Monthly Archives: May 2012

(Upcoming Show) Counting Crows Bring Tour to Codfish Hollow Barn for 4th of July!

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Codfish Hollow Barn in Maquoketa, IA Ready to Be Stormed

As many things do any more, it all started with a tweet.

Around the time that Dawes played the “Barn on the Fourth” show in Maquoketa, IA at Codfish Hollow in 2010, Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows tweeted that he wanted to play in a barn. Last month it was announced that Counting Crows would be performing in Cedar Rapids as part of their RAGBRAI event. At that time, I speculated that it would have been a good time to do a Daytrotter Barnstormer show and mentioned it to Tiffany Biehl (Tiffany and her husband organize the Barnstormer shows on their farm) on Facebook, and she responded with “I wish.”

For the last couple of weeks Daytrotter has been featuring some of the notable sessions from the previous Barnstormer shows, so when Codfish Hollow posted to Facebook yesterday about some big news coming up, I figured it was going to be a Barnstormer announcement since Codfish Hollow has had the distinction of being the home base for these shows.

Wishes apparently come true! This morning Counting Crows sent out an e-mail to their fans about their decision to release their newest album of covers Underwater Sunshine for free via BitTorrent. Included in this e-mail was an update about their upcoming Outlaw Roadshow summer tour, which included this:

The first leg (Featuring Counting Crows, Good Old War, Foreign Fields, and Filligar) has already been onsale for a week. It starts in Asbury Park and heads north through Connecticut and upstate NY to Ontario then criss-crosses down through the Great Lake States and the Shenandoah Valley, passing back & forth through Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia before traveling down south to Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi just west of the Tennessee state line. It ends in Maquoketa, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois where all the bands will celebrate Independence Day at Codfish Hollow Barn playing a Barnstormer show and then retire to Rock Island to record Daytrotter Sessions. (emphasis mine)

The details for this show are only just finalizing right now, so there isn’t any information about tickets yet, but considering that the venue (also known as a “barn”) has a reasonable capacity of around 500, these tickets will be as rare as hen’s teeth, as they say. I’ll update this post with any information that I get.

What a wonderful opportunity for Eastern Iowa!

You should consider signing up for a subscription to Daytrotter— a fantastic deal at $2 per month for some amazing sessions and other perks.

Click Here to listen to Counting Crows last Daytrotter Session.

UK Anglo-Folk Band Red River Dialect IndieGoGo Campaign In Its Final Hours…

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When M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger and Dave Heumann of Arbouretum both recommend a new band, I immediately check it out.

Red River Dialect is a Cornwall, UK-based band fronted by David Morris that has earned some well-earned praise and recognition since their inception in 2009 or so. Some live show bills with bands like Pontiak, Arbouretum and Hiss Golden Messenger have helped expand Red River Dialect’s fanbase.

The band is attempting to self-release their second full length album, which was recorded last summer– a follow up to their 2010 debut album White Diamonds. Their goal is to raise $2,000 (US) via IndieGogo to press up CD’s and vinyl of this album, titled awellupontheway. With less than 24 hours left, they have raised $1,408 of the $2,000 needed– so they are really close. If they don’t make the full $2,000, they will still certainly release the CD and digital downloads.

Not surprisingly maybe, the sound of this band is somewhere between the spiritual wanderings of Hiss Golden Messenger and the Anglophilic Folk predilections of Arbouretum. Their songs also recall the BritFolk sound of bands like the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention with more psychedelic leanings. In the first free mp3 download of “Dawns Man” I hear some Nick Cave and Joe Strummer as well. In any event, I’m really impressed with the release, and am happy to bring it to you, my gentle readers for consideration for support. The indiegogo campaign has the usual spread of options one might see on a kickstarter campaign (kickstarter doesn’t allow non-US campaigns, so they chose indiegogo) from digital only, all the way up to deluxe options with vinyl, CD and a CD-R of some demos. For the U.S., we can get vinyl plus a CD shipped for $28 which isn’t bad considering the shipping charges.

I, for one am looking forward to the possibility of spinning this album on my turntable, so I hope they make it!

Click Here to visit the Red River Dialect IndieGogo page for awellupontheway.

Here are two free downloads from the new album, plus a sampler of all of the track on Bandcamp:

They are going to include a CD-R of a recent live performance opening for James Blackshaw for anyone who contributes to the campaign. Here is a sample of that show: