New Solo Album, 19 Ways Finished, Murphy's Outlaw Gig 2020!!!

Hey, folks.

Below is my fall newsletter, which just went out to my email list. (If you didn't just receive an email from me, you're not on my email list, but don't worry. I can add you. I have that kind of pull around here. Just shoot me an email at arted@artedwards.com with ADD in the subject line, and I'll make it so.)

Here's the newsletter.

It’s been a while since I caught up with you. How have you been? I’ve had a few developments since we last touched base.

1. This past February, I played a gig in Arizona with Murphy’s Outlaw. The band consists of at least three old friends/talented musicians—Jim Gerke, Dustin Denham, and Brian Blush—and the warm reception we received made me realize I need to make music, which I’d left behind a decade ago to focus on writing. Funny, but at 40, I felt too old to make music, but 50 feels like just the right age.

My renewed enthusiasm led to me contacting my Atlanta cohort and high school friend Bret Hartley, and the two of us immediately rallied behind the idea of a new solo album. We’ve been working on it since May. All of the material is written, Kevin Leahy’s drums and vibraphone are tracked, Bret’s just about finished with guitars, and at the moment, I’m deep in bass mode. Then it's acoustic guitar, vocals, and mix. I’ve made a pact with Bret not to put a deadline on this project, but a 2020 release feels eminent. I will of course keep you posted.


2. Shortly after the Murphy’s Outlaw gig, I finished my fourth novel, which is called 19 Ways to Destroy Your Rock Band. This is an eight-year project that started as a memoir of my time in the Refreshments and ended as a wild departure from reality that bears only coincidental resemblance to anything that happened. Lots of stretchers, as Mark Twain would say. So, hey, another novel, and this one's funny!

I’ve spend the last eight months looking for a home for 19 Ways, and so far I’ve come up empty. You know that I know how to self-publish these things, so worst case scenario, you will see 19 Ways by 2021, probably early in the year.


3. Finally, the wild success of the first Murphy’s Outlaw show means the boys and I want to make the show into an annual thing. That means in a mere three months, I will saddle up my four-string and escape the Portland gloom for the Phoenix sun, and the Outlaws will do it all over again.

A venue has yet to be set, but the date of the show is firm: Friday, February 21st. Remember, Brian and Dusty are both co-founders of the Refreshments, which means you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a set or two of Refreshments material as well as plenty of other goodies. In other words, time to make travel plans! 



That’s about it from my neck o’ the woods. Have a great holiday season, and if you want more frequent updates, feel free to friend me at Facebook or periodically check out my website.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Book Trailer for Badge.

Buy Badge.

I'm Making a Solo Album with Book Review Money

"What are you going to do with it?"

I was at my writing group the Whom, and one of my fellow Whomers wanted to know what I was going to do with the $250 I'd just been bragging about receiving for a book review I'd sold. This $250 marked the first real money I'd ever made from writing book reviews, and I was saying the figure like Steve Martin in The Jerk.

The question What are you going to do with it? took me aback. I'd been writing and publishing book reviews for years, and for the most part, for free. I like writing book reviews. I like to think I offer an author something besides "I liked it" or "I didn't like it." I also like the idea that books can remain part of the public conversation because of the way they communicate their messages over longer periods of time (as opposed to say, a blog). I clearly didn't need to get paid to write book reviews, so I never really cared if I got paid or not.

Suddenly, I'd gotten paid. And here's another funny thing: I was actually, suddenly, getting paid for all of my published book reviews. This kind of happened all at once. I'd started submitting my reviews to more paying markets, and these markets were accepting my reviews and mailing me checks. It was unreal. Didn't these people know I'd do this for free? That I'd done it for free for years? (Let's not fill them in.) By the end of 2018, I had secured $500 in book review money. It seemed important to do something with this dough, not to just deposit it and watch it disappear.

So, what am I going to do with it?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am always writing a novel. I do this because I like to write novels, and because I hope they serve as a good medium to communicate to people over longer periods of time. It's also fun to try hard to do at least one thing really well, and writing novels is my thing for that.

A funny thing happened on March 1st of this year: I finished a novel project, Nineteen Ways to Destroy Your Rock Band, which I'd been working on for eight years. Done. Finito. I've since been submitting the novel to various industry people hoping they might want to publish it. (No luck so far, I'm working on it.) I made a decision when I finished the novel not to jump right back into writing another one. This was kind of hard for me, since I'm always writing a novel, but I've managed to write nothing but nonfiction and book reviews since then. I'll probably start a novel after Labor Day.

