British singer-songwriter Bobby Long returns to the road this summer for a combination of solo acoustic shows and a series of dates at which he will be backed by a band for the first time since arriving on American shores just over a year ago. Long, who has been working on his recording debut album backed by studio musicians, has been anxious to bring this new dynamic to his live appearances and is looking forward to giving his hauntingly personal songs added depth and dimension.
The first of Long’s band shows will be at New York’s Highline Ballroom on Tuesday, June 15, followed by three other dates in the Northeast and a run of west coast dates in early July. His band is comprised of musicians he met while on a short run of US shows this May. In between the full band dates, he will perform solo.
Signed to ATO Records in April, Long has been making his self-financed studio debut under the helm of producer Liam Watson, who won a Grammy® for his work on Elephant by The White Stripes. They began recording at Watson’s analog Toe Rag Studios in London during Long’s short breaks from his hectic 2009 touring schedule – Bobby played 160 headline shows in seven months in seven countries.
Meanwhile, Bobby’s independent CDs, sold exclusively at his shows, have earned critical acclaim of their own. Selections from DIRTY POND SONGS, the 10-song collection he recorded in his London apartment, have made their way onto AAA radio playlists in the U.S., becoming the catalyst for his inclusion on NPR’s “World Café” national broadcast in April and his live performance at the Non-Commercial Radio Conference (Non-Comm) in Philadelphia on June 3. The Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune, in a recent show preview, wrote: “…’Dirty Pond Songs,’ musically, is a revelation – both in its simplicity and strength of songwriting. Most of the album is occupied simply by Long, his gentle, steady acoustic guitar strum and lonesome harmonica. But, Long holds enough talent to keep fans' attention without any extravagant bells and whistles.”
Additionally, “Left To Lie,” Long’s first digital release from DIRTY POND SONGS, reached #1 on the iTunes “Unsigned” chart and #8 on the Folk chart, while “My Darling Belle,” his latest digital single culled from the DANGEROUS SUMMER 2009 live compilation, reached #2 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart by the end of its first day of release. Such affirmation has only served to build anticipation for the studio debut to be released via ATO Records.
Bobby Long 2010 Summer Tour
Long’s live performances have been receiving more notice as he carves out strongholds in U.S. markets that have welcomed him back repeatedly. Until now, it was just him and an acoustic guitar, but that has never left his audiences wanting. As Jambase described a recent live performance: “The majority of the catalog builds off relatively simplistic chord progressions, but he shows a remarkable knack for adding color via accent notes with his unorthodox two-fingered picking attack and construction of fuller, brighter chords than the standard singer-songwriter fare.” Another writer for jitzul.com summed it up: “…just with his voice and his guitar, he fills the space and commands the stage. His voice was made to hear live and it never waivers.”
Adding the band will allow Bobby to stretch out a bit. “I’m looking at the shows with a band as another chapter in this adventure,” says Long. “I played guitar in a band when I first started performing music, but it was before I wrote my own material. It will be an exciting experience for me to add fresh elements to my songs like I was able to do when I was recording the album.”
Bobby Long’s summer shows (with band dates noted) include:
June 15—Highline Ballroom, New York City (band date); 16—Harpers Ferry, Boston (band date); 17—Stage One, Fairfield, CT (band date); 18—World Café Live (main room), Philadelphia (band date); 23—The Space, Evanston, IL; 24—The Basement, Columbus, OH; 26—Mixtape Venue, Grand Rapids, MI; 28—The Firebird, St. Louis; 29—Record Bar, Kansas City;
July 3—El Corazon, Seattle; 4—Backstage Bar, Vancouver, BC; 6—Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco (band date); 7—Anthology, San Diego (band date); 8—Wasted Space at Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas (band date); 9—The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA (band date); 17—XPoNential Music Festival, Wiggins Park, Camden, NJ (band date); and August 14—Mile High Festival, Denver. More U.S. dates will be announced shortly.
Visit www.myspace.com/musicbobbylong for the most up to date tour schedule.
Lissie
Sam Cohen grew up in Houston, Texas, and while the Texas of his teens may have been home to Big Oil, Enron, the Bush family, and the drab gray Astros jerseys of the 90's, he prefers to think of it as the Texas of yore, home to Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, the Space Program, and rainbow orange Astros jerseys. It stands to reason, then, that his current home of New York City must be the mythical Empire City: Rocky Mountains of architecture, epicenter of modern art, home to Charles Mingus and The Velvet Underground.
The Drums’ spellbinding sound takes inspiration from elements of some of the greatest bands in history from The Smiths to the The Shangri-las and fuses them with the band’s own raw energy and excitement. The rhythm and reverb will force you to dance and the melodies will stay with you after the first listen.
Ellie has received numerous accolades from her motherland in the form of The Critics Choice Award at the 2010 Brit Awards & topped the BBC sound of 2010 poll. Goulding’s debut CD has garnered much critical praise. NME calls Lights, “never less than stunning…it marks the emergence of a smart, sincere and talented new pop star,” and Q declares, “There is undeniable greatness afoot here.” After early support slots with Little Boots and Passion Pit, Ellie has just sold out her third UK headline tour. UK festival performances-- Glastonbury, Festival, V Festival, Lovebox and T in the Park--earned her rave reviews.
The title track kicks off the record. It is a relaxed, comfortably humid piece that sways from a melodic opening into more forceful strains on the wind of Figueras' sax and swingingly persistent conga thumps. The piece never reaches--nor even strives for--the anthemic quality the title might suggest. Instead, the labor sweats happily, singingly under the sun. Appropriately, the tune--and, thus, the album--takes flight on the crystalline wings of Dan Tepfer's echoing, solo keyboard statement. It's appropriate not only for fashioning a sly musical equivalence to the band's moniker, but by spotlighting in Tepfer one of the group's, well, keys. Tepfer's polished electric tones lace the Latin rhythms and strings them up on a brightly modern line that still never smoothes the crisp, pulsing edges of the traditional beats. As mentioned, it's this facile navigation of divergent musical fields and the ability to rake loose from the passage a lively new hybrid that makes listening to The Black Butterflies so palpably intriguing. Ears laugh at their good fortune.
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