marleysghostblog

Eddie at the Freight this Saturday!

2011-03-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

NEWS FLASH!
Ed will play Sat Mar 26 at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley CA celebrating the release of his cowboy CD "My Western Home".
Joining Ed will be Tom Rozum & Laurie Lewis, Susie & Eric Thompson, Mike Phelan, David P. Jackson and Jon Wilcox.
Here's the official scoop:
"Fellow Ghost and masterful pedal steel guitarist Ed Littlefield, Jr. will celebrate the release of his new solo CD, My Western Home, with a special show at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, March 26. Come on by and bring some friends for a spirited evening of tunes and what Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead calls some "potent sonic voodoo." http://www.thefreight.org/ed-littlefield"

It will be a fun evening. Eddie plans to play completely solo the first set on guitar, harp guitar, piano and ...? then be joined by his friends to turn up the heat and finish a great evening.
Don't Miss It!

Hello There 2011!

2011-01-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

Hi Kids!
We made it to 2011 ... whew. This year we will celebrate 25 years of being Marley's Ghost... whoodathunkit?!

Following some great rehearsals we are off to Elko Nevada for the National Cowboy Poetry gathering. Not only do we have some cool new stuff to play, but Eddie is releasing his next solo CD "My Western Home", featuring some of his favorite old songs with (as you may have guessed) a Western theme.

Dress warm and come out and have some fun with us in Elko.
See you there!

More Music!

2010-09-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

WE were at Gargiulo Vineyards yesterday. Beautiful place, Jeff Gargiulo - great guy (and a guitar player!).

Next week we will be in Pasadena at Cal Tech , in Claremont and seeing our pals in Fresno ... more later!
Mike

WinterGrass!

2010-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

WinterGrass was a blast! Seldom Scene, Vassen, Joe Craven, Dave and Nova - - too many musical highlights to count and the new venue is a WINNER. The Wintergrass staff are pretty pumped about the new Bellevue Regency Hyatt location and rightly so. The staff are friendly, the hotel spacious and the community supportive.
It is nice to see the move go so smoothly.
Our hats are off to Steve Russo, Patrice, Wendy Tyner, the sound crew and the jillion volunteers who make it run.
Verrrrry nice.
If you've been wondering whether to attend next year, my advice is - book early.
See you on the road.
We are in Colorado March 19-21
OK & KS the following week
Details follow soon!

February Gigs and more a'comin

2010-01-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

NEW!! Streaming clips from our new CD are up on the website- Just hit the 'Play' icon!
We are playing in Northern & Southern CA and Washington State this month KS,OK and CO next month to celebrate the release of our new CD "Ghost Town",
Here's the latest
Feb 5 (the New!) Freight & Salvage - Berkeley CA
- This is our first trip to the all-new Freight.
They built a brand-new building with a much-enhanced performing space,
classrooms and more - closer to UC Berkeley campus.
We're excited and hope you'll come share the excitement with us.
2020 Addison Street / Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 644-2020 / info@freightandsalvage.org

Feb 6 Sebastopol Community Center -Sebastopol CA Cloud Moss has a
great venue - we don't get up here often enough so please come out and
help us celebrate.
390 Morris Street / Sebastopol CA
707-829-7067 / www.cumuluspresents.com

Feb 10 Matt's Music, Stage & School - Paso Robles CA
Matt & Heidi are the greatest. If you live around Paso you've been to their shows.
This is shaping up to be a good'un.
617 12th Street / Paso Robles, CA
805-237-0054 / http://www.mattsmusicinpaso.com/

Feb 11 River Valley Church - Bakersfield CA
Musical Home of Buck and Merle - We can't wait.
5131 Office Park Drive / Bakersfield, CA
661-324-900 / www.kernarts.org

Feb 12 Boulevard Music - Culver City CA
We heard they built a second
story - Dan can't wait to hear it!
4316 Sepulveda Blvd. / Culver City, CA
310-398-2583 / www.boulevardmusic.com

