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Author Archives: justin
Pink Chair Sessions – Episode 1 – Scott Miller
Yesterday we introduced a new project called the Pink Chair Sessions. We are pretty excited about this new endeavor and wanted to explain a little bit about it.
These sessions are another collaboration between us and our friends at Badland Pictures. Each episode will feature an informal, stripped down music performance shot in various locations around the country, but always in the same pink chairs. Every session will be unique in location, music, and participants.
Each episode will be hosted by us, but we will often be joined by special guests. These guests will cover all types of music and styles. We come across some amazing talent traveling this country and it is our hope to share some of these musicians with you. Some you may know, others you may be introduced to for the first time.
Each episode will be an authentic representation of the moment captured. Each session will be just one take, one microphone, no mixing, and no editing. Just an honest musical moment.
We want to thank Badland Pictures for all of their hard work and thank all of you for supporting this new project. Stay tuned for new episodes every couple of weeks. If you missed our first episode, featuring guest Scott Miller, check it out here.
We filmed this inaugural episode before our show at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville this past April. It was our 5 year anniversary celebration, so we had alot of guests throughout the weekend of shows. Scott had come down on Friday night to sit in with us, and we decided to go get the pink chairs and do a song before the show started. We had been thinking about this whole “Pink Chair Sessions” idea and this seemed like as good of a time as any to start. Scott was a great sport, and as you can probably tell we were having a good time together. James, Michael, and Scott decided to do “Dead Flowers” by The Stones, and we went under the stage to film the performance.
Scott has been a good friend of our band for a while now. He’s always full of advice, and has been a huge help for us. We even travel around the country in his old bus, The Mule. He’s a great songwriter, and pretty hilarious. He’s one of Knoxville’s finest, and we are always glad to spend time with him. Check his stuff out at www.thescottmiller.com.
Justin
Posted in Pink Chair Sessions
Tagged bijou theater, dead flowers, dirty guv'nahs, pink chair sessions, rolling stones, scott miller
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June Recap
Hello everyone. First of all, I’d like to apologize for those hoping for a Cozmo blog this time around. I too am a big Cozmo blog fan, but since he did the last one we didn’t want to make him do two in a row. Unfortunately for you all, you’ll have to read through a pretty boring blog that doesn’t cover ever detail and generally follows the common rules of writing.
The last month or so since we checked in has been pretty crazy. We started this run with shows in Birmingham, AL, Pensacola, FL, and Seaside, FL. All three of these shows were full of great crowds and alot of energy. After the show by the beach in Seaside, we all hung out for a few days to vacation. We were joined by a couple of the wives as well as a great friend of the band Joe “The Fizzle” Morelock. Each day consisted of sitting by the beach, relaxing, and then “Oceing”, a Cozmo-invented phrase that means “to get into the ocean and chill”. At night, we would have competitions to see how much money we could spend on a great dinner. James and Cozmo won the highest dinner price competition at some foodie restaurant, but we all collectively enjoyed our meal at the Red Bar the best. Thanks to all the fine folks along 30A in Florida for taking good care of us.
After our vacation, we took off for Asheville, Savannah, and Norfolk, VA. If you are thinking to yourself that Savannah and Norfolk aren’t that close, you are correct. However, we got added as openers for a show by the Cold War Kids at Forsyth Park in Savannah and we thought that sounded like a great idea. After the Asheville show at The Grey Eagle we took it down to Savannah for our first ever show in that great city. The park was huge and it was a pleasure playing for thousands of fans and sharing the stage with the Cold War Kids. Things were much less fun the next day. We had to get up really early to make the journey to Norfolk, VA because we had to load in around 4. After making most of the drive, we blew out a tire in a small town in northwest North Carolina. Blowing out a tire in any ride is no fun, but in the Mule blowing out a tire is a whole lot worse than that. The Mule is a beast of a vehicle, and the Mule doesn’t take too kindly to normal sized jacks, which is what Gaston, NC has plenty of. Turns out that the good folks in Gaston aren’t used to jacking up an old airport shuttle-looking 30 foot bus driven around by a band. Who knew? We finally were able to get some help, but the damage had been done and we had to cancel our show in Norfolk. Norfolk people, we are truly sorry. If you were planning on coming out, write us an email at band@thedirtyguvnahs.com, leave us your phone number, and we’ll call and deliver you a personal apology.