I've also spent these six months reevaluating what I can do to keep the creative juices flowing even when I'm not writing a novel. One of the ways I celebrated the finishing of this novel was to play my first musical gig in a decade. I flew down to Phoenix and played a bunch of Refreshments tunes with Murphy's Outlaw, a band that includes my longtime friends Brian Blush, Jim Gerke, and Dustin Denham. This was great fun, and people seemed to like it. It really got me thinking about the decade I took off music to focus on writing, what I'd given up.

Another longtime musician friend, Bret Hartley, has a home studio, and he never misses a chance to encourage me to make another album with him. We did this in 2007, and both of us loved doing it and loved the results. The problem with making albums is that they can be expensive, but because of Bret's willingness to produce, it's not really that expensive. It might even be something a lucky book reviewer can pay for with book review money.

So, that's what I'm doing. I've signed on Bret Hartley, who produces and plays guitar, and drummer Kevin Leahy, whom you might know as the 13th and 15th drummer of the Bodeans. These guys are incredible musicians whom I happen to like quite a bit, and I've been working on all kinds of new musical material. We start laying drums in the fall, and I suspect we'll be finished with the thing sometime in the first half of 2020.

So, that's what I'm doing with my book review money. When you see me here or elsewhere promoting a book review of mine, I hope you read the review and buy the book, but also know that my income from the review is going to make new music.

That's pretty much the news from me. I'll be writing book reviews, raking in serious book review cash, and writing new songs all summer.  I hope you have a good summer, too.

 Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Watch the Book Trailer for Badge.

Buy Badge.

Art's Plans for the rest of 2007, plus 2008

I want to tell you about what I have planned for the rest of 2007, as well as my big, big, big project coming down the chute for 2008.

If you follow this blog, you know about the Uhavegonaway to Oregonaway Show Saturday, September 1, Labor Day weekend, at the Mississippi Pizza Pub in Portland, Oregon from 6 to 8 PM. If you don’t, click this blog post for more info.

I have at least one other major market in my sites for an acoustic show by the end of the year, but nothing's final. As always, check back here, or at my web site, and you will know all.

Okay, now for the big announcement.

As many of you know, I've been trying for about a year to get my second novel, Ghost Notes, published by a traditional publisher. Since my search has come up empty, and since I'm not patient enough to wait any longer, I'm publishing Ghost Notes myself in early 2008! This is the sequel to my debut novel, Stuck Outside of Phoenix, and it's bigger, broader, and better than its prequel. I'm in the process of putting the whole thing together right now, and it's one of the most exciting things I've ever done. I can't wait for you to read it. Click the link to learn more about Ghost Notes.

But that's only half the fun.

Because of the talents and willingness of Bret Hartley, I will also be releasing Songs from Memory, my first ever solo CD, at the same time! This is my first full-length studio effort since my work with the Refreshments, and let me just say that I'm flipping over the results. The story of how this collaboration came about is a good one, so if you haven’t, read this blog post to catch up.

And check out the cred Bret Hartley brings to the table.

The great thing about releasing these two projects together is that they're companion pieces. The first single from Songs from Memory, a song called "Riverboat Captain," is also present in the novel as a song written by one of the characters. "Riverboat Captain" becomes a bridge between the two projects, and brings music to the novel-reading experience. The novel and the CD can stand alone, but they can enrich each other, too.

Expect pre-sales for both Ghost Notes and Songs from Memory to start in February of 2008 at my web site, with an official release in March.

We've just started talking about promotional ideas for the Novel/CD, and let me just say that 2008 will be a very busy year for me.

Everyone stay cool out there.

Art

The Ten O'Clock Scholars

A couple of you knew the answer to last week’s trivia question, which is the Ten O’Clock Scholars, the precursor to the Gin Blossoms. The Ten O'Clock Scholars performed songs like "Lost Horizons," "Angels Tonight," and "Dream with You," all staples of the Blossoms' early days and all appearing on their independent release Dusted. If you've never heard Dusted, it's kind of a snapshot of the Gins' live set back in the day. The songs are played a bit too quickly, but the band's unmistakable pop sensibility is on full display. Jim "Jimmi G" Gerke and I have talked about getting a version of one Dusted song, "Fireworks," ready for the Uhavegonaway to Oregonaway Show. How's that sound?

There was actually an American Bandstand-style “video” of the Ten O'Clock Scholars shot for a Portland television show--short-lived, by all accounts--called “Night Zoo.” I distinctly remember seeing the video back in my Tempe days. Swafford, who still has a video tape of it, claims that Bill Leen, so upset at having to lip-synch for the cameras, attached a wire hangar to his bass in protest. (The hangar was to signify a wireless unit.) Anyway, what a valuable piece of Tempe music history! Wouldn’t it be great if you could go to YouTube and pull this up any time you wanted, or any of those live Gins videos shot at Chuy’s in the early 1990s?

Oh well. At least we have this guy.

For those of you who have expressed interest in my solo album, here’s an update. The drums are done; Kevin Leahy has never sounded finer, and my partner in crime Bret Hartley is currently laying down guitars. I’m listening to the tracks as we go, and let me just say that the Laughing Yoga guy is almost as happy as I am. I go to Atlanta in early October to add bass and vox. Then we mix, master, and Wham-o!

Next week, I’m going back to the topic of book publishing, where I'll sum up my experience trying to find a home for Ghost Notes. This will lead up to my announcement in early August of my plans for the rest of 2007, and my big, Big, BIG plans for 2008. If you could only hear what I’m listening to right now.

Art

Art's First Solo Record due Early 2008!!

So, there I was, last July, minding my own business, when I got an email from a long lost friend from my days in Moline, IL, a guitarist named Bret Hartley.

Many of you have been through this. An old friend finds you on the Internet. You exchange emails, crack jokes, remember the good old days, talk about how you’d like to catch up sometime, but it never happens.

That’s usually how it goes. That’s not how it went with Bret and me.

It turns out Bret’s had a great deal of success since we played together in our band (the Varietles, Moline, IL’s only Replacements wannabe band circa 1989).



Bret had become a respected Atlanta session player, writing, playing, and recording with the likes of Sugarland, Clay Cook, John Austin, and Billy Pilgrim.

It was good to hear from Bret. We’d always gotten along, and we’d always spoken the same language when it came to music. I suggested, off-handedly, we should play together again, and asked if he’d like to add some guitar to a song I’d been recording at home, a song called “Riverboat Captain.”

“Are you serious?” he said.

“Yeah, why not?” I said.

The next thing I knew, Bret was setting up recording time at an Atlanta studio, booking a drummer and an engineer. He took care of everything, and I gave him “Riverboat Captain” to do with what he would. “Pretend it’s like that interior design TV show,” I said. “Here’s my bedroom. Have at it.”

In a week, I had an mp3 of “Riverboat Captain” sitting in my inbox: full band, pro guitar and drums, a clever breakdown in verse 3, and a bridge guitar lick bigger than god.

You have to understand what I gave him to work with. He got nothing from me but a snapshot of the song--creaky acoustic guitar, bass, scratch vocals, and a bad-sounding drum machine--and Bret delivered back to me and IMAX movie.

I called Bret as soon as I'd heard it.

“You like?” he asked.

”Let’s do it nine more times,” I said.

So, we are. Nine (or ten) more times.

It’ll be my solo record, and it’ll be out early next year. Bret will be playing all of the guitars, producing, and mixing. I’ve written all of the songs, and I’ll be singing, playing bass, and generally throwing my weight around. Drummer Kevin Leahy, who’s toured with the likes of Shawn Mullins and the BoDeans, among others, and who played on “Riverboat Captain,” will continue his stellar work on the rest of the songs, and it will all go down at the Ben Price owned and operated Studilaroche and Bret’s home studio this year. Drums start May 21st.

I’m not kidding. This is happening. Part of me has been waiting a decade for it, and it’s all possible because an old friend looked me up. Gotta love the Internet.

So, how does this relate to the The Chicago Martyrs' Show on Saturday, June 9th? I’ll be playing many of the songs that will be on the forthcoming CD at this show. If you attend, you’ll be one of the first to hear them. So come for the millions of great reasons already stated, but also get a sneak peak--perhaps the only sneak peak--of the material for my first solo effort. I hope you like it.

Art