I'm very excited to play The Mercury Lounge on Monday, May 18th. I'm opening for Alexa Wilding and it's an early show. Doors open at 6:30pm/$10.
I NEED YOUR HELP promoting this show! Please copy and paste this poster image and send it to your friends. If you plan on coming to the show, if you bring 3 or more friends with you, I'll give you a free CD!
I need to bring some people out so I can play this room and other rooms at Bowery Presents again. Thanks for spreading the word!
Pete Harris who founded Harris Radio and Indie Sounds has been sort of a champion of mine. I'm the featured act for April on Indie Sounds NY & Austin. He also used my image for the logo on a new website, Violin Femmes, which is "Devoted to Rocking Goddesses of the Violin".
It happened by accident. Yes, that's me playing Chris Masterson's red Fender Telecaster. Where is he, you might ask? On tour somewhere....
I was playing a set at the National Underground in NYC for Shayni Rae's Truckstop. I brought my acoustic guitar with a brand-new pickup and all my equipment that worked fine the night before. It didn't work. We changed the cables, changed the direct box, changed the channel on the sound board. Nothing worked. I tried to borrow my friend Aaron Lee Tasjan's acoustic guitar and a string was broken. My friend John Kengla was changing the string, and the peg broke off in the saddle! I was getting pretty stressed at this point, as you can imagine.
I had no choice but to play John's electric guitar. The strap was too long...trust me, I like to wear a guitar low because it looks cool, but boys have long arms like monkeys;)
It wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of fun despite the fact that I was flustered - all starting with my late arrival to the club.
So, I worked on it for a couple of weeks and got a few pointers from Masterson while he was in town for 48 hours and I officially went ELECTRIC at the Living Room on April 9, 2009. Not quite the impact of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, but I did feel like I was having my Al Kooper moment anyway. If you haven't read Al Kooper's Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, I highly recommend it.
Anyway, I'm loving it!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
This is a picture taken at the Rubin Museum of Art, where I played a completely acoustic show with Slaid Cleaves over the weekend. This was such a fantastic gig. Slaid is one of my favorite people to play with and has a great new record out called "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away". How's that for dark? If you don't know his music, I promise you will love it.
I have been playing out as much as possible and was lucky enough to open a couple of shows for Slaid this weekend. I sold 58 CDs in 4 days!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The making of 'airplanes'...the packaging anyway. All painted, stamped, and signed by me. I'm somewhere around 800, which kind of boggles my mind a bit. I would like to sell a lot more than 800 records, but I'm not sure I want to make many more than 800... we'll see.
This is a little note I wrote today to my friend Dan, who I used to work with at Texas Campaing for the Environment (TCE) in Dallas, TX.
I took a three-year semi-hiatus from my music career to canvass door-to-door and campaign-direct for TCE. Talk about an intense job. Full of highs and lows. The kind of people that are capable of taking door-to-door rejection for the sake of environmental and social justice are REAL. They believe in something greater. A strenghth in numers. People, when organized, can become a powerful force. I witnessed TCE, along with the Electronics Take-Back Coalition, organize thousands of voices to get Dell and Apple to start recycling computers. And more importantly, designing those products to be recycled. Now they are working to do the same for TV manufacturers.
So releasing a record on your own is actually much harder than canvassing. It's more natural for me to talk to people about helping the environment than helping my music career. It's a little awkward actually to cold-call someone and say "hey, my record is great and here's why you need to help me get it out into the world. my music is meaningful and marketable." That's self-centered and wierd. It's noble to serve a community and improve our environment. The truth that separates the two is that I am now in sales, releasing my record 'airplanes' (booking myself, blogging, etc) where before I was a political activist. I never pictured myself going into sales...
I sold a CD today! To my good friend Dan I was telling you about. I'm glad my parents and friends are buying my record anyway. As passionate as I am about the environment, I cannot deny my passion in music. I have played the violin since I was 5 and now I'm on to writing songs and playing guitar. I am fortunate to support myself doing things that I love. Hopefully I can use my stratigic campaign skills and passion for music to market my record. It sure felt good to have a fellow campainger and friend buy a record today!
I can promise you that my music is REAL. The production value on my record is impecable thanks to Chris Masterson. And it's something that I'm very proud of. I hope you like it. If you do, please tell your friends. Maybe if enough people catch on, my 'airplanes' will get off the ground.
You can get your collectors copy of my hand-painted CD, 'airplanes' from IndieKazoo or CDbaby (I am up to #800 and it's a lot of work!) Or you can just download it on itunes, etc... it's out there.
Thank you for supporting!
Cheers- Eleanor
Friday, March 27, 2009
Recorded at the legendary Sugar Hill Studios in December in Houston, TX, the Sugar Hill Session has finally aired. If you missed it, you can paste this link in your browser:
This is one of my favorite pictures taken of me performing. My friend, Beth Oliver took the photo.
That is one of my oldest and dearest friends, Mr. Ishaq Clayton on bass. The picture was taken at Pete's Candy Store, which is one of my favorite places to play and also in my neighborhood in Williamsburg. It's also a great shot of my guitar strap, which was made by my good friend Jodi Head.
I'm playing at Pete's a lot in April: April 6, 20th, and 27th. Come check out this cute little venue! www.petescandystore.com
So far, things are going well. "airplanes" has been received well, by the few but noteworthy people that have actually received a copy.
As an independent artist with no help from a label, and no resources to pay a publicist or radio promoter, this is going to be a very slow build. I learned to fly in a Piper Cub, that had no engine starter. You have to "prop" the motor by hand to start it. When there is no head-wind, it cruises at 82mph. I once flew cross-country from Denton, TX to Oshkosh, WI and landed at that famous air-show without a radio. I was not only handicap in communication in heavy air traffic, but as you can imagine, it took a while to get there. I think that a long journey in a Piper Cub makes a good analogy for this record "release". It may take a while, but it will get there eventually.
