Jon Shain :: News

July 1, 2008

Hi folks! Hope everyone is enjoying a good summer, so far. We are gearing up for a big 4th of July weekend here in Durham with the Eno Festival. It will be good to The Grandsons and Pat Wictor performing there, as well as many classic NC performers - Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman among them. And I'm sure it will be a hot one, as always...Bill Newton and I leave for a 12 day tour of the Northeast just a couple of days later. It will be good to hit the road and get to some cooler climes. Minnesota and Chicago in the month of August should be nice, too...

I've got some good news to share - FJ and I recently won the 2008 Triangle Blues Society Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. That means we go on to Memphis next year to compete in the 2009 International Blues Challenge! Wish us luck... Other cool stuff - I'll be opening for a musical hero of mine - John Hiatt - in Raleigh later this summer at the NC Art Museum. I'm very excited about that show.
See you down the road, JON

Feb.24, 2008

Hey there! A belated happy new year to everyone. There is a lot of good stuff to report since I last wrote...Army Jacket Winter continues to bring in great reviews - there is a real nice one in this month's No Depression magazine, and this month's Yankee (online) and we've had excellent ones in Relix and Sing Out! and Harp, too. I was also featured in the Duke alumni magazine this past month in a nice article written by David Menconi.
Here are some links:
Sing Out! review , Harp review , Yankee review, Duke magazine article

The blogosphere has also been kind lately, too. Here are a few links to those reviews:
Old Blue Bus, Taproot, Mainstream Isn't so Bad...

In other news: I did some studio work (playing electric, acoustic, twelve string, and slide) for my buddy Jefferson Pepper this past summer. He has released the first CD in a three album series called "American Evolution". It's good stuff - check it out online on his Amercian Fallout Records website...Lots of touring planned for the coming months, with trips to Georgia, Pennsylvania, New England, and even the midwest for the first time in a long while...I have been writing a lot, doing some co-writing with my buddy Jackson Hall on a few songs. We are moving ahead on work on the next album, which we plan to record again at Fenario Sound in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition to working with my regular guys, we are going to bring in the great Washington, DC-based Americana band The Grandsons to be the backing band. They have accordion, baritone sax, trumpet and also sorts of New Orleans, country, jazz, and rock-abilly chops, so this should be a very fun and different sounding project. We are all very excited about it, and I'm starting to try the new songs out on the road at shows. Hope to see you at a show soon! Thanks, JON

Aug. 1, 2007

Hey folks... I'm just back from a pretty solid bit of touring and happy to be sleeping in my own bed for a while! Big thanks to everyone who made the July tour possible - Jefferson Pepper, Hugh and Page at Blue Mountain Artists, NRPS, Peter James, the folks at No Place Special, the Shain gang, the Terrile family, the Solnik family, the Stevens family, Chris Darling, Blake Smithson and many others...The new CD is being received really well, with great reviews in Harp, Southeast Performer, The Independent Weekly, and a host of other great publications online and in print. I'll be posting more quotes to the Press page on this site as they come in. Radio airplay has been solid, as well, and we are very happy with the response thus far... In other news, I'll be teaching a regular series of guitar workshops at High Strung Violins and Guitars at their great new location on Broad St. here in Durham... also, look for a new guitar TAB up on the Lessons page on this site soon...

Big thanks goes out to Nancy Bierman for helping me out with CD sales. She has helped sell discs at a lot of shows lately and has been placing them in local stores around NC.

You can currently find "Army Jacket Winter" for sale in Raleigh at Barnes and Noble-Crabtree Valley and Schoolkids. In Chapel Hill the CD is available at Borders, Pringles, Schoolkids, and the Chapel Hill Museum Shop. In Durham, you can find it at Offbeat Music, Highstrung Violins and Guitars, The Music Loft, Broad Street Cafe, and Sips Coffee and Tea. The CD is also available at Borders in Cary, McIntyre's Fine Books in Fearrington Village, and Taylor's Big Mug in Beaufort... all of my albums are also now available to download on iTunes, or right on my myspace page - which I invite you all to check out at www.myspace.com/jonshain... Hope to see you at a show soon! Thanks, JON