Since our show was canceled, after getting our tire situation fixed we decided to drive through the night back home to Knoxville. I took the wheel, because I love the mental challenge of a terribly long drive. It makes you a stronger person. Cozmo sat shotgun with me to keep me company. What was unique for this drive, however, was that Chris decided he too wanted to be in the front seat. He set up a camping chair in between the two front seats (which there is not enough room for) and before you knew it we were three deep. We decided to throw our own music festival up there, and listened to nothing but the longest live shows we could find. It really helped pass the time, that, and the third degree burn Doritos. If you have ever had these, you know what we are talking about. If you can tell us about a hotter snack that is commonly found at gas stations around the country, we would love to hear about it. Feel the burn.
Our next shows were two festivals; Riverbend in Chattanooga, TN and Midsummer Music Fest in Atlanta. Riverbend was completely ridiculous. It was one of those shows where you could just feel that it was different. We were overwhelmed with the support of all the people under the bridge, and can’t wait to get back to you. Midsummer Music Fest was great too. We were pumped to be sharing the stage a bunch of bands we love; Robert Randolph, JJ Grey & Mofro, Dr. Dog, and Ponderosa. We played right before a massive storm came in, so we were lucky. The other bands didn’t let the rain stop them though, and a great time was had by all.
The last few shows this month were in Greensboro, NC, Charleston, SC, and Wilmington NC. We left Knoxville at 7 AM last Thursday because we had an in studio performance at WNCW in Spindale on our way to Greensboro. We did four songs and had a great time getting to know the awesome people at the station. If you don’t know WNCW, look them up. Afterwards, we took it to Greensboro for a show at The Blind Tiger. We finished up there around 1:30 AM, and had to be in Charleston at 8 AM for another radio performance. With Charleston being over 5 hours away, we had to drive through the night. Once again, Cozmo and I manned the front seats to get us through the night. We were pretty delirious, but the use of several late night driving staying awake tactics ( water in the face, head out the window, jumping jacks on the side of the interstate, terrible impersonations), we made it to Charleston alive and on time. The radio show was a success and we eventually made it to a hotel several hours later for a little nap. After waking up, we played at the Windjammer in Charleston for an amazing crowd. The next day in Wilmington featured another fun radio visit and performance at the Soapbox.
The last two things I will leave you with are very important. First of all, we have big plans for this coming weekend’s Independence Day celebration. We’ll be doing two free nights at Nashville’s Riverfront on July 3rd and 4th. You need to join us. It will be a big music weekend in Nashville, as U2 is playing on July 2nd. Between the two of us, we have won 22 Grammy’s, so you won’t want to miss either show.
The other tidbit is that we are going to be playing the historic Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville on September 2nd. We will be joined by our friend Scott Miller & The Commonwealth for this special evening, and we would love for you to come out as well. It’s Labor Day weekend, and our hometown does Labor Day weekend right. You can stick around for the Tennessee football opener and Boomsday if you are so inclined. I
Thank you for reading, and here’s hoping the next blog is from Coz.
Justin
Posted in Blog
Tagged 30a, asheville, charleston, cold war kids, dirty guv'nahs, dr dog, jj grey, midsummer music fest, mofro, ponderosa, red bar, riverbend, robert randolph, seaside, tennessee theatre, the mule, u2, wilmington, windjammer, wncw, workplay
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National Release Day For Youth Is In Our Blood
Today is the day. The national release of “Youth is in Our Blood” is finally here.
The making of this album has taken up the last year of our lives. It’s crazy to look back at the amount of time and work that went into getting this thing done.
We had just finished playing at Bonnaroo last June when we were approached by someone with a connection to Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. They asked us if we would be interested in recording up there if something could work out. Naturally, we said yes, even though we had just released our self-titled CD six weeks earlier. When you get an opportunity to go to a place like Levon’s, you just make it happen, whether or not you actually are ready for it.