Feb 13 Grace First Presbyterian Church - Long Beach CA
We know Phil & Arlene Cox will be there... but how about you?
3955 Studebaker Road / Long Beach, CA
562-420-3393 / www.gracefirst.org

Feb 25-26 Wintergrass - Bellvue WA
What a cool winter festival in a Hyatt hotel!
Usedta be in Tacoma, now moved to Bellvue.
Jammers paradise - who needs sleep when there's music?
Hyatt Regency
900 Bellevue Way NE / Bellevue, WA
253-428-8056 / www.wintergrass.com

New Website www.marleysghostband.com

2009-08-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

We have a new website at MarleysGhostBand.com which is now the spot to go to sign up for the mailing list and find out where we are playing.
The new CD "Ghost Town" came back from mastering and we think it sounds pretty darn good.

Our Esteemed Producer and Nashville Legend Cowboy Jack Clement will be playing some dates with us on the road, so check our website to see when we are playing near you. Come meet Jack and get him to tell you a story ... he has some good ones (Waylon, Johhny Cash, Charlie Pride, U2 ... many, many, more).

We will have copies of the CD at Winfield this year (!!!) and are pretty excited about the whole thing.

See you soon!,

Mastering...

2009-06-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

The record is off being mastered! After mastering magic is done, they'll send it to Cowboy Jack to get his approval and any changes and, when he approves, it combines with the art and goes to production. Review copies go out, the distributor gives us our windows... but, like you, I just want to get a copy in my hot little hands...
Patience...

Back in the states and back to work!

2009-05-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

Italy was wonderful! ... Jetlagged like crazy, we played the Freight & Salvage – for the last time in the old location!
We have had so many great times at the Freight. Marley's Ghost played our first gig there as a band following our debut at the 1986 Strawberry Spring Music Festival - the first Spring Strawberry (!). We recorded our "Live At The Freight" Live CD there and have played countless fun shows to very appreciate audiences.
I am excited for Steve Baker and excited to play the new venue - but I will miss the old place for all the great times we have shared there over the last 23 years...

Then it was on to Mill Valley Masonic Hall and all our friends from the North Bay! Thank you all for coming out - great party with all of you and fun to see your smiling faces.

The Sutter Creek Theatre is in the charming little foothills town of Sutter Creek. Byron made us very welcome despite the furnace heat and with Super Engineer Matt Gephart the gig sounded great.

Our new CD has been mixed and I will share the release date with you when I know it... I can't wait!!

Marley's Ghost SF Bay Area gigs in May

2009-04-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

We will be playing
Thursday, May 14, The Freight & Salvage, Berkeley CA
Friday, May 15, Masonic Hall, Mill Valley, CA
Saturday, May 16, Sutter Creek Theatre, Sutter Creek, CA

... and we'd love to see you there.
We have been playing the new songs from the fabulous new GHOST TOWN CD, scheduled for September release.
Come hoot & holler with us.

The website has been living at www.marleysghost.org
We are redesigning it and it has a new URL... I am a few days away from announcing it - I'm excited!

Big Fun and wild weather in AR,OK,KS

2009-04-07T12:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who came out to our gigs from Fayetteville to El Dorado (which they pronounce el-door-AY-dough!).
We very much enjoyed playing for you and you seemed to be having nearly as much fun as we did.
Fayetteville and Mike Shirkey - always a treat and we discovered a new breakfast place - Ahhh,YES.
Karen Petitt and friends welcomed us back to OKC, OK and as we drove out,, the cloud shadows out-pacing us on the freeway should have alerted us that the weather was getting ... er, ... playful.
We loved Lawrence, KS - very cool town, lots to see and do and our good friend Jim Baggett of Mass Street Music dragged out a bunch of guitar treasures for our drooling pleasure. Bob McWilliams bent over backwards to make our stay a great one - which it was.