April 14, 2007

Hello, people! We are happy to announce today that the new CD, Army Jacket Winter is officially available online.The disc can be ordered directly from CDbaby.com and from www.eFolkmusic.org. Both sites allow customers to listen to the tracks first and you can even order a digital album download on the eFolk site... I've also got four tunes up streaming on my myspace page so check them out and pimp your myspace site with one of my tunes!...Initial feedback has been really good so far, so we are keeping our fingers crossed with this album. Huge kudos go out to Jackson and Scotts for their fine work in the studio, as well as all of the excellent players who contributed to the project: John, Bill, and FJ, of course, along with Stephen Franckevich on trumpet, Mark Simonsen on vocals, Taz Halloween on vocals, Pete Lucey on accordion and piano, Slim Sartoris on keys, Ginny Leigh on French horn, and the MVP of album guests - Zeke Hutchins - whom some of you may know from his drumming with Tift Merritt and Stillhouse. Big thanks also go out to Tom Dube for a killer mix job up in Cambridge and also to Jeff Carroll in the mastering booth in Raleigh. Kreg Yingst contributed a great looking cover (ch-check it out), and Maria knocked the ball out of the design park as usual. I am blessed to have so many talented people working with me...so now I am gearing up to go do a lot of gigs and hit the radio stations hard, too... In touring news - I'll be doing a short run of dates with my pal Pat Wictor (from Brooklyn, NY) - he is a great lap-style slide player and is becoming a buzzed about darling of the folk-blues circuit - they should be great shows...The expanded Jon Shain Trio is doing a big CD release party in Durham on May 5 at Broad Street Cafe with some special guests... also on the horizon are shows with Fred Eaglesmith, Kelly Joe Phelps, and Peter Mulvey... Hope to see you out on the road! Thanks, JON

Jan. 23, 2007

Happy new year, everyone. Call me crazy, but I've got a good feeling about 2007... Well, we finished mixing the new album a couple of weeks ago and we are currently working on the artwork, etc. and gearing up for a spring release. The CD will be called Army Jacket Winter and will feature 13 new originals plus a cover of a Tom Petty song. We recorded it over the last year at Fenario in Chapel Hill with the help of Jackson Hall and Scottsburg Jonze co-producing. We are very excited about it and can't wait till it comes out...look for a bunch of touring this year - including several trips to the Northeast - the first one in April...more details soon!...JON

Sept.11, 2006

Five years has passed since the 9/11 disasters -- it leads to a very complex reflection as I think of how we all felt on that day, how the falling towers affected our country, our people, and how the legacy continues to affect the world...praying for peace...

Well, it's been a little while since I updated the news...things have been very busy as the summer is winding down. Got back from a great little 12 day tour up into the northeast in August, where I enjoyed beautiful cool weather and had a lot of successful shows. We raised around $1000 for the Red Cross chapter of the Merrimack Valley at the house concert in Haverhill - thanks to everyone who made that possible (most of all my parents for opening their own house to host the show!). I got a nice picture and write-up the very next day in the Boston Globe for an unrelated show in Cambridge, so maybe Karma gave me a little shout-out, who knows? ... other interesting news: Neil Young's website has a webpage up of artists who have songs about living with war - currently my tune "Full Bloom" is on his "chart" - check it out at www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/lwwsongspage.html and click on my song - maybe it'll go higher... hey, Deadheads -- I just got news that David Gans will be playing "Pretty Peggy-O" off my latest CD on his nationally syndicated radio show The Grateful Dead Hour during the week of Sept. 18, so tune in! ...New Year's Eve - got plans? I'll be ringing in 2007 by playing a special show in NJ with Steve Forbert with a fine catered dinner included - you need to get tix in advance for that one, I'm sure...JON

