We are pleased to announce the release date for our new album! “Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies” will be available on August 14th. To celebrate this occasion, we are going to be performing a special FREE concert in Market Square in downtown Knoxville on Friday, August 17th!

This free show is to express our thanks to our hometown for supporting us so much. With our latest album project, over half of our donations came from Knoxville, TN! You’ve been coming to see us for years and this is the least we can do.

We can’t thank everyone enough for your support. We hope you will celebrate this new album, funded completely by our fans, by joining us for a late summer evening under the stars in downtown Knoxville!

- TDG

Sometime in early 2005, I bought my first ticket to Bonnaroo. I had always been music crazed and had attended hundreds of concerts, but had spent bulk of my youth listening to punk, ska, and R&B music. I wanted to go to Bonnaroo because something had changed inside me. A month before buying that ticket, I had heard The Rolling Stones for the first time ever, and I was falling in love with rock and roll. Artists like My Morning Jacket, The Faces, Rod Stewart, Elton John, and The Band had found their way into my constant CD rotation. Keep in mind that this was way back before we had ever even thought about forming the Guv’nahs. I was a big fan and a music appreciator, with no intentions of creating music, and certainly no intentions of being a singer in a band. About a month before Bonnaroo, I remember my roommates Justin Hoskins and Richard Baird telling me that if I loved The Band then I needed to watch The Last Waltz, a documentary directed by Martin Scorsese which detailed the final concert of The Band. So, I found a copy of the film and watched it. Shortly after that, I remember watching the film Festival Express and seeing a younger version of the band. Immediately, I became obsessed.

Besides just loving the sound of The Band, I also loved the dynamic of The Band. They didn’t appear to have a true leader. It looked and sounded like everyone in the group was a role player. If I was picking favorite personalities early on, then mine would have been Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson… in that order. But Levon’s voice was the one that I would eventually become most drawn to, because I felt like it was most like my own.

While at Bonnaroo, I remember asking myself what it was about live music that I loved the most… and I concluded that I loved live concerts because it was one of the few places on earth where a group can congregate and be collectively equal for a period of time. The crowd rolls in, but when the band starts playing, it doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor, black, white, or awkward… the music creates an environment of equality, even if only for 1 hour. When the band stops, normal life resumes… but maybe someone leaves a little bit changed. I was a dreamer then, still am I guess.

Fast forward 4+ years to August 2009 and I’m playing in a band a few weekends a year and working in a cubicle at the University of Tennessee with the rest of my time. I clearly remember sitting in my cubicle one day in early August and getting a phone call from an unknown New York number. Normally, I screen all unknown numbers… but for some reason I answered this one and it ended up changing the course of my life.

On the other end of the line was a voice that said, “Hey James, got your email. This is Justin Guip at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. We listened to some of the demos that you sent us and we are really diggin it. When do you wanna come up here and record?”

We ended up going to Woodstock for 2 weeks in December 2009 to record Youth Is In Our Blood. While we were there we met Levon Helm for the first time. Kind, humble, and witty are the ways that I would describe him. We recorded that album in his home, which is named “The Barn”, and everyday we would watch him wake up, put on a robe and go take Muddy for a walk (his dog). Everywhere he went, he took Muddy with him. In the car, in the house, on a walk around the property. Everywhere. On a Saturday night while we were up there recording, we were asked to open up for the Levon Helm Band at one of his famed Midnight Rambles. Obviously, we accepted and had the night of our lives. After the ramble was over, Levon and his crew personally invited us to his personal Christmas party. Again, we accepted… thinking, there will probably be 200 people at this party. After our final night of recording, we head to Levon’s Christmas party… showing up a little bit late. When we get there, there’s a crowd of maybe 20 to 25 people, most of which are family members. In walk the Guv’nahs and our crew of 6, upping the party’s number of attendees by about 25%. We ended the night at some bar in the middle of Woodstock with Levon’s crew dancing and singing the night away. Levon was obviously asleep by about 10pm. After all, he was battling cancer and was in his late 60′s.

Levon’s management contacted us again about a year later and asked us to come up to The Barn and open for another of the Midnight Rambles, this time in January 2011. At the end of that night, Levon asked the Guv’nahs to get up on stage and encore “The Weight” with him and the band. Taking the stage, Levon leaned over to me and said, “Son, you’re taking the first verse.” Luckily, I knew all the words by heart. Nervous, I grabbed a mic between Levon and his daughter Amy Helm. The 4 count of the sticks, and then the song began. I will never ever forget harmonizing on the “Take a load off Annie’s” and the “Catch a cannonball” ending with his daughter Amy Helm. Every band member was on an instrument. One of the purest moments of true joy that I’ve ever experienced.