We would have loved Manhattan, KS more ... had it stopped SNOWING. The drive from there back to Wichita was far too exciting for a napless day with an evening gig ... whoa, Nellie. The Manhattan Arts Center was a great sounding room full of nice follks (including our pals Barb & Ken Wells) and El Dorado's Iron Horse is just plain cool.

Flying home we saw snow for three states going west - goodbye winter!
... and back to the beach.

ON THE ROAD Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas

2009-03-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here we come - Please tell your friends - Winfielders especially welcome!
Mar 21
Good Folk -Fayetteville AR - www.goodfolk.org
Mike Shirkey
229 N. Block St.
Fayetteville, AR (USA) 72701
Phone: 479 521-1812
Mar 22
The Blue Door - Oklahoma City, OK -www.bluedoorokc.com
2805 N Mckinley Ave
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
(405) 524-0738
Mar 25
Unity Church - Lawrence, KS - http://www.westsidefolk.org
785-841-1447
900 Madeline
Lawrence, Kansas 66049
Mar 27
Mahattan Arts Center - Manhattan, KS -
Birdhouse Marley's Ghost
Friday, March 27, 2009 at 8:00 PM
MAC Grosh Performance Hall
1520 Poyntz Ave
Manhattan, KS 66502
Phone: (785) 537-4420
http://manhattanarts.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=171523
Mar 28
Iron Horse Concert Hall - El Dorado KS -
http://shorock.com/ironhorse/location.html
315 South Main
El Dorado, Kansas

MIXING!

2009-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

So - We finished recording and Cowboy et.al. are mixing the record!
Whooppeee!
Pics etc. soon

Back To The Studio!

2009-02-06T12:57:00.001-08:00

We are headed back to the studio with Cowboy Jack Clement Feb 10th to finish up our ninth Marley's Ghost CD. It is fun working with Jack and Brooksy Watson (Luke stayed behind to do something amazing) and we are as eager to see the finished project as you are!
I can't wait

Sage Arts engineer wizard Matt Gephart has recorded us in Nashville with these guys and also back in Arlington WA and will accompany us as our house engineer (score!) when we play three Washington state gigs Feb 20 (Green Frog Acoustic Tavern - Bellingham, WA), Feb 21 (Byrnes Performing Arts Center - Arlington, WA) and Feb 22 (Walla Walla Symphony Cordiner Hall - Symphony Adventure Series- Walla Walla, WA)- Stay Tuned.

Good lord! 2009!

2009-01-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

Wow.
We have a new president, home prices might be sinking back to reality, financial markets are getting the respect they have earned ... but music is still fun to listen to and play, singing is still free.

All of Marley's Ghost wishes you a Happy New Year and our fond hopes it be a great one.
There is always opportunity in times like these - May you discover them!

We are finishing up our new record with Cowboy Jack Clement - We mix in February for an April release. There is some good stuff on the record - a few tunes we have been performing that you asked we record, some that Jack brought to us, some we wrote ourownselves. I'm liking the rough mixes I have heard and I think you are going to like the record.

whew.
I just got back from Winter NAMM 2009. I've been working for my friend Rick Shubb there for several years slinging capos and doing Shake & Howdy.
I always see friends there I haven't run into much of the year -this time Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter came by to visit.

Jeff has great news - his solo CD is almost finished and he intends to take 4-5 months of the year to tour and support it!
If you only know Jeff because of the Doobie Bros. or Steely Dan you might not appreciate that he makes great music on the Dobro, pedal steel and B3 as well as any sort of guitar he has at hand.
One of the most musical cats it is my pleasure to know as well as a superior human being.
I can't wait to hear the CD!
Mike