May 21, 2006

Hey, friends. I'm back in NC after a ten-day whirlwind tour of the northeast along with Bill Newton. We had a great time - fun gigs, seeing family and old friends, and caught a great game at Fenway Park (go Sox!)...big shout outs and thank you's to Peter James, Matt Lindi, the whole gang at Chicky's, Peter Mulvey and Goody, all the wonderful folks at Caffe Lena, our NYC/Rosendale buds, as well as the folks who came out to hear us and hang out with us....I got back home and immediately started practicing with Mark Simonsen for a gig at the Cave in Chapel Hill this past weekend, where we performed a whole set of material by our old bands Flyin' Mice and WAKE (we were ably assisted by John Currie on the dobro and guitar). The show was a lot of fun and very nostalgic for us and our old Mice fans. I even got to work up a few tunes on my old trusty Kruppenbach electric mandolin, too...Another friendly face you might see at some gigs with us these days is Stu Cole. (He played briefly with Flyin' Mice and WAKE and has been a member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and the Knockdown Society since then). Stu is sitting in on bass for some shows while FJ is gettin' busy with Mel Melton and the Wicked Mojo's...Work continues on the new CD at Fennario Studios with co-producers Jackson and Scotts - we are very excited about the new songs - I'll be breaking them in slowly at shows...Great show alert: June 8 - we are opening for Little Feat at the Carolina Theatre in Durham - how cool is that!...BEST TO ALL THIS SUMMER...JON

Mar. 14, 2006

Some very cool news - This past month, I won the Indy Music Award here in the Triangle for Best Folk Group/Artist! Thanks to everyone who sent in their votes online and on paper - big kudos go out to John, Bill, and FJ, as well...here's something else interesting - a pair of highly talented UNC School of Journalism students recently designed an interactive multi-media website based on me for their semester final project. The website was done documentary-style with a ton of interviews, photos, and live video and it came out really well - here is the link... and the cutie in this picture just turned 4 this past month - happy Birthday JoJo! ...PEACE...JON

Jan. 31, 2006

Happy New Year! Lots of stuff to report...first up - I was just nominated for an Indy Music Award in the Best Folk Group/Artist category here in the Triangle. You can vote online easily at www.indyweek.com - they will be accepting votes into the middle of February...my latest CD, Home Before Long was selected in Raleigh Metro Magazine's top ten picks for 2005, and has continued to get solid airplay on a number of stations...We've started recording my next disc at a studio outside of Chapel Hill, NC mysteriously called "Fennario" - more on that later...really nice shows lately - I've got many people to thank - all the fine folks at Sanctuary Concerts in NJ, the folks at Windstorm/Variety Theater in Atlanta (for the Forbert and Bromberg shows), Rob Turner, Nick Stevens, Peter James in Bethlehem, Dave Kepford for picking up my slack on the trip in November when I was sicker than a dog, the list goes on...coming up in the spring will be a run of dates up north with Bill Newton joining me on harmonica. We'll be visiting Boston, NYC, and a host of cool places...BEST TO ALL IN '06...JON

Oct. 18, 2005

Hi, friends...here's latest that's fit to print...the summer was busy, fitting in a musical at Manbites Dog Theater here in Durham, along with my regular schedule of gigs and teaching. "Sam/Sara" was a one-act play written by John Justice (of "Wisteria" fame - for those of you who have been keeping up with my theatrical pursuits) and music by Tom Maxwell of Squirrel Nut Zipper fame. I was joined by my friend Dana Kletter in the pit band, and we had a lot of laughs when we weren't sweating over electric piano malfunctions. Somehow breaking a string in the middle of a coffeehouse set is not nearly as stressful as trying to prop up a piano that is falling over into the middle of the stage during the show itself... some news about the new album Home Before Long: there's been a lot of airplay across this fine nation - from stations like WUMB - Boston, WUTC - Chattanooga, WRFG - Atlanta, Minnesota Public Radio, WSGE - Gastonia, WETS - Johnson City, WSPN - Saratoga Springs, KRCL - Salt Lake City, KEOS - College Station, and many others - thanks to all of them for adding us to their playlists....nice reviews ran in Dirty Linen and Relix magazines the past few months and we are looking at a review coming out in Sing Out! in their winter issue... tour dates coming up: I'll be headed up north along with my good buddy Dave Kepford for a few shows in November - a return to The Living Room in NYC, and some shows opening for Guy Davis and Chris Smither - both of whom I'm really looking forward to hearing... last but not least - we are presenting (along with Six String Cafe) the 5th annual pre Turkey Day Jam benefit for Helping Hand Mission of Raleigh. It will be held at the Cats Cradle in Carrboro this year, as the Six String Cafe shut its doors in late August... LIFE ROLLS ON...JON

