Detective Novels

Paperback novels, full of spies,
Policemen, thugs and lawyer guys,
Lowbrow writing, highbrow crooks,
Don't you love detective books?

-Jesse

Be dazzled!

Bought a Bedazzler today. First project: rhinestone guitar strap. Now I just need one of those hot-fix applicator guns to really get the rhinestone party going.

-Emily

p.s. I'd love suggestions for exciting bedazzling projects to spruce up our stage attire. Bring on the bedazzling wisdom!

We're on CMT!

Well... we've made it as far as the CMT blog, anway. Craig Shelburne, the official CMT blogger, put us on his "Summer Playlist of New Independent Music." I'm so honored! The song he liked is "They Say Virginia is for Lovers," by Kristin Andreassen (although he-- and lots of other people-- seem to think it's just called "Virginia"). Kristin is an immensely talented songwriter and we feature TWO of her songs on the album. For those who haven't heard "They Say Virginia is for Lovers" yet, I put a little clip on the sales page of our website. Check it out!

With love from 94-degree Nashville. Stay cool!
-Emily

Don't Try This At Home

Emily and I are going to see Doyle Lawson at the Ryman tonight. Apparently he has a whole new band these days, which is exciting.
Michael Cleveland is also playing:


-Jesse

UPDATE: Michael Cleveland rocked out, in his inimitably adorable way. Doyle Lawson indeed had a new band and also a fancy new suit.

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

Stefan and I will be performing as, the Hen's Teeth Duo at the Hootenany Art House in Park Slope Brooklyn tomorrow morning. I've done this gig once before, and it's just lovely. The owners are amazing, and have fresh cakes off the griddle, real maple syrup, adorable little children, and mimosas for all the parents. Can't Wait!

Since it's a sing-along event I've decided the morning would not be complete without a rousing rendition of "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain." I needed a refresher on the words, and while looking for the lyrics I stumbled across this youtube gem:

Play That Country Accordion!!!
night night.
-Zara

Juneapalooza!

First of all, thank you thank you thank you to all the wonderful people who came out to our shows last week. And to all of you who supported our endeavors by buying the CD! Wow! Thanks especially to that guy in Thomas, WV who unwittingly bought the very first copy of the album by tossing some money over the fence at me before the show. If you feel like taking his lead and getting your very own Chicken Ain't Chicken, I can hook you up.

Now I'm going to try to do justice to this whirlwind week without surrendering to my inherent wordiness. Here goes nothing...

Day 1: Purple Fiddle.
Highlights:
--Bridget's birthday! Cake for breakfast, cake for dinner, cake for munchies in between.


--My sleeptalking (apparently I relived the whole show in my sleep and periodically said things like, "Thank you all so much for coming out" and "What a great night!")
--late night pool at the Purple Fiddle hostel with John and other drunk West Virginians. So fun!
Lowlights: Squeaky squeaky bunk beds in the Purple Fiddle hostel.
New best friends: Chris and Ben from Baltimore. Holla! They hit a deer on the way to their camping trip and got stranded at the Purple Fiddle for the night, but claimed that our concert made it all worth it! I think they were just buttering us up for a ride to the auto body shop in Maryland (which we happily provided).

Day 2: M-Room, Philly
Highlights:
--Hezekiah Jones is a really great band. And I don't just say that. They aren't even a COUNTRY band and I love them.
--We got to play with pedal steel for the first time ever! And it was so fun. Thanks, Andy!!
--Ross and Stefan cooked dinner for the band (pasta and poor man's garlic bread), which was totally adorable and lovely. On the other end of the spectrum from Zara's famous roast chicken, but wonderful in its own right.
The sad part: We drove to NYC after the show and, thus, not only had to drive through New Jersey, but had to do it in the middle of the night, which is triply worse. Quadruply worse. See Jesse's post below for a poetic expression of our feelings for I-95 in NJ. Did you know that in a few short miles you can go from heading north on the turnpike to heading south?!? Without ever even changing lanes?!?!

Day 3: Jalopy
Highlights:
--MA-MIE MINCH! MA-MIE MINCH! Mamie Minch!

--Robin drew these beautiful pictures at the show! Check out more art at the ukulelechicken blog!
--the new stickers arrived in time for our show. Metallic gold sunrays on vinyl! My brother Ethan drew the pretty picture.
--Geoff and Lynette just rock. They were setting off on a two week sailing adventure the next morning and still presided over the evening with poise and grace.
--Zara riling up the crowd with frequent air punches in honor of the CD release. Now NO show is complete without air punches. Maybe I'll get Z to make an air-punch tutorial video for the blog, because she really has nice technique.
--Zara's entire extended family. Amazing. And so many good NYC friends in the audience. Thanks so much for coming out!
Lowlights:
--This is going to start to sound repetitive, but we drove to VT after the show, which is now officially my least favorite thing to do. Waa-wah! I guess it could also go in the highlights category, though, because we got to eat lots of Cheetohs and see the sunrise in western MA!

Day 4: Roots on the River
Highlights:
--Sweetest crowd ever! So forgiving of our sleep-deprived goofiness. This lovely sampler video gives you a nice sense of how great everyone was. That dancing couple captured my heart!

