A quick note from the road.

I'm in Asheville right now, helping Stacey pack up her van so she can move back to New Hampshire for the summer. We'll head out tomorrow, and we'll be back in town Monday night, with stops in DC, Jersey, and Connecticut.

Last night's show at the Beacon Pub went well. It was a small but spirited crowd, and I got a lot of good requests.

Tonight I'm going to be singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game at the Asheville Tourists game. Fun!

Sidewalk Cafe.

Hey, here's a couple (edit: three!) videos from Song Fight NYC this past weekend.

Jim Tyrell_ Red Zero from Glen Phillips on Vimeo.

Jim Tyrell _ I Know My Rights from Glen Phillips on Vimeo.

Jim Tyrell_ Hey Ruth from Glen Phillips on Vimeo.

Live at Lago #68.

I was the featured performer at Lago's songer/songwriter night last week, and the podcast of the show (and other recent Live @ Lago shows) can be heard right here:

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Song Fight NYC: Report from the road.

I had a great time in New York. I left Sunday morning, and picked up fellow Songfighter Bjam in Boston around 8am. We got to Prospect Park in NYC a little before noon, and promptly got lost in it. After a bit of wandering we found the Music Pagoda. First ones there, too! Before long the place was full of Songfighters, playing songs and eating cheese and Krispy Kreme donuts.

We hung out there for a few hours, and then headed over to the legendary Sidewalk Cafe in Manhattan. I played a set there, and had the pleasure of New Zealand's own Caravan Ray singing one of my drinking songs with me. So fun! It was a good set, and I should have audio of it shortly. For now, you can view some photos from the shows right here.

We stayed over in NYC and headed out first thing Monday morning. By the time I got Bjam back to her place there was a troubling thumping coming from my front left tire. I thought it might be a problem with the e-brake, so I was swerving and braking and trying to loosen it, to no avail. Finally I stopped in Melrose and had it looked at. The mechanic told me the lugs had been loosened - someone probably tried to steal the hubcap - and I was lucky the wheel didn't fall off on the highway. Wow! At least I caught it in time, and it was a quick and inexpensive fix. The rest of the trip was much less eventful; I finished up the leftover Krispy Kremes on the way home, and that's about it.

It was a real treat to meet and talk with Johnny Cashpoint, Heuristics Inc., ujnhunter, Caravan Ray, Noah Mclaughlin, Elaine DeMasi, and Ben Kreiger. And to hang with a bunch of other songfighters I'd met before, too. I wish I could go to the SF Live event in Spokane this summer, but it's right in the busy season and I've got shows back east.

Hong Kong to NYC to North Carolina.

Okay, it's not quite as ambitious as that. But close. Tomorrow night (Thursday May 14) I'm playing a solo show at Ernie's Club Hong Kong in downtown Plymouth NH. The show starts at 9pm, and they're doing a 2 dollar PBR special. Sending the college kids home in style.

This Sunday I'm headed to New York City to take part in Song Fight Presents: NYC. I'll be playing an evening set at the Sidewalk Cafe.

And in a couple weeks, I'm going to do another run to NC and back, which features a return engagement at The Beacon Pub and Bistro in Swannanoa, NC.

A lot of traveling, especially in a month where I'm supposed to be getting a new album recorded. Things on that front are not moving as quickly as expected, but good work is being done and I see no need to shift the release date yet. Onward!

Lago tonight.

Tonight I'm the featured performer at Lago in Meredith. As both my faithful readers will know by now for sure, Lago's singer/songwriter night features original material exclusively (well, I've heard a couple covers in people's sets there before, but shhh). But since it's so nice to have a place to play the original stuff, I'm going to take the opportunity to expand on my thoughts about Lago a little here.

I'm perfectly okay with doing covers at my shows. In most cases, that's what I'm hired to do, actually. The bar/restaurant wants stuff people will enjoy, and a song they know and can sing/dance/stumble along to is much more likely to keep them at the bar or table. The work may be creative, but the job is really another cog in the service industry machine. (That sounds more cynical than intended.) I do throw a song or two of my own in, but I balance that by making song lists available to the crowd. If there's something they'd prefer to hear, they can ask for it.

But Lago, now there's an interesting thing going on. Linden Mazurka is the driving force behind the singer/songwriter night. Every Monday he plays a short set and then introduces the featured performer, who plays for 40 minutes or so. And then the stage opens to anyone with the material and the panache to take advantage. It's a small but receptive crowd. Having other musicians in the room who are doing original material guarantees that at least someone will be paying attention to what you're trying to do, which helps a lot. It's a very nice thing to have a place to reconnect with the things that made me want to pick up the guitar (or piano, if I were in better shape) in the first place.

If you're in the area tonight, things will probably get going around 6pm. They tend to start pretty early over there. The setting is beautiful, the food is very good, and the bartender knows more about 80s music than I do. You could do a Hell of a lot worse on a Monday.

(Who Are The) Brain Police?

Come find out tonight at Ernie's Club Hong Kong in Plymouth. We're playing at 9pm, and it's going to be loud. Wait, I mean good. No, I had it right before, it's going to be loud. I mean, it'll probably be good too. We like what we do, and we're doing it to a crowd that is enjoying the end of the college semester and $1 Miller High Lifes. So yeah, it should go well.

Quiet.

It was a very quiet April. May looks to be a little busier, June busier still and then summer will be the usual whirlwind. There are a few venues in the Laconia/Weirs Beach area that won't be booking me or my bands because they've been told they need to put in sprinkler systems in order to have entertainment. Drag.

This Saturday, though, my band No Limitz will be at The Black Cat right in downtown Laconia. The sprinkler mandate definitely hits that band hard, but we'll find places to play. And I've got a couple new solo show opportunities in the works too.

Then there's the new album to get finished. It's not like I won't be busy, I can tell you that.

Oh, also: if you do that Twitter thing, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/jimtyrrell.