June 28, 2005

Hello! Lots of news to tell since my last posting...we had a great CD release party at a sold-out Six String Cafe in early April and I have been busy touring in the southeast and northeast since then - playing some esteemed older folk rooms and a lot of very cool newer venues, and generally enjoying life on the road. Some highlights from recent travels include headlining shows at Club Passim, Caffe Lena, great fun at the Rosendale Cafe, seeing all of our friends up in Buffalo, jammin' with The Grandsons, playing the Shakori Hills Festival, opening for Little Feat at the Neighborhood Theatre - the list goes on...Big thanks to Independent Weekly for making Jon Shain Trio "band-of-the-month" and taking us all out for sushi... Also big thanks are due to the Flyin' Records team - Deb, Rob, and Jenn - for their enthusiasm and time and hard work...speaking of which: Home Before Long is available in local Triangle stores now and is being carried online at amazon.com, cdbaby.com, and efolkmusic.org...The new CD has been added to rotation on a bunch of stations including WUNC and WNCW here in NC, WUMB in Boston, and WRFG in Atlanta, as well as a slew of international stations...Look for upcoming reviews in Relix, Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, and Southeast Performer later in the summer...KEEP COOL....JON

Mar.9, 2005

Hi friends. We are finally releasing the new CD! The album, titled Home Before Long, will be available at shows starting as early as the end of this month. The CD release party is April 9 at The Six String Cafe in Cary, NC, and we will begin distibuting to radio, stores, etc throughout the month of April. I plan to be doing a lot of traveling this summer, performing and doing radio shows to promote the disc, so keep checking the tour dates pages for new shows. I'll be up in the Northeast a couple of times and making stops at all the usual places in the Southeast, too. If you would like to be part of our team, promoting and requesting songs on radio, please drop me a line - we can use all the help we can get. More info soon. PEACE...JON

Nov. 9, 2004
Hey now - it's been a crazy last month - what can I say - Red Sox - World Champs!!!...too bad Francona wasn't managing Kerry's campaign... Gigs: I've got three shows this week opening for the legendary performer John Hammond. And I got to do a show with Roy Book Binder up at Caffe Lena this past weekend, so I'm in finger-pickin' heaven these days. So cool to get to play alongside musical heroes...A nice review of No Tag came out in the Boston Phoenix last week, I posted an excerpt on the press page of this site ...apologies, of course, to those who tried to make it out to the Lowell show - Capo's closed down the night before our gig...Tom Dube is back from his tour with Richard Thompson, so it looks like our new album will be up next on his schedule - mixing should be wrapping up this month...HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE DOWN THE ROAD...JON

Aug. 13, 2004
Hello all. A weekend off! Mid-August and the kids are already back in school - crazy! We are bracing for whatever Hurricane Charley has in store for NC this weekend...progress report on the new CD - I've heard rough mixes at this point and we're getting excited for the finished product - it should be done by the end of September...I did a last minute show opening for Keb' Mo' at the historic Carolina Theatre here in Durham at the end of June - very cool - I'm posting some pix to the website...great times on our travels the past few months - met a lot of nice people on the road...house concerts are the best - anyone interested - just email me...ENJOY THE REST OF THE SUMMER!...JON

June 1, 2004
Hi, Friends. I'm back in NC in between two trips to New England recording the new CD. We've got our basic tracks and most vocals done at this point - 9 new songs and one traditional. I recorded the first sessions with Dave Mattacks on drums, FJ Ventre on bass, and special guest Duke Levine on electric on a few tracks. We worked at Camp Street Studio in Cambridge, MA (upstairs from Rounder Records). The studio was great as we had Tom Dube and Adam Taylor behind the board with Paul Q. Kolderie checking in on us each day to make sure things were going smoothly. Bill Newton and I are headed back up to New England as part of a ten day tour - hitting the DC area, NYC, Buffalo and Saratoga Springs for the first time, and a few spots outside of Boston...other news - a very nice review of "No Tag" ran in last month's Relix Magazine, as well as a couple of nice pieces of press in the Chapel Hill Herald and the Durham Herald-Sun...looking forward to this year's Eno Festival coming right around the corner...BEST TO ALL...JON