Yesterday, Levon Helm passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was surrounded by many friends and family at the hospital as he left this world and went onto the next. The crew that worked for Levon was one of the most tightly knit groups of people that I have ever encountered. We received a phone call today from the studio engineer, and he said that the vibe up in Woodstock is still very positive. We pray for strength for them during this next phase of each of their lives.

Levon Helm was a good man. He brought joy to the world. On stage and in person, he was inspiration and an encouragement to many. I am thankful for the short time that we got to spend with him.

james

once we finished our first phase of recording we had a few days off then went back to nashville to finish up our overdubs. this time we were at “the art house” which is the legendary charlie peacock’s studios. the studio is built on to his house which is a really old church that’s been restored. this place was like a make believe land, it had a very magical feel to it. historic architecture with some good landscaping and a swing in the yard built for huffin cigs in. if i was a person who wrote books, i would live in a house like that.

we’ve been working with a really cool producer/engineer combo. Ross Copperman and Richie Biggs. Ross is an awesome producer to work with and he has very strong ideas. we work solid together creatively and it’s always constructive. he also has really good cologne. seriously, he just makes the room smell like dillard’s. it reminds me of back when i was in middle school before i knew what cologne was. i just thought everybody was coating their chests with deodorant so i did the same. then i started to develop a rash because my chest could not sweat and quickly found out that i was an idiot. Richie is a jedi master engineer as well as a huge inspirational force behind the music. during my overdubs he would come in the tracking room and dance around so i could feel like i was playing live. he pulled a ton of creativity out of us during the rhythm tracking and overdubbing sessions. the songs are sounding solid. thank you to everyone that donated to our cause.

we also did our first run of the year which was about 7 shows over ten days. we are very happy with how it went. atlanta, birmingham, and nashville sold out. houston, austin, dallas, and especially memphis had great showings. it was a lot of fun to play our new songs live because the crowd tries so hard to sing along and they have no idea what the words are. they just kinda leave their mouths open during the song and follow their hearts. in nashville i saw a dude in the crowd that was havin such a good time that he headbutted his own fist. it was pretty weird, but he might have just drank one too many dewskies. there were lots of new faces and it was really cool to see them singing our songs. i had the best fried chicken that ive ever eaten on this trip. it’s a place called gus’s in memphis. we also ate at a benihana japanese steak house. they didn’t have the white sauce so it hurt my feelings. to cheer me up, doody told the waiter that it was justin’s birthday and they sang us this japanese song and gave justin a really cool hat.

we believe its gonna be a really good year this year. its exciting to be releasing these new songs. it’s also exciting because we have a hometown show comin up in about a week and a half. we’re doin two nights at the bijou theatre on friday feb. 24th and sat. feb 25th. the shows are gonna be rockin. we have the black cadillacs opening on one night and the delta saints on the other. dont be a nerd and buy some tickets.

(you can follow cozmo on twitter at @its_just_ol_coz)

Pink Chair Sessions – Episode 1.6
with special guests The Delta Saints

Song: “The Weight of Lies” by The Avett Brothers

Shot backstage at Track 29 in Chattanooga, New Year’s Eve – 12/31/11

Much, Much Love,

The Dirty Guv’nahs

Pink Chair Sessions – Episode 1.5
with special guests The Delta Saints

Song: “Angel From Montgomery” by John Prine

Shot backstage at Track 29 in Chattanooga, New Year’s Eve – 12/31/11

This update is to let you know that The Campaign is Not Over! You have successfully helped us pay for the recording budget of this album ($20K)… but the overall cost of this album (including promotion, music video(s), mixing, mastering, and distribution) will easily approach $50,000!

Because we have decided to stay independent, we will continue to stress the fact that You are our Record Label!
THEREFORE… we have set some new goals, and we have created some new reward packages!

GOAL #1. If we reach $30K then we will be able to pay for 3 Months of Publicity and Radio Promo – These are things that help us grow, and are things that we will be paying for anyway.

When we reach $30K, then we will email each donor an early mix of our first single, “Don’t Give Up On Me”!