Shortly thereafter, we booked a couple weeks for December 2009. At this time, the reality sunk in that we didn’t really have any new material and that it would be a long fall. Then comes Michael Jenkins to save the day.
Michael, as many of you know, is the source for the majority of our music. During this time, he was living in a cabin by himself and relentlessly writing. We knew that, but weren’t aware actually how much he was writing. He came to practice one day and gave me a CD of 10 instrumental full songs (him playing all the instruments). Many of these ended up being on “Youth”.
We had a show that next week down in Atlanta opening for Band of Skulls on a Tuesday night. I remember having to drive down separately to meet the rest of the band because of some sort of conflict. Anyway, I played Michael’s instrumental CD the entire way down and the entire way back to Knoxville afterwards. Six hours worth. I loved it. My wife was with me and she didn’t even get sick of it. It was that good to us.
It was at that time that I thought for the first time, “this is going to be a great album”. I saw the potential in these early cuts, particularly in what is now “Wide Awake” for some really special music. I knew that it would be hard, but that if we worked like crazy on this thing, we could make an album that we were extremely proud of.
As the fall went on, our days were spent in cubicles and classrooms, while our nights were spent working on the new material, arranging, writing, and playing together. Cozmo joined on in October and it was full steam ahead. This album was our life.
By the time December came around, we were ready to jump in head first and record these songs for the world to hear. We thought they were great, but we had to get them out to you all. As many of our long time readers know, our time in Woodstock ended up being very difficult, but equally great. For whatever reason, we had a hard time getting going up there. Many of us ended up being very sick. We were frustrated. Songs weren’t tight. Things were generally not good. But we fought through, had a breakthrough day, began to heal, and worked like mad to get as much done as we could.
After two weeks in Woodstock (and being stranded in Hershey, PA on the way home, thanks to SNOWPOCALYPSE), we were back home with the skeleton of this album. However, there was still much to be done. James spent his evenings in between shows and practices re-doing vocal tracks. Many other overdubs had to be done, whenever we could find any time at all. Everyone was extremely tired, and at times we wondered if this thing would ever be finished.
We began testing out a few of the songs live around this time. People responded very positively to the new songs, giving us more motivation to keep working hard. We knew we had to keep pushing through and that it would be worth it in the end.
So, as you know, we did finish. We fought through. We got this thing done. And we couldn’t be more proud of it. We sincerely hope that you all will enjoy it.
The last year has been a year full of sacrifice. We have devoted hundreds and hundreds of hours to this because we truly believe in it. It’s been worth every single minute we have spent, because we think it is a big step forward for us. Most everything that you care about involves sacrifice, and we deeply care about this band, each other, this music, and our fans.
So today, July 20th, “Youth is in Our Blood” goes from our heads to your ears. We cannot thank you enough for your support.
- Justin
NEW VIDEO PROJECT
We are excited to announce a new project that needs your help!
So, we shot our debut music video for “We’ll Be The Light” a little while back and it will be released NEXT WEEK. Much more information coming on that one very soon. We can’t wait for you all to see it.
Since we are not really fond of rest, we are already hard at work on our second music video, for the new song “Baby We Were Young”. This is where YOU come in.
Because we have such amazing fans out there, we want to work with you all for this new project. For this new video shoot, the entire thing will feature our fans and their ideas for the video. It will be a completely interactive video made by us all together. Here’s how it will work: We are asking our fans to submit their ideas for things that we could do in this new video. This video will be all about being young and full of life, that’s all you need to know. We will compile some of our favorite ideas that are sent in by you, and we will do them. The video itself will be a series of scenes of us doing whatever you all come up with. Please be as creative and descriptive as possible with your ideas. Examples could include everything from riding a hot air balloon while dressed in tuxedos to skydiving to performing at your son’s bar mitzvah. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the idea is, in fact, that’s the way we want it. It’s literally totally up to you. Come up with your ideas for a scene in the video and submit them to us. You can submit your ideas by responding to this thread on facebook(or writing on our wall), twitter, or by emailing us at band@thedirtyguvnahs.com. We will select some of our favorite ideas, and when we do, we will contact that person and explain the next step. If your idea is selected, you will have an appearance in the video!