Gigs, Recording, pics... and beautiful October

2007-10-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

I love October - everyplace looks great, Fall is in the air... ahhh.
We have been very busy playing, recording, rehearsing and writing and loving it. Our time at Cowboy Jack's Bunkhouse and Recording Spa in Nashville was productive and a gas. That is one smart, fun, quirky, talented guy... not to mention a legend in the music biz.
I have a bunch of photos to post from the various fun-o-ramas The Fall Strawberry Music Festival, recording in Nashville, Dead On The Creek, and more- Joe Bob sez "check it out"...
P.S. Click on a pic to see a larger version

The Road Beckons

2007-08-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Wow.
We have been out having fun again...The Lincoln Center Theatre in Mt. Vernon WA is a gorgeous venue in a very cool town. We got the royal treatment - like they give everyone (!) - and had a great show and a great time. The band is sounding good and the folks we meet out there keep it fascinating.

Uncle John's "Dead On The Creek" was amazing. Nice folks, beautiful rural location, excellent weather and vibes... Even our friend Peter (pictured at Right) would have been having a fantastic time if he weren't preoccupied with the Viking Invasion ... or Danish Pacification as they called it when they were busily killing my ancestors....

Now it is time for me to go teach at CRMC music camp in Colorado for a week, then we are off to the Strawberry Music Festival near Yosemite, The Palms Playhouse, the Winfield Fest in Kansas - off to record with legend Cowboy Jack Clement in Nashville -- all good stuff. I need to consolidate our photos and post more but man, the time does fly by... I don't want to become a prisoner of the Mac like David here...

This travelling around playing tons of music - I just can't tell you how I look forward to the part when we actually count off the first tune...
all the airport, load-ins, load-outs, strange meals and bad road signage, jammed-up freeways and weird bumpy toll raods fade away and I just can't get enough...
See you out there -

Don't forget to come right up and say " Fellas, Can I buy you lunch?
Do-doot-do-do-do-doot-do-doot-do
Dang me.

Slide & Steel was Cool!

2007-07-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

We had soooo much fun in Port Townsend, WA.
Thanks to all my students for their patience and progress. Thanks to Stacy Phillips and Billy Cardine for their generosity in co-teaching with me. Thanks to Peter McCracken for hiring us!
The venue - Fort Worden is an amazingly lovely spot, particularly this time of year.
wow.

I played a bunch with steel guitar legend Bobby Black and he is an amazing player and a very fine person as is fellow steel guitarist Joe Wright. Those guys made me fall in love with clasic country all over again.
Add in Billy Cardine - red-hot Dobroist and dynamic vocalist Mary Lucey (shown above), not to mention fiddler/singer Odessa Jorgensen (shown with Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum) and fun was on the menu.

Special Thanks to Ghost Jerry Fletcher for teaching Sight Reading for Singers and putting a bunch of us well on the road to better sight reading.

We are off to do more playing - I hope we see you out there!

Back to Work!

2007-06-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

So... back to work for the Ghost.
June 24-30 we are Band-in-Residence at The Centrum Slide & Steel Festival combined with Voiceworks at beautiful Fort Worden in Port Townsend WA. We have played the Fiddle Tunes festival there numerous times over the years and have also been involved in other fests and shows there, but this is our first time at this event.
Fort Worden is a glorious venue and Port Townsend spectacularly beautiful.
I will be teaching Dobro, Danny slide, Jon harmony, Eddie steel, Jerry reading music and raising your game.
We are really looking forward to being there and I hope we'll see some of you!

Then it's Lincoln Theatre (Mt. Vernon, WA)
Dead On The Creek (Willits, CA)
Strawberry Fall Festival (Yosemite)
The Palms (Winters, CA)
The Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield, KS)
Bernie's Guitar (Redding, CA)
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (San Francisco, CA)
... and on and on

Barcelona, Mediterranean, Rome...

