birthday celebration will also serve as Sand's official Montana DVD release party of Roll Out, Cowboy (www.rolloutcowboy.com).

Woody Guthrie is the writer of over 1000 songs ("This Land is Your Land," "Pastures of Plenty," "Hard Travelin'," etc.). Author. Artist. Agitator. Soldier. Sign Painter. Socialist. Sex Fiend. Patriot. Prophet. Punk. Hobo. Dad. His influence on U.S. Popular culture is immense.  This unique--and uniquely Missoula--event may become an annual one.

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

A few of my early CDs have been sold out for the last several years.  I've been wanting to re-press them, but given that I don't tour enough to justify making 1000 at a time, AND given that less and less people buy CDs anymore, I've kept putting it off.  It's been sad, though, to not have the CDs available for shows and online.

Available for purchase: Loner Records
Last week I solved the dilemma.  First, I hauled out my old trusty CD-burner, which burns quality CD-Rs four at a time.  Then I bought several spindles of printable CD-Rs and burned off fifty or so copies each of my both second CD, Love's Hangover Sale, and my third CD, Until the End of Time.  The white coating on these discs allows me to easily write or stamp my name and the album's title on them.

My little DIY record label is BACK on the MAP!!! See more here: LONER RECORDS.

You may listen to or download the songs here: Love's Hangover Sale.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

This is what my upcoming Horse Graveyard CDs--the actual disks--will look like. Hana drew the horse and rider. That's her handwriting, too.

Hana is also drawing up a flyer for a Woody Guthrie 100th birthday celebration I'm organizing for mid-July.  I'll post more about this show soon!  Here's the Facebook link.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Stevie with her Farfar!
Happy Father's Day to my great old Norwegian pops, Rob Sand!  
He's Stevie's farfar ("father's father") in Norwegian.


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Just drove 5,000 miles to Toronto and Calgary hauling fish.  In five minutes I do it all over again.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

                                                                                                                                                        Photo by Senayit.
My new band:  
Chris Sand & the Big MT.
(Arif Memovic - accordion, banjelele. Alex Nash - drums, banjo.)
FYI, Big MT is pronounced Big Empty.

My band and I just completed our first mini-tour--Big Fork and Hot Springs, MT.
We were joined by my dear and talented friend Senayit Tomlinson.

Last week I got word from Goodall Trucking that they could use me for a couple weeks of long haul.  I was able to hitch a ride with Senayit to North Dakota yesterday.  She departed this morning for New Hampshire to rejoin her family and horses.