GOAL #2. If we raise $40K, then that means that we will be able to pay for a Music Video for this first single “Don’t Give Up On Me”! After you hear the music, we hope that you’ll want to continue supporting us!

In order to reach these new goals, we’ve created a Christmas package, decided to offer more Backstage pass experiences at the Bijou and again on New Year’s Eve in Chattanooga! Please take a look around.

NEW PACKAGES!!!

$30 – Christmas Package #1 – Introduce our band to a friend by Pre-Ordering them a copy of our new album, and putting THEIR NAME into the liner notes! As a BONUS, we will send you a sticker and a physical copy of “Youth Is In Our Blood” to give your friend, and a Christmas Card for you! (Must purchase by December 18th to Receive by Christmas!)

$500 – 2 Backstage Passes and Tickets for New Year’s Eve in Chattanooga! This also includes Reward Packages #1 (advance CD), #2 (Mule Team), #3 (Signed Poster), and #4 (Acoustic EP) (ONLY 2 AVAILABLE)

$500 – 2 Backstage Passes and Tickets for FRIDAY, Feb. 24th at Bijou Theatre!

This also includes Reward Packages #1 (advance CD), #2 (Mule Team), #3 (Signed Poster), #4 (Acoustic EP), and #5 (2 Passes for the Guv’nahs Family Dinner on SATURDAY, Feb. 25th from 4:00 – 6:00pm) (ONLY 5 AVAILABLE)

READ MORE HERE: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtyguvnahs/the-dirty-guvnahs-help-us-make-a-new-record/posts

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

In January 2012, we will be heading into the studio to record our third FULL LENGTH record with producer and friend Ross Copperman. We are extremely fired up about making this new album for you. Because of your support, we get to make music for a living. We write songs, and we travel around to play those songs for you. We hope that it brings you joy. That’s why we do it.

Putting out an album to impact the music world on a National scale costs a TON of money. Many major record labels will spend at least $50,000 – $100,000 just on recording the album, and then an additional $50,000 to $1 Million on the promotion of the record. THE PROBLEM? If you go with a major record label then they own your record… that means that they make the business decisions for you and even determine much of your creative control musically. We’ve had serious interest from major record labels, but we want to do this our own way and live outside the walls of major record labels.

WHY?

Because we want to make music for our fans… and only for our fans.

That being said, we have worked our tail off pulling favors and begging people all over the music industry from Nashville to NYC to find a way to record a national release level album for $20,000. YES, that is still a ton of money… but it’s actually less money than we spent on our last record, Youth Is In Our Blood which we recorded up in Woodstock at Levon Helm Studios. You have to keep in mind that we will be in the studio for about 2 to 3 weeks in January, and that after you record the songs you have to work with a highly trained professional for the mixing and the mastering of the songs… which is a process that is very expensive and can take months to finish itself.

IF we raise more than $20,000 then every single penny will go towards the promotional campaign of this album that includes paying a radio promoter for 9 – 12 months, a publicist for 9 – 12 months, and paying a video team to help make a music video for one or two of our songs. The promotional budget of this album will easily reach a cost of another $20,000 to do it right over the coming year.

Thank you so much for considering to help fund our next record. This journey has been absolutely unbelievable and we owe everything to you, our fans. See you out on the road soon.

Sincerely,

The Dirty Guv’nahs

This weekend I drank two 12 ounce bottles of grape flavored Johnny Bootlegger. Johnny Bootlegger is an adult beverage sold in gas stations across the Southeast. It has the consistency of cough syrup, contains 12% alcohol, and tastes like someone soaked a urinal cake in purple Kool-Aid. You might be asking yourself, “Why would you drink that twice?” Fair question. Allow me to explain.

At 3pm on Thursday, somewhere in Mississippi, we had stopped at a gas station to re-fuel and use the facilities. Justin was the last person to get back to the bus. He was holding a brown paper bag in his right hand, the contents of which were unknown to the rest of us. I asked him what he had bought. His response:

“I have invented a new game. It’s called King of The Mule Challenge. From time to time, I will be purchasing an item from a gas station. Sometimes this item will be great, sometimes it will be terrible. None of you will know what this item is. Before I reveal the item, all of you will have to declare whether you’re in or out for that round. If only one of you is in, that person will immediately receive the contents of the bag. If more than one person wants to play, each contestant will have 30 seconds to tell me why they should get what’s inside the bag. Once the item is revealed to the winner, that person has 24 hours to use or consume whatever is in the bag. If you don’t use or consume the contents within 24 hours, you are automatically disqualified from the game. Over the next month or so, I will decide who the grand prize winner is. The grand prize winner will receive a free dinner at Foothills Milling Company. Keep in mind, you don’t have to play. But if you don’t play, you can’t win.”

