The J.A.M.S. (hopefully) weekly newsletter

Joshua Tree Association of Musicians and Songwriters

A division of New Moon Records

PO Box 203

Joshua Tree, CA 92252

www.new-moon-records.com

Gig reports and editorial comments for the week Sept 20, 2006

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Hey, Hey, Hey-

“Dear stev0,

MasterWriter is being used by some of the most successful songwriters in the business and has been recognized by every major music magazine as one of the greatest songwriting tools on the market today.  We noticed you downloaded MasterWriter to evaluate it, but you didn’t choose to buy it. We would like to know why.  Any comments via email will be most appreciated.

Thank you,

Barry DeVorzon, President”

Barry-

Nice to hear from you. I played a few sessions for you on bass back in the late 60s in LA.

I thought the idea of MW was good. Checking it out, though, it is probably a good setup for novice songwriters who need recognizable clichés for songs they are ‘trying to make up’. Personally, I advise younger musicians to learn great tunes by writers who have something to say; use these songs as a format to play with arrangements and performance styles; then, as experience collects over the years, to gather all these impressions into their own mature work.

As an older writer (not over the hill, though) who has gravitated to writing completely out of experience and from the heart, I found none of the writing aids in the program to be of the least use to me. I don’t ‘make up’ songs, I relate experiences and the lessons I received from them. I don’t need any ‘pop culture’ phrases or clichés to enhance my ideas. If I am looking for a rhyme that my mind can’t supply, my little pocket thesaurus does the job without injecting any dated or jaded references. It cost 50 cents at the used book store. I have probably resorted to it 20 times in as many years.

The program seems to be well thought out and assembled. I guess the essence of my problem with it is that I don’t feel that good music can be written in a mechanical or formulaic way. A song should tell a truth, either personal or universal. Your program is no help in that matter, either is any other. By my standards I only write a few decent songs a year; maybe one really good one in a decade. Luckily, I have another way to earn a living rather than churning out songs that don’t say anything, or worse, say untrue things that mislead impressionable folks.

I didn’t try the recorder or the song registration section. I have other means to achieve these ends that I am happy enough with. I deleted the program.

Hope this is useful…

your friend,

Steve Lester

Dat’s all for now.

Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.
Sing like nobody’s listening.
Stay in tune.

Da prez

PS: Check out…JAMS Announcements by Al Murdy…another great editorial!

Why Did We Let Bush Try to Bring Wal-Mart to Iraq?.… Rumsfeld’s Fake News Flop in Iraq… see JAMS Political supplement

Who is Henry Timrod? Is it true that Mr. Dylan has been borrowing from his poetry?…The Story Behind MySpace, and My Plan to Save Network Television..see JAMS Attachment

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***gig reports***

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Water Canyon Coffee Company –Yucca Valley’s music café

Music now Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat…

Yucca Valley at 55844 29 Palms Highway.  760 365 7771

This week on the Water Canyon Stage:

Tuesday evening 6-9PM

Kenny’s Brown Bag Session

Thursday Night Songwriting, Poetry , and Rhythm Club 7-9PM

Join the Cultural Elite for the best vibes, spoken word, and music

-this week: Christian B., Sunshine, Bill Rhea (fiddler), Jon Bertini (mandolin)

Friday Night 7-9PM

Hum- Harmonic Choir and Savya’s Sacred sounds. Unbelievable magic!

Saturday Brunch set 11AM-1PM

Clive Wright – space music virtuoso from the planet Ebow

Saturday Evening set 8-10PM

Shadow Mountain Band- yup, all 6 of ‘em, Johnny Ray is back for a few vocals. He is still mendin’ for autoharp

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Harriet’s

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THESE UPCOMING SHOWS!

Saturday, Sep 30 mojave 3 and brightblack morning light 7 pm Tickets $15.

Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006 Two Dollar Guitar featuring Steve Shelly from Sonic Youth! 4 pm

Sam Mellon and The Skylarks 6pm

The Thriftstore Allstars 8pm

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Gramfest

Famed fingerstyle guitarist & author Michael O’Dorn to perform Friday Sept. 29th at The Cosmic American Music Festival.  Mr. O’Dorn will also do a Merle Travis style guitar workshop on Saturday September 30th, 2006.

Michael O’Dorn will be performing live in concert on Friday Sept. 29th from 9:00pm-9:50pm at the Hi-Desert Playhouse.  He is a featured artist among over 40 performing musical acts to appear as part of The Cosmic American Music Festival also known as Gram Fest.  Mel Bay Presents has recently put out a DVD titled Michael O’Dorn In Concert.

Mr. O’Dorn will also conduct a guitar workshop at the event.  Michael will discuss his new book entitled Getting into Travis Picking for Mel Bay Publications as well as demonstrate technique on his guitar.  The guitar workshop will start at 10:30am and will run until 11:30am on Saturday morning September 30th.  The cost of the workshop is $20.00.  The workshop will take place at Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree, CA.  Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling The Hi-Desert Playhouse at 760-366-3777 between 10:00am-5:00pm Monday thru Friday or by going on line to www.hidesertplayhouse.com or at www.gramfest.com  Tickets will also be available on the day of the workshop, if it does not sell out in advance.

Sneaky Pete Kleinow Benefit to be held on the 3rd day of The Cosmic American Music Festival at The Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree, CA on Sunday Oct. 1st, 2006.

(details in JAMS Attachment)

The Hi-Desert Playhouse is located at, 61231 29 Palms HWY, Joshua Tree, CA 92252.

A sought-out standup bassist, Tom Freund, has been added to the Cosmic American Music Festival/Gram Fest Venue and will be playing Saturday, September 30th at 11:45 pm to 12:15 am; in addition to the Sneaky Pete Benefit - Sunday October 1st from 1:45 pm to 2:30 pm at The Hi-Desert Playhouse, 61231 29 Palms HWY, Joshua Tree, CA 92252.

After concluding a summer tour with longtime collaborator Ben Harper and his band the Innocent Criminals, critically hailed singer/songwriter Tom Freund is hard at work on the follow up to his 5th independent album, Sweet Affection, released in July 2005. The 30-date summer run provided Tom and Ben the opportunity to rekindle songs from their 1992 Pleasure and Pain album. The pleasure of that experience has led to the two working together on new music and planning more tour dates in 2006.

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Janet Robin Saturday, September 23, 6pm- early show Cold Spring Tavern 5995 Stagecoach Road Santa Barbara, California 93105 For Restaurant reservations 805.967.0066 http://www.coldspringtavern.com appearing with the most excellent, Antara & Delilah

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Radio 60 upcoming schedule…Wednesday, September 20, Old Town La Quinta, 78-015 Main Street, La Quinta, Ca., 92253, 760-771-2567 ext. #4, 7pm-9pm…Friday, September 22, private party at The Citrus Country Club in La Quinta…Saturday, September 23, Duke’s Steakhouse, 360 N. San Jacinto Avenue, Hemet, Ca., 92544, 951-929-7060, 9pm-1am… Call Greg Veach for info and bookings at 760-831-9805…

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City Fritter- We’re on CDbaby! Get our new CD “From The Ocean To The Desert” online at www.cdbaby.com - a great website that sells indie music. We’d sure appreciate it if you write us a review after you hear it - only if you like it, of course! This is an easy way for you out-of-California Fritterfans to get our new music before we come play in your town!

- We’ve re-designed our website! Check out www.cityfritter.com for new look, new photos and song clips from the new CD. On the BUY page you can link directly to our page at CDbaby. Cool, huh?