Feb 3, 2004
Happy new year! Carolina has been getting ice and snow this winter, and I have been without a computer for several weeks, but the upshot is I've been woodshedding and a bunch of new songs are just about completed and pre-production work on the next CD is starting soon. We are planning to record the new album later this year in Boston with Tom Dube and Dave Mattacks producing again. I'm a lucky guy to work with such great ears... Coming up on the tour schedule: a show with Chris Whitley outside of DC this weekend and a return to the northeast for a tour in June... and check out this month's Dirty Linen magazine at your local newstand - there is a feature article on me and "No Tag, No Tail Light" in the new issue... other news: we just started a distribution deal with Miles of Music - check out their catalog at www.milesofmusic.com... Highlights from 2003: playing "Getaway Car" at the Carolina Theater alongside Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, the successful benefits we organized for NC-WARN and for Helping Hand Mission of Raleigh, my first show in the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, opening for the legendary Leon Russell, and pretty much every show I get to play with my musical buddies FJ Ventre, John Currie, and Bill Newton. Thanks goes out to Maria and JoJo, my manager Jennifer Delaney; Paul and Christine DellaMaggiora, Rob Turner, and Tom Arnel for helping with the release of "No Tag"; the good folks at efolkmusic.org, and Martha Flowers for the patience, the wisdom, and of course, the legato line...ADIOS...JON

Nov 11, 2003
Hi folks. Things continue to go well with "No Tag, No Tail Light" - we just landed an Italian distribution deal, and reviews are scheduled to come out in Sing Out, Relix, and Dirty Linen magazines this holiday season, as well as a feature article in Dirty Linen written by Raleigh Metro's Philip Van Vleck. And dig this: I am going to be playing a guest slot alongside Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC on Nov. 18, my birthday, no less! (thanks to Thomas C. for pointing me towards this opportunity)...also shows coming up with Dave Mattacks, Bill Morrissey, Roy Book Binder, Delbert McClinton...thanks to the good folks at WSGE and WGWG for a great time last week. Looking forward to seeing a lot of friends and family in Massachusetts this week...hope to see you all soon...PEACE...JON

Sept 8, 2003
Lots of news to report: First of all, "Getaway Car" was featured on NPR's nationally syndicated show Car Talk last weekend - that's a trip! Also, a lot of good press lately - a super review in the new issue of No Depression magazine, as well as full page articles in Charlotte's Creative Loafing, and Greensboro's ESP magazine...upcoming shows with Fred Eaglesmith and Bill Morrissey...FJ and I are planning a trip up North to our old stomping grounds (GDA) in November and will be joined by our producer and buddy Dave Mattacks on drums...till then, sticking closer to home...ADIOS...JON

July 19, 2003
Summertime and the living is easy...well, almost! Been real busy with work promoting the new album...the fruits of the labor: the CD is in rotation at some great stations including WNCW, WUNC, and WETS, as well as getting some play at a bunch of other stations in the US and abroad...also received good press in Metro Magazine, Dirty Linen, Washington Post, and a few other publications so far...I had fun playing up North last month with buddy Dave Kepford along for the tour...the Eno Festival was a blast as always... on the horizon - a show opening for the great Leon Russell in Charlotte's Neighborhood Theatre next month...hope to see ya soon...JON

April 5, 2003
Hi friends. After what seemed like a long-ish winter, spring is definitely here in the Carolinas - trees are busting out in technicolor and the pollen is coating everything with a fine yellow dust. I'm hoping for the dust to settle quickly overseas, though - my thoughts have been heavy lately, caught up in the conflict in Iraq... but on a lighter note, I'm excited because we just sent off the new CD to the duplicators - we should have copies for sale at shows by early May. The new CD, produced by Dave Mattacks and Tom Dube, is titled "No Tag, No Tail Light" and is being released on Flyin' Records (our fourth release now!) with a likely street date of June 3. The disc features the stellar musical work of my trio buddies: FJ, John, and Bill, as well as the brilliant drumming of Dave Mattacks and an excellent original cover illustration by Maria...biased as we may be, we are all very proud of the work and we are hoping you'll dig it, too! Check out the tour dates page -- lots of festival shows coming up, a return to DC, NYC, and Boston in June, and a cool slot this summer opening for the one-and-only Leon Russell... I'll post again when the CD is available...till then...PEACE...JON