I have absolutely no self control when it comes to stuff like this. I had to play. I pleaded my case to Justin like a seasoned politician. I needed what was in that bag, I deserved what was in that bag, I had to have it. The possibilities were endless. Anything could be in there. A lottery ticket? A $20 bill? A bag of delicious sour cream and onion chips?

A 12 ounce Johnny Bootlegger goes down like a hot stream of radioactive plasma. It instantly numbs the throat and senses, travels to your stomach and settles there like a pool of sludge. Just when you think it’s over, the aftertaste hits. Your hands start shaking, the hairs on your neck stand up, and the next hour of your life is filled with uncomfortable anxiety. Why a person would ever knowingly consume this is beyond me. But you have to play to win, right?

Four hours later, we found ourselves outside a gas station in Alabama. The scenario was the same. Justin entered the bus with another bag and interviewed potential contestants. Again, I pleaded my case. There was no way Justin was going to purchase two terrible items in a row. I can read Justin like a book. I knew he needed to purchase a good item this round so everyone would stay excited and engaged in the game. Two terrible items in a row makes no sense. It was like taking candy from a baby. I was guaranteed to get something awesome.

A second 12 ounce Johnny Bootlegger gets immediately rejected by the body. The moment your brain recognizes the horrible liquid, it sends your body into emergency mode. This time, the hairs on my neck were already up by the time the sludge hit my lips. My ears started sweating and my chest broke out in red blotches. My gag reflex was barely suppressed. I finally got it down and was rewarded with another hour of shaking and numbness. This stuff is truly horrible.

The game changed a little bit the next round. I don’t remember where we were at this point. Probably somewhere in Alabama. This time Justin came to the bus with two bags and a new set of rules. People could choose option #1, option #2, or both options. I chose to remove myself from the competition this time. The thought of what might await me in either bag was more than I could bear. Aaron chose option #1. James chose option #2. Aaron was rewarded with a lottery ticket. James was rewarded with a tin of gas station sardines. Hilarity ensued.

We played a few other rounds, but the final round for the weekend was played on the way home Sunday afternoon. We were somewhere outside of Asheville, NC when Justin offered the last two bags. Aaron, emboldened by his previous streak of luck, decided to play again and chose option #1. He got an Airhead candy. Lucky little turd. Cozmo, who chose option #2, was not so lucky.

Gas station cat food has a strange glisten to it. A shiny thin film covers a perfectly molded lump of brown substance. I believe this particular can of cat food was “liver and beef flavored.” Only Cozmo can tell you if it actually tasted like liver and beef. I can tell you that it didn’t look like either. It looked like shiny, slightly off-colored bean dip.

Here’s a comprehensive list of contestants and their winnings this weekend. Stay tuned for more announcements and videos concerning the King of the Mule Challenge. This will, undoubtedly, provide entertainment for everyone involved for the foreseeable future. I wonder if other bands do stuff like this.

- Chris

Contestant #1: Aaron Hoskins
Rounds Played: 2
Winnings: 1 lottery ticket, 1 Airhead candy

Contestant #2: James Trimble
Rounds Played: 1
Winnings: 1 tin of gas station sardines

Contestant #3: Chris Doody
Rounds Played: 3
Winnings: 2 Johnny Bootlegger 12oz. ass drinks, 1 bag of Doritos

Contestant #4: Cozmo Holloway
Rounds Played: 1
Winnings: 1 can of gas station cat food (liver and beef flavored)

Contestant #5: Scott Murphy from Badland Pictures
Rounds Played: 1
Winnings: Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter feeds this week to find out. I promise you will not be disappointed with this one.

Contestant #6: Michael Jenkins
Rounds Played: 0
Winnings: Nothing, because he is allergic to fun.

Pink Chair Sessions – Episode 1.4
with special guests Will Horton of the Black Cadillacs and Robyn James

Song: “Simple Man” by Graham Nash

Shot on the corner of Kenyon and Fremont.

- TDG