Back in Jamaica Plain working on a new record this week.   Here is a photo of the Horn Section we brought together (all Boston-based players), who came in last night, working on 2 of my new tracks.  Stuff sounding really great and looking forward to getting this album out.   Also looking forward to playing Toad in Cambridge on Friday night.   Doors at 7:30; show at 8:00 PM and Toad doesn’t roll with covers, so its a FREE show.

SATURDAY NIGHT @ DC9 : 7 PM DOORS

DC Music fans; I’ll be back in town this weekend, playing with the power trio (Matt Golden & Sean McCauley) at DC9 this Saturday night (4/28/12). The show is an early-ish bill, with doors at 7:00 PM and music at 7:30 PM. The show is receiving some additional press due to the headliner band from Brooklyn, The Honey Brothers, who among other things, have Adrian Grenier (aka Vinny Chase from Entourage) as their drummer.

Purchasing advanced tickets is encouraged. You can go here for that.

For more info, (directions, food menu, Metro proximity etc) visit DC9.

Look for another update next week regarding new tour dates and details about a NEW RECORD I’ve been working on up in Boston this spring.
See ya soon.

tom

Friday, March 23rd, Rock & Roll Hotel

Good times on Friday night playing @ the Rock & Roll Hotel in Washington DC. This was probably the 6th or 7th show I have had there over the years & the first time I had played there solo. I really enjoy the sound at the venue (Dennis) as well as the staff, who are always really helpful. For those who know DC but have not ventured out to H Street NE in a while, (where RnR Hotel is located) will be blown away by the amount of restaurants, clubs etc that spill out onto the streets. About time they stopped construction on H Street as well. That was a drag for a long time.

As for the show, I ended-up trying out 2 new songs during the 50 minute set, while also playing songs from both Like a Lion and A Brief Head Spin, alternating between playing my acoustic Gibson and my Gibson ES-335. I also used my Line-6 loop pedal on the outro to Natchez for the first time in a solo show, which was an adventure to say the least.

The set-list went like this:

Tell Her Majesty
She Knows
Morning in Glen Burnie
Underwater Stone
Underneath the Sheltering Sky
A Brief Head Spin
Natchez
Before We Dance
followed by a request for Flying Pete, (that was kept together with duct tape and spit.)

I was down in Memphis for the 2012 Folk Alliance Festival. In summation, I spent a lot of time in hotel rooms, listening and playing music and grabbing beer out of the bathtub. That’s about all you need to know in one sentence. During my downtime in Memphis, I debated engaging in a pretty tight list of “things-to-do” while in Memphis. I bypassed running along the Mississippi (too tired), getting BBQ (not eating meat), visiting the Pyramid (wha?), visiting the Stax Museum (too much motivation), drinking on Beale St (ehhh) . . see the trend here . . a lot of excuses. But I ended-up finding no good excuse to pass-up visiting Graceland on a beautiful, February, Memphis morning. I’ve been on an Elvis-kick of late. Who doesn’t go through this at least once a lifetime right? And after having my Sirius/XM Elvis station on a good 20% of the time during these past 2 months, I realized that I was here in Memphis, and yeah, I needed to go pay my respects to The King.

(On a side note, I found it nearly IMPOSSIBLE, to not think of Mark Cohn and his tune “Walking in Memphis” while . . doing just that. And I realize this sounds so lame, but I asked around, and basically everyone I talked to had this same problem. It was like the elephant in the room. You had to try really hard, NOT to think of that tune. I guess this must be a sign of a lasting, good pop tune.)

So I went to Graceland. And I paid the $35.00. I did NOT pay for the bull-shit “Platinum” tour upgrade they were pitching. This involved getting access to tour the private Elvis Jets that are parked outside of the Graceland park entrance and impossible to miss. Kinda hysterical really. So all-in, it took about an hour. It was basically me and a bunch of European tourists. I took a good amount (see – way too many) of photos as I wasn’t sure what else to do really. The King lived well. His “Taking Care of Business” room was my favorite. The Fat Elvis 70′s suits were a close 2nd place.

You can see more photos on my Photos page here:

Thanks to the folks @ The Vinyl District blog . . .

Read more here

“Opening for Kingsley Flood is Tom McBride, an angel-voiced Americana folk rock singer-songwriter who is a regular class act in the DC area and a regular IOTA showcase. Tom is from Boston but now calls DC his home—switching places with Naseem Khuri of Kingsley Flood who is from DC and now rocks Boston.

Tom’s second studio album A Brief Head Spin came out in 2011, and The Vinyl District will be giving away a 12″ to one lucky sumumubitch just because we love you, as well as the aforementioned Kingsley Flood Colder Still EP on CD.”

http://www.thevinyldistrict.com/dc/2012/01/tvd-recommends-kingsley-flood-with-tom-mcbride-at-iota-114-plus-giveaway/#more-118441

In the middle of working on some new material this week, I was asked by the kind folks at DC Setlist to submit a DIY song as part of their THE 2011 DC SETLIST HOLIDAY JINGLES. I was happy to remove myself from my own self-imposed, and quite tedious, writing escape and focus on an already well-known beautiful song, “O Holy Night” – which I learned was composed by Frenchman Adolphe Adam back in 1847. I chose “O Holy Night”, because well, its one of my favorites. Enjoy and Happy Holidays.

tom

11.1.11  – Hotel Cafe is tucked-in on North Cahuenga in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, about a block from Sunset Boulevard.  I had a great time playing this intimate venue which I had heard a lot about over the past few years from other friends and musicians who live out West.  It was a pleasure to have some old friends and family in the audience that night, including the artist who helped design A Brief Head Spin as well as the bartender @ Hotel Cafe that night, who I played in a band with in college. Talk about a small world.  I’m looking forward to coming back in early 2012.

My last song of the night, was a new song I’ve been working on and performing live the past few months called “Morning in Glen Burnie“. I posted this up on YouTube yesterday and you can also check it out right here: (Thanks to Katy Abramson for the live photo that night.)

enjoy.

tom