Good summer to ya’ from the banks of the Colorado.  Happy to report on some things here in the camp that should make for a solid second half of the summer.

NEW EP:
There’s a new release coming up for September.  “Eyas” is comprised of seven additional songs (six previously unreleased) we recorded during the Dual Hawks sessions, including our take on Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long”.  Matt Pence has floored us again with his documenting, mixing and mastering, and the release will feature our old friend Mark Ray’s artwork.  Songs included on this one are:

Christmas ’83
No, They Ain’t Mine
Cracking Of The Seal
Liquidation Heart
Water 4 Legs And Lungs
Inhabitants
All Night Long

WILL J./ELLIOTT McPHERSON ART SHOW IN BIRMINGHAM, AL:
Elliott McPherson and I will have an art opening on Sat. August 7th at The Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama.  Elliott plays guitar and sings for one of my long running favorite bands, The Dexateens.  He is also an upstanding gentleman and master cabinet craftsman.  During his free time he builds beautiful light boxes and shadow boxes.  I’m bringing a few new baseball paintings I made earlier this year.  One is of Dock Ellis tripping real hard on acid en route to throwing his no-hitter in 1970.  The reception is from 5-8pm, and the show will be up through August 31st. Music later that night includes The Glory Fires and Henry Dunkle.  Elliott’s art can be seen HERE.

Also, Barry Wittenstein’s piece on current doin’s in the baseball art world was released July 14 on mlb.com.  He kindly included a couple of my paintings in the gallery.  The article is HERE.

NEW WILL J. TEXAS SOLO SHOWS:
Wednesday August 11th – Dallas, TX/Renfield’s Corner.  This show begins at 10pm sharp w/ no opener.  This is a unique and new territory for one of our shows, and to make things better it is also a FREE show.  No admission will be charged this night.

Thursday August 12th – Austin, TX/The Ghost Room w/ Austin Collins (solo).

NEW CENTRO-MATIC SHOW:
Centro-matic will be reuniting with our old friends The Toadies at the annual Dia De Los Toadies Festival on Sat. August 28th.  We are elated about these circumstances for rock and roll communion.  This year it’s in New Braunfels, TX at Whitewater On The Horseshoe and also includes Black Joe Lewis And The Honeybears, Heartless Bastards, Sleepercar and a bunch of other great bands.  Come out early for sufficient swimming, maximum farmer tan opportunities.  More info right HERE.

LIVING ROOM EXPERIMENT GOES WEST:
Anders Parker and I will be heading out on another acoustic living room tour in September.  The eastward springtime jaunt brought us so much unbridled joy that we had to see what the west might have in store.  Dates will be announced soon.

THANK YOU, ANIMIC:
Thanks to my Catalan friends, Animic for the musical treasure shared last month.  We all convened in the village of Collbato, rehearsed up a bunch of music for four shows, and it yielded some big and enjoyable sounds.  There is a full documentary in the works on this project.  I’m thankful for the friendships forged and the songs shared.  Check out their music and sonic offerings HERE.

Thanks for the time and hopefully we’ll see you out there soon.  Harvey Pekar, may you rest in peace.

-Will J

Will Johnson and Anders Parker will be playing in living rooms on the west coast this fall. This will be a totally acoustic (no sound system) tour hosted by fans in their homes.

We need your help! We are looking for people to host shows on these dates in or near these cities.

Thu Sept 16 : Seattle area
Fri Sept 17 : Seattle area
Sat Sept 18 : Portland area
Sun Sept 19 : OFF
Mon Sept 20 : OFF
Tue Sept 21 : San Francisco Area
Wed Sept 22 : San Francisco Area
Thu Sept 23 : Los Angeles Area
Fri Sept 24 : Los Angeles Area
Sat Sept 25 : Sacramento
Sun Sept 26 : Reno NV
Mon Sept 27 : OFF
Tue Sept 28 : Eugene OR
Wed Sept 29 : Portland Area

Please get in touch if you want to host a show. We’ll make this as easy as possible for the hosts. All you have to do is let us borrow your living room for a couple of hours and in return you’ll get 6 free tickets for friends and our eternal gratitude.

Here’s how it works.

1. You have a house or loft space that can comfortably and safely host 30-40 people. A place with a big living room, finished basement or other indoor residential space would be ideal. There would need to be enough parking nearby and your neighbors should be cool. It would be a huge bummer if someone called the cops because of all the extra cars and people coming to your house. You probably should not do this if you live in a small apartment with a bunch of uptight neighbors or a cranky landlord.

2. The shows will not be open to the public and no tickets will be sold at the door. We will pre-sell a set number of tickets for each show on our website before the show. Be realistic on how many people your place can hold. We need to know how many tickets we can sell in advance. Ticket prices will be $20.

3. We will provide you with a detailed list of everyone who will be coming to the show. This way the host won’t have to deal with money and will only need to check people off the list as they arrive.

4. The host can have 6 free tickets for the show. If you have other friends who want to come to the show you can direct them to the link to buy tickets on-line.

5. The shows usually start at around 8pm. We’ll ask people to arrive around 7:30pm. It should be over by around 9:30pm. We’ll make it clear to everyone that they should be out of your house by 10pm.

7. You don’t need to provide any sort of sound system. All you need is a couple of chairs for Will and Anders to sit on while playing. A small coffee table with a lamp or a floor lamp would be cool too.

8. Your home address will not be published on the web and only given to those people who purchase tickets.

9. The shows will not be promoted or advertised anywhere except our websites.

10. After we agree on a date and location we’ll ask you to sign a simple performance agreement.

After reading all of this and you are interested please send an e-mail to: bob@undertowmusic.com and adam@undertowmusic.com

Please include a photo of the space where you would like to have the show and put “Johnson / Parker House Show” and the city where you live in the subject line of the e-mail.

We’ll review all requests. Once we have a routing figured out we’ll be in touch with people in the towns we are able to work into the schedule.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Bob

On Saturday, May 22 Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, Texas is hosting a celebration of Vic Chesnutt’s life and music. Performers/ celebrants to include Jason Ashbaugh,  Brent Best (The Drams/ Slobberbone), Bryan Vandivier (Tre Orsi/ South San Gabriel), Chris Flemmons (Baptist Generals), Edward Burch, Matthew Gray (Mathew and the Arrogant Sea) and the members of Centro-matic (Scott Danbom, Mark Hedman, Will Johnson and Matt Pence). If you live in the Golden Triangle, please come on out if you can, as the proceeds will go towards erasing Vic’s remaining medical debt.

http://www.danssilverleaf.com/calendar/