Jan. 5,2003
Happy 2003 everyone! Along with making some resolutions at this time of year, I find myself counting my blessings, as well. This past year brought Maria and I great happiness as new parents of a lovely little daughter. And guess what - she loves music - go figure! I want to thank everyone who made the music possible this past year - old friends and new. Special thanks also goes out to Martha Flowers, who has been a fantastic help to me this year in the vocal department, and to Jeff Young for his many hours on the phone and the computer. 2003 will bring some exciting stuff - we finished the new CD and we are hoping to release it either on Flyin' Records or another label in the spring. Mssrs. Mattacks and Dube did a top-notch job producing, and FJ, John, and Bill all played at the top of their musical games. I'll post more on the new CD when the details fill in...until then... JON

Oct. 12,2002

It's been a while since I've posted the latest news, and a lot has been going on...In addition to playing a few dates in Massachusetts in November, I will be recording my next CD in Boston, MA with famed British drummer Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Jethro Tull, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Nick Drake, among others) and Tom Dube (Richard Thompson, Patty Larkin) co-producing. Needless to say, we are quite psyched here. The album will also feature all my usual partners in crime - FJ, John, and Bill. Look for a slew of new songs at upcoming gigs...last week I played a last minute solo show opening for the great Keb' Mo' to a packed-house at the Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte - thanks to all the fine people at Maxx Music for that...lots of other fun shows lined up for the fall. Hope to see everyone soon! JON

May 23,2002
Hi, folks. It's been quite a whirlwind of a few months! Our little baby has been taking up a lot of my time and attention these days, but at the same time our touring has picked up a lot and things are moving along at a quick pace... We had some really fun shows these last few weeks. Opened for Robert Earl Keen at a sold out Cats Cradle (my baby's first show, by the way)...It was great revisiting Cary St in Richmond and enjoying Little Kin who opened the show. Also very cool to play with two great singer-songwriters, James Talley and Matthew Kahler (Winston-Salem and Cary, NC, respectively)... We've also made some nice new friends down in Beaufort and will be visiting there again soon... In the press dept... I had some nice articles written about me recently in the Spectator (Raleigh), The Times-Dispatch (Richmond), and the Charlotte Observer...and it looks like the plans are to record the next album in Boston in autumn 2002...Be well! JON

March 28,2002
Hello, friends. Hope this note finds everyone doing well. It's been a pretty wonderful Spring already. I've been enjoying the warming weather and our new little baby Johanna (born 2/26/02)! This past month I've laid pretty low from traveling, but things will be picking up a little over the next few months. Because I often get questions about the places I play, I'm going to start to add a little more info on the venues in the emailings. Of course, there is always more info complete with phone numbers and links on the tourdates page on this site. Speaking of the website -- we are in the process of revamping the whole thing. Included in the new site will be a guitar TAB-of-the-month for all you pickers out there. First up will be a note-perfect tab of "Govinda's in the Rain". Check the site in the next month or so. Hope to see everyone soon. Thanks for the support! JON

Jan. 1,2002
Happy New Year, folks! I'd like to thank everyone for the great support through this last year. There were trying times for many of us, but we also had many good times, laughs, and music to carry us through. Some highlights from 2001: The release of Fools and Fine Ladies...opening shows for John Hammond and NRBQ...the show with Big Sandy and the FlyRite Boys one week after the Sept. 11 disaster and one mile from the Pentagon -- very uplifting... the NC-WARN benefit with Jesse Colin Young... a sold-out Cradle show with N. Mississippi Allstars...hanging with Bill Morrissey in Atlanta...the Eno Festival production of Wisteria...getting to meet David Crosby... and jamming with my favorite local musical buddies: FJ and John of course, and Bill Newton, Will McFarlane, Armand Lenchek, Taz Halloween, Chris Frank, Mark Simonsen, and Dave Kepford to name a few. Here's to 2002: may it be healthful and fruitful for everyone! Peace! JON