Prince Charles told me never to drop names, but...the coolest thing to happen so far is that Jackson Browne bought a CD. I was playing with Allison Moorer, opening up for Steve Earle. Sweet Allison was kind enough to let me sell my records at the show and look who showed up and bought one! I about had a heart attack when Jackson saw me in the hall and told me so. I think I said something dumb like, "thanks for the support". I hate meeting my heros. I never know what to say.
"airplanes" is available on itunes, Amazon, etc, and CDBaby. The record for all intensive purposes is not officially released. I haven't even had a CD release party. I am saving money and shopping the record around, and eventually, there will be a campaign to officially get this little record out into the world. I am very pleased with how it came out and worked very hard on every detail. I hope you like it too. I'm sure everyone will catch on in a year or two and suddenly I'll be the next big thing like Bon Iver;)
The packaging is still being made by hand, by yours truely. They are all numbered and signed. I have sold about 600 copies and have made 800. I don't expect to be making these by hand for much longer, so get your collector's copy while you can at CDBaby.com.
There is a video in the works for "just friends" and it is being edited as we speek! The video is directed by Pamela Romanowsky and Aaron Lee Tasjan and Leslie Mendelson, and my old buddy Ishaq Clayton make appearances.
I was also featured on KPFT's Sugar Hill Sessions. Chris Masterson (of Son Volt) and Falcon Valdez joined me for a live set and interview. There was a technical snag, so it did not air in February. You can listen to it live on March 27th at 2pm CST, www.kpft.org during the KPFT Radioactive segment.
"airplanes" has a few great reviews. Here's the links to some of them:
Houston Press: http://www.houstonpress.com/2..008-12-18/music/chris-masterso..n-amp-eleanor-whitmore/ Blog Critics Magazine:http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/01/29/082150.php New Haven Register:http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/01/30/entertainment/doc4982a78d91083398498383.txt Buddy Magazine: (not online) Pop Matters: coming soon....!
Quotes: "Eleanor Whitmore's 'Airplanes' is a perfect example of what happens when attention to pinpoint detail in production and exquisite instrumentation accompanies a well conceived collection of songs; a highly impressive debut album. -- JaySweet, Sweet Talk
"Eleanor Whitmore's, 'Airplanes; brings a brand of folk-pop that melds Aimee Mann and the Beatles in a tuneful, distinctive way." --Jim Caligiuri, Austin Chronicle
"Jackson Brown bought Eleanor's CD. You should too." --Allison Moorer
1.) never say a word 2.) sister sleeps 3.) waltz of the mystery ship 4.) just friends 5.) awake to remember me 6.) fly 7.) sorry 8.) coffee in the rain 9.) sing 10.) the river 11.) keep on moving 12.) airplanes
Produced by Chris Masterson Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound Mixed by Steve Christensen Engineered by Steve Christensen, George Reiff, Andrew Hernandez, Chris Masterson, Jonas Wilson, Donald Dulaney, and Eleanor Whitmore
All songs by Eleanor Whitmore except, 'the river' by Michael O'Connor (ASCAP) & Eleanor Whitmore (BMI), and 'airplanes' by Chris Masterson (BMI) & Eleanor Whitmore (BMI)
The Band:
Eleanor Whitmore- vocals, harmony vocals, violin/fiddle, stroh violin, mandolin, viola, mellotron, string arrangements, Ray Wylie Hubbard's National guitar on 'airplanes', pots & pans Chris Masterson- acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandoguitar, 12-string acoustic and electric guitar, bass, ukulele, glockenspiel, mellotron, harmonica, omnichord, harmony vocals, pots & pans George Reiff- bass guitar, harmony vocals, pots & pans, harmonica, tambourine Paul 'Falcon' Valdez- drums, all percussion except pots & pans Sweney Tidball- Piano, Wurlitzer piano, mellotron, tack piano, clavinette, Rhodes piano, Lowery organ
Additional instrumentation:
Katy Rose Cox- violin on 'fly' Melissa Becker- viola on 'fly' Bonnie Whitmore- cello on 'fly' and 'airplanes, harmony vocals on 'just friends', 'airplanes' Alex Whitmore- harmony vocals on 'never say a word' and 'keep on moving' Bruce Robison- harmony vocals on 'the river' and 'keep on moving' Andrew Hernandez- harmony vocals on 'coffee in the rain' and 'sing' Todd Pertl- pedal steel on 'fly' Speedy Gonzales- trombone on 'sorry' Oliver Steck- trumpet on 'sorry' Johnathan Doyle- saxophone on 'sorry' Jim Starbord- spoons on 'keep on moving' Chris Brecht- typewriter on 'keep on moving'
Thank you Chris Masterson for your inspiration, fire and direction. I wouldn't be here without you. Special thanks to my parents, Alex and Marti Whitmore for getting me started, making me practice and always supporting. Thanks George Reiff and Steve Christensen for making it every step of the way. Thanks also to my sister Bonnie, Michael O'Connor, Bruce Robison, Kelly Willis, Paul 'Falcon' Valdez, Sweney Tidball, Chris Brecht, Andrew Hernandez, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Brent Mitchell, Slaid Cleaves, Susan Gibson, Jim Starbord, Oliver Steck, Jonathan Doyle, Speedy Gonzales, Mike Castoro, Les Brooks, Katy Rose Cox, Melissa Becker, Curtis??? (for the Stroh violin!), Jonas Wilson, Donald Dulaney, Greg Calbi, Marry Ellen DeVaux, Sharon Angello
