alec spiegelman

Here’s a song, written last year, recently recorded. Benjamin Lazar Davis can be heard on the bass and Dave Flaherty on the drums.

You’ll hear this song played live, plus a new one about the little town of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, if you come to the Silent Barn (603 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn) at around 9pm this coming Monday, June 22.

You’ll hear lots of other songs played live, including a couple that I wrote, if you are able to catch Cuddle Magic in DC, Brooklyn, or Philadelphia, later next week, opening for our friends Rubblebucket.

Details for those shows, as per usual, may be found at www.cuddle-magic.com

I’m excited to announce that I will be playing the middle set for Dennis Brennan’s residency this coming Wednesday, May 13, at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

What does that mean?

It means that between two sets of immediately-felt rock and roll from that almost-famed, left-handed-guitar-strumming, musical Godfather of Massachusetts (and his always engaged associates — most likely Duke Levine! and Kevin Barry! and Billy Beard! and Richard Gates!) …

I will provide intermission entertainment – singing labyrinth rhyming couplets (and quatrains) about online dating and the Third Reich and fine haircuts and love-never-gained-in-the-first-place, as I contrapuntally accompany myself on the distorted nylon string guitar gifted to me by my wonderful mother (happy Mother’s day to her!)

(Scroll down for a sample song.)

And, before I make the trip to Boston, I will be spending three days (wonderful days!) out of the range of the internet, deep in the wilds of Maine, hard at work on the next Dietrich Strauss record along with Mr. Zachariah Hickman, Mr. Sam Kassirer, and Herr Strauss, himself.

I almost forgot about it …

But I’m up there, sharing sounds with the world.

And, I just added this song the other day:

I hope you will listen and comment and share, as is the custom on that online audio distribution platform!

Much thanks to Converse Rubber Tracks for providing time & space & gear & assistance that helped me to get this little bit of work done.

Nashville, a city of vocational 9-5 musicians with yards and kids and dogs and wood-paneled home studios and hot tubs in the backyard, holds a special place in my heart. And though my affection was tested severely on a trip there this past week (because the 5 Spot had apparently suspended their Wednesday-night old-time session two years ago — and where else can one go to drink cheap beer and play tunes with Buddy Spicher?) I do still love that city.

And so I thank Kristin Andreassen, who brought me and Jefferson Hamer and Rosie Newton on a trip around the not-too-South East to play a slew of radio (or internet-radio, or whatever) dates. And I thank the folks at Music City Roots, who had these very nice words to say about me and my unusual-for-Music-City choice of instruments.

Kristin’s album is coming out on Feb. 17. We will playing some shows to celebrate that occasion at the beginning of March. I’ll be at the one in NYC and the one in Boston.

And, also at the beginning of March, I’ll be playing three big and glorious shows with Cuddle Magic, at which we’ll be joining Lady Lamb The Beekeeper as she celebrates, in turn, the release of her new album.

Please come to any and all of these shows!

Yes I do. And I do so with clarinets and bass clarinets and flutes.

Very proud to have contributed the woodwinds to this track by Kristin Andreassen that was just premiered on CMT Edge.

I am getting acclimated to the presence, significance, and possible future dominance of Spotify.

So, here are a bunch of playlists I made, to serve as online calling-cards/resumes for anyone who might be interested.

Also — I’m playing with Twain (!) this Sunday at the Ace Hotel. It’ll be fun for me, and probably for you, too. It’s free, and the music starts roundabout 9pm.

I’m afraid that I cannot find any music by Twain on Spotify.

My bad-ass friends make amazing music. Jefferson Hamer and Kristin Andreassen will be touring as a duo in the UK starting this Saturday. In fact, Jeff is already there himself, opening up for Tiny Ruins. They’ll both be selling special edition, UK-tour only CDs with which I had something to do. I spent four days with Jefferson at Mike & Ruthy’s ‘Humble Abode Studios’ making the decidedly great “Great Western Rail EP”. Stateside folks will have to make due with this taste of the music —

https://soundcloud.com/jeffersonhamer/busker

— until the full album comes along (soon!).

And Kristin will have with her some special some advance copies of her new album Gondolier, to which I contributed some not-too-shabby woodwind arrangements. Americans can pre-order the album (out soon!) here:

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/kristinandreassen

I am about to spend some much needed time away from NYC. After which, I will certainly return to this great city with a new found appreciation for it’s status as the de facto cultural capitol of the modern world!

From June 7 until June 13 I’ll be living on an island in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. I shall wake with the sun, bathe in the lake, breathe only the freshest air, and impart some knowledge, re: pop harmony and song craft, as a guest artist at Miles of Music.

Following that, I fly out to the West Coast, where I’ll spend a week at the Berkeley Repertory Theater workshopping (mostly working, probably some shopping!) a piece about the fabled Barbary Coast with maestro Brian Carpenter and his Beat Circus.

And, lucky me, when that’s all done I get to hang for an extra week in California and play some duo shows with Kristin Andreassen.

We’ll be performing songs from her upcoming album, Gondolier on the following dates, at the following places:

June 24 – Bear Valley, CA – email yellowcarsuperstar[at]gmail[dot]com for details

June 25 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Crepe Place

June 27 – Berkely, CA – Poplar Playhouse House Concerts

The new album from Cuddle Magic & Phyllis Chen is, for your enjoyment (education?, edification, etc.?), streaming on The Wild Honey Pie.

Please head there and take a listen. And then celebrate with us when the album is released (all over the world) this coming Tuesday, April 8, 2014.

Befitting our recent weather, I suppose, White Hinterland recently revealed this track to the world, on which I provide reedy low end and Cole Kamen-Green (my partner in winds from Cuddle Magic) supplies brassy flourish. The track has been featured on a music website called Pitchfork, and in a magazine called Rolling Stone, and now, also, here.