2007-06-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Wow.
We fell in love with the great international city of Barcelona. Clean, beautiful, great food, friendly people and the sea... you must go there. If you were on the fence - hop off and go. You'll be glad you did. We took a few days there before embarking on a small (148 passenger) sailing cruise ship the Wind Spirit across the Mediterranean to Menorca, Mallorca, Sardinia, Corsica, Elba and Rome.
Yeah, baby.
Our entertainment duties were fairly light and our enjoyment and appreciation of the boat, crew, islands, sights, sounds and fellowship profound. If you have not been to Europe or it has been a while since you did- I recommend you go.
We had a ball...

It All Seemed So Simple

2007-03-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

It did seem simple - get into the studio and start knocking out basic tracks, mine and refine - Shazam!
...another record.

But then Nick and Van Dyke had this idea - What if we created a story line compelling enough that we could integrate characters, parts for a symphony to play.... dare to dream big!

... wow.

So it looks like the development cycle may take a bit longer and, potentially, be pretty darn interesting.

Stay Tuned!

In other news, we are playing in the San Francisco Bay Area in early April, then off to Spain at the end of April. We begin in Barcelona, then embark on a 7-day cruise across the Mediterranean, arriving in Rome and then we are back home sometime during the second week of May.
Gotta love it.

I hope Spring is treating you all well and that we will see you out there on the road sooner rather than later.
Cheers,
Mike, Ed, Dan, Jon and Jerry.

December thoughts...

2006-11-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

As the year sweeps on to its end, I am happy to be alive. The photo is one I shot out my living room window a few minutes ago – clear as a bell and chilly – one of my very favorite kind of days anywhere. Of course, I live in California, where, henceforth, state legislation will be decided by senior power-lifting and square-jaw mugging-for-the-camera competitions (and some people wonder why we elected Arnold gov... sheesh) – but I digress.

This is the time of year when I, and possibly you, contemplate the past year and assess our experience... some friends are no longer with us, lots of laughter, a scar or two – I can recall so many great images from fun times all over the country. I was a student, a teacher, played a lot of music both formally and informally and spent some exceptionally fine time with family and friends...
I hope your year has been as much fun as mine.
If not ... there's always next year!

What's Next?!

2006-11-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is coming right up so I guess it will be Christmas which will seem like a couple days later - and ta-da ... 2007!

Before I forget – Thanks to all of you who have come out to our shows around the US and in Ireland, who have bought our CDs in stores, from Sage Arts, Amazon.com and on iTunes (search for Marley's Ghost from within the iTunes Store). We very much appreciate your support, as we hope to continue to sing, play and write until we fall over.

...So what IS next?
Well, we are holding meetings in a couple weeks with Producer/Wizard Van Dyke Parks to select material for our 9th CD (!) which we hope to start recording in January.
Moving schedules around is complicated but we will get it done and I, for one, Can't Wait!
When I know a bit more ... or just get chatty(!), I'll post again.

Florida ...

2006-11-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

Florida gets a bad rap these days.
That may be because more folks don't know Mitch Lind and his Riverhawk Festival down in Brooksville, FL
What a great bunch of music, wonderful folks and an all-around good time.
The weather was easy and we heard a bunch of very different styles of excellent music as we played through the last couple days of our 2006 touring. One of the highlights for me was Claire Lynch with a killer band.
Hanging with Mitch is a treat I would recommend to everyone, any chance you get. Putting on a fest is pretty demanding and Mitch pulls it off with grace and style. It is good to know there are folks like him out there presenting every kind of music ... just because.
... good reason IMHO.

...whew... October

2006-10-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

October is my favorite time of year. The most beautiful month IMHO and the hint of winter makes me glad to be alive - I dunno why ... it just does. We have had a fun run of Summer / Fall touring and it has been a blast out there.
Before we head into the Christmas holiday season we have one more adventure in Florida in a couple weeks at the Riverhawk Festival and that makes me think about Strawberry Music Festival, playing with some great bands in Kentucky, wonderful folks like Mike Shirkey in Arkansas, The Great State of Tennessee, Ben Harper's folks in Claremont, CA, beautiful San Diego and the lollapallooza of acoustic fun in Winfield, Kansas.