- We’re headed out to GRAMFEST again! Sunday, October 1st, 2006 Hi Desert Playhouse Joshua Tree, CA This is a 3 day festival celebrating the life and music of Gram Parsons Festival runs 9/29-10/1 We are MC-ing and playing short acoustic sets Friday and Saturday, with a full band set on Sunday. Times are approximate, this is a great all day festival full of amazing music - www.gramfest.com for details Howdy again, This just in! We’re playing a top-secret, super-fun, mutiple band show in Topanga this coming Saturday 9/23. The fun starts early, 3PM, with different bands playing all afternoon and well into the night. We’re scheduled for 7:30, but times are approximate. IF YOU’D LIKE TO COME, YOU MUST CONTACT US FOR DETAILS AND DIRECTIONS!

Peace, Jewels and Johnny www.cityfritter.com

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RANDY WEEKS

SEPT 19 WESTERN BEAT 12TH AND PORTER 10:00 PM

SEPT 20 ROBERTS WESTERN WORLD 1:00 PM

SEPT 22 THE RUTLEDGE 11:30 PM

SEPT 23 THE BASEMENT 3:00-4:00

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GILMORE GIRLS Michael (Miller) will re-appear in the re-broadcast command performance of last season’s finale cliffhanger episode on WB…

Lorelai tries to avoid Luke and ends up pouring her heart out to a psychologist who was invited to dinner at her parents’ house. Elsewhere, Rory tries to avoid the Huntzbergers, particularly Mitchum, as she attends Logan’s graduation and prepares for his inevitable departure; Taylor’s bothered by an influx of troubadours to Stars Hollow. After finding an exhausted Michael in the forest, Jack and Kate bring him back to the main camp. When finally waking up, Michael has some new details about “The Others.”

TONIGHT - Sept 19 - 8PM - WB (oops)

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HONKY TONK TRAIN appearing @ GRAMFEST Sat. Sept. 30   7:05 - 7:50 PM also @ BENEFIT FOR SNEAKY PETE KLEINON Sun. Oct. 1     6:20 - 7:00 PM

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4th Annual WILD WEST COYOTE FEST Adds Performers and Activities October 6-7, 2006

The Joshua Tree Chamber of Commerce invites live music fans, families and kids of all ages to come down to the Fourth Annual “WILD WEST COYOTE FEST,” a music and community festival to be held Friday, October 6, 2006, from 4:00pm to 10:00pm and Saturday, October 7th, from 10am-10pm.  The event location will be 6573 Park Boulevard in downtown Joshua Tree (one block south of 29 Palms Highway).

At 6pm on Friday, October 6th, a community drum jam will be conducted, open to the public.  Bring your drum and celebrate the season, the community and the sound!

All live performances are donated as a gift to the community and to benefit the Chamber of Commerce and the Firefighters.  Please come down and thank these gifted musicians and performance artists with your applause!  The stage schedule is listed at www.joshuatreechamber.org/wwcf.htm. The Wild West Coyote Fest will include live music from outstanding local musicians, including a special appearance by the rock singer and artist, Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde.  Joining Johnette will be John Trudell and Gabriel Ramirez.  The Festival stage will feature great performances by:

·Johnette Napolitano ·Purple Mountain Matinee (w/their new CD release!) ·Tim Easton ·Thrift Store All Stars ·Mojow & The Vibration Army ·Ray Wood singing the National Anthem ·Ted Quinn ·Callan ·Vicki Hill ·Zapp! ·Fetish ·Unherd ·Ceremonial Sounds ·Hafler Duo ·Cactus Pricks ·Fuego Girls - Fire Performers ·and Allie Meetze - Aerial Silk Dancing

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Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival, Oct. 21 & 22a benefit for fire disaster relief and wildlife conservancy

Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival, Oct. 21 & 22

a fundraiser for fire disaster relief

RailRoad Earth (sat & sun) /Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men /Trampled by Turtles /the Ditty Bops /GreenSky BlueGrass /Anne McCue /Blue Turtle Seduction /Wally Ingram & Tom Freund /Tishamingo/ Tim Easton /the Bluehouse /Ken Will Morton /the Bingo Dream Band/ Thrift Store All Stars /Shadow Mt. Band /Golden Hill Ramblers

Tickets on Sale Now!