Sep. 28, 2001
Hi folks, thanks to everyone who came out to shows this past month in wake of the tragic events of Sept. 11. We actually played all of the shows on our schedule with no cancellations. While the time has been difficult for all of us, music has definitely helped me go on...sometimes music seems to work when words don't...Anyway, there have been some good things happening...We played in Arlington, VA about a mile from the Pentagon with Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys, about a week after the disaster, and people came out in large numbers on a Monday night. It was very inspiring...In addition to a very nice concert preview done by Jerry Harris of the Lexington (VA) News-Gazette, Metro Magazine (NC) featured me in their music column for the months of July/August, and I have just recently been profiled in Relix Magazine's "Eight Artists You Should Know About" in this month's issue...Got to keep on keepin' on...Adios! JON

June 18, 2001
Things have been like a whirlwind these past few weeks...first-off: The new CD, "Fools and Fine Ladies" has been getting a lot of nice feedback from the press and a lot of airplay in the US and abroad....if you can't find it in your local store, please order it online here or at efolkmusic.com; distribution to stores has been slow so far......Shows: Thanks to everyone who made the Brightside benefit such a success, it was probably my favorite Massachusetts date yet. The NC-WARN benefit was a huge success, too: thanks to everyone who made that happen, and thanks to Jesse Colin Young for donating his performance to the cause! Smilefest was a blast, playing in the rodeo-style amphitheater and connecting with a lot of old friends from the Flyin' Mice days...we are really looking forward to this month's Eno Festival...the Trio is playing at the Eno on June 30... also at the Eno on July 4th we are premiering a staged reading of the condensed version of "How Wisteria Bought the Farm" (new musical by John Justice and Jon Shain); we will be graced by the dramatic and vocal talents of Big Rick (of the Bombers), Taz Halloween, novelist Clyde Edgerton, Rob Turner, and actress Katherine Rogers... and in the luckily-nobody-was hurt department, our touring vehicle got smashed by a hit and run driver in Boston last month, and we are still waiting for it (and FJ's stand-up bass!) to be back from the body shop...big, big thanks to Jim Barr, Mike and Heather Terrile, Rob Turner, and Mom and Dad Shain for helping us out getting through this time with their cars and driving us around! Constantly amazed at the flow of things...Best wishes for a good summer to everyone! JON

Apr. 8, 2001
The new CD is finished! Titled "Fools and Fine Ladies", the album will be released to stores and radio next month, with a big CD release party at the Artscenter in Carrboro, NC slated for Friday, May 11. We will have copies for sale at shows starting in the middle of April. FJ and I will be returning to Atlanta in April to open a show for songwriter Bill Morrissey at Eddie's Attic, and also sharing a bill with Peter Case in Winston-Salem this month. Hope to see you all soon. JON

Feb. 27, 2001
Things have been rolling along here in 2001. Opening for John Hammond and NRBQ this past month was a real blast. Also meeting and hearing Boston-based Blues/folkie Les Sampou was a treat, too. Check her out if she comes to your town. We are headed into the studio first week of March to record the new album, to be entitled "Fools and Fine Ladies". We will be returning to Atlanta in April to open a show for songwriter Bill Morrissey, and also sharing a bill with Peter Case in Winston-Salem that month. Peace to the neighborhood. JON

Jan. 25, 2001
Welcome to 2001! Amazing that 2000 has come and gone so quickly. It was a very productive year...got lots of writing done (new tunes to be recorded for a Spring 2001 release)...and played many a show with fine musicians and friends. Musical highlights included opening for a musical hero of mine, Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame) at the Artscenter...also shows opening for Chris Whitley and Last Train home up in DC, Robbie Fulks in Carrboro, Jazz Mandolin Project in Boston...The Eno Festival...Centerfest in Durham, playing with friends Mark Simonsen, Dave Kepford...the ever-cool John Currie on dobro...jamming with ex-Bonnie Raitt guitarist Will McFarlane along with Armand and FJ...the list goes on. Thanks to everyone who made it all possible. I'm looking forward to this year's surprises! Best of luck to everyone and Happy New Year! --- JON

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