This traveling around playing music thing can be loads of fun if you do it right -- and it is good for your chops.
Lucky, that - as we are meeting this week with the Legendary Van Dyke Parks to craft a followup CD to SPOOKED, which, thanks to you, has done very well.
I don't yet know the scope of the project but I do know we are also discussing a PBS documentary as well. It is all in the planning stages and theese babies take a while to birth, but we are involved with fine folks and everyone is pretty excited about the ideas -- now to make schedules...

more later!
Mike

eTown & Boulder CO

2006-06-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just back from Boulder and a taping in eTown, the town where everything is 'green', the people are friendly and the world tries harder and gets better every day. ETown is presided over by the incomparable Nick Forster, our pal and superb host, spokesperson and amazingly accomplished player of anything with strings.

The guy never ceases to amaze me.

Boulder was 96 degrees -- pretty durned hot for 6,000 ft elevation. We stayed in the very comfortable Boulderado Hotel, honored guests of eTown and glad of it! That is one pretty town and playing the live show taping at the Boulder Theater was a joy as usual.

We shared the bill with legend Ian Tyson , who has turned his talents to Western music these last few years and it was great to hear him do his thing. His bass player Gordon Maxwell is quite a singer, writer and pianist and very good guy and his guitar player was Gordy Matthews, who amazed me back in the k.d. lang band, particularly on the 'Absolute Torch & Twang' tour - where the band played just plain scary. Gordy said 'Yeah, we rehearsed".
...Canadians, I tell you.

We played songs from SPOOKED for a very appreciative audience (thank you very much Colorado and Jen Lesea!) and came back for a finale - Keep On the Sunny Side - with Ian's trio, as well as Nick & Helen.
Sunny side indeed.
Big fun in Colorado.
The show will air in 4 or 5 weeks - stay tuned.
We are back home for a couple weeks -- whew.
I'm loving my life and doing my laundry.
later, dudes and dudettes...

Cowboy Jack

2006-04-28T08:48:00.001-07:00

Before our gig in Nashville the other day our picking pal and former Opry regular Walter Forbes took us over to a nice old neighborhood and into a re-purposed big 'ol house that turned out to be Cowboy Jack Clement's Bunkhouse Resort and Recording Spa. Our Mission? To hang and say howdy to his longtime friend, cohort and sometime business partner, Cowboy Jack Clement. Who the heck is Cowboy Jack?
Check out: http://www.cowboyjackclement.com/
Jack was the first recording engineer at Sun Records (Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, a kid named Presley and many, many more) and is still working at his own justly famous aforementioned studio, cutting sessions with the legends and would-be legends of country music.

A session was in progress upstairs so we wandered on up, said hello all around and took seats, shooting the breeze companionably, waiting for a break in the action. The singer coming through the control room monitors sounded familiar and when one of the players waiting to cut a part said "Charlie's singing really well" - I realized it was Charlie Pride.
Charlie was working an old Hank gospel number called "Thank God" with a rock-solid band and as the groove bore them triumphantly verse to chorus a sudden flood of happiness ran through us right there on the couch.
When music is going well - there is very little better on my earth...

They finished the take and another and the door opened, emitting legends Joe Allen and Kenny Malone. We stuck our heads in the door and there sat our friend 'Hoot' Hester, putting mandolin away and getting his fiddle ready for the track. - "Everybody out!" cried engineer Johnny and we went back into the control room with a grinning Charlie to listen to Hoot fiddle.
"I got off the melody" Charlie said, faintly amazed and began singing what he had wanted to track all along.

We said hello to our friends, traded new contact information, promised to be in touch, laughed at a couple terrible jokes - It was all just folks, except some of the folks filled out their union cards for the session, noting songs and times and hurried off to the Opry, we drove back to our rooms to prepare for our gig.

There are things about this business that I do love...