So go ahead and start submitting those ideas. Looking forward to what you all come up with. This is entirely your video, so make it good! Be creative!
And stay tuned next week to see the debut of “We’ll Be The Light”! More info on the way!
Much love,
TDG
Posted in News
Tagged baby we were young, dirty guv'nahs, music video, news, youth is in our blood
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Charlotte & Johnson City
Most people might not enjoy traveling several hours cramped in an old van. Or sleeping in sometimes less than ideal situations. Definitely not loading up trailers in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures. But for whatever reason, it doesn’t really bother us that much. Why? Because we are truly getting to live out our dreams, and the parts that may appear to be the hardest have become strangely not that bad, even enjoyable.
It makes it a whole lot easier when you have really special moments when you are out on the road. Those are the times that reaffirm how great this whole thing is and how blessed we are to be able to travel around the country playing our music for people. No matter how little sleep you have had or how much your voice is gone, you know that you are right where you are supposed to be.
These past four days were full of these kind of moments:
1) Saturday night about 1:00 AM I looked out in to the crowd in Johnson City and saw hundreds of people just losing their minds. Around the stage I watched each member of our band totally in the moment of euphoria: Michael was back to back with Cozmo, both of them completely destroying solos simultaneously. Chris was standing up banging on his keys, screaming into his microphone. Aaron was shattering drumsticks left and right. James was, well, acting like a complete madman, thrashing around the stage like a tornado. The building was literally shaking.
2) Before our show in Charlotte on Friday night I had the chance to talk with Seth Avett from The Avett Brothers for a while. We are fans of The Avett Brothers not only because of their music but because of the way they go about things. They didn’t start a band to get famous or try to be rock stars, they did it because they wanted to make great music with great people. Their foundation is so solid, and they deserve every bit of success they are now getting. Being around people that are as genuine as Seth Avett is very inspiring and something that we won’t forget. Even though those guys are playing sold out shows around the country (and now world) they are just hanging out in their hometown being the normal, polite guys that they are. Seth left with one of our CDs and we look forward to seeing him again one day.
3) Also in Charlotte, we had an incredible time staying with our new friends Chuck and Stacey Hicks and their children. Their hospitality was amazing and we can’t thank them enough. When you are on the road, you don’t always get great lodging experiences. When you have people open their doors to you and take care of you as well as the Hicks did, it is a very special thing. We are glad to add them to our extended “band family”, and look forward to seeing them, as well as all the other great people out their who open their homes to us, very soon.
4) Lastly, it is always a pleasure to share the stage with other great acts. A special thanks to the guys in Possum Jenkins for supporting us in Charlotte. Nice guys and good music-check them out. Also to our new friends The Delta Saints, who tore up the stage before us in Johnson City. It was a lot of fun having those guys sit it with us and they are definitely a group to look out for.
Our encounters with people like the ones mentioned are the reason this is so much fun. Whether its a great venue owner chatting with you about their dreams and visions, getting dominated in Wii by kids half your age, talking music with other artists, or getting to speak with people who have traveled several hours just to come to your show (and tape it), these are the things that keep us going. We are so honored to play music for all of our fans and will continue to give it everything we have.
New tour dates will be announced soon, so keep checking for updates.
Also, be sure to check out our Video Interview with Paste Magazine… it’s on their homepage right now:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/paste_station?station_track=track_14844_3000&mode=normal
Justin
Cozmo and The King / Paste Magazine
The last week or so has been a lot of fun for us so we wanted to catch you guys up on what’s been going on.
First, last Friday night we had the pleasure of playing in our hometown of Knoxville at the Square Room. It was an incredible evening and so great to play in front of a sold out crowd. Thank you to everyone for squeezing in there! It was also our first show in town since the addition of Cozmo Holloway to our band. While Knoxvillians had gotten used to seeing Coz sitting in with us on numerous occasions throughout the last few years, it was great to have him up there “officially” in Knoxville. Another highlight was getting to play a lot of our new tunes for the very first time, including (current working titles) “Baby We Were Young”, “Wide Awake”, “Dangerous”, “New Salvation”, and a few others. We are very pumped about these new songs and hope you guys enjoyed them. Thanks so much to everyone for making it such a special evening for us. We will let you know when our next hometown show will be very soon.
