I'll be playing at the Time of Rivers Festival in Portland, Maine on October 12. It's a Sunday afternoon show at Dooryard. I'll be playing pieces from Java St. Bagatelles as well as material from the new album FRESH TWIGS and some other stuff too. The festival runs from October 9-12 and features performances by Earth, Tetuzi Akiyama, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, Cian Nugent, George Stavis, Edward Gibbs -- and those are just a FEW of the folks that I'm most looking forward to hearing in person. The full line-up is here. I'll have copies of FRESH TWIGS and Java St. Bagatelles with me at the festival.
For booking and other inquiries email info AT jamesbeaudreau DOT com.
Latest News on New Album
My new CD, FRESH TWIGS, will be in stock here in the second week of September. Though the official release date will be in November, you'll be able to order the new CD from this site as soon as they come in.
Here's the track listing for FRESH TWIGS:
1. Opening Bell (3:07)
2. Gold Coast (3:25)
3. Montmartre (5:29)
4. Wick (1:59)
5. Strayhorn (2:43)
6. Twig (3:54)
7. Rowing/Haint (6:28)
8. Pacifico (2:43)
9. Parlor City (3:43)
10. Fresh Twigs (3:51)
James Beaudreau: guitar, bass guitar, percussion.
On Montmartre: Mikey IQ Jones: percussion and electronics.
Check back often for my next update -- announcing the availability of the new CD!
Beaudreau Covers Deerhoof
You may have heard that Deerhoof released the first single from their new album last week as SHEET MUSIC. And invited everybody to record a version of it in advance of their own audio release and post it to a common website.
I've been a fan of Deerhoof since hearing Revielle in 2002, so I just had to give it a shot. Plus, it was a nice way to unwind after the intense weeks finishing my new record, FRESH TWIGS. And I got to play some stuff that doesn't seem to make its way into my own music.
You can listen to the track at any of these 3 places:
Deerhoof's page
This site's "What Else" page
MySpace
Thanks, Deerhoof!
jB
New Tracks Posted
The new album is finished. Phew! It's called FRESH TWIGS, and it'll be officially released this fall on the Workbench label. The release will be a limited edition of professionally duplicated CDRs in the same kind of sleeve packaging as Java St. Bagatelles. I'll have copies for sale BEFORE the official release date from this website —more news when I get it.
"Opening Bell" and "Twig", the new tracks posted (on MySpace and on the sound samples page), are the first and sixth tracks from FRESH TWIGS, respectively. If you think that there's anything surprising about them, then I guess you could say it's an album of surprises.
In other news...
I'll be playing a solo set at the Time of Rivers festival in Portland, Maine sometime during October 10-12. When the schedule is released I'll post the specific date, time, and venue. It's an honor to be asked to play with so many great musicians, and I'm looking forward to being there.
jB
The Book Is the Boss
As my friend Jim and I often summarize when discussing our respective working processes (he's a writer), "the book is the boss". Jim introduced me to the phrase, the provenance of which is uncertain — it is often attributed online to sci-fi writer Alfred Bester, but you find Stephen King using it as well.
Basically, it means that the story tells you what to do, rather than the other way around, particularly in terms of its direction and development. So I stretch the phrase past it's acute meaning here, because in this particular case, it is less an issue of direction than it is of destination. I tell you all of this by way of explaining the delays in finishing my new album: simply put, it's taking more time than I expected to get it right; the book is the boss.
All that said, I am hoping to finish the album this summer, and after some consideration am leaning towards releasing it myself on Workbench in a small, numbered run of CDRs, with the same quality of packaging as Java St. Bagatelles. In which case it would be available through a few retailers, and through my website. If it goes that way, I'll hope for a fall release.
(Thanks to Jim for the info on the origins of TBTB.)
jB
New Album News
The completion of the yet-untitled new album has been pushed back from March to late April or early May. The CD's ten tracks were completed in March, but as I was sequencing them some things came up that required changes. Some tracks were remixed and EQd, and one was — for lack of a better term — re-orchestrated. There's still some mixing work to do, and one of the pieces is being rewritten. That said, it's pretty close to completion at this point. I don't know how it's going to be released yet, but I'll post one or two of the new tracks on this site and my MySpace page in early May. More news on the completion and release of the album as it comes up here. Thanks for visiting.
jB
Java St Bagatelles CDs Still Available
There are still copies of Java St Bagatelles available — purchase information is on the shop page.
jB
All contents copyright 2007-2008 by James Beaudreau unless attributed to other authors/publications.
