New Frontiers!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. Time for a roundup of news.

First, I hope you will visit SoundCloud to check out our two new recordings there. “Johnny Crewcut” and “Train” were recorded this spring at Tarpan Studios in San Rafael by our friend and engineer/producer Jim Reitzel. Jim and I go waaaaay back, and it is always a treat to work with him. He is a man on many talents. Click the SoundCloud link here to listen. And watch for a third tune, “Brand New Love” which we are still in the process of mixing.

Second, with the coming of fall, and the end of our fourth year together, we’re making some changes at Domestic Harmony Central. After a break in gigging in August and September, we’ve decided to expand our format to two versions at present, with more changes possible in the future. For now, we are rehearsing and preparing to play out not only as the trio you know, but as the core “domestic” duo of Jean Marie and Jim. Toward that end, we’ve begun exploring material that works with a smaller unit.

Not only has that affected song choices, but it’s also introduced a new instrument to our sound. In addition to hand percussion and guitar, Jean Marie will be playing harmonium on some of our new songs. So far, those include two “fifties” tunes, as I like to call them: “Hard Times Come Again No More” and “Oh, Susanna,” both written in the 1850’s (Ha!) by Stephen Foster. You may laugh, because we’ve always had some struggles with narrowing our genre to something we can easily describe. But this may actually help in taking us in a more roots direction. We’ll see where else we go.

And you can follow us in that journey! Our next trio gig is November 17 in the Beer Garden at Hopmonk Tavern in Novato. The image accompanying this article is from our last show there. Thanks ONCE AGAIN to Joel Schick for helping me create that poster. Much fun, that.

Beyond, we hope to be at Trek Wine on December 1st. Other shows at other venues are pending, and we’ll update the calendar here as soon as we know.

See you all soon!