Buy your tickets now via the website, over the phone, via snail mail, or in person at the Coyote Corner in Joshua Tree. All details can be found on the ticket page of the festival website, or leave a message via the toll free hotline: 877.327.6265 jtmf@onebox.com  Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival

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Pioneer Days Musicians Sought The 70th annual Pioneer Days Festival is seeking musicians who would like to perform October 20 & 21 at Luckie Park in 29 Palms.  Unfortunately, the Chamber of Commerce is armed with a small budget, so I can make no guarantee of pay for musicians, but I’m trying to round up some funds.  CDs can be sold there and the event will be well promoted, so we should have a great turnout.  We need bands for 40 minute sets, and solo acts for in between sets.  For information, please zap me an e-mail at shanghaibrown@yahoo.com. Thanks! Steve Brown

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Anne McCue

New album ‘Koala Motel’ comes out in UK/Australia (Cooking Vinyl) on Sept. 4th and on Messenger Records in U.S.A. on September 19th.

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Michael Soli – Lost Wages’ Music’s prez

WE’LL SEE YOU AT “UNPLUGGED” THIS THURSDAY!! Michael Soli

“UNPLUGGED” is FREE and ALL-AGES and runs from 9 p.m. to Midnight inside Crossroads at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. Great food, drink specials and great original music every THURSDAY NIGHT Y’ALL!!

For more info, call 702-632-7607 or visit: www.MySpace.com/lvhouseofblues or www.Hob.com

http://www.michaelsoli.com SUPPORT ORIGINAL MUSIC, http://www.michaelsoli.com

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Marsh Mellow Stone Band will be at DiPiazza’s in Long Beach on Friday September 22nd from 7-9 PM.

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Beatnik - Visit www.jtbeat.com

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Kokopelli’s Go to www.myspace.com/kokopelliskantina 369-6660

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HICKMEN AT THE PRESS in CLAREMONT, FRIDAY (aka TGIF), SEPT 22,

With super special guest  CARLOS GUITARLOS

It fires up around 9:30pm.  HICK to do a couple of sets (yeah we think we can do it).  Perhaps a few guests to sit in.

SPECIFICS TO FOLLOW. The PRESS, good food, good drink, talented bartenders and a cook that guarantee’s to nourish. Get in early, bring a friend or six. Stay out of trouble. Rush the stage like a psycho pop warner football coach.

Bring on the PEACE>

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Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective

Become is charting #13 (5th week on the chart) on the Roots Rock Chart alongside Tom Petty, Widespread Panic, Alejandro Escovedo, The Sadies and other great acts. Check it out HERE

The boys will be supporting Tom Petty and Beck on the side stage at Coors Amphitheater in San Diego next Wednesday, September 27th. If you are going to the show they start playing at 6:30p and again after Beck wraps up.

Thanks to everyone that voted for Holiday in the Americana category for San Diego Music Awards. Congrats to The Grams for taking home the trophy. And props to Arabella Harrison (also nominated in the Americana category) who performed at the awards ceremony she sounded awesome! For all winners go HERE

For the remainder of 2006 the boys continue a crazy touring schedule with stops throughout California, Arizona, and a winter tour of Colorado (including a stop at the belly up in aspen!). They plan to get into the studio again early 2007 to start the next record.

Tour info, news, journal, buy CD’s and t’s @ http://www.adventurepop.com
Thanks for your continued support!