Big fun in the Southland

2006-04-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

"...that you-all and shut-my-mouthland" - according to the immortal Tom Lehrer.
What a gas.
Great to see our pal Ed Snodderly at the Down Home in Johnson City, nestled comfortably in East Tennessee.
Ed's place is the sort of venue we all want in our home town. Great music, great variety, good vibes, nice people, plenty of pickers in the audience and a steady stream of talent.
...not to mention noble beers on tap.
I love that place - can you tell?

Ed is in a play over in Abington TN about the Stanley Brothers. Our flight got in too late to go catch the matinée which was the only real dissapointment of this trip.
Dang it.

Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee

2006-04-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

...sounds like a Woody Guthrie song...
But that is where we are headed Thursday, April 20.
We play Oklahoma City on Friday, Austin Texas (Old Settler's Fest) Saturday & Sunday, travel Monday, Knoxville (live on the Blue Plate Special), Nashville (Douglas Corner), and Johnson City, Tennessee (Little Chicago Fest) the next three days and come home the 28th.
I can't wait.
The band is sounding great and we can't wait to take the stage these days – fun to be in a band when that energy is going around.
The Internet tells me it feels like Summer in the South – I guess we'll see.
I hope we see you, too.
... all y'all that is.

The Road

2006-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

whew.
Fun, though.
The recent Southern California trip...
At McCabe's Van Dyke Parks played accordion with us the first set (then rushed off to finish up a movie score to be turned in early Monday) and Dillon O'Brian played piano in the second set. The joint was packed and I do love playing that room...

This trip came near the end (I hope) of the rainiest season California has had in many years – which made it the greenest, most visually beautiful California I have ever seen. The place looked like Ireland. The desert is all purples and yellows, the usually golden hills are every shade of green, every puny little waterfall and dry creekbed thinks it belongs in Yosemite and are they ever booming.
Come have a look.
Just to be on the safe side – Bring rain gear.

The Road To Happiness

2006-03-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

Why buy SPOOKED?

2006-03-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

... An appeal to reason...

Friday March 31 at McCabe's

2006-03-22T18:28:00.000-08:00

McCabes in Santa Monica... We have played there several times over the years. This time, as last time, we will be joined by our friends Van Dyke Parks on piano and accordion and "Hutch" Hutchinson on bass for some tunes. These guys think it is fun to play with us so ... what are you gonna do when great guys who are outstanding players want to share a bit of fun?
It turns out that is a rhetorical question.
There is a vibe to that place like many great venues -- the sound is first-rate and they know how to put on a show, but the best part is the expectation the crowd bring of seeing a great show. I LOVE to be in the audience or on the stage when that energy is filling the room.
Good ju-ju.
I went to The Fillmore to hear Los Lobos re-create the 'KIKO' CD a few months ago and from the first note the crowd was high as a kite on the energy.
good show.
I hope we'll see you in Santa Monica–it will sell out so hurry and get tix...

The Birth Of A CD

2006-03-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

The Birth of a CD ... OR How we drug some innocent characters into this mess

clustrmap

2006-03-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a tool that supposedly shows the geographical area vistors are from...
How? beats me.

Perhaps it is cool...
Let's find out.

Jerry ... the new Ghost

2006-03-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Adding Jerry Fletcher to the band was the best idea we have had in quite some time.
Jon and I had played with Jerry since the Seventies, Dan grew up with him, playing with him in 'Liberty' and Jerry played drums on ...hmmm... three of our previous CDs over the years?
He is an amazing talent. A great drummer / percussionist and that is just the demo. He has a degree in piano and vocal arranging and made his bones on a jillion or so club gigs playing everything imaginable. I used to love going to see him and now I look over my shoulder to watch him play drums and piano at the same time while singing complicated vocal parts.
Wow.
The guy has two brains.
Jerry is also perhaps the most positive person I know, a wonderful attribute for a fellow bandmember.
Come up and say "Hi" to him next time -- he is fun to know.