--Beautiful festival weather and air filled with general festival giddiness. It just makes a girl feel good!
--Massages by Zoe, compliments of Ray!

--Free beer
--Jenee Halstead (owner of an amazing voice, stellar songwriting skills, and extremely stylish boots), Red Molly (bad-ass 3-part harmony singing and hot guitar picking from NYC), and our new label mate Caroline Herring (awesome singer-songwriter from Hot-lanta).
--this Canadian guy was kind enough to show us his Dodge Sprinter, which he had tricked out with a cooch (that's Canadian for couch) and bunks and book racks and everything.'

-Milly and Molly's birthday dinner chez Amidon (Zara's mom and aunt. They're twins. And their names are... you get it They're just as adorable and wonderful as you might imagine given that information).

Lowlights: None! No, wait. We were all pretty disappointed that we missed Junior Brown the night before. He's a hero of ours (featured in previous blog posts). But we DID get to see the remnants of his git-steel birthday cake from the night before. Now that's art!

Favorite new game: Slack-jaw word association. Try it at home, folks! Believe me, the name tells you all you need to know.

Day 5: Cowboy Festival in Ashfield, MA.
Highlights:
-- Nan's amazing cowboy-inspired food (a LOT better than the schlock they eat in Lonesome Dove)
-- Cowboy cutout for classy photos.

--Pony rides! I didn't actually have time to take one, but I lived vicariously through some of the kids while I ate my delicious dinner of cowboy chili.
--Girl Howdy (killer honky-tonk singing and playing) and all the fabulous dancers who tore up the floor during their set (and, luckily for us, stuck around to tear it up a little more during ours). Actually, the girls of GH themselves did some fine floor-tearing at the end of the evening.
Amazing realizations: "Who has the guitar amp? Do you have the guitar amp? Did it ever make it in the car yesterday?" (Answer: no. But everything worked out in the end. Thanks to Ray and Rose Sinclair!)
New best friend: Nan!

OK! That's it for the shows. I've babbled on for long enough! Thanks again to everyone we saw this week. I hope we run into more of you down the road.

Emily

Wayne Henderson

The trip home was LOOOOOONG, but since I don't want to spend two consecutive posts whining about driving, and since we spent most of the day in Virginia and since I was trying to explain who Wayne Henderson is the other day, well, here he is:


On the way north last week we stopped at a gas station in VA and they had Wayne's cd's sitting next to George Jones and the usual suspects at the cashier's counter. Cool!

Also, this banjo player is ridiculous. I mean that in a good way, mostly.

And since I'm writing I'll mention that the tour (is it really a tour if it's only five days long?) was awesome, action packed and deserves more thought than I'm willing to give it now.
-Jesse

Turnpike Time

While driving out of Philly late
We got lost in the Garden State

We turned wrong once, and then again,
By which point it was 2 AM

I wish that from the maps they'd strike
This god-forsaken Jersey Pike.

-Jesse

New York!

Got in to Brooklyn this morning around 3. So psyched about the Jalopy show tonight. 9pm. Oh, man. Honky-tonk in Red Hook!

I'm gonna eat some good Chinese food today. I love this city.

-Emily

Back in good ol' WV

Jesse and I are in Elkins preparing for the rest of the gang's arrival tonight. I'm looking forward to a donated chocolate pudding cake (thanks to Jesse's grandparents!) and some nickel-and-dime poker tonight at our beloved cabin retreat on the Cheat River (thanks to Jesse's parents!).

We're here in West Virginia to kick off the Chicken Ain't Chicken release tour. Wow! I'm extremely excited to hold our CD in our hands and admire its very existence. We owe a million-and-a-half thanks to Jim Olsen at Signature Sounds and our esteemed producer Eric Merrill for getting this thing out of our collective Sweetback living room and (hopefully!) into some other living rooms. Actually, I guess I can be pretty confident that it will get played in at least ONE other living room (right, Mom?). You will be able to get a pre-release copy at any of our shows in the next week [Philly on June 11th; Brooklyn on June 12th; Bellows Falls, VT on June 13th; Ashfield, MA on June 14th], at selected websites (The Sweetback Sisters, Signature Sounds) starting on June 16th, and at a record store near you (or anywhere else on the internet) starting on June 30th.

The first show (!) is tomorrow night at the Purple Fiddle. The show starts at 8:30 pm. In case you've never been to the Purple Fiddle, it's a SWEET restaurant/music venue in the crushingly picturesque town of Thomas, WV. Even if you can't make it on Wednesday (though we'd love love love to see you there) you should try to make it out there sometime. It's worth it. You're guaranteed to see a lot of fiddles that are painted purple. They even sell local brew.



Love from the Mountain State (not to be confused with the GREEN Mountain State-- we'll be there on Saturday)

-Emily

Duncan and Brady

NWA was hardly the first band to sing about killing policemen. Why did nobody freak out when the Johnson Mountain Boys did it? Anyway, I've always liked this song.
-Jesse



ps. If I could grow a mustache like that you'd better believe I'd do it.