This past Thursday we made our first trip to Roanoke, Virginia. We didn’t know what to expect since we had never played there before, but the evening ended up being great. The Kirk Avenue Music Hall was full of very attentive fans that we were thrilled to play for. We played a lot of the new songs mentioned earlier as well as a new one called “Courage Moves Within Me” for the very first time. It was a pleasure meeting everyone after the show and we will definitely be back.
Saturday we journeyed down to the great town of Greenville, South Carolina. As we were pulling into town, Cozmo began talking about Elvis. For those who do not know, Cozmo apparently has a newfound love of The King. Or maybe it’s just always been there and it’s new to me. Whatever the case, the man loves him some Elvis. Sharing his love is James, so we started looking through the Ipod for a quick fix for these guys. We somehow settled on “Never Been to Spain” and cranked it as we pulled into the Handlebar. We have never listened to Elvis in the van before, and that song was probably not the first song you think of when you think of him, but for some reason that’s what we came up with. As we are getting out of the van, Coz lets us know that he would love for us to cover this song and he would like to be the front man. He demonstrated the look and dance he would do and we all agreed that it needed to happen.
So we are on the bill with the Blue Dogs for this show (who are a great band and a great bunch of guys), and after our set they invite Cozmo and Chris to sit in with them. The first song they play together is an old favorite of ours “Don’t Do It” in which Coz and Chris totally destroyed their parts. It should also be noted that Chris was wearing a magnificent pair of Alligator boots during this performance. Well, after that, The Blue Dogs then start playing the aforementioned “Never Been to Spain” and the rest of us starting cracking up. Cozmo had gotten his wish. While he wasn’t the singer for this version, he laid down some nasty guitar that Elvis himself would have been very proud of. I don’t know the odds of something that coincidental happening, so I am just going to say that it was Cozmo’s destiny to play that song. And it was a pleasure to watch. It was also a pleasure to listen to everyone give their best Elvis impersonations the rest of the night.
We made a lot of new friends down at the Handlebar as well and will be making plans to get back to all of these great venues. Thanks to everybody for all of the support. We are headed to Georgia this week, with shows in Atlanta on Thursday, Athens on Friday, and Macon on Saturday. Hope to see some of you all there!
Lastly we are pleased to announce that we will be performing live this Friday afternoon for Paste Magazine as a part of their Live from Paste segment on their website! We are very pumped about this and will let you know more details soon as to when it will be available to view. Thanks again everyone.
Justin
Ramble On
Saturday night we had the great honor of performing at the famed “Midnight Ramble” which is hosted by the incredible Levon Helm at his home in Woodstock, NY. To say that it was a wonderful evening would be a huge understatement. It was a truly special experience for all of us, and something that none of us will never forget.
We have been up here for the past week working on our new album and we played a short opening set consisting of some of the new material. It was a great feeling to play the new songs and have a positive response from the Ramble crowd. James, who has been battling the flu all week, fought through the set and sounded great. Afterwards, during Levon’s set, it was surreal to hear him and Larry Campbell give us a shout out. They were very gracious hosts, and their set was amazing. Levon sang for the first time since the summer due to some throat issues, and it was pretty surreal to be in attendance for this particular show. Also making the night amazing was having so many of our closest friends and family members up here with us. A huge thanks to all who made the journey up here to join us, we really appreciate you. The whole night was very special.
Our time in the studio is also going well. As James documented earlier, our time up here in New York started a little bit on the rough side, but I think we have turned a corner and are hitting our stride. We have all the basic tracks done and will be focusing on the overdubs and vocals this week. The songs are all turning out great, and I think that these tracks are a huge step forward for us. We can’t wait for you to hear them.
So thanks to everyone for all the messages of support, and thanks to all the great people at the Ramble for making us feel right at home. We are having a blast up here and are looking forward to another great week. Please keep James in your thoughts and let’s hope his voice can fully recover soon. We will be checking in periodically and posting some studio pics, so stay tuned.
Justin
Posted in Blog, Woodstock
Tagged levon helm, midnight ramble, ramble, woodstock, youth is in our blood
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Headed to Woodstock / 2010 Tour Dates
The time has finally come. Tomorrow morning the van will roll out of Knoxville on our journey to Woodstock, NY. It’s been a great few months working on all this new material and we are pretty excited to hear what they will sound like.
We are heading up there with 16 songs at the moment. Some will be cut, some will be tweaked, and some songs might even be written up there. Who knows. But I do know that we have never worked harder on anything as a band than we have with the creation of these new songs. Everyone has been writing, contributing their ideas, and spending countless hours trying to make these things better. We are a little exhausted but more excited than anything really.
It still hasn’t really sunk in that we are going to record at one of our musical hero’s studio. I guess when we walk in and see Levon things will start feeling real. Getting the chance to even go to Levon Helm Studios, much less record and perform there, is the ultimate honor of our career so far. We have been blessed to be able to work with a Grammy award winning team on this record and we intend to make the most of it.
We will be checking in from the studio alot to keep you guys updated, so please keep checking. Thanks so much for your support!
ALSO-
Having trouble coming up with Christmas gift ideas? How about Guv’nahs tickets? NEW DATES ANNOUNCED, Tickets on sale now:
January 15 Knoxville, TN The Square Room http://www.thesquareroom.com/calendar.php?format=full
January 21 Roanoke, VA Kirk Avenue Music Hall http://kirkavenuemusic.com/
January 23 Greenville, SC The Handlebar http://www.handlebar-online.com/
January 28 Atlanta, GA Smith’s Olde Bar http://www.smithsoldebar.com/
January 29 Athens, GA Tasty World http://tastyworlduptown.com/
February 18 Black Mountain, NC Town Pump Tavern http://www.myspace.com/townpumptavernnc
February 19 Charlotte, NC The Evening Muse
http://www.queencitymusic.com/theeveningmuse/default.htm
February 20 Johnson City, TN Capone’s http://profile.myspace.com/304827604
MANY MORE DATES COMING SOON!
Justin
Welcome Aboard Cozmo
Hello everybody.
November is here and we are only a month away from heading up to Woodstock. We are in the midst of a very exciting and chaotic month of final preparation for this album and have a whole lot to catch you up on.
First, we need to let you know about an addition to our band. Cozmo Holloway, a great friend of ours and an incredible guitarist, has officially joined us full time. We first crossed paths with Coz about three or four years ago when we were playing a show with his band Dishwater Blonde on Market Square in Knoxville. He had come up to the stage to tell us we had five minutes left in our set. Idiots that we were, we thought he was coming to see if he could sit in with us. We told him to get on stage and we handed him a guitar. We were not necessarily the tightest band in the world in our early days, and I am not sure what Coz thought about that particular performance, but he absolutely tore it up. We were grinning from ear to ear watching this guy with a fro completely destroy a guitar solo in our cover of Cocker’s “Feelin Alright”.
As time passed on, Dishwater Blonde was kind enough to have us open some more shows for them, and we continued our relationship with those guys and always invited Cozmo to sit in on some songs. When we started playing more headlining shows around our hometown, Coz would come down if he was around and sometimes play a full set with us. Things just clicked and we always seemed to have a great time.
Last year about this time, we were preparing to go down to Athens, GA to record our first full length record and asked Cozmo if he would be interested in laying down some nasty guitar on a few tracks. Luckily, he said yes. We spent five days together working in the studio and had the time of our lives. We began to mesh together more musically, and more importantly became closer friends.
In April, we released our record with a show at the Bijou Theatre. Coz joined us for about half the set, along with several other great guests. It was still to this day one of the most fun shows of our lives.
So here we are, getting ready to head up to Woodstock to make this new album, and the time is right to have Coz jump on board full time. We are incredibly grateful that he has decided to join us and are extremely thankful to Dishwater Blonde for their support.