25 Years

2006-03-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce myself. I'm a long time friend of the band - and a guy who is just catching the blogging bug (trust me, no one is more surprised than I). I'm not sure if it feels too nerdy or just too young - regardless, I'm liking it.

I've been enjoying the band for many years, not 25, but something close. What the Ghost means to me, my family and friends can't be measured in years, however. We were introduced to Strawberry by Dan and the boys - maybe 15 years ago? -and have been going almost non-stop ever since. When we first started going, I was perhaps married, but childless for sure. I tell you that, to tell you this. Yesterday my son (now 11) summed up our feelings for what the band has brought us. He walked into the family room, sat quietly for a minute then uncharacteristically said " Dad, you know what the best morning in the world is?" "no" I said. He said " The best morning ever is Sunday morning at Strawberry, I'm in camp, Marleys Ghost is singing gospel and Jeff (Dans brother-in-law) is cooking everything left in the ice chests saying "eat up, everythings gotta go", the sun is shining and everybody is just so happy."

I sat there and thought about it and said - "well the reason that feels so good is because there isn't any place I know that feels closer to god and heaven on Earth than the Ghost singing gospel at the lake at Strawberry - there's nothing in that place but buckets of love". And it all wraps back to the band, arguably, the best, most honorable and creative group of guys I know. They somehow anchor the whole thing, even in years when they aren't there, it all somehow comes back to them - oh yea and their music is pretty good too. (ha)

Karass ... or Granfalloon?

2006-03-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Do any of these resonate with you?
Sweet's Mill
Puget Sound Guitar Workshop
Strawberry Music Festival
Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield KS
Fiddle Tunes - Ft. Worden
St. Charles Saloon
Tucker's Grove
San Diego Folk Festival
Grass Valley

...if so, perhaps that's where we shared some music together. If not -- check them out, and be sure to take your axe!

Happy Anniversary

2006-03-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

Today, or at least this week, marks the twentieth anniversary of Marley's Ghost. Sitting around Jon's kitchen table in 1986 Lake Sherwood,CA, putting together songs to go out and perform our St. Patrick's Day gigs, or playing the first Strawberry Spring Music Fest(1986 Memorial Day Weekend) as a trio – who knew we'd still be having this much fun?
Not me.

To all of you who have supported us, bought our eight CDs and six solo CDs, our T-shirts, DVDs, cassettes and posters, come to our live shows and laughed, cried, clapped, wore matching thematic outfits, hired us for festivals, shows, corporate events, parties, weddings or to play outside your villa, ran sound for us, put us up or just put up with us, shared a meal with us, or maybe hung out with us swapping songs and tunes until we fell over– THANKS!
It is still fun, which is why we're still doing it.
My advice? Go start a band.
Sure – it is insane, but it surely does make you feel good sometimes.

Creative Process...

2006-03-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

GhostBlog_Start!

2006-03-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

Well ... here goes.
Marley's Ghost has been around for quite a while but things really began to get interesting about a year ago, when we hired a new manager– a very savvy guy and realized that our friend Van Dyke Parks was the perfect guy to produce our new CD project "SPOOKED" - our eighth - and were able to interest Van Dyke in producing it.
Things heated up when we were able to get underground comics legend R. Crumb to do our CD artwork and we got really excited about the project -- even more so when Van Dyke, having looked over the song list we gave him, began to tweak the songs.
VDP is a freakin' genius and we started having serious fun when recording began at Entourage Studios in Studio City (where else?). Hutch Hutchinson, Bonnie Raitt's longtime bassist volunteered to play on some tracks, ending up on 'Love, Not Reason" on his fretless which was stored around the corner -- he works enough down there that he has basses stashed around various studios. Larry Taylor (remember Canned Heat?) also played standup bass on a fiddle tune as did our dear friend, bassist and accordionist David Jackson and we were off and running.