Cross-country, east coast, and the joys of winter touring.

February 25, 2009

It’s been non-stop action for the past two weeks on the Young Dubs’ tour. So far, we’ve played seven shows; missed one due to a blizzard; and appeared on 3 radio spots.

Our first show, opening night, was at the Bouquet in Boise, Idaho. Everything went smoothly, though nerves were on the edgy side due to all the new music and gear we now featured. Good thing we had rehearsals back in LA! I espec ially am getting used to having new in-ear monitors, which are hardwired and tethered to my belt with a carabiner. Call me the off-road rocker!!

A couple of nights later, we shared the bill with the 90’s alt-rock mega-band the Gin Blossoms, who proved that fame and fortune does not have to result in being completly jaded... the guys in the band were very cool with us. After this show, we hit the trail from Seattle to D.C....

And got stuck in a blizzard in Nebraska, resulting in our missing the big sold out show at the Wolftrap in Vienna, Virginia. You win some, you lose some. However, the folks at the Wolftrap were very gracious and understanding; we hope to get back there and make it up!

Afterwards we headed for Charlottesville, Virginia, and an appearance at the IS Venue, and an interview and acoustic performance at WNRN & WCNR radio stations.



We went on to Fletcher’s in Baltimore, The Note in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and last night at Peabody’s in Cleveland. Touch wood, the gear is holding up famously (and I’ve gotten used to the tethered in-ears!) and the band is playing very tight now. I am looking forward to the rest of this week’s shows in western Chicago area, and Notre Dame University!

First tour of 2009 is under way

The Young Dubliners have hit the road! We just departed Los Angeles last night, and as I write this we are hurtling up the highway toward our first gig in Boise, Idaho. I can taste the potatoes already!

The task of packing my gear and luggage for this trip took over 2 days. Winter always presents some special requirements for touring... due to the tight schedule, I had to make sure every item from picks to fuses to tools to thermal underwear is included, because having to find a music store out there somewhere is not an easy option in freezing weather! And, we're traveling by tour bus, so once we arrive at the venue, there's no driving out for an errand!

The first show is on Friday the 13th. I'll let you know how it goes!

-Bob, February 11 2009

NAMM and this week’s highlights

The appearance at the NAMM show was a success! I put together a short set, a couple of medleys of Young Dubliners riffs, and demoed new Framus gear at the Framus/Warwick booth.




http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3464/3228434544_03fa1a93c1_m.jpg
In addition to showing off the wares, I shared the schedule with other luminaries who play Framus/Warwick gear, like TM Stevens & Jonas Hellborg, John B. Williams, and Kevin ‘Brandino’ Brandon. Here’s a link to the Framus website with more details:

http://framus.de/modules/news/NewsSingle.php?id=2210&cl=EN

And in other news, the Young Dubliners new album will drop on February 3rd, and along with alot of excitement, I am up to my eyeballs is activity! The bandannounced a special offer on our website, where any CD’s pre-ordered early directly from us would be signed by the entire band. Lo and behold, we ended up sitting before a pile of over 1000 CD’s to sign one recent evening!

I began the task in earnest...



After the 3rd hour, fatigue began to set in. Hands began to cramp...


By late in the evening, all the CD’s were signed!


This weekend found the Young Dubs performing at the “Go Back 100” festival in West Palm Beach, Florida, and it was a good shakedown cruise for our traveling chops. Got to get ready for a 4-week tour!

Bob
January 26th

Appearing at NAMM this Sunday

Hey now,

I'm getting ready to make an appearance at the North American Music Merchants (NAMM) tradeshow in Anaheim, CA. I'll be there this Sunday, January 18th, at 1PM. I will be demonstating Framus Guitars and amps and playing some Young Dubliners music, all at the same time. If you're going to the show, stop by the Framus/Warwick booth and hang out.

Take Four?

I appreciate all music... depending on mood, surroundings, and dosage, I'll listen to just about anything. Sometimes, it's compelling, like some good singer/songwriter tune that will make you sing along, or it could attract with a train wreck-like quality, like some lo-fi world music recordings from the 50's that somehow broke out of the Library of Congress. Through all the varieties, I appreciate all...

The other day I heard the Dave Brubek jazz classic "Take Five" on the local smooth jazz station... a modern remake by a modern smooth jazz ensemble... and they played the song in 4/4. Isn't part of the original Brubek version's appeal, it's hook, why the record was and still is notable that is had the unusual rhythm of 5/4 (hence, "Take Five")? But these modern cats, they don't take five, only four. Smooth jazzed it right out.

Perhaps another form of gentrification??

November at Home.

The summer is behind us, and thus the Young Dubliners are finished with touring for another year. We occasionally have a leg or two in the fall (remember the Irish tours?) and early winter (a fun time to play gigs in Alaska!). But, this year the Dubs are taking it easy for the holidays, playing just a handful shows for the remainder of '08.

Having lost all of my gear in our trailer theft in August, I've slowly been replacing what I had with a slightly new direction. For starters, for several years I played a stock Vox AC30 both on stage and on recordings; I also used a Framus Ruby Riot combo. After some experiments on rented gear, I replaced the lost Vox with a Marshall half-stack - a bit edgier than I have sounded, and probably louder too! I'll have to be careful not to blow the hair back from the folks' faces in the front rows!!

Through a small miracle, I recovered my two Framus electrics. Turns out a gentleman in the Phoenix area purchased them at a swap meet shortly after the heist, as well as a few other accessories of ours, and was unwittingly auctioning them on eBay!! When we spotted them, we contacted said gentleman to ask where he'd found them. He still had me guitars, and graciously returned them immediately. A shout out to Richard in AZ - you're on the guest list for life my man!!

Since settling back into life in Los Angeles, I've been fortunate to hit the studios on a number of projects. All have been tracking guitar for independent artists, on a range of music swinging from adult alternative to pop to plain alternative to plain wacky. One outing was a return to working with singer/songwriter Jeff Aeling, whom I worked with on a project last December. We spent a fantastic week tracking basics and overdubs at Sage and Sound Studio B in Hollywood... Other locations I saw included Echo Park Recording, tracking guitars for the Young Dubliners, Tim Boland and Ken Sluiter producing; Bright Orange Studios, for Brian Cram, with Jon Mattox producing; and Chun King Studio for Craig Bowden, with Shawn Nourse producing.

I am currently playing a fly date with the Young Dubs, performing 2 nights at the Sarasota Irish Festival in Florida. We're threatening to start playing some tunes from our new CD, due out in February.

Cheers until the next time!

A brief catch up!

Well hello. Long time no blog! Hope everyone's having a fantastic election season.

I'm finally back home after a long and awesome bunch of tours with the Young Dubliners. We're replacing all of our gear slowly and surely. In no time the show will be back to normal, replete with lazer lights and go-go dancers (ok, just amps and stuff. But someday..._

Times are exciting because the band has just completed our new album! Still untitled, it's slated to drop in February - just in time for the March Madness tour and St. Paddy's Day. My ears are still ringing from the final mixdown session we had today! The songs and sounds are possibly the most ambitious and inspired records this band has produced to date. Maybe writing and recording 4 albums with the same lineup has something to do with it...

But, no rest yet! Tomorrow, I'm beginning preproduction for another project. Jeff Aeling, whom I had the pleasure of sessioning for last year, has a new batch of songs which he is recording in Hollywood, back at Sage And Sound studios. The demos sound great, and I'm looking forward to writing some eclectic and rockin guitar tracks with Jeff again!

Have a great Thanksgiving, or whatever you celebrate in your part of the world.