News / Blog
Fall Tour, vol. 2
So, I've been extremely terrible about updating my blog here. It's far too late to post entries about the rest of my fall tour with Julie Neumark, but if you click HERE you can watch a video blog of the rest of our shows on the tour. I'm gonna make an early New Year's resolution to be better at this whole blogging thing from here on out. Hope you enjoy the videos....see you soon.
Comments (0) ... Leave a Comment
Fall Tour, vol. 1
Julie Neumark and my Fall Tour is well underway and so far we're having a great time. We flew in to Cincinnati from Los Angeles Thursday night and had a solid night's sleep to recuperate from the flight before we played a place called Barleycorn's in Cold Springs, KY last night. I knew it was gonna be a great night when I ordered a tall (24 fl. oz.) Smithwick's and it only cost me $4.75!!! Now, that stuff costs a good $6 a pint (16 fl. oz.) in L.A., so I took it as a great omen and a clear indication that the rest of the night, (dare I say it?) the tour was going to be fantastic. True to that omen, we had a lot of fun kicking off at Barleycorn's. Afterward we were able to make it to the Midpoint Music Festival in downtown Cincinnati where we watched my friends Scratch Track rock the house. Those guys are truly amazing and definitely worth checking out. If they're ever playing a show near you, please do yourself a favor and go see them. I promise they will not disappoint.
Tonight we played a place called Common Grounds in Lexington, KY. It was our first time in Lexington and we were extremely pleased with the turnout and response...especially considering that we don't really know anyone down there! Everyone at Common Grounds was great and a big thanks for Eric for all his help. Thanks so much to those of you who've come out thus far. Tomorrow we're off to Urbana, IL where we're playing the Iron Post with an old friend of Julie's called Eleni Moraites. Another new city for us, so we're excited to get in there and show 'em what we can do.
Until next time............
~Dave
Click here to watch us perform "Take Me" in Lexington.
Genghis Cohen w/ Julie Neumark | 9.19
Julie Neumark and I will be performing together as a duo at Genghis Cohen (740 N Fairfax, 90046) on Friday, September 19th at 8:00pm. Admission is $7. For those of you who've never been, Genghis is a chinese restaurant with a singer/songwriter room off of the bar. They have great food, the room has good sound and offers a very unpretentious atmosphere.
You won't want to miss this duo performance in preparation of our Midwest tour!
Tangier | 8.28
Just a quick note that I'll be playing at Tangier in Los Feliz on Thursday, August 28th at 10:00pm. Tangier is located on 2138 Hillhurst right across the street from the Derby. Admission is $8. Hope to see you there!
Midwest tour in the works
I'm currently working with Julie Neumark to set up a Midwest tour for late September/early October. Some of the cities that we'll be coming to are Chicago, Cincinnati, Toledo and Grand Rapids. We're working on a few others (including Milwaukee and Champaign) and hope to have the tour schedule nailed down soon.
I'll post the dates when they come. Check back for more details.
Upcoming L.A. Shows
I'm excited to let you know that I've got a couple of LA shows coming up soon.
Firstly, on Thursday June 12th I'll be playing my first ever set at Genghis Cohen. Genghis is a great little singer/songwriter room with good sound and tasty Chinese food to boot. I am the last of three performers and my set begins at 10pm. Admission is $7.
Then, on Thursday July 3rd, I'm starting off the night at 8pm at M Bar in Hollywood. This is the final show that a friend of mine is promoting before moving back to Canada and it's the eve of Independence Day, so it should prove to be a very good time. Admission for this event is $8.
See the Shows page for more details.
I hope to see you there, and for those of you in the Midwest...sit tight. A fall tour is currently in the works.
As always, thanks for your support!
Adventures in Busking, vol. 2
So, lately I’ve been trying to get more into the busking gig and I’ve been going down to Santa Monica a little more often. I was down there the other day (Rachel was kind enough to go with me) and set up shop at what has become “my spot” – in the middle of the third block in between the Apple store and Victoria’s Secret.
So, I’m sitting there minding my own business playing some songs and this guy with a guitar down the street a ways starts jamming with a saxophone player. Now you haven’t heard saxophone until you’ve heard really-crap-busker-jazz-saxophone. I mean, this guy was loud as hell and was so bad that according to Rachel, and I quote, “this one old man with a cane and a crazy eye stopped and said, ‘Sounds like shit!’.” So, it’s not just me.
Anyhow, they finished their song and the guy with the guitar started walking my way. I was in the middle of “Miles Away” and he walks right up to me whilst I’m playing. At first I thought there was gonna be a busker’s dual, but then I noticed the small camera crew that accompanied him and figured something more “Hollywood” was up. He asked if he could play a song with me and I replied with a hesitant, “Sure?” He then proceeded to introduce himself the way that only people with a certain sense of self-importance can.
“Have you heard of Loudon Wainwright?”
“Yeah.”
"Well, you just met him."
"Right on."
For those of you who don’t know, Loudon Wainwright III is a 70s singer/songwriter of some fame and perhaps better known amongst my generation as the gynecologist from “Knocked Up” and the father of singer/songwriters Rufus and Martha Wainwright.
Anyhow, he wanted to play one of my songs, so I taught him “Miles Away” and we played a shortened version of that song and then I played one of his songs with him. Turns out the cameras were for a presentation that Loudon was filming for a reality TV show that he’s hosting about one-thing-or-another. He was walking up and down the promenade with his guitar, talking to random people and playing a song or two with a few buskers. It was a lot of fun and actually brought a little business my way – sold a few CDs thanks to the Loudon association and one guy actually thought that he was my mentor.
Apparently you never know who you’re gonna run into down there and hopefully they’ll email me the video of us playing together, but I’m sure they won’t. Either way it was pretty cool.