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A DIFFERENT KIND OF MUSIC - EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE EVENTS

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Welcome sweet autumn, New Moon too.  The public is invited to a free star party Saturday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m. at the Hidden Valley Picnic Area in JTNP.  Members of the Andromeda Society will give a tour of the sky and provide telescope viewing.   Entrance to the park may require a $15 fee.  Use the Park Blvd. entrance in Joshua Tree.  Sam, 228-1977. SamDstar

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The much-anticipated presentation of Hotel Virginia, Jack Fitzgerald’s timely and remarkable tale of six American Tourists caught up in a Central American revolution, has opened at Groves Cabin Theatre in Morongo Valley to full houses of delighted theatergoers. The production will be performed Saturdays at 8:00 PM, and Sundays at 2:30 PM, through October 22. (details in ‘announcements’)

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GRAND OPENING OF ART QUEEN GALLERY, IN JOSHUA TREE CALIFORNIA WITH “AN ADMISSION OF LOVE” BY CHRIS CARRAHER. From September 16th-November 26

(details in JAMS Attachment)

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JAMS Announcements-

NOW POSTED AS AN ATTACHMENT FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

(And mine)

*note, since our attachments editor, Al, doesn’t stay up as late as I do, we will have to cut off announcements for the week at noon on Tuesday.

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comments

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Hi Steve-

Great editorial this morning. Thank you for your clarity. I think you should continue to publish your political ideas. After all, I think we creative people have an obligation to “tell it like it is!”

Tom

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Thanks, Tom. At my age, and with the desire to bury myself in creative work lately, I had thought I would let the next generation take the torch. I just want to be sure they remember. Pretty soon all the stuff us older guys remember will be covered over with bullshit. I get an amazing amount of mail from (assumedly well-meaning) gullible folks who present me with right-wing propaganda as truth. It is so Orwellian it blows my mind. Some past pundit said “those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it”. Somethin like that. Thanks for your comment. I appreciate havin’ a friend out there who saw what I saw and remembers.

stev0

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hi stevO

your venting was clear and organized and made complete sense.  it’s nice to hear the truth now and then in contrast to all the untruths being forced upon us.   i just avoid the “news” for the most part.

singing seamstress

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My Dear Steve, That was one of the best editorial comments I have ever read or seen written.  Points well taken and appreciated. Terry M

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quotes from Sam S:

“What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy. What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.” – Gandhi

 Alliance: In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted into each others’ pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. — Ambrose Bierce; The Devil’s Dictionary

 ”The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” : Stephen King

There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange.” — Daniel Webster

“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” – Socrates

“It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.” – Socrates

“To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?” — W. H. Auden; “Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier”

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hey fellas! I didn’t write an english newsletter for quite a while, and my english didn’t improve a lot:-) so I’ll keep it brief to keep the ammount of mistakes on a small and your concentration on a high level. heaps of things happened the last months, but the most important were all about working with the band, touring and creating songs. the trio presently consists out of peter issig- bass, seb winne-drums and percussion and me, tom fronza on didgeridoos. we released a new full time cd titled “little creatures” last year and couldn’t resist to release a new 5 song, one video ep very, very soon. check out our myspace with a couple of tunes of the new ep, and  to get an impression of the sound we call (handnmouthmadedrumnbassdubbreaktrance) www.myspace.com/analoguebirds

check our video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31KN3sBsfw8

to order one of the new cds get in touch with us via cd@analogue-birds.com

I ‘ll go back to western australia after end of the season in europe to live and play there for half a year again. there will be english versions of the websites www.analogue-birds.com and www.umlaut.de very soon. check out the gigdates on those sites!

hope to see you all very soon, maybe on one of our gigs!

stay in tune (wonder where he got that?)

tom fronza

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If you know anyone whom you think would like to receive this newsletter, please have them send me an emai to info@new-moon-records.com . Also, lately, some of the big inet providers are filtering out newsletters of this type (blind copied) assuming it is spam. If anyone you know received this publication before and doesn’t receive it now, it is probably for that reason. If you have that problem, you need to set the filtering to allow emails from www.new-moon-records.com through. If you don’t use filtering, just be sure that the address info@new-moon-records.com is in your address book. Finally, if you would prefer to not receive this newsletter, or have received it by mistake, send an email back saying ‘cancel newsletter’ in the heading. Your excuse may be written, if you like, no less than 100 words, in the body of the email.

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“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” — Dwight Eisenhower