Secondly, we need to give you an update on Mitch Stewart. You all know Mitch, you all love Mitch. Mitch has been an integral part of this band from day one. Maybe even before day one. He has been a steady rock for us, whether it’s playing percussion or playing bass, singing backup or occasionally lead if the mood is right. Well, Mitch is a very talented person on many levels and has some incredible things going on in some other areas of his life. Starting in the new year, he might not be at every show we have going on. We are going to be amping up our touring quite a bit, and Mitch has some other things that are progressing at the same time. So, if you come to a show and Mitch is not there, do not be alarmed. He is not leaving our band. He just might be on a more limited touring schedule at least for the time being. He is absolutely going up to Woodstock with us to help us create this new album and will still be playing shows as much as he can in 2010.
So, with the addition of Cozmo, he and Jenkins will be manning the dueling guitars, and I will be focusing more on bass. Mitch will be sticking more to percussion, and the other guys will keep rocking right where they were.
We couldn’t be more exited about everything that’s going on with us collectively as a group, and individually as well. We are more focused that ever about the future of The Dirty Guv’nahs and this crazy dream of playing rock and roll for the masses. Getting to record up at Levon Helm Studios is going to be a dream come true and something we think about constantly. We have alot of songs in the works and we can’t wait for you all to hear them in due time. We are going to be out and about a whole lot more and just might be coming to your town, so please tell your friends. We can’t do this without you all and are thankful beyond words for your support.
Justin
WE ARE HEADING NORTH: Guv’nahs to record at Levon Helm Studio in December and Open the Ramble
Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY
For those who haven’t heard, we have just confirmed that we will be recording our next album in December at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. We also have the incredible honor of opening for Levon at the Midnight Ramble on December 12th. To say that we are excited would be an incredibly huge understatement.
Simply put, Levon Helm is a national treasure. To be able to record our next album at his home studio up in Woodstock is an absolute dream. We are honored beyond words to get this incredible opportunity.
When we first got together and started this crazy idea for forming a band, we were heavily inspired (and still are) by the timeless music of The Band. Not that we sound anything like the legendary group, but we just loved everything about them. We loved that they made it ok to play whatever kind of music you wanted and not be afraid of fitting nicely into any categories. Our music is definitely a melting pot, one full of rock, country, soul, blues, and who knows what else. Artists like The Band broke down barriers and made that type of thing possible.
The Band just had that vibe of five guys who loved to play music. They didn’t care to have any one of them in the spotlight. In their heyday, they gave a real sense of community, a “we’re all in this together” mentality, which is something that we strive for today. They continue to have a huge impact on us, as we are just six guys who love to play music together. We have an incredible time doing it and we know that every one of us is a vital part of the puzzle.
In particular, we have always had a deep admiration for Levon. The guy was just so cool, no matter who you were. The only southerner (or American) in one of the most Americana bands of all time, we had a natural affinity for the man behind the kit. He was just a boy from our neighboring state of Arkansas who turned out to be one of the greatest musicians of all time. He was the bearded singing drummer belting out some of the most memorable lyrics of the 20th century, yet he still had that southern drawl, charm, and wit – the kind of guy you’d love to sit and have a drink with while he told you stories. He was it for us.
When Levon beat the cancer that threatened to take his voice (and life), the inspiration level for us went through the roof. We went to see one of his “Rambles on the Road” last year and when I left I smiled for days. The man has still got it. He just beat cancer and at his age still put on one of the best shows I had seen in a long time. His playing was great. His voice was great. He was still the man.
So, this December we will make the journey up to Levon’s home in Woodstock. Levon Helm Studios is a place we have wanted to be for a long time now, and we are ready to go up there and try to channel some of his energy in recording the best album possible. Recording in a studio that has seen such legends as The Band, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards as well as some of our favorite contemporaries like The Black Crowes and My Morning Jacket is the definition of a dream come true for us, and we cannot wait to be there.
We cannot thank you all enough for your support of this crazy path we have been on for over three years now. We can’t do it without you, and you are every bit a part of all the great things that are beginning to happen for us. We hope to see you on the road this fall, and can’t wait for you all to hear this new record as soon as possible. We would have never thought this could be a reality a few years ago, but here we are, still pursuing this sound we have in our heads and still trying to create a feeling of community at all our shows. We are having a great time, and we hope that this is the beginning of a long and joyful ride. We are glad to have your company along the way.
Justin